Chapter One

Captive Upon Awakening

The cold was the first thing she felt.

Not the cold of the air, but the cold of her own skin. A bone-chilling cold that warned her that something was wrong.

She opened her lemon-colored eyes, but darkness surrounded her like an infinite shroud. There were no stars, no moon, nothing to give her a point of reference. Only shadows and a wind that brought her smells of stinking swamps and rotting leaves.

Lying on the damp earth, she felt the tickle of the grass sticking to her bare skin. She was wearing nothing and was all muddy from head to toe. She sat up with difficulty. Her muscles were numb, clumsy, as if they had not moved for too long.

She remembered nothing.

Not her name, not her origin, not her purpose.

She was just there.

The sound of the wind came to her in soft gusts, bringing with it the rustle of fluttering leaves.

A forest.

She was in a dark, damp forest. She could smell the dampness of rotting wood, the moss covering the logs, the soft earth and muddying her bare feet. But she couldn't see well. The shadows were dense, too dense, as if something in the atmosphere was devouring the light. The tops of those trees did not let any light from the sky into that place. The wind in that forest created sounds as if creatures were moving at high speed among the trees, like invisible genies in the middle of the hunt.

But there was no genie.

With fear she stood up and walked, crossing between huge gnarled roots and low branches of those trees which, in the semi-darkness and moved by the wind, seemed to her like the legs of a gigantic arachnid looking to catch her. Her muddy feet felt prickly from time to time and she began to hurt herself when she wanted to move forward at a faster pace. Branches scratched her body or got tangled in her long blonde hair, now totally stained with mud and dead leaves.

She didn't know how long she spent wandering among the trees but, at some point, she saw it.

She had reached a part of the forest where the thicket seemed to be thinner and a pale light was filtering through the branches.

She stepped out of the forest and the cool night breeze embraced her body. The pale moon was high in the sky and shreds of clouds moved with impossible speed across the sky.

Before her stretched a green plain of tall grasses. It was a contrast to the appearance of the sickly forest from which she had come. The grass was waving in the night wind, but it felt different from where she had been until then. No, it seemed different, but the uneasy feeling was still there.

She was thirsty and her stomach was growling. She thought about looking for something to eat in the forest but, as she was about to look for something, she felt for the first time a different chill. A bestial roar spread from the forest thicket. It was not a good idea to go back into that place.

The girl moved away with a hesitant step, but soon began to run between those plains of soft hills, away from the forest. She didn't know why, but something inside her had told her that if she went back into the forest she would never come out again.

She looked up at the sky. Stars were peeking through the clouds, but she didn't recognize them.

There was something inside her that told her she should, but she could not.

Moon.

The moon.

She didn't know why, but the concept that that pale light in the sky was the moon was in her mind. She couldn't tell where the idea came from, but somehow the idea was in her mind.

That was a moon like a gigantic wedge of cheese.

Cheese. Where did she know that from? Food. Hunger. It was better not to think about it at that moment. And trying to keep food from her thoughts, she took a better look at the place.

How beautiful was that plain of soft hills, but at the same time how uneasy it made her feel. The place invited anyone to lie down on the grass and rest, but she knew for some reason that she could not. It was not natural. It was not normal. The dark forest, that could hide any creature, and the sensation of feeling at the same time naked of any predator in those glades, which she was now walking through, was the sensation that both landscapes were the same, even though they looked different. That place might seem pleasant, but it made her uneasy.

She did not know how much time passed, but the moon had begun to descend from its zenith and began to draw longer shadows when she finally saw it.

A structure rising in the distance, amidst the distant low mist of the nearby mountains. Something she had thought was a mountain with a sharp peak, but now the moon showed it in its true form.

Impossible geometry in the middle of nature. Too perfect.

A pyramid. Geometry.

Another idea. Another concept that she knew without knowing why, but she knew that it was a pyramid.

Its silhouette was outlined against the sky.

She started to head towards it, but she knew it must be very far away. Maybe more than five kilometers.

