If you have a penchant for those brave, just, and kind characters, then Nara is not for you. She's everything that type of protagonist lacks: ambitious, cynical, manipulative, distrustful, and treacherous; those are some of the adjectives that descr...
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The stench of damp wood and dust was the first thing Nara smelled. When she tried to look around, the creak of the musty wooden floor echoed in the darkness and startled her. A shiver ran through her body like an electric current and her stomach clenched.
Nara's usual apathy vanished in an instant and her face tightened with panic. Her hazel eyes darted in all directions, trying to discern where she was, while she tried to remember the last thing she was doing before finding herself in this situation. However, her head was muddled and she couldn't focus. Her breathing became labored as she groped for a wall, a piece of furniture, something that would help her get rid of that horrible feeling of being trapped in that dreary place that still tormented her when she tried to fall asleep.
The floor creaked again as she took her first step, but that wasn't the only thing she heard. The metallic sound of a chain being dragged echoed with her clumsy movements, and this caused Nara's dread to intensify.
No, I already escaped from there. Nara tried to convince herself as she forced herself to walk, but she couldn't deny the familiar, cold feeling that surrounded her ankles.
Her hands then came across something rough and stiff. Without thinking, she pulled the fabric tightly. When the curtains fell, faint moonlight filtered into the room. She immediately recognized the view on the other side of the barred window and turned around very slowly. Nara hadn't realized that she was shaking and had started to hyperventilate.
It was an old-fashioned room with a few worn-out furnishings: a bed, a desk, and several bookshelves. Across from the window was a heavy, thick reinforced steel door with a small window at the top and a rectangular opening at the bottom.
Nara looked down at her hands, now small and emaciated. Signs of malnutrition were evident, as well as the malformation of her scarred wrists. Her ankles were much worse in comparison. The tattoos Nara had gotten to cover this were gone. Her hyperventilation then worsened and she finally slumped to the floor on her knees.
Calm down, it's a nightmare, she coaxed herself over and over again. I just have to wake up. But her reasoning crumbled when someone knocked on the steel door three times.
"It's time to eat," the person on the other side of the door hummed. The lower opening was unlocked and a tray with a plate and a glass was slid into the room, if it could be called that; cell was the most appropriate word.
Nara was petrified, unable to differentiate if this was a dream or reality. Did she, unable to bear the hunger, try the spiked food? Had her entire future outside of this place been the product of hallucinogens? Feeling an explosive fit of rage, she staggered over to the tray and kicked it with her scrawny feet.
The person on the other side of the door chuckled as they heard the thunderous noise of glass shattering, as if they had already expected this aggressive reaction from the girl. The slit at the top was opened and a pair of eyes peered out from the darkness. Madness and brutality were reflected in them, to the point of sending waves of terror to Nara.
