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The darkness hadn’t been a welcome respite for a while now… but for it to feel outright hostile was something else.
He had been… what had he been doing? He can’t recall. The only thing he can focus on is… spinning.
Everything is spinning and sickening.
By reflex, he pats for his key, only to feel a strange warmth around his neck, making it move his hand away and roll over with a groan. He buries his head into the pillow, folding into himself as he tries to shake the feeling off…
Only for everything underneath him to disappear.
Dazed, he paws at nothing, unable to open his eyes still, as a rush of cold air hits every side of his body, and the feeling of nausea increases tenfold.
It keeps on going and going until… pain hits him as suddenly, something solid is underneath him once again.
It hurt, a lot .
As he groaned and attempted to get up. Yuma wasn’t sure what had happened. His back hurt, and he was having trouble catching his breath, almost like, like…
… he had… fallen from somewhere?
No, scratch that, he actually had fallen from somewhere, given that he finds his surroundings to be completely unfamiliar as he struggles to open his eyes. Not his bed for sure… had he even really been in bed so far??
Around him he could hear talking, but he couldn’t make out a single word that was said. His eyes refused to focus, all he could make out was light and colors. There was movement nearby, probably the people he heard, but nothing was clear.
But ever so slowly, things started to clear up. He could actually make out the people who were around him… sort of. Yet, they weren’t… normal looking, to put it bluntly. The best word he could use to describe them was soldiers (maybe?), dressed in old looking armor that reminded him of the pictures he saw from the few times he actually paid attention in history class.
Don’t ask him what time period. Or maybe he’s getting them confused with some movie or show he watched with Akari. Who knows. A quick glance at his surroundings doesn’t help; just stone walls, store floor, barely any windows, and… torches?
Yes, best not to think about that right now. What matters, is that apparently… they clearly noticed him too.
“Did you see that? It's like he fell from the ceiling!” One shouted.
“Is he a spy? “ Someone else asked.
“What strange clothes he’s wearing.” Another commented.
Feeling put on the spot, Yuma sat up and put his hands on his head, trying to make sense of everything around him. The fact he was still dizzy didn’t help him out any. “Where am I?” he mumbled before he could stop himself.
And when he looked up… his breath escaped him.
Before him, behind a long carpet and some small steps, was a throne… and a very familiar face sitting on it. “Vector!” Yuma jumped to his feet, “What’s going on here?”
Vector looked down at him, his face a strange mix of confusion and disgust. With a wave of his hand, several soldiers were on Yuma, swords pressed against his neck. If he were to even breathe wrong, he would certainly be cut.
“Who do you think you are, speaking to me so freely?” Vector demanded, brow furrowed in anger.
Yuma could hear his heart beating in his ears, now well and truly lost. The dizziness and nausea had abated a little, perhaps due to fear, but they just gave way to endless confusion. What was going on? Why was everyone dressed so weird? Why was Vector of all people here?
And why did that question of his seem somewhat… off?
Disgust that Yuma dared to call him by name… okay, it was unusual, but Yuma could believe that. But there was something to both his tone and expression that denoted something more than that…
Did… did Vector genuinely not recognize him? Was it because he was in his pajamas? Was his hair that out of shape?
Or… or…
What else could it possibly be???
“D-don’t you remember me!?” Yuma could barely gasp out, sweating with fear. “It’s me… Yuma.”
In response to his desperate attempt, Vector rolled his eyes, clearly already getting annoyed with him. “I don’t know what game you're trying to play, but I’m not amused with it. Guards, take him to my interrogation room. I’ll deal with him on my own when I’m free.” he finished with a smirk.
W-what…?
As he was left speechless, the swords instantly dropped, allowing Yuma to feel like he could breathe again, only to instantly get picked up and dragged by two large men, as if he was a sack of potatoes no matter how much he struggled and wiggled around in order to shake them off.
“Make sure he doesn’t escape, or you’ll be paying with your heads.” Yuma heard Vector call from behind them.
Completely helpless, Yuma felt like he was being dragged for hours, up hundreds of stairs that spiraled around. It was almost enough to make him nauseous. Where was he being taken to? But finally, they stopped, there was a loud creak of a door opening, and then he was quickly tossed into a room of cold stone.
Which, obviously, hurt like all hell. It was a miracle he only came out of it with minor scratches… especially with the painful way he landed…“You don’t have to be so rough!” he whined as he looked over his shoulder and rubbed his aching head, but the door was already sealed tight.
