Darkness Ethereal | K.TH

To Kill, To Live

Where...

Where is he?

My head rings as I groan, my hand immediately drawing to the burns. But instead of the raw, puckered skin, I feel the soft touch of the bandages.

Huh?

Clutching my shoulder in one palm, I raise my heavy body from the mattress. I find myself lying on his bed, with a blanket thrown over me for warmth.

But the cell door is open, and my keys lay sprawled and abandoned next to it.

No V.

It doesn't take a genius to know what happened next. V had escaped— after bandaging my burns.

But why?

Had he used me to escape all along? Doubt and skepticism overwhelms my mind, heavy and cloudy as my entire body grows numb with possibilities.

But he couldn't have.

I don't believe that he did.

A painful wince twists my features as I raise my figure from the bed. The surface of the sheets are sticky and hot with cold sweat, the blankets kicked down to the floor in my disturbed sleep.

I had to find him.

I'm dizzy all over. I can barely stand, barely walk around with these heavy limbs of mine. My forehead is hot with a light fever, and my entire body aches from the burns.

This is absolutely the worst.

Another hiss escapes between my teeth as I force the main door open, feeling the cool evening air on my feverish skin. The slight breeze in the darkening skies relieves the heat and pain, therefore relieving my misery as well.

I can do this.

Judging from the falling sun, I assume that its about seven or eight in the evening. This wasn't good- this meant that I only had little time to find him, little time of light.

If it became dark, I might as well be wandering around a maze with my eyes blindfolded.

I'm thankful that there's only a few people on the streets, either out on a walk after dinner or to enjoy the cooling winds of coming night. They all seem so carefree, without a single concern in this world.

And I had thousands of them.

A sigh runs through my throat as I trudge along the streets, making sure to check each and every alley. I had no clue where he possibly would be, and worried that he'd make his fever worse in this chill.

It wasn't like he had a house to go to, or a place he could keep warm.

An hour drags on slowly as I try to keep my eyes open from the waves of fatigue, the urge to just curl up in a corner and fall asleep for eternity.

Why would he run?

The thought that he really was using me, that he really had been deceiving me right in front of my face, gets stronger and stronger with every passing alley that I find empty and V-less.

Maybe I was wrong to trust him.

Maybe I should've acted like a normal human being from the start.

And now I was dragging my feet down the millionth block of pavement, the weight of the consequences slowly suffocating the life out my soul.

It was simple.

If I didn't find him before someone noticed that the most important prisoner and the jailer who was supposed to be guarding him had disappeared, I would immediately be captioned fugitive.