Chapter One - It Begins
The black veil of the night sky lay think over the town, where the only thing that broke up its darkness was the millions and millions of bright stars hanging from its inky depth.
I lay here in my quite thinking spot, which is on a cliff on the edge of town that overlooks this town, It's also on the edge of a forest that during the day is beautiful, but at night becomes sinister.
Ever since being sucked into this place I have been coming here at night, because had I been in my own time and place this forest was deadly at night. I had always been warn to not come here at night, something about dark and evil legends to do with dark magic and death, but I never listened and then one night I came and I now I know that these legends are true and I wish I could go back and do as I had been told...
Would have saved me so much heart ache...
Now it's the day light that is feared here, I try to come during the day, but I'd stand out too much and standing out here can get you killed.
I am snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of twigs snapping, I tense and jump up reflexively and look towards the sound.
Since being here I have learned that while everything feels like it looks the same, it's actually a different time and place.
Darkness and evil win here, you have to kill first or be killed, and then there is the magic. Everyone wants power and they will take it if they think you're a threat.
I scan the forest and see a shadowy figure step out from the dark canopy of the trees and come to stand under the star light. I look over this figure and see that it is Jefferson, the young man that found me walking out of this very forest almost a year ago.
He, like me, came from another dimension or time and place and he helped me to understand this world, but unlike me, he didn't want to return to his time and place and thought I was mad to want to leave.
I admit it would be hard to give up what I know of magic and of this place, but I didn't want to kill to survive any more. I didn't want to have to listen to the screams of mostly women as they are taken against their will simply because that is what this place is about.
I relax a small amount, but stay on my guard as I didn't know what he was doing here tonight, he didn't normally come out at night time, well other than to drown every last drop of the local pubs ale and wine cellar.
"Are you up here brooding again?" he calls to me
"I never brood, I am thinking" I reply, shaking my head at him.
"Bowyn, you need to forget going back, you'll hurt more than you do here. Knowing what you know and not being able to even try to help, despite the fact that you know it won't help any" He shot back at me.
I shook my head and then ask "So what brought you out here?"
"I came to warn you that you might want to start to go to the town meetings as there are a few in the gathering town folk that suspect you are different. We don't want them to know you were different to them and that you don't want to actually be here and are totally a great guy." He replied.
Damn it! This isn't good, I didn't want them to know that I was actually good because the good didn't last here in this place. I can't tell you of the horrors I have had to participate in just to survive and how much I hate myself for it.
I do everything I can just to make it look like I am like everyone else here, but I guess I haven't done enough this time. I tell him that I promise to go to more of these meetings and I start to turn around when he adds
"Oh and one more thing, your presence at the next slave auction is compulsory and it is two nights from now. They want you to take a slave this time as they say you need to loosen up a bit" With that he fads back into the forest as if he was never here.
The trees sway gently in the breeze that suddenly blows and it makes them sound like they are sighing for me, I give my own sigh in return and start to make my way back to my house. It is nothing fancy, but it was abandoned before I got here and the town thought to give it to me as I was a little different even then.
It's a simple three story building, that sorta looks like a mini version of the Addams Family house. Inside there is a basement, ground floor, first floor and an attic space. To me this is four stories, but here the basements are not considered as a separate floor, but part of the ground floor for some reason.
The ground floor holds a living room, dining room, kitchen, small office area that also doubles as a library, this goes up to the roof and has access to the first floor and part of the attic space as well. There is also a room that serves as the entryway to the basement and it is sort of like a bathroom/ storage room all in one and the basement door locks itself after you go in or out of it.
I have only ever gone down here once and it's like a dungeon down there. I am sure this is where the previous owner of the house kept his or her slaves as there is a section of the basement that is sterile and has heaps of medical instruments and a bed with stirrups attached and a medical cot for babies...I can only guess at what half of the stuff is for, but I do know that it is ever man's duty to procreate with females and that this is actually a law here, this can be either from willing unions or forced unions and I am really not interested in forcing anyone to be with me.
The first floor is where the bedrooms are. There is 4 in total and only the master bedroom has a bathroom in it. The only other room on this level is another bathroom. The master bedroom also has a small balcony overlooking the front yard. Next to the stairs there is a door that leads to the library.
The attic space is simply one big room with a walk in wardrobe and a bathroom and the door that leads to the library that is usually locked for some reason I am still trying to figure out, but then again the door to the attic space has a lock on it too so im thinking that this is for unwilling guests.
I have done a lot to fix up this house, but the town mayor had to approve everything and all I could really do was just restore the building to its former glory and not change things like I wanted to. I wanted to change the basement into like a games/ rumpus/ man cave area, but that just earned me a funny look and I knew I had to keep it the way it was if I didn't want everyone to know I was actually a good person.
It's why I don't go to the Slave auctions and why I haven't taken anyone hostage or try to find ways of settling without bloodshed, not that those things have been easy to achieve though and I have had to use my basement for maiming someone who insulted me.
The garden at the back now grows quite well and I don't have to go into the market square to get any veggies now that my produce is quite plentiful, although I half suspect this is due to magic. A lot of the time I wonder if this house's last owner was a bit like me in the way there seems to be aspects to this house and its surrounding grounds that seem almost good and the bad side was only for show.
Like the fact that the basement didn't seem to have too many blood stains like other basements I have seen since being here.
Once I am safely inside and I make my way into my room, I head into the bathroom to take a shower and try to get some of the tension in my shoulders out so I can rest and sleep. See here in this place night and day are reversed and we sleep during the day, but I am still trying to get used to that for I have only been here a year.
As I get out of my clothes I try to remember home, my parents, my sister, my friends and my wife. What would they be doing? Did they think I was dead? Has my wife moved on? As I think I let my tears silently fall down my cheeks and be taken away by the warm water.
After I get out of the shower and make my way to the bed naked, I look up at the window and see that the sun has started to rise. I go over to it and close the heavy curtains and I climb into my massive four poster bed.
As I snuggle down for the day, I can't shake the feeling I have that something big is coming my way, that will change things for me here forever.
Chapter Two: Spinning on an Axis Point
I wake at night fall on the evening of the Slave Auction's. Last night I just stayed indoors after looking over my garden and doing some general house work. Who knew that a big house like this could get so dusty!
Again I heard screams coming from my neighbours' houses. I hate the screams... I really do, but there isn't a damn thing that I can do about it because I do not want to be either burned, maimed, torn apart, hung or all of the afore mentioned awful things. I have been witness to someone who tried to help save a female that was being abused after coming here had to go through, his only crime was being a good Samaritan.
That how things are here, the good deeds and kind hearts we take for granted just don't fly here. Everything that is legal in the world is actually illegal here. It's quite an adjustment let me tell you. I have been bashed not long after arriving here while asking where was I and laughed at when I tried to ask how to go back.
That is where Jefferson came to my rescue, well sort of. He lead me to the town meeting and help get me the house that is now mine and helped to introduce me to the ways of this dimension that is truly a living nightmare.