Heart crawling up his throat, he quickly looked around, but there wasn’t much to be found; more stone walls and floor, an extremely tiny window so high up that he wouldn’t be able to jump to it even to just peek at the outside, a stone ‘bench’, a wooden bucket in the corner, some contraption of wood and tubes that he couldn’t make out clearly from where he was, and…
Some very nasty looking red stains on a corner of the room.
Not wanting to focus on that last part, Yuma picked himself up and whined as the world began to spin around him once more. Groaning, he held onto his head, and tried to gather himself, just like Kaito and Shark would scold him to do…
Just… where was he? Perhaps in some sort of castle, considering all the stairs they went up and all the soldiers? But there was also Vector, and while he didn’t get a great look at him, he clearly had some sort of power over those men. Given the throne and the odd clothes… maybe a king?
But… how could that be?
Yuma shook his head. It didn’t make any sense. How did he get here? How could he possibly fall from his bed to that ceiling, according to those men? He couldn’t even remember how he got there. He thought he had gone to bed…
Could... could he be dreaming right now?
Instinctively, Yuma put a hand on his chest, looking for the key. To his relief, it was still there, tucked in his shirt. Probably a good thing that it was, or it might have been taken by one of those men.
After making sure no one was watching him, he held it in both hands, looking at it, waiting for it to glow and for Astral to pop out and explain what was going on, because clearly he’d have an answer. But nothing ever happened. Everything was quiet, and he was alone in the room.
As despair took over him, he held the key close to his heart. “Please… Astral…” Yuma whispered.
But once again… nothing.
And then his head began to hurt. “Crap… maybe I hit it harder than I…”
As the pain turns unbearable, all he can do, is lie down and groan, as darkness overtakes him once more.
……..
…………
Yuma wasn’t sure how long he was out for, only that there was even less light coming through the small windows, and that his head still ached. He struggled and moaned as he got up, holding onto his own head, but before he can even gather himself, he heard someone outside the door. A loud demanding voice… clearly Vector.
Panicking, all Yuma could do before the door opened without much further warning, was to cram the key back inside his shirt, hoping that that cord wasn’t visible still as Vector stepped in, the door shutting behind him. Yuma turned to face him fully, too worried to take his eyes off him, fighting off the urge to hold onto his key for reassurance.
He expected Vector to start talking, questioning him, or maybe something worse, but instead, he just walked past Yuma like he wasn’t even there, while Yuma stepped aside to make way for him by instinct. No, instead, he went to that table that held a weird tube-like contraption that Yuma hadn’t been able to even come close to before fainting, and… kept on ignoring Yuma.
Yes, Yuma felt keenly observed nonetheless, and it made the hairs on his neck shiver and stand straight.
But more silence followed, while Vector kept messing with the contraption…
Was this some sort of game? Or had Yuma actually gone invisible? Considering everything that had happened, he wasn’t going to rule such a factor out… and if he was dreaming…
With that last thought in mind, slowly, Yuma walked up behind Vector, but still kept a fair bit of distance, as there clearly was a sword at his hip, and Yuma really didn’t want to find out how sharp it was. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to accomplish, just… if the other would react to him, he guessed.
But suddenly, just as he got close enough, there was a weird bubbling noise, and smoke seemed to rise up around Vector. Yuma immediately coughed into his hand, as Vector finally deemed to acknowledge him. “If you really are a spy, you’re a stupid one.” he simply said.
A spy? Him?! How?
… so did Vector really not recognize him? And honestly… now that he looked closely at the other…
Yuma wasn’t sure he recognized him either.
The face and voice were the same, obviously, but there was something off about the other; something that wasn’t neither Rei nor Vector.
Come to think of it, had Vector even responded to his name? He acted offended that Yuma even spoke to him to begin with, so who could be sure… Vector sure wasn’t a name that could ever match those clothes and this castle, after all…
But then… what the heck is going on?
While his mind was starting to increasingly resemble swiss cheese, Vector turned, pipe in hand as he looked down at Yuma like he was bored. Yet, he doesn’t look away for even a second, betraying the fact that he is fully interested, no matter what facade he’s attempting to put up. “What? Nothing at all?” He took one step forward, getting dangerously close to Yuma, before he took a long drag and slowly blew the smoke at Yuma’s face.
