His Luna (&Team Universe)

Ep 7.5

Daerim had stayed with the Cagres boy for half a day and the more time she spent with him, the more doubts she had against him. She couldn't name it clearly, but he wasn't scared of death by a vampire or someone who accepted their fate and waited for their turn like everyone else. He was rather cheerful and hopeful. She wasn't sure, but she sensed the boy had many opportunities to run away before, yet he chose to stay in his cage. 

'To do what? Why did he stay?'

The question didn't leave Daerim's mind. She knew it was too early to judge him, but Daerim's intuitions were almost always right. If she thought something was off, there always had been something fishy going on. Daerim couldn't decide what to trust; her instincts or her thoughts were saying two opposite things. 

"Hey, what are you thinking this deeply?"

"I don't know as well, I guess. I was thinking about being outside in general."

Cagres smiled halfheartedly before responding.

"Ah yeah, you are one of those escapers... I should have known better."

Daerim was alarmed by Cagres' tone which was sort of disappointed. 

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't mean anything in particular. I.."

Cagres took a deep breath, as if what he was going to say was hard for him as well.

"I have been here for a long time. I don't know how long..."

He chuckled in between his words, which felt like he was losing his last part of sanity inside to Daerim and therefore filled her with guilt against the guy he was suspicious of.

"But I have seen many. Many who tried to escape... Maybe a little too many. None of them made it."

Cagres had a stern face while saying his last word, sending chills to Daerim's spine. 

"None."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because all of them became food for those guardians who left their dead bodies in the middle of this room for us to see."

These vampires were brutal, they were merciless and Daerim hated that she couldn't do anything against them. Because her first priority was to stay alive for something bigger than her. 

Cagres kept quiet after explaining Daerim what had happened before she came to the feeding room, as the vampires called it. His first days were hard, seeing too many dead bodies for days which eventually lead him to accept his fate. He was trying not to lose his mind and tried to come to terms that he was going to die there, there was no way out. Well, until the appearance of Daerim.

"I am sorry."

"Don't be."

Daerim felt so bad about what Cagres went through, but her instincts were still telling her something was wrong. Cagres could not be trusted for some reason, but Daerim could not pinpoint it. The more time she spent with him, the more sense he was making, but her inner voice was too suspicious of Cagres. 

"By the way, I think they will bring in the new catches in tomorrow morning."

"How do you know?"

"They always do, after that lady comes and says that there is not enough food for the first vampire left."

Daerim just nodded. She was about to ask why the first vampire didn't go out and hunt for himself, but she knew the answer quite well herself. Because he had to be inside, searching for her...