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."

had one full waterskin left. As Awakened, they would also be able to last longer without water than mundane humans — especially Sunny, whose body was strengthened by three cores, Blood Weave, and

that

no

exhaled slowly,

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

before their water ran out. The

...Then, came the thirst.

that he knew what madness felt like, but after spending several days — at least he thought that a few had passed — without drinking anything, he learned that

lips had dried and cracked, and so did his tongue. His head was full of pulsating pain, and his muscles were experiencing excruciating cramps. All he could think about

cage like a dog, forgotten and discarded. Maybe one day someone would open the heavy door,

of the cage, but

starting to blur. Sunny spent most of his time staring at the orange flame of the oil lamp, because

Then, it disappeared, too.

with only the ghostly, dim glow of the

'...The oil ran out.'

Sunny closed his eyes.

Was it really hopeless?

give up…

sane was the fact that Cassie

bearable, then at least a little easier. Neither of them would have been able to endure the agony and the terror of not knowing whether they were going to live or die, the fear of the unknown, alone. But together, the two of them managed to persevere, somehow. Maybe just to not let

many days had passed since the flame of the oil lantern died out. Time lost its meaning a while ago. All he knew was the thirst,