As the match ignited, the room changed. It became a dark place. A cave, by the looks of it. I was alone.

By the dim light of the flame I spotted a pair of raven eyes watching me. I stared into its eyes in horror. The match burned my fingers and then went out.

There was only darkness then. A headache pooled across my mind. The silence there took my breath away.

Some time passed.

A sudden otherworldly shriek echoed off the walls. In it I found a surge of life and I ran only to bash my head against chalky stone. I lowered and blindly felt around. The ground was stoney, flat, and cold. My fingers traced engravings upon the ground. Far beyond the ache that encased me, I heard muddled, distant echoes.

I sat for a time utterly overwhelmed, in shock, panicked. My breaths were only growing heavier. I pressed my hand against my chest. I was hyperventilating.

No dream felt this real. I was horribly awake. So helplessly confused. My mind grasped for sense but found none.

From the silence came suddenly the quiet echoed patter of distant footsteps.

I called out something. My voice echoed. I stammered to my feet, arms flailing above and around, hands hitting against jagged stone above and on all sides. I stood, slowly turning, arms outward.

Far into the distance in one direction was a glint of light. The only light. I stumbled forward towards it like it was home. On the ledge as I passed came into view the faint pair of Raven eyes. I recoiled at the sight of them but walked on, following the light. Footsteps behind me. I ran towards the light.

A new wave of pain crashed over me. I was on the ground. There was a sharp, fiery, pain, across my back. A cold, heart-wrenching, dull soreness all across my body. From what felt like my toes I heard a hiss that seemed to echo endlessly. For all the pain and fear I had, it was the nausea that drove me to desperation. The world faded from me and I was sure that I was dead.

✧✧✧

My eyes shot open. The stench of sulfur filled my lungs. Before me were metal bars. Beyond them, a torch on the wall. The torch's flame flickered as if starved for air.

A deep, grinding pain with the pattern of heartbeats faded into my consciousness. I tried to stand but only stumbled. Eventually, flung into a corner, I used the walls to stabilize myself and lift myself up. Some time passed. As my headache subsided, I realized I was shivering.

“Awake?” spoke the prison wall. It was an unfamiliar girl’s voice.

“Yes,” my voice cracked. I patted and knuckled the wall, doubting and clinging onto the words. But there was now only silence. I slowly raised myself to my feet. “Yes,” I repeated once more. “Hello?”

“A high man?” asked the voice.

“I’m sorry?”

“You are! Aren’t you? A high man, here? How?”

“What?” I whispered.

The voice fell silent.

I leaned my ear against the wall and waited, but I heard nothing. I waited but no voice came. I began to doubt there ever was one at all. “Hey?” I whispered. I slapped the wall and nearly fell over doing so. “Hey!” I shouted with desperation.

“Where are you from?” returned the voice.

I took a step back from the wall and glared at it. I pressed my hand firmly against it, feeling the cold, grainy stone. I slid my hand over the stone, then held my hand near my face so I could see my fingers in the flickering light. I slowly touched my fingertips together, feeling the small grains of chalky dust from the stone wall.

“Where are we?” I whispered to my neighbor behind the wall.

There was no answer.

I pressed my ear up against the wall and waited.

“Who are you?” asked the voice. “Are you important? What’s your name?”

“Charlie.”

“Char-lee?” The voice seemed uneasy or confused. “You hit your head, Charlie?”

I paused and touched my head. “Something did.”

“Well that’s the first thing you’ve said that’s made any sense. Are you truly asking me where we are?”

“Yes.”

“Orc country.”

“Orc…” I whispered to myself.

“You must be important.”

“What’s beyond these caves?”

“You mean above? There’s nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Desert is just about nothing, wouldn’t you say? Sand for five horizons.”

I leaned against the wall and fell into a sit.

“Know anyone?” she asked.

“What?”

“Back home who might pay your ransom.”

I shook my head to myself. “Home,” I whispered.

Suddenly there was a thud, enough to shake the dust off the stone walls and flicker the torch’s flame.

“Quiet,” she whispered.

“What was that?” I asked.

The wall was silent.

It happened again. This time, there were distant high-pitched shrieks.

“What’s going on?” I asked, pounding the stone wall.

The thuds continued until there didn’t seem to be much dust left on the stone walls.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Don’t talk to them,” replied the voice.

“Who?”

