Craig of the Dead

21. Not Like I Would Know Anything About That

"Morning Butters, how'd ya sleep?" I didn't sleep at all.

"Okay." I lied. "No nightmares so—" I winced, a painful rumble in my stomach as it demanded food. Sorry little buddy, but you're gonna have to wait. "So good I guess. How about you, how long have you been up?"

"A few minutes." Token replied. "Not much longer than you. It's hard to sleep, but I'm getting used to it." I wasn't used to it. My arms and hands were killing me. We were going on our third day without food or water, and the thirst and hunger was hitting everyone hard. I don't know if Eric was purposely doing this to torture us, or if he just simply forgot about us, or maybe he forgot that, ya know, humans need water and food to survive. My lips were so dry and it was getting hard to squeak out words. I had already passed out once and come back around, but I was starting to feel woozy again. Was this really how I was gonna go out? This was just such an awful way to die. Even when I was— I mean, when Professors Chaos was locked in the dungeon, some of the kids still snuck him food and water. By the looks of it now, it didn't seem like anyone would be coming to sneak him food now.

Then I looked at Damien, his pale face even paler, his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, and realized that he'd been experiencing this ten-fold for the past week or so.

"Hey Damien," I wheezed, deciding to check up on the him. I strained my neck to look across our row. Tweek and Craig were both up, and Tweek was having a very rapid conversation with his boyfriend. Token was yawning and looked like he might go back to sleep, and Karen hadn't woken up yet. Sleeping on a pole never bothered either of them for some reason, despite how uncomfortable they were.

"What?" He moaned.

"How are you feeling? A little better maybe?"

He lifted his head up to look at me, his fire red eyes glowing redder and redder as his glared. "I'm gonna let you figure that one out."

"Hey, don't give Butters any flack, okay?" Karen said. Oh, so I was wrong, she was awake. Maybe she just did what I did, pretended to go to sleep because all the horrible thoughts and nightmares and memories that she keeps locked away super tight come to haunt her in her sleep. Maybe she purposely avoids going to bed each night because she fears what she will discover. Maybe whenever she does fall asleep, she wakes up screaming and in tears because she remembers that one time when her parents killed a woman with a shovel right in front of her because they thought she was a horrible unnatural beast and she had to eat the corpse because her parents didn't come back to unchain her for a month and if she didn't eat the woman she would have starved to death, all because of a future telling device that she was told later was blown up, so it didn't even matter and she had become cannibal for no reason at all.

Not like I would know anything about that.

...

...

...

She actually was looking better than the rest of us. Sure, she certainly looked sickly, but she was holding out. Maybe it was because she was used to not eating regularly. Still, that made feel even worse. A little girl like her shouldn't be suffering like this. Plus, food wasn't the issue here.

"Okay, well..." What's something that might make Damien feel better. He was in the worst spirts out of all of us. Oh wait, I know! "How's Pip? Is he doi—"

"Fuck you Butters."

"Stop! Leave Butters alone!" Karen reiterated, scowling at the sneering demon-child.

"Why? What do you want me to say? That my father's a little bitch who punishes me every time he gets emotional?"

"Aw, dude that—"