A question I hadn't dared to ask until now, out of fear—fear that she might say yes.
But for several seconds, all I got was silence, a silence that only increased my anxiety.
She turned her head with a sigh, taking the children's bodies into her arms.
"Can you help me hold the girl?"
A request I couldn't refuse; I simply followed him, holding the lifeless body of that girl.
"I didn't kill them, but I'm to blame for their deaths."
It was a belated answer that only raised more questions for me.
"Explain yourself clearly; we don't know how long we'll be traveling together—trust must prevail."
—sigh—
"Okay, I haven't been here long; there must be about three days' difference between you and me.
When I appeared in my cell, I was just as lost as you are. I was hunting with my tribe, and out of nowhere I found myself inside four walls. The last thing I remember is catching a glimpse of a black silhouette in the distance."
"The man in black—you saw him too."
"Yes, and it was chilling. He didn't give off any scent; he was almost invisible to me."
At that moment, I realized something. I remembered the last thing I heard before closing my eyes then.
"You were chosen as a candidate,"
I whispered.
"What?"
"That's the last thing he told me before I closed my eyes."
"A candidate for what?"
I sighed, showing my mental exhaustion from that long day.
"I have no idea."
Once again, a silence interrupted their conversation for a few seconds.
"Although I was alone here at first, when I left my cell I could hear the voices of children in the cells next door. They were as lost as I was, and we decided to gather in the same cell to share our sorrows, but those warm nights lasted no longer than the setting of the sun at dusk and the awakening of the roosters' crowing."
We left the cell, the children in our arms.
He was heading toward what remained of the meat he had been devouring.
"It was all his fault."
In those words, you could feel his anger, even though he didn't show his face.
"He appeared in an eccentric way."
He showed what was nothing more than a passageway—or so I thought, until I noticed the rubble on the ground.
"He burst through the wall, and with a smile, said he was here to save us, to lead us to a better place…"
…
"Oh!!, there are children"
He had a sword at his waist and was quite tall.
His charisma was such that it wasn't hard for him to deceive the children,
but he couldn't deceive me.
"Hello, kids, I've come to rescue you."
"Yesss, we'll finally be able to get out, Kaelen."
She was already very frail, though I was sure that guy was lying about being here to save us—it was better than dying, or so I thought.
"Kaelen, help!"
At that moment, I realized it was too late; that man reeked of blood—he was far too dangerous.
I didn't hesitate, leaping at him like a beast. Since he was holding one of the boys, I just had to slip into his blind spot, ripping off his right side and grabbing his liver.
"Gah, wha… what the hell? What's an anthropomorph doing here?"
I don't know how to describe what he did next; he began to absorb the vitality of the boy he was choking.
I acted fast, running toward him again, but he didn't let himself get hurt a second time.
He lunged at the boy, trying to thrust his sword through the boy and use him as a shield, but thankfully, since he was seriously wounded, I managed by some miracle to deflect the blow by tanking it—it pierced my lung.
"Damn monster."
Those were his last words before he collapsed to the ground from blood loss, leaving a pool of blood behind. The children were watching that man bleed out; they were terrified.
"It's all over now. He won't scare you anymore. Let's go back inside."
I was bleeding out too, but they'd already been through and seen enough. I wanted to reassure them before I left, so we all slept together one last time. But when I opened my eyes again, everyone was dead.
My punctured left lung had healed. I tried to wake them up, over and over. What had happened?
At that moment, I remembered what that man was doing, refuting that idea… I had killed them indirectly. To explain it exactly: just like that man who was absorbing the vitality of one of the children to heal his wound, the malice within me activated instinctively upon sensing death approaching, and it absorbed the life of these three children who were sleeping on top of me.
—Oberon was in shock; that revelation left him pensive—
"I was able to survive by eating that man's remains, but I still feel bad. I won't lie—even though we slept together for two nights, they were still strangers to me. But at least I want to give them graves outside of this place."
"That explains why you didn't want me to get close to you."
"No, nothing like that. I just don't like you."