When I woke I knew I wasn’t dead because I felt the pain that still erupted in my back. I had to believe that, if I did die, I wouldn’t be in this much agony. I coughed then turned to the side of my bed and puked all over the floor of whatever place I was in. I heaved until there was nothing left in my stomach and then painstakingly lifted my head to find the boy holding my hair back behind my head. He was young, around my age (whatever that was) and had sharp, angular features and a mop of dirty blonde hair on his head. He had stubble around his jaw and was pale, as if he hadn’t seen the sun in a long time.

He smirked as if I hadn’t just puked all over his floor, “You always did like to make a mess for me to clean up.”

 I wrapped my fingers around my own hair and shoved away from this random man. Then, I winced in pain and sank back into the bed. I still found the energy to glare at him, “Who…” I coughed, trying to clear my gravely throat. “Who are you?”

His expression fell, “What do you mean?”

I laid my head back, “Exactly what I said.”

He ran a hand through his hair and a concerned and confused expression passed over his face, “Why don’t you know?”

I closed my eyes, “I just… don’t”

Before I heard his reply, I fell asleep once again.

When I woke up the boy wasn’t in the room anymore, and the puke beside my bed had been cleaned up. My back, while still aching, was nowhere near as painful as before and I actually sat up in the bed. I was wearing a big, soft t-shirt that was about two sizes too large for me. I reached under it and could feel clean bandages carefully wrapped around my torso. When I moved my shoulder I felt a small ache, nothing compared to my back, but still noticeable. I glanced at it and saw that it too was wrapped in bandages. In fact, my whole arm was. 

I glanced up and saw that I was surrounded by a soft light in a cave with stone walls. The ceiling had little bits of moss peppered between its juts and ruts but other than that, the cave was well kept. My stomach growled as I began to stand up, maneuvering for the first time in… well I didn’t know how long. My joints were creaky and my muscles tense, but I walked to the cave door nonetheless and headed out into the main cave. Once again, the boy was nowhere to be found. I continued down the cave system until I felt a whiff of fresher air coming from one direction. I followed that direction until I reached the exit of the small cave system into a maze-looking thing. I shuddered when I saw drips of blood on the floor, probably my own. 

I took a few steps out into the fresh air and was absorbed by darkness. I was suddenly disoriented, not able to find my way back into the dimly lit cave that was just behind me a few seconds ago. Within this darkness, both my senses and my mind became hyperaware, my mind making me realize things that I hadn’t noticed before in the cave or before that. I didn’t know who I was. Where I was. Where I was born. My mothers name. My fathers. I didn’t even know my name. 

I felt my body, hyperventilating and unable to see a few inches in front of my face. Who was I? I sat down now, the darkness maddening. Who was I? Tears began to stream down my face, unwanted and unwelcome. I curled into a ball on the floor.. WHO AM I?

I realized that I had screamed that last though a few seconds too late. A musky scent filled my nose. I looked up to see a person approaching. Relieved, I moved towards it. It had a light with it which illuminated its face when it got close enough. I shrunk back in horror. It’s face and body were human, but mauled and ripped apart. Rotting flesh hung off of milky white bones. And its face, oh its face. It looked like it was in complete agony. Its face was nearly perfect but looked as if it was pinned on around the edges. The monster seemed like a science experiment gone wrong, a four year olds drawing of a human. It dropped the lantern at the ground. It clawed at its skin and sunk into a ball, real, human tears flowing down the monster's face. It started screaming, “Help! Help me!” It's very human eyes met mine. “Please!”

It stretched out its hand, reaching for me. I reached out, trying to do anything to help it. To end this poor creature of its misery. But, just before its fingers brushed mine, a voice grunted from behind me, “Get away from her you miserable beast!”

I retracted my hand just as a sword swung down, relieving the creature of its head. I squirmed back, suddenly aware again of the pain in my back. I turned around to see the boy sheathing his sword again. In his left hand he held a sack which he slung over his shoulder. He shook his head, “You should have stayed in the cave.” 

