It was a woman's sobbing, quiet, heartfelt and threatening to burst into wailing at any given moment, but restrained by fear, and interrupted only by the occasionally whispered, "Why, God, why?"

My question exactly.

A man's voice shushed her. "We must all remain silent, lest they find us."

Perfect . . . just perfect.

There was no trick of noise at play this time. While they hadn't quite managed to stumble upon the hidden entrance to my cave, these fools were huddling on my proverbial doorstep and making enough noise they were probably going to get themselves butchered there as well.

This . . . was going to be harder to ignore.

"What can we do?" the woman inquired in a trembling voice.

"We can but pray," the man answered.

I rolled my eyes tightly. Why do people continue to insist on praying to the Divine even after it's clear the Divine has no interest in answering? Speaking as someone who hadn't been on speaking terms with any form of the Divine in . . . some time, there comes a point where there's just no point to it anymore.

On the other hand, perhaps they hadn't reached that point yet. Perhaps something was watching over them after all, and perhaps their prayers for salvation would be answered as mine never had been.

"Over here!" a rough voice yelled in triumph.

Or not.

The woman screamed, while the man did his best to say something comforting and brave. I didn't hear exactly what he said over the gleeful noises of the bandits, but it's not like it mattered much.

In a few moments, except for how it might haunt my sleep, it wouldn't matter at all.

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