Chapter 4: Domination

[Zerlina]

((Yay, Glenn's one of my favourites.

Ok everyone, eat and go to the bathroom now, cause this is a long one))

They camped that night in the tunnel, taking advantage of what little time they had away from danger.

Their fire flickered, painting the stony walls a warm orange, and bringing to light the immediate. What was to come still lay in the dark.

Syne awoke from an unsteady sleep, her neck sore from the rocky ground, and her wrists still pounding from the chains Kani had put on her. Her bright blue eyes flickered amongst the sleeping party, settling for a while on Glenn’s scarred arms. Where he had come about these wounds, she did not know, and the feeling disturbed her.

She closed her eyes once more, making a sad attempt at luring sleep. In this way, the world turned dark. Amongst the steady sound of flowing water, and the crackling of fire, she heard a smaller sound- a soft whimper. She ignored it at first, but when it persisted, she once again opened her eyes.

“Glenn…”

“mf…?”

“Kirby?”

The artist snored loudly and rolled over.

“Men…” muttered Syne, rising to her feet and rubbing her eyes.

Her pink fingers clutched a lantern that swung and creaked as she walked amid the cave. The air was damp and heavy, and with every step she felt the heat of a shadowy demon breathing down her back.

She turned toward a small opening in the cave, where a thin spring emerged and flowed down the wall, landing in a meager pool. Here, she stopped, the light from her lantern revealing a shadowy figure.

Long white sleeves draped into the water, their tattered edges grayed. The figure had its arms crossed around its chest as if cold; its hands clutched its arms, nails pressed hard into white flesh. Like this, it shivered -though not entirely from the cold- and wept, tears flowing into the pool like so much blood.

Syne knew who it was, but did not approach. For a while, she simply watched, unsure of what to do and what to say.

Titania could see the light from the lantern, and knew from the shadow that it must be Syne. Still, she did not turn, but instead remained stationary, clutching a small dagger in her white hands. The tears rippled down her cheeks, making her hair stick to her cold skin.

“What do you want?” She asked, with a tone more harsh than she had intended. Her voice echoed along the walls.

Syne was silent, and did not move.

“Leave me alone, please.” Titania muttered, looking away so as to hide the tears she had forbidden for so long.

Syne turned away but did not leave. For a moment there was a silence, filled only by the sound of the running water.

“I know what it’s like to lose someone…” she said, quietly “…I’ve lost so many people dear to me.”

Silence.

“When I was younger, I…” she trailed off, old pain surfacing “…I lost someone who meant the world. And I know what its like…when your chest feels like collapsing, when your hands ache and you can’t even move without being in pain. When you turn every corner and expect to see him…when just one word would be enough to make it all stop.

I know what it’s like to have that emptiness and to yearn for something so impossible…to want to grasp…to hold…to find something real…

I know what it means to wonder, and to find nothing. I know what it means to have someone gone.

I know what it means to be silent and to yearn for sound.”

She paused for a moment, and Titania thought she might be brushing away her own tears.

“You never really understand why people die, and letting go seems wrong. How could you let go? How could you reduce him to a burden- something that must be gotten away with?”

“…I…I want to go back…it would have been so easy then…if he had just known… or had moved a little differently…it was so fast, and then just like that…it was over…”

Syne moved closer and sat beside her friend, wrapping her in a sisterly embrace. For a while, they stayed like this, spilling tears for the ones that they had lost. In each other’s sorrow they saw both saw themselves and knew it was no longer someone who did not understand who was trying to comfort them.

The quiet that came next was strange, filled with the echoing the running water and the short sounds of pain.

“Tell me what happened.” Muttered Syne “Tell me what they did to him.”

Titania nearly collapsed and, if not for the other girl, she would have crumbled to the ground.

*