The Rebirth
Chapter FOUR


I felt lost. I felt a million emotions waft through me, all of which were appalling. At first I felt miserable, and then I felt pain and then the extreme nothingness. I was starting to panic. I knew I was awake, yet I couldn’t move a finger. I wanted to cry in anguish but my efforts were in vain. I was frustrated among all things and angry that I had almost trusted the mythical creature that had captured me. I didn’t know why but on top of all that, I felt happy─ almost delighted. I was confused now and then angered again. What was happening to me? What were these emotions doing here when I was dead or unconscious? The sound of three sharp taps brought me back to the present. It sounded like footsteps. Suddenly the pain and the confusion and all the emotions I had been feeling disappeared. I only felt uncomfortable now. I wasn’t lying down, I was floating. Floating? How is that possible? I tried to open my eyes but they were tired and so was the rest of my body. I wanted to see what was going on and I wanted to get away from whatever it was.

I shook my head left and right, there didn’t seem to be anything holding it down but I did feel something binding each of my hands and feet. It felt like pieces of smooth silk and soft velvet mixed together. I also felt a mask across my face. It covered my nose, my mouth and my chin and the strap wrapped around my head over my ears. My fingers were the first to be released from the cursed slumber that overcame my body. I felt around my surroundings and realized that I was floating in some sticky liquid. I stretched them farther and felt that I was enclosed in a tank. The tank was about the size of a single person bed and it felt cold and metallic like the same material for the spacecraft. I shivered in the liquid and I heard the soft gushing when I did. I realized then that the mask was intended to help me breath under the liquid. My toes were then able to move followed by my knees and then my neck. My eyes were not able to open yet but I could move my head more now. I could hear two people arguing from a distance and it sounded as if they were angry at each other─ speaking in hushed irritated whispers.

“You should not have attacked him!” A voice said harshly.
“I had too.” It was the woman’s voice. The one from the forest.
“Explain why.”
“He wouldn’t come with me.” She said upset.
“So I was right! He does not remember.”
“He has still the instinct!”
“Nonsense! There is no reason for why I must accept him.”
“There is. When we were in the forest, I separated us and he felt it!”
“But that does not mean anything.”
“Yes it does! It means that he still has the faint idea or feeling of his past.”
“If you upset him…. Do you know what could happen? The consequences?”
“But he hasn’t engaged them─”
“It is within him.” The elder man answered. And he started to walk away.
“Please!” The woman asked in a pleading tone.

There was a long pause then the man answered again.

“Very well. I am only allowing this, not for you, but for our realm. Is that clear?”
“It is understood. Thank you.”

I heard them walk away together. The light swooshing of the woman’s footsteps and the hard thumps of the elder man’s. Then I realized that I could hear everything and I could distinguish each sound. I could tell footsteps and knocks apart and I could also tell the different voices from one another. I knew who was older and who the superior was. I could also tell that we were in some sort of vehicle. Most likely an aircraft. I also knew that in the aircraft, there were only three people including me. I heard the two of them walk to what I assumed was the cock pit and I knew that this was my opportunity to escape. I willed my eyes to open only to realize that such force was not needed anymore. The drowsiness had worn off. When my eyes finally adjusted to the brightness of the room, I could see that I was in an aircraft, but it was already evening. I didn’t know if it was that same night when the woman captured me, or if another day had passed. I sat up in the tank and realized that its top portion was cut making the tank open and not enclosed after all. I tore the soft silky fabric that bound my hands and feet one by one feeling my muscles for the first time. I became conscious of the fact that I was only wearing my dirty gray shirt and jeans from the day that I had been abducted and I was totally soaked in the bluish greenish sticky liquid I had been submerged in. I lifted one hand and almost gagged at the sight of it covered in the oozy fluid.

I tried to get up, but the liquid was so heavy and I ended up sliding back on my butt. I tried looking around instead. It looked like a modern bedroom except that the bed was a tank filled with gooey water. There were two side tables and each one was made out of glass or something that looked like it. On each side table were black porcelain lamps. And the floor was made of white tiles that were entirely spotless. In the middle of the room was a long metal table that had a change of clothes─ a white shirt and a new pair of jeans. I wondered how they had obtained these things. It was obvious that everything in the room was brand new and never used before. I didn’t know why my captors wanted me to actually feel comfortable. There was a desk on the far left of the room made with the same glass like material. It had nothing on top of it except a black lamp and a few text books.

