Imprisonment

I woke up cold and sore. Everything around me was dark and fuzzy, and movement was limited. Shaking my head a few times my eyes began to adjust. The room was full of dark shadows cast by a dim lantern that hang on the wall across from me. I looked down, thinking I should be able to at least see what was next to me due to the hue that I had previously, when I noticed how dim it was. Any light I may have had previously had been dimmed greatly. Then I noticed a strange and painful sensation coming from my wrists where heavy metal chains were clamped on my wrists. The chains on my wrists were short, keeping my hands from reaching the ground and suspended about my shoulders.

Trying to move the chain away from the part of my wrist that felt like it was burning off, I nudged at my left hand with my head, and was able to nudge it slightly away from its previous spot. There was no physical wound that one may normally associate with tight chains, but instead there was a darkness that had begun to spread from the cuff of the chain. I jumped up, trying to pull away at the chains, but they kept me from getting any more than a foot from the wall. Standing up I could reach the cuff with my other hand, so I frantically tried to pull at it or conjure up some kind of magic to break free, but the more I tried the weaker I felt. With my energy quickly being depleted, I back up against the wall and slid back down to the cold hard ground.

After a while I seemed to feel nothing at all, as if I could not care less whether or not I ever got free. Maybe this was part of the chain's affect, but I didn't see the point in dwelling on it. The ceiling above seemed to be made of clay, rounding up towards the far side of the room where a mixture of clay and metal bars lined from wall to ceiling not ten feet from where I sat. Leaning my head back against the clay wall I glanced to the right, where nothing but dark shadows and cobwebs loomed, and to my right I first thought it was the same thing, but something wasn't quite right. I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus in on what I thought was some kind of light, when two figures seemed to emerge from the dark. Purple eyes peered at me, and two glowing hearts dimly lit from the far corner.

I gasped and jumped up once again. "Who are you?" I asked.

The two sets of eyes peered at one another, then back to me. They both stood up, worn tattered clothes hanging off of the dark figures, their hearts barely shinning through them. I glanced down and noticed my own heart illuminated through my dress.

Glancing back up at the two I noticed they also wore chains on their hands, but it was barely noticeable with the color of their skin matching the dark color of the iron shackles. One could easily mistake the chains as always being a part of them.

"What is your name?" One asked, in a deep and hoarse voice.

I felt my heart beat swiftly in my chest. "Fia." I said.

The two turned to one another quickly, then back towards me, their eyes seeming brighter than before. "We are your parents." The other responded in a kind, warm voice.

My heart leapt in my throat. I had finally found my parents, and I had so many questions I didn't know where to start. I opened my mouth to speak when there was a sudden cold chill and the light of the lamp blew out.

Without that light I couldn't focus on much of anything, but there was almost instantaneously another light, only this one held by a tall, gangly creature with a huge, distorted grin on its face.

"Oh look, a family reunion." It said, looking at the three of us slowly, his voice eerily soft and deep. "What a shame big brother couldn't be here." He let out a loud, hubristic laugh that bounced off the walls causing it to be seemingly amplified as he laid a long lanky hand across his slender belly.