I woke up to uncomfortable swaying and irritating creaking, along with my head feeling like it could split apart any minute.

Along With my splitting headache, I couldn't even feel my limbs.

What had they done to me

It was as if they had been asleep for a long time as if I hadn't moved for a long time, was this the effect of the anesthesia?

Well, that felt right since I have been on a hospital bed for a long time, but what didn't feel right was the smell, the horrid rancid smell that did not belong in a hospital.

My hands twitched when I tried to move them and that made me even more nauseated.

I couldn't even move my eyelids much less my eyes which confused me more than anything else.

After a few seconds, everything slowly started coming back into focus.

When I finally opened my eyes the first thing I saw was white blinding light.

It was bright enough to hurt my eyes but not enough to make me want to close them again. I squinted my eyes trying to block it out but it didn't seem to help much.

The second thing I noticed was the sharp pain around my neck that was pulsating behind my temples and

then I noticed my arms, they were strapped tight to my sides in what seemed like chains.

what the fuck

I tried to wiggle away from the restraints which proved impossible considering how tightly they held me down.

Panic started rising in my heart along with the scream that was somehow stuck in my throat but when did open my mouth I felt dry and sore instead, I began struggling against the goddamed chains but that did nothing except cause more pain,

Right then the horrid rancid ripe smell came back that invaded my senses like a disease.

It took all my strength just to breathe it in as I was sure that if I had been able to inhale it properly, I would have passed out.

Finally, I managed to open my eyes completely and see that I was inside some sort of cage with an opening on each side that was filled with a thick bar.

I looked around and realized that there were other people packed in there with me, mostly children and two or three women who were covered in bruises and scratches.

My heart thumped loudly inside my chest as panic settled into my bones like an infection.

There were too many unfamiliar faces, none of which I knew.

Was I in some sort of prison,

did the hospital mistakenly sell my body to some weird scientific experiment

I'm sure that much was obvious,

But then why was I chained?

I tried moving but I couldn't move my arms, I couldn't move, but right then I saw my feet

I felt surreal cause

They weren't my feet

they were too small to be my feet

too white to be my fucking feet

No, No, No this isn't happening.

This can't be real.

I couldn't breathe.

"Wake up, Dan! Please Wake up!" but I didn't wake up cause I was already wide awake, in pain, starved, weak, and in some fucking child's body.

I tried to speak but no voice would come out, only dry raspy croaks left my mouth instead as tears formed in my eyes and threatened to spill out.

I closed my eyes shuttle wishing for this nightmare to end but I know in my bones that it wouldn't stop until the very last breath was breathed.

I wanted to move, to shout to escape but I wasn't able to do any of that.

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

I will not give up now.

what the fuck was happening one minute I was in my hospital bed in New York recovering after my surgery and the next I was here, chained and helpless.

"Please, someone tell me where am I?" I whispered hoarsely. The language that came out of my mouth was alien and nontangible not to mention the sweet low pitched raspy voice.

There was a rustle at one end before a man in black robes appeared at the door wearing a mask and holding something that looked like a wooden club.

"Where are we?" I repeated looking directly into his masked face while he stared back at me through the iron bars.

The man banged the club against the iron bars causing my headache to deepen causing me nauseated and said something in some strange tongue.

I froze. I had never heard of such a language before, what on Earth was going on here?

Suddenly my entire world turned upside down. A huge wave of pain hit my head and my vision went fuzzy.

I felt myself getting weaker and weaker.

The pounding pain was unbearable.

Then I felt the familiar warm sensation flowing through my veins and I collapsed,

and then vision appeared and began to play

It was like I was watching a movie through some else eyes.

I saw a small house with lots of windows; the roof was grayish purple with blue streaks and the whole house looked like a castle made of old brick.

There were also green lawns and a flower garden.

Tall trees and a beautiful blue sky surrounded the yard. In the middle of the yard stood a stone tower covered with moss.

I saw a woman nurse me as a babe, I saw her smiling and laughing as she cradled me in her arms.

I saw a man sitting beside me as he read me storybooks and watched me sleep.

these were my parents, my father, and my mother.

But I also saw myself.

