"The little bugger was smarter than we thought, ran away as soon as you screamed." Sienna scoffed, rolling her eyes. Nikolai was so much more than a 'bugger' or simply 'smarter' more accurately would be a monster.

A giant terrifying little adorable monster.

She didn't know how she knew, but he was safe, it was one thing to know when he was in trouble an entirely different one to know when he was safe. "How long will you keep me?" Sienna asked, trying to sober up, however becoming more nervous than she intended to sound—she sounds weak and small, a child waking from a nightmare looking for comfort.

Comfort, the thing that helps us all sleep at night.

Sienna thought, knowing after all this she wouldn't sleep—couldn't sleep, once she got out, once she found Nikolai. Then she would rest.

Mal straightened up to their feet, yawned and said easily as if talking about the weather.

"Welcome to the gang, Sienna—if that is your real name."

"Is Mal even yours?"

Mal—or whoever grinned broader, bowing their head akin to a curtsy—a very, very bad curtsy, "Why of course it is." They brought two fingers over their heart and crossed it. "You have my word."

Of course, the word of a thief meant nothing.

"One last question." Sienna asked, flushing thinking it must have been a dream. "Did you do that, that—thing with the shadows?"

Mal grinned cockly and simply touched their neck, showing a pendant—purple swirling with something inside, a small gemstone in the middle of it. Suddenly the night became cold, shadows and silhouettes formed into arms and limbs trying to pull at her, she tried burrowing in her cloak, closing her eyes until she couldn't feel their presence anymore, after a moment she opened one singular eye.

Mal was no longer there.

She was all alone.

Somehow that was even more terrifying.

She waited a few minutes to see if they would come back, they didn't, Sienna painstakingly began gripping around the wooden stack her hands were wrapped around, she eventually cut her hand open by a sharp rusted nail—the first thing she did was silently curse to herself, then began to rub the rope back and forth over the nail, it began to slowly dig into the coil—scraping her skin too. She bit her tongue feeling the metallic tang of blood in her mouth, her head feeling fuzzy from the texture. She grabbed her neck hearing something, she forced her brain into calming down to listen, straining her ears for any sound of Nikolai, the sound made her blood run cold. It was singing.

“Oh miss miracle maker, make the day warm and put hot coals in cots, just let us go one another day, to live happily ever after!
Oh miss miracle maker, make the sun sinking lower and set us out, we'll sing to the moon and drink in the dark as the monsters go a-bumping!'
Oh miss miracle maker, we'll kill the witch and eat her cat, if to fling her in the ditch, to see the sun once again”

Sienna felt bile rise up to her throat and had to swallow it back down, she felt the rope on her wrist loosen them fall, hearing the crunch of leaves as it hit the ground. She rubbed her wrist from where the burn marks wrapped around her hands still squirming with her hands locked around the tree, breathing slowly staring blankly up at the sky, seeing the sun sink into the horizon, making the sky a bright orange, a smear of purple clouds covered dotted around like bruises after a bad tumble. The sky to the north subsided with smoke from the morning fires.

She slowly stretched her arms and legs, continuing the illusion of being uncomfortable and trapped, slowly standing up, backing away never not facing the shadows of the fire. She couldn't see anyone, trees covering their bodies and faces. Still hearing the laughter echo from the trees like shrill screams, she didn't turn as she let her back lean on a tree for support.

It was not a tree.

And as she felt lungs breath and a heartbeat pulse she leapt away, making a noise in-between a snarl and a yelp. She couldn't...