Dominic's voice lowered, roughened by time.
"I thought… if one of us could escape and bring help, maybe we'd all survive. I thought I could do it."
Ava's breath stilled.
He looked up at her, grief shadowing his dark eyes.
"So I ran."
His voice cracked.
"But I was caught before I even made it down the corridor."
---
Flashback – Memory Flow
Two men had dragged the ten-year-old Dominic up the stairs by his collar. He remembered the scraping of metal boots, the chill of concrete underfoot. They took him to a room on the top floor not just a room, but a place where escapees were thrown like broken toys.
It was darker there. Quieter. The kids looked hollow-eyed, skeletal, as if something inside them had already left.
As he was thrown to the ground, bruising his ribs, he caught sight of her.
It was You.
"You were there," he said, voice barely above a whisper.
"You looked like you were eight, maybe nine. Dressed in a pink and white frilly party gown, like you'd been taken straight from a celebration. You were unconscious… being carried by a huge, broad-shouldered man with a scar across his chin."
His jaw clenched.
"They led you to another room. Not ours. Somewhere deeper. Separate."
---
Back to Dominic
"I didn't see you again for two days. Those two days, Ava… they were hell. I had no food, barely water. My hands were bound behind me most of the time."
His voice trembled slightly.
"All I wanted was to see my brother."
"I begged. Pleaded. The guards ignored me. But one of them....maybe out of pity, maybe just to shut me up....finally dragged me down to where he was kept."
He took a deep breath.
"I found Kelvin curled up in a metal bed, shaking. His ankle still untreated. Swollen. Bleeding. His skin was hot, feverish. He wasn't talking anymore."
Ava was frozen, her mind connecting pieces she didn't even know were missing.
"I panicked. I knelt by the bed, tears soaking the floor. I prayed. Like a fool, I cried out to a God I didn't even know I believed in.
And that's when I heard it .....your voice."
---
Flashback
"Let's bring his fever down first," a small voice had said.
He turned.
You stood there. Alive. Awake. Barefoot, still wearing the same pink-and-white party dress, torn and muddied. But your eyes....those bright, determined blue eyes shone like fire in that darkness.
Your steps were shaky, but your resolve was solid.
You didn't wait for permission. You looked around the room, spotted an empty bowl and a half-full bottle of water.
You knelt beside me.
"Pour it in here," you said, calmly.
You then tore a piece from the hem of your own dress...cotton lace, soft, absorbent.
"This will do," you muttered.
Dominic watched, awestruck, as you placed a strip on Kelvin's burning forehead, and then carefully cleaned his bloodied foot.
But the blood wouldn't stop.
You bit your lip, glanced toward the guard at the door...and marched up to him.
"Mister Uncle!" you called in a loud, scolding tone.
"If the big brother dies because of his blood loss, you'll be responsible. You'll be blamed. And I'll scream. Loud. Louder than you can stop me."
The man blinked, stunned.
Your expression was fiery. Fearless.
The guard panicked. Shouted down the corridor. Within minutes, the white-coated doctor stormed in.
"What the hell have you idiots been doing?" the doctor barked. "They are no use to us if they are dead!"
Dominic's eyes were wide as he remembered.
The doctor treated Kelvin's foot.
The guards were fired.
And for the first time since the nightmare began… the children were given food.
---
The night was strangely silent.
No metal clinks, no wails, no footfalls echoing through the cold white halls.
Just the gentle hum of the small overhead light that buzzed like a fly refusing to die.
Dominic sat quietly beside his brother's cot, his fingers tangled tightly together, his eyes never straying from Kelvin's pale face. Kelvin had been given basic treatment bandaged foot, fever meds, and water but still hadn't fully regained consciousness. His body was simply too tired, too beaten, and too starved.
The doctor had long gone, leaving behind the odd scent of antiseptic and the reminder that these children were only worth keeping alive for as long as they were "useful."
Dominic shifted on the hard chair, his elbows resting on his knees. Then his eyes drifted to the small, metal-frame bed next to them.
Your bed.
You were sitting on it, cross-legged, watching him.
The two of them hadn't spoken since the bandages had been applied.
He swallowed, took a quiet breath, and said, "Thank you."
You blinked, as if surprised, and then tilted your head toward me.
"You're welcome," you said softly, your voice sweet and even and maybe little melancholy. "That's what my mother does… whenever I get sick."
You smiled.
But then, as if something cracked in that moment, your smile faltered. Your lashes lowered. Your tiny shoulders stiffened.
Your eyes shimmered with tears but you didn't let a single one fall.
You simply inhaled deeply, trying to be brave again, and then slowly rose from your cot.
Dominic watched in silence as you padded barefoot across the cold floor. You didn't flinch at the chill. You sat down beside Kelvin's bed gently, your thin fingers resting on the metal frame.
"How did you get caught in this?" you asked, looking at the older boy's sleeping face.
Dominic hesitated for a moment. Then he spoke, voice quiet shakingly.
"We snuck out."
You turned to him.
"My brother promised to take me out just once," Dominic explained. "To do something normal… like go to the amusement park."
You listened without interrupting.
"We didn't tell anyone. Our grandfather wouldn't have allowed it. He runs the family… he has all these rules."
A faint frown formed on your little face as if the word rules made your stomach twist.
"I begged for an ice cream," Dominic said, a bitter smile ghosting his lips. "I pestered him until he gave in. I remember laughing because he brought me my favorite mango with vanilla swirls."
He paused.
"Then… I felt something cover my face. I blacked out."
Your gaze dropped, eyes flickering with sympathy and growing understanding.
"When I woke up, I was tied to a bed. My brother was beside me… bleeding. They hadn't touched me yet. I think they were observing us first."
You nodded slowly, your fingers fidgeting with a loose string on the blanket.
"That's how they caught me too," you said, your voice lower than before. "I had gone to some uncle's son party. There was a garden filled with pink lilies."
Dominic's breath caught.
Lilies.
That scent still clung to you, even now.
"I went to the restroom. I never came back."
The silence between the two of you grew heavier.
Dominic looked at her wrists faint red marks still etched around them. The oversized sleeves of your ruined dress didn't cover everything. Your knees were scraped too. Your ankles bruised.
You were just a child.
But you were sitting here like someone who had seen the world end three times over.
"I was scared," he admitted suddenly.
She looked up at him.
"In that room… before you came… I thought my brother....That Kelvin would die. That we'd both be forgotten."
You shifted on the bed and leaned slightly toward him.
"Do you still feel scared?" you asked gently.
Dominic didn't answer right away.
But eventually… he nodded.
A faint smile curved her lips.
"Me too."
You didn't say it to scare him. You said it to be honest.
But then you added, "But I think… it's okay to be scared, as long as we're not alone."
Dominic turned toward her. For a long moment, he didn't speak.
But he didn't need to.
That night, something unspoken was born between both...not yet love, not yet fate… but a bond forged in blood, fear, and a rare flicker of light that somehow managed to find its way into the darkness.