It was supposed to be just another afternoon. At least, I thought it was. Someone had called me to the nearby café because we had something important to discuss. When I arrived... I couldn’t tell people apart because they all looked like shadows.   

I was frozen until someone stood up and waved a dark hand towards me.    

Deep down, I knew it didn’t make sense, but I walked without worldly care because what could fear do to me that it hadn’t already done?   

Wait, fear? What had it done to me?   

I sat in a chair that wasn’t there anymore, facing someone who didn't exist.   

The person spoke vehemently, but they didn’t have a voice. It was just a collection of vague sounds accompanied by hyperactive movements. A smile was chiseled onto its face as it reached a shadowy hand to a cup-shaped object. It brought it to its lips, where it vanished, and this person drank nothing from nothing.   

One by one, the things left in my vision abandoned me until it was just me and the person in front. Alone in a void of darkness with nothing else, we stared at each other. Its head tilted and turned in confusion until the space around us violently shook as if we were going through a bout of extreme turbulence.   

It stood up from nothing, leapt towards me, and pushed me backwards as falling debris appeared from nowhere and crushed it. It unleased a horrible noise and vainly struggled, with a hand reached out.   

“Go! You have to get out of here! Servi—” Suddenly, the voice became all too clear, and the mysterious entity was made visible. He was a man, maybe in his early 30s, who wore a sharp suit with styled hair. Yet his face was scarred and rugged, like he was born from a dirty rock. Blood oozed from his nose, and his back was engulfed by hungry, dangerous flames, but he had enough strength to care about my safety. But then his words were abruptly cut off by thunderous booms that shook this existence. That without form was struggling to remain whole, but how could empty and nothingness contain something?   

I wanted to move and struggle, but a deep pressure kept me restrained. I tried to reach the man's large, calloused hands, but he vanished before I could take them.   

Wait... Vanished? Who was...even here?    

Where am I?   

---

“Nng... Was that a dream? Why is it so bright? And my back hurts... What the hell am I leaning against?” I asked a series of questions as my eyes slightly opened. The unbelievably bright sun warmed my skin, and I yawned and grunted in pain while trying to get to my feet. In front of me sat a crystal blue pond filled with fish. There was a green plain with rolling hills of verdant grass and colorful flowers past that. Behind me sat a dense, deep forest filled with tall leaves with gaps for tiny spots of sunlight to peek through. The ground was wet. A light, hazy fog obscured me from looking deeper. 

A forest? Why did I fall asleep here? Why sleep outside at all?  

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I slumped over to the pond to quench my thirst when suddenly it felt like I was being electrocuted, set on fire, and poisoned simultaneously. Instantly, I dropped to my knees, clenched my stomach, and cried out while vomiting blood simultaneously. The agony was so great I couldn’t even remain on my knees, and I fell to the warm, vomit-covered grass while writhing and turning in anguish.    

But as soon as it appeared, it vanished. And that was when the questions came to me.   

“Just...who am I? Where am I? Why...don’t I remember anything?” I whispered, struggling to stand up.   

I managed to limp over to the pond, where the strength keeping me upright parted ways. I fell headfirst, which was fine since my throat was as dry as a desert.   

I drank my fill and raised my soaked head, watching as my reflection was destroyed hundreds of times by the noisy water dripping from my hair. “Do I even look the same? Did I always have black shoulder-length hair and red eyes? It feels...familiar, I guess. But what about my name? What’s my name?” I asked, staring at my fair skin.   

Not knowing my identity made it hard to breathe. I tried to swallow a trepid breath, but it was stuck in my throat. I shook slightly, my mouth still agape. It felt like my heart was about to leap from my chest and sully this beautiful lake with my essence.   

I finally stood up and dusted off my shirt, jacket, and pants. Nothing I wore specific identifying symbols or marks, so that didn’t help. After taking off my clothes and stripping naked, I felt the sun bless my larger-than-average breasts. I did this to check for any tattoos or scars, of which I had none.   

