I slammed my fist into his face, hoping to punch him hard enough that he’d shut his mouth. After seeing that I had hit thin air, I quickly jumped back, into the wall. Voices chuckled as they crept closer—I felt as if my heart was racing. The thing that caught most attention towards me was a chain, spinning.

It spun and spun, as it carefully made its approach. I thought there was only one, but apparently there were two chains. I heard someone shout my name. The voice sounded familiar, I just couldn’t make out whom it was. The echoing bounced off the walls before the chains hit me.

  He was in a daze when he woke up. His mind couldn’t think straight until he started counting the people in the room. There were eight, and all were complete strangers. They all surrounded him; cornered him. It started to make confusion fill the room.

‘W-where am I?’ he thought while widening his eyes more. Shock came to him as he noticed something was wrong. He couldn’t move! He felt as if paralyzed as the cold, silver chains brushed against his skin. He wasn’t sure if it was blood rushing down his arms, or the pressure pulsing in his body. Sweat dropped down his face from the sensation.

“What’re you looking at, boy?” one of the men asked. The boy gulped after hearing a snarl. He looked up, only to see a knife directly to his throat. The boy tried to gasp for air, but sadly his throat was too dry.

“Hah, he can’t even speak!” the man chuckled and put the knife away. He walked back to his group, then they all started laughing at once. The creepy part was, the boy could only see their faces, like the shadow under a lit-up flashlight.

“That’s enough, Wist.” The boy saw a younger-looking man step out of the shadows. He hasn’t seen him before, and he also wondered why he didn’t sense the man. He looked completely different from the other eight men. The boy couldn’t decide if it was the clothes, or the man’s long, black hair.

“Why should I, Shouka?” Wist said soon after the laughing stopped. So that was the man’s name. Shouka. For some reason, it sounded familiar.

“It’s rude towards our guest,” Shouka took a step closer, and came to a stop after seeing Wist’s knife.

“That boy’s a monster!” Wist shouted, pointing his weapon towards the boy. The boy snapped out of his daze after hearing the tough-sounding voice. It offended him badly.

“He’s not such a monster, unlike you,” Shouka threatened with a scowl. The boy looked up, and then wondered if Shouka knew him. He just couldn’t seem to remember.

“Why you--” Wist growled and glanced over his group. They crept closer towards him after seeing the gesture.

“You traitor!” Wist took out his knife and threw it at Shouka. It missed and bounced off the bricked wall. Cursing under his breath, Wist motioned the others to attack. Shouka jumped out of the way, and went over to the boy and un-cuffed him. He mouthed the word, ‘run’.

The boy nodded and did as told. He turned around and watched Shouka swiftly dodge the men’s attacks. It was intense. He dodged left and right, from kunai’s to shining swords. This was the one moment the boy wished the lights were on.

He heard a ‘clunk’ as he saw one of the men fall to their knees. He was unsure of how Shouka did it. Smiling, the boy wanted to help, but stayed in one place. After a while, all the men have fainted. Except for one, who ran away.