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

would that be long

no way

closed his eyes and exhaled slowly,

came to bring them food. With their last connection to the outside world gone, it was impossible to tell what day it

before their water ran out. The waterskin

...Then, came the thirst.

he thought that a few had passed — without drinking

feeling of thirst was absolutely maddening, torturous, and suffocating. His throat hurt as if it was being cut, his lips had dried and cracked, and so did his tongue.

part of 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 door, and find his desiccated corpse reaching hopelessly and pathetically toward it through the

the cage, but nothing he had done helped. The only result was that his

were on fire, and his entire body 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

Then, it disappeared, too.

darker, with only the ghostly, dim glow

'...The oil ran out.'

Sunny closed his eyes.

Was it really hopeless?

couldn't give

that Cassie was right there with him, going through the same hell.

all the complicated emotions and the heavy burden of past sins, sharing his pain with someone had made if not bearable, then at least a little easier. Neither of them would have been able to endure the agony and the terror

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