With another sigh, I slipped my black panties up my smooth legs and put my arms through my bra straps, which shared the same color. Then my shirt, jacket, and pants came next. “I’m totally lost. Maybe I’m next to a town? Can’t really do much here, so I might as well start walking.” As I walked towards the road past the tree I was napping against, another pain stabbed a dagger through my skull. But unlike last time, a paradoxical wave of pain did not wash over me. Instead, it was like I saw a fraction of an auditory memory. It was of a panicked voice, male in nature, that repeated something in a loud outburst.   

“Go! You have to get out of here! Servi—”  

Once again, I collapsed like a falling building and clutched my head when the voice seemed to multiply until it was an audible, screeching, incoherent mess.  

“Go! You have to get out of here! Servi—”  

“You have to get out of here! Servi—”  

Have to get out of here! Servi—”  

“To get out of here! Servi—”  

“Get out of here! Servi—”  

“Out of here! Servi—”  

“Of here! Servi—”  

“Here! Servi—”  

“Servi—”  

“Servi—”  

“Servi—”  

“SERVI!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed that name until my voice went raw and horse, and only then did my mind empty.   

“Is that my name?” My arms were like wobbly pieces of rubber when I stood back up, and my legs weren’t any better. I was afraid to take that next step because I didn’t want to reexperience that horror. But I couldn’t remain here. What if my family and friends were looking for me? I wasn’t sure I had any, but...   

After another sigh, I gave myself two tiny slaps on my cheeks and jogged to the road. It was a choice of left or right, and I chose left, and off I went down this dirt road. It looked traveled because two parallel lines were etched into it. They were too small to be a car’s tire tracks, but a wagon? Horses and oxen had to rest. If I was lucky, I’d find something along this path.   

---

After about an hour of walking alone, I saw life in the tree line to my right. There was a small foxlike creature with two tails and silver fur peering at me from behind the safety of a thick tree. It hopped from tree to tree to keep pace with me, never letting me out of its sight. The fuzzy beast was the only life I saw besides more trees and grassy plains. The sun continued to mercilessly beat down on my bare neck. Eventually, I tied my jacket around my waist while checking my shoes.   

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I eventually came to a fork in the road. There was a sign, but I couldn’t read the writing. “Suppose I have a 50/50 shot of getting this right, huh? If I see something dangerous, I’ll double back,” I said, speaking to myself and making a choice. I branched off to the right and walked for about forty more minutes before something dangerous buzzed into the distance.   

They looked like human-sized floating bees, but the monsters had swords on their antennae. There were about fifteen of them, and thirteen stood in a circle to create an arena for the remaining two to fight in.   

“A bee fight club?” I was spying from behind a tree, keeping my distance as the two fighters fought to the death. Fur, guts, flesh, and crimson splashed when they lowered their heads and clashed. The larger one managed to flutter its wings to rapidly dash to the right, then twirled around while raising its head to slice off a chunk of the smaller one’s face. It was a deadly battle I wanted no part in, so I snuck away.  

Reaching the fork in the road, I went down the road less traveled and eventually saw towering silver walls in the distance. I couldn’t tell if they protected a city, but knowing something was there put a pep in my step. The road was strangely lonely, though. I’d spent at least 3 hours just walking with nothing but nature to keep me company, so it was a surprise when a horse-drawn wagon appeared behind me. I was too engrossed in pondering my continual survival, so I wasn’t expecting it. The hopes in my heart were stricken down, though, when I saw the driver wasn’t entirely human. He had the head of a leopard with the body of an adult man. He quizically stared at my confusion, then tipped his straw hat and returned his eyes to the road. It looked like his wife was sitting next to him, and when they started to speak a moment later...   

I couldn’t understand anything. Not even a single peep. If the leopard man didn’t have a tarp covering his wagon, I hoped to figure out something by the goods he was carrying. Like, what if he was carrying a sack of apples or potatoes?   

I may have lost my memories, but I still have my common sense. Apples are red, oranges are orange. It’s a long shot, but there might be something in there I recognize.  

I probably spent about fifteen minutes seriously pondering about trying to sneak in the wagon. Sighing again, I looked towards the towering walls. They were about twenty minutes away, but even from this distance, it looked like there was a line to enter. I looked over my shoulder to see a few more people and a couple of wagons bringing up the rear—only about 20 or 30% of them were what I considered human— but this posed a problem.   

