Shattered Mind

For the Snakes and Ladders Challenge (Character: Alice Longbottom) and the If You Dare Challenge (Prompt #412: Cruel Laugh)

Pain.

White-hot daggers were thrust into her body, tearing out every organ, every nerve, and every cell with their sharp blades, making her feel as though she had been tossed into a raging inferno, to be burnt to a charred, blackened crisp. Stars exploded in front of her eyes, impairing her vision; and her head felt like it was being hammered repeatedly with a heavy block of metal. Her chest was constricted; she could hardly breathe, yet she couldn't stop screaming.

She distantly heard a cruel laugh, but she couldn't tell if it was real or a figment of her imagination.

After what seemed like an eternity, the pain subsided. Seizing the few pain free moments, she retreated into herself, glad for an escape, though the pain still lingered.

But those moments did not last long.

A woman grabbed her by the hair and yanked her to her feet. She winced. A dreamy voice in her head wondered when she had ended up on the floor in the first place.

"Tell me!" The woman's face was inches from her own, and she recoiled. The woman scared her, though she wasn't sure why. Who is she? She wondered, but though the woman looked familiar, no name came to mind. "Where is the Dark Lord?"

Dark Lord? She wondered. What is a Dark Lord?

The woman seemed to have grown impatient with her. She raised a stick in her hand and with a flash of red light the pain started all over again.

She tumbled to the ground, like a marionette with the strings cut. Pain ripped through her body, worse than anything she had felt before, hurting in places she hadn't known could hurt.

And then the pain stopped, and she heard voices; heard the scary woman screaming and saw bright lights coming from the sticks the people held. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to block out the images. The lights reminded her of the pain. She hated the pain, wanted it to stop.

A man knelt down next to her. He looked familiar. Who is he? "Are you alright Alice?" he asked.

"Who... who are you?" She asked. She felt dazed, confused. It was a challenge to think clearly enough to string a few words together. Her mind was slipping.

"Oh no…" The man whispered. "Alice…"

"Who's Alice?" She wondered. "Is the scary woman…" She trailed off, staring out the window, trying to remember where her sanity had gone.