Pain. Voices. Bright lights. It was all too much. My head pounded as I sat bound to a metal chair, the zip ties cutting into my scales. My thoughts were foggy as the taste of blood stained my tongue. Disjointed memories scrambled through my mind, mixing and matching and falling apart all over again. A wendigo chased me through an abandoned strip mall. I rigged an explosion in a school cafeteria. Soldiers shot at me as I plotted a course on a map while flying a jet. A giant dragon stared down at me as blue flames poured from my palms, consuming Ava and Isabelle. Robotic eyes watched me through the smoke. My mind went blank as a fist slammed into my stomach, expelling all the air in my lungs.
“I won’t ask again,” my interrogator growled. “What. Are. You. Doing here?” She grabbed the back of my chair and came down face-to-face with me.
I blinked at her groggily. “I… I told you. I d-don’t know.”
“Whaleshit,” she hissed. She raked her claws across my face, and agony tore through my nerves as warm blood dripped down my cheek. “Fucking Umbrite,” she growled with contempt. “Can’t tell the truth if it’d save your life, huh?” The Aquarite flicked blood from her claws as she stormed away, fuming. She banged on the door, and another Dragonborn opened it almost immediately. “Take this lying filth away,” she ordered. “I’ve had enough.”
I sat still as the other Aquarite cut off my makeshift handcuffs, wincing slightly as his knife nicked my wrists. The soldier roughly yanked me to my feet by my collar, making me choke momentarily. My feet dragged as the soldier pushed me forward, muttering derogatory phrases just loud enough that I could hear them. I didn’t care, though. My brain felt like it was mush. The only thing I really wanted was to go to sleep. The next thing I knew, I was being shoved through a doorway into a small room with no windows and slammed into concrete. My entire body ached. Second time in a week that I’ve gotten a full body tenderizing, I thought dryly, surprising myself with the somewhat lighthearted thought.
“Kéron? Are you okay?” A familiar voice asked, concern lacing her voice. She turned me over so I was face to face with her, and despair was scrawled across her expression. “Oh, my god, mijo, what did they do to you?”
“N-nothing I haven’t experienced before,” I told her in a raspy voice. I groaned as she pulled me to my feet to sit me on the bench next to her. She stared at me, anger, sadness, and pain flitting through her eyes. “Hey, what’s wrong? Something in m-my teeth?”
Ava shoved my shoulder lightly. “Don’t joke about this,” she chided, her voice teetering on the edge of laughing and breaking down. “I wanna make sure you’re okay, idiota.”
I turned to stare down at the grime-covered floor. “Been better.”
She was silent for a long while, before wrapping her arm around my shoulders and giving me a gentle hug. I ached as she pulled me closer, but I ignored it, for her sake. “I’m sorry that happened,” she whispered. I closed my eyes, enjoying the comforting feeling of her presence. The memory of her consoling me after a long day, warding off the harsh words of others with lighthearted stories. Legends of crossing the bridge between life and death, tales of heroes beating the odds and bringing wrongdoers to justice, and impossible dilemmas. It almost made me forget the pain. Almost. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, as nostalgia flooded my mind. I don’t want to cry. My heart ached, a distinct sense of longing burrowing through my brain. I tugged at my gloves absentmindedly, savoring the silence. All too soon, the moment was over, and Ava turned to me, wiping her face on her sleeves.
“I’m sorry to cut this short,” she said, her voice wavering, “but I need to tell you this.” I wiped the tears from my eyes, angling my body toward her. She leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice. “On the way in, I noticed several points that we might be able to escape from—one of them being a stack of crates next to one of the walls.”
“But… what about our stuff? How do we know which way to go?” I asked, tilting my head slightly.
She spread her hands helplessly. “No sé. But what I do know, is that you and me are going t-”
“What about Isabelle?”
Ava stared at me like my ears had burst into flame. “What about her?”
“Well, I mean, we can’t just leave h-” The shuffling of footsteps outside of the cell stopped me in my tracks. Ava and I watched the ever-growing shadow approach the door and were greeted by Isabelle being escorted by a towering lavender Dragonborn. My eyes strayed to his cybernetic left hand, which he unlocked the cell door with, and pushed Isabelle in. I shied away from his gaze as he stared into the cell, his eyes flitting over each one of us. After a long pause, he turned back the way he had come. Ava was on her feet the second the soldier’s footfalls were out of earshot.
“You,” she hissed ferociously, shoving her face toward Isabelle, who had just been staring at me, horrified. Isabelle flinched and tried to move back, but Ava followed her. “You’re the puta who got us into this shitsty.”