Kilometers. Distance. Another concept.

As she approached, that colossal structure had emerged in its entirety before her eyes.

It was not just a pyramid, it was an entire complex. It had a ruined road with huge slabs that had begun at least a kilometer before reaching the place. She walked and walked, feeling that time was lengthening as she advanced. Had it been hours? Minutes maybe?

The girl examined the road in the pale semi-darkness. It had several columns on its sides in different states of deterioration. Finally she reached the first structures closest to the pyramid. Then followed a huge square with destroyed marble slabs, in which sculptures were displayed as deteriorated as the rest of the place.

There were marble colossus destroyed there, but with the curiosity that inside them there were also marble organs and, even, a whole skeleton. Almost as if at some point they had been petrified in that place and then collapse.

A bit afar a bronze winged horse on a pedestal, with children trying to climb on its back, was the first sculpture she came across. She approached and examined it, it was fabricated almost as if it had been a real scene, petrified in time, despite its visible deterioration. On the pedestal she discovered several engravings with Roman letters. But it was not the only thing she recognized, in the engravings on the interior walls of that square there were also columns, friezes in which appeared carved other letters in a language she knew, although there were others that she had never seen, nor could she say how she knew them.

More ideas and concepts that she knew without knowing how. A horse, children, sculpture, engravings, letters. Language. The ideas exploded in her brain like sparks, as the concepts appeared in her mind.

The second sculpture was totally different and it took her some time to recognize it. It was an elephant of enormous size carrying an obelisk on its back. But something also told her that it was quite different from an elephant. Its legs at the base were as thin as tree twigs and then began to widen. It was the height that was strange. Those thin legs held the elephant at least 30 meters off the ground. On either side of that elephant on the ground were two other sculptures of a life-size nude man and woman with crowns, standing on what appeared to be sarcophagi. There were two other elephants further away in the complex and also surrounded by sculptures.

On both sides of the square she could see other sculptures of smaller size, but all different, as if there was some kind of message in that place.

She advanced to the end of the square and reached the foot of the stairs that led to the pyramid. Then, climbing some steps, she reached a huge esplanade that rose several meters and got a better view of that place and the way she had come. That pyramid was the size of a mountain. She could estimate that at least almost a kilometer long on each side, taking as a reference the two mountains of almost the same size on both sides. And at the top was an obelisk. She was surprised to look at the top of the obelisk, there was a sculpture of what appeared to be a woman at the top, but the shadows of the moon prevented her from seeing the exact details.

She stopped before a huge door that must have measured at least a stadium, with two pairs of columns on both sides, frieze and architrave, and which was richly decorated with motifs that she somehow knew she should recognize, although she could not tell how, or where she had seen them before. The whole of that part was in contrast to the pyramidal structure. Something told her that that door and columns should not be there. It was as if they had been the motifs of two different things. Some decorations seemed in keeping with the style, while others almost seemed as if it was an organic motif that had been petrified in that place.

That huge door was barely ajar and she stepped inside.

She was cold to the touch of her feet on the marble, but at least the cool night wind had stopped blowing in that place, yet it was so dark that she could hardly get an idea of how big it could be.

The chattering of her teeth echoed, so she could tell that the interior must be huge.

As she got closer and her eyes seemed to adjust to the darkness, details began to emerge. A huge hall with columns that were lost in the distance amidst condensing fog that had a faint glow. A grand staircase stretched up and up until it was lost in the height. More marble and more shattered stone inside as well. It was not smooth stone, but covered with engravings, symbols that seemed to move with the flicker of the breeze through the crack in the door. Some forgotten language. Some warning that could no longer be read.

It was at that moment that she heard something far away.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

It was a voice, it sounded more like a whistle, a bird's hoot, or maybe it was all of them at the same time. But something also alerted her to the fact that the sound had something familiar about it. A song? Was there someone singing in that place? It sounded like a female voice, but that could well have been her impression, or perhaps the wind travelling through tunnels inside the structure.

