I lean against the door which is now closed behind me. I know that I should be in the room but seeing the boy brings back memories of when Ari was in there, of when I was. My trembling hands can barely pick out some of the pieces of glass that cut my feet and lower legs when the cup shattered. I'm gasping for breath that just doesn't seem to want to come and then I hear my master moving around upstairs. I didn't close the cellar door when I went down and now the fear that he could come through it and see me like this is enough to make me go back into the room. Facing the sight of the boy is better than facing the pleasure that my master would have at seeing my appearance.

I close the room's door behind me still gasping and half sobbing. I lean against the wall and when I am at last calm I look at the boy again. The cot is bare of any blankets and a pillow so the boy is just lying on it. Passed out cold. He looks a little taller than me and thin, lanky almost. As I approach him I notice his clothes. They're strange to me. A brown vest of a peculiar material covers his green shirt. His pants are also brown and, short. I've never seen a boy where that short of pants before. Girls do sometimes, but never boys. His shirt and vest are short as well revealing the pale skin on his stomach. This makes my cheeks burn for some reason I can't explain. After further study I realize that all of his skin is this same pale color, nearly white. This is the first time that I actually wonder who he is, what he is. Why was he taken by my master?

These questions continue to flicker through my brain as I approach the boy's upper body and head. His hair is deep forest green with two pigtails on either side of his face. A ponytail holds the rest of his hair. His ears are what cause me the most amazement. They are pointed and stick straight out of his head. The word elf runs through my head at the sight of them but I push it aside. Elves ears stick up and down, like a humans. Besides, the elves have all left this world for a better one. I wish I could follow after them. If I could escape this prison I would go to a world far away from my master and his cruelty. I wonder, not for the first time, how many worlds there are. I realize when I feel something silky beneath my fingers that while my thoughts were on the elves and other worlds, my hands had been stroking over his hair. I gasp at the softness of it. Unlike my stringy tangle, his hair slips right through my fingers like the silk of the single "fancy" dress my master gave me.

My hands still seem to have a mind of their own as they leave his hair while I am thinking and touch his cheek. I am still too caught up in my thoughts and the new cool feel of his smooth skin beneath my palm that I don't notice the change to his breathing or the twitch of his eyelids.

Before I can react I am thrown backwards onto the ground. I feel the crack of my skull hitting the stone and for a moment I think that I might lose consciousness, but I struggle to regain my breath and vision. I can do nothing when a hand clasps my wrist and the other my throat. The sudden loss of any air seems to cause my vision to snap into perfect focus and I see who I already know is above me.

It's the boy. He straddles me, his knees pushing against my legs on either side. His hair hangs wildly around his face and his eyes are wild. I notice their color before stars begin to dance across my vision. They are a golden amber. I've never seen eyes that color, not even in the creatures. I still desperately try to gasp for breath but his grip on my neck tightens and for the first time I wonder if I am finally going to be put out of my misery. Is this boy going to be my savior?

But suddenly his grip loosens as he leaps off me and, into the air. My oxygen starved mind might be playing tricks on me but it looks like he's, hovering in midair. I gasp for air instinctively now that I can even though it means that I will most likely live. The boy seems to be in a state of panic as he starts shivering. No he's not shivering, he's shimmering. His form in the air is wavering as if he's suddenly just a reflection in a rippling puddle of water. Then suddenly he's gone. I stare at the spot where he was. How could he just be gone? My mind is trying to wrap around this when suddenly he appears again in the same spot but he's screaming and flashes of electricity course over his entire body. As I watch still too stunned to rise or even move, he falls to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain.

I don't hear the door open or the footsteps enter the room but I see my master standing over me and then leaning down to pull me into a sitting position. He grins at me and then at the boy who has stopped screaming but is still thrashing and moaning on the ground not far from me.

"This is what I meant by him trying to escape." My master says smugly, "I knew that he would try to teleport so I took, precaution to make sure he wouldn't be, successful."

I am still too shocked to do anything but gape at the boy. My master shifts me so I'm leaning against the wall in the room as he goes to the boy and kicks him with his boot.

"The same will happen again no matter how many times you try to escape." He hisses, "So I suggest you save yourself the energy and pain by not even trying."

He goes over to me and pulls me to my feet leading me out the door. At the last moment he seems to notice the broken glass that his boots crunch over and my slippers may not be protection against. He leads me carefully through it and then notices the piece of bread. He picks it up and removes all glass that clings to it before tossing it at the boy who is watching us with hateful eyes, unable, or unwilling, to get off the floor.

"Eat and recover some of your strength so you are better prepared for the experiments." My master says commandingly before closing the door behind us. I hear the thump behind us as something hits the door. I can imagine the bread bouncing back to the floor after it hit the sturdy steel.