Suddenly then her eyes were open fully. And she began to stare around, twisting her head to glare at her wrists. They were bound to a wooden bedframe, one with a headboard of a criss-cross style pattern, with the links of chains passed through them, then bolted together. Her jaw tightened as she narrowed her eyes and tried to find out where her “wrist” precisely was located so she could summon the strength to move it. Then the thought passed through her mind that she had actually moved her her without thinking and so - so, she thought “wrist” and soon she was tugging, pulling, unable to move the thing -
“Miss Stare, Miss Stare, please-”
A voice. She had not expected a voice. The only voice she had heard had been that screaming her name in her skull before she had drifted in the nothing. Jaw tightening she swung her head around, eyes darting with a savagery to the culprit.
There, in the room itself, in the space beyond this bed that she was bound to, stood a young woman. She looked anxious and pale and uncertain. A name popped into mind, learnt long ago. 'Desian,’ who works with her cousin ‘Demer’ in the kitchens of the … the Hollow. Where she was.
Fuck.
Immediately Stare began to tug and demand room at every cuff, yanking and pulling at it, her heart going mad as she bent and contorted her body. Confusion - so much confusion. She had been there, now she was here. The chains creaked and rattled, her feet wriggled and hands begged. But the metal, that was different loops from the all too familiar cuff of metal still on her left wrist For some reason it was ‘good’ it was there. She felt it was ‘good.’ But these other things - they were bad and restrictive. Still not making a vocal noise she arrived against them, making the bed creak as she tried, tried, tried.
“Demer!”
“Already on it,” and footsteps. Running footsteps.
Stare glanced at where they came from. There was a doorway, and someone was running through it, fast. She was still panickedly heaving at these bonds that would not give for all she could tell right now, they were wrong. She did not want them. The Hollow - the Hollow was a bad place, full of hateful memories and a life lived in fear, horror, pain.
Too much pain.
Stare threw her eyes back to the girl, choosing the first bare piece of skin. Then there was a shriek as ugly dark blotches began to mould and mutate, the skin itself beginning to die. 'Desian’ began to yell out in agony, and staggered backwards against a wall. Looking into what she knew of herself and who she was, Stare searched until she found another thing that could be useful. She glared at the woman's hand and summoned an idea of horror.
A metaphorical stab and the girl was then clutching at her hand. She cried out, but still made no move to release Stare. Because that was who the kenku was - she was ‘Stare’. And she ‘stared’ at things exceptionally well. It came in handy when she was trapped in a hell hole.
Next -
A tall shadow fell in her way, cutting in between her and the creature who would not release her - ‘Desian.’ He was dark, with a pale top and was looking down at her with the most focused, intense sky blue eyes …
Fuck.
And the being that was Stare … gasped. Her lungs suddenly called out for air as her heart leapt and then, then she knew and pieces began to fall back into place. Things of who she was, and what she was. What she had been doing before this and why. The man with the blue eyes suffered no pain at her stare - that was incredibly important. He was, she was, they were, this was …
Fuck.
Her heart began to leap and suddenly … suddenly she knew precisely what …
Vitruvion. Raevin. Mer. Brer. Nevin. Nosdyn. Avin ...
Avin!
“Oh my gods …” she whispered. “I - I - he …”
I'm pretty sure I just died.
