Abject in the Dust

Chapter 12 - The Cold Light of Day

Light flooded into eyes that would barely open. A light too bright to bear as Sam clamped her eyes tightly shut again.

"She is awake!" Excited words from only a few feet away seemed distant and muffled. The warm hand on her head was both comforting and irritating in equal measure. Sam tried, without success, to raise her own hand to waft away the one with touched her flesh.

"Sam! Sam!" A further hand shrugged her shoulder gently – distracting her from her resolute intention to sleep further.

"What?" Sam replied irritably, her dried, cracked lips splitting painfully as she moved her mouth.

"She is clearly on the mend." A voice Sam recognised said with a small laugh.

A fuzzy face came into focus. The gleaming cross and chain around his neck sparkling brightly in the light, marking the blurred image as Rize long before his face came into view.

"What is this?" Sam blinked hard to try and steady her gaze. "Where am I?"

A soft knock at the door stalled any response. A bright halo shone around the image at the doorway; too distant for Sam's eyes to make out. A glowing image which held out its hand and whispered the word melodically. "Lykke."

"Lykke?" Sam repeated the word as a figure to her left moved.

Sleep took Sam again as Lykke disappeared into the halo.

Soft lamplight provided comfort to eyes that had only seen darkness for days. But it was not light which woke Sam. A distant moan echoed through the cabin. A primal chant which Sam recognised in herself, although it had been a long time since her body had made such music. Emotion flowed and filled the empty vessel of her body. Anger returned like a welcome friend giving a warm embrace. Fear; buried deep, but ever present. Fear that had kept her alive for so long. Two familiar travelling companions who had kept her safe for as long as she could remember. And something new. Something deeper than anger. More personal. More specific. Something she felt unable to control; a rage which built as the moaning increased and did not subside as the sound died in the darkness.

Sam awoke with a start as a weathered aged hand touched her own.

"Rize!" A kind face sprung sharply into focus this time. "Where is Lykke?" Sam asked urgently.

"Lykke?"

"Yes. Where is she?" Sam fell short of shouting her question, as she pulled herself up against the pillow; the sheet barely covering her modesty as she moved.

The door to the over-sized bright, white room opened quickly and a man seemingly at odds with the world Sam knew stood at the door. A beautiful man, clean shaven and impeccably dressed in pure white clothes which bore no sign of any form of mark or stain.

"You're awake. Lykke will be pleased." A melodic voice spoke softly as it was complemented by a warm smile; a man completely at odds with the world Sam knew.

Sam studied the vision in white and slowly she came to recognise a man she had never seen before. Bright eyes flickered with a fire which burned behind them as the man studied Sam's form; thinly veiled by the white sheet. The warm smile took on a sinister edge as he traced his way down to the point where the sheet hung precariously across Sam's full breast. "There you are." Sam whispered to herself as a man Sam knew all too well left the room.

"Where is Lykke?" Sam hissed.

"She is ... she is speaking with that man." Rize replied hesitantly. "He owns this cabin."

"Speaking?" Sam challenged angrily. "Willingly, I presume." She said with disgust as she stared intently at the door. Rize did not reply. "Speaking! I know exactly what that whore is doing."