In any other pce, in any other time, the inn might have seemed quaint. It was ramshackle, it was run down, it was on the verge of rotting nestled into rock not far from an underground river. Mosses hung down from the ceiling shielding it, so from a distance, though not so avaible in this cozy corner of the deep underground refuge from the surface, it might've been shielded from excessive inquiry.

  Dante and his quaint family did not get many visitors; they were mainly animals, wandering beasts looking for food or shelter, or even occasionally a lonesome scav, wandering too far from his hovel, foolish or desperate enough to investigate such an ominous or obvious building, and further still foolish to remain having met the inhabitants. An exchange of services for trade, was usually offered. There were things his insignificant encve needed, and though they only needed a bit of blood, the travellers were almost always reluctant to part with it, even in exchange for very valuable or rare things, though eventually they all would, if only for a safer pce to rest than out there.

  Dante stared out from the porch, if one could call it that, two dim candles lit it, and even with his night vision the cave beyond was still dark. The radio beside him hummed and gurgled, and every so often hiccuped electrostatic pops, but other than that it was mostly silence against a thin background of radio static. He wasn't sure how much he preferred it. Marcus was presumably around, though he usually came and went as he pleased, often venturing out for prey, insatiable as he was. Ava came and sat beside him.

  "Do you know where Kaida is?" Dante said.

  "You know her, she's ever thirsty, and will frolic around in the dark until she finds something."

  "I still worry, she goes on her excursions, without permission, so often she thinks she's safe down here."

  "No one is safe down here, and we all need sustenance to survive. We didn't bring anything back. I’m not bming you, but..."

  "I know."

  Ava rested against that which might've been called a chair but should more properly have been called an abomination. Dante stood, but got tired after a while, listening to the dark. He stooped and eventually sat. They were silent for a long while.

  "What was it like, when our kind was out in the wilds?"

  "I've told you many times before."

  "Tell me again."

  "It was a lot different than here. We'd hide in the daytime. We weren't perpetually safe from the sun. But at night, a whole world opened up to us; beautiful bck twilight, dark stars. It is a very different feeling, for darkness to have a sky, you wouldn't think it would make a difference but if you know it's there, it’s something."

  Just then they could hear Kaida's yelling, and the loud steps and grumblings of Marcus. By the time he came into view, it was clear what was happening. Marcus held Kaida under his arm, and it was clear that she was unable to escape, despite her endless squirming and protestations. She made no pleas to either Dante or Ava to free her, she simply rebuffed against the alleged infringement upon her freedoms.

  "I caught her in the mutant area again." He set her down. "You're gonna fang something you're not supposed to, or something is going to fang you."

  "I'm not stupid," she sounded indignant as she finally wriggled free, hopping out of Marcus’s grasp.

  She huffed, then ran off inside. Marcus merely shrugged, he didn't know what to do, so he just went inside to his own pce of rest.

  "One of these days she is going to eat something that is going to kill her, and it will be my fault."

  "You still have options."

  "How can I ask them for help? They weren't there when we needed them the most."

  "They're maybe the only ones who can help. We don’t have many other options."

  "You weren't there, you don't know what it was to lose all that. You've never had that before."

  "I've lost enough, Dante, and we still have something to lose."

  She walked off. He didn't bme her, the radio hissed again and popped as if to punctuate her departure. He wondered when the candles were going to run out, gncing down at his watch, his broken watch with its cracked gss dual face, one ebony and one gold, one for daytime, one for night.

  It was always night here, and when he was younger and dumber, he often fantasized about a type of life where it was perpetually night, and now he hated it. He took the watch off and looked at the inscribed symbol on the back. A Moebius hourgss, perpetually refilling itself. What pompous symbolism from pompous creatures. But powerful. The candle slowly continued burning down beside him, the wax dripping down into a collected pool. He was sure to minimize the waste but eventually all the wax and wicks would be gone no matter how careful he was.

  Eventually Kaida's hunger would grow too rge, or Marcus would not be there to drag her back. It was his own shortcoming, and he had thought if he got them this far that would be enough, that at some point he could vanish into eternity himself, unchanging, unsullied by the despondency and indignity of desperation, and how it changes things into things so ugly, the way the desperate mutations of the dark down here struggle to survive, instead of thrive, and how hideous that makes them.

  He gnced back at the watch, throwing it out into the darkness. He did not hear it drop, perhaps it glided effortlessly into the river, soundlessly, being absorbed as though it belonged there all along. He turned off the radio. It was silent. Yes, perhaps he would find Chronos after all.