Bluewoods

Prologue

I woke amidst rain and mist, and a story that wasn't mine.

It was dark, very dark, until I realized I was blindfolded, and then it wasn't dark, I just couldn't see anything. I was lying down on something cold and metallic, my hands were tied down with the same metallic material, and so were my feet. When it stopped being completely dark, as I realized my eyes were still functional, I felt something warm, like incandescent, yellow light bulbs, hovering above my head. Someone pressed a hard, cold hand to my forehead, brushing it with the thumb. Had I been able to feel my arms or legs I'm certain I would have reacted to the touch. But I felt only my mind, not my brain but my mind seemed to exist. So my mind panicked momentarily. Momentarily, because as soon as I had the notion of wanting to panic, I found my body. It was like coming back from nothingness, I felt sharp jabbing pains all over me, in my head, in my chest, my arms, my legs. From feeling no part of my body I went to feeling everything and it was excruciatingly painful.

I felt my bones re-growing themselves from nothingness, muscle and tissue sprouting back in place and all my nerve-endings suddenly highly unstrung. But I still hadn't found sight or my voice. I was certain there was a face in shape, eyes, mouth, ears, nose, everything but they were just there, not in my control.

And then it was over, all the pain gone and a strange warmth spreading over me. It was as if I had been jammed into a tiny sphere where all my physical existence diminished and then brought back out of it again. I was now more aware of the light above me, it was growing brighter but I still couldn't see anything: I was looking at the light through my closed eyelids and I saw nothing else. I did hear something though. And felt something: felt the absence of something. The hand pressed against my forehead seemed to be not there anymore, I had left it back in the sphere.

***

"Hey...Are you awake?" some murmured in my ear, very quietly.

"You idiot, I think we'd know if she was awake." Another voice, male, maybe boyish but distant.

"Aaron! Don't do that! Royce said not to wake her up." A girl's voice, still distant.

"Well she's been here like this for rather long, you don't think there's something wrong with her?" the first male voice spoke again, closer to me.

Maybe it was the close proximity of another human being or maybe my body had grown tired of the vague state hovering between existence and nonexistence but at the last comment I stirred slightly.

I felt warm, covered in some kind of thick quilt, or quilts, my forehead seemed to be tied around something or maybe it was the other way around. The air around me was humid; I could almost feel the thick fog, smell the light drizzle. I loved the rain but I could not feel my eyes enough to open them and see if it was actually raining. I tried to collect some memory of...of anything but my mind came up with only muffled voices, a few lights flashing dimly. There was no reminder of where, what, when, anything. Nothing. I was lying down on my back on something soft and warm. I tried to move my hands, at first there was no response, my limbs refused to co-operate but on further insistence from my brain parts of me; my arms, my legs rebelled against the shock of being still for so long and I tried to raise myself up and a pang of pain shot through me at which I heard something like a scream from somewhere. Soon enough I realized it was I that had caused that scream. A soundless scream. My eyes would still not open.

"Is she awake?" again, I heard the murmur near me, there was strained tension in whoever said that's voice, "I didn't do anything I swear." the voice was almost frantic now.

I wanted to see but my eyes seemed to be unintentionally shut, not in my control anymore, but I had to see. Using every ounce of my will power, I forced my eyes open and another wave of aching pain rolled off me that was soon replaced with light gushing in. I squinted and moved my hand painfully to cover my eyes. Slowly, removing my hand, I took in my surroundings.

I was lying on a cot and sure enough was covered in several multi-colored quilts with strange patterns. The ground, the air, the cot and quilts, everything felt wet. I could feel some sort of gauze tied around my forehead and several other areas: around my shoulder and my right leg. Parts of me I did not even recognize, hurt.

I gazed up at the ceiling; it was a bright blue color, clear and spotless. A small gasp escaped me as I realized it was the sky. I looked around and realized that the stone ceiling had a huge round hole right above me. I couldn't crane my neck to take in the rest of my surroundings but the whole...feel of the room or whatever it was that I was in said it was all made of stone. With some effort I managed to turn my head just enough to be shocked into leaning back immediately, causing another wave of pain. I saw a boy's face, he didn't seem older than 15, staring right at me. He had deep blue eyes, innocent eyes and a wide smile. He stepped back several paces as he saw me clearly shocked.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said in a kind, friendly voice. I wanted to reply, say anything but I couldn't find my voice. Damn it! Was any part of me working?

"I...I don't..." I managed to croak and try and get up but only groaned. My arms felt too wobbly to support me.

Watching me struggle to get up, a girl, maybe a little older than the boy I saw earlier, quickly walked up to where I was lying but stopped short of helping me sit up. Hesitant, her hands hung in mid-air above me awkwardly.

"You should...uh, keep lying. You're not strong enough yet." She had a pleasant voice, a little chirpy but not annoying. Her eyes were the same shade of blue. She pushed a lock of light brown hair behind her ear and tried to smile.

"What is...where am I?" I finally managed to voice a coherent thought.

"Oh, well, don't you know?" she answered with another question. What did that even mean? How would I know? I was just...nothing. My mind was entirely blank. I had no indication of any what, where, when or how.

"No I don't, what is going on? Where am I?" I asked, unable to keep the harshness out of my tone.

"You're in Bluewoods." The answering voice was male, deep and came from the corner of the room. I couldn't see who spoke but something in his voice told me I would be getting answers soon.