Episode 17

Silence had settled over the two strangers. Taking in a deep breath, Scarlet rose to her feet and made her way over to a mirror and sink she had caught a glimpse of. The sink had no running water but there was a large pale of clean water next to it with a dipper. Taking some of that water, she washed her face and looked up at her reflection in the mirror. Upon seeing herself, she was taken aback. She could not believe the image in the mirror.

Her left eye, while still jade in color, was not the same. Where the pupil had once been a perfect circle, it was now a thin vertical slit. Her other eye was bloodshot. The red veins now covered most of her body, and the scabbing had crept up onto her face and down her arms. Upon further inspection, she found that in the place of her missing tooth, something very rigid was coming up in its place and her other canine was ready to fall out.

Her hands were gripping so tightly onto the sink that her knuckles had gone white.

'What is happening to me?'

She could feel a mass of fear welling up inside of her. Seeing herself now, she understood why the Archon had wanted to kill her. She wasn't so sure that he was wrong either.

"You haven't seen yourself recently, have you?" She then heard the man's voice.

She only managed to shake her head no.

"You're scared."

She finally pried her hands from the sink. "You wouldn't be?"

He said nothing to that. "You don't know what's causing it?"

She didn't answer him. She began rubbing her face with her left hand.

"I'll take that as a no." He paused. "Well, sun-walker, what do you want to do now?"

"What do you mean?" she queried.

"I assume you don't want to stay here. You came from the ground, so it's likely you don't want to go back there. I'm guessing you were heading to Lygredd's Belly. Although, I'm not sure they would welcome you in your current state."

She sat back down as she pondered what he had said. He was right on all accounts. She had wanted to go to Legredd's Belly, but if she walked in there as she appeared now, they would probably want to kill her.

"I need to get to Lygredd Grand. There's someone there who might be able to help me. Maybe they can find out what's happening to me and stop it or fix it," she finally said.

"Lygredd Grand… that's quite a trek. You're going to need a guide. You won't be able to take the way the rest of the sun-walkers do."

"What are you proposing?" Scarlet then asked bluntly.

"I won't lie; the route is a dangerous one. I'll lead you there, but when you go into Lygredd Grand, I go with you."

"...You want to go with me… into Lygredd Grand, why?"

"Just because I was born into the… what is it you all call us… Bwbach... doesn't mean I have to stay here for the rest of my life. Besides, the rules that made this society work have completely collapsed. Since the death of the Archon, everyone has broken into factions. My people are in an all-out war. Sounds like a good time to make a change if you ask me," he answered.

She could see his point. Furthermore, she didn't rightly feel like she had any other option. She didn't know her way around the inner workings of Lygredd. If she struck out on her own, she would likely end up lost and dead. It was possible that he could just be bringing her along for the journey in case he got hungry. But part of her felt that if he was going to eat her, she wouldn't be alive still. She also remembered how he'd convinced everyone not to eat her before.

"Alright," she said hesitantly. "You've got yourself a deal."

A smile broadened across his face.

"So, what am I supposed to call you?" Scarlet then asked.

"They call me Helfeirch," he answered.

"Helfeirch… Well, most people just call me Scarlet," she introduced herself.

"Scarlet? That suits you. Well, Scarlet, why don't you just rest a while? I'm going to get everything ready. I'll wake you when I'm done."

With that, Helfeirch went to work packing up stuff into two packs. After a few minutes of watching him, Scarlet laid down. It was only then that she realized just how tired she still was and quickly fell back to sleep.

---

Bare skin pressed against cold metal and a coldness that reached into her bones, she laid there unable to move. Sounds of something wet and sticky filled the air around her as her head rolled to one side. The room was dark and a foulness permeated the air. The first thing she could see were eyes, cold dead eyes that made her heart freeze. She'd seen these eyes somewhere before, but where?

The body laying next to her came into focus as it lightly swayed and moved, its abdomen cut wide open. Suddenly, the wet sounds caught her attention again and her eyes drifted over the body in search of their source.

She could do nothing but watch in horror as a gloved hand reached into the body, pulling out what she guessed was a kidney. Each time the hand plunged into the body, it would remove another organ, causing the body to rock and sway on the metal table.

She could feel an unstoppable dread and terror rising in her. She wanted to scream. She wanted to lunge from the metal table she lay on and run as fast as she could away from there. She just knew she would be next and she had to get away. But no matter how much she tried, she could do none of these things, only watch and wait.

Suddenly, the scene before her began to strobe with another. The dark blood-stained room was replaced by a bright and ultra-clean one, which was filled with machines. The faceless person covered in blood vanished to be replaced by a woman in a pristine suit. The wet sounds of organs being removed abruptly cut off into the sounds of the machines. The only things remaining the same between the two scenes were the body laying next to her and her dread. The two scenes flashed violently between one another as though fighting for dominance. She could do nothing but lay there while feeling like her head might split into two.

Then the flashing stopped, as though the fight was over. She was in a sea of light that gleamed off of everything around her. Her eyes settled on the woman that loomed over the body, but no matter how she tried, she could not seem to get her face into focus. Just then, the woman bent down to whisper in the ear of the body laying before her.

"I'm going to make you into something beautiful."

It was only then that she realized...

'That whisper...'

It was too close, the rasp in the woman's voice, the breath from her mouth as she spoke, the eerie feeling of something looming behind her, she heard and felt it all. As her eyes focused back onto the dead eyes in front of her, she realized the reason she'd seen those eyes before was because they were her eyes.

Before she had a chance to fully come to terms with this revelation, the room flashed back to the dark and dirty one. A cold hand gripped her chin, pulling it to face the ceiling. A long syringe came flashing in her field of vision right before it was plunged into her left eye.