She hesitantly approached the place where the sound seemed to be coming from.

The access was a dark opening in the side, a crack in the structure that invited her to enter. The thought of doing so turned her stomach, a strange stench was seeping in, but the cold was also much less. She was afraid, but maybe she could find something to keep her warm and to eat.

But her feet did not stop.

Her footsteps echoed inside the pyramid before she entered the crevice and discovered that the crevice itself was a corridor that had been carved with rich engraving. At some point the entrance must have been destroyed, giving it the appearance of being more damage to the walls of the structure, rather than the entrance to other rooms of the site. The air was thick, laden with a musty, ancient aroma. Moisture dripped from the walls, but the temperature seemed less cold with each step.

She discovered the stairs at the end of a corridor. They descended in a straight line, plunging into the gloom.

She went down.

One, two, three steps... twenty, thirty, seventy, maybe more.

Finally, the darkness opened into a wide hall. Her eyes had by now become accustomed to the darkness and she could vaguely make out the outlines. The walls were covered with inscriptions carved in stone and columns spaced throughout. But what caught her attention were the round-shaped pools in the centre of the enclosure. There were four of them, each at least five or six metres in diameter, and the water was so black that it reflected nothing.

She didn't know why, but the emptiness of the water disturbed her more than the pyramid itself. But she was thirsty.

She took a step towards them.

She approached and knelt down. She stretched out a hand. She could barely see, but those waters seemed crystal clear and pure. But the black colour came from the walls of the pools themselves, which appeared to be volcanic rock.

The girl took the water in her hands and drank avidly. She drank and drank until her thirst was quenched. It seemed a long time since she had tasted water.

The water wasn't cold either, it wasn't hot, but it was warmer. Sitting down on the edge she sank her legs in, feeling the warmth return to her numb limbs after a couple of minutes. Then she wiped her body a little. And then, holding on to the edge, she went into the water, but came out quickly, sitting on the edge. She had wet her whole body, but she had found that she could not stand in that pool. Who knew how deep it was. That abyss was as dark as when she tried to delve into her memories and recollections.

And she thought. What am I doing here? Who am I?

As she wondered, she thought she heard a sound nearby in the waters of the adjacent pool. It had been the sound of something crawling out and then entering the water of the pool where she was. The girl shivered and looked up in fright. She couldn't see anything, but she knew it wasn't her imagination. Something was with her there. Slowly, she tried to pull her leg out of the water. And then, something emerged on the other side of the pool. Right where she had heard that sound of something coming in.

First a hand.

Then an arm, with webbed fingers.

Then a body.

It was a creature with a humanoid shape but strange, different, an amalgam.

Then that creature sang. It sang in such a melodious voice that the girl felt as if she were intoxicated by it. She felt her strength leave her.

The creature moved across the water towards her. Two turquoise eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness.

The creature reached her, keeping half of its body submerged in the water.

Before she could react, bony fingers closed over her face. The arms seemed much longer, and they had caught her head.

She felt their icy touch.

She felt the pressure.

She felt the creature push her into the water.

The liquid swallowed her whole. She was being plunged into the warm water, but those hands were cold as death.

She wanted to scream, but the water filled her mouth, her nose, her lungs. She kicked, struggled, but there was no escape. Darkness enveloped her, cold and absolute.

She felt like she was dying.

And then…

She woke up.

***

Water sliding down her skin.

It was the first thing she felt.

A fine, icy rain hitting her bare skin.

She opened her eyes.

She was no longer in the pyramid.

She was in the middle of a vast meadow, covered with sodden grass. The storm was falling in fine threads, creating puddles in the dirt all around her. The night sky was a moonless, starless grey. There were no ruins. There was no forest.

Just her in the meadow and the rain.

She sat up slowly. Her bare skin burned with the touch of the wind, and her body trembled beyond her control.

In the distance, a glow. Soon it was two floodlights approaching.

