Empty Shells (reader insert)

Chapter 4

It's been two days since these people, no, these wraith have taken you prisoner. They've been more careful. In the van your hands are always tied up and Clare or Hank always sit with you. In the houses you stay at, you're put in a room with the windows and doors locked. Clare and Hank try talking and getting you to engage in conversation but you don't respond. In fact, you stay in a shell shock state the whole time. The image of the man dying in front of you still fresh in your mind. You can't sleep, you don't even notice that you're hungry all the time since the last time you ate was the porridge with Vulpes.

Vulpes. You've been gone for almost three days and you still hadn't heard anything from the fox. It was strange. One time when you were 8 you had tried to fit in with some kids in your class by doing a dare. You had to spend a night in a forest by yourself, but at around midnight you had chickened out and gotten scared. That's when Vulpes came and scolded you. You had snuck out without telling her, but when you needed her, she came. She always came to drive away your fears with her strict lecturing and fun food loving.

You really miss her, but you also know that you can't call out to her. If she comes and the wraith find her, she could die. You wouldn't let that happen. If there was one thing you could do against these monsters, it's keeping them from getting to Vulpes. You knew that even if you died, Vulpes could still train another humans. If you both died, she couldn't continue her duty.

You look around the room you're in right know. It's got white walls and a small bed on one side. There's a bedside table and a small window. The windows locked, but even if you could open it you're on the third floor. You would have to climb down somehow. Maybe you could break the window and use your jacket as protection against the glass. After that, you could climb onto the roof and try to find a way down on another side. But you would need to be quick. Once the sound of the window breaking catches their attention, the dark man or one of the older couple's will come and check to see what it is.

And what if you do get away? They'll chase after you cause they need you for some reason that you still don't know. And if you do get away, they've shown that they'll do anything include killing to get you back.

So, here you are sitting with your back against the wall under the window across from the door. You hold your head in your hands and rock back and forth with your eyes open and staring in front of you. Your eyes aren't focused on anything particular, just open and looking. If you close them you see the man's face. But keeping them open doesn't solve anything either since your fatigue has lead to you seeing things. To your eyes, you're in that parking lot watching the man getting his soul sucked out my Marel, and in your mind, you're blaming yourself for letting it happen. If you hadn't ran to the store, if you had ran faster, if you had stopped the man when he was in your apartment and hadn't chased him.

The sound of the door opening breaks your thoughts and you squint looking up. Since you haven't had anything to eat, your sight has started to diminish. It seemed like the effects of not eating were happening too fast for you but you decided to put that on the back burner since the situation had much more pressing matters now at hand.
Wow, now you can't even concentrate on what you're thinking.

"(Fn)?" You hear a small voice say. It sounds like Mimi but you're not sure. "(Fn)? It's Mimi. Are you ok? You look funny." Your vision somehow clears a little and Mimi's standing in front of you. She's wearing a flower summer dress with tights and a skin coloured long sleeved shirt under the dress. She has white gloves on both her hands and her fingers are laced to together in worry. When your eyes focus on the girl she smiles, her short brown hair shifting as she tilts her head. "How are you?"

As a response your stomach growls. Mimi starts giggling and sits beside you on the ground careful not to touch you. "Clare told me that humans' make that noise when they're hungry. When was the last time you ate?"