Drip. Tap. Drip.

Her life was reduced to this, her single eye matted over in a film of white. She saw nothing. Felt everything. This damp, suffocating darkness was her entire world now. She couldn't remember what reduced her to this if she would have had the mind to try. Her whole world now revolved around her drug, nothing more and nothing less.

Faint squelching interrupted the quiet dripping of the water, taking its refuge in quiet and deliberate footsteps. Ears swiveled to catch the noise, a cane was gripped as a hunchbacked figure brought itself to its feet. Red eye matted over with a white film, the warped creature turned to face the direction of footsteps and the promise of a drug being brought down to the things that relied on it.

"Gimme it..." The voice was a croak, it maker bent over the stick it used to stand, hand outstretched to the footsteps, eye gazing off into eternal blackness.

"Ashenai?"

The voice struck a note of familiarity, but the idea was gone as soon as it came to be- a blind bird in a forest. The scent of the drug on these people brought the girl a step forward. Her legs nearly gave out with the single step, unwilling to move from the stiff, bent position they were in. The rest of her body followed painfully, her fingers tightening over a soft pressure in her palm. It wasn't a powder or bag she felt in her hand, though. It was flesh.

Arms wrapped around her, knocking the cane from her grasp. The young woman fell into a strange embrace insulated by soft fur and warm breath on her neck. Unsure of this situation, Ashenai lifted her frail arms around her mother's neck, not knowing who now held her in the dark, damp sewer tunnel.

"They're going to save you, Ash," her mother whispered to her, petting her hair, "they're going to save you."