Chapter 134

He put me in a room with a fire I didn't feel. I'd long stopped shivering and grown numb to the pain of my frozen limbs. Bara came in to tend to me, stripping me like a doll that could only stand and sit on command. She brought me food, but I couldn't recognize it. Not a thought passed my mind. Not a feeling touched my soul. I can't even recall if I breathed or blinked.

A bed. I sat on a bed. A bed that smelled like people. A used bed. A recently used bed.

Sometimes, the fire hissed as rain got passed the covering on the chimney top. The fire was orange. Yellow and orange.

Matsu appeared, an ever willing actor stepping on to the stage.

He made a breathy sort of giggle.

"I can feel it without even touching you," his voice had gone a bit high, maybe even whispery. "You're broken, aren't you? Fully and thoroughly broken. And we didn't even see that much, hah. You're more delicate than I thought."

His hand cupping my jaw burned. I was still ice. He had never been cold.