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She grimaced, reaching out to lightly touch the edges of the wound. Her fingers barely brushed my skin, but it sent a jolt of electricity through me, making me catch my breath. "You don’t have to pretend.”
"I think you're mistaking acting for plain old stubbornness," I retorted with a half smile, trying to lighten the mood. Her chuckle echoed in the small space, soft and sweet against my ears.
“And that’s probably why we’re alive, Victor.” She meant it, her eyes telling me as much. “Your stubbornness.”
“Anytime, princess,” I said, though I genuinely wasn’t sure why we were alive. I wasn’t sure why I had been taken with her, why I was there with her in the first place, but I was grateful to be. I didn’t know what she would be subjected to if I wasn’t there.
We sat in silence for a while, each lost in our own thoughts. The rhythm of her breathing was soothing, and the cool chill from the stone on my back was a welcome relief from the throbbing pain. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was bearable.
“Do you think you’ll be able to sleep?” she asked me.
"I don't know if I can," I admitted. My mind was still a battleground, thoughts whirring and colliding like shards of glass in a blender. "But I will try."
She gave me a faint smile, a mixture of understanding and sympathy crossing her delicate features. "I can stay awake with you if you want.”
It was very nice of her to offer. "No," I replied, "you need to rest. You’ve been through hell and back."
She looked at me then, her gaze piercing through the dim light in the room. “I could say the same for you, Victor.” Her voice was tender but firm.
“Okay. So neither one of us will be able to sleep. What do you suggest we do?”
She shrugged, a playful glint in her eyes despite our grim surroundings. “We could talk? Get to know each other better? We have time, after all.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You want to play twenty questions in a dungeon?”
“Why not?” she challenged, crossing her arms over her chest. “It might distract us both from this mess we’re in.”
Except this wasn’t just any mess. This was a deadly game of cat and mouse with the most notorious serial killer I’d ever encountered; it wasn’t exactly the ideal setting for getting to know one another.
But as I looked at her, desperate to add some sense of normalcy to the chaos we were in, I realized that she was right. We needed something—anything—to keep our spirits up.
“Okay. But let’s make it interesting. Strip twenty questions.”
She blinked at me, her eyes wide and surprised. "Strip twenty questions... in a dungeon?" Her voice was incredulous, but there was a hint of amusement there.
“Why not?” I shrugged nonchalantly, keeping my expression as stoic as possible. "We've got to pass the time somehow."
"But what if someone comes in?" she asked, biting at her lower lip nervously.
"Then they get a free show," I said with a smirk. Inside, though, I knew the suggestion was absurd. But it was that absurdity that might momentarily distract us from our grim situation. “But we’ll hear someone coming, Sof. This place isn’t exactly quiet.”
A laugh erupted from her then, echoing off the stone walls of our makeshift prison cell. It was sweet and infectious, the sound warming me more than any blanket could have. "Alright," she relented through her laughter. "You start."
I cleared my throat, trying not to dwell too much on what I had just managed to suggest. In this setting, with these stakes? It was madness. But Sofia’s laughter had brought a glimpse of light into the dark dungeon, an echo of humanity that resonated within me.
"Okay," I said, steadying my voice. "What's your favorite book?"
She cocked her head to the side, her eyes taking on a distant quality as she thought. "Hmm. To Kill A Mockingbird, I guess? I read it in high school and it stuck with me."
"And why would that be?" I asked.
"I found it...enlightening." She shrugged, pulling herself closer to me for warmth. I draped an arm around her. “What about you?”
"The Art of War by Sun Tzu," I replied, smiling as her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "And before you ask, I learned strategies and tactics that have kept me alive.”
She smiled. “What’s the stripping element of this game?”
I grinned, "Well, each time someone refuses to answer a question or can't give a satisfying answer, they have to remove an article of clothing. Are you scared, princess?"