Which, of course, makes him break into another coughing fit. That smell wasn’t nice at all , “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Yuma said, waving the smoke away from his face, wishing he had the guts to turn away from the other.
The corner of Vector’s lips twitched, before he shook his head. “And you’re a bad liar. I don’t know who sent you, but clearly, they’re incompetent.” He walked around Yuma like he was inspecting him. “But maybe I’m wrong. You’ve addressed me so freely , that you must be at least familiar with who I am..” he stated as he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
Yuma expects things to get violent, given that look. And yet, they don’t. Vector just remains there, looking at him as he pollutes the room with smoke, as unwilling to take an eye off of Yuma as Yuma is of him.
Which… what now?
He’s afraid to question Vector about anything in order to get a clue as to what is going on, for that might set the other’s temper off. But the more the awkward staring goes on, the more it becomes unbearable… at least for him .
Vector gives off the impression that he could do this all day.
Left with little else to do… he opens his mind and says the first thing that comes to mind: the truth. “I'm very familiar with you…” Yuma replied, trying to keep his eyes on him even as Vector began to walk in circles around him, looking over every inch of him.
“Ah, so you admit you're a spy.” Vector nodded casually as he took another drag, and the smoke slowly came out of his nose as if he was a dragon. “Normally, you’d be missing a few fingers before giving up that information. But I guess that makes things easy.”
Baffled with the conclusion the other came to, he’s not stuck trying to defend himself. “I’m not a spy! I’m a…” he stopped himself in order to think about it. A Friend? An enemy? Yuma wasn’t sure the best word to use in a situation like this, or at the very least, one that would let him get out of this alive. In the end… he again settles for the truth. “We… know each other.” he finally said.
That shouldn’t make Vector angry, right?
Yet, it appears he did just that. Clearly not satisfied with that answer, Vector grabbed his face and brought it close to his. “Know each other? Then why don’t I recall a single moment of my life when I ever met a strange person like you?” he asked, looking straight into his eyes. He seemed to stare right insideYuma’s soul. “I’m certain I would remember someone with eyes as red as yours.”
Yuma freezes… the way Vector said that… it was threatening yes, but it was also… and the way the other just refused to break eye contact .
Now confused and sweating with nerves, Yuma wanted to pull away from that stare. He was terrified of what this Vector would do to him. Terrified that he could be killed in this strange place where it seemed no one knew who he was, and it seemed he didn’t know anyone either. But all he could do was stare back at him, helpless.
He wanted to claw at the other’s hand, but even his own common sense told him it was a bad idea. So the only thing he could do was…
Keep arguing his case? Hope that… that this is all a game Vector is playing, and he’ll drop the charade once Yuma pleads hard enough?
It sounds foolish even to him… but really, what else can he do?
He can’t force himself to wake up, and given that he already woke up once, he’s starting to doubt that this is a dream. Therefore… he just has to try again, no matter how foolish it feels. “We… knew each other. We were close…” Was all Yuma managed to say.
Predictably, but also gut wrenchingly, Vector raised an eyebrow. “Close? That word can mean so many things.” he smirked. Before Yuma can even try to decipher the meaning of those words, the other then leans in so close, that Yuma can feel his breath right on his own face. “Well, if I had to decide what type of close you were to me, I’d say you’d be spending the rest of your life in my room.” the other whispered in what felt like a dangerous tone.
But that piercing gaze…
Just… JUST WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!
Growing more scared by the minute, Yuma gulped. No matter what he tried, this wasn’t getting any better for him. He needed a miracle, he needed… he needed something , or to wake up from the strange dream he’d hopefully been dropped in. “Please… I…” he couldn’t even beg properly.
Reveling in his reaction, Vector cackled, “Well you did admit to being a spy, no matter what you said, and I do need to punish you. But be happy, I’ll spare your life, just this once.”
Given that smirk at the end… yeah, that didn’t reassure Yuma at all .
Desperate to do anything , Yuma falls back to babbling. “I didn’t say that at all…” he tried to argue, but Vector didn’t seem to have an ear to spare for anything he could say. He wanted to believe what he wanted to believe.
Yuma wished it could be that easy for him .
The other’s eyes traveled down Yuma’s chest, only for his eye to suddenly widen. Before Yuma could even realize what was going on, Vector used his other hand to pry underneath Yuma’s shirt, grabbing hold of the cord and freeing the hidden key into plain view. “What an interesting pendant.” Vector said, lacing his fingers around the cord that held it around Yuma’s neck.
