Vagabonding.1 [COMPLETE]

10. A Shifty Escape

How can I even explain myself out of a situation that I haven't even figured out on my own yet? It wasn't my mirror! It wasn't my doing! I need to get out of here but the steel gates tell me otherwise.

Ahead of my cell, a limp body was being dragged towards my cell by two men while another guard walked ahead and unlocked the cell for them to get inside. They dropped him gently on the floor and locked up the cell again before everyone on the outside cleared away. The body began to contract with a slow cough.

I looked over at the body when I noticed that the limp being was Surge looking as pale as a ghost. His skin seemed drained of any color and the dark purple from under his eyes gave him a listless look on his face.

"Surge?" I whispered out. "Are you okay?"

"Do I... look okay to you?" He tried to frown but even that he found too difficult to do. "I was just drugged enough for two people."

"That makes no sense, I ate the food and I was fine," I said.

"They don't put it in foods, idiot, they put it in drinks," Surge said as he began to curl his body against the ground in discomfort, "And please shut up, I feel like the room is still spinning and I have to throw—"

He turned over and threw up on the floor beside him. I looked away in fear that I may do the same.

"I'm going to personally beat the crap out of whoever did this to me," He said weakly in between his shuddering breaths.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?" I asked quietly.

"We're being held off by a gang right now, it's obvious that this is going to be bad if we stick around longer," Surge whispered. "We need to think of a way out and fast because I don't even want to think about what they'll do to us. The good news is that this place doesn't have much funding for their department. If we escape, they shouldn't be able to find us so long as we make our way to a city with regulars."

I sat in silence as I grasped at straws, this was the only chance I had left to ask, "Hey, what's that thing you told me I was earlier? A shape-shifter?"

Surge nodded almost instantly and eyed me from head to toe as if I was ready to shred him to pieces.

"Well, I don't know how to do it," I said as I sat down near him. "Don't you know anything about my kind?"

The shoes of the guard clacked past us until the man peered in and tapped the cage with his baton, "Stay apart, prisoners! No need to get cushy with one another in here!"

I slid farther away and waited for the guard to pass before Surge spoke up.

"...I've heard rumors of your kind," Surge began to whispered lowly, "they said that you can turn into anything, like a carbon copy that was crafted right from the tiny strands of DNA themselves. Shape-shifters tend to be mostly used in the black market these days, but in the past, they were often used as a way to become elite assassins. I was just told that shape-shifters go after hair, but it's never enough for them. Most of them end up craving blood of their victims in the end."

"What do you mean by that?" I crinkled my nose in disgust. "You think I'm someone like that?"

A guard passed again as we lowered our voice. Luckily, the guard was on their cellphone noisily playing a game before making an annoyed huff. The guard then continued his walk with his head down and his eyes back down to his phone.

"I'm not saying anything," Surge said heavily through his strained murmur, "I'm just telling you the rumors I've heard. Nothing more, nothing less. But don't you at least want to try?"