Clay opened his eyes to absolute darkness. He tried to move but felt nothing, it was like he was weightless, floating in a void. Well, not floating, it felt as if he was slowly drifting forward, through an overwhelming abyss. But he didn’t panic, he felt calm and at rest.

Suddenly in the distance, a faint spark of light could be seen. It was so far away, but in complete darkness, it shone like the sun. He was slowly drifting towards the light, and he attempted to push himself forward faster. Suddenly his forward momentum stopped as if he was jerked backward by an invisible chain.

Clay turned behind him, at first seeing nothing but the inescapable blackness that had swallowed him. But the more he looked the more his surroundings began to take shape, shadows forming that looked almost like… trees. Then he saw them.

Amongst the shadow trees were countless eyes staring back at him. The eyes conveyed many different reactions: shock, intrigue, anger, and hunger, but above all, they gave him one impression, that something was wrong. This was not supposed to happen.

The invisible chain jerked again, pulling Clay back in the direction he came, back into darkness, and towards the many eyes. For the first time Clay was filled with dread, he couldn’t feel his heartbeat or sweat, instead, it was something else deep inside him that told him this was wrong. As he continued to be pulled into the darkness the eyes began to approach him. They were mere feet away before their expressions changed to that of fear. But it was as if they weren’t looking at him but at something behind him…

Clay was about to turn around before he suddenly felt a presence at his back. This was the first sensation he had besides the jerking of his invisible chain, and it shocked him. Adding to these sensations, a noise broke the total silence “What are you? Your soul, it's… been tampered with. You’ve been tethered to the mortal world in a way that defies the laws of nature. Let's follow the tether and see where it leads.”

Clay opened his eyes as the cold hard wooden floor pressed into his back. He let out a quiet groan as he lifted himself, his muscles and joints incredibly stiff and a light sweat covered his body. He was warm and tingly from head to toe. His mind was foggy as he slowly came to his senses… he wasn’t in his room, it was Uriana’s room. That was weird, he didn’t remember what happened last night, though he did remember a rather dramatic dream he must have had. And to think he fell asleep on his sister's floor too.

He raised his arms high as he stood up, working the stiffness out of his body, as he started paying attention to the noises from outside the room. A quiet sob could be heard coming from the kitchen, was his mother crying? He heard several voices talking too, one was his father, but the others he didn’t recognize. He also noticed Uriana was not in the room, she must have already gone to eat breakfast.

As Clay walked out of the room the talking stopped. He made his way into the kitchen and was taken aback by the looks that greeted him. His mother, father, and two men in uniforms stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded. “What the hell,” his dad said, but it couldn’t be heard over the sudden scream his mother let out and the shouts of the officers as they grabbed him and placed him in handcuffs.

“Hey what the fuck are you guys doing” Clay shouted as they began to drag him away. They only responded with silence as he stumbled out of his front door, falling to his knees. As he knelt on the ground he looked up and could see the front yard of his home, still covered with scorch marks.

…

“Are you guys going to tell me what the hell is going on?” The Officers maintained their silence as they sat him down in a chair. They removed his handcuffs and exited the room, slamming the door shut behind them. “Hey, some water would be nice at least!” Clay sighed, rubbing the chafed skin where his handcuffs had been.

He thought back on what had just happened, the way his father looked at him as if he had seen a ghost, and the way his mother screamed, as if in horror.

Yeah, you freaked her out.

But more than anything, he thought about the scorch marks outside his house. It had been right where… had that not actually been a dream? But if it was real, he should be dead.

You were dead.

He didn’t have any magical abilities, there was no way he could’ve blocked that fire spell. He was powerless to do anything at all. Clay clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he thought about it.

True, you do seem pathetic.

“What the fuck did you say to” Clay blurted out in frustration as he rose to his feet. He looked around, confirming he was still alone in the locked room. He sat down burying his face into his palms “Am I going crazy?”

Probably.

“Ok who's talk-” suddenly the door swung open as a well-dressed man walked into the room. He carried with him a couple of small bottles of water. He looked puzzled. “Who are you talking to?”

“Myself… I think” Clay sighed as he sat back in his chair. “Any chance I can get one of those?”

“Help yourself” the man handed Clay a bottle and watched as he chugged it down. “So let's take it from the top, your name is Clayton Diamont, correct?”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

That’s a stupid question.

Clay shook his head

“Yeah, Call my Clay, though.”

“Sure Clay, how about you tell me about what happened last night?”

