With You Unto Dawn

Chapter 1 - Awakening

While I regret my departure,

I entrust my life's work to them.

I hope with all my heart that they will be the ones

To bring about a new sunrise...for all of us.

~A

The first thing I felt was my head pounding. I'll admit, waking up to a headache is definitely not one of the greatest ways to wake up. I slowly opened my eyes and thanked whatever God was out there that I was in darkness. I shuffled around to try and rub my head with my arms to ease the ache, only succeeding in bumping up into the cushion of some kind of old, dusty couch. I froze. That wasn't right. I didn't fall asleep on a couch last night...

Instantly, my headache stopped as I quickly shot up onto my feet from where I was laying, which was probably a bad idea as I lost my balance and fell right back onto the couch I had been sleeping on. I could hardly see anything given how dark it was, but once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I found myself in a living room of some kind of cottage. A very run-down cottage from the looks of it. I held back a sigh of relief though. Something about this place felt...foreign. Granted, it looked like an average cottage, but something about it felt...off, not counting the broken parts of the floor. For one, I was pretty sure that I hadn't fallen asleep on a couch last night and that there wasn't supposed to be a fireplace across from me...and since when did a broken TV get in here?

"Ah…!" Thinking about my situation only served to quickly bring back the same pounding headache I felt before I woke up as well as bring up even more questions. Where even am I? How did I get here? I was convinced that I was somewhere different, but it was like some kind of haze was preventing me from remembering anything just before waking up. A quick check made sure I knew who I was and what I had been doing before going to sleep last night, so I definitely didn't have amnesia, but after that...nothing. Looking at myself, I still had on my normal attire: a black T-shirt and my white hoodie as well as my jeans and blue sneakers that I always wore. I breathed a sigh of relief. Wherever I was, at least I still had clothes. "Well, I guess the first thing I should do is figure out how to get out of here…"

"H-hello?"

I quickly whipped my head in the direction of the voice and froze. Standing in front of a nearby door just across from me were two glowing yellow eyes staring back at me. It was a kid, a girl from the sound of the voice. She looked young, maybe nine or ten. She was wearing a kind of cloak with the arms being a little too big for her and a blue scarf wrapped around her neck. The hat she wore was...interesting, to say the least. The "ears" on the hat honestly made her look like a cat. I would have chuckled, but given that she was currently staring at me wide-eyed and trembling, it probably wasn't the best idea. Seeing someone you've never seen before in a place you don't recognize is sure to raise some red flags. The best thing I could do right now was getting her to calm down and let her know that I was just as confused as she was.

"Uh, hey...is this your house...?" I said as I slowly put both my hands up to let them know I meant no harm.

She quickly shook her head, "No, I just woke up here. I don't know where I am. I went to sleep at home and then I woke up here..." She slowly looked around the room before looking back at me, the terrified look still in her eyes.

I sighed, "Well, that makes two of us it seems," Her gaze eased up as she tilted her head. "I...uh just woke up on the couch. Guess we ended up having a slumber party and didn't realize," I said, smirking, doing my best to crack a joke to at least ease the tension of the room. It seemed to work since she giggled a little bit, but she was still trembling. I slowly lowered myself down to her height as I approached her, my hands still raised up. "What's your name?" I asked her.

"N-Niko…my name's Niko", she said, not trembling as much but I could still see some concern in her eyes.

I put on my best smile, in an attempt to help her calm down more. "Well...it's nice to meet you, Niko. My name's Alan." I looked back at the door that Niko came out of before looking back at her. "Is it...just you here?"

She nodded. Her trembling finally stopped, but she still looked around the cottage with apprehension. A pang of sympathy hit my chest. She would probably be scared out of her mind if I wasn't here keeping her calm. It was probably best that I keep her that way right now instead of bombarding her with the growing number of questions within me. The headache I still had would probably get worse again if I started panicking and that definitely wouldn't help Niko keep calm either. I finally lowered my hands and breathed out. "Alright, well, let's both look for a way out of here, yeah? There's gotta be some way out of this place," She nodded again, a small smile finally making its way onto her face. I smiled back. At least she's smiling now.

A snap near us made both of us snap our heads towards the noise. A small spark quickly lit itself up inside the TV before vanishing and continuing to spark to life, partially illuminating the room in a very dim light every time the spark happened. The small amount of light was enough to show another room directly across from the TV. A kitchen, from the looks of it. As I carefully made my way through the darkness, I heard Niko following behind me.

It was a small kitchen. From what I could see, the only things there were a sink, a fridge, and a small table with two chairs. I walked over to the table, partially wondering why there were even two chairs in the first place. For such a small cottage, it's hard to imagine two people trying to share the space. I looked underneath the table for the small chance of something actually being under there. Against all odds, I could barely see a backpack was leaning up against the wall. I was about to question why a backpack would even be under a table like it was waiting for someone to grab it, but I was broken out of my thoughts when I heard Niko opening the refrigerator behind me.

I stood back up with the backpack in my hands and turned around towards her. She was partially hidden from me since she didn't open the fridge all the way. I chuckled as I put on the backpack, "Anything good in there?"

I heard her giggle slightly before pulling out a bottle with some liquid in it. "There's just this," She leaned in to smell whatever was in the bottle before recoiling back in disgust. "It smells really gross."

Once I finished adjusting the backpack to fit comfortably on my back, I moved closer to smell for myself and practically fell backward from the smell. "Well, that's definitely alcohol. Ugh, I don't even want to know how long it's been sitting in there…" As I sat up, an idea popped into my head. "Hmm..."

Niko tilted her head at me, "What is it?"

