She had never wept as them beaten her hard, and no more cries even Khover and his men rode her over and over. All her tears had past away, and her eyes were as two dead, murky pools. Tyia huddled up in a corner with her sister. There was much vile as she had never been, dark, dirty, air sour and stink. Her only dress had shattered, and a thin and clammy rag scarcely covered her bruised body as a vain resist against the dread chill.
There was a fire, of course. At the hall far away, even though it was a massive pit of a sewer. In the distance, Tyia could hear the rasp of the spree, Khover and his men took over a firepit, drinking and wagering, and riding women when they smashed. The last spree, Tyia loathed it. Those thugs used up anything found waiting for the doom. And that will be our doom as well. Tyia was able to see the glow as well. Even afar, the flickering fire had offered a vague warm against the cold. She had tired to budge nearer to the firepit with her sister once but got a hard beating and a malicious jeer instead. Tyia heeded something squeak along the cracks in the rock walls, rats, Tyia thought, we born like rats and will die like rats as well, and this very place indeed a rat hole.
As one of the street girls in Khover's gang, Tyia used to have a much better place. She was young, fresh, and subdued enough, making lot coins for her owner. She was called "Khover's whore" once, eating beside with her master even him entertained other gang heads. She had never worried the thugs' offences and assumed a safe place under the gang's drape. However, those days were all gone as a broken delusion at all, for everything had changed with Long Dark's come.
Seger had told her, the Long Dark was a punishment for implacable crimes of very humankind from Lord of Dawn. Seger was just a grown man, stout and shy, with messy auburn hair and auburn eyes, he blushed to avert his eyes from her swelled breasts even on the bed. Seger was a thief and a bit faithful for praying on his work to the weird god. He was a cute man but got killed at the first fortnight after the Long Dark's come. An awful memory Tyia wouldn't recall, his blood and guts burst out from his belly with a deep cut from Khover's knife as cutting off a melon. At that day, everything turned to worse.
Perhaps it's indeed a punishment for our filth. Tyia had never forgotten the panic when she watched the Long Dark coming. That was an ordinary day, at least no one heeded any omen. The sun just extinguished as a candle put out, leaving the sky to the sudden dark. For a moment, everyone paused and looked up to the sky, and Tyia as well. She saw the sun had vanished instead of nothing, neither stars nor anything else, except thick, pure darkness curtained all skies, and its dense shadows mantled anywhere.
Most people had a delusion that the sunrise would return at the beginning of the Long Dark, at least crimson priests told people so. Tyia was in the crowd before the temple, the fire in the altar was much bright and blinding and solitary in the airtight dark. "It's a trial by the Lord," she had remembered the priest's words in a harsh voice, "The sun shall rise again while all our evil has washed out!" Probably our evil doesn't seem to wash out. Tyia watched the madness over the hall with hollowed eyes. Several thugs dragged a ragged girl in insane laughs with the girl's wailing. She knew they would come to her soon.
The real collapse had come at the fifth day. Black snow fell from the sky with dread chill upon anywhere that mantled ten feet high just in several days. People froze into deads for only half an hour which was outdoors. Hidding indoors wasn't safe that the cold slipped in from any gaps or cracks. It was silent, still, and unavoidable. People died might have been cold or starving or both, and the melted snow couldn't be for thirsty that a terrible death to a drink. Once Khover decided to transfer into the depth of the sewer, a lousy feeling rose in Tyia's head. It seemed a slowing death welcomed them when through the dark tunnels. She got tortures with dreams at first days. Now, the all nightmares had come true as everything lost control.
We are here waiting for our doom, as a most insane way. Tyia thought, sometimes she wondered why didn't she finish herself on her own. It happened ever. At that night everything had lost mind, a girl opened her own throat with a stone chip. The horrible image branded in Tyia's head that the sanguine dyed over her neck and breasts and belly and legs. That was Nile. Tyia remembered her name. She had a babyface and long blond hair, and just flowered. With the following days, several girls joined. Their bodies were thrown out as broken sacks. Even men joined in. Tyia had seen Old Mose's body who finished himself with a hemp noose once a day. His body dangled over the upper sewer's hollow and left a long, ghosty shadow. Old Mose was a seasoned lockpicker and kind enough, he had given Tyia and her sister stolen jewels several times.
Perhaps it was Asha, Tyia glanced at her sister. Asha's body slim, bent, and lay on dirty straws and enfolded in a russet rag. She was abed a long time after a hard riding with thugs. Was it two days or three days? Tyia didn't know, the life in the rat hole and the mad spree left her only a living hell. They were not blood sisters but orphans both. Tyia had remembered the first time she met up with Asha who was sold to this gutter that day. She was a young girl, but Tyia could see an infrequent brave in her blue and grey and bright eyes. She is a considerate girl, Tyia thought, and her smile aways like sunshine as well. She even sang for Tyia, that was nearly an only solace. "there is always light even in the darkest night," Tyia sung in a low voice. She remembered the lyric. It was a plump priest that taught her sister.
