As Flake rested on his sleeping mat, he lazily thought about the threadbare, decrepit piece of cloth he pulled over himself, the cloth which was supposed to keep him warm during a frigid night. It was not nearly cold enough in the cell to warrant the use of the blanket, but he was dizzy and, quite frankly, did not like the feeling of being watched. As per usual, he envisioned the room around himself, focusing on key details and painting a picture with what images he could remember, about the blood-stained cobble, the iron bars, the unarmed assassin on the other side of the room…
Flake tried to envision what she looked like, but he heard her shifting around and could not properly play out what the sounds meant. As if to cheat himself, the bounty hunter slowly pried one of his eyes open to see his companion leaning her head against the wall, huddled up in a ball, with her eyes closed. The damaged man grinned at the sight of the woman, not so much due to her appearance, emotion, or circumstance, but due to his own mistake. In his vision, he had seen her with a tear in her eye, but in actuality, her face was dry.
An hour of thought later, Flake peeked over at his companion once again as a reaction to hearing a soft grinding sound. Sure enough, as he peeked open one of his eyes, he saw that she had lost her grip and was gently falling to one side. This time, instead of a smile, Flake frowned. A thought crossed his mind when he saw the lady before him, a memory from the past which he forced himself to disregard. He felt almost angry, his thoughts shifting over to the guards, hearing their mocking, prideful and condescending voices presaged in his mind. He knew that they would patrol to the cell at some point that night, and Flake did not want them to see Raine as she was.
Carefully, slowly, and silently, the bounty hunter pulled the blanket off of his person and stood up on the cobbled stones, taking a full minute to do so in order to avoid rustling sounds. He then snuck over to where Raine peacefully slept and, as he arrived next to her bedding, she flopped down onto the bedding. Chills shot up his spine as he stood there, expecting the assassin to wake up and assault him, but it did not happen. She’s a damn heavy sleeper, he thought, smiling in relief after a minute of suspense. Flake carefully pulled Raine slightly away from the wall, once again taking a long time to do so, then pulled the blanket over her.
As he walked back, he grinned happily, satisfied with himself. He slowly snuck back onto his bedding, pulled the covers back over himself, and returned to his sleeping position. Certainly, he was no assassin. Any assassin would be able to do what Flake did in half the time, but an assassin would surely be able to notice being manipulated while sleeping as well. The bounty hunter imagined that Raine’d be able to manipulate him in his sleep as well if he did not get any that night, so he decided to try his best to get some sleep, ignoring the sound of an unarmored guard making his way down the stairwell.
The hours passed relatively quickly, sleep coming to and fro for Flake as he tossed and turned, barely able to keep his eyes shut. There were too many possible dangers for him to get any proper sleep, so he just attempted to stay still, albeit unsuccessfully. He felt well-rested by the time he heard more footsteps coming down the staircase, much closer to sunrise, but his eyes refuted this feeling adamantly. Despite his efforts to open his eyes only slightly, Flake had to fight to get his left eye to open up for him as the unarmored footsteps approached the cell which he was in.
To his surprise, he recognized the guard which opened the door to the cell. The guard was one of the fellows who arrested him the previous day. Even more surprisingly, the guard did not try anything cruel – he carried two servings of food into the cell, left them on the floor, and left without a word. He even closed and opened the gate quietly, as if he didn’t want to wake the two. Flake took note of the guard’s face to ensure that he would spare him later, then closed his eyes again and tried to sleep a bit longer. He recognized a need for food, however, he wanted to learn about his companion, which would require sacrifices.
After an hour or so, without Flake even noticing footsteps, a door slammed closed with surprising loudness quite nearby. The bounty hunter peeked his eye open to see what happened, but noticed that it was out of his view, so he pretended to sleep once more. He heard Raine complain, a sign that she had awoken, so he peeked his eye open once more to observe her.
He was barely surprised to see that she did nothing of interest. She sat up, looked at the food in the middle of the cell, walked over, and grabbed bread. Flake shut his eyes, deciding that he did not need to give her reason to suspect that he had awoken yet, and waited, attempting to visualize Raine’s movement, having an easier time than he had had the previous night.