There was no time for mourning.

They didn't have enough time to comprehend what just happened before Nyla was shouting at them.

"Snap out of it! We need to get out of here!" Layana blinked out of her trance and so did the others. "The work is not done yet, we have to get out still."

And before they knew it, they were running. Again. It didn't make any sense to Layana anymore. All she heard and all she felt was her heart thumping in her ears, and the hole forming in her heart.

She could feel the rustle of leaves. It spooked her. The steady trembling. The hair-raising prickling sound. The whipping open of a gate.

Her vision clouded with tears, her companions, mere moving shadows in the black backdrop in front of her.

She could feel a hand clasped tightly around her wrists, guiding her so she do not stumble on the things stabbing her bare feet. She didn't know who it was. She didn't even know if she cared anymore.

She focused on her breathing, her legs going autopilot, her feet numbing from the rough, prickly things. The corners of her eyes were all blurred to her, she could see nothing. Nothing but exhaustion.

The dark moving shadows conjured together, permitting her to see only black.

Now Layana couldn't hear anything anymore. Anything but her heart's beating. She felt it, it thumped faster and faster on her ears. She unconsciously put her hand--the one no one was holding--over her ears in a failed attempt to rub away the thumping and the ringing in her ears.

She could feel herself staggering in exhaustion, mind numbed, vision a blur of all the shades of dark.

Until she could feel nothing at all. Nothing but the firm hand on her right wrist. It guided her. She never saw who it was. Nor did she care in finding out. All she knew was it comforted her. Even in the dark.

A hand shook her shoulder. Her exhausted trance shattered like the metal door in their cell. She shook her head slowly as she tried taking the picture out of her mind.

"Hey," she could barely hear a voice over the thumping of her heart. Neither can she see their face except an outline of more darkness. "Hey!"

"Hm?" Layana tried sounding nonchalant, trying to sound fine.

"You're exhausted," the soft yet raspy voice said, becoming clearer now, but there was still no face to accompany the voice with. Layana was too exhausted to open her eyes. Briefly, she wondered where the others were.

The ground poked at her arms and back, it stung ever so slightly. But Layana was too numb to notice. She let herself sink deeper into the pebbled ground, focusing instead on calming her heart. It has significantly quieted down now, thankfully.

She heard the woman's voice coaxing her to calm down, rubbing her arm. Only now, Layana recognized the voice. It was the woman that slipped the note inside their cell. Oh, I still have to read the note, she thought, mind a jumble of things and heart still knowing the past. She couldn't accept the present yet, for now, she just needed rest.

She couldn't think straight anymore, darkness, Ian, Sally. Words repeated inside her head until only one thing remained.

It wasn't a thought. It was a feeling.

A burning feeling not only in her heart, but also around her wrists. She could still barely feel the person's hand around them. Holding unto thin threads of consciousness and sanity, she held one thought in her mind, one, soft thank you. For the hand that guided her. 

A toxic taste settled under her tongue, a bitterness for her own cursed hand. 

"Help me!"

~~~

Nyla held compassion for the children. She sighed, observing the four as she held out bowls for each one of them.

Layana, as the girl with pale, olive toned skin introduced herself, was sitting under a tree. Her almost obsidian eyes stared straight forward, as if lost in thought, one hand was caressing a leaf she plucked from beside.

Nyla stopped, urging the bowl to her face slightly. She knew she should be careful with these children, they've been trapped and caged deep underground for so long. They're bound to be overwhelmed by everything, what's more, put a friend's death on top of that.

"You should still eat, you know," she said softly, though her raspy voice wasn't suited for sweet talking, her tone was friendly enough for Layana. She blinked, as if retreating back to reality, and stared wordlessly at Nyla.

She raised the bowl to her level and placed it beside her. "Eat before the food gets cold," she said before starting to stand up. She stopped mid crouch, a bony hand fiercely grasping her wrist.

Nyla looked down to find Layana clutching on to her for dear life, obsidian eyes though dark, were filled with a sparkle as the sun hit it in just the right angle.

"What...is this?" Her voice was small and sickly, her other bony hand rising to the sun. A single, green leaf sat between her fingers, and it grew translucent in the light of the sun. Layana gasped, the birth of a wide smile in her face. Suddenly, all the dark in her eyes retreated to wherever it came from, instead welcomed a lively sparkle.

"Leaf, that's called a leaf," Nyla answered courteously, not daring to snatch her arm away from the poor child.

"Leaf," her smile widened. She looked back up at Nyla, whose face softened at her next words, "It's nice to meet you, Nyla."

"It's nice to meet you too."

A gust of wind blew past the two, and leaves rattled in their branches, flowing a couple few to the ground. Nyla slowly broke free from her grasp as she dropped the leaf to her palm and picked up the wooden bowl. A small smile formed in the woman's face.

She cautiously approached the next person, a girl, it seems. She didn't know her name yet, the girl had been silent since the moment she woke up. She was just as skinny as Layana, if not more. Her ragged short black hair, though not as matted as Layana's, was slicked with grease and shone under the sun. It contrasted wildly with her pale face, almost as white as a ghost's. Nyla had a feeling she wouldn't like being babied, there was a certain roughness in her pained, though stoic, expression. It reminded her of a certain someone.

"What's your name?" 

The girl looked up, dead brown eyes staring deep into her soul. Nyla nearly shivered, her brown eyes were deep set and colored hazel under the bright sun, accented by her high cheekbones and shallow cheeks, an effect of the malnutrition these children suffered from. 

"Andriette," after a moment's silence, she finally said. "You must be Nyla Reed."

Her statement shocked Nyla, though she refrained from asking further. Andriette had a calm and collected way of speaking, her words cold, none like Layana's. Though grim, Layana's tone carried a somewhat sense of warmth.

"Uh...yes," Nyla cleared her throat and handed her a bowl of soup, "you should eat."

Andriette received the bowl without hesitation, though she stopped once her hands touched its rim. Nyla observed the way her own, nourished and calloused dark fingers clashed with Andriette's bony, pale ones. Her bones protruded and bent, skin taut against them. 

The contrast woke a poet in her heart, though she's learnt more than once to not pity someone for their situation, her face still crumbled to sadness.

But it wasn't long, Andriette's frail fingers snatched the bowl from her, a fire in her eyes.

Nyla briefly wondered what to say, but this child both scared her and amazed her at the same time. She nodded in goodbye and moved to the last.

This one had matted blond hair. The trail of dried tears etched in his grease-streaked face betrayed his smile when Nyla stepped in his line of vision.

"I suppose that's for me now," he said politely and with a soft look in his eyes. Nyla couldn't help but stop in her place, she wondered how these children were treated back there, and where was Cathy? Though after a brief moment of thought, she dismissed the idea of her being alive. Her father's message hadn't been so sure about the old woman. Who knows? She might've died way before she even received his letter.

Pushing the bowl to the young boy's eager hands, the corners of her smile raised just a little. "What's your name?"

"My name is Mason," he said, nodding ever so subtly before diving in the soup. He sighed heartily after a big sip, there's a certain look of relief in his face.

Nyla stepped back and smiled widely at the sad troop of friends. Her smile was misplaced among the stiff atmosphere, but she'll try her best to be as dependable as she can. She can't flop this time. "Okay everyone, once you're all finished with your food, we will get you cleaned up as soon as possible."