~ SASHA ~
When they started up the trail to the cave mouth, Sasha could barely breathe. She had to force herself to focus on the others. Inside she wanted to scream. Fear of what was happening. Fear of leaving Zev. Leaving Thana. Fear of... she didn't even know this man. All that fear underlined by Zev, the echoes of his pleading and demands. He was still scratching at her mind, pleading with her. The piece of him inside her pulling back, threatening to suck out of her heart and through her spine, to flee back to him. She was beginning to tremble.
With Yhet on one side and Dunken on the other—both silent, though Yhet's face made his opinion on this whole situation very clear—Sasha decided to let the creatures torture Nick because she didn't have energy to do anything else. Ernie scuttled along, just inside the tree line, just in their peripheral vision. Every time he moved, Nick twitched.