Hot steamy breath is on my face, and inches from my mouth. Something is standing above me, and I don’t want to open my eyes to figure out what it is. I close them tighter than they were before and the numbness of my body is beginning to wear off. I can feel my arms and legs being confined to a cold metal table, and I try to keep my breathing at a steady pace as if I were sleeping. It is too late, who knew how long I had been in trouble by now.
“Oh, you're beginning to come around I see?” He speaks in his raspy hushed voice. It sounds familiar and yet exotic at the same time with a hint of a foreign accent. “It's okay to open your eyes, you know. I can't hurt you.”
I don't want to open them I know that if I open them the reality of the situation will come to life so I strain to keep them shut. I use every part of my already weary body to keep them closed, but it won't be long before I have to give up the fight. I don't want to try to speak but I can't just lay here, trapped like a defenseless animal. I know I really only have two options: I can scream like hell until someone hears me, or I can use an incantation. I’m not very good at creating spells in stressful situations, but I have to try because I know that screaming like hell was not going to save me. I reach into the farthest corner of my mind; trying to think of an escape spell, and I close my eyes trying to remember the beginning of my incantation training. It is difficult but it finally comes to me, and I open my eyes grinning upwards staring into the eyes of my captor.
“Loa.” I chant loudly. His eyes become enraged and I know that I have angered him, but I feel something in my body that is new and exciting. The room begins to shrink and I grow larger and larger. I can't control it. I have to think of a spell to stop the incantation or I will grow as large as Alice did when she arrived in Wonderland. I close my eyes concentrating and trying to willfully stop the growth with my mind but I continued to get larger, the shackles tighten around my wrists and become unbearably painful. I look down to see that they are beginning to rip and my legs are already free.
“Esteë”, I shout with glee remembering how to stop an incantation and the shackles on my wrist make a deafening cracking sound, releasing me from my former prison. The hideous balding man stands in a corner, there are scars across both sides of his face. On the left side is a much larger and deeper wound that had never completely healed while on his right cheek he has a much smaller red scar. He is a tiny man even if I hadn't used my growth incantation he had to be just at five feet, and I tower over him now like a giant. He squeals in agony and I almost take pity on him. I grab him by his collar and put my face inches from his, staring into his uneven lopsided eyes. One of them is a dark blue, while the other eye is a lighter blue, almost a white color. The same light blue of someone that is blind. I shake him in the air with one of my fists and growl with fury. I put my face up against his again just so that he knows I am being serious and I begin to ask him questions.
“Where am I?” I question in my livid voice. I know that if I were on the other end of that voice I would be answering the questions because I was already in a pissed off mood. I could see by the look in the man's eyes that he didn't want any trouble from me and he is willing to co-operate. “Who are you?”
“I am Alfred and this is my laboratory. You have been chosen as one of the experiments of Mathew. You are one of his most important experiments yet. It is an honor to be chosen by him, you see.” Alfred replies, sounding like a brain-washed drone and if I wasn't one of the good guys I would have probably rid myself of him quickly but I need more answers that only he an provide.
“Where are we at Alfred? Where is your laboratory? I was an experiment? What does that mean?” the questions were spurting quickly out of my mouth, without me even having a chance to think them over. I am a level-headed person; I never like to enter into a situation without the upper hand. I knew the more time I wasted with the henchmen of Mathew the less time I had to get rid of Mathew once and for all. I listened to Alfred's answers anyway because I thought they could be useful and it turned out I was right.
“We are in the world of mortals, a little town known as Chipewa Lake, my dear boy! Mathew has been here for two decades trying to enter into the world of the elves, but every attempt has been a failure. That is why he needs you. You are his key to gaining access into Newhollow.” he explains this all to me smugly.
“You mean we're in Ohio!” I shout. “How the hell am I supposed to get back to Newhollow from here?” I slam Alfred down with a loud crash, and briskly start my search for Mathew leaving behind a moaning Alfred.
I reach the hallway and I'm stunned by the elegance and grandeur of the place. At least, Mathew has good taste. The floors are black and white marble with gold speckles, and the walls are painted a deep red. At the end of the hallway stands a knight in armor looking valiantly back at me. My footsteps echo loudly through the empty hallway full of doors, each door painted black as the night sky. I'm confused by the number of doors and choices they present, there are at least 20 doors in this single hallway on either side of me. I decide to open the first door and start from there, but as I open it I hear the eerie music of a piano filling up the room. It sounds so sad that it fills my heart up and brings tears to my eyes blurring my vision. I quickly shut the door in agony and the feeling disappears. I try the second door. It's a door marked with a large golden two in the center of it. I step inside bracing myself for the worst. The room is filled with humans of every shape, size, and color. They are each in large tubes filled with water and bubbles and wires, an eerie green light as the background to their horrified expressions each one clearly in mid-scream. I back slowly away from the humans and try to reach for the door handle but it's gone. I gasp because there is no door where there formerly was one. I search around the room wildly. Everything is the exact same. The room is still windowless, dark, and eerie. The only difference is where there was once an escape there now is only a shelf full of ancient scientific tools. I am trapped, trapped in a room full of the silent screams of people.