Try to Wake, Try to Escape

Chapter 1: Into the Darkness

Shu woke up calmly, slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes. When he opened them, he found that the world was pitch black. He had been swallowed by the darkness. It growled and grumbled at him, seeming almost alive.

Where am I?... He wondered, studying the darkness. His gaze fell to his legs, and he realized he'd been resting on a ratty old mattress with a rough and stiff blanket. It reminded him of a terrifying horror movie he'd seen when he was younger, one he still had nightmares about sometimes.

Grimacing, he kicked the blanket off and pulled his legs over the side on the mattress, pushing himself to his feet. Maybe I can find a light switch somewhere... He stepped through the dark carefully, probing the walls with his hands and determining that the room he was in was very small. There was a door across from the bed, too. Shu felt around the dark for a bit longer, finding nothing else of value, then he found the door again, twisting the knob and stepping out of the room.

The long hallway was coated red by a lone light at the end of it, a red the exact same hue as Shu's eyes. The glow cast an eerie veil over the hall and sent shivers down his spine. Taking a deep breath, Shu forced himself to walk down the hall step by step, scanning his surroundings cautiously.

Soon he reached the end of the light, coming to the edge of it and staring into the darkness. The silence that had been present when he was deeper in the hallway was gone, giving way to the growling he'd heard in the first room.

Curious, Shu reached into the dark to see what would happen. For a few minutes, everything was as it had been, then something touched his hand- something cold and scaly. He barely had time to gasp before it pushed his hand back into the light.

What was that? He looked to his hand, blinking a few times when he realized it was shaking. He lifted his other hand, finding that it was shaking as well. Why am I so afraid? It didn't even hurt me... It just pushed me back into the light.

I wonder... He tilted his head, squinting into the dark curiously. What if I tried to keep going?

Shu took a few steps into the darkness, his whole body beginning to shiver as the darkness began hissing and growling loudly. 

"Go back! Go no further!" He jumped at the voice, head whipping around as he tried to find the source.

"I have to." He answered bravely, taking another step forward- then there was a roar and he was thrown back into the light, landing on his back painfully. "Augh!"

Gasping for breath, Shu pushed himself upright, looking into the shadows. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw something big slinking around. Pacing back and forth like an angered lion, growling at him to stay put.

The darkness had a voice, had a body, had a will of its own. Why was it trying to keep him in this place, though?

Climbing to his feet, he glared at the slinking shape and barked. "You can't keep me here! I will find my way out!"

"You will do no such thing." It rasped back, the figure crouching before him. "Do not try to leave this place."

Shu clenched his fists. "Where am I, then?"

"You are in your own mind."

His eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed as his brows knitted themselves together. "My own mind?... If that's the truth, then let me through!" He took a step closer to the edge of the light, but a claw came swiping out and knocking him on his back again. While Shu gasped, wheezing for air, the voice spoke again.

"You have no authority over me, just as you have no authority over yourself."

"That's... Not... True!"