>>5183938You felt faint, flapping in the breeze that escapes her lips. You tried to focus, you were sure it was Haruki. The possibility of hallucinations is not lost on your fleeting thoughts. You reach out for security, a thumb traces along her pale chin. She was scared. Tears welling up in her eyes. Then she grabbed you, her arms taking you up easily. You had forgotten just how tall she was, just how strong the girl was. She held you close. You were warm. You felt so warm you could die. You wouldn't mind dying. The crack and low howl was followed by obscuring light as your cell suddenly burst back into harsh existence. Running off the fool's desire of sleep, your first thoughts were prayers begging for dear sweet death to claim you. Taking a deep breath you struggle to sit up as the drone of the first siren starts for the day, signaling the arrival of 5am.
Your feet meet the crude metal grating, your hollow bones threaten to give as you muster the strength to stand. The other rakes surround you, dragging themselves free of their own small cots. Like wet parchment stretched over a child's drawing of what was human. Four crude limbs, one misshapen head. You and your ilk were all little monsters. The rusted cell door swung open, releasing a nauseating tone that threatened to crack your ribs. You trail out after them, huddle like starved beasts, your small packs mesh as other cells open. Soon a parade of pale boy-shaped vermin scamper down towards their dooms. Ready to masquerade as monsters for morsels of meat, the watchers look down from their gilded and railed walkways above.
Shouting and sneering through the clear face plates, from barrels they toss sticks of food. There was always enough, the rain pelting each passing pseudo-human. You easily take one, clinging to the others from your cell. The grated floor descends into dangerously tight steps and the flow stems as each disposable life falls into line. You feel the walls thrum and hum, rumbling with a life not too different from your own. The blue markings staining your flesh mark your route. #391 declares your destination. Feeding on the sticks you all fall into place. A large onyx orb rests before you, present against the floor. You can just make out the monster it sinks into through the grating. It was a nightmare. The massive place was just as under maintained, you climbed into the core with no prompting. Observers snapping awake as the machine greedly takes you within itself. You feel the world rock as a new siren rings out, the muffled moan of twisting metal joined in as you feel the vibrations of an explosion send ripples through the Umbral connection.
