“Surrender the body to Marc.”

You’re not sure how long you’ve been sitting on the bed, but you assume that it’s probably been at least a few hours. You’ve been fighting back tears the whole time. You’re trapped and scared and you have no idea where you are. You fidget with your hands, anxiety filling your veins when there’s a loud knock on your door. You jump at the sound, staring at the door with wide eyes as ten red hooded figures step inside your room. You can hardly see them as their faces are painted black and silk material runs down them.

“Who are you?” you ask in a shaky voice, your anxiety now morphing into fear. You scoot back on the bed until your back hits the wall. The hooded figures say nothing and continue to stand there in silence. “Who are you?” you ask again, this time a little louder. 

“I’m Nico and these are my bishops,” the man in the middle says, motioning to the nine others behind him. Your eyes examine all nine of the figures carefully before looking back at Nico. 

“Well, Nico,” you say his name with disgust coating your tone. “Where am I and what am I doing here?” a part of you wants to know the answer, but a bigger part of you now regrets asking the question. You bite your lip nervously at Nico’s reply. 

“You’re in Dema,” Nico simply says. You wish you could see Nico and the other’s facial expressions. You want to know what they look like and who these people are. The fact that you can’t makes this whole situation even more unnerving. 

“What the hell is Dema?” you ask angrily. Your eyes shift back to the window momentarily. The sky is still gray and for some reason the buildings that you saw a few hours earlier seem even taller. You turn your attention back to Nico and wait for an answer, but he doesn’t give you one. You narrow your eyes at him and the others keep standing there in silence. “How did I get here?” you ask instead. 

“We found you,” Nico simply says. 

“Found me where?!” you’re growing agitated at this point. All you want is some answers and you’re not getting any. You close your eyes and take a deep breath, trying to calm yourself. “Can you just let me go?” 

“”I’m afraid we can’t do that.” 

“Well, why not?!” you’re heated again. “Please just give me some sort of answer or reasoning! This isn’t fair!” 

“Nothing is fair in the world and nothing is fair in Dema.” Nico’s words pain your stomach, feeling like a million swords twisting around your insides. “Come with me,” he says, turning around with the nine others and begin to walk away. You don’t move at first, but the fear of the unknown takes over and you follow after the red hooded figures. 

You trail along the lengthy hallway. Every six feet or so there’s a door. Door after door after door after door. You wonder what kind of evil is behind each of them. What kind of twisted, dark secrets lie in there. You continue to walk down the hall and stop at the eighty seventh door - you’ve been counting this whole time. 

You hear footsteps coming from behind you and you turn around. You see three other bishops and a boy in all black clothes following behind them. You watch the boy carefully. He’s not like the others, he’s like you. As he walks by you, you notice he has dark eyes, dark brown hair and slightly tanned skin. The two of you lock eyes for a few seconds. The boy doesn’t look frightened just as you are. His expression is blank, eyeing you for a moment as he passes by you. He turns his head to look back at you until you disappear behind the eighty seventh door. 

The room is dark, aside from the lamp sitting on the desk. There’s a main chair behind it and nine others behind the first. Nico sits down and the nine bishops behind him as you sit at the single chair right in front of Nico. It’s silent for a few minutes until Nico breaks it. 

“We aren’t here to hurt you, we are here to help you.” You want to laugh, laugh in Nico’s face and call bull, but you stay silent instead and give the leader a deadpanned look. “We found you and we’re to help you get on the right path.”

‘The right path of what?’ you want to ask him, but again, you stay non-verbale. You’re not afraid anymore, you’re just downright pissed. You’re angry at Nico and the niners while the other part of you wonders who the normal boy is following after the three other bishops. You want to ask Nico who that was, but you decide against it. That’s something you’ll figure out yourself. So you’ll obey, you’ll obey. You’ll obey Nico and his bishops and find out who the normal boy dressed in all black is. 

“What’s your name?” Nico asks, interrupting your thoughts. You open your mouth, ready to speak your real name, or what you think is your real name, but you stop. You give him a fake name instead.