DREAMCATCHER || QIMIR

XI: Sticks and Stones

I was in a nightmare.

It was probably the first time that I was self aware of that, but perhaps it was because I was not in my own body, but instead was a bystander.

I was standing in the middle of a long, poorly lit hallway, and there were several cells from both sides as far as I could see. I instantly recognized it as the 'orphan farm', but the name hell suited it a lot better.

If I were to guess, they were probably keeping at least 50 children here, and that was only in this floor alone.

Despite only standing in one place, random scenes from the same place flashed before my eyes in fast forward, but what was consistent was the screams of pain echoing in the hallway.

All of a sudden the scene slowed down, and I looked to my left and realized that it was my own cell. I saw my younger self chained down with a metal collar in a small cell, facing the wall as a man I didn't recognize continuously whipped her back. Judging from the wounds, it was probably between the tenth to fifteenth whip.  It was an odd feeling to not feel the pain first hand, but still, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

I turned my attention back to my own cell and carefully walked around the man to see myself better. He seemed oblivious that I was there at all.

I stepped closer and crouched down to my younger self, but a shiver went down my spine as I saw what I least expected.

She had an unblinking, dead look in her eyes, mouth completely shut despite the continuous whipping. It was as if she had shut off all her feelings just so she could survive.

All of a sudden, my younger self turned her head to directly look at me.

"Why are they doing this to me?"

She asked in eerie calmness.

"Because you're an orphan," I answered bluntly. "You have no family nor freedom here."

"Make them stop..." she whispered, but it sounded more like a threat. The blacks of her eyes started to spread all over her eyes, and I slowly backed away in horror.

My heart pumped in my chest as if I knew an imminent danger was about to happen.

"No... stop..." I whispered, not to the man, but to her. She only responded with a slow shake of her head, a menacing smile slowly spreading across her lips.

"Too late."

All of a sudden, a scream erupted from her lips, and a shockwave emmitted fom her body. The man flung in the air and painfully hit the metal gate, hard enough to knock him unconscious and cause his nose to bleed. I was flung away as well, but for some reason my body passed through the walls, and I watched in horror as I saw my arms and legs start to dissolve into thin air like burnt paper.

I woke up, gasping, my eyes immediately wide open. I slowly realized that instead of rocks, the ceilings and walls were made out of metal. Where was I?

I felt an arm wrap around my waist, and I looked to my left to see Qimir lying beside me, in the middle of propping up his head on his elbow.

One thing that confused me was that he was lying beside me, and another thing was that he was shirtless.

"Another nightmare?" He gently asked.

"Yes," I heard myself answer, but it was not my voice. Well, it sounded like my own voice, but it didn't feel like I was the one speaking it. "How about you?"