The night was cold the moon high in its zenith, the moon's light streaking across the room, illuminating a young boy fast asleep snuggling up in his blankets. The only noise in the house being the shuffling of feet scraped against the hardwood floor, as several cloaked figures moved shiftily from room to room, slowly coming upon the slightly cracked door of the sleeping boy. One of the figures peered into the boy's room while the others watched the hallways making sure the coast is clear, soon after a purple aura started to levitate in a smoking canister of some kind covering the whole room in some kind of smoke. The boy awoke struggling to stand he tried to kick the canister as it dropped, but he lost his footing and fell face-first into the floor, going unconscious. The cloaked figures worked fast, they rushed into the room scooped up the boy, and left behind what seemed to be a note. They left the way they came, stalking out into the night from whence they came.

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I awoke with a start my hand instinctively reaching and rubbing a bump on my forehead, my eyes groggy as they readjusted to the dim light. Confused and slightly worried I started to rub my eyes and survey where I was at.

Low torches burned on what appeared to be cave walls, the light flickering obscuring everything beyond the light, and making the shadows dance. I tried to stand up after confirming I couldn't see anything, but a chain on my leg prohibited me, the metal digging slightly into my flesh. Concern started to rear its ugly mug,

'This isn't a dream is it.'

Grabbing the chain with both hands I tugged as hard as I could, but the chain seemed to be locked in deep to the cave wall. Frantic at this point I started to search the dirt for anything that could be of assistance. While searching I could start to hear the rattling of metal then footsteps of several people closing in, frantically I started to sift through the dirt until my fingers found something smooth, small, and jagged, upon closer inspection it seemed to be a bone of some kind, but I ignored where it might have come from for now and shoved it in my pajama pocket.

The footsteps grew closer and the sound of their steps were heavy, meaning they were either real fat or wearing some sort of armor. I tenses when the sound stopped right outside of my vision in the darkness. Shuffling could be heard, but I didn't say a word to them, I just glared dead-eyed at the abyss and I wondered if it glared back. Several silent minutes would pass with neither side giving in, until a woman and several men walked out of the dark. At first, I didn't recognize any of the men because they were wearing turbans, but the women's face was something I recognized as clear as day.

"Goodberry."

I growled out, silently to myself.

Her ears seemed to perk up as I barely said her name, seeming to understand what I said she answered back,

"Why yes, it is young man."

She giggled that last part, her face becoming a mask of a pleasant smile, and her demeanor shifting to one of non-aggressive. She stood stock-still and stared at me, her eyelids half-open as if she was squinting at me, and it unnerved me. I've seen wacky people in my life, I've met a few stone-cold killers who would smash a baby's head into a wall without batting an eye, and the vibe I was getting off her fit all the criteria.

I slowly started to inch away from her, my hand not fully touching it but hovering the jagged bone, just in case. She saw my meniscal movement, her eyes like a hawk, she smiled and turned away from me, and whispered something to one of the cloaked guards behind her. The guard stepped forward, a metal baton slowly hitting his hand as he approached. He came right out of range from me and gestured for me to approach him, not saying a word.

Still sitting I refused to come anywhere near him, which seemed to anger him greatly. He stepped forward and brought the baton down hard into my side, instantly knocking the air out of me and nearly making me vomit. The blow wasn't anything to write home about, but this child's body of mine probably couldn't take much more of those. I held my stomach but didn't get to much time to recover as another swing came soon after, it being brought to bear on my shoulder, some cracking could be heard and unintentionally I let out a cry of pain.

Goodberry let out a manic laugh as I gasped from the pain, her shifting completely, personality and all. Her 'mask being shed away to reveal something more sadistic underneath, it only got worse the longer the guard beat me.

After beating me bloody, and several more strikes to get his point across, the guard stopped his assault, I tried to look up at him to smile, but couldn't find the strength to do it. The guard stepped back, as Goodberry was regaining her composure, making sure her hair and outfit was in pristine condition. She put her 'mask' back on and smiled almost seductively down at me.

"Now that young man was for Desert Flame, she told me what you did to her little group."

She leaned down and whispered into my ear.

"But don't think for even a second were anywhere near done."

She leaned away giving me a wink, as she and her entourage left from my vision. I laid there bleeding slowly, the blood pooling under me, twitching from the pain, and unable to move my mind began to race.

'Where did I go wrong?'

Memories of what I assumed was the night before began to resurface, 'Did they take my family also?'

That thought stayed in my mind, and wouldn't leave, but soon the shoulder that was struck started to act up, the pain overriding anything else, reminding me I need to fix it. That's when I remembered I could heal myself, shaking my head in disbelieve that I didn't think of it before, a golden glow started to nit some of my minor wounds, and partially fixing my shoulder, giving me some relief from the pain, and letting me think again.

After fixing myself I tried to stand up but felt all the blood rush from my head to my feet and I fell over with a huff, sighing I stood up once again using the wall to prop me up and using it to slowly catch my breath. I was getting tired of being chained up and wanted to see if there was any way for me to escape, so I went to where the chain met the wall. Searching to see if anything was loose failed, but I was determined, so I began to pointlessly pull trying my damnedest to pry anything off.

I continued at this endeavor for as long as my muscle would allow me until my arms were like noodles, and my legs we shaking to hold my weight, with no progress whatsoever. My body feeling fatigued it decided to rebel against me and collapse into the sand, my eyes soon did the same failing to reopen no matter how hard I tried taking away my conciseness and ferrying me into the world of dreams.

Author's Note

You know it might have taken a while, and I might have editted the previous chapters but here you go, another chapter.