Not offering to help me up, the boy headed towards the small cave opening just a few feet behind us. After a moment of struggling, I scampered inside behind him, my forehead glistening with exertion. He took a sharp right turn and entered some sort of kitchen/living room area. There was moss covered rocks that resembled couches and a small pit with a spit above it. I practically collapsed onto the chairs as he took what resembled a rabbit out of the sack and attached its skinned body to the spit. He lit a fire by taking a useless looking cuff made out of rope off of his arm and striking the clasps together. 

Then, he turned to me. I noticed the deep purple bags under his eyes and the way his ribs showed through his shirt. His hair was messy and overgrown and his skin pale and caked with dirt, as if he hadn’t seen the sun or a shower in a long, long time. A long scar ran from the top left corner of his face to the bottom right, slicing right through one of his eyes which was left a milky white. But what scared me the most was his one working eye. The pale blue eye was laden with sorrow, pain, and suffering. This boy, although young, was traumatized. He had seen things. His eye said as much. 

The boy gave a lopsided smirk as I rudely stared at the scar on his face, “Hideous, right?”

“No… I uh I…”

He shook his head, “Always the awkward one.”

I threw my hands up a little, “Why do you keep talking to me as if you know me? I have no idea who you are! You’re a stranger!”

His smile fell and he breathed a long sigh, “I know. And that’s my fault.”

“What?”

He shook his head and looked away for a long moment, then looked back at me. He ran a hand through his hair, which he seemed to do when he was nervous, “Let’s start over. I’m Aurtur.” The name triggered my mind to flood with memories, there for a moment but then gone. Me and this boy sitting on a stoop, me in a miniature dress and him in peasants clothing eating croissants. Us again, walking down the streets and talking. do to talk to him at night. Aurtur punching a boy who made fun of my peasants' dress in the market. And finally, us sitting under the stars, the moon shining bright above us. I glanced into his two beautiful blue eyes, his angular features highlighted by the moonlight. He whispered… something. I couldn’t remember what. And then…

The memory was gone.

They all were. 

Aurtur was still looking into my eyes, his one eye meeting my two, “But I think you already know that, Eloise.”

I looked up at that name. I knew that name. But then, the smell of something tickled my nose. I immediately identified it as some sort of oil, the type they were just starting to mine. I had no idea how I knew this. Rather than ponder this, I looked up quickly. Aurtur’s eye met mine, “Run!” 

We dashed for the exit just as we heard flint strike steel. The air behind us exploded into flames as we emerged from the cave and ran, blindly into the darkness. The world exploded behind us, the perfect backdrop for a cheesy love story. But this was no love story. This was life or death. Slightly disoriented by the explosion, We continued forward, our ears ringing until the light from the fire almost completely faded. Then, we both collapsed into sweaty heaps on the ground. My back hurt badly, so Aurtur was quicker to get up, quickly lighting a fire out of his bracelet and a piece of dried moss. He propped that up against the wall and drifted towards me, helping me sit up. Still patting I mumbled a breathless, “What just happened?”

He gave another lopsided smile but this time it didn’t have any truth behind it. It looked like an empty promise, a veil for a darker truth. “That happens all the time.” His look darkened and his smile fell. “You get used to it after a while.”

I placed my hand on his. He flinched a little but didn’t move. I couldn’t help but think this was the first human contact he’d had in a while. “How long have you been down here?”

He sighed, “Two years? Three? I’ve lost count.” He turned to me. “You were what kept me going though. I kept hoping, kept wishing that-” His eye saddened even more. “-that you were ok. That once I got out of here.” He gave a little smile. “you would be there to welcome me home.”

I flinched away from him. “I don't know you. I’m sorry. The girl you’re talking about seems nice and all, but she isn’t me. And I am not her.” I broke his gaze. “No matter how much you want me to be.” I almost whispered that last part.

He stood up and ran a hand through his hair. “What do you remember then?!” His voice was loud, louder than it should have been. “You don’t remember growing up with me?! You don't remember your parents?! You don't remember the time we kissed under the stars?! You don't…” He looked away. “You don’t remember me?” His voice got softer, more defeated.

I stood up, outraged by his outburst. “No! I don't remember any of that! I don't know why or how, but I don't! I can promise you that I didn’t try to forget you! SO stop acting like a child and grow up! You think this is hard on you? Try not remembering your name! Where you’re from! How old you are! Who your parents are! Trust me, I want to remember you, I just-” I grabbed onto his shoulder. “-can’t.”

