Annwn - Cp01 - Cell

I awoke in a prison cell, or at least it seemed like it. The walls where a dull, worn out gray; the ceiling seemed black, hard to tell if it used to have colour that had simply faded and rotten away into the dark, damp roof above my head. The floor appeared to be like tiles: large, cold, and once again gray. I suspected that at one point these were white, but judging by the cracks which had formed in most and the dead plants that attempted to live through the many cracks in this horrid place, they had been laid a long time ago.

The room itself was bigger than what I would have imagined a normal prison cell to be. I don't know why you would want to, but it would be possible to snugly fit a single decker bus in this room, which gave everyone enough area to actually doze off without the worry of rolling into someone or hitting them in your sleep. Two doors led out of this place, one iron one, which lead to the corridor and freedom, the second an old, wooden one, leading to a small cube of a room where one could remove waste.

There were eight of us in total, all of them like me, deemed 'special' by the ones who put us here. I don't know what made me 'special'. I was just a normal guy. The others, they were either really strong, smart or skilled in one way or another. I wonder if they think being able to blend in with a crowd is a skill? Regardless, I don't see why I'm in this prison cell with these 'special' people, and not downstairs, or wherever the rest of the classes are.



This was meant to be our last big trip as a class before we all entered the 'real world' of looking for jobs, moving on to higher education or just becoming a homeless person. I wasn't sure which of the three I was leaning towards, and a mass school trip to some old ruins on some small island wasn't going to help me decide. However, things didn't go as the teachers had planned. Throughout the first day, rumours spared quickly that students where disappearing, some right before the eyes of their classmates, almost vanishing into thin air.

Despite the teachers' best efforts, panic had set in by the morning of the second day. More and more of us were gone, and apparently some of the teachers were missing too. The requests to simply go home were too much for whoever remained to ignore. By the afternoon, whatever was left of us had made our way onto the boat. I was so close to freedom before I was the one to disappear next.

I ended up in a large room. A few others were there with me. Some of them were also ones who were trying to escape on the boat, while others had disappeared earlier that day. Odd markings were drawn on the floor with pinpoint accuracy. Strange people where dotted all around the room, all of whom had long robes on, each with their hoods up, covering their faces as they surrounded everyone who stood within the markings,. They informed us that we were the last group to be 'saved' and we should consider ourselves lucky. It eats me up inside thinking that I was one of the last few on the island who was just about to escape, and then I got roped up anyways.

Whispers and panic filled the air as we all glanced around unsure what to do. Finally, one of us snapped.

"Who the hell are you people? What are you doing? This is kidnapping you know!" The voice was loud, causing myself to jump at the sound of it.

I scanned the room quickly, looking for the source: Jake, a tall student with broad shoulders and gelled up hair. The biggest mouth in my class, he wasn't a huge jerk, but would let everyone know when things weren't going his way. That was probably the happiest I've ever been to see Jake. He was someone I knew, something that I could familiarize myself with. If anyone was going to get any answers to what was going on, it would be him and his big mouth.

Oh how wrong I was, if I had known what was going to happen next, I would have at least tried to stop him. Jake continued to yell and shout, a few others joining in. Jake, feeling the support of the others, stepped forward, moving closer to the one of the hooded ones.

"Well? Answer us!" he yelled.

The hooded one moved their head a little bit to the side, looking at what I assume to be the highest rank in this room. Their eyes seemed to meet for a moment, before the 'higher ranked' one gave a nod. It was over too quick for our eyes to see. Jake was on the floor, his face pushed against the tile, the hooded one's hand shoving the back of his head down.

It took a moment for the others to notice what had happened, that the one 'leading' the students had suddenly and violently been brought down in a blink of an eye. Gasps and even a scream filled the room, along with a greater sense of panic. What most interested me, however, was that, during the unseen take down of Jake, the hood had slipped back, falling off the person's head and revealing their face.

The one who had pinned down one of the biggest and strongest guys in my class was a girl. Not only that, but she a cute one too. Her smooth skin was slightly tanned, which hinted that she or at least her family wasn't from our country. Her hair was an odd colour; 'messy blond' would likely be the closest thing to describe it as, yet it was hard to pinpoint. It seemed to be around shoulder length, tied into two messy pigtails on either side of her head. Her eyes were a shocking blue, almost like ice as she looked down, expressionless.

