I licked my cracked lips and tried to calm myself, slowly realizing that the water had granted me a short respite from the constant pain, and I was grateful for it.
She'd brought a lantern with her. The fire flicked inside the glass, casting shadows on the dark hole I was kept prisoner inside.
I noticed a metal bowl in her hands, and she lifted it so that I could see it.
"I've brought you something to eat," she said softly.
Maybe she was an angel, and this was all just a hallucination.
Maybe none of this was real and she was just a figment of my imagination. Perhaps I was already dead.
I'd forgotten my hunger, but when the sound of the spoon scraped against the edge of the bowl, it returned with a furious intensity that felt like it was going to tear me in two.
I cried out and doubled over, suffering noisily until the pain finally receded.
