‘William, it’s time to go to sleep now.’

He felt his body stop walking and he wanted to do what the voice told him. He always felt so good when he did what the voice told him to do.

‘Close your eyes, William.’

His eye’s started to water and he was so tired. Had he ever been tired before? He wasn’t sure, but the question didn’t help him to obey the voice. The voice was his world. He looked through his tears and all he could see was swirling white light. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to close his eyes. He tried to force his eyes to close but for some reason his body betrayed him.

‘Lie down, William. Close your eyes. Sleep, now.’

He felt his legs buckle under the weight of his body. He crashed down to the ground and moaned as he discovered a new sensation that he had never felt before. It felt hot and uncomfortable. The white light had always felt soft and warm. This sensation was hot and stingy. The voice was still with him and he was happy. The hot stingy sensation flew from his mind, and he happily closed his eyes, just as the voice told him too.

‘Good boy, William.’

He liked being called a good boy. He felt so comfortable here.

‘William?’

He smiled as he listened to the voice.

‘William, you have done very well for me. Now you must sleep. You must sleep so you can be with me. You do want to be with me, don’t you?’

He nodded his head as he rested on the white light. He wanted to be with the voice more than anything. It was what he had always wanted.

‘Sleep now, William, sleep for me.’

He tried to relax as fully as possible. He had wanted this for as long as he had existed and now, he was going home. He was going to be with the voice forever. His heart leapt at the idea, and he was so excited his heart rate quickened.

‘Relax sweet, William.’

His breathing slowed and he felt his eyes weigh down on themselves. He couldn’t have opened them even if he had wanted too, and he didn’t. All he wanted to do was sleep. He felt himself drift down deeper. He could see the white light that permeated through his relaxed and tightly shut eyelids. He was going to sleep, just like the voice wanted him too. That thought made him happy, comfortable, and even more relaxed.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

He felt a sharp hot sensation rip through his body. His eyes flew open, and he was shocked to see a strange four-legged form standing next to him. He could see eyes just above where his body was melding with the form. He could make out white things underneath those eyes and he knew they were teeth.

As the hot, stingy sensation ripped through his body he realized that what he was feeling was called pain and that it was coming from this strange invader. The thing with teeth was biting him. He saw golden eyes and black fur and realized that he knew what those colors were. He remembered that this form was called a wolf. Why was it here? Where had the voice gone? The voice that had always been with him was strangely silent and he looked around trying to get up.

The wolf held him down and shook his body as he tried to stand up. He wondered what happened to his shadow. The shadow that he had always played with, surely it would help him get away from this vile creature that was hurting him. He shouted out for help but the only sound that came out of his mouth where painful yelps.

The wolf continued to shake him and as the pain grew in intensity, he saw that they were not alone. The almost pure swirling light that had always surrounded him was now being stained by the appearance of several shapes. The forms coalesced from the light and came to resemble his shadow. He was surrounded by five or six of them. He looked down at his attacker smiling. He knew that his shadow and his friends would teach this thing a lesson for hurting him. As he looked down, he saw that the wolf was covered in black fur. He twisted around causing more pain as he felt an impulse to see something. He strained his neck to see that this wolf had a white starburst on its chest.

He stopped moving.

He recognized this wolf. Thoughts of a time before the white light and his shadow came to his mind, slowly, as if through a dense fog of dreamy forgetfulness. Soon his mind was flooded with images and memories.

He realized that this wolf was his guide and had saved him several times in the past few days. He remembered that the white light and his shadow had only existed for a short time. He hadn’t always been here. He remembered his mother and father, his valley, and the moon. He remembered the stars and the old man, the sun. He stopped struggling and the pain in his side subsided.

It all came back to him in a rush.

The escape from his valley, the run through the crevice, the meal of rabbits he and his wolf guide had shared everything.

He remembered the night escape from the helicopter and the hounds that hunted them.

As his memories slammed back into his head, he realized that the shadows were closing in on him and the she-wolf. He tried to stand up. His legs wouldn’t move. He realized that his body was growing cold. There was no warmth in this place, only the bright, soft, white light and these shadows.

The shadows seemed to be grinning down at him. No matter how close the shadows moved to him, they never seemed to come into focus. They were always surrounded and obscured by the swirling white light of this place.

The she-wolf growled at the approaching shadows, but that did nothing to slow their approach. He was trying to make his legs obey his orders but they remained where they were, useless on the ground. He tried to lift himself up on his elbows. He managed to get his back off the ground and hold his head up. It was like trying to roll a house sized boulder up a hill. It was quite possibly the hardest thing he had ever done. He looked around him and the cold of this place increased, and he felt his body shivering, though he still could not make his legs move.