His eye hardened. “Your name is Eloise. You are from Hartsburg. You are eighteen. Your parents' names are Ella and Louise. You were named after them. And I…” he paused, seemingly searching for words. “I am just an orphan. A boy with no home. A boy with no one who loves him. Who gives a crap about where he ends up. No one, except you. This may be hard on you, but imagine surviving for two years down here. You were the only thing I stayed awake for, the only thing that kept me from feeding myself to the wolves. And now, you don't even remember. I know this is not your doing. You didn’t ask for this. But you’re just another thing that they’ve stolen from me.” 

We stood facing each other now. “Who are they?”

But before he could answer, something lunged out of the darkness and grabbed onto his calf, dragging him into the blackness beyond the reach of our torch. I began to dash after him, then thought better of it and picked up the torch he had propped up against the wall. I ran in the direction I thought he had disappeared in, my feet clanking on the stone ground. I finally saw him, struggling to get away form the beast. He seemed to pound at it as hard as he could, but his body shook with fatigue. The creature on top of him was horrifying, a failed attempt at mixing a snake and a bear and… something else. It’s face was grotesquely marred, a mixture of bear fur and slitted black eyes. It’s whole body was like that. Where tufts of fur were missing there was either scaly green skin or ugly, rotted purple flesh. Where two ears should have sat on its head there were only holes in the skin, showing bits of the creature's muscle.

The animal sunk its teeth into Aurturs calf harder, ripping out a piece of his flesh. He grunted in pain and tried again to beat it away. Without thinking anything through, I charged at the animal, swinging the torch at it. I bent down quickly as it moved back from Aurtur and grabbed his sword. The animal leaned back on its haunches, preparing to lunge at me. But before it could, I jabbed at it. The sword met its mark, plunging into the creature's leg. The animal yelped then scrambled back. It began to move away, but I lunged at it, this time aiming for the kill. Somehow, the sword was able to plunge into the animal's chest, sending it running away, dying. I dropped the sword, flinching away from it and the acid-like black blood that covered its blade. I crouched next to Aurtur, gently rolling him over. He moaned and turned to one side. I looked around the area that the animal had dragged Autur to, trying to find anything to stop his bleeding calf. 

“Moss.” Autur croaked from behind me. “Get the moss.”

I nodded and seacherched the cave, looking for any juts and ruts with moss growing inside. I reached into a particularly slimy corner of the area and reached my fist in. It came out with a handful of moss. Trying not to gag from the smell, I ran and crouched beside Autur again, pressing the moss onto his calf. Almost instantly his whole body relaxed and seconds later the bleeding stopped too. Before my eyes, his calf was knitted back together, the moss enclosed inside of his body. I breathed a sigh of relief. He was the only thing keeping me alive. I would have died down here without him, at least I hadn’t been the reason he was killed. He gave a little laugh and tried to sit up. Then, his whole body tensed again. 

I looked into his eye, which was lolling back into his head. “What! What’s wrong?!”

Instead of responding he moved his hand into mine. I immediately looked it over and didn’t see anything unusual. Until I saw his veins. Instead of blueish blood flowing through them similar to what flowed through mine, his veins were a deep purple. Almost the same color as the animal's flesh. I gripped onto his hand harder as I watched the poison flowing through it.

 I leaned over him, “What should I do!?”

His eye opened lazily and he gave a small smirk which quickly turned into a grimace of pain, “Don’t worry… they… wont let me… die.”

“No,” A voice said from behind me. I whipped around. “but we will let her.”

The man speaking was dressed in a crisp black suit. Flanking him were four people, all men, all tall, muscular, and dressed in white suits. The man speaking had a cunning smile and a balding head of black hair. He was cleanly shaven and looked as if he had just stepped out of a shower. I immediately knew that this was the ‘they’ that Aurtur had talked about. And I hated him. He was outside, clean and safe while Aurtur was in here, fighting for his life and barely surviving for two years.

I turned away from him and back to Aurtur. He looked at me and whispered, “No.”

Then he lost consciousness.