The roar of an engine pierced the night, and soon, the two beams of light from a vehicle blinded her. The vehicle stopped.

Shadows moved in front of the glare.

Men. Voices.

She felt the urge to run, but her muscles were still clumsy.

"Miss, are you all right?" She didn't know how, but she recognised that language from somewhere. A slightly stilted… English.

One of the men approached and through the blinding lights she recognised a shape one of them held in one hand. A gun. It looked like a gun. It had to be. Another man approached. He carried a syringe.

"Quickly! Catch her!!"

The two men lunged at her. She struggled and kicked, but an arm grabbed the back of her neck and pinned her down.

A needle in her neck.

A hot sting ran through her body.

The arms released her and she broke free and tried to make a run for it, which ended after a few yards. She fell to her knees. The world tilted around her, lights danced in an impossible pattern. She was dizzy and losing her strength as the world seemed to spin.

The shadows spoke. Their voices came muffled, as if she heard them from the bottom of the water.

"It is just as the prophetesses said."

And then, darkness again.

***

Darkness again.

But this time it wasn't the same.

It was not the infinite blackness of the black water, nor the starless night in the meadow. It was a physical, dense, oppressive darkness.

Something covered her eyes. She had been blindfolded.

She tried to move, but something was holding her body. She was handcuffed and lying on her side.

Her mouth. She couldn't move her mouth properly, there was something holding her jaw tightly. A taste of leather and metal in her mouth. Whatever it was, it kept her mouth sealed, preventing her from speaking, screaming... biting. It was like a muzzle placed on an animal's mouth.

Her body was immobile, not only because she was restrained, but because her muscles were not yet fully responsive. The cold sensation had returned, but now it was different: heavy, stale air, smelling of sweat, metal and something else... oil? Where did she recognise those smells from?

Doors slamming. Muffled voices.

She heard them all around her.

Men speaking in low tones, exchanging orders quickly and efficiently.

She didn't understand the words at first, but after a few minutes her brain began to make sense of them.

It was German. She recognised it, though she had no idea how. She opened her eyes under the blindfold, seeing nothing. She sharpened his hearing.

"...get her out of Londonderry as soon as possible. We're going back to our mission."

"The submarine is ready."

"Careful. We don't know what the hell it is yet."

"The prophetesses got it right again... it must be one of these, if the warnings said to be careful of her voice." The girl heard a rustling of fingers on paper.

"Let's get her to the submarine, so we can get away from the coast before dawn," said a third voice. The sound of a vehicle's engine echoed around her. She was on the move, being transported.

Londonderry. A place, a location. She didn't know how but she knew that name and she could place it. Northern Ireland.

Londonderry. The word stuck in her mind, though it didn't evoke memories.

Doors slammed again. Two people were with her and the vehicle started. She felt the swaying of the car, the tyres squelching on the wet ground. She was lying on a hard surface, perhaps a stretcher, perhaps a box. Her body was weak, but her mind was clearing.

Soon after, the vehicle stopped. Doors slammed.

New voices. Footsteps on wood. The smell of salt, of rust, of the sea. Orders. A door opened and she felt hands grabbing her arms as she was being shaken and dragged along.

She was being lifted aboard something.

A low hum, a dull roar, constant vibrations.

A submarine, one of the voices had said. Submarine? She knew that from somewhere. Some kind of vehicle used for hunting animals? Or was it some kind of vehicle for going underwater? Or both at the same time? Whatever it was, the smell of the sea told her something else and so did the snatches of conversation she had heard.

She was being taken out of Northern Ireland by sea. Taking her away. Taking her to... Germany? The name of it spoke to her, but she couldn't quite remember it. A country? Yes, it was a country. Just like Ireland.

Different places. Same continent.

She didn't know how, but she understood. She had been caught. She was captive and they were taking her away.

***

The trip was long.

She woke up between hours, dizzy and frightened, but she knew she was not on dry land. She was being taken by sea to somewhere in Germany.

