Shadow Slave | School Days

Gnawing slowly on his torn finger, Sunny found that he no longer felt anything. Before, his sense of pain had been immensely dulled but still present in the direst of situations like his fight with Mordret. But now, he found that no form of pain affected his heart.

He had tried stabbing himself, tried several forms of self harm only in an attempt to force his mind to register pain once more. But it never came. Staring at the ceiling, Sunny could only call his name continuously like he was calling the name of a stranger.

Sunny meant strength. Sunny meant perseverance. Whoever Sunny was needed to save him and fast.

Soon enough, an explosion rang out throughout the building, Sunny showed no visible reaction towards it, continuing his staring at the ceiling, it too having a mirror. He was forced to stare at his bloodied, starved form as the sound of footsteps approaching his room grew louder.

In a moment, one of the chains surrounding his neck slackened, then another, soon enough the seven chains that held his neck tightly, extending infinitely out of the room and out of sight. Sunny wasn't quite sure why he hadn't wanted to break them, but he followed along with the desire loyally.

Morgan's door flung open roughly as three women came into view. He recognised their faces, Silent Stalker, Beast Master and Moonveil. Each of the three women surrounded his cage with varying expressions across their faces as Sunny continued to stare at the ceiling.

"So, this is Lost from Light? Gosh, Morgan's been starving him." A voice rang out, he didn't know who it belonged to and quite frankly didn't care. A hum of approval came from another woman as she cut open the steel bars of his cage. Bluish silver hair came into view as Sunny's eyes narrowed.

"And he's entirely unresponsive, I doubt they've broken his mind, but it's definitely fractured. We don't have much time before Morgan returns, let's go." She grabbed Sunny gently by the arms and lifted him to his feet meeting no resistance, dragging him out of the room briskly, a memory arrived in Sunny's mind.

A black-haired woman, handing him a golden knife with a bloody smile on her face. Revel. She had known Sunny and likely known him too. Whoever she was, Sunny could sense she was important. A part of his mind would never allow him to abandon the gift she gave him.

"Where... where are my knives?" Sunny's hoarse voice escaped his lips, grabbing Eubin's attention as she stared at him with a mournful expression. "I have them, you can't be trusted to not kill us once you get them." To prove her honesty, she flashed him two diamond plated knives and one gold plated one.

A small smile was all that escaped his lips as Sunny stared at Eubin with an emotion that faintly resembled gratefulness as he slipped into unconsciousness. The next time he woke up he was in the streets of a distant city which he faintly recognised, he was surrounded by a group of women who all looked at him with varying levels of curiosity.

"Lost from Light...Sunless. Will you work for us?" Ki Song's overwhelming presence swathed through the room as she arrived, crouching next to Sunny's gaunt form as he looked into her eyes with an empty expression. Sunny looked at her with a blank expression, unable to properly trace the word Sunless back to himself.

"Who...am...I?" Was all he muttered out in response, unable to conjure up a truthful reply as he himself was entirely unsure. The ethereal woman before him smiled, and although Sunny couldn't particularly tell if it was genuine, the sight of another face was always welcoming after three weeks alone.

"If you work with us, you'll find out, Sunless."

--

Nephis shot to her feet, rushing out of her house and the colosseum with Cassie in tow as they blitzed into the nearest vehicle. She wasn't sure how cars were fit into the underworld, but such things didn't particularly concern her in the mood she was in.

Slamming the engine on, the car roared to life and began lumbering forward at blinding speeds as Nephis shot down the empty hallways. To say that Nephis was the worst driver would be an understatement, she was barely managing to stay on track using the several YouTube videos she had seen.

And yet, she moved forward. Caution was a second thought as she spun the corner, Cassie screaming in excitement laced with fear as she drove. Cassie had been sent the message by an anonymous source, only telling of where Sunny had once been held and requesting, they pick up a few people who were trapped there.

Despite the dubious nature of the information, Cassie was sure neither she nor Nephis particularly cared. Any lead was valuable and being overly cautious could cause her vital pieces of information which could be vital in saving Sunny's life.

