Ow. Real ow.

My head felt like someone was squeezing it with the force of a body builder. What the heck was going on?

My limbs had an odd feeling, like they were coated in something, but I couldn't move anything. And why couldn't I see anything?

A piercing noise ripped through my head, scattering all of my thoughts. I could move finally, but a kaleidoscope of colors was flashing across my vision.

I bolted straight up, noticing that I was lying down. My limbs still felt odd, and I realized that they were covered in water, and my clothes were soaking wet also.

My head was throbbing, and I pressed my hands up to my eyes as I tried to stop the pain and bring my sight back.

I felt a pressure of some sort on my back, and as a concentrated on it, it felt more and more like a hand. Another hand was placed on my shoulder, and I had an image of a person with their arms on my shoulders, shaking me, as if to wake me up.

The same noise as before ripped across my skull. I just couldn't take it anymore, the pain was so disabling. It felt like someone was slowly ripping through my skull with a hammer. Waves of it came and danced around my head, torturing me until I finally welcomed the blackness and peace.

My eyes fluttered open to a very unfamiliar sight. I was in a room with clean, crisp white walls with lots of machines beeping around me. The only thing in front of the bed I was lying in was a chair and a door out of the room. My bed was very odd, with metal bars supporting it and unpatterned white sheets.

There was something very uncomfortable around my nose. I held up my hand and felt a thin tube-like thing sticking into my nostrils. There was a piece of tape holding into place.

I ripped the tube out, whatever it was. Whatever this place was, they must have been trying to poison me somehow.

I slipped out of the odd bed, shivering from the cold air blowing through the room. It was like they had the wind gods themselves controlling the temperature in here. The air was especially breezy on my back, and when I turned around to see why, I noticed the thin dress I was wearing had no back to it.

What sick place put you in a room with odd machines, a very uncomfortable bed, undressed you and gave you barely any clothes to wear, and left you to wake up alone? And what for?

A very familiar noise hit my brain, and I fell to my knees through the pain. I gritted my teeth and clutched my head. Why me?

Two people in swishy white jackets came into the room which was now swimming in front of me. They rushed towards me and caught me before I completely fell to the floor.

After the pain faded away, I looked up at the two people that were holding me up so I wouldn't collapse. I couldn't even feel my legs.

They were both female and look very, very concerned. The one on my left had a name tag that read: Beatrice. She looked quite old, almost seventy.

"Deary, you need to get back into bed!" She said in a very sweet and sugary voice that reminded me of something.

The two people led me back into the odd bed on the metal bars and hooked the tube back up to my nose.

I tried to protest, but I was too weak to even lift my arm.

They took wires with sticky things at the end of them and placed some on my arm and the side of my head. I wondered why they weren't pulling my, so I bent my head down to my arm and summoned all the strength I had to reach up and feel the sticky things.

I suppressed a scream. The places where the sticky patches were had been completely shaved off. This place was completely nuts, and I wasn't going to have any of it.

I tried to swing my legs over the bed again, but the ladies wouldn't let me go anywhere. They held down my legs and arms as I thrashed and screamed. There were bonds already attached to the bed, which the two ladies promptly used to secure my flailing limbs.

The older lady that had spoken to me, Beatrice, grabbed a syringe from who knows where and jabbed it into my neck.

In seconds, I could feel the drugs they had forced into my body seep through me. My kicks became more sluggish and I found my energy fading.

A dim light met my eyes, and I realized I had already passed out, and I was just waking up. All around me a misty gray, and I couldn't quite make out what I was standing on, and where it met the air.

A lady stood in front of me, smiling as she looked at me. Her age could have been around young adult to middle aged, but I couldn't tell. Long dark brown hair swirled around her face and shoulders, and her bright blue eyes, almost white, made her look very mystical. Her face was quite perfect, especially bare and without makeup.

I never really got the purpose of makeup. Was it to cover up pimples you just didn't want to deal with, or was it to transform your entire face until you looked like a whole new person? I get that it could make you look prettier, but do you really want to turn your face, something people identify you by, into something that it really isn't?

This made me like the mysterious lady even more, she was genuine, someone I could trust. The lady held her arms out to me, and I wanted nothing else but to run into her arms.

"Mom?" I asked hesitantly, my voice cracking slightly.

Artemis nodded. I walked towards her slowly, touching her fingers to make sure she was real. Just her warmth was enough to make me smile. I basically collapsed in her arms, loving the feel of being hugged. Artemis smelled like the woods on a crisp winter's day. Had I ever been hugged before?

A voice smooth like honey trickled into my ear. "I am so glad to see you again, sweetheart."

My heart grew a thousand times when she called me sweetheart, and it wasn't until then that I realized how wound up I was. I really needed someone to talk to.

I broke our hug to look Artemis straight in the eyes. "Explain everything!"

Artemis laughed, a laugh that rang like wind chimes and echoed through my ears. "Ah, I suppose it is my fault you have such a… special personality." I laughed with her, mother and daughter having a normal chat.

The mist around us had gone gone from light gray to yellow-orange. Artemis must have noticed this also, because she looked worried.

"Tayen, it's almost dawn, so I have to go. I will talk to you as soon as possible, and when you wake up, don't get angry. I do it too, so just keep it calm, ok?"

I narrowed my eyebrows. "Mom, what do you mean?"

The mist around as got brighter and brighter, almost to where it was pure white.

Artemis smiled at me as a tear dripped down her cheek. "Be brave."

Bright light flashed in my eyes, and I was forced to close them. Kaleidoscope colors danced across my eyelids, turning my vision into a fireworks show of rainbows.

Pressure on my arms and legs, and a dull pain in my head warned me that I was waking up from my crazy dream. It seemed as if reality was fading in to replace the brightness, and my senses were getting stronger every second.

A horrible pain started to fill my head, sending one direct thought to my brain. I really did not want to wake up.

I am really sorry for the long wait, and I have no valid excuse. This one is slightly shorter because I really wanted to get it out. More conflicts are coming for Tayen in the next chapter, which I will try to post soon. 3