Instantly, Yuma’s heart sank. He should have tucked it away into his underwear as soon as he was thrown into this place, but he fainted so soon after landing here, and had no time to react when he woke up before Vector entered the room… there was nothing more he could have done, but he still feels distraught by it.. “No, please don’t take that.” he pleaded.
Eyes furrowing in rage, the other screamed into his face, “You can’t tell me what to do!” And like that, Vector held the key up, the cord still around Yuma’s neck, inspecting it closely. “What is this? Some sort of family symbol? I don’t recognize it.”
Yuma moved closer to him as he pulled on the key, trying to do what he could so the cord wouldn’t snap and/or he’d get choked in the process. “Please, it's from my dad! It’s special!” he begged, trying to appeal to Vector’s human nature, no matter how pointless it might be. “Don’t take it!”
Apparently, his pleading was less than pointless, for at the mere mention of the word ‘father’, Vector’s face twists in immense displeasure. Instead of granting him mercy, Vector grabbed the actual key, ready to rip it off Yuma’s neck… only for it to start glowing brightly.
Hope lighted within Yuma, as he expected Astral to appear and save the day… but that didn’t happen at all. Instead, the key continued to glow until Vector let go of it, clutching his head in pain.
Yuma took the opportunity to shove the other away and regain a couple of steps of distance, immediately tucking the key inside his shirt once more.
But that was, perhaps, another wrong move, as when Vector is able to open his eyes again, there’s a fury in them that hadn’t been present up until now. “W-What the hell did you do?” Vector screamed, before running to the door and opening it. “Guards! Get this boy out of my sight! I’ll execute him myself in the morning!”
“I didn’t do that!” Yuma tried to argue, but it was as always pointless, as soldiers entered the room not a minute later, ready to roughly shake him around and grab him like last time. “Please, listen to me, Vector!” he pleaded one last time, but he was pulled out of the room before he could ever get a reply.
Once again, Yuma was being dragged around the castle , this time with even less care than one would give a sack of potatoes, sure to be bruised everywhere by the end of it. Down dozens of hundreds of stairs, until everything was pitch dark, only lit by the occasional torch.
At one point, there was a loud clanking, and Yuma found himself painfully on his back. At least this time, he managed to protect his head as he fell…
The ground was cold and hard, even more than in the last room, and he couldn’t see anything, as the room lacked a window and the only torch in sight was far away. It didn’t take him a lot of thought to know he was probably in some type of dungeon.. which only made him wonder, where the heck had he been in previously?
Just what had been Vector’s intentions for him?
Well… he supposed that didn’t matter any more, since he knew what Vector’s intentions were now… and frankly, he just didn’t even want to think about them.
He had to get out… but everything in him hurt, and no matter how much he attempted to pry the cell bars apart, he couldn’t even see if he was making any progress… to top it all off, he felt weak, wondering what was the last thing he ate…
The key around his neck was back to being nothing more than a useless lump of metal.
Eventually, he gave up and allowed himself to fall to the cold, hard floor, and let out a deep sigh. There was no point in getting up. He was…stuck. In a strange… land? Dream? He didn’t know still. All that he knew was that there was no help coming… and if things kept going like this, it was all going to end in a few hours.
Yuma turned over to his side. “Why couldn’t this just be a dream… please let this be a dream…” he whispered.
But just like Vector, it appeared nothing was listening to him.
At some point, Yuma had managed to fall asleep, despite his head still hurting. Perhaps that was the reason that, when he woke up, he momentarily forgot the situation he was in. But the cold, hard ground beneath him, instead of the usual hammock digging into his skin, quickly brought back the exact details of what had happened to him.
Shifting around, he tried to find a position that was comfortable, assuming it was pointless to do anything else, but found it to be impossible. Not surprising, but extremely saddening to say the least, to think he wasn’t even going to spend his last few hours even slightly comfortable. By chance, however, while shifting around some more, he just so happened to see the door to his cell…
And how it was sitting wide open.
He blinked several times, trying to make sure his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him, but no matter how much he strained his eyes, the open door in front of him didn’t shift.
Yet, something felt… off. Was this a trap? It had to be… this was Vector he was dealing with. Probably a way to hasten his execution even further, by catching him while trying to escape and having the guards kill him on the spot.
