Desperation. That's what I felt as a blanket was placed over my face and water was poured onto me. Desperation. Desperation to breathe but I know that I'll be gone. Just give in, let go, make the pain stop. No, you've made a promise to him. You don't get to give up your life, not yet. I remember, the day that our father the last of our parents died, Roan understandably was destroyed, he cried nearly every night. "What's gonna happen to us?" he asked, "without daddy, where will we get money?"
"don't worry about that, I'll take care of you, I promise" I pull him into a hug. I was pulled back into the present when another bucket was emptied onto my face, suffocating me. The feeling of drowning pulls me back into the suffering. The dead-eyed spoke "don't remain shackled to this mortal coil, don't let your humanity keep you from ascending, into the Above with The Angel of Unravelling, the only one who cares about us". Water is poured on me again and I splutter and gasp for air only getting little. I felt the tight the tightness of suffocation grow, I writhed even more against my restraints. The tightness grows, it's almost crushing. Distraction. I think of something else anything else. The fire still burned, even within the empty, it burned not its normal bright and fiery orange, something that exuded life, but something darker, something trapped it pulsed angrily like it wanted freedom, it wanted vengeance, the vein turned into veins as it spread under the void, it's pulse stronger. The void still spread across the world, the moon. The Red grew its veins spreading and spreading. The fire still burned.
The water stops trying to fill my lungs, when I know I can breathe I greedily draw in as much breath as possible. I look in the dark room, the dead-eyed people, smile they've never done this before, I could tell that they've forgotten how, I'm entranced and fascinated by the uncanniness of it all, their mouths looked like the corners were being pulled apart by an invisible force, crudely using them as puppets, the lips didn't curl as they're supposed to, outer corner of their eyes didn't wrinkle as they should've, they stayed like that, why? They tried to imitate the feeling of happiness, something obviously forgotten a long time ago, why would they try? To make me feel safe? Their intent was to destroy me, break me, it'd be better to do that if I was weak or unprepared... It was a distraction! I looked to my right see a branding iron, in the shape of a circle, orange and burning. "Wait, no stop, please" the woman held my leg in her grasp, she had the same uncanny smile. I see the iron approach, they hold my leg down, I felt the searing, stinging, excruciating pain in my leg. My vision started to fog, the orange flames blended in with the darkness. I scream out, I refuse to break, I will not become a puppet of some invisible force, I think of Roan and what could he be going through. I make an attempt at a distraction. The fire still burned. A quote that spoke to me. I remember the story my father told me:
"Eldraxees, it was the only known thing in the universe, it explored the void, to find that it was just that, void, so it wished for something to come into existence, it dreamt of the Angels, it made the world and all the people in it, it made it wonderful, it watched the humans build something, but it grew bored. It gave them the first Blight, Dragons, and Monsters, they destroyed the land, people died, the humans found a way to kill them after a few centuries, they were able to function normally and happily again. Eldraxees was bored once again it made its Angels give them to disease, The people rotted away and others went hysterical, those who were the sound made cures and treatments some worked some didn't, they once again went to how they were before. Eldraxees grew bored once more, he gave humanity its biggest Blight, something more destructive than Dragons and Monsters, something that spreads faster and digs deeper than any ailment. Corruption, something that turned a virtuous man into a sinner and the peaceful into the bloodthirsty" he turned the page, I snuggled more into his side, I started to feel sleepy "The Angels were saddened and guilt-ridden at the fact that the world was suffering. They begged their maker to spare them, but he never listened to the Angels, so they rebelled, they couldn't kill him so they locked him away in the Far, D'aa was placed there in the void to make sure that it could never come back, the people cried out to their saviours, they wanted to know whether or not they'll become evil. Sidrikel said 'after the void consumed the sun the fire still burned". I fell asleep before my dad left. The branding iron was still being pressed into my leg. The fire still burned. The fire still burned. The fire still burned. I repeated the saying in my head, "don't resist the unravelling" one of them said "unravel and ascend, unravel and ascend, unravel and ascend" they repeated over and over and over again. The pain was becoming unbearable, I just sob, I don't have the energy to scream or cry for help. Give up. The fire still burned. Give up. The fire still burned. The fire still. Give up. The fire. Give up. The. Give up. The fire. Give up. The fire still burned. I needed something to keep me from giving up, to keep me anchored. I dream. I manage to escape, the ground was green with grass instead of grey with stone, there was life in this place, I follow the sound of children playing, I see Roan, I run towards him, I found him again. He and I leave escaping the place that has hurt us. We were going to be happy. I repeat it over and over again, the branding goes on for an eternity, or something that feels like it when it stops, the pain lingers for a while when I'm thrown into my room.
I promise myself, my brother, that I'd find him, rescue him and myself. At any cost. I look at my brand, a circle the wound was black, brown and red. Lockan and I don't converse much. I count, I figure out that every afternoon, around three hours past the sun's high point is when they first take someone. Nobody comes in around seven hours past the sun's high point. I'm taken to the church with all the other kidnapped and cultists, I guess Lockan wasn't exaggerating the atrocity that was her face, her skin was peeling away, her head had three bulbous tumours protruding from her head, she was faceless, no features were visible, her mouth was slack jaw, no lips were visible and her teeth were cracked and crooked. They recited their prayers the same story about a girl, beaten and broken, then the Angel came down and gave her power for a sacrifice, "she is the saviour" I hear them say it over and over and over, Angels and God ask for praise and gratitude, some even ask for blood, while this one demands your soul, I think that's what put me off, I never paid attention, I just made a note that it began three hours before the sun's highest point and ended one hour before the sun's highest point. I recited their prayers "I pledge myself to Dialelith, I take the path of ascension, to take up arms against evil", I'm led back to my room. I sit in the corner, trying to commit the schedule to memory. They came in and gave us food, it tasted horrible I think they came in at the highest point. I was able to tell the time through the tiny crack in the wall.
The Sermon 3bshp-1bshp
The Feeding The Highest Point
The taking and torturing 3pshp-7pshp
The Sermon 3bshp-1bshp
The Feeding The Highest Point
The taking and torturing 3pshp-7pshp
The Sermon 3bshp-1bshp
The Feeding The Highest Point
The taking and torturing 3pshp-7pshp
I tried to find openings and a route of escape, but I couldn't, I'm only ever taken down two pathways out of all the corridors, I saw no exits when taken to a torture chamber but I saw a door at the left in between two guards. I never saw them leave. They don't tie me up anymore, because I don't scream or cry, I just sit there like Lockan, biding my time, what if that was what he was doing? Waiting patiently for the right time, I'm pulled out of my thoughts, I look to the noise of something dropping into the bucket, I look away quickly, never wanting to think about what I saw ever again, the noise stops. "do you have hope?" I ask he gives me a confused whether it was the vagueness of the question or that I asked it at all he was confused. "yes, but I'm not in denial of the fact that I might die here, but I know that I'll die fighting" he said. I hear a boy cry out, the voice is familiar. Roan. I get up from the floor and kicking and beating on the door, my legs and fists hurt, but I keep pounding on the door anyway, "Roan!!" tears well up in my eyes, I keep pounding on the door even with the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to get through. They ignore me and hear him cry out for me "Daki!!" I slump against the door and sob, Lockan decides to distract me "where were you taken from?" I regain my breath. "south" I try to figure out the specific area "west?" the distraction stops working when I hear the screams of my brother, I just sit there knowing that I can't anything. Then, abrupt. Silence.