Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the stream of blood that was getting closer and closer to the cage, then glanced back at the door and waited, wondering if someone… or something… would burst through it and enter the cell.

But nothing did. After that first loud bang, everything stayed eerily quiet. Seconds passed, then minutes. Finally, he slowly turned away from the door and looked at Cassie.

"Do you smell it?"

She lingered for a moment, then nodded.

"...Blood."

Sunny remained motionless for a bit, then walked back to his usual place and sat down. His face was grim. After a while, he said in a dark tone:

"We are going to need to start rationing water."

Humans could survive for a long time without food, but water… water was much more precious. Without it, a healthy human could die in a matter of days.

And there were very few more agonizing ways to go.

Cassie turned her head, then asked somberly:

"Why? Do you think that they are going to just leave us here?"

Sunny opened his mouth to retorn that she was the one who could see the future. But in the end, he held his tongue.

"...Just in case."

able to last longer without water than mundane humans — especially Sunny, whose body was strengthened by three cores, Blood Weave,

would that be

was no way to

his eyes and exhaled slowly,

impossible to tell what day it was. Sunny and Cassie remained in the barely

before their water ran out. The waterskin wasn't that

...Then, came the thirst.

spending several days — at least he thought that a few had passed — without drinking anything, he learned that there was a completely different

cut, his lips had dried and cracked, and so did his tongue. His head

and discarded. Maybe one day

but nothing he had done helped.

ached terribly. He felt weak and lethargic, and his vision was starting to blur. Sunny spent most of his time staring at the orange flame of the oil lamp, because it was more or less the only

Then, it disappeared, too.

with only the ghostly, dim glow of the runes illuminating the iron bars of the

'...The oil ran out.'

Sunny closed his eyes.

Was it really hopeless?

couldn't give up… he refused

suffering and despair, the only thing that kept him somewhat sane was the fact that Cassie was right there with him, going through the

been able to endure the agony and the terror

lantern died out. Time lost its meaning a while ago. All