Caspian loved the sea. He loved the way it sounded, the way it felt, the way it calmed him. When he was out there, alone to reminisce and reflect on himself, he could feel his problems dissipate into nothing as if it was salt dissolving into the water. The sound of those powerful waves drowned out any voices of anxiety that trapped him in his mind. It almost felt as if he belonged. As if he was a part of the sea, and the sea was a part of him. However, like all good things in the world, it suddenly wasn't enough anymore. Over the years, Caspian's thoughts, anxieties, and fears started to rise to the surface and flood his mind like an angry hurricane. What started off as small tidal waves that he could handle quickly turned into massive, destructive storms that surrounded him. It was suffocating. He was drowning in his own ocean of despair and he didn't know how to swim to safety. A fire hydrant suddenly exploded a few hundred feet behind Caspian. Caspian gasped and spun around. The violent geyser soon caused a panic to erupt. The screams of pedestrians nearby echoed louder and louder in Caspian's ears. It was deafening. It was mortifying. But why was it? Caspian didn't give the logical side of his brain a second to think. He did the only thing he knew he could do. The only thing he knew how to do. And that was run.
Caspian ran and ran, but it was as if the screams grew louder and louder, no matter how far his legs would take him. He ran until his lungs begged him to stop. Begged him to take more breaths. He ran until his legs threatened to give out. His muscles wept. His heart ached. His brain pounded against his skull. The screams of those people were agony. Caspian was in agony. In his wild chase, he spotted a dark opening between two buildings. A potential safe haven for him. Anything that he felt he could use as a hiding spot.
He dove into the alleyway and fell to the ground, desperately clasping his hands over his ears. He curled up on the ground, trembling violently as tears welled in his eyes. He gasped and choked, struggling to draw more air into his lungs. He was alone. No one was coming for him. No one to comfort him and tell him that everything was going to be alright. There was no more sea he could escape to. A part of his still intact brain registered footsteps running towards him, but it seemed distant and disconnected. Even when the shadow of a figure blocked the evening sunlight, nothing felt real, except for the sounds in his head. As the figure drew closer to Caspian, Caspian suddenly snapped back to reality, whipping his head back.
"Get away from me!" Caspian screamed. When he noticed the figure hadn't moved, Caspian took this as a threat. An extremely real threat in his mind. He gathered what little strength he still had within himself and scrambled to get up. His sudden movements caused a large rush of blood to shoot into his head as he tried to push past the figure in an attempt to escape. Everything felt like it was in slow motion. The running. The figure reaching out to him and wrapping their fingers around his arm. The searing pain that shot through him. Caspian whipped his head around and caught sight of a pair of gray eyes, stormy and determined. Which scared the Hell out of Caspian. He ripped his arm away from the figure, clutching his now hurt arm. He never lost his momentum, however, the dizziness in his head proved to be too much. His vision went first. Then his legs.
It was dark. The air was humid. Caspian groaned. His consciousness was slowly coming back to him, but not without a stabbing pain in his skull to follow. He groaned again, reaching up to cradle his head in his hands.
"Shut up over there."
Caspian blinked and hesitantly looked up from his hands. He spotted a man not too far away, wrapping gauze around what looked like burns on his arms.
"Who," Caspian croaked, rubbing his eyes to clear his blurred vision, "who are you?"
"I'm the guy who pulled you out of the alleyway."
"The alleyway," Caspian echoed, then stopped. The figure. Caspian frowned slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped when his eyes wandered around and found nothing familiar to him. It looked like they were in the middle of a heavily wooded area with dense shrubbery littering the ground. The only thing that looked like it didn't belong was the large, dilapidated shelter. Almost all of the windows were busted in and there were hundreds of vines spilling out over the sides of the building. Caspian looked around, the feeling of panic settling in. Before he could ask where they were, he watched the man push past the rusted doors.
"You comin', or what?"
Caspian blinked. He wasn't going to follow this man into this creepy building in the middle of the woods. It was unheard of! Caspian quickly scrambled to his feet and looked around, desperately looking for an alternative. He racked his brain for something, anything, but his only other options were to risk being eaten alive by whatever was out there or risk starving to death since he was certain he would get lost on his way back.
"Hey," the man called out to Caspian, catching his attention. Caspian looked up and locked eyes with his gray set. The man didn't say anything else, but his eyes told him to follow after him. Caspian knew better than to follow some random man, but something about him made Caspian hesitate. He looked genuine underneath his stone glare. And before Caspian could comprehend what was happening, he followed after him through the doors.
The air inside of the shelter was damp and heavy. Caspian began to regret his decision when he looked around and saw that the inside looked just as broken down and dirty as the outside. He took a step back when his eyes came across a massive pit in the middle of the stone floor. Caspian couldn't help, but curiously and cautiously approach the hole. He peered over the edge and saw nothing, but darkness. Any kind of light that peeked in through the windows was immediately sucked away by the vast darkness that was inside that hole. I knew it. This man is going to kill me and hide my body down there, Caspian turned around to try and escape, but nearly ran into the man. He was blocking Caspian's only way of escape. Caspian quickly took a step back away from the man. He looked back at the hole, then back towards the man. He truly was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Caspian swallowed, "why did you bring me here?"
The man took a second to think.
"It's not safe out there. This is the entrance to somewhere that is safe. Somewhere that keeps people like us safe from those who would prefer to hurt us."
"What," Caspian frowned in confusion, "what do you mean 'people like us'?"
The man sighed, now looking irritated, "look, we don't have that much time. Are you gonna jump or what?"
Whoa. Jump?! Caspian couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You expect me to jump into that pit? Are you crazy," Caspian barked in surprise.
"If you don't, I'm gonna push you."
"What? Why," Caspian exclaimed, looking back at the hole, "do you even know how far it goes?"
As Caspian continued to ramble on, the man rolled his eyes.
"Time's up."
Caspian felt a rough push and suddenly was greeted by darkness.