Lantern Light

The light illuminated the dark, making the items inside reveal themselves. In the room, stacks of crates built on each other, supporting dangling spider webs with spiders that fled from the light. Rotting shields, wooden swords, strange staffs, and other materials leaned on charred stone brick walls. A few moldy metal pipes ran through two of the walls. Droplets of water dripped from the metal, creating a small puddle on the stone floor.

But right now, what Yuna was paying attention to wasn't any of these details. All of her focus was on the person who stepped into the room.

A young woman with a pair of thin glasses walked in. She had her curly black hair tied into a low and messy bun. Her lifeless brown eyes looked down at the baby on the table without a hint of emotion.

She wore a dull black dress that ended just below her knees, a white apron, and a hairband. It was a typical maid uniform.

In one gloved hand was a lantern. The other was a tray holding a white porcelain pitcher, a towel, and a small cup.

Yuna looked at her with a curious gaze and a bit of anxiousness. About a million guesses flooded her mind for why this woman had come, 'Considering that she's a maid and 'he' is most likely the king of this place, this person... was most likely sent by that guy.'

An image of a sinister young man with white hair formed in her mind, 'Anyone sent by him wouldn't come for a pure reason, right?'

'If that's the case...' she broke out into a cold sweat, '-then is she here to serve as my torturer? Will she use me for sadistic needs or shove ants into my mouth?'

She gulped and took her gaze down to the pitcher, '-or is she here to drown me?'

Whatever the reason was, all she knew was that her emotionless eyes gave Yuna a dreadful feeling of foreboding. No sane, friendly, or warm person could have that sort of look in their eyes.

The closer the heel clacks got, the harder Yuna's heart thumped. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for whatever was to come. This heavy atmosphere continued until, finally, the clacks stopped.

But nothing happened.

She kept waiting for the maid to do something, but she didn't do anything. All she heard was a few clinks along with the pouring of some liquid.

With irresistible curiosity, Yuna slowly opened her eyes.

They met with another pair of lifeless eyes that stared back at her.

...The maid was a foot away from her face.

She threw a towel over her shoulders, lifted Yuna, and cradled her in her arms.

Yuna was surprised.

She shifted Yuna to her right arm and used her left to grab the cup on the tray, still wearing an unreadable expression on her face. She tilted the cup in a way that Yuna could see the contents inside, which was a white, opaque liquid.

'Ah? Milk?' Yuna thought before stimulating wetness entered her mouth and revived her dried lips.

The maid held Yuna's head while patiently keeping the cup of milk to her lips. She carefully fed her small minuscule amounts of milk at a time. This process was repeated until Yuna stopped consuming the milk, and the maid pulled the cup away from her.

The indescribable feeling of drinking something after starving for so long was amazing. At this moment, Yuna felt like she had been reborn.

'Oh, wait. I was.'

The maid lifted Yuna, put her head over her shoulder, and patted Yuna's back until she burped. After that, the maid set her back down on the rotting table, grabbed the lantern, pitcher, cup, tray, and towel, then made her way to the iron door.

Yuna watched as the robotic maid closed the door behind her.

With the lantern, the light withdrew from the room.

The door closed with a loud clang, clank, and lock. Just like that, Yuna was once again left alone in a cold room.

...

Yuna never really knew how lonely the darkness was until now.

In the pitch-black room, she spent most of her time wondering why she came into this world. She had a few possible hypotheses, but none sounded logical enough to consider. So, she eventually gave up thinking about it and wasted her time observing the room, hoping that she could develop some form of night vision by staring long enough to ease her boredom. She spent the rest of her time rolling around the table, almost falling off a few times.

If Yuna was so bored, why didn't she jump off the table and wander around, you ask? She had the strength to, so why not?

It's because she was afraid. She was scared of the things that might be hiding in the dark, the unknown. Who knew what kind of things were lurking where she couldn't see?

Being alone in this room made her develop this pressuring anxiety that monsters lie in less visible places. She could only put up with it all because of the maid's lantern light that she started looking forward to every day.

The maid with curly black hair visited about every two days, giving her the bare minimum to live. She gave up keeping track of how long she stayed in there; all she knew was that it had been a very long time.

During this period, she outgrew the warm blanket that wrapped her as a baby.

She didn't have anything else to wrap herself with, but the only thing she could do was to suck it up and bear with it.

The days started feeling a bit colder.

...

One day, the maid walked in with the same regular tray, but this time, instead of the usual pitcher, cup, and towel, on it was a white, long-sleeved dress.

The maid put the dress on Yuna, then left without feeding her.

Her stomach grew emptier, as well as something in her heart.

...

With monotone-colored days, she fell into a trance. The thin and aching her had lost the strength she had as a child, which she found to be a little funny.

'What am I doing here?' Yuna wondered to herself in the quiet room.

Water dripped from the pipes and echoed through the space. The noises that bounced off the walls seeped into her ears like a response. It was almost as if she could hear voices.

The sound of a clank and clang came from the door, 'Ah? Is it already time for the next meal? Is it my birthday? Well, no matter, the fact is that I get to eat more food today.'

Expecting the maid to walk into the room, Yuna patted her dress and faced the door, only to see something unexpected.

...