Suddenly a door I hadn’t noticed flung open. A goblin-like creature entered the room. It looked shorter than me, a green tint of skin, yellow eyes, sharply tipped ears. It had the kind of eyes that saw you looking in and didn’t seem to like it.

“Locusts,” the thing called out in a low voice. It had in one gnarled hand a wooden staff, and the other a silver key. “Which of you is a boy?” it hissed.

“Me,” said the girl’s voice behind the wall.

“No, wait,” I called out. I rushed over to the bars.

The goblin lifted his silver key in the light lunged forward towards the cell of my neighbor. There were loud clanks and clashes of metal, with an occasional inhumane hiss or groan, until with a slam the next door prison cell gate flung open. A blonde girl emerged, shrouded by shadows. She was tall and moved slow. The light of the misbehaved wall torch flame danced briefly across her face, revealing wide blue eyes.

“I’m a boy,” I called out.

The goblin turned and eyed me over, then glanced between the two of us with a confused look.

“We are both boys,” said the girl.

“Bring both,” said a deeper voice from the darkness behind the goblin.

With a groan, the goblin shoved his silver key into my door and then grabbed me by neck with alarming strength, pulling me out and up against the wall next to the girl, near the flame.

As the goblin turned to lock their cells, I examined the girl. She was blond, light complexion, sharp features, pretty, chin was cut, lips too, and both were swollen. She was examining me back. “What do we do?” I whispered to her, motioning towards the creature.

The girl scowled at me and said nothing.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

“Shut up!” the goblin hissed, turning to face me. Before I could close his mouth, it struck me across my brow with his staff.

The woman helped me to my feet. As I steadied himself, the goblin barked something vile with a haphazard motion that suggested we better follow.

Through the door was a deeper black I ever wished to see, especially while following such an unpleasant fiend. Blind and dizzy, I quickly bumped into the goblin. Before I could mumble an apology, I felt the slap of the goblin’s staff against my arm. The swiftness gave me the sobering sense that the goblin could see plainly where I couldn’t see at all.

And when it happened again, surely less than a minute later, the staff swiftly swiped my side. “I can’t see,” I muttered, half crying with the rush of pain and fear. I hid within a corner of my mind gasping for a sense of where we were going, or why, let alone how any of this was happening at all.

On the third or forth whack of the staff, I cursed myself for walking between the goblin and the girl, neither of whom seemed to have a problem seeing in the dark. As we walked on, curving to and fro and occasionally inclining up, my wailing arms sensed the already tiny tunnel was narrowing.

I continued to bump against the goblin, but after a while, the hits ceased, though the goblin’s hisses never did. I for a time contemplated trying my luck tackling the little bastard. He was at least a foot shorter than me. Perhaps when better lit, if ever, I thought to myself.

We walked for what felt like an hour through the darkness. My fear compounded into exhaustion. Then the numbness came and I became the walk.

A hint of light appeared far into the forward. I thought I had imagined it at first. Then I heard murmurs of life up ahead; a dull tapping, perhaps a hammer, and the occasional screech of metal.

We eventually entered into the light. It was a cavernous city, full of pig-like goblins busying about. Other goblins too, including others like their goblin, and dark-eyed elves. The cavern was massive.

“Wow,” I gasped, hardly knowing I did.

The goblin tisked and scowled at me, “You barf-minded sloth!”

A clangy, loud mess of compartmentalized metal rolled into view. Thick smoke poured into the room like death.

“A train,” I murmured. I wish I hadn’t. For the goblin then kicked me in the shin and punched me in the face.

The woman again helped me up, though this time with only one hand, and we followed the goblin onto the train. Two brawny pig-like creatures stood guard on either end of the train car.

The train was nice on the inside. Blue leather seats, a lemon-cinnamon smell, otherworldly music. Never in my life had I felt so out of place.

Gorgeous dark-eyed elves came and served drinks without any communication. The drinks just came. A pink sparkling something in a crystal bottle with an ornate top came to me. The girl got a yellow one. Mine had a label that said Clarity. I opened the top to smell it.

“Don’t,” the girl said with a glare.

I closed it and set it aside.

“Where are you from?” she asked with a flare of disgust. It didn’t seem like the type of question to answer.

The goblin’s drink was black. He drank it and another came to him just as quickly.

“What’s happening?” I whispered to the girl.

She hadn’t stopped glaring at me. “You lied.”

