Shattered (Completed)

Chapter 2 - Awake

I'm awoken when the glass is shattered. It falls to the bottom of the Cylinder, along with the water. The water crashes down like a small wave. And then I'm there. Falling from the sky.                             

Pain rips through me. I release a groan in pain. The shards of glass pierce my leotard and flesh, deep into my back. A mask over my face muffles the sound I emit. What is this? What's happening? Where am I?

I'm flooded with questions. They swirl in my mind, but I can't grasp any of them now. They're in my brain but just out of reach. So many things are here. People. Thoughts. Noises. Lights. And they all seem so. . . New. As if I've never witnessed light or people or thoughts or anything else here before. But I know I have. Because anyone my age should have known what everything is. Besides - I was just in a room with light and people and noises and thoughts.

"Hey," says a voice. It's stern and urgent. "Stop groaning. It doesn't hurt that bad. Come on, we need to get going." When I open my eyes, I see a blurry figure, blurred my tears that prick my eyes. I can't tell a gender, any colors at all. My breathing increases and I attempt to scramble away. It only causes more pain. The shards dig deeper into my back. 

I can't speak due to the mask, but I try. "Help me, please, it hurts," I try. I'm surprised I can manage a sound. Surprised about all of this. My voice echos in my mind. When do I remember it sounding like that? It's deep, just a little, and soft. But female. I groan again. I can't think of anything else anymore. "Oh, gosh, it hurts," I whine. 

The voice sighs. "Look, I get it. You're new to the world and everything is crazy. But we need to go, okay? Before anything bad happens," Hands grasp the mask around my mouth and nose. Pressure on both sides, and then it's off. Relief floods me. I'm gasping for breathes of the fresh, different, cold air that is now flooding my senses. This is real air. What had I been breathing before? Why is this so different?

But then pain.

"Glass." says my voice. My now weak and feeble voice. I more croak out the words than anything. "Back," 

"What?" Big hands grasp my arm and spin me a little, to where anyone in front of me would get a look of my back. The voice gasps. "Oh, God! I- Um, okay, one second," It must look bad if hands that strong make the person that own them scared. Suddenly, I'm hoisted into the air. The hands are gentle with my back, locking one beneath my neck and the other beneath my knees. "It's okay. Just try to breath, you'll be fine,"

I do as the voice says. The voice moves, and I move with the voice. People are shouting words I can't correspond to any definition. Bullets are whizzing past us, everywhere, but the voice nor I am getting hit. Red lights swarm above head, gathering together with white and black, making an array of colors that I don't understand whatsoever. My thoughts swirl still. And oh my God, it's so confusing. It all makes me close my eyes and let the exhaustion this event has given me drag me into the realm of silence and sleep.

I guess I used to believe that I'd be saved by a prince charming. Back when I knew everything about myself. But you know how girls do. "Oh, I'll be in such danger that a prince of handsome and heroic features will have to climb to the top of my beautiful tower and he'll save me! And then he'll fall in love with my innocent and grace, and he'll kiss me, and then he'll get on one knee and ask me to marry him! And then we'll have a gorgeous wedding -" Yada yada yada. Every girls dream. Yes, mine, too.  

But the rescue wasn't exactly all beauty and love. It was blood, pain, and everything else that comes with glass being placed in your skin so deeply that you feel like your life is over. Nothing dreamy about that. I couldn't even see his face - let's not forget the fact that I was in such pain that I didn't even know if my "Prince Charming" was a guy or girl.