He holds his breath as mine comes out in a loud whoosh. He knows my name. How does this stranger know my name? And suddenly I realize that my instincts were right and I may be in more danger here than I was aboveground. Here I’m trapped.

I keep the knife in front of me, running my other hand behind me along the bars until I find a gap I can slip through. I swallow, trying to steady my erratic heart.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Annah,” he says. “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”

I laugh at him. “Why should I believe you?” I ask, swiping my arms out in front of me until I find the cool tile of the wall again. I fumble along it, sliding my feet over the ground as silently as possible. It falls away beneath me and I teeter for a moment before I regain my balance. My heart thunders in my ears, making it impossible to hear if he’s following me.

Cautiously I feel through the air with my toes until I find a step and then another. As I descend the air grows even thicker, wrapping me in its embrace.

“Annah, I know who you are,” he says, his voice closer.

I say nothing, just continue to grope my way down the stairs, putting distance between us so that I can think.

He releases a puff of air in what sounds like frustration. “I know who you are because Elias told me about you.”

I freeze, all words trapped in my chest. It’s odd to hear a stranger say his name and a little tremor of pain flutters through my chest at it. I clench my teeth, swallow the emotion back down.

It’s so quiet I can hear as he shifts in the darkness. “He told me to come find you,” he adds.

“How do you know Elias?” My voice trembles, making me sound weak. I bite my bottom lip, needing to regain control over my body, my thoughts.

“You can trust me,” he continues, taking another step forward. But he must not have realized that he was standing on the edge of a staircase. He must not have known that the ground drops away, because I hear the surprised gasp as he starts to fall. I hear him scramble to catch himself.

And then he tumbles into me, and our bodies tangle around each other as we careen down the rest of the steps. We land hard on a cracked concrete floor, lights exploding in my head as it smacks against the wall. Catcher falls on top of me and I feel the knife still clutched in my hand slice through his skin. Feel the wetness of blood on my fingers.

“Oh my G-God,” I stammer, choking in the darkness. Catcher grunts and slides off me and I drag myself out from underneath him, our legs still snarled.

I drop the knife, feeling the slick of blood coating my skin. “Oh my God,” I say again. “Are you okay?” There’s so much blood I’m terrified I’ve killed him and my stomach twists with a frantic dread.