Well, this next chapter of L.S.T. isn't really much of a chapter, more like a filler, but all the same it's still good… I hope (smiles sheepishly).. Stuff happens, but not terribly too much.

L.S.T. Ch.4

Rated: R…because of last chapter (headdesk)

(This chapter is actually a step down from R, but whatever just READ PLZ)

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'Death. The unforgiving stench wafted around like the poor souls trapped in here never escaped after death. A faint sound, somewhere, echoed a ways off, something like water droplets splashing... What roused me was none of this, but a thought.

'…..Where am I?''

I had to keep staring straight ahead. I needed to wait for my eyes to adjust to the new "environment", but my ears…perhaps they would never grow accustomed to that same god-awful sound… that clanking above me.

...Eventually I could just barely make up grooves in the western wall, similar to marble. Upon longer inspection, however, I noticed there were perfectly-cloven rectangular niches in various places of it. They probably served as some kind of crude shelf, and for what I might not want to know…

...Some sort of light flickered on and off in a corner, almost something you would see if you watched a torch meld something together. Through periodic flashes, more of the cold room (or rooms) were revealed…some of it I wish I didn't have enough acuity to see. In the middle of the room, to enunciate its existence to guests, was an enormous doctrine-esque table. It appeared large enough to fit at least three people on it at once…

That might be why there were straps hanging from it; to put the huge thing away when it wasn't in use. But why would an obviously useful piece of furniture such as this be in a...(I guess), storage place, such as this, instead of being in use?

A large sharpening wheel rest near it; I assumed by its faint colors that both rust and moss were growing in coalescence around its edges."Just how old is this place?"

...A few vials and containers were strewn around on a small circular end table that looked like it came straight out of something like Alice in Wonderland.

….The legs were curved upward at an odd angle, kind of like the letter "J" with the ends covered with some kind of mushroom. Also, what seemed like a discarded garlic crusher lay open on the table with blackish-red juice seeping out of it…

"What the hell IS this?!!"

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Ugh…must have fallen asleep…again. I think it was the painful voices in my head, toying with me again. Telling me to fall asleep and wake up again, like drifting in and out of a real-life dream…

...The voices KNEW where I was, what was GOING to happen, but my body didn't know...or at least accept it. Or much less agree with what my brain was screaming to me right now..

"Am I going insane?"

Slowly, this intense, HORRIBLE pain snaked up into my arms, my wrists, hands--- it really felt as if somehow a snake slithered into my body, poisoning my bloodstream as it practically SWAM through it.

...At first the pain started around my belly, then it eventually forked into to directions at once... my forearms and hips were the parts the pain shot over the most.

I screamed….involuntarily. Well, maybe not so much automatically as just WANTING to. I just wanted out of this freaky place. And out of my internal torment.

A sudden sound made my eyes widen in fright and I screamed again, hopelessly. Hopefully whatever that was could get me out of here; at least…I hope so.

My eyes spotted a shadow intruding the room from seemingly no where. The slightly annoying, flashing light finally stopped and turned off after the shadow made a sharp snapping noise.

...For a moment, all was darkness, and then a small flame was lit on a--- candle! Its 'burning oxygen' slowly swished from left to right, instantly mesmerizing me. It was all I could do not to call out once again for this person, or thing, to rescue me; despite its slow advancement toward me, I had a strange feeling they weren't there to get me out of here.

They set the candle on the odd-shaped end table. The fiery gaze of the lightly-incinerated wax jumped back and forth, threatening to reveal parts of the candleholder's masked body. It only allowed the small condescent light to show me its mouth, the very corner of it, as it slowly grew into one of the most wicked, insane grins I've ever seen.

Stark-white teeth sharper than a vampire's suddenly clenched together in a mocking scowl.

"You're awake."

"Well, it's only OBVIOUS that I'm up! I was only screaming at the top of my lungs a moment ago."

He sounded a little…disappointed. "…Hmm... guess the effects wore off sooner than I thought." Although confused at what he said, I tried pleading to him, trying to stay calm. I would try anything to merely get out of here… alive.

"Please, let me go!"

His lips parted slightly, creating a look that would closely resemble a wolf ready to attack. This man had a real dog-sized canine tooth biting into his lip, making me assume he was angry but trying to hold back what he was going to say to me. I really need to shut up and stop acting like a baby, or I'm not sure what he would do to me with that fang……

"You honestly….don't remember?"

"…..I don't even know who the hell you are!!"

I lurched forward, attempting to take him to the ground, but something obstructed my path; my arms and legs wouldn't come with me.

I don't think he was going to let me go anytime soon.

The being before me chuckled softly, darkly, making me wonder what he was thinking about... but my train of semi-thought diminished as one of his gloved hands reached out so I could see it. He murmured, "You REALLY don't remember…", then his glove lifted to my face and I felt my skull suddenly jump to the right. I looked back at him and growled with frustration as I realized he just backhanded me.

"What was THAT for?!!"

"To help you remember, idiot," He stated pointedly. Help me remember? Remember what? Nothing caused a chain of events that ultimately led to this...
………did it?

The man-beast-thing 'tsk'ed me and momentarily wiggled the covered appendage he thrust into my face. "Hmph, maybe this will help you remember!"

He snarled and grabbed in the darkness where my arm was and pulled in slight annoyance. Strangely, he knew something was there; a metal, clinking sound echoed through the room and I gently…swayed back and forth...

"Jack, do you not at least know where you are?"

The light was drawn closer to my face than to his, revealing to him my distinct expression of fear; that and my debility to see everything really, utterly chagrined me.

"Did you ever figure out what the pain was coming from? This whole time, in case you haven't noticed… you were hanging,"

Smirk. "Like a fly in a spider's web. My web." I saw another flash of pearly white incisors joining together in yet another taunting parting of lips…

"Ah, the power of chains. They seem to be capable of holding near anything."

I shot him a momentarily dark look, but I was careful enough not to make him angry at me…or more than he apparently was. "Why are you suspending me,"
"…what kind of sick freak are you?!"

The figure paused for a moment, like I really hit a weak spot. I should have stopped yelling at him; I just made matters a hell of a lot worse.

" 'Sick…FREAK'!??"

The hand holding the candle trembled with renewed rage. A bit of the scented wax (A/N: Guess what kind!) flowed freely onto his hand and dripped down into the nothingness below. "I'm only the FREAK you ran to when you got scared, -quite often-, the FREAK whom finally gave in to take you in as the "apprentice"….and I even---"

He paused and lifted the candle level to my forehead. After shoving a hand under my jaw, he forced my head back until it hit the wall behind me while wrapping his gloved fingers around my face/chin. He then lifted the candle light directly above my eyes (very threatening), but the latter somehow allowed me to see his whole face now.

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His perfectly carved lips, pointed ears, glowering bright golden eyes, flaxen hair, furrowed brow…

It hit me. Oh god. I just pissed off none other than... Chase Young.

T.B.C.

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Wow, long sentence up there. And sort of run-on, but whatever. Also, the details weren't meant to be entirely clear, as Jack himself couldn't really tell what the heck was going on in some parts. This was actually sitting on my computer hard-drive for a while now; I was just waiting for people to motivate me enough with their reviews to post this. R&R and I MIGHT. Just post the next chapter too! ---SA