The Cave (I)

After a long conversation with Mia, Roman finally opened his eyes. He opened them slowly, eventually finding himself in a dark place where lighting here was only generated from 4 fire torches hung on the walls.

His entire body, except for his head, was wrapped with a thick cloth that was also tied using rope and thus made the boy barely able to make any movement. Roman's mouth was covered with a different cloth, not as thick as the one that wrapped his body but more than enough to make the only things he could do after awakened were breathe and look around him.

"Oh, Silas! He's awake!" A woman said enthusiastically to a young man after a few moments. She also pointed at Roman while saying it, before approaching him later to sit in front of him.

She was previously standing near Roman, behind the guy she called Silas, and leaned on the wall. The woman, who had a big, tall posture and big muscles, turned her head to Roman only to check him out and unexpectedly found him finally woke up.

[Yeah, that's her]

Suddenly, Roman could hear Mia's voice in his mind.

[Huh?] He thought in confusion.

[I recognize her voice. She was the one who talked a lot] Mia explained.

[Woah, so this is how we communicate?] He made sure.

[Yeah] Mia replied curtly.

[Does that mean you can read my mind as well?] The boy asked as the woman in front of him smiled and waved her left hand at him friendly.

[Nope. This section is actually separated from your thoughts. For you, this feels the same as when you have something in your mind, but it's different, and I can't read your mind] the Devil stated.

[Good]

[But I can see your memories, though, if you somehow let me see them]

[Huh?]

[We'll talk about this later. Just focus on them first] Mia ended their conversation there.

"Please don't be scared. We don't have any bad intentions towards you at all but we have to treat you like this anyway, ahahaha. I'm so sorry. Please don't be mad as well," the woman told Roman while scratching her head.

Due to his mouth being covered, Roman obviously couldn't say anything to respond to her words, so he just looked into her eyes before starting to circulate his look again afterwards.

The boy's body leaned on the wall, sat on the ground, and there were only 3 people here, including himself. From what he saw, he assumed that this place was, in fact, a small cave, and instead of looking like a prisoner, the boy somehow looked a lot more like a hostage now.

Roman also noticed that there was a boulder that closed the cave's entry almost entirely, and Silas stood next to the boulder because there was still a tiny gap to watch the situation outside. But Silas himself was looking at Roman at the moment, who was behind him almost on a perfectly straight line.

The muscular woman then turned to Silas, who was basically standing behind her now, "Uh… can I just open his mouth? I-"

"No, you can't," Silas interrupted the woman quickly.

"Oh, come on…" the woman insisted, a little bit whining.

"I don't wanna argue, Willow. Stop acting childish," Silas said as he turned his head to the tiny gap again to look outside.

"Huff," Willow released a heavy breath later. She eventually could only be silent, looking at Roman again, and didn't know what to do while she sat facing him.

[Uh… are you sure they are the bad guys? Because she doesn't look like one] Roman asked Mia in confusion while he and Willow fixated on eye contact awkwardly for a couple of seconds.

[Mind you, I've never said they are some bad guys. I said these people took you somewhere and I don't know what their intention is] the Devil complained about Roman's word choice.

[Hmmm]

[So, do you know how long I've been unconscious? I can't see sunlight from the gap on that giant rock, meaning this is probably night, right?] Roman continued.

[You were fainting all this time and all I could do was hear vaguely through your ears, and now you're hoping I have an idea about how long you've been unconscious?] Mia answered in annoyance.

[Okay… sorry…] Roman apologized in a low voice tone.

'Women,' he thought a moment later.

"Aaah!! This is so boring!! Who cares about danger anyway?!" Willow grumbled, but then she smiled happily as she was about to release Roman's mouth from the cloth.

"Willow!" Silas immediately rebuked Willow after he turned to her and Roman again.

"Just spank my ass as the punishment for breaking the rules, I don't mind," Willow responded calmly with the same happy smile. She didn't care.

Hearing and seeing Willow's response, Silas quickly moved from his place.

"The same ass will crush your skull if you're trying to stop me, though," Willow added only 1 second after Silas moved, making him freeze afterwards.

