Fresh Starts: On Phantom Wings

Chapter 5, The Masked One

Phantom groggily woke up feeling cold lifeless things binding him to the ground. He looked and saw black chains and shackles with glowing purple runes around his ankles. He could also feel one around his neck and two others on his wings binding them. A similar object was clasped into his face, and it hurt, oh how it hurt. It felt like metal barbs were constantly priding against his face. He was surrounded by black metal bars with more glowing runes. Neither his mother He tried to shake off the thing as soon as he could, but the barbs just dug deeper into his face causing more pain. He tried to change into his spirit form but he just couldn't and a surge of something shocked his body like electricity. Phantom let out a roaring wail as he felt the burning pain inside and out. He collapsed onto the ground and the energy dissipated.

A creature came through what seemed to be a door. They held a really long stick and their body was obscured by robes and a disturbing mask all covered in runes. They walked over and somehow grabbed on of Phantom's horns and lifted his head up. "How does it feel to be the one suffering, beast?" The creature spoke in what seemed to be two disgusted voice, one phantom understood and the other he couldn't.

Phantom tried to escape the creature's grasp, but he couldn't move at all. His eyes widened in horror after realizing that he was powerless against this being.

"Yesss, you know it now, don't you?" The creature chuckled from behind their mask. "Your kind prides themselves on being ssso powerful, don't they? They thought they could wipe us out, but humans aren't so easily ssquashed." They let Phantom's head fall to ground as they waved their hand and spoke in strange tongue. "Emalf eht elppirc ot sniahc gnidnib eht tcirtsnoc." The chains and shackles continuously tightened around Phantom digging into his skin.

This went on till phantom started to cry from the pain. The creature then waved again and the chains stopped tightening and went back to how they were before. "Be thankful I even consssidered talking to you beast and your forssaken family. Your kind will fall and the natural order will be restored as it was so many years ago. But you and your sibling will be made usseful, and I will enjoy it!" The creature said with vengeful delight before walking out the same way they came in.

Phantom was once again alone in that dark room. He didn't where he was or where his mother and sister were located. He laid there in dark silence, occasionally trying to get up but was met with the burning pain of the chain each time. Misery would be an understatement.

He laid in that cage for who knows how long, burning scars joined the hole in his chest showing just how powerless he was. Eventually another creature came and opened the cage and the chains disconnected from something and wrapped around Phantom's legs and neck. They seemed to want Phantom to move, but he couldn't find the strength to. The creature then got out a braided whip with a crystal at the end, and they started hit Phantom with it. The crystal dug into Phantom's flesh with every hit, creating bleeding wounds across his body. Phantom moved the best he could to escape the pain and the whip, but every time he fell it struck him once again

Phantom shambled to a building, bloody and beaten from the whip. Another creature grabbed the chain around his neck and pulled him inside. It was filled with blades and strange tools while the walls were covered with the severed heads of dead animals. All of this horrified Phantom as he was pulled onto a table and the chains fully wrapped around him, binding him.

The creature picked up a blade and some tools and started to cut something, pain surged through Phantom's head. He growled weakly and tried to shake his head, but the barbed cage on his face dug in once again. Pain eventually knocked Phantom out, and when he opened his eyes he saw his horns on a counter in front of him. He was then whacked by something and everything faded to black once again.