The Capture Target Only Loves Magic

1-2. New Life

I wasn't lost anymore.

I observed and silently noted my situation. Was it only the atmosphere that was different? Or was it something else? Before, it was as if I was in a spacious vortex, scattered and pulled towards infinite directions, becoming hazier and hazier, less and less existent, but now something was different. Nothing was pulling at me. On the contrary, I was being squashed.

It was cold at first, ice cold and numb. I welcomed the cold. It gave me the feeling that I was alive. Any sensation was welcome by now. Slowly the world changed.

It wasn't merely black anymore. It was warm. And dense. I moved.

It was so surprising I jerked back. What was that sensation? I tried to move again, but it didn't work. It felt like I was floating away. My head became murkier, and I got the feeling this was bad.

I steeled myself and tried to move again. And again. The numb feeling that was surrounding me slowly disappeared to be replaced by a warmer, heavier feeling, as if I was a frozen cod in a microwave. It didn't only feel good. It hurt. Like tiny pinpricks digging into my skin, it hurt. But I could bear it.

I had to. I tried again. This time, it was as if there was an anchor between me and the movement; it pulled me away towards my sensations, the same sensations that made me feel so complicated inside. I dropped in, becoming less and less numb as I settled into the environment.

What was this? The pain assaulted me again, but compared to burning alive, this was much better. Every part of me hurt, the slightest difference of pressure on my skin made me want to cry out, as if my nerves were accidentally wired wrong.

I could feel arms and legs and a head. Or I thought they were limbs. I wasn't exactly sure. I didn't have full control of what I supposed to be my eyes, or were they simply closed? I kicked again. My leg hit a soft wall. I winced. The touch felt weird. It wasn't exactly soft; it felt more rubbery and slippery. Was I in a rubber box?

I heard a shout, no, I couldn't hear very well, I felt vibrations instead. Fluid sloshed in my ears, making everything sound muffled. I stopped. I kicked again, harder this time. The walls moved, and there were more vibrations. I felt stunned. Then I realized a crucial fact.

I could feel! I was alive! Truly alive again! Or at least something similar. But where was I?

My body shook for a second, I felt my head turn. The density surrounding me was being pushed through a narrow opening and it was dragging me away with it. I tried to hold on to the walls, but they were too slippery. My hands didn't reach.

There was a sound, another vibration. It was a quick vibration, and it was so high and loud it reached my ears. It sounded almost panicked. My hands coiled around something, then slipped away.

More screams. The soft walls resonated with the screaming, they moved like a gigantic pump, trying to pump me out of a tiny opening I wanted to avoid. I was squashed like a tin can, I could sense pain. Every part of my body felt raw, it could almost be compared to my painful death. I felt tiny vibrations and lots of movement, as if I was inside the body of some kind of living being.

Was I being pulled into a black hole?

My hands fumbled for what I felt before. A rope? It was a long coil of something. Then came even more pain.

My head felt hurt as it was stretched to the limit. I wanted to black out. My head, my poor head. I still couldn't see anything. Frustration filled my body. I cried out involuntarily as I passed the opening. It was looser now. It was still very tense.

My hands let go of the rope. I gurgled, there was water everywhere. It was a miracle I wasn't choking.

"Ah." I heard something like a high-pitched sigh.

There were loud noises bouncing in and out of my head, some loud, some not. I couldn't understand anything. Everything was so confusing. And this wasn't the end. There was yet another opening.

I pushed my head out of that narrow opening and wanted to curse; it was cold. Too cold to speak of. It was a vortex, completely different from the warm and wet place I was in. I didn't want to get out. I hated it.

I hated it. I hated- Was it just me, or were my thoughts turning childish and irrational? Maybe it was a drawback from death. No, I thought almost desperately. I couldn't lose my...

Another loud sound! I kicked viciously and yelled. Something soft but firm grabbed my head, and I started crying to my horror. I wasn't used to crying.

Could I curse right now? It wasn't easy to let my body go limp, with all the various sensations wracking my body, but I was tired. I was tired of all of this unproductive struggling, this silly farce. I had died once, what's another painful experience? Sometimes the best thing to do was to let go.

I popped out.

I opened my mouth, or that's what I thought it was. I tried to move, but my limbs didn't obey me and only jerked up weakly like chicken legs and wings. I couldn't go back, I couldn't feel the door anymore, I didn't care.

The place immediately got two times noisier. I had thought that it was loud before, but I immediately realized I had been mistaken. This was noise, it felt as if it was drilling inside my brain. The lights. It was so bright I could sense the white particles in the air.

I felt myself being wrapped around something soft, something that soothed me and made me warmer. And I heard another heartbeat. A warm body against my body.

I stopped trying to move. It was peaceful.

Though loud, it was peaceful. Something was happening, and I was curious what it was.

I was back.

I was back and alive.