500 - Part I - Distorted Shadows and Monsters

Chapter X - Purgatory throwing a soul back to the real world

His plan had been altered numerous times and occasional improvements only made his idea more challenging. A colossal flaw in his desire was that he didn't know a way out. He didn't know the place he was now trapped in at all. The corridors seemed infinite and the towering walls were not any less intimidating. Daniel had to do what was impossible: he had to escape a secure science laboratory with a stampede of dangerous scientists and doctors. He had core strength, but a lack in food and water meant he was extremely exhausted, almost to the extent that he couldn't stand up without assistance. Daniel constantly felt like he was crawling, a reanimated zombie out of a half-buried gravestone, who has seen sunlight for the first time in a century. One that's milky and red, bloodshot eyes had finally stopped rolling and had come into focus. A deceased, diseased young man reworking his limbs after all this time. His hands more flexible and his legs springing back to life. Overall, what he loved was the symphony of his wondrous heartbeat under his rib cage, beating like a drum anthem and sounding in his ears. He had found his body again and never-mind the dirt, filth and grime staining his clothes, the squalid young man ran and ran, legs feeling invisible and invisible. He couldn't feel them, but they were like air. He was drifting into the clouds. Drifting into Heaven, perhaps. Wherever it was, Daniel longed to be here. Wings carried him into a blindingly bright source of light and his bony, blooded hands felt the warmth of it against against his skin. The chains were thrown off and he clutched the light tightly in his hands, only to feel the heat fading. Going away.

Daniel wrapped his hands around what was left of the light. He squinted, his eyes protesting against the whiteness that filled his vision completely. As he could feel his body again, Daniel realised he was sinking to the floor, a fish out of air. A fish wanting to go back home. To the sea. To the forest. Melted like a puddle baking in the morning sun, Daniel was in such a state. His knuckles were clutching two iron bars, one hand on each one. His eyes stabbing like knives, he saw blurs and pixelated colour. Upon blinking a few times, he made out an unclear image generated by his brain. It was of bars spreading for about five metres. A row of them. Metallic. Strong. Cannot be crushed. Heaven nor Hell accepted him. It was as though neither could decide whether they wanted him, so he was being thrown around like a forgotten toy. Purgatory seemed to have hurled him back to Earth, the real world. Where everything was dark.

Daniel screamed helplessly, realising jealously that this wasn't heaven. He had been betrayed by the clouds. This wasn't the correct gate to the place of no evil. "Daniel!" a voice of yelled, but it crackled like a walkie-talkie in his ear and he grimaced. Ringing again. Her possibly screamed words went in one ear and out of the other. She called again, but it was only when she squeezed his left knuckle, that he reacted. Warmth. His heart leaped in joy at the blissful contact. It was paradise. Daniel dreamed of holding onto this feeling forever. "Your name's Daniel, right?" she asked quietly and innocently. Daniel wasn't focusing on her, but the washed painting of another boy. His curly hair was noticeable, even with Daniel's utter drowsiness. "Terry?" Daniel whispered. He didn't know if his lips were moving or if his mind was echoing his thoughts back and forth to another corner of his brain, like a heartless badminton game of two nasty brain cells. Ones that hated each-other and were always in a quarrel with the other pessimist.
"That's Terry, yes." Those words of confirmation were soothing as ever. "Grayden's not here?" Daniel asked, parched, cracked lips speaking dryly and delayed. His voice was small. He noticed that. "He's not here," nodded the girl sweetly.
"Is this heaven?" Daniel asked. The angels weren't sticking around for a cocky, crazy coward like himself. "No."
"Dammit," growled Daniel.
Terry chuckled, "I suppose Grayden not being here is heaven." But then he added, "I don't want to be dead though, nor think about it. We're most definitely alive." Daniel didn't flinch at all at the thought. "I'm not afraid of dying," he said more to himself than the girl or Terry.
"I can understand," she answered, "It's Brielle, by the way. I should've introduced myself before."

After a few moments, Daniel regained his vision and laid down, his hands resting gently on his stomach. "How long have you been in here?" he wondered.
"A millennium?" suggested Terry. Brielle rolled her eyes at him. Then she couldn't provide an answer and blushed. "A few days, maybe. I honestly don't know," she said.
"You're the vent boy," stated Terry, studying Daniel very closely.
"I am," replied Daniel, confused by Terry's sudden suspiciousness of him.
"You're not the only one who tried to escape," Terry muttered, his eyes relaxing, but tracing over Brielle's figure instead.
"Terry, it'd be foolish not to try," she grunted, tears spilling from her eyes. Daniel heard her sobbing, but remained fixed like a child's chalk drawing attempting to not fade, on the ground, in the rain. His mouth was expressionless, eyes emotionless and mind not thinking about anything for once. "What did you try to do?" Daniel asked with obvious effort.
"I ran after 'breakfast'," she began, "I just legged it and tried to find a door—"
"Which was stupid," Terry complained, "Wasn't it apparent that you'd end up in here? There's no easy ticket to the outside world, Brielle. Nor is there one at all."
"I was desperate," Brielle explained, "I was just so overcome by a power of anger. It wasn't just my body that couldn't handle it, but my mind. I didn't think I was going to survive another day."
"So you tried to find an exit?" Daniel pressed.
"Yes, but it didn't work. I was found by some of...G-G-Grayden's guards and I was escorted here. They-They hit me." Daniel leapt up, but it wasn't possible to ignore the agony that struck him like a sledgehammer against his joints. "Daniel," Brielle cried out, noticing Daniel was attempting to come over to her and comfort her, "It's okay, honestly. Just relax."

Terry was racing over to Daniel, a syringe in his hand. He looked menacing. Just like one of the doctors sedating him with some illegal drug. Daniel squirmed, but Brielle held his shoulders down and rested her knees against Daniel's legs. "Inject him," she commanded fiercely. Terry stabbed the syringe into Daniel's neck and Daniel was numb. Numb. Numb. Numb. Even his brain had slowed down. A clock with no batteries. A clock with no hands. One that wasn't ticking. As Terry pulled it out, Daniel was free of most of the agony coursing throughout his figure. "Is that better?" smiled Brielle. Daniel grumbled in response. She frowned. "Does anything still hurt?" Daniel slowly shook his head, still uncertain if he could manage any sudden movements. "My name's Brielle."
"We know that," Terry groaned.
"I'm testing his memory," she hissed back at him and he threw his hands up in surrender.
"My name's Daniel."