"You know, you're brave to be able to go out and find some help" She reassured him, "How old are you?"
Her question took Jug back to the present. He wiped his smile away and turned to look at her, "I should be around 10, I forgot when my birthday was though"
Luckily, almost everything about him was child-like, it was only Parquatz who knew his real age. All he had to do was act childish and she would be none the wiser.
"So how many are there?" Anora asked as they walked. "Just one" Jug said, "The others tried to escape by themselves, did you see them?"
The deceased bodies at the staircase flashes in her mind, "No, they probably slipped by me" Anora didn't want him to know about their fates. "How are they trapped?" She continued to ask questions.
Jug found it annoying, but he kept his facade up. "Behind bars, like a jail" He looked down, "He was kept there for as long as I knew him"
The comment made Anora feel sad for whoever they were going to. It kept herself quiet as she continued wondering what life was like down there.
Finally
He sighed in relief. He was already tired physically, any more questions and he would've been exhausted mentally as well. The silence stayed until they reached a cell. It was a small opening that had bars preventing others from entering, or exiting.
Anora went closer and touched the bars. They were cold to the touch, old yet stronger than the ones used in standard cells. "How do you enter?" She asked, noticing that there was no entrance.
"You don't" Jug told her, going deeper in and pulled off a large piece of cloth to reveal a lever. "They never allowed him a way out" He reached out to the lever, but stopped as soon as a bullet flew close to his hand.
He followed its path to see that it was Anora who shot it. "Hold up" She told him, "Get away from it" Her gun followed Jug's movements closely as he slowly moved away.
Jug tried to talk to her, "I don't understand, why are you doing this?" He asked, "My friend is barely alive inside that cell, we have to hurry and get him some help" He tried to go closer to the lever, but Anora shot another bullet. "You're story doesn't add up"
She slowly moved herself to the lever, keeping him away from it. "How did you know about this?" She started to question him.
"I was able to watch them feed him their scraps" Jug answered, he was confident that he would be able to talk his way out of the situation.
BANG!
The sound of the shot hit his ears first, then the pain from his leg getting shot surged throughout the wound. "Why!" He shouted out in pain as he tried to stop the blood flow. "Why would you shoot me?" He asked, genuine confusion filled his voice.
Anora smiled, "You think I wouldn't notice?" She asked, "My aren't naturally this perceptive, you know?" Her eyes glimmered silver. Jug finally took notice of it, taking a moment before he realized.
"Are you The Argent Eye?"
Anora was surprised to hear the name. "Yeah, that's one of them" she scratched her back, "I thought that name died long ago though" Jug finally knew who he was messing with, and it made him terrified.
There are many types of people who roam the badlands, from nobodies to legends. Unluckily for Jug, he ran into the worst person for the situation he was in. Anora's eyes were special, they were able to see through the essence of things.
That includes the truth.
His thoughts scrambled, thinking of everything that he said when he was talking to her. The weight of his lies laid in his shoulders when he realized the gravity of the situation. "I guess there's no way of getting out of this now, huh?"
He raised his arms, showing that he was surrendering. Anora smiled, "I'm glad we resolved this quickly" She pulled out some handcuffs and placed them on Jug.
"Now what was this supposed to do?" She inspected the lever, trying to find if there were any clues. Then she tried to follow the circuitry, only to find that it ended up going to the walls.
"To release him," Jug said. "I wasn't lying when I said that he was a prisoner, a victim of those who run this place" with a glance, Anora knew that he wasn't lying.
Something is off
Her intuition compelled her to continue asking questions. "Why do you want to release him in the first place?" She was doubtful, why would he lie in the first place if he wasn't hiding anything from her?
Jug smiled, "His name's Beam, and he was a victim of the selfishness of those who run this place. Don't you think that after all this time held captive, he deserves to be free?" He asked her, slowly walking forward. "Didn't you say you were here to help the victims down here?"
She shot her gun again, "Go back right where you were" Everything he said was the truth, but she felt deep inside that there was an ulterior motive behind that smile of his. She looked into the cell, there was no lighting to see who was inside. It got her to start thinking about how odd it was.
Why aren't they showing themselves?
Whoever was inside wasn't speaking, no call for help or the sounds of breathing, just silence. "Hello? She called out, "Are you there?" Confused, she turned to Jug.
"Is there even a person there?"
"Of course someones, there, they just aren't able to speak" He smiled at her. It annoyed her a bit, but since he wasn't lying she chose to let it go. She got out her flashlight and shone it inside, only to see that there was nothing there.
She looked around inside, "Looks like he isn't home" Anora said. She went to the lever and decided to pull it.
"Looks like you got what you wanted after all"