Chapter 1
The darkness seemed an ethereal constant, an all encompassing void that never left. Her dreams were dark, and her reality was darker. With a start she awoke, jolting away from the cold stone floor, clutching at her grandfather's overcoat, holding to it like a lifeline.
She felt somehow exposed in the absolute darkness, as if someone was watching her. She shivered, in part for fear, in part a mere response to the chilled air. After a long period of quiet, she began to wonder if she was trapped inside a benevolent dream from which she would wake at any time. Then it changed. She could not explain how, but she sensed a stir of activity far off. As it drew nearer she recognized the signature of the one who had brought her here. She shrank away from the phantom, backing against a wall she had not known was so near.
Her back still trying to meld to the wall, she slid down to the floor and drew her knees to her chest. She tried to find the courage within her to resist the uncontrollable fear and turn it at least into rage, but the closer it came the more she realized how broken she had been made. Interwoven with that was the apathy she felt toward her condition. She had not the energy nor the strength to care that she had already given up hope.
Suddenly, a sliver of light formed the outline of a door not too far away. She squinted her eyes and turned away from it, her eyes already burning, unable to adapt quickly to the change. It was not long before she was lifted roughly to her feet and forced to face an evil, which, by far, surpassed that of her attacker.
It was a cloaked and hooded figure, barely taller than her and hardly more than a meter away. She tried to wriggle away from him, to feel the cold stone of the wall against her back again, but quickly remembered the hand of the demon clamped onto her arm. She looked toward him at first, momentarily forgetting about his presence, and found herself locked in his fiery gaze. She cowered from him, unable to tear her eyes away from his. The creature's face was expressionless, and his eyes held only hate - no pleasure, no hunger, just pure hate. It was not a hatred of her alone, but one he turned to everything on which he looked, except for the cloaked figure.
He chuckled behind his cowl, a sadistic cackle that drew her gaze away from the horned creature and to the now illuminated stone floor.
'You are right to fear him, young one,' the cloaked figure said. 'And that fear you hold for him delivers you into my hands.'
She was shaking now, visibly and uncontrollably. Tears sprang to her eyes as her legs turned to gel beneath her. The creature released her and let her fall to the floor. She caught herself on her wounded arm and cried out in pain, looking up to see scorn in his eyes. For a moment she thought she heard a quiet laugh as the two exited the room, but she looked away, letting her tears fall unheeded to the darkened floor.
*****
It could have been months or weeks, or it could have been mere days since she arrived. The darkness had lessened slightly, and her eyes had adjusted to where she could see dim outlines and a few features. She counted the large stones that made up the floor, ceiling, and walls. She tried vainly to find the source of the dim light, anything to occupy her mind. But mostly she slept. Her body was still healing, and her mind had avalanched into a depressive state, sapping her strength and will to do anything. Often when she woke there would be a plate of food next to her, protein enriched gruel that was tasteless and as cold as the air in the room, though she had little energy to wonder where the food came from or how it arrived in her room.
After a while her body healed. Somewhere along the line her arm had been set and fused, though she did not remember it ever being cast or even tended. Her bruises faded and the cuts vanished, only a few leaving any residual scarring. Yet still she felt her strength and energy drained, as if there was yet one thing remaining that required her body's fuel. She was still exhausted.
At one time, as she lay on the unyielding floor, tucking her arm under her head to cushion it, she relaxed her body, closing off her senses and letting her mind wander as it pleased. She did not think of the past, for, in this hell, the past was not real. There was nothing in the future when her mind traveled that road, nothing but an emptiness in the coming tomorrow. So she explored the present. Reaching out, she 'felt' the boundaries of her room, and pushed beyond them, into the corridor outside. Her unconscious self tried to reach farther, but she was unable to do so. Thus, she returned to her prison and searched within herself.
She searched her feelings, or what was left of them. She was not sad, not tangibly. Nor was she angry. She was empty, she noted with detached interest. Quietly, she heard a whisper, a tiny voice humming to itself. Her mind followed the voice deeper within her consciousness, and found it to be a part of her, yet not. Emotions and feeling rushed back to her suddenly as her lethargic thoughts accelerated back to their normal speed. Opening her eyes rapidly and simultaneously rising to her feet, she covered her mouth with her hand, swallowing hard as she felt bile rise in her throat. As she staggered back into the wall, she reached out to brace herself against it, shaking her head defiantly.
She was pregnant.
A/N: ok, that feels really dumb. I have to admit that I don't really like this chapter. It's sorta one of those necessary narratives that get the plot moving. Fun, ne? At any rate, thanks to all who read, and I promise this will get better. It's short, I know, but I feel like if I went on any more I would loose myself and not complete the chapter. *shrug* we'll see what happens.
