‘Where am I?’

‘They sacrificed themselves for us.’

‘Where is he!? Where is he!’

Yelling and sobbing were the only things his mind registered. Pain, and frustration was all he felt when he woke up. His eyes felt like they hadn’t been opened in years. Peeling them open he was immediately blinded. ‘Where am I…’ Trying to open his eyes once more seemed to be an impossible feat, he felt so heavy, where was all that pain coming from, his ribs? No. His legs? No those didn’t seem to be affected only slightly sore. What was that? That throbbing behind his eyelids.

His eyelids! That’s where the pain was coming from, his eyes. His mind was muddled, it felt like he couldn’t think straight, only one coherent thing came across his mind, ‘where am I?’ He tried one more time to peel his eyes open except instead of blinding light he was met with darkness. Panic slowly embedded its way into his heart, suddenly, he couldn’t breathe. He felt weightless like nothing could tie him down. The darkness was becoming lighter except instead of white all he saw was blue. He was tired… Too tired to try and remain thinking, too tired to stay afloat, too tired to organize his thoughts. So, he sank, deeper and deeper into the unknown.

‘Where am I?’

‘Why is it so dark?’

There was a burning sensation all over his body. Something was crawling up his arms and legs, a painful sensation overtook him. He was being burned alive. Opening his eyes all he saw was fire, there was fire everywhere. Where was his family? Where were his friends? Where was he? He tried to open his mouth to call for help, to cry out but instead he took in the smoke. The fire was growing all around him, it seemed to be feeding off his skin, burning him and causing unimaginable levels of pain.

Trying to remain conscious through the pain he tried to look through the fire, trying to find something that remained of his home. Nothing, everything was burning around him. Trees all around were in flames, he could hear their anguished cries as they were obliterated and turned to ash. His mind was filled with pain, he didn’t recognize his surrounding and all his senses were blocked by the fire around him.

He could do nothing but withstand the pain that was slowly ebbing away at his consciousness. He felt the fire consume him completely before he lost consciousness. The pain, his muddled thoughts and everything was burned away by the fire leaving only a hollow shell in its place.

He couldn’t move. It felt like his entire lower body was frozen, where was he? Why couldn’t he feel anything. The only thing he knew was that he felt stuck, not one part of his body wanted to move, there was no pain only the feeling of being captured.

‘Don’t…’ he heard someone’s voice yell inside his mind’s eye. Who was that? Why were they calling out to him so desperately? All he felt was his isolation. He couldn’t feel his breath, couldn’t feel his circulation, he couldn’t even feel his heart beating. It was as if he was frozen, stuck. He tried to move, tried to escape but, wherever he was, he wasn’t going anywhere.

After what seemed like years, but had probably only been an hour or two he heard something. A slight shift in his surroundings. He still couldn’t move but whatever had been covering his sight and hearing was moving. All of a sudden, he heard something which sounded like thunder right next to his ear and then he felt an intense light on his face, what came next was a pain so great he couldn’t put it into words even if he tried.

As his eyes opened trying to take in his surroundings before the pain took over his entire system what lay before him was a world of white. Everything was barren and the whole world seemed to be shaking around him as more thunder engulfed his ear. He saw a white shadow overcome him before he felt his body slip into rigidness, engulfed once again in darkness and isolation, only one thought passed through his mind. ‘Where am I?’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Please forgive me.’

‘I love you.’

His eyes snapped open, a sense of foreboding in his stomach. He bent over and heaved, he felt as if his whole body had been ripped apart and all the molecules finally ended up in the same place. He groaned once he felt the feeling come back to his body. He looked down at himself, it was dark and he couldn’t tell if his entire body was still together or if some part of it was left elsewhere. He didn’t feel anything missing, just a gaping hole in his heart which he could not explain. His brain felt like it had been split open and he released another groan.

‘Why is it so damn dark?’ He tried to look around once again but was only met with darkness, an unknown darkness, filled with nothing. For some reason, he felt like he should be accustomed to the dark but he only felt himself shiver. Where was he? He couldn’t remember anything besides the feeling of wanting to throw up when he awoke. ‘What the hell is going on?’ He tried to move his legs and couldn’t, it seemed as though the darkness around him materialized and he was bound. He hated being bound, he was meant to be free, to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

He tried to move again and the whole world changed, he felt himself splitting and then nothing. He was back