But this is undoubtedly the darkest night, where is the light? Tyia touched Asha' s forehead with her fingers. It was clammy and still a high heat. Her eyes shut, brows frowned, and breath short. The rag is too thin, Tyia hugged her unconscious sister, managing to warm Asha with her temp. Perhaps the light will come when we die together, that is our fate. Tyia thought in sorrow.
She heard something. Two shadows came close to her clumsily. One was tall and another stout. Tyia felt cold at her spine and her body stiff. Tyia recognised the two guys even in the gloom. Seiler and Huer, once Khover's bludgers and just two half-grown boys. They were polite and even sheepish before the Long Dark, Tyia had never thought the despair made them monsters.
They looked like real monsters. And they smashed. Their face flushed, eyes reddened and hollowed, sour and stink hovered their dirty jackets with stains of wine and spews. "Stand up, whores," Seiler wielded a clay mug, he was the tall one. "it's working time, you lazybones, I will ride you to the hell, whores!" He wiped his long nose, yanking Tyia's shoulder managing to split her and Asha.
"Hey, there is one in sleeping." Huer stretched his filthy and thick hands ripping out Asha's rag as peeling off a rind of an orange. "Wake up, it's not the time for sleeping," he said in a hollowed voice, "there was a lot of time for sleeping when we all got the hell." He said, giving a slap at Asha's face.
"Please, my sister is ill," Tyia yelled, struggling to get out of Seiler's hold, but Seiler's hand grabbed her shoulder as a strong tong. "Please, don't touch her." Tyia cried as Huer gave another slap. A sudden fear choked Tyia's throat. As Huer's slaps, she saw nothing reaction from her sister and her as an unmoved puppet.
Huer paused a while. Then he touched Asha's nose with his clammy hand.
"She is dead." He said in a harsh voice.
That's impossible, Tyia's blood froze in no time. She had breath a moment ago. Tyia swung her arms against Seiler's hand when his hold loosened a moment. Her elbow swatted at Seiler's belly and made his mug shattered on the ground. "You whore!" Seiler fumed and gave Tyia a kick in her stomach that made her slipped over the field. She crept close her sister as fast as she could. She touched Asha's nose and cheek with her shuddering fingers. No more breath and her skin were as cold as ice. Tyia's eyes opened widely. She glared at the bruise on Asha's face and a bit of bloodstain on a corner of her purple lips. Tears were slipping down along her cheeks.
"You scum killed her." Tyia murmured, shivered. At last, she understood why she didn't suicide ever because of her light. The light who brought her only solace and courage for going ahead in the filthy gutter. That light wasn't be anything but Asha, who was the real light. And now, her light had gone.
"You scum killed her." She repeated, shivered. She heeded something around the straw, hard, thick and sharp enough, a large piece of the mug.
She fumbled to snatch the chip while the murderer managed to take her. "You scum killed her!" She thrust the piece at Huer's neck with her full strength.
Tyia hugged Asha's body in the snowfield. All her surrounding was pure, thick, and dense dark. The black snow had halted, leaving a still cold. There was silent enough, the only sound occasional crack. It was the first time over the ground when Tyia had hidden into the rat hole. And this is the last time as well. Tyia thought. At least we die under the sky, rather than getting death beneath the gutter.
Her messy hair and the thin rag on her body had frosted in a short time, and hoarfrost climbed up on Asha's face quickly. They leave me this rag that was not mercy. Tyia heeded a couple of light at the entrance of the sewer. They remain here, for a moment, she understood why the thugs were lingering. They are watching and wagering how long I can live in the snow. It was a cruel game they enjoyed. Tyia snorted, clutching tooths, she had felt nothing of her bared feet that probably were ice already. She took a glance at them, she knew them all, and everyone knew her as well. Anyhow, the thugs over there flushed, mocked, watching her death in stolid.
Tyia fetched a deep breath as it was the last one. She set down in the snow, giving an embrace to her sister. The snow was icy but soft enough. She looked up to the sky. It was dark as ever. For a moment, Tyia wondered what would wend on if there was not the Long Dark? Was anything there would be better? Suddenly, she knew the answer. No. She shook her head.
Tyia gazed the dark sky waiting for her death in silence, but something showed up in her sight. A point of spark appeared from a corner on the sky. It was small, wan, and weak. Her eyes followed its flash, seeing it crossed the sky and left a long and glowing streak. That couldn't be an illusion, what's that? When the spark went to the centre of the sky, Tyia saw it kindled something. A hoar, round, and glowing thing. Instantly, the very darkness covered the sky and this entire world had been wiped off and the long lost day returned.
"The sun, the sun got back!" In stunning, Tyia heard the thug's whoops. At the same time, she listened to another voice. A voice brought her an unexpected hope.
A deep breath was from her sister.
Asha waked up.