Soon enough, a figure remained in the hallway stopping their path. They wore a sword at their waist and sat calmly, eyes intently focused on the vehicle in front of them as it rapidly approached. "Neph! What are you going to do about them!?" The look in Nephis eyes made it clear.

She was going to run them over.

At least, that was the thought she had in mind before the entire car was cut into two pieces. Not even giving the car time to explode, each individual half was sliced into harmless pieces as the figure sheathed his sword and grabbed Cassie and Nephis out the air.

Noctis' eyes came into view as he stared down at the two women, a grimace on his face as he met eyes with Nephis. Hostility boiled within her soul as her hand flashed towards his face landing a punch squarely on his jaw, in the next moment a kick came, and tens of thousands more as Noctis remained still.

Nephis didn't know exactly how much time had passed before Noctis voice finally broke her from her violent stupor. "Do you want to go see what happened to Sunny or do you still have anger to lash out at me?" He commented calmly, catching her fist easily as Nephis shrugged him off her.

"Take me where I need to go fiend, or I will kill you." She growled, shoving Noctis forward as he led them towards the ruins of where Sunny had once been held. 'Neph got so angry she didn't even notice none of her attacks hurt him.' Cassie thought mildly as they soon walked into a row of eight rooms.

Each door had been pried open, the silent mutters of people ringing out in the background as Nephis bolted towards the doors. Behind one of them, her mouth fell open as she gazed upon Jet's dark blue hair. She was entirely healthy, in fact, she looked more well fed than usual as she stared idly at the television seated in her room.

Within her room was a bomb that had been carefully disarmed, it was attached to a collar that appeared to have once been tied around her neck and was now dropped to the floor. Upon noticing the sight of Nephis, Jet's mouth hung open in shock as she bolted towards Nephis and wrapped her in a hug.

"Nephis, you're alive! You disappeared for so long and I was starting to think you died!" Nephis didn't respond, returning her hug gently before quickly sifting through the rest of the rooms. Several children and adults lingered in the room smiling contently as they were slowly freed by Noctis.

"They said they'd treat us kindly. Something about how it'd hurt Lost from Light more if he robbed us of more peace." Upon hearing that, Nephis felt a pit in her stomach continuously grow as she pushed into the last and most heavily armoured room in the building.

It was like a maze, entirely filled with mirrors as Nephis noted the broken steel cage they had kept Sunny in. Blood lingered across the entire room, some heavily focused on the bed and others in the cage, the sight of it was so immense almost forced Nephis to throw up on the spot at the implication.

'Not again, not to Sunny.' She thought to herself, the smell of blood wafting into her nose as she glanced down at the pieces of broken glass with blood lingering at its edges. Picking it up, she took a moment to inspect it as she came to another harrowing conclusion.

'It's either Morgan's been stabbing him, or he's been hurting himself. Or both. But why the mirrors?' Noctis' voice pulled her from her thoughts as Nephis looked at the man with disdain. "From what I've heard and partially seen. Morgan was intent on the idea that he couldn't return to a normal life and wanted him to accept it. When he didn't, she stabbed him through the palms, shot him through the palms and slammed his head into the mirrors."

Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes as he stared at a broken mirror before letting out a shallow sigh. "The mirrors are meant for him to realise who he really is. A murder. Supposedly his mental health deteriorated so much he forgot who he really was and kept calling out names in his sleep and while awake. Yours included."

Nephis raised her hand, indicating she didn't want to hear any more of what the scum in front of her had to say as she turned to him with a large from on her face. It took every ounce of her being not to throw herself into a fight she couldn't win by engaging the swordsman in a fight to the death, fortunately for her, she had priorities.

"Don't speak, just tell me where Morgan recorded what happened here." Following her command to the letter, Noctis simply handed her a phone with thirty videos within it. Making his way towards the door and turning to the group of people who were all waiting silently outside.

"I'll be taking them to the colosseum. I assume that's where you want them to be." Nephis didn't reply, she had already sat down on the bed and began playing the videos with an expression of silent horror on her face.

What she saw sickened her.