Isabelle backed into a wall and looked at Ava, distress scrawled across her face. “I-I—what did I do?”
“What did you do?” The human asked. “What did you do? What haven’t you done?! You fucking ran away from your plush little life in Salt Flats, that’s what. You came to us for ‘help’ with one of your shitty little delusions. You are the reason we’re in this fucking cell. You are the reason why Kéron looks like he’s been through a tenderizer. And guess what?” She didn’t even let Isabelle open her mouth. “It’s. All. Your. Fault.” Ava’s fingers stabbed into the Dragonborn’s sternum with every single word. Somehow, she seemed small, despite being several inches taller than Ava. She glared at Isabelle for a solid moment before storming to the other side of the cell, which was probably only six feet across.
Isabelle looked close to tears, but she clenched her eyes shut, breathing deeply. A sigh escaped her lips, and she opened her eyes. “My f-fault?” She asked, her voice noticeably shaky. “It’s not my fault that you d-deal with psychotic robot people.” Ava began to open her mouth, but Isabelle cut her off. “If anything, Kéron is still alive because of me. If I recall correctly, he was inches away from getting a free snout reduction surgery.” Her voice grew more confident as she spoke, and Ava’s expression shifted slightly.
“But-”
“Ava, she has a point,” I said, finally speaking up. “While it’s true that none of this would’ve happened if Isabelle hadn’t become involved, we wouldn’t be sitting here arguing about it. You and I’d be buried under a fresh layer of snow somewhere in the desert instead.”
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“I-” her fists balled up repeatedly, and she looked like she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to punch me, Isabelle, or a wall. “¡Mierda!” She sat on the bed frustratedly, holding her head in her hands. Isabelle crossed to the other side of the cell, and crossed her arms, staring at a crack that seemed to be exuding some sort of dark, viscous liquid.
I sighed heavily, the aching in my body accentuating the exhaustion I felt. I hadn’t slept well in several days, my muscles felt sore from the excessive spell-casting I had been doing, and I’d had to put up with Isabelle and Ava’s constant bickering. It was tiring, to say the least. “Guys,” I muttered, “let’s just get some sleep, please? I can’t take much more of this. Umbra help me…”
Ava glanced up at me, her expression softening. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Kéron.” As she got to work figuring out the upper bunk, I laid down, groaning as my body ached. The pain had subsided somewhat went, but everywhere my scales met the harsh metal bed it felt like they were getting pressed against a stove. The bunk above me slammed down suddenly, showering me in a layer of dust. It didn’t do much to mitigate my downtrodden mood.
Isabelle sidled over, keeping her distance from Ava. “Wait… where am I gonna sleep?” She asked.
“The top bunk, Your Highness,” Ava responded in a monotonous tone.
“What about you?” She glanced down at me. “You can’t exactly share with him.”
“And why is that?” A hint of annoyance crept into her voice.
“The… the law of chastity?” Isabelle said as if it were a no-brainer. I wrinkled my snout at the thought.
“The law of—what? Ew, no,” Ava protested. “Why’s your first thought that? Never mind. Fucking hell.”
“But why do…”
“Well, why do you think?” She asked, staring down the Dragonborn. “I can’t exactly sleep on the floor, can I?”
“N-no,” Isabelle replied meekly.
“And would you rather me have to share a bed with you, instead?”
She blanched, and in the dim light, I could swear her face got slightly darker. “N-no!”
“Exactamente. Now let’s go to sleep. I don’t want to look at you anymore,” Ava muttered. The two of them crawled into bed, Isabelle struggling to pull herself up, her tail almost whacking me in the face a few times. Ava climbed in behind me, scooting as close as possible to the wall. After a moment of silence, she whispered, “Someone obviously has her own bed.”
“Mhm,” I replied quietly. It was odd to imagine living as an only child, having an entire bed to myself. The idea was foreign to me. I had spent my entire life having to share cramped spaces where everyone having their own bed was impossible. In any case, we were lucky it was just Ava and I. My thoughts strayed to the time we had to share a single twin mattress between three people and shuddered to imagine trying to fit Isabelle into the bunk I was lying on. Slowly, my thoughts slowed down, drifting down into the all-too-welcome void of sleep.
