Chapter 1 - Imprisoned

Part 1

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHH”

Knight was flung upon the floor. But It wasn’t the hard-concrete floor; it was a soft grass floor.

“Wait…what?” Knight opened his eyes to see a huge black tree inches away from him. His mind was blank, ‘what the hell has just happened.’

Knight lifted himself up with aid from an unusual deep-black tree. ‘A black tree…? The hell. Maybe it’s just the lighting,’ he shook off the unusual colour for a tree, ignoring the intensity that the dim light could not explain, and let his gaze drift towards the starry sky, caught between the tall trees.

The stars were unusually bright. They were so bright that he could just make out about twelve more trees to form a rough shape that enclosed the starry sky from the abyss of the night.

He was in a glade. Although it was a very odd glade. It was not lush mint green, nor was it bonfire red; the trees had leaves so it couldn’t have been mistaken for the bare colour of winter. No. It was a dull forest, yet it was abundant in vegetation.

The vegetation wasn’t lifeless, in fact, it looked like everything in this dull place was thriving. So, why was it so dull? Maybe dull wasn’t the best word to describe it, but you could at least call it grey.

Before Knight could notice anything else other than the black tree, something like water found its way into his nose.

“Eugh…” Knight sneezed as soon as it entered, “What the hell?!” Yet, in his next breath, he swallowed it.

It was as if water had travelled down into his lungs, except it was much lighter and didn’t feel real, as if it wasn’t there, yet it still gave Knight the same feeling.

Knight tried breathing again, this time through his mouth. He couldn’t breathe. It really was like he was drowning, but he definitely wasn’t inside some sort of pool, there was no water to be seen.

“Ungh…” Knight clutched his chest in pain. His face grew angry red as the pathway linking his mouth to his lungs became blocked, air trying and failing to pass through his windpipe. Knight continued with his feeble efforts to regain oxygen, only worsening his condition; no doubt making his face turn pale blue as his vision started to darken.

The strange thing is that Knight must have swallowed at least some something similar to oxygen, as his lungs were weighed down by something, and although that thing was a lot heavier than air, what else could it be? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be oxygen, as that was failing to enter his air pathway.

Knight’s failing vision fell to the grey grass. Grey. It wasn’t just the tree colour in this bizarre glade. However, Knight failed to notice the odd colour, as his thoughts were drowning, along with his body.

His vision had now darkened to the point where he couldn’t see a thing, despite the intense, beaming stars.

Suddenly, a vivid white light dimly lit Knight's dark vision. The light was coming from a radiant circle deep within the shadowy forest. Though as quickly as it appeared, it vanished into the subfusc trees.

Knight was now neighbouring death. Any time now the grim reaper would guide him to hell. The bright light had shown him hope, but its quick departure must have been a metaphor for Knight’s ordinary life.

Seconds went by. Death had not reached Knight yet. It had now been minutes since he failed to inhale not even one particle of air. How the hell was he not dead? Knight quickly realised that he must be less than a second from death and tried inhaling the heavy air once more, hoping to find some normal air.

The air, this time, did not fail to pass through his air pathway. It had found his lungs.

“...!” his desperate lungs were brightened by sudden oxygen, "What!" Knight gasped, grasping the oxygen as fast as he could. He was relieved at the sudden ability to breathe normally; so was his eyes as his dark vision slowly receded to normal with the addition of oxygen.

After almost thirty seconds of nothing but breathing, Knight began to relax. Though Knight still hadn't begun to think where the hell he was. He couldn't even remember what he was doing before being flung onto the floor, or what had caused it. All he remembered was that he was about to be faced with a huge amount of pain, and that, whatever it was, had sent his mind falling to the grasp of fear - it felt like he had been scared of death itself. Hence why he had screamed as soon as his consciousness came to.

Knight decided to stop relaxing in the comfy grass cushion and pulled himself up to watch the forest. This was just an attempt to try and forget about that near-death experience he just received; he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't the first one he had had, though he couldn't remember anything before being flung to the floor, causing him to come to the assumption just that he had happened to trip whilst taking a midnight stroll. Although he didn't live near any forests, not that were any like this in Japan, nor England.

He sat crossed-legged on the grey grass floor, but just before he realised the quaint colour, he heard a sudden rustle behind him.

Just before Knight could turn around to see the culprit, two gigantic hands slammed into his temples. Knight's consciousness faded as the world turned black.

He blinked back at thunderstorms swarming in his mind, the disjointed haze receding to the point where he could make sense of the world around him. Though the edges of his vision flickered and danced, the centre coalesced into a black-splattered arm, except it was much less of an arm and more like twisted metal and spare parts mended together.

Knight struggled to comprehend what it was as his groggy mind danced in and out of darkness.

He belatedly realised that he was being dragged across the forest floor. He tried to rearrange his legs so he could keep up with whatever was moving him, stumbling with every step. The black-spattered arm seemed to notice this, as suddenly, an aqueous light shone eerily from the black decals that covered most of whatever it was.

Knight’s consciousness faded as the world turned black, once more.