I turned to the men in disgust, “If you want him alive, then help him!”

The lead man made a motion with his hands and two men emerged from the darkness. They moved towards Autur like approaching a wounded animal and grabbed onto his arms, pinning him to the ground. His eye whipped open and he writhed under their grasp, trying to keep them from plunging a long needle filled with yellowish liquid into his arm. But, in this weakened state, he was no match for them. As soon as they had emptied the vial into his arm, his body relaxed and he breathed a sigh of relief. I did too. Until they lunged for him. They grabbed onto his arms and held them behind his back, dragging him over next to the man in the black suit. He tried to fight him but they held him fast. His scared eye met mine, then he turned to the man. 

He tried to look into the man's eyes but the man wouldn’t even acknowledge him, “Don’t do this.” He whispered. “Don’t do this. Don’t do this.” His voice got louder with each repetition of the phrase. “You monster! Haven’t you taken enough!” He punched and kicked at his captors as he screamed with monstrous ferocity. “DON’T DO THIS!”

The man finally turned to him and, seeing the way Autur fought against his restraints, he smiled. He smiled. “The only person who can stop this is you.” My mind told me to run, hide, do anything. But once again I couldn’t. My feet wouldn’t move. The man flicked his wrist and two men in white moved towards me, holding a long syringe. Aurtur fought as hard as he could, his eyes locked on mine. The man laughed at his struggle. “You saw the message we carved onto her back didn’t you? You saw the pain we inflicted on her to get to you! We will kill her, Aurtur. Just like we killed you mother. Your father. Your sister. She’ll be dead too. Unless you give me what I want. I know you know it.” He finally met Aurturs eye and winced back. “Oh that scar is ugly isn’t it.” He put his hand on Arturs shoulder like he was his father, not someone who was restraining him and threading to torture his childhood friend (I assumed). “Listen, you’ve been down here for two and a half years.” He looked him up and down. “It’s obviously taken a toll. Just give me what I want and all of this,” he motioned to the cave and then to me. “-goes away.”

Aurtur opened his mouth to respond but I interjected, “Never! Torture me. Kill me! I don't even know who I am! But I know that he would never give such a godless, evil man any kind of information. No matter what you threaten him with!”

The man raised his eyebrows and two hands pulled my arms behind my back. “You don't remember? Well let me help you remember. Every detail.” He looked back at Aurtur. “So she can suffer as herself.”

A needle plunged into my neck and I gasped in pain. After a few seconds,my eyes lit up with memories flooding my mind. memories of everything. My mothers soft smile and the clump of auburn on her head, contrasting with her blue eyes. Tears began streaming down my face as my father’s hard handshake came into my mind, accompanied by the little lines that formed around his eyes when he smiled. I remembered making jokes about his balding head and his long eyelashes. I remembered running through the halls of a little house, pretending I was a princess running from a monster. I remembered everything from the smallest trip to the market to the most important moments of my life. One of those moments was when I met a boy in the forest. He was scared and I was kind, so I fed this starving boy. Eventually, we became friends and then… something more. I remembered a night under the stars, running over the moors by the sea, barefoot and utterly free. Free of everything I was expected to be when the only place I wanted to be was with this boy. I remembered the way he held me, the jokes he cracked about my knotted hair and ruffled dress. And then, I remembered dressing in black. Walking to the moor by the seashore where days before this boy and I had been running, wild and free. But now, he would never run again. I would never look into his pale blue eyes again. I remembered collapsing to my knees as I held flowers of the tree where I had first met him. I remembered dropping them as I sobbed, cursing the things that had taken this boy away from me. I remembered two years of nothing, working in my mothers in home-doctors office and living every day wishing he was still with me. Feeling that he couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t have left me. Then, they took me. Tortured me. Stole my memories and sliced into my back while all I did was scream, all the while hoping that maybe this would kill me. That maybe this would reunite me with my lost love. I opened my eyes and was hauled to my feet by the arms that held me. I hadn’t even realized I had sunk to my knees. I locked eyes with the boy, the boy I thought was dead and smiled.

“I remember. I remember, Aurtur.” I whispered. He understood even though he could not hear me.