—/—|—\—
I woke up in a pool of blood. My lungs and muscles didn’t seem to want to work as I pushed myself up, the red liquid seeping into my clothes, dribbling through my scales, sickeningly warm. Everything was dark, except for a faint light pointing down at me from high above. As I stood, it felt like the blood was restricting my movement slightly. I hoped I was imagining it. Turning in a circle, there was nothing but a pool of blood in all directions. My hands shook slightly as I saw a large cream-colored dragon sitting with its back turned to me. That wasn’t there before, I thought. Slowly, I crept forward, the feeling of blood sloshing in my boots making me sick. The dragon was entirely motionless as I approached it. Shivers took over my body as I recognized the dragon as the one from my dream at the hospital. Oddly enough, the blood didn’t soak into his fur. He was sitting, staring forward into the abyss. It didn’t even look like he was breathing.
I flinched as his head turned toward me. “I was wondering when we’d meet again, Kéron.”
“Wh-what’s going on?” I asked. “Is this another… dream? Vision? Nightmare?”
“Yes. No. Whatever helps you sleep better.” His gaze returned to an indistinct point on the horizon. “A path of lies lies before you. Your heart is your most precious weapon. Use it wisely.”
I tilted my head, trying to parse what he had just said. A splash from behind me made me flinch, looking over my shoulder. Ripples in the blood slowly approached me, sending chills down my spine. I turned back to the dragon and found he had disappeared. There wasn’t any sign he had existed in the first place. Another splash sounded to my left, and I stared into the darkness. My eyes strained as I stood frozen, like a statue. And then I saw it.
Two glowing pinpricks of eyes. Cracked, pale bone. Jagged horns like tree branches. Matted, filthy fur. Death itself.
Hyperventilating, I turned and ran, red liquid splashing loudly as I sprinted away. I glanced over my shoulder, and a whimper of desperation escaped my lips. The wendigo was barreling toward me, blood splashing across its body, increasing its nightmarish appearance tenfold. Adrenaline and fear were blasting through my veins, and I couldn’t get away from the monster fast enough. Terror clouded my mind, all my nerves screaming at me to run. But I was running. At that moment, I realized the liquid had begun congealing with every step, and continuing on got only harder. To my horror, I was sinking. First my ankles. Then my calves. My knees. Meanwhile, the wendigo was completely unimpeded, growing closer by the second. I stumbled and fell further into the blood.
“No!” I gasped desperately, as I sank deeper, trying to keep my head above the surface. The wendigo had somehow gotten in front of me and was watching me sink with evil curiosity. “H-help me!”
The wendigo said nothing. I gasped one last breath as I sank below the blood, trying to hold it for as long as possible. The bubbles escaped from my lungs slowly, as it became harder and harder to hold my breath. My vision was blurry. My lungs burned. I couldn’t hold it any longer. I needed air. I needed to breathe. I gasped, and blood flooded my mouth, forcing its way down my throat, into my lungs. The world looked red. Everything tasted of iron.
My vision faded to black.
—/—|—\—
I shot up so fast I slammed my head into the bunk above me, and rolled onto the floor, gasping in pain and fear. It was the second time I had seen the dragon in my dreams, and not the first time I had seen the wendigo. My thoughts had been plagued by it for the entire journey. Sometimes, I even swore it was following me, trying to exact revenge for what happened back in the school. I tried to regain my breath, but it wouldn’t come to me. The strip mall flashed through my mind, and I closed my eyes trying to block out the memories. But they came all the same. I had been traveling through the mall, trying to figure out a distraction. Suddenly, I heard a whisper. It almost sounded like rats scurrying around, or wind whistling, but as I listened further… it had been Ava’s voice.
“Kéron,” she had whispered. “Kéron, are you okay? What’s going on?”
A gentle hand brought me back to reality. I turned over and found Ava looking down at me concernedly. Isabelle was watching, too. I don’t have an explanation for this that won’t make her worry, I thought. So I’ll go with part of the truth. My body ached as I pushed myself to my feet, accepting Ava’s hand.
“J-just a nightmare,” I told her, rubbing my temple.
Her brow furrowed with worry. “You don’t typically wake up like you were just electrocuted, Kéron. ¿Qué paso?”
I hesitated, trying to decide whether or not it was worth telling her. I was interrupted by strangling sounds coming from down the hall, distracting us both. There was a soft thump, followed by urgent, light footsteps approaching. A shadow grew longer and longer as the person came closer and closer. Isabelle gasped as the man came into view and started unlocking the door with a cybernetic hand. The door swung open with a quiet creak, and Dragonborn with lavender scales stepped forward. His eyes widened, his hand drifting to his hip.
“Do not move,” he hissed at me and Ava. His gaze moved upward. “Isa…b… fluffy dragon? You need to come with me, unless you wish to meet my less friendly, er, coworkers.”