"Japanese"

"English"

'Thoughts'

-x-

Awareness came to me slowly. My bones felt weary and my muscles ached. Fatigue fought to pull me back under and my tongue felt like sand. The air was humid and I felt like I had a raging fever. I was overall having a terrible awakening.

The sounds of soft crying caught my attention and I became weary. I peeled opened my eyes with much difficulty only to see nondescript shapes. I tried to call out, but only managed to let of a painfully dry cough.

I tried to remember what led me to this predicament but for the life of me, nothing came mind. The most recent days I could remember were jumbled up and I couldn't make any sense of them. From what I could see, I could definitely tell I was not in the hospital.

I jolted when I felt small hands grope my face. They immediately retreated and the owner of said hands gasped.

"Y-You're alive!" I did a double take at the strange words. They sounded familiar, as if I should know them, but I couldn't make any sense of them. I tried to speak once more, but only fell into a painful coughing fit. It felt like I was choking on gravel and the feel was not pleasant at all. The stranger muttered something to themself and I heard their light footsteps pad away. Moments after the coughs died down, the person come back and there was something wet placed against my mouth.

"Drink this." I had opened my mouth instinctually and rancid water flooded my taste buds. It didn't go down without a fight, but at the moment, it was better than nothing. The process was repeated a few more times with it being just as disgusting as the first, but my pounding headache was subsiding and my throat ached less.

"Whe... Where a-am I?" The stranger grunted in what I assumed was confusion.

"What are you saying? I can't understand you." The jumble of words spoken meant nothing to me and I sighed in frustration. I fell silent as I knew we would get nowhere. They obviously didn't know english. I glanced at the person as my vision improved and suddenly realised that the stranger was a child. This, supplemented by the fact that I was not in a pleasant place, made me assume that I was probably kidnapped by human traffickers.A glance around the dark room made me aware of other cots filled with what I assumed were children. I became aware of the foul, putrid smell in the air and I winced.

The child started speaking in his unfamiliar language again but I ignored it in favor of examining him. Despite the filth covering him, it was quite obvious that his hair was white. That alone was already strange, but his pale skin and completely white eyes were abnormal. It was as if I was looking at a ghost straight from a horror movie. When I continually ignored his attempts a conversation, he eventually fell silent.

Strangely enough, he wasn't looking directly at me. With eyes like those, I wouldn't be surprised if he were blind. Tentatively, he reached out to me and grabbed my hand and I involuntarily flexed my it. It seemed to relax him marginally and he gripped my hand more firmly. As I stared at our conjoined hands, my mind began to scream at me that something was very wrong. Without knowing the reason why, I began to panic.

A sense of calm and peacefulness suddenly washed over me and I was exhausted. I was vaguely aware of the child laying down beside me as my eyes shut. My last coherent thought was, 'My hands aren't that small'.