Under Worlders

Two

Light. 

So. Much. Light. 

Bright light. My eyes hurt terribly. It was too bright. I screamed. I scratched at my eyes. Trying to close them. The pain. The pain was terrible. I curled up. Scratching. Screaming. Dying.

I knew he was going to kill me, but I had not imagined the pain would be this great. I immediately regretted not killing him.

I tried to look at him. I couldn't. The light was burning my eyes. I could feel it burning my skin too. I touched my arm. It was warm. I felt for my dagger. When I found it I tried as hard as could to stab myself. There were cries and I was suddenly being attacked. This was an unfair fight. I couldn't see. How was I supposed to win?

I tried opening my eyes again to see my attackers. This time the light  was not as bad. There was something covering my eyes. What? It made the world look darker, yet I knew from earlier that it was extremely bright. What had they put on me?

I lifted my hands to my face, it was something hard, but small. It only covered my eyes. I looked up. The person who had attacked me had taken my dagger when I had stopped to find out what was on me. He had broad shoulders and hair growing from his chin and above his mouth. I stared. It seemed strange that hair would grow there. His hair was long, but not long enough to meet up with the hair on his chin.

"You. Hairy man. Give dagger back." I pointed at the hairy faced man. Some people laughed, including the hairy faced man. I did not understand why they found my seriousness to be amusing.

Then the hairy faced man spoke. He had a deep yet gentle voice. "My name is Luke. And I took it from you because you were waving it around. You could have killed someone."

"Not true. I kill myself. Light hurt my eyes. Make me scream and die painful," I wished I was able to speak more English. But what did you expect after living in a place where you hardly ever spoke at all?

The hairy faced man - Luke - looked shocked. He seemed to have been under the impression I was trying to attack the people around me. 

"Well, we wouldn't want you to do that, now would we? We still have to collect the results! Here, I'll get Dilan here to take you to where you will be staying. Don't worry, it is quite a dark room so your eyes should be fine. Dilan!" Luke waved his hand, which I assumed was a way of telling someone to come to you, and the boy called Dilan came over to him. 

Dilan turned out to be the small scrawny boy I had met in the Underworld. He reached out his hand. Thinking it was a sign of respect, I stuck out my hand as well. He smiled and chuckled a little. Then he walked on motioning for me to follow.

On our way to my 'room', which I still did not know what that was yet, Dilan started asking me questions.

"What's it like down there? How do you live in such a dark place? Do you have like night vision or something?" he seemed interested enough.

"It dark. Kill or be killed. Don't just see. Hear. Smell. Feel. Survive," I replied. I didn't need to use any other words then those to explain where I came from. I suddenly wondered what had happened to my things.

"Oh," Dilan seemed speechless. It seemed that he had been expecting something else from me, "Sorry I asked."

I looked at him strangely. "Sorree?"

"Yes, sorry," He looked at me and realised something, "You don't know what that means, do you?"

I shook my head.

"It means you feel bad that you did something, so you say sorry as a way of asking for forgiveness," he explained.

"I have no for-givi-ness," I said, searching my clothes, which were more of rags than clothes.

"No," Dilan laughed, "Forgiveness is a feeling. Not a thing."

I reached out and touched his arm, "I feel nothing."

He laughed again, "Not that type of feeling."

Before I could ask he started walking again. I followed silently. When we reached the room, he told me where to sleep, where to wash myself, not that I knew what that meant, and where to go to the toilet. He also told me he'd bring food down for me in an hour's time. 

I didn't ask any questions, I only nodded then laid down on the 'bed' and fell asleep.