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."

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

would that be long

no way

closed his eyes and exhaled slowly,

the outside world gone, it was impossible to tell what day it was. Sunny and Cassie remained in the barely illuminated darkness alone, waiting for something to happen, or slept while shivering

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

...Then, came the thirst.

he thought that a few had passed

cracked, and so did his tongue. His head was full of pulsating pain, and his muscles were experiencing excruciating

it all, however, was the fear. Fear that he was going to die in this cursed cage like a dog, forgotten and discarded. Maybe one day someone would open the heavy

think of to get out of the cage, but

felt weak and lethargic, and his vision was starting to blur. Sunny spent most of his time

Then, it disappeared, too.

the ghostly, dim glow of

'...The oil ran out.'

Sunny closed his eyes.

Was it really hopeless?

couldn't give up…

thing that kept him somewhat sane was the fact that Cassie was right

able to endure the agony and the terror of not knowing whether they were going to live

days had passed since the flame of the oil lantern died out. Time lost its meaning a while ago.