If you needed travel documents to enter, I was screwed. I lightly bit my lips and looked behind. Vast, open plains flanked this road, so I couldn’t hide behind anything to sneak into the back of an unsuspecting wagon. Breaking off now and traveling around the city’s walls—if it was a city—was also dangerous. No, not perilous, but suspicious. I’d probably be questioned by guards. If I couldn’t speak their language?   

Yeah... I didn’t want to think about it.   

Acting like I had forgotten my phone, I turned around and walked the way I came while looking at the last wagon. It was covered with a tan cloth, but it wasn’t securely hooked, so when the gusty breeze sent my hair into a frenzy, it was lifted enough for me to see a bunch of barrels and crates. The driver, a young woman with iridescent scales on her cheeks, chin, and wrist, held the horse’s reins securely while giving me a simple nod. Her eyes were filled with caution, though. She seemed friendly on the outside, but she turned her head to follow me as I continued to walk.   

I matched her gaze until she turned back towards the road, but she glanced back not even five seconds later. Perhaps she knew what I was going to do, but if she was that cautious, then it wasn’t worth it.    

Instead, I doubled back to just after the fork in the road and headed about fifty feet into the forest. Once there, I bid my time and waited for another wagon. And while one did come, it was being flanked by four armored-wearing warriors with spears and axes. The one after that was part of a convoy, and they turned down the road toward the flying bee monsters. It didn’t take long before the sound of battle erupted.   

They always said the third time was the charm, and for me, that happened two hours later. The sky was a crimson sunset with the sun just over the horizon, which made it hard to see the approaching wagon. Like all the others, it was covered with a tarp. When the driver, a man in a suit, stopped to scratch his head while looking at a map, I took my chance. Sticking low and slow, I matched my footsteps to that of his horse, then gingerly unhooked the tarp and lifted it to see more barrels and crates, but they were small. I’d have to dice myself in half to fit inside them... 

That's out of the question... 

Silently, I cursed under my breath and dropped to my stomach to look at the undercarriage. The axles looked sturdy enough to cling onto. Rolling over, I crawled on my back until I was under the wagon, then hugged the middle beam of wood that offered structural support.    

Eventually, we started moving, and I held on for dear life. A part of me wondered if this was stupid or if I was massively overthinking things. On the other hand, I seriously couldn’t understand anyone. Even those who looked human-- like me-- spoke an unknown tongue. So, perhaps this was a bad idea.   

Or maybe it wasn’t.   

There was no way for me to tell. I was diving headfirst into the vast unknown.   

Why does that feel familiar?  

---

By the time we reached the city, it was well past dusk. The driver slowed and spoke to someone—probably a guard. Slowly, we entered the town, and I was surprised to find the roads paved.    

Why?   

I didn’t know.   

But now I had to find the right spot to let go. Preferably, it had to be in an area with no people, but I doubt I was that lucky. My arms and legs were screaming at me to stop ignoring them. Instead, I occupied myself with what I could hear, not what I could see, but it was even stranger. There was a lot of talking, but it was just gibberish. Depressed, I sighed and almost started to cry. I felt the thick tears gather in the corner of my eyes, but then the wagon suddenly stopped twenty minutes after going down a ramp.   

It was then I was aware of an awful smell. The clean and tasteless air from before was tainted to the point I was about to gag. The wagon shifted when the driver got down. After I heard a door slam shut, there were no more footsteps. I granted relief to my arms and legs. Rapidly, I crawled out and stood up, then doubled over and vomited the contents of my stomach to the gross ground.   

“Uughh...” I groaned, wiping my lips of the watery puke. After an attempt to dust off my clothes from the ride, I just started to walk because I was starving. My throat felt like sandpaper encrusted with feces, and my lips were cracked. The gross smells caused a headache.   

When a nearby door creaked open, the feeling of flight invaded my heart, and I ran away down the nearest street until I found a trash-filled dumpster to hide behind.    

