Carrion Dawn

[DotCom]

What did they do to you?
For the first time in two weeks, Mal laughed. It was a quiet, hoarse sound, and there was no real mirth in it. But the guards hadn't seen the girl so much as smile since they'd brought her in. Two pairs of eyes drifted slowly to the newcomer, the man who'd come to 'visit' the inmate, the man they'd pulled her from on the ship she'd been living in.

No one said anything. The glance remained only a second, then returned to a blank stare. Mal never saw a thing. But something had happened.

"To me?" Mal said, and she might have sounded incredulous if she'd put any energy into speaking at all. "You want to know what they did to me, Foka? They didn't do anything to me." It wasn't entirely true, but that was beside the point. Mal was hungry and tired and frustrated and scared. Why had he come here? Why had he walked right into their hands? Why hadn't he run, like she'd told him?

"Did they tell you I almost killed a girl? Twice. I might have -- I would have -- if they hadn't stopped me. I...I hurt people, Foka. Again and again and again. And they kept me on here, because something is wrong. This place is bad, I can tell, I know it -- "

Both guards surged forward together. One laid a heavy hand on her shoulder. She flinched.

"Calm down."

She ignored him, searching Foka's face, desperate for something she couldn't name.

"You have to leave here," she insisted. "Without me. GO. Now. Before it's too late." She didn't know what too late meant. She didn't want to find out.

 

[Gulliver]

She was telling him to go,to leave without her, and Foka was seeing something in her face. He didn't know what to call it. He didn't know if it was anger or desperation, but there was something there. There was something there that... That he couldn't leave behind. Perhaps a few months ago, he would have, but not now, not with the way he felt for her.

"I am not leaving you," he said, his voice carrying a sense of finality to it. His eyes were cold, especially when he glanced to either side of Mal, silently threatening the guards who touched her. He knew he was being ridiculous, but... For the moment, it was inexplicable. "Not until somevon explains..."

 

[DotCom]

She was shaking her head almost before he finished speaking.

"It won't matter, Foka," she said, and this time, she wouldn't look at him. Couldn't look at him. He was already in danger for having come here at all. If she couldn't save him, she didn't want to face him as she betrayed him again.

"I'm...going to die here," she said finally. It was only half true, but it was what he needed to hear. He needed to get over the idea that he loved her, over the idea that she existed at all. The things she had seen in the prison, nightmare or not, were dark and cold. And someone had to take away the news of this place.

"You can't save me. You -- " One of the prison guards cuffed her. It was a gentle enough move, poorly covered by an attempt to holster his side arm. But Mal was tired all the time now and when she managed to face Foka again, her head was spinning. She murmured something unintelligible and slumped to one side, dizzy. The other guard righted her and hauled her to her feet.

"I think the visit is just about over," he proclaimed coolly. "The inmate is clearly exhausted."