The Broken

XV.

WARNING - This chapter contains  torture.( Not descriptive)

I hate rats.

The skittering sound of their nails on the floor. Their little teeth nibbling at my feet. When I first arrived here, I had stayed awake for days, utterly disgusted as their beady eyes studied me from the corners of my cell, waiting until I let my guard down.

Now I was the one that waited. I waited until they were close enough to catch, using my open flesh as bait, luring them in with my blood until they were close enough to trap. Pushing down the repulsiveness that sits heavy on my soul every time I swallow their sour flesh.

I think that is their plan, they don't feed you until you are forced to shed your pride and the little bit of humanity you have left to eat rats.

The bite of winter had warmed into a sting and before I knew it, it was gone. Time had passed.

Rika still managed to stay positive through it all. All those times I would be brought back, so broken to the point I was unrecognisable, she would just hold my hand and let the darkness take my pain.

And when I slept, when I managed to sleep, my dreams would be filled with Kat and long luscious green fields, erupting with flowers and fairies, with golden eyes and bears.

"Lillian."

I tilt my head towards her, showing I was listening even though my eyes were fixed on the wall, counting the cracks that webbed across the stones.

"What is your dream?"

I stare at the wall a little longer, then fix my gaze on her gaunt face.

"I don't have a dream." i mutter under my breath. 

"Everyone has a dream!" she smiles.

i did have a dream, a dream to leave this place, to leave all of my pain behind and bathe in the sun. But i couldn't tell her that. She couldn't possibly understand.  

I pondered for a bit.

"To eat strawberries" I rasp to her, recalling their sweet justice and pink flesh. My stomach rumbles.

Her face lights up "Oh! I love strawberries, especially the freshly picked ones that still have a little bit of soil on them"

I stare at her in silence.

What a peculiar child...

"What about you Max!" Her voice echos over to him, he grunts and then goes quite for a bit, thinking. His rough voice rings out.

"To take a bath."

Rika stares at him, her small brows furrowed in confusion, clearly unsatisfied. something in me sparks with amusement. 

"What is your dream Rika?" I ask, bringing her attention back to me. Her face lights up again before her eyes become distant, as if she is trying to remember something.

"My dream is to get out of here and go to the forests, to feel the dry leaves crunch under my bare feet. To go to a field full of multi colour flowers and breath in their perfume. And have a picnic there and eat strawberries with you both!"

Huh, maybe she would understand my dream after all. That thought for some reason saddened me.

I stare at her for a few moments, remembering the field I used to go to with a sea of flowers. Now probably gone. Eaten away by the war and the snow.

"Then when we leave, we will go there." Max's voice brings me out of my thoughts with an almost physical wrench.

When...