Letting go, she straightened herself. Stepping back to return to her original position, she grabbed her hood with both hands and lifted it up and over her head once more. I doubt many others even noticed that her hood had fallen, most still shocked by what had happened or too focused on Jake. Any fight or resistance anyone might have had had fallen along with Jake.

It felt like a long time had passed, yet in reality, it was likely seconds since Jake had his ass kicked. Two great doors opened behind the 'higher ranked' hooded person as someone stepped into the room. A strange aura followed them. The air felt heavy all of a sudden. Everyone's eyes were now fixated on the new arrival.

She was a tall lady, also robed, yet her hood was down. If it wasn't for what I'd seen beforehand, I would have believed the horns on her to be fake, yet something told me they were real. Both were a brilliant white as they curved around from the sides of her head toward the front, pointing upwards at the end, almost looking like a crown. Her long, straight hair was a mix of what seemed to be silvery shades. It was hard to tell from a distance. Regardless, she stepped forward and spoke.

"Welcome..." her voice was loud enough to fill the room, clear and had a strong sense of control and dominance in it. It was clear by her voice alone that she was either running this place or was very high up the 'pyramid', "...We are your only hope."



The horned lady quickly explained that all of us had been marked for death, giving little information on to who or even what had put these so called 'marks of death' on us or why. She did say that by trusting them, they would be able to protect us. It all smelled fishy to me. There was clearly more to this story, more information that they were holding back for some reason: to keep us safe, to allow us to be feel calmer about the situation, or maybe revealing the truth would cause us to fight back or never trust them at all.

I couldn't be sure of anything right now, and glancing around the room, the expressions on my fellow 'prisoners' were quite varied. A small few were similar to my own; calm, thinking and taking in as much information as possible. The most common emotions shown were fear and panic, be it fear of the hooded people or the fear of being marked for death it was impossible for me to tell. The second highest ranking expression was sadness at the situation at hand. It was impossible not to be, really. Our normal lives had been taken away from us. Closing my eyes, thinking for a moment, I knew that some of our friends had even been taken from us.

It took me a few seconds to open my eyes, returning to the situation on hand. My glancing around the room slowed slightly as my eyes began to water a bit. Blinking away the tears, I noticed a few of us were angry, some even shaking from it. The idea of being taken and treated this way, or the idea of just being told so little information was the likely cause of their rage. But, the display Jake had provided was enough to keep them from trying anything. Finally, I noticed that some people, very few of them, seemed happy. It was faint. Most of them showed signs of fear and panic as well, but they looked as if they come to terms the situation, accepting the protection of these hooded people, believing what little they had been told and were happy to be saved.

I watched as two people helped Jake to his feet, his bloody and broken nose a reminder to all to keep in line as we were sorted. I got the strong feeling this is what cattle felt like: surrounded by people who were more powerful than you, grouped together as a confused and chaotic heard, being split up and sorted based on some rules you didn't understand.

We were lead to our room, or as I liked to call it, our 'prison cell'. We were told to stay here while they sorted out better accommodations for us. I, however, couldn't help but think of this as the first stage of torture, maybe a way to weaken us. Then when they were ready, they would offer us some food or a better place to sleep in exchange for some information, loyalty or whatever they were after. It would likely whittle down the weak, the blind, the lost, or it might just reveal the paranoid, the stubborn and the stupid.

There were around ten of us, including myself. I didn't recognise any of them before the trip, meaning they weren't from our school. A few of them I saw trying to escape with me on the boat. I glanced at a short guy, likely a year younger than I was. His blond hair was smooth in an almost perfect bowl cut. The other redeeming feature was the fact that he was wearing glasses. I noticed him and moved over to have a chat.

"Guess you didn't make it either," I said as a way of introducing myself once again to him.

"No, I escaped happily on the boat, but then I thought, 'What the hell, getting kidnapped sounds like fun', " was his reply.

I smiled. Despite what had happened, he kept his cool, or at least he seemed to be. Making jokes at a time like this was something that could help people relax, as long as he knew where to draw the line. I had talked with Philip a few times before as we made our way to the boat. It seemed that the two of us got along well. Shame, if it wasn't for all this crazy stuff going on, we likely would never have met.

The ten of us seemed evenly split, with five females and five males. Other than Phil, I hadn't talked to any of the others, and so I decided to do what I do best: keep quiet and watch. From what little I talked with Phil before, I knew he would be enough voice for the two of us for now. A conversation never really got started, though. All stayed in silence for a while. One by one, we slipped to the floor, tired of standing, until only one stood. He seemed pale. Taking a look at him, I remembered his stupid haircut and Baggy Eyes back during the trip.

