Kayen sat in the corner, tears streaming from his eyes. Nothing made any sense. At some point while he’d been sleeping, he’d been taken from a hospital and chucked inside a cold, damp cell. Why? Kayen had no idea. He was ill and exhausted and hungry. He should have been at home, resting. Or at the bar with his friends. Or at work or something.
But no. Kayen was here. Trapped in a cell. A cell that didn’t seem to have anything around it. There was a window with glass on it, but the glass was super thick. There was a door but it was completely locked. Not that Kayen could see anything past the cell anyway. Everything outside was just red. An endless, red mist.
He could have been anywhere. For all Kayen knew, he was dead. But if he was dead, he wouldn’t have been in so much pain. His limbs all ached and his stomach was churning. Only a few hours ago, he’d had the contents of his stomach removed because someone else had drugged him and tried to kidnap him. Clearly, this attempt was the successful one.
Of course, Kayen had tried to shout out to his kidnappers. Ask them why they were doing this to him. He hadn’t heard any answers yet. He hadn’t heard much of anything.
That was what was bothering Kayen the most. Not that he had been kidnapped. Not that he was lost and scared. But that he couldn’t hear anything at all, aside from his own body. Well, it bothered him at first. Now, Kayen was more worried about the reality of his situation. No one knew where he was. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know who his kidnappers were either.
The corner felt colder now. It should have felt warmer, warmed up by Kayen’s own body heat. But no, it was colder. As if the cell itself wanted Kayen to move. So he did. But everything felt colder. Everything apart from the window. Kayen headed over to it then sighed, pressing his face against it in the hopes that someone would see him.
“Why am I bothering… No one’s out there…”
Suddenly, everything lurched to one side. Kayen found himself thrown against the opposite wall then thrown back against the windowed wall again, as if the cell had been abruptly shunted forward. There was nothing Kayen could do but desperately try and grab onto the window pane in the hopes that make he wouldn’t break every limb in his body. Thankfully, this didn’t last long, and the cell was soon stationary once more.
Peering out the window, Kayen realised his surroundings had changed a little bit. The mist was far dimmer now, a dark, starlit red rather than a bright, horrible red. Crystalline structures seemed to fade in and out of view.
Something far darker also loomed within the mist. Something huge and horrible.
Desperation took over Kayen’s mind. He started bashing on the glass and clawing on the walls. He needed to get out of there. He needed to go back home. He needed to be anywhere but there.
“Please! Someone help me! Let me out!”
It was clear though that nothing was coming to save him. Once again, Kayen collapsed in the corner of the cell, sobbing.
“What did I do to deserve this?” Kayen whimpered.
“A purest child of the Serpent, acting for the Drake, brushing against the Wolf…”
Kayen peered out of the window again. He could see that terrifying shadow, looming closer.
“You worked for them. And now you will work for me. But you must be broken first.”
“But…”
“Savour your words. For when I come back, you will not have them any more.”
The little Skyavok watched the mists above begin to swirl as a menacing storm brewed. The shadow being cackled, then disappeared into the mist, leaving Kayen alone and utterly terrified.