“You monster!” They roared. His ears ringing. Covering them with his hands was no use; the deafening sound drowned out the world. Menacing shadows surrounded him, blocking his escape. Their presence seemed to drain the world of all warmth. As he tried to move, he found his body had become cold, his joints stiffening, his lungs burning as if they were on fire. Hands firmly latched onto him, as he kicked and screamed, desperately trying to escape. The shadows dragged him through the cold mud. His eyes darted around frantically in search of help. All he saw were the smiles of those inky silhouettes that seemed to mock him. Their eyes burned like twin torches in the inky dark of the night. They looked at him with a mixture of terror, confusion, and disgust.

The enraged specters shouted, “You will bring nothing but destruction to our people!”. He tried to deny their words but could not. It felt as if an invisible hand had grasped a hold of his throat, choking him, preventing him from speaking. He tried to break free from their grasp, but it was useless, there were too many. Every time he felt as if he were about to escape, another shadow would grab a hold of him. Relentlessly they marched down the dirt road, dragging him along as he kicked and screamed.

The specters began to chant as one. “Demon!...Demon!...Demon!” Their voices became one, sounding like steady thunderous drums. As he continued to struggle against them, he noticed that they were approaching the shore. In the distance, he could make out what appeared to be a small cage and, behind that, a ship. The dark silhouettes became increasingly violent, tossing his battered body around like a leaf in a hurricane. Closer and closer the shadows brought him to the cage. Its bars seemed like cold metal fangs, waiting to devour him. With each passing second, he grew steadily more terrified. Despite the futility of his efforts, he fought all the more determinedly against the overwhelming. The raging torrent of hands slammed him into the cage and the bars closed around him. His supernatural captors showed no signs of remorse.

***

He was being dragged along a dirt path. Using his bloodied hands and feet, he scrabbled at the rutted, filthy ground in a desperate attempt to slow their progress. The noose around his neck was tight, making it hard to breathe and choking him with each step. A burly man pulled on the rope, dragging him along the beaten path. When the man felt particularly fed up, he would violently tug the rope so hard that it would dig even further into his neck and gouge a fresh layer of skin. He could feel his consciousness fading and so, abandoning his attempts to slow their progress momentarily, he clawed desperately at the rope around his neck to loosen it. Spots began to form in his vision. Realizing it was useless, he returned to trying to arrest their progress by grabbing ahold of anything he could find on their path. With one hand clawing the rope on his neck, and the other stretched as far as he could manage, he was finally able to firmly grasp a tree root that jutted out from the dirt.

The world began to turn gray. His vision blurred, his lungs burned with pain; a sickening pressure had built up behind his eyes. Rapidly losing his strength now, his grasp on the tree root loosened. The man then gave another strong tug on the rope. The force was so great that it sent him reeling back, smashing the back of his head onto the ground. The noose loosened, finally allowing him to gasp in a deep, ragged breath as his world spun around him. Now that he was no longer struggling, the brute was easily able to continue dragging him along. As they continued, he slowly began to regain his strength, and his breathing became increasingly regular.

He rolled over and began feebly struggling once again. What little strength he’d managed to recover was insufficient to offer much resistance. Looking back at the path, he could see a trail of his own blood with the occasional smeared handprint alongside it on roots and stones he’d grappled with to try and slow their progression. He calmed himself for a minute or two in order to recover, before once violently struggling against the man dragging him along. He heard another voice close ahead, calling out furiously.

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“Get rid of him already!”

“I’m sorry, Sir!” his captor replied, pulling on the rope with renewed strength.

“N-no please… please!” he cried out pathetically in response, pleading with his tormentor. His vision blurred again, and his body felt cold and numb. His fingers clumsily grappled with the noose around his neck, trying - for what felt like the millionth time - to break free. Blood flowed freely from his fingertips as he tried digging them into the ground. He turned around to look behind him, desperately trying to see where he was being taken. In the distance, he could make out a small wooden wagon with two men standing by it. On the ground beside the wagon was a small wooden box. It looked like the same box he had seen them bury dead people in.

Upon seeing the wooden box, he quickly realized what they intended to do. They would bury him alive! He fought with every ounce of strength he had left; he didn’t want to die like this. The brutish man glanced back at him in frustration, though his eyes quickly became filled with pity. Turning his head back around in silence, the man continued to tug on the rope. As they drew closer to the wagon, he could hear one of the other men shout and yell at them. It sounded like the voice he’d heard from before. He turned around to see an older looking dark elf man began quickly striding towards him.

“Hurry it up or you'll also find yourself in a box!” The dark elf shouted.

He saw a large rock along the path! Reaching out, he secured his grip on it, holding onto it for dear life. The man about to pick up speed stumbled back a little, not expecting this resistance. Tugging and pulling on the rope, the man attempted to break him free from the rock. The dark elf was now alongside the man, pulling on the rope, berating him.

“You, useless idiot!” the dark elf screamed, walking past the man, before stopping and towering over him. The dark elf was tall and thin, with rough-looking features. He had a long-crooked nose, with a thin white beard. The most distinctive thing on the old dark elf’s face was a crescent-shaped scar under his right eye. The dark elf looked down at him, with a look of disgust on his face, before he raised his foot in the air and began mercilessly stomping on his fingers with his boot. Ryo refused to let go, hugging the rock even closer to himself. Growing more frustrated now, the dark elf ceased stomping on his hands. Instead, the man pulled his foot back and kicked him squarely in the face. The strike stunned him, his eyes fluttered, his vision exploded with stars. His grip loosened as the man that held the rope gave a quick tug, pulling him away from the rock. The man dragged his now almost lifeless body across the ground towards the wooden box.

“I-I want to live…please.” he pleaded meekly to the two men.

He felt himself being quickly lifted and then dropped with a thud; wooden walls now surrounded him. Grabbing the sides, he tried quickly lifting himself out of the box. Though it was no use, as the man that had been dragging him followed the demanding words to push him down. As the two of them struggled against one another, the man grew flustered with his resistance and shot a glance back toward the dark elf anxiously, as if trying to confirm the previous orders.

“Tch! You useless fool!” The dark elf shouted, clicking his tongue. He could see the anger and fury welling up in the man’s eyes. The dark elf stood atop him, pulling back his left arm and clenching his fist.

“Know your place, pig!” The dark elf yelled venomously, striking him in the face with his fist. The world exploded into stars once again, as his head reeled back in pain and his hands fell from the top of the box. Repeatedly the man struck him, forcing him further into the box as his battered, broken body slid down in pain. Feeling light-headed now, he could taste his own blood. The world went dark, the pain finally ended.