I slowly opened my eyes and blinked a few times, but there was nothing to see except blackness. I hesitantly reached up to press my fingers against my cheek, to discover what was obstructing my vision, but my hands were firmly restrained behind my back. No matter how forcibly I yanked, my hands refused dichotomize from the wrists. They were seemingly in hand cuffs, and would not come forward enough to even graze my back. It made a light clinking sound when I moved my hands, so I guessed it was around some other metal, maybe a pole? I leaned back a bit and substantiated this by the ice cold rail I felt against my back, not very thick from the feel of it. It made me shiver since it was already chilly wherever I was.
I took a deep breath, taking in the musky smell. I could taste iron in the thin air, like the iron you taste when you accidentally bite your tongue. This scared me a bit. I was standing up so I tried to bring my feet forward, to see if I could get a better bearing of my surroundings. As soon as I did this my feet wouldn’t budge and a sharp searing pain pierced the middle of the heel area of my feet, making me breathe in sharply. The thin cold air bit at my throat. It was bearable, but certainly not something I wanted to do again.
“Oh God.” I hissed through tightly clenched teeth, not knowing what could possibly be wrong with my ankles.
That was when I started to panic, to feel that horrible sense of dread deep in my chest, gnawing at the edges of my fast-beating heart. I started to think.. I shouldn’t be here, This isn’t a good place. The sense of this place alone is enough to send a child crying for their parents. It didn’t seem…right I guess. My breathing sped up as the questions raced through my mind. Where was I? Why was I here? How did I get here? Did someone or something take me here? Was I kidnapped? Was I being punished for some crime that I didn’t commit? Was I in the hands of some government agency? My crazy government conspiracies automatically started to swerve out of control. The probability of each idea getting slimmer and slimmer as my thoughts roamed.
I closed my eyes, completely disregarding the fact that I couldn’t see anything anyways, and took a long, deep breath. I was attempting to calm myself down and focus more on the definite problem at hand. I was hand-cuffed to a pole and I hadn’t the slightest clue how I got there. Only but a fine filament of clouded memory held between one time to the next. The last clear thing I remembered was walking home from a convenient store, one that was only a few minutes’ walk from my house.
I remember I had gone there to pick up some milk? At least I think so. I was taking my time and it was late at night. I didn’t have to worry about, well, worrying anyone else. I lived alone, because I was only seventeen and just out of high school.
After I left the store, I started my walk home. It seemed just like a normal walk. There was the soft thud of my sneakers on the pavement and the crickets chirping their late night tunes. Then something, I’m not sure what, but something put a damp rag over my mouth. Everything starting coming in and out of focus and I couldn’t get my thoughts straight enough to do anything. Then there was a large fuzzy blur where my memory should have been. The next clear thing was when I ‘woke up’ here.
A sudden clanking sound to my right pulled me out of my dazed recollection. My head jerked towards that direction despite the fact that I couldn’t see anything. The clanking of metal against metal came again when I turned my head. I could feel a thick chain around my neck that was preventing my head from moving forwards too far.
A soft chuckle echoed around me, coming from the general direction of the clanking noise. I would guess a young woman’s chuckle, but I couldn’t be certain. I honestly couldn’t be certain about anything, given the situation I was in.
Then there was the sudden scratch of fabric against my face as a bag-shaped cloth was gently tugged off my head. I was finally granted the ability of sight, but as soon as I could see I wished I couldn’t. I was in a small concrete room with a door to my right side that led to thick velvet-like darkness. One of the walls was right behind me. The room was dimly lit by a single flickering light bulb that threatened to go out at any moment and leave me to drown in the utter darkness. There was a short metal table to my left and a wooden one to my right. What really freaked me though were the implements on the tables.
The tables held things such as ridiculously sharpened knives, machetes, a slim chainsaw, a nail gun, a blowtorch, a drill, etc. Some of the exceedingly dangerous ‘instruments’ on the table had dried, a few with fresh, blood on them. Some looked as if they had been recently cleaned and sharpened. Whoever possessed these items definitely knew how to upkeep them properly.
