No matter how much his insides were eating him from the inside out, Lucian couldn't die. He was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, but he couldn't die. And it was all thanks to Voice, the entity that had made its home inside his head.
Lucian couldn't just leave Seline here to rot, not after what she did for him. She was loyal.
He scooped sand with both hands in an attempt to dig a hole. His hands burned, but nothing could compare to the hunger and thirst he felt.
'At least don't let her go to waste,' Voice continued with its persuasion.
Lucian was getting dizzy as the sky spun above him. When the hole was wide and deep enough, he dragged his dog and laid her down to rest. Then, he covered her with the same sand he had removed.
'You are wasting a good meal,' Voice insisted. 'You are being stupid. You won't satiate your hunger with sand. Eat it!'
'No, I will starve and you will starve with me,' Lucian spat as he covered the dog's head with sand. 'And then I'll never have to hear you again.'
The voice must have felt the hunger, too. The headache was enough proof of that.
Blinking his eyes, he noticed that his hands began to move on their own, unburying his companion.
'No!' Lucian fought against Voice, forcing his body to stop, but his hand was still moving, his fingers clawing at the sand to reveal Seline's body. "No, no, no! Stop!"
'Hunger is taking over your body,' Voice said. 'You don't have any more willpower, any more control over your actions. Your survival instincts are taking over. You can't fight them. It's a natural reaction.'
'NO!!!'
His fingers stopped digging, but what happened next shocked Lucian.
Seline's eyes opened, and her body moved. In a matter of seconds, she was standing up.
Lucian crawled backward, but Seline followed. She growled, baring her teeth, and then she lunged at him.
He fell on his back, his dog's teeth sinking into his arm. He screamed, trying to push Seline away as her golden eyes glared at him.
She chewed on his arm as if he were her next meal. Lucian was so weak he could barely fight back.
And then, he realized. 'You're controlling her. Get out of her! Leave her alone!'
Lucian's vision was blurry, but the pain was not. He could feel Seline's teeth biting into his skin and tearing off pieces of flesh. She was eating him alive. Lucian grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at her eyes.
She didn't flinch. Of course, she didn't. She was a shackled doll, a slave to her desires. He didn't know animals could become shackled, too.
'You should have listened to me and eaten her.'
"You could have attacked and eaten me if you wanted way earlier, right? Seline?" Lucian tried to reason with his companion, "You can hear me, right? Stop! You can fight Voice's control. You are stronger than this."
The dog shook her head and then jumped at Lucian, her paws on his chest. Her jaw opened, and her teeth were aimed at his neck.
Lucian didn't move. He remained on the ground, his arms open. He wouldn't fight her. If he had to die, he would rather have been eaten by his companion than be killed by the desert.
But what she did was completely unexpected. She didn't eat him, nor did she tear his throat apart. Instead, she bit her own flesh and tried to feed him with it.
'No, no, no!' Lucian shook his head, pushing her away. Seline growled, and then she was on him again, tearing a piece of her flesh with her teeth and then putting it inside Lucian's mouth. "Mmpf! Stop! Don't do this to yourself!"
'See? She wants you to survive,' Voice said. 'It's her last wish. Honor her death by surviving.'
"I don't want to live like this!" Lucian shouted.
But the choice wasn't his. Seline was a determined girl, like the girl he had fallen in love with.
Seline tore more flesh, but Lucian couldn't fight her. He had no strength left. The more he tried to reject her offering, the more she forced him to eat. In a matter of minutes, she was reduced to bones and blood.
Lucian couldn't stop crying at the sight of her remains.
She had sacrificed herself for him, and now he was all alone.
Again.
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With his dog's sacrifice, Lucian managed to gather some strength, and he continued his journey. He didn't know where to go. He didn't know where the path was or how to get back to town.
He just kept walking, one step after the other, until he finally found a village with houses made of mud.
Lucian collapsed in front of one of the houses and closed his eyes.
A life of a beggar soon began, with his hand scooped forward as he pleaded to the people passing by for food.
They never gave him anything, chasing him out of their way. Some even spat on him.
His gaze was hollow and unfocused. He was not familiar with the southern dialect. It was different from what Voice had taught him.
'I thought you knew the language,' Lucian had said.
'I do,' Voice had replied, 'It's just different from what I remember.'
The people here weren't kind, not even to their own kin.
Lucian had seen how they treated their children, their elderly, and their sick. They were cruel, and he wondered how long it would take before they started to treat him in the same way.
He needed to go back and then return, pay back for how they treated him, but he didn't have the strength or the means to do so.
Not yet.