The screams and howls echoing off the walls made her ears ring.

Her heart was pounding so hard against her ribcage her chest physically hurt.

Her body ached all over and her eyes stung in the cold, squinting uselessly to try and see her way.

She tiptoed halfheartedly through the tunnel, skin prickling with the feel of unseen eyes on her, watching her little light flicker weakly in her lantern. She wanted to hold it close; she wanted to cradle it to her chest and curl up on the ground, give in to her injured body's demands and just go to sleep.

She was scared, hurt; she couldn't keep this up.

But the flame kept burning bright in the inky blackness, so she kept trudging forward, toward the dark, toward the screeching, toward – hopefully – the way out.

If something so small could stay alive in this hellhole, why couldn't she?


A/N: Behold, something for my second fave. She is precious; she deserves love. Protect her.
~Persephone