Once my heart had a chance to vent, I wiped my tears and carefully walked around. If I had to guess, we were in a slum? When we entered the city, everything felt far more...pleasant. I highly doubt the city’s entrance had ruined houses and tents held together with frayed rope, which was what I saw all around me.   

Everywhere I walked was filled with trash, rotted food, or rat corpses. And people, of course. Most of the people I saw looked like ragged dogs. When I first saw someone, I rushed behind a corner and purposely splattered myself with trash and dirt to camouflage myself. I even ripped holes in my jacket using a piece of glass because the last thing I wanted was to stand out by wearing clothing that, even though dirty, was still far nicer than anything else I saw.   

If I kept my head down, shut my mouth, and stared out of my peripheral vision, no one even gave me the time of day. People were talking, of course. But I still couldn’t understand them. However, I saw a woman with dark skin and pointed ears. She crouched next to a white dog with a bandage wrapped around its legs. The woman offered the bread she held to the pup, and his tail excitedly wagged as he chomped down on it. Then she walked away, and her canine friend was right beside her.   

Once they turned the corner, I rushed and pathetically picked up the dirty crumbs and stuffed my mouth. My stomach revolted against me, but I had to give it something. The nearby puddle of filth caught my attention, and yes, it was a bad idea...   

But that didn’t stop me from ferrying the disgusting water to my mouth. When someone said something, I looked to find a few people staring at me with a hint of pity. After nearly coughing up my lungs, I hurried to my feet and ran away as far and as fast as my tired, sore legs could take me. Near instantly, everything became blurry and foggy, and I lost my balance twice. After picking myself up the second time, I ran around the corner and froze solid in my sneakers.   

There was a naked girl with apricot-colored short hair and a pair of goat horns on her head. 

With her hands on her hip, she spoke to a fat man wearing a suit too small for his bloated gut. He held a document and an ink-covered quill, which he handed to the girl. She looked it over, signed it, and gave it back. Once the fat man’s eyes had scoured it over, he folded it, placed it in his coat pocket, and smiled a sinister snarl. They had a short conversation, but I couldn’t decipher their words. 

Those two were at the dead end of an alley behind a building. The man tapped the wall near them, which was a hidden door. Out came three skinny-looking men. One held a table and the other two boxes. After setting the desk down, they retrieved knives, whips, ropes, and chains from the containers and decorated the counter with tortuous instruments of pain. A fourth man with a brown sack emerged as the girl stared on with a face of dread. He gave it to the suit-wearing man. When he tauntingly jiggled it, I heard a bunch of coins bounce into each other.  

He placed it on the table, stepped back, and watched as the girl counted the coins. When the goat girl was satisfied, she tied a knot in the bag and placed it on the ground beside her. She nodded, closed her eyes, and clenched her teeth.  

Suddenly, and out of nowhere, the man swung his arm and slapped the girl across the face.    

“Geu!” she exclaimed after falling to the floor.    

One of the men grabbed the girl’s hair, forcing her to stand, then pressed her against the wall. The fat man said something while licking his lips while reaching for a whip with two tails. The girl yelped and flinched—crying in a miserable whine when the lightning-like snaps broke the disturbing atmosphere…   

With a steady hand, he whipped the girl until she had eight thick strips of exposed flesh running across her back. The rotten air did little to help. The blood streamed down her back and ass, trailing along her legs until pooling around her feet.     

“What the fuck?!” I whispered, feeling a metaphysical spear thrust through my heart.   

Did… Did she just sell herself to this fate? What the hell is going on?! 

The other guys just stood in silence and unassumingly watched the shit show. The girl screamed louder, but the large-gutted piece of shit cracked his knuckles and slipped a finger inside the pierced skin. Licking his lips, he used a hand to grab her by the neck, leaned in real close, and licked her cheeks before returning to the whip.    

When I took a step back, my feet kicked a rock. It wasn’t much, but I picked it up, turned the corner, and carefully aimed before throwing it. It thwacked the fat man in the head and drew blood. By the time he turned around, I was gone. 

I heard his frantic voice, however. He was shrieking and howling what I assumed to be an order.   

