"S-say again?"

"What?" His huge bear-like form froze.

"Your name..."

"Tank Dempsey." Still like a statue...

"Eh...ehehehe?" I do not know how or what to say...

Dumb-struck, I never felt this aloof of everything, pained and helpless before. Once I felt somewhat the same to this when I got two wondenful gift; two beautifully presented numbers, two zeroes, in my literature and language test papers... Oh, what a lovely day that day was, I appeared for those pestering papers afterwards; passed the tests somehow by wriggling my butt through the cut-off passing marks anyway...

And after getting your trust broken by someone whom you trusted with whatever flitting might you could muster, ending up half alive, half brain-damaged and then meeting a bloke who calls himself The Tank Dempsey...

I smiled.

"Is t-this r-really earth?"

My lips cracked and stung as an unaided smile withered on my face...I could taste the bitter flavor of exotic mud added with dried blood-crumbs, the tiny solid particles tickled and irritated my eyes, tears began to flow freely in broken despair; I was smiling in happiness for I was alive, breathing and wheezing, but alive nonetheless. Apart from smiling and spewing snot on the current fortunate turns of events, I cried and resisted the urge of ripping my hair off of my scalp in desolation; why wouldn't I? This idiot was presuming himself to be a video game character.

'This is not real.'

'It's unreal.'

'A heavy joke.'

A pang of pain rippled in my head, back to front, spreading across my puny body like a healthy plague.

"Ahhh...My head..." I scratched my head slowly, keeping my left hand pressed on my stomach wound firmly; I was afraid to let go, it felt like if I would remove my hand and let my punctured would face air it would just end up with my entrails sprawling out like a sack of potatoes with a hole in it. I, thus, pressed my hand harder, wincing and enduring the pain.

"Get yourself comfortable, doc is on his way" said said, in his own voice which was so frighteningly similar to that of the virtual Dempsey.

'What's really going on?'

"Who 'd-doc'?" I asked, trying to comply to his wishes, his voice and demeanor was not at all taking me any closer to being safe, or feel comfortable.

"That is none of your concern.'" He knelled down under the cot I was lying on.

"He'll be here to check you."

He stiffly pointed a muscular finger at me in-

"Keep your tiny arse in one place and be quiet."

THUNK !

He put his gun on the huge portico I was sitting on.

I kept staring at the gun for a while; its size was half of mine and by its view, I was sure that it might weight a double of me.

It was huge, decorated with old dry blood splatters and looked extremely deadly.

He turned is back.

"A-are you going somewhere?" I asked, ripping my gaze away from the heavy piece of machinery and raised my eyebrows feebly in question; the dry mud was making it very difficult to see through...

'Wait?'

'Where are my glasses?'

I was in a sitting position on the edge of the portico, barely maintaining my balance; I was more like leaning in to see his face in the dim light of the dingy apartment or cabin like place we were in. The burning tuber on the top of my head was the only source of light; it was oval, orange and bright like a beating heart in its metal rib cage or holder, flies flitted around it and for the first time, a burst of nausea took me off-guarded, like the rain slapping my crumbling memory; I was forced to welcome the sudden incoming of mixed senses.

It was like opening floodgates-

I listened to the beating and thundering of the mighty rain, the tin wall cried in tenderness of the thumping rhythm of the powerful wind.

Like someone outside pleaded for release.

Like voices screaming and echoing out for me; trying to warn me or maybe to save me, voices bubbling to the surface from a deep never-ending crimson well...

I smelled the collected sore water that was dripping from the pipes overhead, the putrid smell of decay which surprisingly passed through the angry -outside and meet my nose in the inside of this jammed room. It smelled of wet walls and corroding iron and wet soil which was probably coming from me. A new smell tickled my nose in the bottom, it was urging my nasal cavity to expand and take in the foreign odor of metal... It smelled heavy and metallic...

I felt dizzy, my memories were slipping away and I couldn't hold them in; they would burst out through my nose.

Dripping like blood... A nosebleed...

Spreading the colour red like blood, my memories are going red.

"I t-think I will faint now- '

Everything went black.

~○~

Hold your head in place....

Careful.

Not to let your recollections blunder the reality! Hold on, Anya... Hold on...

Hold...On...

'Hold on... I have to...to.'

Hold my hand... Hold o

-Don't be afraid... Are you scared of me?

