Julie's throat tightened as she stood at the edge of the pit, the grotesque moans rising like smoke from some hidden layer of hell. She couldn't bear to look for long.
Men clawed at the dirt walls, dragging themselves up only to collapse, tumbling back down into the writhing mass. Their legs, ruined, bent and twisted at impossible angles, made escape nothing more than a cruel illusion.
It wasn't a prison, it was despair made flesh, a pit of sorrow where hope was broken along with bone. Julie's chest ached, nausea coiling in her stomach until she wrenched her gaze away, staring instead at the earth beneath her boots.
Beside her, Aisha and Skadi didn't flinch, but their narrowed eyes betrayed the same unease.
What unsettled them even more than the sight of the pit itself was the crowd. Hundreds of townsfolk stood around the rim, men, women, children, all watching silently.
Not one reached for a rope. Not one offered a hand. Not one voice called for aid.
