Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 2: Stars in Far Places

Chapter 21

Yuki | ユキ

Nothing seems familiar. I can't figure out anything that's happening, or remember much of anything that came before except for blots and marks of things. All I can remember is fear, fear as far back as the images in my head can go. I feel, somehow, like I should know this place, these long stretches of metal space that I'm being carried down, the flickery lights above, the chemical scent, the sounds of other things moving through the space around me. But when I try to remember anything before the last few minutes, remember why I was in the room with the giant square-marked floor and the floating huge hand, all I can remember is fear and pain. Those two sensations feel so horribly familiar and so far away all at once. I feel so afraid and lost.

All that's certain is, I hope that I'll never be so bad that I'm given to the yellow one again. I don't want to be hurt anymore. I don't want him to be able to hurt me anymore.

My heart is racing, and my breath is coming fast. The actions bring up memories of being forced to run too far, to fight too hard, to be pushed to exhaustion over and over just for the sake of the yellow one's amusement. I try to push them away as the world around me keeps seeming to grow brighter and brighter, louder and louder, more and more too much.

The two robots that are dragging me between them take no notice of the fact that they're literally dragging me now, that I'm unable to walk between them. They tore my cape away and stuffed it down a trash chute as soon as I was dropped into their waiting metal paws. They are walking too fast for me. I'm much smaller than they are and my steps aren't as big. I want to ask where we're going, but I can't calm down enough to get the words out.

I'm so afraid, and I don't fully know why at the moment. Whatever they're taking me to has to be better than the yellow one, right? If only I recognized any of the things around us, or could remember anything about anything other than the yellow one. I'm so lost. Nothing seems like it should. I feel like there's something keeping me from remembering, almost, but I can't get to anything but the images of pain and fear that came before.

Pain. So much pain. Needles that held fire, fire that was put into my body, that made my whole body burn from the inside out. Monsters that bit and clawed, tearing me to pieces so I could heal back. The yellow one watching and laughing as they did, using fangs to help them...

I cry out once in fear, only to have both robots shake me hard once, not slowing down at all. I instantly go quiet again, getting the idea that they don't approve of me making any noise. But this doesn't help me calm down, any. My heart is still beating so fast that I'm scared it will break out of me or something.

I am dragged into an elevator. One robot blinks the lights on its face in a strange order, and the space suddenly goes completely dark.

We begin to fall.

The floor stays barely underneath our feet, but the feeling of falling makes me feel so scared I think I might die. Replays of falling fill my head like a post-training review video, but inside of me, where I can't turn it off. Falling and hitting the ground, hard, every time. I keep my mouth squeezed shut, refusing to cry out.

The elevator stops suddenly. The stop comes so suddenly that it jolts me and the robots a bit, making them pull up a bit roughly on my paws. It hurts. I don't show it; then again, I'm still breathing too hard to really show anything other than fear. The lights on the robot's face blink in another strange order, and the elevator opens slowly, letting in only a very little light as it does so.

What it does let in is a horrible, terrible stink that makes my nose feel like it's been set on fire. I want to clap my paws over my face, but they're being held so I can't. I can't help it; I cry out again. This time, the robots roughly throw me on my face before picking me up by the paws and beginning to drag me along again.