Baggy Eyes had taken up walking in the middle of the room, pacing back and forth, the silence now broken with the beat of his shoes hitting the hard stone floor. No one seemed to know him, or at least made no attempt to calm him down as he began to mutter to himself. I knew this wouldn't end well, one way or another. It wasn't long after the muttering that Baggy Eyes snapped.

"H-HEY!" he yelled, walking to the door, bashing on it as if a fire had suddenly engulfed the room. "LET US OUT! Y-YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" he yelled and yelled and yelled.

A few covered their ears. Some even shut their eyes, as if wishing it all away. Despite my love of watching from the side lines, someone had to do something. However, someone else beat me to the punch.

"H-hey... Calm down..." A small girl, easily a year or two below me, stood up and walked over to him, trying to put a stop to his shouting. Her hair was short, reaching around midway down her neck, just enough of a fringe to cover the tips of her wide, brown eyes. She had a cute face, as well. She definitely fit the small, shy, quiet type to a T, yet here she was, being the only one of the nine of us brave enough to stop the crazed tenth member of this group.

"Why SHOULD I?" baggy yelled back at her, momentarily stopping his assault against the iron door, his desperation to get out clear from the tone of his jagged voice and the shaking of his body.

Shy Girl gasped, not expecting him to yell at her. Her body tensed for a moment as if expecting to get hit by him, yet he didn't. I wasn't too sure why. Maybe he hadn't lost it as much as I thought, or he knew that if he did hit her, the other people in the room would turn on him a lot quicker.

Surprisingly, Shy Girl held her ground. "W-Well, they said... they are going to help us... we have to trust them... they will help us," she said, her weight shifting to her back foot.

Her arms moved in front of her nervously, clear signs that she wanted out of this conversation, yet it seemed her faith in these people was enough to keep her strong. Though, this seemed to be the final straw for Baggy Eyes. His shoulder and arm moved back pulled back before something unexpected happened.

"Can you really trust them?" I jumped into the conversation.

Just by opening my mouth and saying those things, I knew my standing with the group had lowered somewhat. They now saw me paired with him, yet that simple question was enough to cause Baggy Eyes to reconsider his posture. Standing up straight as if he was proven right, I'd saved her from getting hit for now.

"Y-Yes! You see! We can't trust them, we must find a way out!" he said, happy that someone saw things his way.

As he turned to the door once more, though, I needed to make something clear, "Yet there's nothing saying that what they are doing is not for our greater good."

Baggy Eyes turned once more, facing me. "SO WHAT DO WE DO? We can't just stay here and die! They have us locked up in this crappy room!" he shouted, shaking more now, his hands forming fists.

"All we can do is wait for more information..." to my surprise, Phil stepped in as well. "You heard what that horned lady said... so we wait and see..."

The support of Phil seemed to help back my words up, that the best option was to sit it out a bit, gather information, no matter how inconsequential it seemed, to build a picture of what was going on and see whether these people were indeed trying to help us or not. I understood that by the time we worked it out it might be too late, but it was still our best option.

Silence filled the room as Shy Girl returned to her old position, while Baggy Eyes headed to the other side of the room, sitting in the corner, still shaking and sulking. They were quiet once more. I still don't know which I liked more, the shouting or the silence. Time passed, and other than the noise of people shifting their posture due to fatigue or another reason, the room remained silent. At least, it did until the iron door creaked open. Standing behind it were two hooded people. One seemed shorter and thicker than the other as they looked around the room.

While I didn't have time to check everyone's reactions, my eyes wanting to stay focused on the two who'd entered, it was clear that Shy Girl and Baggy Eyes were on opposite ends of the excitement meter. She showed signs of hope, he showed signs of disgust. It was not a surprise to me when the shorter one spoke. A deep, male voice, he sounded like he'd seen a few decades. Reading out from a list that must have been given to him from someone higher on the chain of command, he called out a girl's name.

"Y-Yes?!" Shy Girl replied, standing up quickly.

"You are to go down the hall and follow the stairs upwards..." he said, his voice calm, almost trusting. It would not be hard to imagine that he had delivered that line with a smile, as if informing a couple that they were getting a boy. Shy Girl gasped and nodded, rushing for the door, not questioning in her wish not to upset the people who claiming they would save us. She did stop at the entryway, however, taking a quick glance back at us all. Her eyes met mine for a bit longer than the rest before she turned and disappeared into the corridor.