'Who's that?!'

It's me...

'No, No! I should not listen to them...Unreal, Hallucinations, dreams... No one's here...'

I am here!

'Who?!'

An agent-

'Of what?!'

Reality...

'This isn't reality! It is not!'

Or is it? Is it, Anya? Is it what you think? What you feel? What you believe? Trust? What is it?!

'I don't know! Am I dreaming? LEAVE ME ALONE!'

Shhhh! Shhh... they'll listen... be quite...shhhh, you are with me, for now, you are safe; but there, you are unsafe! Be with me...

'Who? Who is listeni-WHO ARE YOU?!'

I am Samantha...

'S-Samantha?'

Yes...

'Where am I, Samantha?' 'Are you with me? I am scared, H-help!' 'Wait...I-I don't know you... but-"'

You feel my presence...Don't you?

'Yes...'

Am I scaring you?

'No...'

Do you trust me?

'.....Yes...f-for now...'

Look around you...

I see darkness and I feel a presence; a tiny body... my shoulders are heavy... I feel dizzy, I feel like vomiting. I am walking on my own; I don't have any control of my body.

It's dark but I feel like I am stuck in a tube, a long-narrow tube; moving forward...

Something is sitting on my back, similar to a child taking a piggy-back ride. Something is sitting on my shoulders, for, I feel tiny legs sprawled on my chest, firmly balanced under my hands. I am holding someone who has small, pale legs... Tiny, flailed and battered... These legs are covered with crimson liquid; the redness is draining from her tiny body...

So, she can't walk.

I am giving her a piggyback ride.

I hear her giggles and I cough as she smiles a pained grin of blood and joy.

"I like you, Anya... You are more than a play mate; you are like the elder sister I never had... Look! You give such good piggy-rides" I hear her bright chuckles of joy and love, she twines and un-twines my hair with her little fingers as she sits comfortably on shoulders.

I feel like a responsible big sister to my younger sister. I walk a bit faster and Samantha cries in child-like joy while her skinny hands flutter in delight.

I am tired and my body aches for rest but I try to look forward to the darkness and keep walking.

I am so tired... very tired...But, I don't care.

"Anya, how's Lily?" Asks Samantha in her innocent voice, I open my mouth to explain how she is but not a word comes out of my mouth.

"Oh...Is that so?" Samantha ducks her head in disapproval, as if she heard each and every word I just said. She nods.

"It's alright, you have me! We can play all the time; I have lots of toys to play with you! I have some friends too who would love to play with you" She says her pure plan in such a naïve tone that it hurts me to deny, I want to say 'No' to her but, again, not a word comes out of my mouth.

"I have a lot of friends!" I listen to her light-hearted tone "You would come with me, wouldn't you? Father will be so happy to see you!" I shake my head desperately to disagree but my head but nothing happens.

Like it was normal.

But, I knew, it was the exact opposite-

"I really do have sympathy for you" Samantha cut me off in the middle "You are stuck with those four fools..." Samantha's voice changes suddenly; in a swift motion, her voice is changed from angelically child-like to a demonic whisper; it sounded so mature for a girl of her age and chillingly cold. I was suddenly scared but I reminded myself not to struggle as I had to give her a Piggy-back ride.

I couldn't move.

"But don't worry" She said, caressing my cheeks from the top of my head like a child making sure of her mother is happy. Her puny hands felt cold and hard like marble, it lacked the lively warmth which was so odd for a child as active as Samantha.

"I will make sure you come back safely to me" She swayed her tiny body back and forth, enjoying the ride, her little night-gown which was covered with dry blood spots, fluttered as she hummed Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star; I was terrified at this point...

Her voice echoed eerily in the never-ending dimly lit corridor... "It's full moon outside" Samantha sighed.

"It's just a matter of time..." Samantha patted my head. She giggled, lost in her own world...

A barrage of words filled my mind as I angrily tried to fight off the darkness; Samantha seemed less interested...

"Then we can play, with my friends...forever..."

~○~

Tap tap tap!

"Vake up! Vake up!"

"Wake up, Anya!"

TAP TAP TAP!

"VAKE UP!"

THAPP!

"Uhhh...?...No school..."

"Was für ein Idiot?!"

~○~

Translation: 'Was für ein Idiot?!'- What an Idiot?!

~○~