✔️ The Unwanted Bride (Book One) **UNDER EDITING**

Will I Stay or Will I Go?

     Darkness. Everything is dark, but not the kind of darkness one should be afraid of. Rather, it is the kind of darkness that reminds me of sleep. Perhaps I am sleeping.

     "Hehe." A giggle echoes around, and even though it is black, I almost feel myself looking every which way to find the source of the laughter. "Hehe." Another bubble of laughter pops and bounces around like a haunting echo. The laughter is high pitch and squeaky, almost like a child. Is it a child? "Heheha!" Yes, it's the laughter of a child. How strange, to hear a child's laughter in the dark.

     The child squeals and flashes of sunlight explode. However, just as quickly as it happens, it fades and the darkness arrives once more. As the laughter grows more constant, the light continues to grow, so much so that I begin to recognize flashes of red and orange. The colors remind me of tree's colors when fall arrives back home. The laughter is soon accompanied by the rustling of dry grass. It is so distinct that I almost feel the long blades of grass scrapping against my legs. I look down, knowing fully well that I would only see darkness, but instead, I see the grass. It scraps and whooshes by me as I run through it. I didn't realize I was running, nor how small I am. Laughter once again erupts, but this time, it is out of my own mouth.

     It's a dream. I must be dreaming. I run through the grass laughing as I look ahead towards the line of trees. I am running towards the grove that holds the willow tree. A loud laugh erupts as I stumble and quickly look back to see a large body running towards me. Laughter erupts and arms grab me as I squeal with delight.

     "Come on." A deep voice chuckles as I squirm and kick. "The soup is ready!"

     "Soup!" The child version of me laughs and the body holding me up pauses.

     "Yes." The voice grows strange, higher. I squirm some more but the arms grip me tighter. It hurts. I squirm more and begin to scream. "Soup!" The voice shrieks and throws me onto the ground. My body slams and I feel like I hear my bones crack. When I turn over to try and get away more, the large body is over the top of me, holding a spoon above me. "Eat the soup!" It should and I see the reflection of my panicked adult face in the spoon. As it inches closer, it grows dirtier.

     "I can't!" I shout and a hand grabs my throat and squeezes it tightly. Air no longer enters or goes out as I feel my body fight as hard as it can to get away.

     "Eat the soup!" It screams and I watch as the spoon rises up and comes crashing down.

My body lurches up, air wheezing from my mouth. I clutch my throat as look around the room for the man who was on top of me, but no one is there. My chest pounds painfully from my racing heart and my throat burns from the rather cold air rushing into my lungs and rushing back out with the quick breaths. I move my hand from my throat to my chest, resting it over my heart. It pounds against my rather sweaty palm and I try to deepen my breath.

     At first, it sounds wheezy, like I am trying to forced the air through a narrow passageway, but with each breath, it widens ever so slightly. As my heart begins to slow, and my sense begin to calm, I become very away of the large bumps all over my arms. Cold. It's really cold in here. My hands instinctively go to rub away the bumps, but as I push my hand down my arm, I hit something on my hand that is sticking out. I gasp as a burning pain erupts from where I hit and quickly look down at it.

     A weird clear tube is sticking from my arm. Where the tube is, my vein is plump and green. The color of the tube is clear and it almost seems like a strange hazy solution is inside What the heck? I follow the tube from my hand up where is lies against my arm, and then up where it attaches to a large bag filled with that strange hazy, clear liquid. A little ways beneath the large bag, a small thing is dripping slowly. What is going on?