I was standing by myself in my living room staring at myself in the mirror, but I did not see myself but a three-year-old child with black hair and brown mocha eyes, who smiled brightly at me in my reflection with bright full of life eyes.

There was a scream behind me as the scene shifted

I saw the woman again, disappearing and leaving me and my father

And then I saw the man my father crumbling into pieces.

I was left alone.

I closed my eyes feeling tears start slipping down my cheeks as I curled in on myself sobbing in anguish.

Everything was moving slowly like time was frozen for me.

I watched as the man in front of me knocked the wooden stick across my forehead and I cried out in pain and fell onto my stomach.

I heard a clunk, then another, then the unmistakable sound of metal on metal striking as the boy and the father practiced sword fighting, then my father's screams.

then I saw no not saw felt the beatings that man inflicted on me.

This was wrong, it was not supposed to go like this, this was not supposed to happen, I thought as my eyes welled with tears.

I cried and cried until eventually, I couldn't cry anymore and all that remained inside my head was empty and void of feeling like I was completely numb and hollow.

Then I saw myself practice magic.

the boy who was me played with fire and it lit me up, it ignited my soul, it changed me.

I saw myself throwing around fireballs and dancing with fire, I saw dazzling light that I was manipulating with little effort.

But then I started seeing the fire grow bigger in my hands, larger and brighter until suddenly everything was ablaze.

Everything was destroyed, it was all gone.

Everything that ever existed was gone and it hurt, it hurt so damn bad.

I could feel my heart shattering with pain as he left. I slowly started to piece together bits and pieces of a very vague past. Some parts were hard for me to understand, others were easy, and still, others felt like strangers.

***

When I came to the first thing that I saw was the open gray beautiful sky, it reminded me a lot of my house back home. The second thing I saw was the green blue endless sea which was absolutely breathtaking.

It reminded me of those moments in my childhood where I used to take trips to the beach with my grandparents on summer days.

Back then I was happy and carefree like my grandmother described herself to be.

All I cared about was my parents and my brother who I loved dearly.

Back then, I was happy.

The sky was not clear above us it was cloudy and raining lightly.

There was thunder somewhere, but I was too focused on the ocean to really notice it.

I tried to sit up but the chains around my wrist made my movements impossible, so I stayed lying down instead.

Then realization of the reality of where I was and what was happening to me caused the panic I'd felt earlier to come back.

I felt myself being shaken gently and I turned my head to see that I was lying on something soft, like a blanket or something.

I was scared to look further because the closer I looked at the blanket, the more I could see the more afraid i became the blanket it was covered in blood.

I shivered in disgust.

It was then I noticed the rocking, the unmistakable sensation of the soft gentle swaying of a boat on sea.

It sent chills down my spine and my whole body quaked uncontrollably.

wasn't I in some sort of cage when did i get on a boat?

I felt the cold wetness seeping into my pants as if it had soaked right through me,

I quickly pulled up my legs and wrapped my arms around my knees hoping that whatever I was lying on wasn't wet with blood.

That didn't work because the moment I touched my clothes I felt it soaking through and my skin tingling from the cold water dripping down my body.

My mind flashed back to the last thing I remembered before I lost consciousness.

I felt panic rise in my chest.

I was going to die here.

I knew that I was, I could feel it in my heart and soul.

I needed to do something.

Anything.

I couldn't stay here.

The rocking of the boat had grown slower as the minutes passed by, which meant that the ship I was on probably wasn't moving.

Which meant there must be some kind of anchor keeping us on our course.

I glanced around again to make sure that I wasn't dreaming when I saw another small figure no not just a single figure a bunch more, a group of people chained and shackled and lying all around the floor of the deck.

My eyes scanned over every one of them and I found out that all were unconscious.

Some appeared to be dead, and some appeared alive but there were too many to count.

They were all bound with heavy chains around their ankles, their wrists and even their necks.

I gasped as I realized that i too just looked like them, all shackled and chained to different parts of the floor.

I could only stare at them in horror.

The longer I studied them, trying desperately to make sense of what was happening to me,

the sicker and angrier I got with whoever dared take me.

Who the hell did this to me?! Why?! How did I find myself on that boat?! then it all came back to me