The Cursed Ones

Under water

Air, a foreign thing to her. The only thing she knew was the pressure of the deep, crushing her but not at the same time. If she was human, she would have been dead a long time ago, but she had been down there for what seemed an infinite amount of time. She had forgotten so many things; her name, who she was, the feeling of happiness, comfort, and love. Surrounded by only the darkness, cold, and the chains holding her down from her freedom, accompanied by despair, loneliness, and misery. And that's all there was to her, until a light blinded her, and the pull of her chains were absent and she floated up to the top.

Underground

He never stopped screaming, he refused to. Not even when liquid ran along his cheeks, out his ears, along his lips. He hit the wood above his head hard enough that it should have shattered, but it never did, leaving marks along his fists, knees, feet, head, and anything else he used. He fell into dreams, nightmares of the wood collapsing on him, the dark swallowing him whole. He wasn't sure which was worst, awake or alive. Until, one day, a noise that wasn't him removed the cover, and he opened his eyes for the first time to find something brighter.

In a tree

She didn't know what was real, she never did. She spent forever in a deep sleep, seeing flashes of different things. From making a frozen delicacy to watching someone die in a bed to fighting in a war. She didn't know what they were, if they were from the past, the present, or the future. She saw everything there could be to see, some beautiful, some terrible. Then she opened her own eyes and saw the world for herself.