[TBATE] -More Than One Godspell-

Draven

The view outside the carriage window stretched endlessly—a forest of trees clawing at a dull, gray horizon.

"Hey, why must you have to check my blood? My certificate should be enough to prove I'm clean, that I'm clean—no traces of Vritra blood. Is that not enough to convince you?" Even though I knew he wouldn't answer, I still asked.

"..." There was no answer. Just like with every previous question I've asked, the soldier remained silent.

Maybe he just wanted to be sure...

The carriage lurched to a stop.

"Get out. We are here." The soldier spoke for the first time since I started following him.

I got off the carriage. My legs felt numb from the ride that had gone on for so long that the memories of its start had already begun to rot away in my mind. 

"...What is this place?" Before me gaped a tunnel mouth—small yet somehow wrong in its proportions. They might decide to quickly build this for temporary use, I presume.

Without answering my question, the soldier strode into the tunnel first. He turned with his eyes on me, reflecting nothing more than an order.

Of course, I followed, as we both knew I would.

Without the light from the torches, the descent would have felt like sinking into the throat of a beast. Each step took me deeper, giving me the feeling of the old times when I was an ascender.

"Hey, can I..." I wanted to ask, but the words seemed to have stuck in my throat like a hook, "...Can I ask about my family? Their well-being, I mean."

"..." He slowed down. 

"Please," I choked, my voice trembling. "I just need to know if my wife and daughter are safe. Please."

He stopped. The silence that followed wasn't merely an absence of sound—it felt more like a presence, as if it was an actual living being that would devour me alive.

"...You will meet them soon..." His words came at last, offering neither comfort nor clarity. I wanted to know more. Desperately, in fact. And yet, at the same time, I wished to remain ignorant.

"..." I swallowed hard while he said nothing more.

And just like that, we moved on.

I moved on.

As we trudged forward, my thoughts turned against me, dragging me down into the deepest depths of my worst fears about Yara and Elara. My wife and daughter.

Why had they been taken? Why them? What had they done to deserve this? Were they safe? Were they warm? Were they even...

I clenched my jaw and squeezed my eyes shut, shaking off the thought before it could bloom fully into such horror I could not bear.

But it wouldn't leave. It was still there, festering in the cracks of my sanity like rats.

"..."

The corridor ended at a weathered door, its paint peeling away like dead skin. My footsteps, which had echoed so boldly moments before, withered into silence as if the very air had thickened with its own dread. There, seeping beneath the warped wood, a red stain of old blood spread like fingers reaching for my soul.

My throat suddenly went dry as dust.

"..."

As the door creaked open, I was barely breathing.

"...Yara?" I ran up to her, putting her carefully in my hold, and despite how trembling my hands were, I was able to brush all matted strands of hair off her ashen face. The copper tang of blood filled my nostrils as I pressed my ear to her chest, desperate for any signs of life.