"Ah..." he let out a weak laugh. But there was no humor in it. Just despair trying to escape through another outlet.
...
"Seriously?" he asked, the laugh fading from his face. His expression now was of pure, defenseless exhaustion.
She didn't answer. Just returned to her chair, like someone coming back from a light, refreshing break. The sound of drops dripping from him echoed on the floor, a melancholic soundtrack as the ship continued to sway gently in the dark blue of the planet outside.
He stayed there. Soaked.
And, once again, alone.
He felt his mental fortitude dissipating, his inclination to resist draining away. Nunes was uncertain how much longer he could persevere. The solitude, the psychological agony, her apathy... all of it seemed to be consuming what was left of his spirit.
It was as simple as those good old driving school questions that teach you empathy for others, for drivers, pedestrians, animals, victims…
And her…?
As time advanced and nightfall approached, the demons in his mind seemed to intensify. He experienced the suffocating burden of exhaustion, a weariness that seemed to take over his entire being. His ability to feel and move his chained hands no longer existed, and his legs were numb from the long period he had spent there, motionless. Every scream for her, every call he made, became more desperate, more imbued with a deep, sincere desire for freedom.
"Ma'am..." Nunes murmured, his heavy head resting against the cold wall. "Why?" His voice was even hoarser and more depressed, a thin thread of sound.
...
"Hey... I'm talking to you..." He closed his eyes, tired, exhaustion draining his voice and his soul. "I-I..."
…
"Kill me."
Those two words cut the air like a sharp blade. This caught her attention. The girl took her face away from the screen and looked at him, her eyes wide with an almost macabre surprise at what the Officer had said.
"Kill me, please, ma'am." He opened his eyes, staring at her, his eyelids reddened and his eyes teary, his voice broken by pain.
...
"I... I'm tired. You took everything I had in my life."
She got up from the chair, walked over to him, and rested both hands on her knees. She stared at him with a crooked smile under her balaclava, as if seeing a begging child, amused by his misery.
"Kill me... I... I... you took me away from my grandma..." Nunes sobbed, tears cascading down his face.
"Aww... How cute! I took you away from your nana, did I?" She tilted her head, a condescending tone in her voice that made him feel like the most insignificant thing in the universe.
Nunes nodded. This was unbelievable. He felt like a child, utterly humiliated.
She then ripped off her balaclava with a quick tug and looked at him with a sadistic, psychopathic smile, her face, once hidden, now exposed in all its cruel beauty. The girl seemed to have stepped right off a generic Nightcore album cover, an ethereal and cold beauty, incongruous with the malice emanating from her.
But at that moment... it wasn't time to notice that.
"Man... I'm LOVING seeing you like this..."
"Wh-why?" Nunes asked, crying like a child, his voice choked with pain and confusion. "I-I… I'm Brazilian, just like you! We should protect each other…"
"A worm like you, a human scum who calls himself a cop like you, who kills innocent people every day and fucks up everyone's lives, you deserve to suffer!" she said slowly, with a cruel intensity in every word, the syllables dripping venom.
"N-no... please... don't say that..." He squeezed his eyes shut, begging her to believe him. "I swear, I... I've never killed anyone. It's only been three months since I became a cop. I swear that... that I've never hurt anyone, ma'am, please, believe me!"
"You're giving me exactly what I want." She maintained her smile, unperturbed. "Seeing you like this is just... incredible. Seriously."
"PLEASE, I WANT TO LEAVE!" He tried to scream, but only a slightly louder, hoarse, and painful voice came out, ending in a dry cough.
She laughed, as she heard him cough.
But... Something had changed in her smile. It faltered for less than half a second, an almost imperceptible tremor in her lips before reestablishing itself.
"Hey... stop that, dude, I'm not being that hard on you." She narrowed her eyes, her voice sounding a little different, more restrained.
"Please..." He looked at her, exhausted, his eyes pleading. "I'm begging you, from the bottom of my heart, please, please, please... please untie me, I'm begging you, asking for the love of God, get me out of here, ma'am, PLEASE!!!" Tears streamed down his face, as he writhed in agony and despair, his screams echoing in the room.
She just laughed, but the sound was forced, almost unconvincing, and she was visibly uncomfortable being next to him, her body stiffening slightly.
The girl just left him there, going back and sitting in the chair, as if running away from something within herself.
Nunes remained there, crying alone, almost throwing a tantrum, like a small, spoiled child, his body convulsed by uncontrollable sobs—just as her ex-boyfriend did, when Ketlen stabbed his chest multiple times.
The girl looked at the ceiling, reflecting. Her conscience, for the first time, hit her. It hit hard. Had she gone too far?
She glanced at him, her eyes sadder and more uncomfortable than he had ever seen them. Nunes, with his eyes red from crying, all sweaty, cut, coughing dryly, had triggered something in her, a door to memories that should not have been remembered.
"Kill me." Those two words. The way he said them, the surrender, the despair. They echoed in her mind, a ghost from the past she tried to bury.
-----------------☆☆☆☆-----------------
A girl's bedroom, 3:30 AM, hundreds of years ago.
Davi slid the door open with the reverence of someone entering a temple. The air conditioner had turned his sister's bedroom into a freezer; the icy draft prickled the back of his neck.
He avoided glancing at the shadowy hallway before closing the door. His footsteps were nearly silent, yet his hands still trembled with the echo of the recent nightmare.
There she was, fast asleep.
The boy held his breath, feeling a wave of relief just for being in that room. The familiarity of the polka-dot blanket and the outline of his sister were magnetic. It was the safest place in the world.
CRACK!
The sharp sound sliced through the frozen silence.