You're Never Alone

Chapter 8

Word Count: 2694

    Dan wakes up tied to a chair with his mouth gagged by a piece of cloth tied between his teeth and behind his head. He looks around but the room is dark and only a single light bulb is lit above him. His torso and legs are connected to the chair and he's unable to move even an inch. Dan starts to struggle and try to get out of the ropes but someone from behind him douses him in an ice cold bucket of water that makes him gasp.

    "Daniel," his father says, stepping out from the shadows in front of him. "I told you to follow my orders but you had to save that one rebel."

    Dan tries responding but his words come out in muffled noises. That's when his father pulls out a dagger from behind his back that glints in the light. Dan's eyes immediately widen and he starts to struggle harder.

    "You should've done as I said," his father taunts as he steps closer while Dan desperately tries to move away from him. "We could've done this the easy way."

    The king stops right in front of Dan and places the blue tip of the blade against the front of Dan's hip. Dan instantly knows that it's made with some kind of ice powers as the cold feeling from it touches his shirt and goes through to his skin. His father starts to push the blade in and the pain starts out small.

    "You could've just made this easier on yourself but no." It goes father in slowly and it starts to burn against Dan's flesh. The burning gets more intense as the blade goes farther in until Dan is struggling not to scream. It feels like a volcano is being poured into him. Dan whimpers as his father keeps going. "You could've done the right thing."

    Dan finally breaks with a blood curdling scream. His father continues though as Dan starts to cry and thrash around, blood dripping out of the cut. The blade goes all the way through and Dan cries out as spots fill his vision and his chest heaves with each breath. The dagger is ripped out from Dan and the world goes white with blinding pain.

Dan's eyes snap open as he gasps and looks up but his vision is slightly foggy and he feels like he's floating. People are surrounding him in a room, shaking him awake but Dan doesn't recognize them so he tries to sit up and get them away. But someone holds him back, making Dan panic with wide eyes.

"Dan..." a voice to his left says but it's gets clearer as Dan finally starts to snap back into reality. "Dan! Dan, are you okay?" Phil asks and Dan looks at him in shock as Phil grips his shoulder.

"Alright, he's awake!" another voice from the other side of Dan says and everyone steps back. "Everyone out but us."

The room empties out and Dan sits up on the bed beneath him, his chest still heaving. Something wet drips onto his arm and he realizes he 's crying so he quickly wipes away his tears. Louise and Phil sit down on the edge of the bed next to Dan as he pulls his knees up to his chest and takes deep breaths.

"Dan," Louise says and Dan looks over at her, not surprised one bit that she's a rebel. "What happened?"

But Dan shakes his head and looks away, physically shaking from the memory burning in his head.

"Well," Phil starts and Dan looks over at him with wide eyes. "We heard you scream and a couple of us came in to wake you up but you were crying, and thrashing around. So when we finally got you awake, you looked confused and hurt so that's why we're asking."

"I-I told you my father didn't care about me," Dan says but tears fill his eyes and it pains him to look so weak but he continues. "He did things to me when I didn't follow the rules and he-he," but Dan stops as he chokes up with tears for a moment. "I'm sorry. It's really hard to talk about."