"And you..." he called out, pointing at Baggy Eyes in the corner of the room, "You are to follow us downstairs..." His voice was cold this time, the ominous nature of both his tone and his words seeming to confirm my suspicions that those two where acting like a message for the rest of us: going upstairs was good, going downstairs was bad.

When Baggy Eyes failed to move, the taller of the robed figures walked over to him. Reaching out, he grabbed Baggy Eyes by the collar of his shirt and pulled, dragging him kicking and screaming out of the room as an example to the rest. I failed to get a chance to ask a question to the shorter, hooded one. The screams and pleas from Baggy Eyes were still loud as he was getting dragged down the corridor, the sound getting drowned out by the iron door closing shut and the clang of a lock being set.

We could hear his screams slowly fading away for minutes. I wasn't sure if they were taking their time on purpose, to prove a point to this group or others that might have been around. Once the last of his screams had disappeared, the room fell into silence for the last time that night as we all slowly fell asleep on the cold, hard floor of this 'prison cell'.



Tales and talk of people disappearing while on the trip had reached an all time high. I even overheard the teachers talking about it. I needed to grab something from my room. Due to the large amount of students, the rooms where shared between small groups to accommodate for all of us.

The room was blurry, seeming to sway from side to side as I stepped in. My legs locked into place as my body began to shake, the sight before me enough to shake me to the core. My eyes widened, locked onto what used to be one of the guys who I formerly shared the room with. I could tell from the other side of the room that there were no signs of life in him as something...strange hovered over him. No matter how hard I looked, it was just pure blackness, almost like a shadow. My eyes just didn't want to look right at it. It seemed like the outline of a person hunched over on all fours, yet there was more to it than that. It turned to look at me, as I felt fear wash over me.

A loud ringing filled the building. It seemed to be enough to shatter the fear that was holding me in place as I turned, dashing out of the room and slamming the door closed on my way out. My legs took me to the fire assembly point. My mind racing, unsure if I had just seen what I did and unsure if I should tell others. My mind never got much of chance to give me the answers. The fire assembly point had a small number of people gathered, or a small amount considering the overall size of the trip. There, a teacher spoke, saying that we were all getting off the island now.

I guess for my own sanity and safety, my mind had blocked out the scene within my room.

I awoke in a prison cell, panting heavily and sweating as I quickly pushed myself to my feet. The other seven were still asleep as I stumbled quickly to the old wooden door, my hand covering my mouth as my stomach finally responded to what I had seen. What little food I'd gotten on the boat soon left it.



Returning my attention to the room, wishing I had something to wash the taste of vomit from my mouth, I noticed that a few of the others had awoken as well. Phil was still asleep, so any chance of a conversation with him was out of the question. I blinked, rubbing my eyes as I thought I saw something black around all of their necks. I dismissed it seconds later as they didn't seem to be there any longer than a blink of an eye. What's more, no one else seemed to comment on them, either. I guess this whole scenario was taking more of a toll on my mind than I thought. Taking a deep breath, I returned to my spot. One of the girls looked at me, seeing I was paler than normal.

"You alright?" she asked.

Her voice was kind and showed actual signs of concern. She was one of the ones I'd noticed a few times on the trip before. She was kind of hard not to notice, though. She had smooth, black hair that dangled all the way down to the bottom of her back. She was tall as well, taller than me in fact. Her face was sharp, yet pretty, but what most guys cared about was that she was one of the most developed girls on the trip. I looked at her for a moment, contemplating telling her my dream, but thinking sometimes it's best for someone if they didn't know.

I nodded weakly, "Just threw up..." I informed her. "Feeling better now that I've gotten it out" I added, seeing the worried look on her face.

Hearing this, she nodded, "I hope you feel better soon."

I replied with a smile and a nod. We wound up talking for a little while. It turns out she was the same year as me from one of the nearby schools. Talking with her, I realized why she stood out so much during the trip. She was in the class where the first bunch of students had begun to disappear. By the time our discussion had ended, all of us had woken up.

She blinked in realization. "Oh right... I've yet to introduce myself," she said. "I'm Charlotte."

I rubbed my eyes and nodded, amazed that I'd been talking to her for what felt like an hour without knowing her name. I also realized that I had yet to give her my own. I opened my mouth to give it to her when what sounded like an alarm filled the corridor outside, the noise seeping into our room as well.