“Eloise!” He yelled, trying with all of his strength to get to me. I noticed the man beside Aurtur nodded and I felt another needle injected into my arm. I felt darkness close in around my vision.

“Don’t give them what they want, Aurtur! I can handle it.” My head started to spin as I collapsed to the ground. “Aurtur I-”

I heard him scream as the world went dark around me. Again.

When I woke up, I was alone in the same small cavern as before. There was a small lantern sitting by my feet and complete darkness closing in around me. This was a dream. It had to be. Aurtur wouldn’t leave me, would he? After we had just found each other again? I stood up, wary of my new surroundings. My heart was pounding in my ears, my senses on high alert. Something was wrong. I could feel it. Then, that very something came into the light. It was a grotesque creature, its body almost human-like. It used its one arm to drag it forward to me. It’s body was covered in sores and bleeding holes, its face contorted into a silent scream. Greasy, matted auburn hair came from its head. I gasped.

“Aurtur?” I said uncertainty, backing away from the monster. The monster’s blue, clear eyes met mine.

It opened its mouth, revealing rotted, black teeth, “Darling? Eloise? Help…” it coughed. “Help me, baby girl.”

This distorted form of my mother then began screaming and convulsing, reaching for me and repeating ‘help me!’ Tears began to stream down my face, “Aurtur help!”

Another creature came into view, this one with long eyelashes and a balding head. I screamed. The creature looked up, “Honey? Help me! Help!”

More creatures came into view, my grandmother in her faded pink dress, my uncle clutching his deceased son who was my cousin, my childhood freinds and teachers. Everyone who had ever cared about me. I screamed as they reached for me. Their rotted flesh clutched my skin, making it erupt with pain. I was being buried alive under a pile of bodies. I closed my eyes and whispered, “It’s not real. It’s not real.”

But it felt real. It felt as if everyone were dead, their swollen flesh up against mine. I gagged. They piled higher and higher until I could barley see from beneath all of the bodies dragging me to the ground. Then, I saw someone. Walking past the pile. Aurtur. He was cleaner than before, freshly shaven and in clothes that were very clean. His eyes pierced through my soul as he saw me. I opened my mouth, “Aurtur, Autur help.” The pain was like a burning fire now, surrounding me and slowly eating away at me. “Aurtur it hurts! Help!” He took one last look at me. Then, he walked away.

“Aurtur! Aurtur no! Please help me! Please!”

Sense told me that this wasn’t real. Everything told me to just relax. But I couldn’t. I started sobbing, less because of the pain than because of the betrayal. I cried until I couldn’t cry any longer, until I was in too much pain to force tears out of my eyes.

It’s not real.

I made myself believe that.

It’s not real.

I relaxed my body and took in a few deep breaths. 

It’s not real. 

It’s not real.

The world faded around me. 

I opened my eyes to find myself laying on a cold, stone floor. I forced myself not to move, but I knew that I had woken up instantly. I knew from the anguish in Aurturs voice when he said, “Stop! Is any information worth this!? Please, stop!”

The man responded in an irritated and slightly bored voice, “The only person who can stop this is you! You!”

I heard the determination in Aurturs voice when he said. “Stop.” He paused and I heard people gasp. “Or I’ll eliminate the problem.”

The man gave an uneasy laugh, “You wouldn’t.” 

Aurtur laughed, “Oh, I would. Wanna see?”

The man responded quickly, “No. I’ll bring her out of it if you hand it over. Now.”

I could hear the smirk in Arturs voice as he said, “You first.”

A needle was injected into my neck and, although nothing changed from me, I made a show of sitting up and gasping for air. I turned to look at Aurtur. In his hand (which he had somehow wrestled free of the guard) he held a gem encrusted dagger. He was aiming it at his chest. Relief flooded his face as he saw me stand up, “Eloise. I’m so sorry.” 

