Worlds of Waves and Shadows

Four

"He's alive, right?" The blue-eyed girl asked, her voice tinged with a mix of concern and horror as the two of them peered down at the scrawny guy sprawled across the seats attached to the silver-black walls of what appeared to be their cylindrical prison.

"For now," Kaenisa croaked, her voice rusty from disuse. Her weary eyes took in the scene. They were all prisoners. But how? And where? Her last memory was a searing pain, a bone-jarring impact, and then... nothing. How she ended up here, in this metal tube with strangers, was a complete mystery.

Kaenisa assessed the boy with a sceptical gaze. He looked like a starved kitten someone had tossed into a spaceship. One glance was enough to see that he was dangerously close to malnourishment, with pale skin stretched taut over sharp cheekbones and a worrying collection of scrapes and burns decorating his exposed arms. The only sign of life was the faint rise and fall of his chest.

The almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest was the only indication of him being alive.

"He is rather fetching, wouldn't you say?" the blonde mused, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. Kaenisa fought the urge to roll her eyes. This girl, with her boundless energy and misplaced cheer, was starting to grate on her nerves.

"More concerned about his looks than the fact we've been kidnapped?" Kaenisa countered, her tone dry.

The blonde shrugged, her blue eyes sparkling. "Well, why not both? We're stuck here anyway, might as well find some entertainment, right?"

Kaenisa sighed, the futility of the situation washing over her. What was she even doing here? It couldn't be. Could it? The pursuers, hot on her heels, leading her to this very place? The mere thought seemed unfathomable. And yet here she was, stuck in a silver container with zero clues as to why she was here or how she was even alive to begin with.

One moment she'd been... well, somewhere else, the next she was here, with a broken shoulder and two strangers. A wave of dizziness washed over her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing it to pass. 

One of her unfamiliar companions was this petite girl with sordid platinum hair and big, round cobalt eyes, specked with lilac—standing beside her. A patch of dried blood caked her hairline, disappearing into her messy tresses. Something Kaenisa had missed earlier.

"That looks nasty," She nodded at the girl's wound, eyeing the dried blood caking her hairline. 

The girl, who had introduced herself as Sarina, flinched and self-consciously reached up to touch the matted mess of hair. "Oh, this? This is nothing," She chirped, a touch too brightly. "Just a little scrape from... well, from wherever we came from, I suppose."

Kaenisa frowned. In the span of five minutes, the blue-eyed girl who, as she learned, was called Sarina, had managed to bombard her with a disconcerting amount of personal information. It unsettled her, just....how much of an open book this girl was. That too, in front of a total stranger she had just met. And the worst part was that she could tell it was genuine because this girl had no reason to fabricate such openness. It was as if she held no cards to hide, leaving Kaenisa with a growing sense of caution, tinged with an undeniable curiosity.

Then, out of the blue, the boy jolted awake, his eyes widening with a gasp that pierced the air. The suddenness of the moment caught them off guard, sending both the girls stumbling backward, their bodies colliding with the unforgiving metal floor.

Pain shot through her thigh, coursing up her spine and radiating all the way through her shoulder, threatening to engulf her senses. She resisted the urge to flinch or even blink, fearing that any movement could tip her into the abyss of unconsciousness.