"Well, I'm thinking we could use the alcohol along with the spark that's going off inside the TV..." I stood up and moved back to the living room. "We just need a piece of wood that we could pour the alcohol on. We'd essentially be making a torch. Put the soaked piece of wood next to the spark inside the TV and boom. We'll have light."

Niko's eyes seemed to light up as she handed me the bottle and searched through her pocket and pulled out a stick. "We could use this! There was a wilted plant in the bathroom next to where I woke up and a piece of it fell off and I just decided to take it with me."

I smiled and knelt down. "Perfect. Now hold the stick steady…". As Niko held the stick out in front of her, I readied the bottle. She nodded to me and I began pouring the alcohol onto the stick. I ended up using the entire bottle just to make sure the end was thoroughly soaked. I went ahead and put the empty bottle in the backpack while Niko went over to the TV.

I heard the snap of a spark before Niko gasped. "Ah! There we go!"

Instantly, the room lit up in blue light as the stick was now aflame with blue fire. Niko quickly walked over to the fireplace and stuck the torch into the woodpile. The fireplace burst to life, illuminating even more of the cottage we were trapped in. Niko turned towards me with a grin on her face and I gave a thumbs up in return before a gleam from the floor caught my eye. I reached out to pick up a key that had been hidden in the darkness from the floor and examined it. The key looked old, almost as if it was sitting there collecting dust for who knows how long. "Huh. Wonder where this goes..." I thought out loud.

"Maybe it goes to this door over here," I looked over at Niko, who was looking at a door behind me.

"Well, only one way to find out," I said as I stood up and made my way to the door, key in hand.

The key easily fit into the lock, unlocking the door. Opening it revealed a staircase that sank into the darkness below. I wasn't easily scared of the dark, but given how I couldn't see the bottom, it definitely put me a bit on edge. Niko walked up next to me with our homemade torch still in her hand.

"Here. Let me hold the light," I gestured to Niko. She glanced up at me and handed over the torch. Looking back down the stairs, I steeled my nerves and started making my way down with Niko right behind me. As we slowly walked down the creaking staircase, questions once again ran through my head. All I can remember before waking up here was getting ready to sleep, but after that, it was like a fog was preventing me from remembering anything else. It didn't help that no matter how much I tried to remember, my headache reared its ugly head. I had headaches before, but I'd much rather take a really intense one that barely lasts instead of a lingering one that just doesn't go away like what I have now. I rubbed my head in a vain attempt to be rid of it, but no luck.

"Um...are you ok?" I glanced back at Niko, who was looking at me with concern in her eyes.

I shook my head and gave her a reassuring smile. "It's alright. It's just a small headache I've had since I woke up. I'll be ok."

Niko still looked concerned and was about to say more, but before she could say anything, we reached the bottom of the stairs with another closed door in front of us.

Opening it revealed a long hallway. Not as long as the staircase as I could partially see the end of the corridor, but still quite long. I thought I could spot something on the ground at the end of the hallway so I quickened my pace. The faster we got out of here, the faster we could get some answers about where we were.

Reaching the end of the hallway, I blinked in surprise as I saw what had been laying on the floor. It was...a lightbulb?

I scoffed. "Ok, I'm pretty sure there's no lamp big enough for that bulb to fit into," scratching my head.

I didn't get a reaction from Niko this time. Instead, she walked closer to the bulb.

"Woah, hey! What're you-"

Before I could finish, she reached out and touched it, a bright light blinding both of us. After a couple of seconds, the light soon dimmed down to a bearable glow and I saw Niko holding the now glowing lightbulb.

I was stunned. "How...how are you doing that?"

She looked at me with the same amount of surprise. "I-I don't know! It just felt like something I had to do…" She looked back down at the light now in her grasp, her look of surprise unchanging.

"Aren't your fingers burning? I would think a lightbulb that big would burn you..."

She shook her head and pulled the lightbulb closer to her, smiling as she did so. "It actually feels kinda nice..."

I sweatdropped as I could've sworn I heard a purr coming from her just now, but I shook my head to put away that thought. I sighed and scratched my chin, contemplating what to do now. "Well, I was hoping for another key to be down here, but I guess we'll have to make do with this," I brought down the torch I was still carrying and blew out the flame before tossing the stick down. "At least we won't need that anymore…Come on, let's head back upstairs."

Niko nodded and moved past me back up the stairs. I slowly trailed behind, going back to trying to rationalize what I was currently experiencing right now.

Ok...I am currently stuck in a small cottage with a cat-like child that can turn on a giant lightbulb that was sitting at the end of a long hallway, in a basement that is too big to make any sense structurally, by simply touching it and is currently not getting burned it. Please tell me this is just some weird fever dream that I'm having and that I'm not actually just going crazy, I thought to myself, only to get a stab of pain from my headache as an answer. Right...crazy it is, then.

When I got back to the living room, Niko had already gone to the other side of the cottage to the only other door that I hadn't looked at and was staring at it with a confused look on her face. Walking over to where she was, I noticed this door wasn't like the others. There was no doorknob, only a picture of what looked to be the exact lightbulb that Niko was holding.

"Do you think this might be a way out?"

I hummed in response. "We don't really have any other options...so I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, I hope..." I looked over at Niko who was already lifting the bulb up towards the door. When the bulb touched the door, a yellow light illuminated the picture on the door before slowing getting brighter and brighter.

"Oh c'mon, not again…" I grumbled. I quickly grabbed onto Niko, shielding her from the light and shutting my eyes. I silently cursed for having to be blinded again, only for one last stab of pain from my headache to make me cry out before we were both engulfed in light.