“God, I thought it had been a dream” Clay stammered, the realization that it was all real tying into a knot in his stomach.

“It’s ok, take your time and start from the beginning.”

Clay took a deep breath as he began recalling the events of the previous night...

Interesting.

“And so you believe these Elves have kidnapped your sister Uriana?”

“Yeah, kidnapped or…”

Clay's voice trailed off.

The man spent several minutes jotting notes down before looking back up at him.

“Let’s change the topic a bit. I’m going, to be honest with you here… we were pretty sure you were dead. When we arrived your body was burnt to a crisp, it was, as reported, unrecognizable. We had you down in the morgue for several hours, there are no windows and only one entrance to the room you were being held in, and video footage shows no one coming or going since then. Yet your body is gone, and you turn up back at home about 12 hours after the incident in question. Mind explaining how that's possible?”

“As I said, I woke up laying on the floor.”

“Listen, Clay, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve never seen or heard of something like this before. To come back from the dead and slip out of this building undetected, well that has to be some real high-tier magic. That doesn’t happen every day.”

Clay laughed at the ridiculousness of what he was suggesting “If you think I could have pulled this off you better take another look through my files. I even applied here yesterday, they put me through a bunch of tests as part of that, and I have no magical skills at all. Why don’t you explain to me how you think I could have managed that?”

The detective sat staring at him for a moment.

This guy is annoying, kill him.

“Honestly, I think there's something you're hiding here. None of this makes sense, including your story.”

See what I mean, kill him, and let's get out of here.

“It would be in your best interest to be honest here.”

Every minute you waste here the chances of finding your sister alive narrows, does she even matter to you?

“Shut up!” Clay shouted, the detective staring at him with bewilderment

“Excuse me?”

Clay rubbed his face, collecting his thoughts. “Ok, there was something else, I wasn’t going to mention it because, well, it sounds pretty crazy.”

The detective looked incredulous “crazier than everything you’ve told me so far?”

Don’t tell him.

“I’ve been hearing an uh… some kind of voice, in my head.”

Awh what did I just say?

“Even now, it’s telling me not to tell you about it.”

The detective gave him a concerned look “I see, have you ever heard this voice before?”

“No, it first came to me in… well I thought it was part of the dream I had last night but now I’m not even sure what was or wasn’t a dream.”

“Clay… do you have any history of mental illness?”

“No!” Clay blurted out, but honestly, maybe he was going crazy.

Nope, I’m real.

“Well, there are some tests we will do to see if we can figure this out.” The detective rose to his feet, “If you will excuse me, I will be back in a bit.”

Clay sat in silence, glad that whatever voice that was in his head had stopped speaking. The more he thought about the events of last night, the stronger the emotions welling up inside him became. He was filled with sorrow and regret, but more than anything else, he was filled with rage. Rage at his powerlessness to save his sister, and rage at the Elves who had taken her away, who had come into his happy little life and turned it upside down.

He slammed his hands onto the metal table in front of him, the pain helped to distract him from his anger a bit. A moment later the door opened again, but it wasn’t the detective who walked in this time. It was his father.

Clay quickly rose to his feet as his dad entered the room. “Dad I… Uriana…” the emotions swirling in him caught in his throat and caused him to choke on his words. “I...I… it’s all my fault” Clay began breaking down as he fought a losing battle to hold back his tears “It's my fault for not being able to do anything, I tried to save her I… I really did… but I couldn’t do a damn thing. I’m so sorry, I let her hand go, I failed her, I… I”

Clay couldn’t talk anymore, he just gritted his teeth and cursed himself for failing to hold back his emotions. He was too weak to even stop his tears.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re ok.”

Clay looked up at his father, who gave him that same calming smile he always had. “We thought we lost you, I don’t care how, I’m just happy you’re back. Everything will be ok. Also, you’ve got a little something”

Clay laughed as he wiped his eyes. He had been so caught up in his emotions that he was sure his father hated him. But his dad must have been just as hard on himself. Seeing the relief on his father’s face, knowing that despite everything that had happened and how he must feel about it all, he was still able to find comfort and a small bit of happiness in the situation. He was still able to smile and joke and hold his feelings in check. As the painful emotions began to leave Clay, they were replaced with admiration for the strength of his Father. It was a strength Clay lacked.

In an adjacent room, behind a one-way window, several detectives sat watching the scene unfold. “I think I’m convinced of his innocence, and that he's telling the truth about what happened.”

“Yeah, this leaves us with a real headache of a case on our hands though…”