I tried to stand again and this time got out of the tank swiftly and safely. I was dripping on the white stainless floor and somehow I managed to feel guilty about it. I tried to take of as much of the goop as possible and returning it back to the tank as to avoid any more puddles but then realized that there was indeed a change of clothes on the table and decided to use those instead. I looked around the room and shockingly, there was another door besides the door leading out of the room. I walked towards it, sliding a little from the substance, and swung it open. It was definitely a bathroom although it looked nothing like a regular one. In the center, against the wall, there was a glass partition that was translucent halfway and transparent the other half. Inside were two shower nozzles. I realized that it was the shower although it lacked the faucet where the water would come out of. I wondered how it worked. In the center there was a diamond shaped hole on the floor and it had only one button to its left. There was also a glass-like tray attached to the wall a few feet from the door I didn’t know what it was, I just thought it was a towel rack.

I headed towards the main room and got the extra clothes careful not to soil them with the liquid and headed for the bathroom again. I put the clothes on top of a glass circular bin that was attached to the floor, I imagined it to be the trash can of the bathroom, and then headed to the side of the partition where the door was. It whooshed open and let me in. I took of my clothes in here and left it on the floor beside the glass bin I had left the new ones on. I turned one of the nozzles, unsure of what it was for, and waited for the water. Nothing came out at first then there were a few clicking noises and out of nowhere, water poured over my head. I realized then, that the water came out of the ceiling. The water was too cold at first but I didn’t mind it in my haste to remove all the slime. The sound of the running water calmed me immensely and I soon found myself drowsy again.

When I had finished taking a shower, I put on my new clothes and was headed out the door when I realized that I needed to take a leak too. I turned to the diamond looking hole on the floor and wondered if it was what I thought it was. I pushed the transparent button on the left of it to check what it did. Again, at first nothing happened, but with a few zinging noises, the sides of the diamond hole began to rise. When I looked at it again seconds later, I realized that it had made glass walls all around it. I decided to take a chance and urinate here since there were no other likely candidates. When I was finished, I pressed the translucent button again thinking that the glass walls would descend, but instead, the toilet made a swirling noise and all the urine went down and disappeared. I pressed the button a third time and the walls went down.

I walked towards the entrance of the bathroom, but caught a glimpse of myself on the mirror against the wall near where the glass tray was. I looked at the reflection for a moment, seeing now, long shaggy brown hair and turquoise colored eyes that didn’t seem to be mine anymore. I gazed at my face for another moment and finally looked away at the image of what I was. I twisted my body and was headed out the door when I hit a small button on the wall above the glass tray and the sheets of water pooled onto it and dropping to the drainage on the floor. I realized then, that the glass tray was a faucet. I quickly washed my hands left the bathroom, leaving my soiled clothes behind. Somehow I didn’t feel so scared like the way you should be when you get kidnapped. I felt strangely at home with all the equipment and felt a strange longing for the airship I was in.

I exited the bedroom and entered into a wide grey hallway with bare metallic walls and white tile floors like the ones in the bedroom. The lights were a light yellow shade and it reminded me of a shady motel. The walls were made of the same metal that was used for the circular aircraft. I hurried out of the hallway still feeling the nostalgia as I went through several doors only to find other dead ended rooms. I finally made it out of a door that lead somewhere and quickly followed the path it directed. There were many twists and turns and so many different hallways. I realized that this aircraft was not the circular one the woman had flown on. This ship was much bigger than that one.

I finally saw what I thought to be the exit. Two jade green glowing doors that had two silver handles attached to it. I quickly swung it open and hope for parachutes or something to get me to the ground. But what I saw instead, shocked me. It was a room filled with two long tables on either side. It looked like a dining hall. That wasn’t what shocked me though; it was the fact that the woman from the forest was seated on one of the farther seats of the table to the right. She heard my loud entrance and quickly turned to me. Her face was somber and her eyes were light blue again. When she saw me, her eyes turned yellow and her face brightened immensely. She took a look at my clothes and a light laugh escaped her lips.

“Ah…There you are Cale.”