Shadow Ravena
Paladin of Shadows
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Chapter One: The End of Life, and the Beginning of Darkness.
I stepped back through the portal, leaving Lore and entering my own world. The familiar sight of my humble home greeted me, the straw bed, rickety table with my computer on it, the lamp in the corner, and the cabinet never filled with food. I looked out through the window, the eternally dark sky greeted me. I heard a clock chime, it was nine in evening. Good, I made curfew. Hopefully no one noticed my absence...
As I was thinking this, I heard a knock on the door, then it crashed in. Again? Seriously, can't they wait a minute? A guard stood there, looking around. He was checking to see if anything was happening that shouldn't. I hoped I didn't have anything out that was illegal. The price I would pay...
Then I remembered my computer. I still have DragonFable on! Oh God, please don't let him see it... But my hoping was in vain, for he did see. He grinned wickedly, then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away.
I knew I would have no help, I was an Outcast, I had no life. In fact, most people would be glad to see the end of an Outcast, for we were the bottom of society. Not through any fault of our own, we were hated, spat on, abused. If we fought back, a quick death would be merciful. If we broke the rules, a few years in isolation prison would be kind. If we ever tried to improve ourselves, everything we had would be taken away, our food ration slashed (not that we got enough to eat as is), and our jobs back on the bottom. There was nothing an Outcast could do to help themselves. Even death was not an option, thanks to the fact of our health monitors implanted in our skulls. They alerted the government if we tried to kill ourselves, so they could come and bring us back. They needed the Outcast's, we were their workforce, we did the jobs no one else would. It was a sick system, but it worked all to well.
I was hoping I would simply be reverted back to the bottom again, and not sent to isolation prison, or worse, the reform center. I shuddered. The reform center took away your humanity, if you went there, well, it would be very difficult to keep even a shred of real human personality. But, as we passed the office were they register the Outcasts job's and food, my heart sank. It meant only one thing, I had stepped out of line once too often, and now, either prison or the reform center awaited me.
We passed the prison, and headed to the outskirts of town. By now, I wasn't feeling anything, I hid behind a wall of indifference. I knew better than show any emotion, that would only get me stuck there longer. As we reached the door of the reform center, I lowered my head and tried to avoid eye contact. I know this was the only way to act.
"Ahh, another Outcast. What has it done?"
It, I thought, As though I was an animal or an object. I might as well be.
I glanced up for a second to see who was talking to the guard. It was the warden, Debra Bobbit. She was the one in charge of the center, and easily the cruelest person I have ever heard of, including in the world of Lore. They say she has no heart, but I think that is wrong. Only the darkness of an evil heart could do what she did, a sociopath wouldn't have the reason to be so cruel. In person, she actually looked almost nice, with a twisted smile and cheery clothes. The normal population thought her nice and sweet, keeping the 'troublemakers' in check, turning them into helpful human beings. The Outcasts knew better of course, but who cared what we had to say?
"So, what has it done?"
"It has been playing a computer game, and abusing the privilege of having a computer."
The computers were for research only, and for typing up reports. Only the highest Outcasts had one, and I had worked hard to gain this privilege. I should have known it wouldn't last.
"Oh, tsk tsk, we can't have that. Now lets see, what is it's name, so I can see what other trouble this thing has done."
"It's name is Raven."
Debra nodded and walked over to her office to look me up. I knew I had never caused trouble, but the reports were often made-up so they had an excuse to punish those they didn't like. I waited for her to come out again, so I could hear my sentence.
"Hmm, this one is pretty good. But it has never been to prison or this center, now that just won't do." She said, grinning evilly.
"No, it's mind is too free, we must change that. It's sentence is 10 years, or until I say it can leave."
Ten years?!? No one EVER makes it that long! I knew some Outcasts that got ten year sentences, we never saw them again. It was a rumor that they just kneeled over one day, from endless torture and little to no food. I resolved that no matter how long it was, I would do ANYTHING to get free. I had to.