Nothing made sense, and once again, I rushed through this despicable area while avoiding everything I could. Eventually, I made it to a decrepit old shack near the city's outskirts, surrounded by long dead grass and even more trash. It was close to the towering silver walls, but this side was almost completely covered in paint and bird shit. Even if people were used to living in tents with tears and houses held together by string and depression, I didn’t think they would venture out here—a place where the awful smell was the worst.    

I need a place to stay, right? Even if it’s full of shit, it’s better than sleeping out in the open.  

Well, that was my thought process. I touched a hand to my unsettled stomach and walked through the literal dumpsite. I couldn’t go more than three steps without stepping through waste and garbage, which included the rotted carcasses of rats, mice, dogs, and cats. It looked like there were a few decaying corpses of babies or infants, which did very little to keep my stomach acid where it belonged. Even now, I felt the burn creeping up through my throat, the taste of bile infecting my teeth   

If there’s a limit to how much you can vomit, I should have reached it. Shit... I just want to lay down and sleep. I’m exhausted. I can’t even keep my eyes open...  

When I reached the shed, the door was barely hanging on by a hinge. Not wanting to make noise, I slipped through the gap and sat against a wall covered with bugs. There was just enough moonlight sprinkling from above that it wasn’t entirely dark. But bugs? Who could be bothered with them? I tried to close my eyes as the creepy crawlies slithered around my neck and cheek, but the sudden scream of a child forced me to stand up.   

Did I fall asleep? I looked through the hole in the room and realized the moon wasn’t there when it was before. Hearing another scream, I realized it came from this shed, which was larger than I thought. These feet of mine took very gentle steps while I investigated further and crept around the corner.   

There... I saw horror in its purest state.   

Two children—a boy and a girl— were forced to stand against the dirty wall. Both looked human enough, but they each had black cat ears on their head. The boy had two, but the girl just had one. The space where the other should have been was filled with glistening crimson dripping down her face. She was silently crying while trembling from the pain, and the boy was clenching his fists and glaring at the two criminals responsible for this heinous act. His brow was furrowed, and even his veins throbbed against his forehead.   

One of the men wore armor of the brightest silver, which had a large fish engraved on the back, and he had the mannerisms of a nervous wreck. He repeatedly shifted his weight while talking furiously to the man in black armor, free of engravings or identifiable markings. Both wore full helmets, yet only the latter held a weapon.   

He turned to his colleague and displayed a bloody knife and a mutilated ear. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but he seemed proud of his trophy. He even used the knife to make a hole in the middle, then pointed to his waist like he wanted to carry it around.   

Before I knew it, I was stepping back with my hands wrapped around my chest.   

I can just run right there, right? Leave through the door and find somewhere else? I don’t have to do anything... I don’t have too... I don’t... I don’t...  

“HEY! STOP THAT!!!!”   

Before I knew it, I rushed in and smacked the one with the knife– the guy in black armor– over the head with an iron pipe I found. He slammed into the wall above the children. The boy shouted something and took the girl’s arm, and they rushed out through an opening to the left. The man in the silver armor just watched them run—he didn’t even try to grab them. Instead, he turned to me and gazed at the bar I held. His helmet had small slits, so I couldn’t see his face or expression.   

The one I hit turned around and growled—his helmet was the same design. Without warning, the man plunged his dagger and pierced my heart. Almost immediately, the man wearing the silver armor grabbed the other man’s arms and shouted something, which led to an argument.   

“Gguh!!” Blood sputtered out my nose and mouth, and everything felt so cold.    

The two turned to me.   

I stumped back on my feet, the strength in my arms vanishing like the flickering of a light switch. My hands dropped the bar when I fell to the floor.   

The one who stabbed me brushed off the other man’s hand, then said something before lifting his foot and stomping on the dagger. It pushed in more and more until my heart was cleaved in two.   

Darkness clouded my eyes. As I lay on my side, I begged to the best of my ability, but I wasn’t even sure if I was talking. After saying something, the man in silver walked away, leaving me alone with my murderer.   

In my final moments, he removed the dagger, slit my throat, and watched as the remaining life vanished from my eyes.