She was still blindfolded, handcuffed, but now she was sitting on a chair bolted to the floor.

Something covered her nakedness but she could not tell what it was. Some kind of thin cloth, a sheet perhaps?

She felt the hours pass in the gloom, barely conscious, as the submarine slid beneath the surface of the ocean.

She could not see, but she could hear.

Men moving through the narrow corridors, the sound of water lapping against the hull, the short, cold orders. Military, perhaps? No, sailors more like.

Every once in a while, someone would come up to feed her.

She was forced to open her mouth with a kind of mechanism in that muzzle that barely opened her mouth, pushing a thick liquid down her throat. She was not allowed to refuse it. She could do nothing but swallow with that thing that had been put in her mouth. It was a kind of thick soup? It seemed so to her, she detected some vegetable flavors and what could be mashed potatoes mixed in, but she couldn't be sure.

She could feel that she was constantly being watched.

They waited. They watched.

They knew she wasn't normal.

They knew she was something else.

***

At some point, voices with a different tone had approached. Those voices felt much light than those giving the orders.

And those voices had made a decision.

"We should remove it, just for a second," one of them said.

A few seconds of silence.

"Are you sure?" asked another. "We're going to get in trouble if we get caught."

"We can't get to her like this. We have to see her face. I'm telling you, those SS bastards want to keep her for themselves."

"We're going to get in trouble. I'm telling you."

"Just a moment. Don't tell me she doesn't catch your eye. Look at her."

She felt a hand caressing her breast and tried to move in fright.

"She's beautiful, for be one of them."

More hands touched her still naked body barely covered. She struggled desperately, even though she could barely move.

Doubts. Murmurs. Then approval.

More footsteps approaching.

Someone unbuckled the straps from her face and removed the blindfold from her eyes first. Then the muzzle.

The leather loosened. The metal separated from her skin.

She took a deep breath for the first time in days.

It was a group of five men, all of them young and variously dressed, some in blue sailor uniform, others in wool jackets and shirts.

The five sailors stared at her as if surprised.

"She's... beautiful," said one of them, the only one wearing a woollen beret.

"Hello, elf! What's your name?" asked one of them, bringing his face close to hers. That was the voice that had proposed to have fun with her in the first place.

She felt an anger grow inside her and furrowed her brow. She didn't know how, but she knew what she had to do at that moment. Her lime-colored eyes were fixed on those men and her pointed ears stuck to her skull with an almost animalistic movement.

And then, she screamed.

It was not a human scream.

It was not a sound of terror, nor of rage.

It was a pure vibration, a sonic blast that shook the air like a physical blow. The whole place reverberated and that attack spread into the bowels of the submarine.

The closest sailors had no chance to react. Before they could even react, they were dead.

Their bodies exploded from inside out.

Blood, flesh and bones splattered on the metal walls of the submarine. The clothes of those Kriegsmarine sailors had been dyed red and scattered like their owners. Drops of blood, pieces of jaw, gray matter, bones and entrails, which had stuck to the walls, fell to the floor.

She looked at the scene not understanding at first, but then she comprehended. She had killed them. Her mouth burned, her throat felt dry and was stained with blood from the explosion.

Alarms began to sound throughout the ship.

Shouts and orders filled the narrow corridor.

The sound of hurried footsteps.

More soldiers. All of them bleeding from their ears or noses, they rushed into the small room to find the Dantesque spectacle.

An order.

Gunshots.

The impact of the bullets penetrated her body. She felt the burning on her skin, the force of the bullets piercing her flesh.

But something inside her barely registered it.

Another soldier lunged at her and, with the butt of his rifle, brutally struck her head.

The world spun.

"Put her to sleep before she regenerates! If she screams like that again she'll kill us all at this pressure!!!" someone shouted.

Red alarm lights flashed in her blurred vision.

The last thing she heard, before she faded away, was a hate-filled scream: "You, fucking monster!"

Then, another butt of the gun to her forehead.

And then, blackness again.

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