“Mr. Smith, Are you alright?”

The sound of his teacher barely pulled him back from the fog that filled his vision.

What is going on? Mark silently questioned to himself.

Squeezing his eyes shut and slightly shaking his head, he tried to refocus. The piercing, judgmental and concerned faces of his classmates peered at him. Great, fainting on the first day. This is just what he needed, to be known as the kid who fainted.

Goodbye parties, goodbye social life

A searing headache dissipated these thoughts, forcing Mark to his knees. Putting his hands on his head, he tried to sooth the pain.

What was happening? Never had he experienced pain like this. Not even when he broke his leg falling out of a tree when he was younger.

As if the pain wasn’t enough, the room began to spin. Closing his eyes he held back the urge to vomit.  The sound of concerned voices slowly started drifting away.

Then an eerie stillness and pain turned to relief in a second. Even so, his body remained on edge. Something was wrong. The air seemed almost thicker and a decaying, pungent smell of shit and piss invaded his nose.

Had he soiled himself? The thought of that happening would have sent him running home and never coming back out again. No, he didn’t feel anything so that wasn’t it, but still, the smell remained.

Stranger still something felt heavy on his wrists. “Did I wear a watch today”? Mark silently questioned.

No, shaking it off, that didn’t make sense. He never wore his watch unless for special occasions and this surely wasn’t one. Nothing made sense anymore, this whole day had been hell and frankly way too weird.

Letting out a sigh, he began to lift his head up. No doubt to face mocking faces from his class.

Fear, strong confusion and fear jolted through him. Something definitely was wrong, the classroom had vanished.

 In its place brown, almost sandy walls dimly lit by what looked like black medieval torches surrounded him. Once shiny tile beneath was now a mix of dirt and sand at his feet.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“W-what the hell?!” panic-stricken Mark yelled.

“Quiet Yleffic” A quiet gruff voice threatened accompanied by a shove, nearly making Mark lose his balance.

Tilting his head to the source, Mark immediately froze in disbelief.  A large, muscular man in a brown- mattered top towered over him. Except it wasn’t a man!

At least any man Mark had seen in his short twenty-year life. His face was distorted, bumpy- like skin covered a snout that was almost pig-like. Pointy ears protruded from his black shoulder hair and seemingly twitched endlessly.

The pig man’s yellow eyes darted to the side, sending panic into Mark’s very core. Quickly he bowed his head looking away.

That’s when he saw the source of the weight on his wrists, it wasn’t a watch.

Chains!

Rusty brown chains ensnared his wrists. This upon further glance extended, connecting him to the pig man who was also in chains.

“What the fuck.. What the fuck is going on?” Mark nearly screamed in panic.

This was too much!

Prying his hands with all his might, he tried to pull his wrists through the chains. The pig man snorted at the futile attempt and returned his glance straight ahead. Mark fidgeting with the chains to no avail finally gave up; his hands were too big to pull through.

Strange, observing his hand, Mark noticed they were bigger and more rouged than usual; the same with his arms.

No, they weren’t bigger.

These weren’t his!

Scars lined his forearms; he had never had a scar, let alone multiple on his arms.

“This can’t be real!” Mark, in disbelief, continued telling himself.

“That’s it, I fainted and now I’m just dreaming” Mark chuckled silently reassuring himself.

“What are you babbling about yleffic?” The pig man snorted and pulled the chains. Sending pain and discomfort from the chains digging into marks skin.

Pain…

 It suddenly dawned on Mark, you don’t feel pain in dreams.

The urge to vomit crept up once again; it became harder to breathe as panic set in. Hands, that weren’t his own shook. Whatever was going on, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Moving his feet that too had chains around them mark began moving, going anywhere from here.

“Help! Mr. Cole? If this is a prank you got me.” Mark shouted hoping someone from his class would hear and help him.

“Stupid Yleffic, Stop it before they..” the pig man who had refused to move yelled.

A door slamming open cut his words short, sending him silent as death.

Mark, on the other hand, was relieved to see a man, step out of a wooden door that had lain hidden on the side.

 A normal man!

With a black like a scarf covering his head and much of his face, he wore no shirt which was odd to mark but he didn’t care one bit. Finally, some sort of normality had returned.

“Thank God, Look I need he-“

That’s all Mark could get out. A shot of pain and the sound of his head coiling back, filled the room. He had not even seen the black rod the man had hit him with, still in shock mark on shaky legs staggered back.

In utter confusion, the fear and pain-stricken mark once again cried out “h-help me, somebody”

*crack*

 The sound of the rod smacking him in the head once again resounded around the room.

Darkness slowly seeped into his vision, “stupid Yleffic” resounded in his head, before everything went black.