Outlander Fanfiction: In the Mist

A Light in the Dark

The Light in the Dark
Sussex, Virginia
31st March 1858

An endless abyss of emptiness lie before me; so dark and black that I could scarcely see my hands held out in front of me.

I didn't know where I was or how I got there, only that I needed to find a way out.

I took off running in one direction, thinking that perhaps if I ran long enough I'd eventually find a way out. But for all I knew, I could have been running for an eternity.

My entire body was screaming for me to stop, begging for a respite no matter how short. I could hardly feel my legs anymore, but what I could feel, was pain. My muscles were cramping and pain ran through my every nerve, shooting up my spine and wrapping itself around my racing heart.

The metallic-like taste of blood coated my tongue and throat as my lungs constricted painfully in my chest as they struggled to take in the oxygen they so desperately needed.

Each part of my body was like an instrument in an orchestra, each one joining in a grand crescendo of pain until my vision blurred and I collapsed altogether.

When I woke I found that darkness still surrounded me, but not the same black emptiness as before.

I was in a corner of some dank room, the only light source was a small torch near the door. A cell door.

Across the room I could see the dark silhouette of a man and I could hear him struggling to free himself from the chains to which he was bound.

There were also the far off screams that echoed through the building (a prison, most likely). Bloodcurdling, heart wrenching screams of men whose souls were damned to a hell on earth.

But the man before me did not scream, and it wasn't until the light of the torch glinted off of his hair—hair the same color as the fire that lit it— that I realized this man wasn't a stranger. This man was Jamie.

I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach, heavy and painful. I knew that this wasn't reality, that I was in a dream of sorts, but that didn't make what was about to happen any less real.

We were suddenly transported outside with a gray sky that loomed overhead; rain threatening to fall. We were in a courtyard of some sort, Jamie chained to a post atop a platform while I watched helplessly from the audience.

I didn't need to see to know what was about to happen or to whom the hand that held the whip belonged; I already knew.

I knew the man all too well and what he was capable of— I had experienced it myself.

Time seemed to pass in slow motion, making an already horrific event that much more agonizing; but that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was that while I watched Jamie's back being flayed to the bone, I felt it too.

Every snap of the whip was followed by stinging pain, the tiny bits of metal at the ends burying themselves into my flesh and ripping it away.

Jamie was stronger than I was, because while he hardly did more than flinch, I was screaming and crying and begging for mercy amongst a crowd of people to whom I was invisible.

While the time I spent trapped and alone in the dark with Randall was horrific and traumatizing; it was a different type of abuse.

For me it was mind games and control, power over me and my body but for Jamie...

For Jamie it was physical. He had walls that refused to crumble at the hands of that bastard, so he resorted to physical violence.

But even that did not break him.