You Will Be Fed

April 3rd--April 7th

Yonah awoke to a searing pain in his side and a pounding headache. His eyes fluttered open and he found himself laying on a cot in a dimly lit room with rough stone walls and a bare stone floor. A dull beam of light filtered down from a small rectangular window about eight feet off the floor. The window was barred. Slowly, Yonah propped himself up on his elbows and his eyes watered from the stinging, throbbing ache in his side. He flopped back down on the cot breathing hard and his hands slid down his naked, sweat slicked torso searching for the source of the pain. He felt a thick square of gauze taped to his ribs about two inches below his right pec. As his fingers touched it, the pain flared and he gnashed his teeth, trying to breathe.

Yonah reached up to push his long, dark hair out of his face but suddenly stopped. He looked at his right wrist then raised his left and found that it also was bound by a shiny metal band attached to a long chain which disappeared into the wall several feet behind him.

"What?" he whispered, incredulously and he sat straight up despite the pain. He began scrabbling frantically at the cuffs and yanking at the chains, but it was no use. He clambered unsteadily to his feet and was just stumbling over to where the chain met the wall when the door opened with a loud clank. He froze, squinting against the sudden light and a voice said, "Hey! Whoa! You shouldn't be standing yet." As the door shut and the light dimmed, Yonah saw a young woman in a plain white tunic approaching with a tray of medical supplies.

Yonah pinned himself against the wall and exclaimed, "Who are you? Where am I? What the hell is going on?" The woman set the tray down on a nearby table and raised her hands saying, "I will tell you if you sit."

"I'm not sitting until you tell me!" Yonah shouted then winced, clutching at the wound in his side. He could feel blood seeping through the bandage. The woman looked at him and with obvious fear on her face said, "Please, let me tend to your wound. I'll be punished if you die." Yonah blinked at her before warily approaching the cot and sitting back down.

The woman let out a relieved breath and said, "He calls me Red Bird."

"He?" Yonah wondered and the woman met his gaze clarifying, "The Hunter." Yonah stared at her, a foggy vision of a man all in black. Searing pain. The familiar stink of aconite.

"He brought me here," Yonah said and Red Bird nodded, gently peeling the surgical tape and gauze from his skin. He clenched his jaw and asked, "Why?" Red Bird shrugged and muttered, "He probably thought you would be an interesting addition to his collection. Can you lay down?"

Yonah slowly laid back and Red Bird discarded the bloody gauze before grabbing a new piece which she sprayed with sterile saline solution and used to wipe the blood from the irritated flesh surrounding the wound. Yonah clenched his fists and tried to breathe through the pain as he asked, "What do you mean by collection?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Red Bird replied, skillfully removing the stitches he had popped and flushing the wound with more saline before threading a new needle and getting to work. Yonah's toes curled, his entire body thrumming from the pain and as she worked, Red Bird said, "He is a Hunter in the truest sense. And he likes to keep trophies. Sometimes living ones."

"And what exactly does he do with these trophies?" Yonah asked through gritted teeth. Red Bird briefly met his gaze before looking away. She finished dressing his wound and stood saying, "I've brought you fresh water." She gestured at a gallon jug of spring water, "It should help flush the aconite from your system. And an anti-inflammatory for the pain." She set a bottle of ibuprofen next to the water.

"If you have to relieve yourself, the toilet is there." She pointed behind him at a sad little prison toilet jacked directly into the wall. Then she gathered the medical supplies and started towards the door saying, "I'll come check on you tomorrow. Hopefully your wound will have healed enough for me to remove the stitches."