Everyone's attention turned towards the door as they looked around in panic. Anyone who was still partly asleep was jolted awake by the sudden noise. They began to voice their concerns, however, I couldn't help but wince, my head feeling like it was being compressed. Holding my head, I assumed that the alarm was just giving me a headache, yet deep down, I knew it was more sinister than that. The panicked voices of the others were muffled as I looked around the room, seeing strange, black marks around their necks again. They seemed to be shadows, almost like a liquid. It was impossible to tell if they were real or not, with how much my vision had blurred.

The room soon began to come into focus once more. I heard someone asking if I was okay. Finally able to make out his face as he stood in front of me, Philip had his hand on my shoulder. I hadn't even felt it until now.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, the alarm still pounding in the background.

I tried opening my mouth to reply but I began to shake, my eyes widening as something started to form behind Phil. I could tell right away it wasn't human. I couldn't tell what it was from what little light was shining on it. It was simply a black shape in the darkness. I couldn't comprehend what it was, yet I could feel what it wanted. Suddenly everything was clear again, my body reacted as I grabbed Phil and pulled him to side and onto the floor as the 'thing' dashed towards him.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Phil asked in confusion as a few others rushed over to help Phil, pulling me off him.

Could they not see it? I blinked as I sat up and tried looking at it once more. My eyes wouldn't allow themselves to look directly at the shape, no matter how hard I willed them to. They simply kept to the sides or darted above it, as if my brain was protecting me from looking right at it. From what I saw out of the corner of my eye, it was now hunched over, not far from the door. Now standing in the light, it was still black, as if made from pure shadow. An odd fading around the edges of the 'thing' made the theory seem more probable. Its impish, demonic features combined with its small, humanoid frame reminded me of the thing I spotted on the island. Whatever had marked us for dead had found us once more.

I did my best to keep my eyes on it, or at least in its general direction, but it was no use. I noticed it'd begin to move again, jumping right for someone on the other side of the room, close to the door. She was too far for me to push her out of the way and, like everyone else, didn't seem to notice it. I yelled at her to move out of the way, but midsentence the door busted open with a sudden bang.

One of the hooded people had seemingly kicked the door down. Well, down wasn't the appropriate word; it was more like they launched the door across the room. Everyone was in awe at the sight, looking at the hooded person in the now empty doorway. My eyes widening and glanced around the room. The black thing was nowhere to be seen. I'd started a sigh of relief as the door fell from the opposite wall onto the floor. That's when the screams of the others added to the noise of the alarm.

The thing had been unfortunate enough to be behind the door as it was launched into the wall, sandwiching it between its iron mass and the wall. Having freed itself, it seemed like the others were now finally able to see it, though not for long. It leaped forward, going to attack the hooded one, only for the robed figure to simply punched the thing in what seemed to be the gut. The hooded figure brought their foot up in the air above it, before sending both their foot and the thing crashing into the floor. The speed of these attacks was immense. A simple blink and one would have missed it all. The power of the impact caused all the tiles on the floor to crack, breaking more so than before as the thing was pinned down, a crater now formed around it.

Once again, the hood failed to do its job and slipped off during the attack, once again revealing a familiar face. Being closer, I noticed that her hair was in fact a mix of brown and blond. It was odd, but regardless, it was clear she'd saved all of us. Everyone in the room was silent; I would go so far as to say that they, like myself, were all shaking, having developed a small sweat out of fear.

"Well, so much for finding the key." A voice came from the doorway, "Good thing for your destructiveness and impatience, you saved all of them."

The voice was calm, despite the fact that he was talking about all of us almost dying. He held what looked like a key in his hand, one I'm guessing was for the door now broken on the other side of the room. He was a short man; my money was that he was the same guy as before. He stepped forward and took his hood off. His face showed signs of age, displaying a large nose that showed signs of haven been broken a few times. His messy hair rolled down his cheeks to his chin, continuing down into a large and lengthy beard. The colour of each was a light ginger. With a closer look, gray or silver strands could be seen here and there as well. Between his nose, beard and short stature, this guy was almost the walking definition of what a fantasy dwarf would look like. The man's gaze shifted around the room, looking at each of us.

"Well, screw the whole waiting thing. You guys follow me. After all that, spending more time in this room isn't going to help anyone..." he said.

I suppose he saw that each one of us was shaking. Some even looked ill with fear. Whatever they were doing or hoping to achieve by keeping us in this room wasn't important anymore. At least it seemed that some people in this group cared for our wellbeing.