"Mmm…"
The sound slips out of you, groggy and dazed.
Your eyelids flutter as you wake into dimness. The walls around you are grey and rough, the texture of old stone kissed with damp.
Everything is cold—your skin, the air, the memory of why your head feels like it's stuffed with cotton.
You reach up instinctively and wince. Sticky warmth coats your fingers. Blood—just a few globs. Enough to spark alarm, but the pain isn't sharp. Just a bruise.
With a slow, steady breath, you stand from the creaky chair where you'd been slumped while asleep. The room is small and unfamiliar. Dust lingers in the corners, and a faint breeze trails from somewhere behind the stones.
A shimmer breaks the dark.
Golden eyes.
Trida.
You flinch. "Trida!" The word flies out before you can think.
"Calm down," she whispers. Her voice catches you off guard—soft, slow, almost... comforting. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Also, shush. My brother doesn't know about this place. I made sure of that."
Your pulse skips. "What?" The word falls out uncertain, your trust frayed.
She steps forward, white fur gleaming faintly under the low light. Her expression is unreadable—neither dangerous nor friendly. Just… real.
"I'll tell you something important," she says quickly. "We don't have much time."
You nod slightly, eyes narrowing, unsure but willing to listen.
Trida's voice tightens. "My brother's lying. I never said I wanted to eat people. That's not me. It's him. He made me do it. I didn't have a choice."
Your breath catches. The words feel impossible. And yet… they make a certain broken sense.
She sits across from you, tail curling beside her leg, glowing eyes softer now.
"I was just a pup," she says. "But he was older. More trusted. When our father disappeared, he changed. He said people were to blame. That they were dangerous. He needed proof. And he used me to get it."
The walls feel closer now. Her words stick in the air like smoke, too thick to ignore.
"I don't want to be what he says I am," she adds.
You look into her eyes.
And see something that shouldn't exist in a predator.
Fear.