Manhunt

Chapter 41

"I'm hungry."

"Your food should be here soon."

"But I want it now."

"Julia, I think you can wait a little bit longer." Zane sighed from outside of her cell, sitting on a chair directly in front of the locked door. Her body rested on the cot, her fingers brushing the dusty ground as she swiped them across. She stared at the disassembled, wooden pieces that had originally been a chair until Zane threw it at a wall, utterly destroying it.

"I haven't eaten since this morning!" She cried, her eyes narrowed at him now. "It's probably late afternoon, early evening, and I still haven't eaten a single meal. I'm starving. Feed me."

"You know, Samil wanted to starve you at first, but he decided he didn't care enough to." Zane muttered to her, rolling his eyes. "You do things at his pace, Julia. Even if that means missing meals. You have it a lot better than some people we've dealt with before."

She stared at him; her voice clogged up in her throat.

"Samil has brought multiple people here already, huh." She said to herself quietly, biting her lip and shaking her head. "What did he do to them?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to." Julia remained silent, temporarily giving in to his desire of keeping hush about something that she'd rather be attentive of. However, there wasn't much else to do besides oblige with the people imprisoning her.

It was about half an hour later when footsteps were finally heard from the long, dim hallway that led to the stone staircase. A man she'd never seen before appeared once he passed the doorway, the wall lights causing the shadows on his face to angle sharply. One eye was brown while the other was a forest green.

His cold green and brown orbs travelled over the surfaces of the walls and floors until they landed in her cell. Then, he proceeded to casually walk in and hand her a tray of food, which surprisingly looked edible.

"Thank you." Her voice was so small, she wasn't even sure whether she said it or not. But by the slight nod of his head, he confirmed that she had. He immediately left the room, greeting Zane with another bob of his head. The stillness in the air felt like a heavy blanket, stiffening her muscles due to how awkward things had turned out to be.

Julia always thought that she could go on with her life pretending nothing happened between Zane and her, but it suddenly struck her that it wasn't as easy as some people made it out to be. Without a doubt, betrayal had a lot to do with it.

As she said before, though, she couldn't blame him.

Clearing her throat, she dug into her plate of proportionally challenged food. She was still grateful for them to even consider giving her food, since she'd heard about Red's experience of being caught by an enemy once and held in a chamber for a full month, practically starving her. They'd only given her about two or three meals a week, so she had basically lived off water.

She shuddered at the thought of her being treated that way every single time—Red was already so skinny and had an abnormal eating schedule, so Julia could only imagine the impact it had on her health.

Shoveling her spoon into the small bowl of white rice, she savored the heat from it. The cubicle they held her in had a bipolar way of haphazardly changing temperatures. It never stayed in the middle; it was either way too hot, or below freezing. At this time, her upper body was enveloped by her hoodie and leather jacket, the articles of clothing not sufficient enough to provide heat for her shivering form.

Once she quickly consumed the rice, she picked up a fork and broke apart the meat cutlet that sat on a plate with mixed vegetables. Whether the food was truly edible or not, it was hard to say from the hunger that willed her to inhale anything in sight.