A/N: Um, hi! This is my first time writing an SI, and I sorta wanted to try a different approach. I don't want my SI character to just sail into the world . . . but I hope it doesn't sound like a sob story, because it isn't. I just hope that it's enjoyable . . . but thank you for clicking on my story! I hope you like the first chapter!
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NUTHIN'!!
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Title:
There is a Price for Everything
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Prologue
Dealin' with the Devil
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"The price is greater than you can imagine. Do you still wish to pay?"
The words, they were clear, so crystal clear. But in the midst of white haze, I silently said 'yes' to the voice in my head. Just like that, the white haze disappeared. It was suddenly calm; there were no longer any screams of panic or cries of sadness. I felt at peace, one with myself. There was no awaiting end for me to meet, and I almost felt the warmth through my closed tired eyes.
But then it changed.
I was fooled, hoodwinked, and just plain conned by a single man. This man had given me an opportunity, and thus took away something precious from me. I did not know, and I did not even become suspicious of the price . . . A physical price.
Once warming white light flashed and darkened, changing everything around me. Red light, creepy light, it was everywhere and everything. It felt warm, but it did not feel inviting. I wanted to veer away, run away, but something held me there.
Black chains of smoke bound my legs, while thick cold clasps held my feet down. I tried to slip out, but I was stuck in place, while a feeling of dread began to fill me whole. I trembled as fear began to overtake my senses, and I could feel myself panicking. My breathing was becoming harsh, my body began to sweat, and I could feel the tears flow from my eyes. I didn't know why I felt so scared, nor did I know why tears rushed down my cheeks, something was telling me that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
"Wh-wh-what is this place?!" I uttered out, trying to move.
"Remember our agreement . . . until you pass through . . ."
I gasped as the voice rang in my mind, the deepness of it echoed deep within the contents of my mind. It made my body stop shaking, my tears stop trickling, and my breath was caught. My eyes suddenly snapped shut against their own power, and I barely gasped as ice cold fingers began tracing my body. It felt so weird, long fingers were taking their time as they traveled about with feather-like traces. It began in the back of my foot, from the very heel, slowly tracing upward. It reached the back of my knee, to the highest part of my thigh, just barely touching . . . well, my behind, and finally tracing the up my spine. It reached my neck, only to slide to the back of my right shoulder . . . which was not bare before. A single finger pressed on bare skin, and that's when I could feel the person smile.
"This will do . . . the perfect price."
My eyes burst open wide in pure reaction, and my ears heard a sickening sound. That finger was still there, but pressing harder and harder, entering my flesh. It was painful, so painful, and I wanted to scream, but it felt like my mouth was sewn shut. I wanted to cry but my eyes were dry, and I could only experience silent pain as I felt a sharp nail continue to rip open flesh.
Then it hit bone.
Something clicked, no, snapped. My bones, I felt something snap. Pain exploded and I looked on with silent eyes as blood began to spill on the floor. I watched with affixed horror as the blood pooled around my feet, which were still bound by shadowy chains. The pain, the bloody pain, it felt so horribly, so damn horrible! I know that it shouldn't have been possible for me to still be alive after all that blood, but here I stood, in damn pain, but still conscious and alive.
A freezing hand gripped the back of my neck, and I felt my body collapse. And yet, my body did not fall onto the thick blood collagulating on the floor. That single hand kept me from falling into my own pool of blood. But that was not all. Strangely enough, warmth began to return to that once cold hand . . . only to become warmer . . . and warmer . . . no . . . wait!!
IT BURNED!! IT WAS BURNING ME!! Unintelligent screams racked my throat as I smelled my skin burn, it felt so wrong, it was wrong, and it was happening to me! Why was it happening to me?!
"Your price and contract are now physical. Remember . . . you paid the price. Now, fall, fall to your prize, the prize you paid for well."
The floor, which was once filled with my blood now disappeared. Beneath me was a dreary landscape. Filled with misshapened houses and darkened alleys, the rain fell hard on stone and wood. But my view was from the bird's eye, high in the sky, watching from above.
But something was wrong there . . . I could feel it. Despite my pain, something told me that I shouldn't even dare to look, but my eyes unwillingly kept peering downward, on the spot that made my stomach turn.
"Good luck, you'll need it," he said, before . . . releasing my now burnt neck.
My body dropped like a stone, falling with the heavy rain. My eyes were fixed wide as I felt the wind whip my body like a useless rag doll. But I cringed, wanting to brace myself as I closed in on stone ground.
And then everything changed.
I awoke to find my throat congested with muck and mucus, while my body cringed as pain wracked my body. From the tips of my toes to the hairs on my head, everything felt so sore, and I began to convulse. Blood flew out of my mouth, covering my taste buds with copper. Even my lungs felt like they were filling up with something disgusting and thick as I continued hacking up red stuff.
The rain was numbing, my bare feet on stone were stinging, and yet my face still burned. My arm burn, aching violently, but it is not there. It is nothing more but a stump where crimson blood flows freely. As I stared at its transformation, I could feel my body shake. The warm blood that coated my body was sticky, darker than crimson and felt so wrong. Cold rain tried to wash it all away, but it was no use, it just mixed with the blood.
As I tried to get up, my body hit something soft. I turned around and was face to face with . . .
Oh my god.
Fear filled my stomach with unease. I tried to back away, only to hit something just as soft as the first. I turned again and gasped.
Again and again, I turned and turned, only finding myself going in a full circle. Bodies, there were bodies everywhere. All were strewn on the stone ground, where blood began to gunk up the cracks of each paved edge. But I couldn't just say bodies, they were carcasses, remains of something gone wrong. Limbs were thrown here and there, while the bodies of women and men were entangled with one another.
I was in the middle of this gore-fest.
I was panicking, really panicking. I was breathing so hard, coughing and hacking up mucus and blood, only to find my stomach puke itself out. Disgusting bile and copper blood drenched my bare feet, warming them only for so long before numb rain washed it away. It led my eyes back on the piles and piles of bodies.
I screamed.