The man lunged for the dagger just as he began plunged it into his chest. The dagger sliced across his side, but didn’t appear to do much damage. Then, Aurtur stabbed at the man. He cut him across the face and then, before the guards could react, stabbed him in the chest. One down, four to go. I lunged at the man nearest to me and kicked at his legs, making him fall to the ground like a mountain. He hit his head on a jutting stone and, with a horrific crunching sound, it was done. Aurtur had disabled another guard and was fighting both of the guards remaining at the same time. It was like David and Goliath. Aurtur was quick though, and punched at the men and then scampering away before they could get a shot. After a few minutes, one guard was dead (from a stab in the lungs) and the other was on the ground, whimpering from a jab at the knee. Autur stabbed the guard in the chest, killing him and eliminating the problem. Aurtur ran to me, wrapping me in a hug and clutching my hair. I hugged him back.

He pulled away and looked into my eyes. He gave a grim smile, “Oh, Eloise. I missed you so much.”

I laughed, “I thought you were dead.”

He gave a shuddering sigh, “I… I…”

He fell out of my arms and collapsed to the ground. I noticed that my right arm was covered in blood. I dropped beside him and looked at his hip. His shirt was doused with blood, but the dagger was nowhere to be found. The wound was deep, maybe two inches into his side. I got up quickly and shoved some moss onto the wound, hoping that it would seal up. It didn’t. 

Aurtur tried to sit up, then collapsed back down. In between breaths he said, “Get out of… here. Go.”

I shook my head, “You’ve already died once, I’m not gonna let you do it again.”

I ripped off his shirt revealing dozens of scars like the one across his face and balled it up. I pressed it against his side, hoping to stop the bleeding. As I was doing this, I felt his hand going cold. I propped his feet up on a rock to keep the blood flowing then grabbed a bloody coat off of one of the bodies lying around me and wrapped it around him to keep him warm. I had seen my mother treat many patients from a serious wound. And then, I waited. For hours. Aurtur remained asleep, but still breathing and growing warmer by the second. I was about to doze off myself when his eyes fluttered open and he muttered something unintelligible.

I leaned over him as he winced in pain. He muttered something again. I met his eye, “What!?”

He held my gaze, “You should have just let me bleed out.”

I rolled my eyes, “First of all, that would be very bad for our relationship. Second of all, that would have taken a while. You’re kind of dramatic.”

He laughed. “I think I have the right to be.”

I helped him stand up and slung his arm over my shoulder. I looked into his eye. “Now,” I said, leaning down to grab the knife that had stabbed Aurtur and the torch. “let's get out of here.”

His hand squeezed my shoulder, “I’ve been waiting to hear that for a long time.”

We began to walk forward, until I felt something hit me in the shoulder, then another time in the leg. One more slammed me in the back. I cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground. Aurtur collapsed to the ground with me, grunting in pain. He turned, facing me on the ground.

He grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes, both of us still on the ground. His voice was frantic, “Eloise! Eloise! What’s wrong?!”

All I could answer with was a strangled grunt. He turned me over onto my stomach and gasped. I could feel sticky blood flowing out of each of my wounds. It hurt worse than my back had. My mind began to blur, slowly losing consciousness. I felt tears streaming down my face. 

Aurtur kept me on my back, “Oh my go-”

“Should have given my second in command what he wanted,” a female voice said from behind us. “He’s a lot nicer than me.”

I heard Aurtur scream and felt his mass leave my side. I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. Then, I felt the wounds being pressed deeper. I heard Aurtur scream in rage but they pushed the arrows, which I now assumed was what had injured me, deeper and deeper into my skin. I screamed in agony. Everything hurt.

“Give me what I want, Aurtur.” the voice continued, intent unaltered by my screaming. “Or she dies.”

I screamed again, but this time I said, “Don’t… do…. It!”

The woman turned me over, causing the arrows to stick harder into my back. Another thwap sounded, this time landing in my chest. I felt a light pressure on it and terror flooded my system. She was going to kill me. 

“You have five seconds to tell me the coordinates.” The woman pressed harder on the arrow in my chest. “Or she dies. Right now. Five… four… three… two… one…”

“The coordinates are,” Aurtur said. I tried to stop him, but nothing would come out. “180 degrees east by 70 degrees west. Now, let her go.”

I could practically hear the woman smirk. “No.”

She pressed the arrow into my chest. I heard Aurtur scream in agony.

And then, I couldn’t feel the pain. It was amazing. I couldn’t see anything.

Nothing but endless darkness.