But for some reason, Yuma couldn’t help but poke his head out.
After all, what else was he to do? No matter how obvious, for someone who was waiting for death to come not two seconds, this was far too tempting to pass up…
But surprisingly… the coast was clear, no guards standing near. And even if some were hiding in a dark corner… the whole place seemed to be far too silent for that. Not even the nearest torch was letting out any sort of ambient noise. And come to think of it…
The flame looked eerily still.
… it’s as if the whole world had come to a stop…
So, with nothing else to do, and with his heart threatening to break his rib cage… Yuma takes a step out of the cell. And then another, and another, through the cold, unfamiliar hallways…
He should run, Yuma knew. He should try to find a supply cart to hide away in, or at the very least, attempt to make it to the outside… but his feet took him a different way.
No, instead, once again back up those spiraling stairs, closer to that room he was stuck in before. The room… the room with another one right next to it. One that Vector surely was sleeping in, his heart knew…
How did he know that? Well… he just did.
Gods, this had to be a dream after all…
He should stop, turn and run while he still can. This was a trap, it just had to be. Vector somehow knew that Yuma would do this instead of fleeing… yet, his hand reached for the door, and carefully pushed it open.
As expected, he’s greeted with far more splendor than he’d been witness to thus far. Nothing compared to the normal world, but, you know, at least there was actual furniture in here, even some curtains by the large window. A single candle lit the room, right next to Vector’s bed. There was clearly someone sleeping there, and there was no guess as to who.
Again, his inner Kaito and Shark were screaming at him to run (while Astral knew better and was rolling his eyes), he was at risk for even stepping foot in there. But still, he walked closer… closer… until he could see Vector’s sleeping form.
A strange feeling then took hold of him, as he found himself unable to look away, even for a second…
It was odd. He was so peaceful looking like this. A jarring difference from the enraged prince who sent him off to be killed earlier... or the one he met back at those ruins with Black Mist. Most of all…
From the boy who utterly betrayed Yuma’s trust not that long ago.
With a sigh, Yuma climbed on to Vector’s bed, sitting next to where his head lay. Come to think of it…
This had been the reason Yuma’s sleep had been so poisoned lately, even before… whatever he was going on here.
He was unable to accept that Sargasso had been the death’s nail for his and Rei’s relationship. That Rei had been just a mountain of lies, and all that there ever was had always been Vector. His friends would call him out on it, but luckily for him, only Astral knew… and what he felt over the matter, was unknown to Yuma. Things felt odd between them since that day too… all thanks to this guy.
He should be angry, he knows.
Yet, for all those horrible things that had happened, Yuma couldn’t help but think back to better times. When he knew Vector as Rei… and when he thought that awkward, clumsy boy was his friend…
Yuma remembered the few time’s Rei had stayed over at his house. The few times he had woken up in the middle of the night, seeing Rei sleeping peacefully underneath his hammock, and the weird feeling he’d get after looking at him, thinking about how sweet he looked when he was sleeping, regardless of how much the other could get on his nerves during the day.
Yuma was never sure what those feelings were, and now he knew he would probably never have a chance to figure that out. But that was probably a good thing, as Vector would have probably used it against him too…
Come to think of it… he wonders if the way he used to closely observe Rei back then, was in any way similar to the way Vector looked at him while blowing smoke in his face…
Why was he taken to a room so near the King’s bedroom, instead of immediately being thrown into the dungeons anyway? At first he had thought it was because Vector had been playing at not recognizing him…
… but now…
Sighing, Yuma looked down at Vector again, hoping to relive that pleasant memory instead of getting deeper into difficult thought… just to see Vector’s eyes wide open, staring right at him.
Immediately, he tenses up, but the other seems unfazed. “So, you somehow escaped…” Vector said flatly. He didn’t seem angry, but the way he talked still sent shivers down Yuma’s spine. He could never guess what Vector’s intentions were, after all, even as the other yawned and rubbed his eyes. “You really are a strange one…”
Yuma moved away due to fear, which made him fall off the bed. “I-I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to do anything! Promise!” he pleaded, hoping to everything that was holy that this wasn’t his final moments.
But Vector merely looked over the edge, casually resting his chin on his hand as he looked down at him, and not… doing anything else. It was like Yuma was in a deep pit, looking back at him, hoping he’d help him up and out of this place. “Do you think you’d get to be so close to me without my permission?” he asked with a raised brow.