There was a large shiny drain in the middle of the room. Watered-down blood was slowly flowing into it. Large chunks of what looked like human flesh wouldn’t fit through the small holes and just clogged up around the drain. It looked as if it were up kept as well, though it’s owner had yet to clean it out from the last ‘session’.
A thin boy stood right in front of me. He was a few inches taller than me and had a lean physique. His short black hair stuck out everywhere and hung in his eyes, a cute mess. He had light freckles across his nose and cheeks and very boyish features even though I could estimate him to be at least seventeen. He had on a tight, short-sleeved black shirt and a pair of dark baggy jeans that were a bit too long for him. His black sneakers were old and worn-out. The boy’s clothes greatly contrasted with his smooth alabaster skin. The most ominous thing though, was the soft innocent smile that was playing at the boy’s thin pale lips.
I glanced down and realized I was in nothing but my black silk boxers. This caused my cheeks to stain a dull pink despite the darkly twisted situation I was in. I looked down again, this time at my feet and gasped. There was a rod going right through the middle of the back area of my feet, above my heels, below my ankles. The rod went back into the wall behind me, so there was no use trying to move it, if I were to be so hasty as to try to do so. Dark blood crusted around where the rod met my feet. My breathing started speeding up in the mild panic that was now starting to eat at me again.
There was pain at the top of my head as the boy yanked my head back up by my shoulder length blond hair. My shocking bright blue eyes met his beautiful deep green ones. His gaze softened just a little before returning to his almost cold stare. His alluring eyes were like small dark pools of melted emerald.
His hand came to the side of my face. His long thin fingers trailed across my cheek, caressing the side of my face much like the caress of a lover though somehow different from that.
“You’re a very beautiful young boy . . .” He whispered ever so softly. His light scratchy voice was unnerving. It made him sound like he was out of it, off in his own little world. His emerald eyes were dazed, unfocused as if he were looking right through me at some distant reminiscence. He leaned forward an inch or two, his lips parting slightly.
“W- What are you doing?!” I stuttered, the surprise clear in my voice as I turned my head away from him so that my cheek was facing him instead. This caused his lips to brush very lightly against my cheek, leaving a burning sensation where his lips touched. I breathed in sharply. His eyes refocused. He leaned back, tilting his head to the side slightly, and looked at me as if I hadn’t been there a second ago.
The boy sighed while smiling in a happy-sad kind of way, “Ah well, We can‘t keep dwelling on the past can we? . . .”. I couldn’t tell if he were speaking to me or to himself. He picked up a sharp smooth knife and smirked, seeming a little happier now. “Well at least you look like you‘ll be plenty of fun.” He sounded excited, excited about the who-knows-what that he was going to do to me. “So what’s your name, beautiful?” He whispered softly while slowly sliding the blade of the knife down the side of my face, though not applying enough pressure to draw blood.
“A- Angel” I stuttered, staring at him with slightly frightened eyes. He smiled a bit more pleasantly while taking a step closer to me.
“What a pretty name . .” He whispered as he leaned close to me. There was the sudden sound of the knife slicing through the thin air. My breathing hitched as I felt the sharp pain on my cheek. Blood slowly slid down my face and dripped from my chin. A shallow cut had been slashed across my right cheek. The boy ran his tongue across my cheek slowly, licking the blood off. Again, my breathing started to speed up, my heartbeat getting quicker. What was with this guy?
“W- What do you want?” I stuttered, staring up at him with searching blue eyes. He laughed lightly at my question, as if it had been some sort of inside joke that only he knew. His laugh wasn’t far from what you would think of a celestial god. It made me want to laugh with him, to understand what brought his amusement and to be brought into his own little private joke.
“My name’s Derik.” He said, looking down at me. The amusement danced in his deep green eyes, a slight smiled playing at his lips.
He slowly ran the knife down my chest and traced my light abs with it.
“W-What do you want?” I managed to stutter again. He laughed, his beautiful deep green eyes dancing and sparkling with that same misunderstood amusement that I wanted so badly to figure out.
“You...” He whispered in my ear. A shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t quite understand what he meant, then it hit me.
“W-Wait, A-Are you going to k-keep me here?” I stuttered, shocked. He merely smiled deviously, not answering my question.