Burchard shoots awake and starts gasping for air while holding his neck tightly, panic and fear continues to build within him as his mind struggles to comprehend what just happened to him. As his breathing starts to ease he continues to look up at the dimly lit ceiling while muttering to himself, "what the hell?"

-

He starts looking around the room and recognizing the bed and room he was in as the one he was being held prisoner in but this only adds to the confusion he was feeling as he says, "why the hell am I here?"

-

He slowly sits up and rubs his now sore head while still looking around and saying, "No no no, I shouldn't be here. I was just in the woods a second ago. I was…."

-

A sudden horrifying realization comes over him as he slowly touches his neck while muttering, "I was killed."

-

He starts shaking his head in disbelief and saying, "no… that's impossible. I'm breathing right now?"

-

Another thought comes to mind as he says, "was that all just a dream?"

-

A thought comes to mind as he starts feeling his arm and saying, "no. I remember breaking my arm and that felt to real to be a dream…. But its not only fully healed but there's no scar, its as if it never broke?"

-

With his head starting to really hurt from trying to process everything that just happened, he simply lied back down and with his eyes closed, he asks himself, "Just what the hell is going on?"

-

"Your useless."

-

His eyes immediately shoot open from hearing the strangely familiar voice and starts looking around while asking, "whose there?"

-

He finds the room empty, but even with no one else there, he again hears the voice saying, "Your Pathetic."

-

Now annoyed by the unjust insults he was getting, he looks around while saying, "if your going to insult me, at least do it to my face!!!"

-

He hears the voice again saying, "if you had done what I requested then my beloved would not have had to die yet another death."

-

Confused by the statement he thinks to himself, "Her beloved?"

-

Realizing where he had heard that voice and statement causes him to blurt out, "Your that woman! The one I heard in that cloud before ending up here."

-

As if ignoring what he was saying the voice says, "do what you are here for and save my beloved."

-

Annoyed by the bossy way he was being talked to, he responds, "I don't even know who your beloved is?"

-

The voice replies, "my beloved is close, but it is your task to find and protect him."

-

Still annoyed he says, "protect him? If you haven't noticed, I'm the one that needs protecting from this place!"

-

"You do not matter."

-

He blinks in response while trying to comprehend what he just heard but was simply able to ask, "huh?"

-

"You do not matter, only my beloved matters."

-

Now angry he snaps, "yeah I figured that but if I'm supposed to protect your stupid beloved than I'm pretty sure that means that I matter!"

-

"You do not matter, if you were not here than he would continue living though it would involve greater hardships, even your very survival is thanks to my beloved."

-

Finally fed up with this unseen woman, Burchard stands up while shouting, "you know what? Screw your beloved! If he's so important to you than you help him since I seem to be so fucking unimportant!"

-

He freezes even before he could take a step forward, not because he wanted to but because he was forced to as what felt like a hand take hold of his heart and crushing it. The pain was excruciating, so much so that he couldn't move, he couldn't even breath, all he could do was stand there in what he thought was the worst most excruciating pain he had ever felt but as fast as it started, he felt his heart being released which intern allows him to fall to his knees and causes him to hunch over and clenches his chest while desperately gasping for air. While still attempting to catch his breath, he hears the voice say coldly, "if it was not apparent before, it should be apparent now that you do not have a choice."

-

Still recovering from the pain that still lingered in his heart causes him to simply rest his head on the floor while muttering, "fine."

-

Getting the response she wanted, the voice responds, "good…. Now go help my beloved."

-

He slowly looks up and sees his gear sitting in a pile in front of him like it was the last time and with a new found feeling of determination, he says, "lets go find this idiot."

-

Outside the room, Burchard walks through the green lit hallway while trying his best to retrace his steps from before but pays extra attention to any sounds or shadows that could be a threat and saying to himself, "alright, if I remember correctly, everything went to hell when I found that chain so let's try are best to avoid it."

-

As he walks through a familiar door, he whispers to himself, "alright, on the other side of this door is where I was attacked but there was something else I saw."

-

On the other side of the door he becomes softly illuminated by what appears to be moon light which seeps through a gap in the curtains of a window. He opens the drapes and even though it showed a beautiful almost calming moon lit night outside, he knew that that wasn't the case as he says to himself, "its going to take awhile to get used to this magic thing."

-

He attempts to open the window but no matter how hard he tried; he couldn't get it open. Realizing that he wasn't getting out quietly, he grabs the rifle from his back then using the butt of it, smashes the window in one swift motion which lets the morning light in and illuminates the hall. After raising his night vision, he sticks his head out the window to confirm that he was on the second floor and was looking out over what appeared to be some flower beds along the building and a sprawling open green lawn stretching to the far fence which distracts him for a moment while saying, "I never got a chance to look but this place really is beautiful."

-

He hears movement coming from within but when he looks back inside, there was nothing there but that doesn't provide any relief as he says, "shit, I'm out of time."

-

He quickly grabs a bundle of rope from his back and ties one end to a pillar on the other side of the hallway but as he throws the rest of the rope out the window he can hear something sprinting down the hall towards him along with a chain dragging along the floor with great speed which intern causes him to panic as he hastily climb out the window but just as he was half way down the rope, he pauses when he notices himself moving upwards which causes him to ask himself, "what the hell?"

-

He looks back and to his horror sees the rope rapidly being pulled back through the window. He looks down but realizing that he was still to high to drop down causes him to panic while looking back up and saying, "shit. What the hell do I do now?"

-

A thought comes to mind and he takes one hand off the rope and reaches for one of the pouches on his chest from which he pulls out a small cylindrical tube like plastic object with a pin attached to the top. As he gets up to the window and realizing he didn't have a spare hand which causes him to bite down on the pin and aggressively pulls it out then spits the pin away along with the tooth that got pulled with it but he doesn't care about this right now because when he finds himself looking back into the window and sees a familiar shadowy figure reaching for him, he throws the tube at them while shouting, "I'd close your eyes if I were you!!!"

-

Before the shadowy figure could react to the tube dropping to their feet it goes off with a defining BANG!!! Along with a bright blinding light which fills the hallway and was just enough of a distraction to cause them to lose their grip on the rope which intern sends him falling back down the wall. He holds onto the rope for dear life as he plummets to the ground while thinking to himself, "come on! It should catch me half way down!"

-

And it did. With the rope now snapping tightly, he found himself back to where he was before….. however he misjudged his hold on the rope which causes him to lose his grip the second it snapped tight and sent him falling face first towards the ground while screamed, "SSSSHHHHIIIITTTT!!!"

-

WHAM!!!!

-

"You truly are pathetic."

-

"Oh shut up."