Severed

Chapter 22

Once again I lost track of the time passing. The torture has stopped, but I hadn't been released or even moved. I'd long since stopped moving and, more recently, eating. No one but the guards ever saw me, only one taking pity on me enough to leave his fuzzy hat behind. It kept my ears warm, but only after the young guard forced it onto my head when I neared the bars. When I finally mustered up enough strength to ask him how long I'd been there, the answer had been bleak. A month until Leonus came and then another month since then. I'd calculated what that meant in my head an made a timeline that went something like this:
Hallie taken away
Bruising the next day
Imprisoned and tortured
Bruising a month later
Bruising a bit less than a month later
Present, 2 months from being imprisoned
It normally wouldn't be enough to warrant concern yet, but I knew. The time between bruising should decrease until I died. Turns out you couldn't live with only half a soul. The worst part of it? I didn't really care.
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The chill in the prison cell had become almost unbearable as the winter progressed, the stone walls and floors slick with ice. My fingers had turned purple for many nights in a row and this night was no exception. The ripped tank top I wore, stained with the rusty color of my blood, offered no warmth and Leonus' coat had been taken along with my boots. By the time darkness fell, I was huddled on top of the wood plank chained to the frozen wall and chilled to my core. I'd drifted off for a while and woke to complete darkness. Then I sat in blistering cold for a while until the usual nightly meal came. It was likely supposed to be a dinner, but with the darkness, it felt like midnight. This time it was the nice guard, a small mercy. I'd never leaned the name of the young being, though I did find out that he was most likely human. He carried a tray with the usual food on it. The food I never ate. "You gotta eat something, you're wasting away" the guard said, sliding the tray into the cell. My neck ground as I slowly turned my head to him and stared with unseeing eyes. Pity laced his features, but he turned away quickly. I didn't fail to notice his hurried steps. Or the candle he'd left behind.

I wasted no times jumping up and snatching the dish of wax. Using exceptional care, I tilted it to fit through the bars, my whole body shaking at the prospect of being warm again. My cold, faintly bruised fingers groped for any kernel of warmth hovering around the precious flame. Then they worked their way closer and slowly into the fire itself. Heat sliced through the freezing flesh and seared its way up my arm. Warmth, priceless and beautiful; then pain, fiery and burning. The two sides of a life-bringing gift. My fingers had turned black and throbbed in rhythm to my heart before I yanked them back out. Sighing, I sat back onto the plank chained to the wall and brought the candle to my face. And then I blew it out.

Any last bit of hope I had extinguished along with the candle's flame. Despair filled my veins. Then anger. I jumped up, grabbed the try of cold food, and launched it at the wall, screaming. The clattering it made was unbearably loud and I settled back into despair as it died down. Already standing, I stumbled to the wall and laid my forehead against it. Unfiltered cold sank into my skull until I pulled away. And then thrust my head back against the wall. Minimal pain rang out so I did it again. Tears began flowing from my closed eyes as I continued. 3...4...5 times. Then 6,7,and 8. Though I didn't see it, I knew a bruise took form and something like blood leaked down my temple. Then I stopped. Another blob of light had descended the stairs.

A stunned Kashina stated back at me from outside the bars of my prison. Confusion swept over her features and she asked, "Hallie you're hurting yourself, what are you doing?"
I didn't reply, instead turning back to bash my forehead again. I was readying to hit another time when she yelled, "stop!"
I turned slowly back to face her and she waited until I was emptily staring right at her to continue. "I'm getting you out of here. I don't care what Leonus says, I can't just leave you here".
I snorted, the only thing I could muster to show my amusement. "You're going to get me out? After you failed so miserably last time? After you waited /a whole month/ to decide that you were coming back?"
Kashina seemed shocked at my accusations and I only hoped she knew how true they were. "What if I said that I didn't want to go with you?"