Wednesday has come around again and I’m happy to present this week’s flash fiction.
A crossbeam secured the barrier keeping Trainine in her cell, and when she pressed her forehead against it, the cool metal calmed her headache, at least momentarily.
Watchers waited beyond in the shadows. She knew they watched. Watched and listened. Claiming to care about her fate. Heh.
“This is a tale about cruelty.” Raising her head with the final word, she twisted the word in her mouth. The scowl did little to appease her headache.
A loud sigh sounded. “Ease up, Tranine,” the familiar voice said. Not the deep baritone of Dansen or the light staccato Falese. No, Reenon with her forgettable voice watched now.
“Easily said, Reenon.” Scoffing, Tranine smacked the door barring her path.
“Easy would be letting you out. Then I wouldn’t be the one getting headaches.” Reenon emerged from the shadows and crouched in the meager light from the cell’s single illumination. Too scant to penetrate the darkness they hid in.
“Fah. False comradery.” Tranine scowled. Reenon looked away.
No, Reenon had spoken true. Tranine knew it. Her words had been a lie. Or not hers.
Those words had been them. The presence battering the inside of her skull and the reason the medics kept her within their healing prison. Least they spread to others.
Reenon straightened and retreated into the darkness. Couldn’t have the creature latching onto her while she tried to help from too long exposure.
A tale of cruelty, certainly. Just not the healer’s cruelty. Raising a hand, she wished the creatures gone.
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