At that… Yuma didn’t know what to do.
But it wasn’t due to fear, it was because…
Just as he suddenly found himself literally falling to this world, he suddenly found himself unable to move. It was like Yuma was stuck in a sinking sand pit. His body wouldn’t let him move an inch, not even to let out a reply. All he could do was stare at Vector and breathe out of sync, while Vector patiently stared back…
The distance between them felt like miles, even though he could reach out and pull Yuma by the hair if he wished. And yet…
Time… ran out.
He knew what this had all been about yet.
And as he does that… he’s only able to regain enough control to do one last thing. “I’m sorry… Rei…” a whisper slipped from his mouth before things went black.
---
Phecda’s eyes flew open. Daylight flooded his room, almost hurting him. For a moment, he was completely and utterly lost, but he quickly regained his senses, shaked his head, and lifted his covers before quickly jumping out of bed, and inspecting every corner of his room.
But nothing. Not even a sign of what he was sure he had last seen before… before…
He fell asleep again?
Just what had happened after he woke up in the middle of the night?
That boy…. Yuma. There was something odd about him. Not just from his strange clothes, the way he acted, and the weird name he referred to him as, but something else. Something that felt… nostalgic to Phecda
Something that made him want to lock the other up next to him, instead of killing him on the spot.
That even made him second guess his decision to execute him after all… but well, one could always kill a random slave boy with a sack over his head instead of Yuma, and no one would have to know but Phecda, and the very few people who would then make sure he’d never leave that room again…
But, where did he go now? He was in bed with Phecda, and then things went fuzzy. But Phecda just knew he had been there. His dreams never got pleasantly wild, after all.
Phecda also knew that he didn’t kill him, for there wasn’t a single speck of blood to be found. Maybe he escaped? No, there were too many men for him to get by. Then again, he did get into Phecda's room fairly easily, so there were probably some guards that were about to be headless.
However, Yuma was unlikely to know his way around the castle, much less know how to escape. So he had to be here somewhere .
But first, Phecda had to check, just to confirm that he hadn’t dreamt up that late night encounter with him. Yuma might still be locked away in his cell, and that encounter was all just a dream meant to warn him off killing him and forever regret it.
Such rare eyes would be a shame to lose, after all. Better off keep them, as a reminder of all the blood he normally spilled.
So, after getting dressed, Phecda rushed to his dungeons instead of going for breakfast, where he was greeted by one of the watchmen. The man respectfully bowed to him, as if nothing was wrong, which he had to admit, set off something in him.
But best to not get too ahead of himself; Phecda crossed his arms in response to the show of respect, making sure he had the attention of the other guards too. “Bring me to the cell where you’re holding that strange boy.” he demanded. He watched the guards' faces, knowing that if his Yuma had escaped, they would most certainly start panicking.
But instead, they just gave Phecda a confused look. “What boy are you talking about, your highness?” one of them dared to ask.
“You know, the boy in the strange clothes that fell from the ceiling yesterday.” he replied waving his hand and getting irritated that he even had to explain himself.
That only seems to make them even more confused, staring at each other before another one approaches him. “Sir, there’s no one like that down here.” The guard pulled out a ledger and handed it to him
Phecda takes, annoyed beyond belief… only to then furrow his brow. Indeed, Yuma’s name wasn’t on it. Phecda tossed it back at the guard and shoved past him, not believing it. Clearly, he was lying to cover up that Yuma had gotten out!
How dare they!
Phecda inspected each and every cell he passed. The ones with someone in them, he didn’t give more than a second thought, since none of them were Yuma, and as for the empty ones, it was clear no one had been in them recently.
Getting to the end of the hall, Phecda set a hand on the wall, out of breath and completely baffled. No sign of Yuma. That strange boy with the blood red eyes…
Had that really been just a long, strange dream? But that couldn’t be…
It couldn’t possibly be… Yuma… he…
There was something about him, something about him that Phecda couldn’t figure out. That sweet face he had made when he thought Phecda had been sleeping. What had Yuma been thinking about, to make him seem so calm around Phecda?
And those eyes… they were just so…
Tantalizing .
A twisted grin appeared on his face. “Oh, Yuma… I don’t know where you went, but I will find you again.” Phecda started to cackle. “I’ll make that sweet face of yours twist in pain…!”
‘And then.’ he added only to himself. ‘ I’ll make sure you never flee from me ever again.’