Test Subjects

Prologue

The car stopped in the middle of the street as if waiting for something. Or someone.

A rusty car door opens and a hooded figure gets out. Not that you would've been able to tell if you were standing there. Considering the time of day was in fact, night. And if by luck more then anything, this street wasn't particularly crowded.

Some say it's deserted. Others say it's simply unused. But I would like to use another word. A word that might not make sense to the common ear. Go in one ear and out the other as the teachers say.

Disclaimed.

No gangs own this territory. Nor any houses to surround the area. And the lights seem to be nonexistent, just like everything else.

All it is, is owls hooting and wind blowing. Trees swaying and grass dancing.

No one has claimed this land and no one ever will. That's why this land is what it is. Disclaimed. Not deserted or unused. Just disclaimed.

But how the hooded figure found this place, I will never know.

Because no one finds this place unless they're really lost. It will help you for a while. Then it will set you free. Let you go. So it can go on being like it was before, without your disturbance. Your footprints will stay there forever. It will remember you. But you must never go there again.

If again you go there, you threaten to claim it. And if you do, it's gone. Erased. It will never come back again. That next lucky traveler will never get their chance.

The hooded figure darts from tree to tree. As if it's playing a game of hide and seek. It throws a few sharp glances over its shoulder. Looking for any unwanted pursuers. Obviously not knowing that it was in fact the only one here. And that it was the first one to come here in a century.

After taking a long breath of relief the hooded figure stops at a tree. After shortly inspecting it, the person lays down and uses it as a pillow.

It slides off his hood revealing short, dark, rugged hair. Also revealing a very tired and confused face. A male for sure.

After lifting his head up a bit to check his surroundings, his eyes slowly start to close. And sleep takes him away.

Not to a land with smiles and singing. That's a definite no.

His sleep takes him to a land of struggles and hardships. A land of death and war. A land of darkness and pain.

I suppose you could say they all have some stuff in common. There is a reason for that just like there is for everything.

Because sleep didn't take him just anywhere. Oh no.

Sleep took him to the land of fear.