Aftermath (1)

'Please don't blame her....'

Kyran heard a distant voice echo throughout the darkness.

'... I made my choice....'

'Who...?' He tried to speak but heard no sound come out of his mouth.

Still, he might have wanted to know who was speaking, but the truth, he found the voice familiar.

'I'm sorry, Nar.'

When Kyran heard that name, his chest constricted, and a familiar irksome emotion came over him.

'It seems... I can no longer impose on that reward...'

'Reward? What reward...?' Kyran asked, though he knew it was futile because his voice would not come out.

'I had really hoped to see you at least once...'

Suddenly, a blinding light filled Kyran's perspective as several scenes overlapped before his mind's eye.

There was a scene of a shabby girl in the cave trying to claw through a cave's wall, looking like a squirming worm.

Another scene showed the same girl, half-naked, with a body full of festering wounds.