"Hiiiiiii!!!!" the woman said hi to Roman enthusiastically after that as his mouth was free now. She also said it while putting the back of her palms on both sides of her jaw.

"Ooooo, you're such a pretty baby!!" she complimented Roman so kindly, but somehow it scared the boy.

Gulp.

Roman swallowed his saliva as Willow brought herself closer to him a moment later, which made her look even more huge from Roman's point of view.

"Oh my God!! I can't!! You're so adorable!!! Aaaaa!! What a cutie!!" Willow hugged Roman tightly afterwards with a blush on her face.

Crack.

Not only could Roman not breathe because of Willow's warm hug, but one of his bones also broke for the same reason.

'This woman-' Roman couldn't even say anything more in his mind.

[HAHAHAHAHA, I love this girl] Mia laughed out loud. She enjoyed the unintentional torture that Willow gave Roman.

[This is… not even funny… my bones…]

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

And counting.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I'm Willow Warshafsky, by the way. That guy over there is Silas Kruskal. You can call us Willow and Silas. What's your name?" Willow told Roman after she released him.

Willow pointed at Silas when she mentioned his name, she also turned to him for a second while doing that, and it made her immediately turn to him again.

"Wait, you didn't spank my ass?" she wondered as she realized he was still in his place, looking outside through the gap.

"Which ass? All you have are muscles," Silas replied, kind of angrily.

"Mhm, whatever," Willow concluded, then turning to Roman again.

"I-I'm Roman…" Roman said to her afterwards.

"Roman what?" she made sure about his full name.

"Just Roman… I don't have a surname," the boy answered.

"Ah… I see! I won't mind if you want to use my last name so we can be siblings, though! Then you can call me Big Sister, and I'll call you My Pretty Baby!" Willow suggested.

"O-okay… that sounds great…" Roman just agreed at this point without even considering it first.

"That sounds cringe, don't lie," Silas interrupted.

"What?!" Willow protested.

"N-no, it's not… it's really not," Roman stated while looking at Silas and Willow alternately.

"I know, right?! You're my pretty baby indeed!" Willow uttered enthusiastically. She hugged Roman again after that.

'But my bones have just… regenerated…' the boy thought.

"A-anyway… can I ask a question?" he said while still being hugged by Willow.

"Yeah! Of course!" Willow quickly responded as she released him from her hug.

"Why do you guys arrest me?" Roman asked frankly.

"Arrest? We're keeping you safe here," Silas immediately answered Roman's question. He also turned to him once again.

"Huh? What happened?" Roman gave another question.

"You don't remember it, my pretty baby?" Willow joined the conversation by giving Roman a question with a facial expression showing her worry.

Roman was just silent while looking at her.

"Exactly three days ago, your ranch was brutally attacked by a group of wolves. We found your body laid there, strangely without any injury," Silas started to explain the timeline to Roman.

'Three days?' Roman thought in disbelief.

"All the wolves were dead by the time we got there. Countless pieces of humans body parts were obviously also there. No victims could be identified, but with how many pieces of human body parts were found, The King declared that all slaves on the tarantula ranch died in this incident, while the truth is you survived," Silas continued.

"For some reason, we have to keep it a secret from anyone, or else it would be a total mess all over the kingdom, so we need you to be cooperative to avoid anything unwanted," the young man concluded.

"Do you understand, my pretty baby?" Willow asked Roman because he was completely silent.

"I… I'm not sure. I'm going to just listen first," Roman replied.

[Wrong. Ask who they are first] Mia suggested.

[Oh, right] Roman responded.

"O-"

"But before we're going further, I'd like to know who you guys are besides your name, and what's your rights to keeping me safe here? Even to wrap my body like this," Roman said as Silas was about to say something.

Silas himself was totally silent after hearing Roman's words just now. The only thing he did was look at the boy's eyes.

[That's suspicious] Mia told Roman.

[I know] Roman replied.

[That's weird] the Devil added.

"We can talk about it later. For now, let's focus on what I want to ask you," Silas answered Roman's questions a moment later.

Roman raised his right eyebrows after that.