P. POV
His eyes were the first I saw after I tumbled through the darkness, my last vision that of a robot foot hovering above me. Then there was a brief and agonizing pain before the darkness took me. For maybe a moment I floated. Blind, deaf, and unaware, until every one of my senses came rushing back to tell me I was laying flat on my back somewhere dark and cold.
And then, those eyes appeared. A malicious gaze that bore straight into my soul. Somehow, I knew those eyes. It was Damien, my once almost-friend. Disappeared for so long, and now I was face to face with him again. I opened my mouth to greet him and let him know that I never once was angry about being turned into a firework.
His harsh voice silenced me immediately, telling me to be quiet as I heard the swish of something waved through the air. The light of many, many candles flickered to life around me, revealing that I was laying on a bed of sorts. Though it was more like a nest of scented fabric in all types and colors. But that was not the thing that caught my attention the most. That honor belonged to my own strange new change in appearance.
I lay stark naked in the nest of a bed, my body no longer that of a child but of a young man. Over my light skinned chest lay curls of gold...my own hair. I reached up to take fistfuls of my hair, staring in pure disbelief. This couldn't be me. I died a little boy. Where was my real body, and what had Damien done with it?
As if in answer Damien came forward from the darkness beyond the candlelight to kneel down beside me. He was much different in appearance too than when I had last seen him. He was now a man as well, dressed in red medieval garb and sporting a pair of horns that had likely been inherited from his father. His hair grew dark and unruly around the horns, framing his intense eyes and chiseled face.
Damien leaned down to brush my long locks away from my ear, whispering an answer to my unasked question, "I have reawakened you, Pip. I captured your soul from the moment you died and I have kept you here in sleep from many years. With the utmost care I tended to you. Now, through all my efforts, you are the vision have always striven for. Don't you agree?"
"I...it is a very nice body, I guess. But it feels so strange. How long have I been here?" I asked, shifting to prop myself up on my elbows in order to get a better look at Damien's face. His gaze flickered once over the length of my body, then he looked back into my eyes.
"Ever since you died the day the robot woman came. In human measures, 12 years," Damien answered.
12 years? How could that much time have passed without me knowing? Wasn't there anyone that missed him? This had to be dream, it just had to be. I have to find a way to wake up from it, that's all. So I reached to pinch my other arm. Sharp pain came from that tiny spot of skin, but it did nothing to close out the image of this candlelit place. I pinched myself until I couldn't take it anymore, then let myself drop back onto the soft fabrics.
Damien, having sat so still while watching me, now moved to hover over me. He placed both his hands squarely to either side of me. That made me cringe. I didn't like the new look in his eyes, or the way he lowered himself ever closer to my naked body. Soon the weight of his body met mine around the waist, our stomachs and legs pressed together. I wanted to squirm away.