“What?”

She looked around and then back at me. “You know someone.”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t.”

“Someone’s bailing you out,” she whispered. She surveyed the train then turned back to me. “Or you’re being sold,” she added. “But who buys a boy?”

I examined the other passengers. There were a few pig-like creatures and goblins, but the majority were large, green creatures with tusks. I glanced back at the girl. She was eyeing me cautiously. She looked afraid of me.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

I squinted like she was mad and shook my head. “I don’t know! Why are you asking me?”

There was commotion up ahead. Two men—actual ordinary humans, by the look of it—had just stepped on board and were arguing with the pig-like creature in the front of the train car. One other pig from the back of the train car was rushing over to them.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to the girl.

“Do you know them?”

“No,” I whispered.

The girl scoffed. “I don’t believe you.”

I examined the men again, as if a closer look would make a difference. One of the men glanced over at me.

“You must know them!” said the girl.

I turned to face her. “I don’t know anyone.”

Suddenly the girl stood up and turned to face behind them.

Our goblin escort leapt to his feet. “Sit down!”

“Where is this train headed?” called out the girl to the other passengers.

“Silence!” the goblin shrieked. He swung his staff at her head, but she dodged.

“Where!” she cried out.

The goblin tried swinging again, but she directed the staff away and into the wall.

“Dawn,” a voice called out from somewhere in the train car.

The girl sat back down. Her face was white.

The goblin towered over us from behind our seats, his staff raised. He cracked his staff across the girl’s head from behind her. He hit her this time. “Stay seated!” he hissed. He cracked the staff atop my head for good measure and then sat back down.

I watched as the girl’s eyes darted around. Her eyes were wild, nearly frantic.

“What?” I whispered to her. “What is it?”

She didn’t seem to hear. She looked terrified. I continued watching her in silence, waiting for her to speak again. I watched as her pupils dilated and her breathing slowed. Finally, she turned to me. “Get off here,” she whispered.

“What?” I asked in a panic. I glanced out the windows into darkness.

The girl stood to her feet.

“Wait,” I grabbed her arm, “Where are you going?”

The goblin leapt to his feet and pulled back his staff with a shriek. But before he could swing, she ran past him and towards the back of the train car, away from me and away from the arguing orcs and men.

As she and the goblin disappeared from sight, chatter broke out across the train cab. The argument between the men and orcs seemed to grow more intense, with frequent glances at me from all four of them.

Suddenly the train lit up with red lights and screeched to a violent halt, slamming everyone into the seats in front of them. I ended up on the floor.

The train doors flung open. An eerie multi-toned alarm blasted from all directions. I stumbled to my feet and maneuvered into the aisle. The two men and orc guards were on the ground. I stared out the open door. There was only darkness. From the flashing red lights I could see the train was in a giant cavern. I could make out a cluster of neon lights in the very far distance. I took a step towards the door and peered out. It looked like some sort of subterranean city was up ahead.

“I can help you,” said a voice behind me.

I turned to face the voice. It was one of the two men that had been arguing with the orcs. He was tall, middle-aged, tan skinned, with brown hair. The other man, pale with black hair, and younger, stood behind him, watching.

I peered beyond the two men at the orcs motionless on the floor. I shifted my eyes back to the man in front of me.

“My name is Jacob,” said the man, with his hands slightly raised, palms facing me. “What’s your name?”

I remained silent. I eyed the other man again then glanced back at Jacob.

“Charlie, yes?” asked Jacob, though he clearly knew. “I can’t help you if you exit here.”

“How do you know my name?” I demanded more than asked.

The man remained silent. He glanced up over my head. I followed his eyes. Above the door was a countdown. Sixteen seconds. Fifteen. Fourteen. I turned back to the man and slowly stepped backwards off the train.

The man nodded resolutely as if accepting of defeat. “Well,” he sighed, and with a hand he dug through his pockets without breaking eye contact,” “take this.” In a single graceful motion he removed a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and held it out to me.

I glanced at the paper. “What is it?”

The man said nothing. He held his hand extended out to me. The tan paper was folded into a small diamond. I examined the man’s face. His eyes were fixed intently on mine. Suddenly the train doors began to close.

“It’s leaving,” I said.

The man blocked the doors from closing with his free arm. “Take it.”

I stepped forward and grabbed the paper. As I did, the man lunged forward and stabbed me in the chest.