Strings - Camp NaNoWriMo 2017

«Forbidden - 4»

I awoke in a stuffy room, crammed with bodies of all shapes in sizes. The sweltering heat did nothing to help its cause, only contributing to the foul odor. I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to pry them all the way open. Elderly, infants, adults - everyone in one room. However, they all seemed to have one thing in common.

"Welcome to the sick bay," said a voice at my left. I whirled around, instinctively angling my good ear towards them. "You might want to put this on."

Amelie held out a cloth. I accepted, mimicking the way she tied it around her face so that it covered her nose and mouth.

"I'm not sick," I muttered.

Amelie rolled her eyes. "Yeah," she scoffed. "Because everything back there was super normal."

I ignored her, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and standing up. Amelie followed suit. "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Home."

Amelie shot me a knowing look. "And where's that?"

"Not here, that's for sure," I countered.

"Please." Amelie placed herself in front of me, hands on hips. "I - we - know practically all there is to know about you. You have nowhere to go. So why are you so intent on leaving?"

"We?" I asked. "You and your 'movement'?"

Amelie glared daggers. "I don't have time for this." She grabbed my hand and began to march to the exit.

I made no move to struggle, for now. Perhaps being in... whatever this was had its perks. Food, I supposed. Plans started forming in my head. I could live here for a few days, just until the leaders or whoever was in charge of me figured out that my 'powers' were simply a glorified deformity, and not to mention, utterly useless. Then from there, it was back to life as it always was.

Amelie shot me a look, perhaps wondering why I had suddenly gone quiet. I stared back, stone-faced, until she turned her attention back to navigating.

We were in the lower floors (thankfully) of some sort of building. Though nothing as architecturally complex as my previous location, there was still quite a number of turns to remember. In the middle if it all stood a neat courtyard, plain in its decorations and simplistic in its manner. I felt myself staring and pried my eyes away.

"Through here." Amelie stopped in front of a wooden door, hesitantly releasing my wrist as if she were expecting me to bolt. I suddenly became self-conscious of my matted, unkempt hair and ragged clothes. I settled for sweeping my hair over my bad side and entering as confidently as I could before I could have second thoughts.

Amelie shut the door behind me. I rubbed my eyes as they adjusted to the dim light. I was in a completely pitch black room save from the light of three low-burning candles, positioned in a triangular formation in the center of the floor.

"Hello?" I called. No response, not even an echo. I took another step into the unknown, towards the centermost candle.

"Kneel," said a voice. I whirled around, trying to pinpoint its location.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said, kneel," it continued. "You'll want to." Listening closer, I could make out the slight rasp to the voice's tone. Whoever was speaking was old, and likely a man, judging by the low tenor.

"Where are you?" I called, turning a slow circle. Still, there was nothing but darkness.

"Wrong question," the voice promptly replied. "Who am I? I am the keeper, a manager of sorts. Now do as you're told."

I knelt with a scowl, right before the frontmost candle. Keeper of what? The floor was made of cold, polished stone, smooth to the touch. I waited expectantly.

Just as I was about to open my mouth to speak, a heavy tremor shook the floor. My heart lurched as I began to scramble back up.

Before I could even place my foot down on solid ground, an enormous weight came crashing down on me, pressing the air out from my lungs. I tried to cry out, only to be slammed against the floor once more. The collision sent sparks of pain up my already raw arms.

"Kneel," boomed a second, louder voice. In the dark, in the black space between the three candles, a dim purple light began to flicker to life. I stared at it, transfixed. More and more lights began to spark up, illuminating an intricate design.

"Kneel!" said the voice again, more forcefully. I scrambled to do what I was told. The lights began to form the outline of an animal-like head.

"Now," it growled. Or perhaps that was its normal voice. "Your name?"

"M-Mae," I replied, cursing myself for letting a stutter escape my lips.

"Age?"

"Fourteen."

"Hm..." the beast shook itself out, revealing two large, floppy ears and a strange body that didn't really resemble anything at all. Perhaps just a pattern of ragged shadows. It blinked what I supposed were its eyes, four purple slits on its face.

"Now tell me, Mae," the creature said, speaking again. "What are you here for?"

I scoffed. "Nothing. I was thrown in here. Not my choice."

The beast lowered its head, perhaps to inspect me closer. "Anyone who calls forth Amidis wants something."

I shrugged.

"Listen, human," said Amidis. I stared at his head, trying to discern where his voice was coming from. There was no evident mouth, and the sound seemed to almost come from seemingly everywhere at once.

"I don't know, ok?" I retorted, rolling my my eyes. Although perhaps the effort was wasted in the pitch darkness. "I'm not even sure what I'm doing here at all."

Amidis stared back without a word. I looked away, shifting my position on the floor. "Interesting," he finally said.

I looked up. "Yeah," I said for no real reason.

"You want to be accepted," Amidis proclaimed. "You want people to see you as a regular person."

I made a face. "Sure. Whatever you say."

"Not an uncommon desire, but with you, it's different," he continued, ignoring me. "You deny it. You tell yourself that you're fine the way you are, and that to dream of any other life is foolish."

I sat back, stunned. "I-I don't-" I managed to stutter.

"But your potential," said Amidis. "You're not giving yourself credit for what you have."

I started to breathe more deeply. There was something suffocating about the whole setup, the room, the voice.

"It's useful, Mae. With the right training-"

A moan escaped my lips as all the blood seemed to rush to my head, blocking everything else out. The candles seemed too bright, their flames growing and growing until I was sweating feverishly from their heat, or perhaps from something else.

"That will be enough," said Amidis. Then the purple light faded, and I was left once again in silence.