Chapter 20: Where?

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Tully opened his eyes in a lucid daze. His sight was blurred as though he was looking through frosted glass. He strained his eyes to adjust to the surroundings, blinking languidly until everything fell into focus. As his outlook became clearer, so did the scene around him. Overhead was a moon large enough to cover half the sky. It looked like a giant unblinking, all seeing, all knowing eye.

Perhaps because the moon emitted a distressingly cold light, Tully almost confused it for those LED lights found in hospital ceilings but tens of times brighter. Due to the brightness, it was extremely difficult for Tully's eyes to make out his surroundings. He could just about discern out vague indistinguishable shadows of tall trees. He groggily turned his head to the side to avoid the moon's onslaught, yet this simple action was extremely arduous.

Tully's body felt extremely heavy as though his bones had turned into lead. This feeling was all too familiar. It reminded him of those days when he used to wake up, tired, in pain and wishing that he hadn't woken up at all.

As his other senses calibrated he could smell the damp earth beneath him. It felt cold to the touch and seemed to be covered by a layer of decayed leaves.

It seems that he was in some sort of forest. But how did he end up here? And where was everyone? As per his last memory, he was at sixth form, it was lunch time, then...then what happened after lunch? As he pushed himself to remember more, his head felt as though it was splitting in half and the pain forced him to stop any efforts of further recall.

Gradually a sense of panic begun to cover him like an ice cold blanket as the reality of his situation soaked in. He was alone in an unknown location, it was cold, dark and eerily quiet. Other than his head and eyes, he couldn't move the rest of his body. Though he wasn't in pain, the fact that he couldn't move his body was more distressing than being able to move whilst in pain. His heart rate increased as fear and anxiety filed in together. And that's when Tully realised that he had long been shouting his lungs out for someone, anyone to come and save him, yet no sound was coming out.

Just as that terrifying thought was framed in his mind a subtle breeze blew, shaking up the forest air filling it with a claggy scent of disinfectant, telling of hospitals. What made it worse was that it was competing with another scent that was rosy with an accent of vanilla. This rosy scent was familiar to him, but he couldn't recall where he had smelled it. This smell seemed to intensify with each panicked inhale, making it difficult for Tully to breathe. The previously gentle rustling of the wind against the trees now sounded like many inconsistant beeping heart monitors. Instantly a feeling of dread pervaded the depths of his stomach.

By now he was breatheless from hyperventilating and convulsing. The physiological tears had long turned into real tears borne out of panic, desperation and fear. Tully didn't know how long he had been laying there, it could have been minutes or even hours.

Just when he thought he was at his limit physically and psychologically, he heard a faint rustling sound. It was the sound of light footsteps. His stomach tightened briefly in elation at the thought that someone was coming to save him but a moment later the elation turned into terror. Someone was coming! Who in their sane mind would be in a forest at this time of night? Was he going to be murdered...?

Before he had time to think further, whoever it was had already arrived by his side. Tully had long closed his eyes tightly, held his breath and despite being unreligious he still found himself praying to whomever was out there. Without warning, a puff of warm air fell on his face, his chin was nudged lightly by a cold object before a rough tongue licked his face. His eyes flew open bumping straight into a pair of gentle, golden, intelligent but very beastly eyes.

For the first time since his birth Tully's mind was emptied of thoughts.

He then proceeded to pass out.

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