Till death do us part

Chapter 2

I opened my eyes and saw light , then a dark shadow passed across my face. I had a vicious headache and there was a cut on my hand. What had happened?

"You shouldn't be here." Came a voice, different from the one before, ancient and deathly, but childlike and twisted. It reverberated in my head, rather than passing through my ears.

"I don't know where here is." I sat up and leaned against the cold wall. I pressed on hard at the wound on my hand.

My cheeks were wet. Had I been crying? I touched my cheek. No. It was blood that soaked my cold skin.

"What's happening, who are you, where am I?" I asked with bravery. I was scared as to what the answer would be.

"You have forgotten." The voice murmured, the sound slithering through my mind, worming its way in. "The existence of this place is an age-old secret. It will not die with you."

Glancing out a window, I saw that the previously black sky had ripped open, globes of decaying light hanging in the air and throbbing slightly, almost mockingly. "I'm fine, really." I snap at him, before feeling regretfully. "I'm sorry, that was harsh. I'm just upset, and confused, and there's this voice in my head, and who the hell are you, anyway?"

"My name's Ryan, I'm here to help you." he seemed nice enough but something told me not to trust him.

"Yeah, and you're acting so nice, why? Even that creepy watcher thing seems more trustworthy than you, I've seen Buffy." I slide backwards, finding a hand hold on the wall and pulling myself up.

The world seemed to spin around me and I was forced to fall back down on the floor. Ryan rushed over to help me. He touched my arm but I flinched at turned away.

Ryan's face was sad, he was beautiful although he scared me in ways nobody else has.

"I don't need your help." He held up his hands in surrender, and backed away into the only pool of light. I noticed he had an eye-patch over his left eye.

'What happened?' I asked him looking at his eye.

He shifted uncomfortably. "It was gouged out..." I can't help but gasp.

"By what?" I ask, thinking of the watcher.

"My past is dangerous and the more people find out about it the more people I lose." he says sadly. I look down at my hands, regretting I ever asked.

When I look at him, I am astounded most prominently by how little he had changed. He had the same expression on his face, was standing in the same position. It was then that I realised what was so disconcerting about him; he lacked that natural ebb and flow of the body that everyone I had met prior to him had. He didn't seem to be breathing, his eyes were completely still, and unblinking. As if he was on pause, waiting to properly wake up.

I closed my eyes trying to wake up, hoping all of this was a dream. That I would wake up tangled in my blankets in my bed safe and sound.

Tentatively I reached out a touched his shoulder. 'Are...are you okay?' He blinked once and then suddenly his image faltered and disappeared. I sat there, wide eyed, my hands closed around the space that was once Ryan.

I wanted to cry or scream, but swallowed both down. In his place was not ash, or bones, or a projector. It was infinitely worse. It was his eyepatch.

Lying on the front, like a metallic oyster. Inside was a lump of pink and white flesh. Morbidly curious, I lent in... And it blinked.

Instantly, I backed away into the corner, the eye turned and stared at me. I don't know why but I started to cry. The eye continued looking at me, unblinking. Tears soaked my cheeks as I stared down at it. "Oh gods, someone get me out of here!" I sob.

I pounded at the walls knowing that nothing would happen but the, much to my surprise, a small gap opened up in the centre of the wall. I scurried through it faster than a mouse heading for cheese. I just hoped this cheese didn't have a trap beneath it.

A tall, slender figure stepped in front of the patch. Clad in a suit, it's skin was grey and mottled, the bones showing where they had broken through the skin. I screamed, and jumped behind a wall - but when I stopped to think, I couldn't remember why I was so scared.

The sunlight dazzled me and there, standing perfectly fine, was Ryan. I blinked quickly, feeling dazed, like i had had too much to drink or was asleep.

I looked at ryan and screamed at him , I had turned around and had blacked out.