The Shadows in the Dark

Yonina

Yonina was used to the same retinue every day:

               She would be shook awake with ice water poured onto her head. Her body would ache, but her brain would curse her for not being used to it already.

              Then while questioning the sludge in front of her, she would force-ably eat it, knowing this would be the only meal she would get for the week. While she ate she looked at her other fellow Grisha.

Most of them had been there for maybe a week or two, but she knew they would die off quickly. Everyone she had arrived with died within the first three days. She would curse her brothers and sisters for getting the longer part of the stick.

          The last part of the day was the torture. Every day, just before the sunsets, she would be tied to a bed, stripped of all clothing. First they would take a mallet and crush her hands; they didn't want her using her abilities. Then they would take a skinning knife made of Grisha steel and peal her sling off. After an hour of that they would start to break more of her bones and if they were angry enough, they would pull a nail or two.

About 2 hours of that she would get asked in a Shu accent "Will you submit?" and she would give the same answer, "No." A healer would come and fix her bones and the cycle would start again.  But today was different. Today she was woke with a child's voice.

"Please help me", the voice whimpered in her cell. She turned in her bed and saw a little girl, maybe the age of six. "They won't stop hurting me."

"Come here," Yonina's motherly instincts resurfaced as she held her arms opened. The girl reluctantly walked towards her, but refused skin contact. And when she saw the condition of the girl, Yonina's jaw dropped.

       The girl's legs were  scarred and bruised, her eyes black like the unsea. She couldn't believe her captures would do something so cruel to a child.

Yonina's voice cracked she asked, " Don't they heal you?"

The girl shook her head and stuttered out, "They try to make me heal myself, but I don't know how."

"You're a Grisha?" Yonina was shocked.

"They call me a witch." Her heart cried for the little Grisha and she went to hold the girl, but was shrugged off. "I don't like it when people touch me." She said while running her hands down her own legs.

When a siren went off, Yonina didn't know what was happening, but the girl did. The girls eyes changed from a hurt child to an animal being hunted down by a predator.

"Please!" The child begged, "Don't let them take me."

Yonina stood up and asked the girl, "How did you get into here?"

The girl pointed at a door and held a key out. Yonina took the rusted metal and motioned for the girl to follow out the door.  Being here for 3 years, Yonina was confident she knew the way out. There was a narrow hall way all the guards would come and exit from at the same time, so she was almost positive that this was the way to the surface. 

When the first set of guards appeared, she knew that they were Shu. Their hair black and eyes the color of the sun. She had to use her powers if they wanted to survive, but she was too weak. This is hopeless. She thought. We're going to die.

Right before she went to scream run, they guards dropped dead in front of her, blood dripping from their eyes, ears, and nose. Yonina looked back at the girl in shock.

"That's what they want me to do, but only to the other witches." The girl spoke up, but Yonina decided to ignore it.

Instead Yonina continued on. In fact, it had been easy to escape; too easy. When they both got out Yonina was stunned at the beautiful night sky.