Rain thundered down above me, lightening flashes inches away from my skin, hail the size of quarters pounded down on me, winds blew and whipped around, slashing my skin with raindrops and hailstones until drops of blood began to ooze from the gashes. The bitter cold pierced my skin until I was shivering too hard to think straight. I ran hysterically, trying to avoid the storm, trying desperately to find a way out. I slammed myself against the wall of the dome-shaped room and pounded on the locked door with all my might, banging until my hands seemed to disappear from the ends of my wrists and I could muster no more energy. I had lost all sense of time long ago – it could have been hours, days, centuries by this point. In a final act of desperation, I hurtled myself on the ground and curled up into a ball, trying to protect my head from the bullets of hailstone and my skin from the tiny daggers of rain.
A cackling laughter ran around the room, echoing and bouncing off the smooth, curved walls. The storm slowly dissipated. A man shimmered into sight, and stood before my violently shaking figure, still hunched over itself on the ground. I raised my head up slightly, daring a glance. From what I could see through my rain-clouded eyes and my perspective on the ground, he was tall, slim, dressed all in black with flashes of yellow amidst his clothing.
He kicked me in the side, hard. “Get up”, he demanded harshly in a voice that sounded like frozen metal. I did so, shaking even harder as I unwrapped my body, half from the frigid cold that still lingered in the room and half from pure terror. As I slowly pulled myself up to full height, stumbling slightly along the way, I met his eyes and nearly tripped over myself again. They were a cold, solid black. But it wasn’t so much the color in them that scared me as the emotion. He stared back into my eyes, radiating an aura of pure hatred, of total lack of compassion, of unfeeling cold.
He grabbed the front of my shirt and jerked me forward.
“Where…is…she…?” He growled between his teeth.
“I…I…who? I d-d-don’t know who – I don’t know who…you’re t-t-talking about!”. I started hyperventilating, and shaking even more violently. I hadn’t the faintest idea who he was, what he wanted, or who he wanted. And yet he seemed certain I did, and I quickly began to fear I truly did know this girl.
“DON’T LIE TO ME!”, he shrieked. The man struck me across the face, and I hit the floor. I lay there, terrified, too scared to even breath.
“I don’t know…who…you want…”, I gasped. “Please…please, just let me go!” I begged. The man slowly stepped over and knelt down to face me.
“You know who I want. You know who she is. You know where she is. I know you do. I know everything”, he hissed menacingly. He grabbed my chin, and forced me to look at him. I stared into his frozen black eyes, so dark the pupil was indistinguishable from the iris. They had the depth of a thousand years. One thousand years of evil, of tormenting others, of living a vile and horrid existence. I stared, unable to look away, feeling my eyes grow wider, not even able to blink.
“I don’t know…I don’t know…”, I whimpered softly.
“5 years ago. Bright summer day. You two went to the park together. You ate lunch together. You shared a laugh. You shared a kiss. I know it. I saw it. Now don’t lie to me”.
I gasped. I knew who he was talking about. I thought back, thought far back into my memory, and remember nothing of her. But I was certain I knew that day, that girl. Just those few days struck into my mind a picture as clear as any other memory in my mind. The man smiled, lips curling back to show blindingly white, sharp teeth. He drew himself upwards, and clumsily, I followed.
