Naihabi Ridge

Chapter Two - Naihabi Ridge

A frigid, unbearable cold splashed over my body, and I shivered uncontrollably, shaking as I opened my eyes and sat up, wrapping my arms around myself with chattering teeth and quick, drawn breaths. I couldn't see anything but pitch black darkness on all sides, pinning me with my thoughts and the lingering cold of the liquid soaking my clothes. I heard heavy breathing from... two, maybe three people coming from the darkness beyond whatever I was sitting on, which sent a chill down my spine and a jitter through my arms. I heard faint whispering coming from the abyss, but I couldn't understand a word of it through the ringing in my ears and the panic in my thoughts. The only thing I could think to do is scream, but I couldn't manage it through the ice in my lungs.

"L-lil—l-lilli..."

I felt a hard, cold hand grip my arm and I jerked away, but it was stronger and kept me leashed with its talons, then the world went white. I squinted and my eyes watered, then the light dimmed and I could make out a small, claustrophobic room with a chair in two of the corners and two men and a woman with blurred faces standing in the middle. They were wearing white, long-sleeved coats down to their knees, and all of them were holding a pen and a board with paper, a few of them writing something down. They didn't look like anyone that would come from around my village, or from any of the surrounding villages, either. They didn't look like they were from any village at all. Who were these people? Why did I survive the fire?

Why did I not wake up from this nightmare?

An image of the glowing orange liquid soaking into the bare earth flashed into my mind, and my breathing became faster, my eyes watering at the thought of Lillian running beside me.

I looked to my left to see a fourth person with one of his slim, almost robotic fingers wrapped around my forearm so hard I could feel the blood slowly drip down to my elbow and onto the floor, where it made little dots that looked like they sunk into the flooring, but I blinked and they were still there. I was becoming delusional.

Are these the same people—the same things that took Lillian? Do they have her now? Thoughts bubbled through my mind in my hallucinational state, and before I knew what I was doing I was speaking quite clearly aloud. I heard myself mouthing the questions that crossed my mind, and I screamed, taking all four of the coated people by surprise, the one on my arm loosening his grip so I could finally yank myself away. I could feel the skin on my arm tear as I broke loose of the monster's metal grip, but I ignored the pain and shot to my feet, jumping off the bed. Then I stumbled down to the ground with weak knees and numbness all over. My head spun, and I looked up at the four people as if I wanted them dead by the gallows as they crowded around me, writing more down with their pens. I shivered again, and I felt as if the blood on my arm would freeze in place.

"I-if you think y-y-you can capture me, it will—will be harder t-than this..."

Then I saw one of them show their teeth in a calculated smile. I wanted to growl at him like a rabid dog, but I couldn't move.

"Hello, Mr. Itoma, we'd like you to answer some questions." The low humming sound escaped the mouth of the smiling man like vipers on the hunt and I recoiled. The other people started nodding, bringing their pens up unanimously—and I looked at the ground as my foot regained its feeling. I shot up to my feet, trying to sock the nearest one in the face, but she caught my hand mid-swing and held it with the same steely grip of the other, then she pulled my ear close to her mouth and said in a monotonous purr that would never leave my thoughts, "Avi Itoma, you will never be more than a pawn for our experiments."

No.

"You will never be anything more than that, and deep inside yourself, even if you refuse to acknowledge it, you know we're right."