Kai ran.
Not the sluggish stumble he'd grown used to in the pit, but a real run—knees high, feet slapping wet stone, lungs burning with effort, not infection. Above him, a shaft of daylight split the ceiling, fractured and golden, wide enough to climb. The pit had cracked open. Somehow, it had given up.
He didn't question it.
His hands found ledges, stones, even the rusted ladder he'd stopped believing in. He climbed like a rat on fire, hunger forgotten, pain irrelevant. Even the blackened tongs-shaped burn across his chest didn't slow him. He could smell the sky—crisp, wind-kissed, alive. Something he hadn't realized he'd forgotten. The stench of blood and mildew faded behind him.
Then came the light.
Real sunlight. Not the torchlight Admin dangled like a sick joke. It soaked into his skin, warm and blinding. He squinted as the world above revealed itself—trees, a broken road, birds overhead. Freedom. He collapsed to his knees, digging his fingers into the dirt, letting it crumble in his fists like treasure. Someone shouted his name.
"Malakai!"
He turned.
Neo was there. The real one' clean and whole. Neo's cloak was off, eyes bright with relief. , black hair bouncing as he sprinted forward.
"You did it," Neo said, voice thick with disbelief and pride. "You really made it."
Kai laughed. Full-bodied. Sobbing. He reached for them—and the ground beneath him opened like a trapdoor.
He screamed as he fell backwards, dirt turning to ash in his hands, trees melting into smoke. The ladder snapped into thorns, coiling around his legs. The light went red. Then black.
He landed back in the pit.
Same smell. Same rot. Same corpse beside him, grinning with moss between its teeth.
A drip of water hit his forehead.
Kai didn't scream. He just lay there, eyes wide in the dark, as reality folded in on itself.
--
He didn't move for a long time.
Didn't cry, didn't scream, didn't even breathe too deeply. The silence pressed against him like a second skin. His fingers curled instinctively into the dirt—searching, hoping the texture might still be soft, free, real.
It wasn't. It was pit-dirt. Moldy, coarse, soaked with piss and blood. Same as always.
He had felt it. The dream. He had tasted escape. The wind had kissed his face. Neo had called his name like it meant something. had run toward him like a brother. His stomach still trembled with the echo of joy. That was the worst part. His body didn't know it was a lie yet. His soul did.
He didn't know why he keeps thinking about Neo
Perhaps it was the way he was treated. Friendly. It was foreign, strange.
He rolled over onto his side and stared at the corpse. Its eyes were gone now—eaten or stolen. Maybe by rats. Maybe by him.
"I saw them," Kai whispered. "They were real. I know it."
But even he didn't believe it.
A laugh scraped out of him, brittle and hollow. His chest burned with each pulse of infection, ribs sharp like broken teeth. The wound from the tongs was crusted over, but the fever behind it simmered steady. Not boiling, not breaking. Just there.
Just like the dream.
"I almost made it," he said, softer this time. "I almost got out."
He pushed himself up, one arm at a time. His nails dug into the wall as he sat up, eyes unfocused.
"No more sleeping," he muttered. "No more dreams."
And just like that, Sovereign pinged a system update in his skull.
He ignored it.
-
In the corner, half-buried in soot and stone, Flicker stirred—no longer a speck, but the vague outline of a shovel-pick hybrid, its shape whispering usefulness in Kai's fractured thoughts.
---
The meal had been dropped hours ago.
A moldy sandwich. Bruised fruit the color of a fading bruise. A canteen of water, cracked but not empty. Admin had tossed it down with a bored grunt, not even bothering with the usual insult.
Kai stared at the food for a long time.
He didn't want to eat it. Didn't want to admit what he was becoming.
But hunger was louder than pride. Louder than fear. Louder than the echoes of a dream where apples were crisp and bread was warm.
He bit into the sandwich. The bread crumbled like wet paper. The meat—if it was meat—tasted like death. But it stayed down. Barely.
The fruit followed. Mushy. Sweet and sour in the worst way. But there was a pit in it, and that pit was real. Kai bit around it like it mattered.
Finally, he sipped the water. Not from the puddle this time. Real water. Metallic, yes—but not rusted. He drank it slowly, letting it wet his cracked lips, then his tongue, then his throat.
He didn't cry.
He didn't thank anyone.
He chewed, swallowed, and stared ahead with eyes that weren't really seeing.
"Thanks for the feast," he muttered to the corpse beside him. "Next time, maybe send wine."