Debra led me into a a white room, and then hit me over the head, knocking me out. When I came too, I looked around. White, white, and more white greeted me. It was a room shaped like a ball, so you could never, ever, tell where the walls ended. They were completely and perfectly white, and radiating dim light. I stood up, and tried walking. The room rolled under my feet like a hamster wheel. I stopped to touch the floor, wall, ceiling, whatever it was, and cold, near flat metal greeted my touch. I tried stretching my arms out to get an idea of how big it was, but I could not touch either wall. I tried stomping, scratching, anything to break up the endless white, but to no avail. Nothing worked. I couldn't even hear the stomp, as there was white noise playing, which I could barely hear or distinguish it from no sound at all. I knew after a while I wouldn't be able to at all, my ears and brain not even acknowledging the sound. I tried shouting, but didn't hear a thing. I was aware of the fact that I didn't feel hunger, thirst, hot or cold, or ANYTHING. The room's air was infused with enough moisture to keep thirst away, and powder vitamins too small to see to keep hunger away. The temperature was perfectly calibrated to what my body needed, so it didn't feel hot or cold. I tried slamming my fist into the ground, but felt no pain. In fact, I was quickly losing my ability to feel at all. I figured they must have altered the chip in my brain to prevent the sense of touch, and as sight and sound were gone, due to the white walls and white noise, and smell as well due to the vitamin air, and touch from the chip, I had no sense at all. I looked down at my clothing, and saw that anything I could see was white I could not tell where I ended and the room began, and I had no shadow because the light was too weak and too even. I was nothing, in a world of nothing. I knew I would not survive this easily, so I lay down and tried to sleep. That didn't work either. Again, the vitamin air prevented sleep, and my body didn't need it anyways. I was in perfect health, not doing anything, so why would it need healing sleep? I still laid there, and stared at the white ceiling, and tried to think as little as possible, knowing I would need it later. For when everything you know is destroyed, all you have left is your mind, your imagination. My imagination would grew weaker with more time and usage, so I would save it's healing power till later. Little did I know how vain it would be.
The time I spent in the white ball is inestimable, for time never moved. Needless to say, when I got out, I had as much ability to think as a log did, which was the entire point. Since I hadn't needed to see, smell, taste, feel, or think, my mind had forgotten literally everything. I barely knew how to breathe. The rest of the ten years I'll summarize, as you have the gist of what it was like, besides, I don't remember it very well at all. After the ball, it was isolation prison, in another white room. This one was square, and I had food and water delivered to me, and an actual toilet. This was to re-teach me how to eat and drink, and how to see, as the walls were easily distinguishable. Next was a dungeon cell, white room again, only this one only had a window, and a washstand. This was to re-teach me how to groom, and to get me back in a night and day cycle, for until then time meant absolutely nothing. Next was the same room, only I had work to do now, simple jobs like mopping the floor. Since this required talking and memory work, I also went to sessions were they re-taught me out to do it. Up until now, my mind was an animal's, I had no intelligent thoughts whatsoever. The final stage was working with Debra and the other Outcasts. We were taught more advanced work, and how to interact with others.
It was during this time that I remembered what had happened to me before, for before this I had no memory of my life. I remembered DragonFable, going there, Shadow, and my friendship with her. I focused my mind on getting out of the center and getting back to Lore, this time to stay for good. Even if I disappeared there, it would be better than staying here. This thought, and drive, allowed me to keep a tiny bit of personality, of mind and heart. I hid it well, knowing I would never leave it I showed any humanity.
Finally, I did leave. I was taken back to my house, where I found everything intact. I was to do the same work as before, so I still had my computer. They thought I was so beaten down that I couldn't do anything against the rules, but they were wrong. My mind had held a little piece, a tiny fraction, of itself. I could feel nothing, I could think nothing, except what I was told, and getting back to Lore. I booted up the computer, and set it to wipe itself in ten minutes. That way, no one could follow me to Lore, and I could never come back here. I loaded the website, logged in, and felt the now familiar sensation of entering the game.
I opened my eyes, and saw at was at the crossroads between the real Lore and the game one. I took the branch to the real one, but, something went wrong. I felt a jerk, and was forced through the portal wall into...
...Lore. But not the Lore I was heading to. No, this was a different one, real, but I knew Shadow wouldn't be here. I wonder who the hero of THIS one is. I thought. Every version of Lore had a different hero, and the worlds rarely met up, generally only during a war. I never understood how this happened, but accepted it for a fact. I'll just meet Shadow during a war. I was surprised I could think so well, I assumed being in Lore helped break the mind-control of Debra's. Whatever the case, I was glad. I saw I was at Falconreach, twilly waving for me to come over. "Raven, come quickly! Your dragon egg is about to hatch!"
This jarred me. Apparently, I had ended up in a world where I was the hero! I didn't expect this, and I was worried. I wasn't really the hero type. I hoped I would not fail, for if I did...
But I pushed this thought away, grabbed my axe out of my pack, and went to twilly.
< Message edited by tigerlady48 -- 10/19/2011 13:20:02 >
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