Prologue

Pandora was strapped to something cold and hard, she could barely move a limb. Panic choked her and she struggled violently but the thick straps held. A bulb directly above her head was switched on at maximum, shooting glaring lights and burning her eyes even when she squeezed them shut. Terrified whimpering escaped her trembling lips and a lump rose in her throat as she realized where she was, what this was.

The walls of the room were so white it made her sick just to look at and they seemed to be closing in against her. Pandora looked down to see her entire body strapped tightly against the metal slab she was lying on and there was no way she could overcome it. Terror raked her entire being as she saw plastic tubes with grotesque colors snaking around her wrists and pumping drugs into her body. Pandora cried and tried yanking them away but her head immediately throbbed.

A ringing, slow and constant at first, gradually escalated into a fast shrieking chime roaring inside her head. It was like holding two metal plates smashing and scraping them against each other right beside her ears. The ringing took Pandora's sanity away, even her scream could not drown it.

And then it stopped suddenly. Before Pandora could clear her head, a burst of pain shocked her entire body. Pandora screamed and writhed until the tight merciless straps cut into her skin. Again the shocking pain buzzed through her slowly, agonizingly from her toes all the way to her head. She could literally feel it travelling up her, setting her on fire on the way. By the time it was through, Pandora was breathless from screaming. Tears that had been forced out by the pain sizzled against her skin, it felt like her cheeks were on flames.

There was a woman, her face vague and blur. She was laughing sweetly, as though listening to a gentlemen's humor. She studied her screams with interest of those studying a piece of classical music. Making her recommendations reasonably, choosing from the menu that destroyed her. Pandora screamed until her throat was parched. She wanted everything to be over. The woman's finger went over to the controls, she smiled, and flicked a button.

Pandora gasped and found herself in her bed, with her blankets on the floor. Her bed was soaked in her sweat and she panted heavily. She grasped her legs and hugged them to her chest, shivering violently and sobbing into her knees. The pain was gone, but she could remember it so clearly. As though it was real.

It was a nightmare for her. A nightmare that haunted her every night. Its details were so livid and the pain was so excruciating. Pandora's guts warned her that it was all real, real hell to someone out there who was screaming in the torture room now.

Chapter 1

Scott woke up and immediately felt the major difference. He was lying on something soft and comfortable, instead of the cold and metal plank. He had a small blanket slightly draped over his chest. Now that was a change. All of a sudden, his chest tightened and an excruciating pain shot up his entire body, it felt as though his ribcage was breaking one by one. He moaned and could barely open his eyes. All the energy drained out of him. He feared of what would become of him once he slept the horrors of hell. Before he dropped into his empty sleep, he felt something. Something soft and reassuring. Something that somehow convinced him, everything was going to be alright. The pain faded away…

The next time he woke up, he could hardly remember anything. Everything around him was very confusing. It was probably night, how did he know that? In the torture room, there were no windows. Everything was just black, hopeless black, death black. But he was in a different room. There was a night breeze and the sound of owl hooting. The room was dark and he could barely see anything. Pain. Scott's memory came flooding back like a river gushing into his brain. It was so overpowering, his lungs were robbed from oxygen and he flinched. Something stirred. Scott was slightly taken aback. So he wasn't alone in this weird hallucination. He still refused to believe that everything could be so beautiful.

Scott screwed his eyes down to find a little creature resting on the same bed as him too. Resting would not be the right word. She simply sat on the floor and pillowed her head with her arms that were resting on the bed. Her messy long hair covered her face and that was about all Scott could make out. Somehow, Scott had felt much better than before and the pain was ebbing away. He had never felt calmer. With all the energy used up again, Scott willingly fall into a peaceful sleep.