Chapter 2: Chapter 1
Darkness was the only thing around me. The only companion in this empty ride. I could feel it on my skin, taste it, I even got the feeling that I could hold it in my hands if I wanted to. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't feel anything. It was like my will had become insignificant in this world of darkness.
I felt the darkness brush my side, breezing past like the wind on a clear summer day. Unfortunately for me I couldn't move. My body was as stiff as a board, just floating away like a boat on a stream letting the currents carry it along its winding path. I couldn't tell how much time had passed. It could have been minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even years. The endless waiting emphasized more by the fact that I couldn't do anything to pass the time.
All I was left with were my own lonely thoughts.
I felt useless, inept, disabled and… bored as hell.
'Is this the afterlife? 'I wondered.
As I drifted in this endless rolling darkness a blinding pain encapsulated me and I saw a light in the distance. Like the so-called light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly, I regained control over my muscles and I reached for it. That light blinded me and the searing pain I felt earlier reached untold levels as my vision faded with the searing white light.
I groaned in the pain I felt from my side. With my eyes still closed I tried to reach out and massage the area where the pain was coming from. My hand came away wet to the touch. And I became confused.
'Did I not die? What the hell is going on?
My opened my eyes groggily only to see a bare black ceiling above me. Memories from last night hit me and I suddenly sat up only for the pain from my side to make my double over gasping. I didn't recognize anything around me. My body tensed up immediately and I cautiously looked around. As a man who had experienced death and dealt out death, I knew that the most dangerous situation in a battlefield is encountering an unfamiliar environment. I had seen many deaths from traps and ambushes laid out in unexpected areas or places where there was lack of information.
I assessed my situation carefully. Looking around, I noticed that I was in a place with little illumination. Looking up, I noticed a person sized hole from the ceiling, with a little sunlight filtering through. That's probably where I was dropped from, thought.
I couldn't really see much due to the lack of light so while waiting for my eyes to adjust, I used my hands to feel around me. What I felt was the rough texture of rock beneath my fingers. The smell of damp earth and the stale air I felt through my skin led me to believe that I was underground.
The questions for contention, however, is who brought me here and for what purpose?
Where is 'here' in the first place?
Where the events of the past night all an illusion? I should have died from a stab wound like that. Feeling my side, I noticed the wound which was still oozing my precious lifeblood. I put my hand there to try and staunch the bleeding, though I doubt it would do much good.
It was a stab wound alright, but it wasn't at the position anyone who had trained with me or under me would have aimed for with the intention to kill.
That means that this injury could not have been caused by my protégé. The moment I reached that conclusion, certain images flashed through my head. They spoke of a bald man with a red scorpion tattooed on the side of his head chasing two kids- a boy and a girl.
The bald man moved with a speed that even I would have degraded back before I even started training my physical abilities. Yet somehow, he managed to create fireballs and summon the wind. My mind shook at what I was seeing. Is this some kind of fantasy movie or what for people to be hurling fireballs and stuff like that as if we were in a Lord of the Rings setting? All this while the bald man was toying with the children. I knew that this man intended to kill these kids, no question asked because I could see the murderous intent in his eyes, yet he never went for the kill.
I had no problem with the man trying to kill these children. Afterall, he had his own circumstances which I wasn't privy to, not that I cared. What I couldn't and wouldn't find acceptable, however, was the fact that he was playing with this prey. That was one thing I couldn't understand about some people, some of whom I had worked with in the past, was the fact that instead of killing their target immediately they toy with them, wasting precious time and in some instances allowing the target to escape. Afterall, a lion does not play with his food.
Just as I expected the children somehow managed to break free of the bald man's onslaught and fled to the nearby mountains. The man gave chase and cornered the children due to the boy's sluggish movements. He moved as if simply running caused him great pain.
The boy managed to get the bald man's attention away from the girl, whom I just realized must have been his sister judging from their similar facial features. They both fell into a pitfall and ended up underground. With a jolt, I realized that where they had fallen was the exact place I was at currently.
The last image showed the bald man stabbing the boy through the side. Before the image disappeared, I somehow realized that the boy bore my name- Aaron.
With a gasp, my eyes opened again and I blinked in confusion. What the hell was that.
I tried to carefully analyze the situation, was it possible that I had been pumped full of drugs that caused me to hallucinate. No, I immediately ruled that out. I still had proper use of my mental faculties which meant it wasn't any drug I had ever heard of.
Could it be that I had been kidnapped and a machine strapped to my head to make me experience these events in a bid to get something out of me? I ruled out that possibility as well since all my enemies would kill me the first moment they get, no questions asked. Several different ideas passed through my head with me ruling each out.
The only other thing I could think of was that the most illogical, and unreasonable theory that a man of my standing could ever theorize. Was it possible that I had indeed died and I have been reincarnated into another world? I rejected that notion the very moment I thought of it owing to the fact that it was not possible. I simply settled for the fact that maybe my mental health might be deteriorating due to old age.
I looked down at my hands as I tried to understand what had just happened. Then I noticed something. The hand I was currently looking at looked smaller than what had a few hours ago. It had none of calluses and scars I had gained from military life. It looked like the hands of a child that had been pampered his whole life without ever having to work for anything, like the pipsqueak in the sudden influx of images I just had.
I forced myself to my feet ignoring the pain that flared once more at my side.
Impossible. I refuse to believe this.
'What the hell in going on here? If this is some kind of prank, I swear I'll find the person trying to funny and tear the nails off his hands and feet and make him eat it all.'
I picked a direction and limped, doing my best to favor my injured side.
My next course of action was to find an exit. I had to do my best to make as little noise as possible, after all, I had no knowledge of where I was and what could be waiting for me at the end of the tunnel, quite literally.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone