Rick awoke with a startle. Dreams of far-away lands snatched away like sand in a bottle, lands of nostalgia. Eyes opening, opening to see darkness melting with sparse light coming down from a darkened wall. Mouth dry, throat a desert, head throbbing like seconds on a clock, pain like hail in a storm smattering away at his entire body. He groaned painfully, stiffly, soundless and voiceless. Trying to lean over, over into a better position, a position less painful. Stopped by the sound of clinking metal and something straining against his wrists.

Letting a second tick by in pain, he slowly glanced back to see the annoyance. Seeing chains of metal mended together and stuck to the wall. Rick looked at it, stared at it. Stared for far longer than normal, his situation not being normal. His mind in disarray like fog on a cold day. The fog slowly clearing, mind remembering details, bringing him back to reality. He swiftly turned around, searching the little room, quickly seeing Abigail sitting by the opposite wall, her eyes drilled into him. Rick slumped down in relief, his head resting against the ground, making the world slanted in his eyes. He looked at her like that; Abigail looking back at him.

She sat with her knees stretching up to her mouth, hiding behind them as she watched Rick. Her hair flowing down her back, over her shoulders and down her face. Her hair slightly parted by her forehead, a lump visible like a demon’s nub sticking out. Red and purple, slightly swollen. Rick narrowed his eyes at the sight, anger rising to surface like slowly boiled water. He continued glancing around, seeing the flicker of light dripping from a wall above, casting shades over Abigail’s sitting body. There were no other lights.

Rick looked over at the stairway, empty and dark, looking like the opened maw of a monster. Stretching up and away. The room was small, no larger than a few steps, probably two lengths of Rick. Rick looked back at the little girl, his view slanted like before, world crooked.

He then slowly, ever so slowly, pointed at his own forehead, then at Abigail. The move awkward as the chains didn’t let him move his hand all the way. Abigail watched, her face hidden behind knees and hair, hard to decipher. She didn’t move nor speak as Rick gestured, making it hard for Rick to tell if she understood his unasked question or not. He tried two more times, each time doing it just a little different from the last. Each one not garnering any reaction or any movement from the girl.

Breathing out in disappointment, and slight worry, Rick moved to sit up. The move ending with him grunting soundlessly at the heavy and painful labour. Pushing with all his might, pain like shooting stars, like frost on a cold winter day. But he persevered. He continued to push. He’d been through worse, not even that long ago. So he managed to sit up, the chains hanging down his shoulders down towards his hands. Itchy and quite bothersome. He turned back to look at the girl, seeing her head slightly slanted upwards, indicating that she had followed his slow progression to a sitting posture. Rick tried again to gesture about her forehead. Still no response.

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Leaning back onto the wall, he looked up. Staring up at the dark ceiling, murky and damp, filled with spider webs. Rick was collecting his breath, collecting himself. Readying himself for what is to come next. He might have been through worse, but that didn’t make this pleasant.

With a last steadying breath, Rick started standing up. Very slowly, leaning heavily against the wall. Grunts of soundless effort seeping out through clenched teeth. Eyes closed. It took effort, plenty of effort. But he managed to stand. Breathing like a man after just running a marathon, after just swimming miles. Leaned back, he turned to look down. Seeing Abigail looking up at him, her knees not big enough to hide behind now. Her hair forcefully slung behind her head. Exposing swollen red eyes, puffy cheeks and a mouth drooping with her brows raised painfully.

Rick took a step forward, a second step. Chains rattling painfully, forcing him to stop. Being just out of reach from Abigail. He glanced back in annoyance, pulling at them, then taking a small step back. Rick then gestured for her to come closer, staring intently at her. She didn’t budge, staring on as if in a trance. Rick gestured firmer, jamming a finger downwards with a smattering of metal. This time, she budged. Her head shaking from side to side as if waking from a trance. Slowly moving up from her sitting posture, chains rattling behind her, locked to her foot.

She stood up quickly, a little too quickly, having to take a staggering step forwards as her vision blackened. Rick managing to catch her, his chains taut in strain. And she grabbed him in turn, grabbing onto his arms by reflex, the two stopping her fall.

But before she could fully collect herself, she got gently pulled towards Rick, Rick going down on one knee, coming face to face with the little girl. The girl blinking away the blackened dots in her vision. And as the dots disappeared, she found his face awfully close, and felt her breath stolen away in sudden panic. Rick seeing it, put a gentle hand on her shoulder, still grabbed firmly but gentle as a cat holding their young. Abigail quickly calming, head tilting down, looking up whilst hidden behind eyelashes.

Rick kept his hand on her shoulder, both for stability and comfort. He next took his other hand and placed it on her forehead. Seeing the girl shrug back, expressing pain and discomfort. Rick ignored it and kept his hand on it, feeling the swollen part. Feeling it warm and tender, nothing dangerous, nothing too warm. He breathed out, then looked down on her face, searching it.

Taking the hand placed on her forehead and moving it down to her cheek. He gently lifted her face, making her face him eye to eye. There, he stared quizzically at her, searching her sun colored eyes, her golden eyes. Her iris widening as he scanned her face, and she his. And Rick felt a weight fall away from his heart, for her eyes were okay. The girl hadn’t been broken in her head.

He then used the same hand to wipe away dirt and grime from her face, pushing her hair back as he lazily scanned it. Her hair oily and a little slick, blood and dirt presumably mixed together. The thought of blood making him remember a certain wound, a wound on his stomach. Looking down, he saw a splotch of red sticking out from his thick clothes. Abigail having followed his eyes, seeing his wound, breathing growing ragged and uneven at the sight. Rick noticing, wrapping her in a big hug. A hug that did little to quell the girls shivers, the silent room echoing out from held back tears.

Then the sound of a door opening brought the two back to reality. And they stared towards the dark stairway, waiting for their fate.