Chapter 17 Rainbow Hell

I woke up suddenly. Everything was blurry in front of my eyes.

My first thought was "what the hell," and the second was the same, but with three exclamation points.

I wanted to call Vesta's name, but found my body stiffening.

Again, my eyes were a kaleidoscope.

I was in some kind of empty and gray room, my hands behind the back of a chair were chained, as were my legs.

Just amazing, and where am I, a bride kidnapping show? Doesn't look like it, and I don't look like a bride either. Oh, my God, why is the light coming out like a snake?

"Ha-ha!"

Damn it! Why did I laugh? Where's Vesta?

The widest smile spread across my face.

Examined myself. It felt like my eyesight was failing me at times, and I wasn't seeing the interior and my clothes, but some murky water of different colors.

Abruptly, I sobered up. The smile froze. My body was still wooden, but it seemed to be yielding. Started to move it.

To no avail.

However, the sound of the chains seemed to be heard and someone came into the room. I couldn't see who.

After all, that strange light was blocking almost my entire view, and the person seemed to be a silhouette.

I tried to use the fire, to let my rage flow, but... it was as if it had been cut off. My pupils narrowed sharply.

My curse.

My power.

It just... disappeared?

It couldn't be.

As the large silhouette drew closer, I tried to make contact with my inner world and pull the green tongue of flame outward from there.

And...failed.

The man approached, leaned over, pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, shining it into my eyes.

"How many fingers am I showing?" he asked. "You better answer honestly, you're poisoned and I'm trying to help," he added, as if to be convincing.

But I knew this wasn't a wizard from a good fairy tale, and that this one clearly had sharp teeth and... dirty hands, soiled with something sleepy. Or not his, but his friend's.

Specifically here, however, it's best to answer honestly. There's no telling what...

I looked closely at his hand, rattling the chains to see if he reacted-zero, like a butcher looking at a carcass.

I try to open my mouth and say something, but my throat goes into a violent cough. The figure doesn't even move away from me, continuing to stare at my face.

His hand... it's something else. It's like someone opened some kind of distortion in that place. I saw as if that one disappeared into some black dot. And that's it.

"Nah... I see..."

He frowned.

"What do you mean? "

"Black... all b-black..."

It seemed to me that he recoiled a little.

"Indeed, too much..." he said more to himself than to me.

It looked like I was drugged with something, but... with what!

I grinned again.

"Why are you smiling? - I guess the good-looking game was over.

"U-uncle, uh... where are... we?"

There was only silence in response. He straightened up, turned around and started to walk away.

On the way out, he turned around and said....

"I'll come back tomorrow."

Bastard, you're messing with me, aren't you? But why?

I can't think straight. My head's a mess.

It used to hurt, now it's just empty.

What's next?

Sitting on the chair, I started looking around with my cloudy gaze, trying to look inside myself and connect with the fire in general.

I felt that my body seemed to be mine, but every now and then some muscle would let me down while moving.

It didn't feel slowed down or accelerated at all, but... as if my perception of the world, my vision, had just been turned upside down.

A little while later, my vision recovered a little bit. At least I now didn't feel like I was inhabiting a painting of colors.

At some point, feeling frustrated at the futility of my attempts, tapped the floor with my foot.

It was strange, but I saw a sound... no... no kidding. A small triangle of gray color, like smoke, started floating upwards.

Opening my mouth in surprise, I tried it again... ten times. It turned out that the different sound affected the very appearance of these figures. Louder - a clearer picture, quieter - a more ephemeral appearance. 

A lot of triangles were rising into the air, and at some point just dissolved into the air.

It was a very stunning sight.

"Oh..." I couldn't even hold back a sigh.

Surprisingly, all around me, I saw green notes rushing forward. They soon swirled somewhere in the air, and then also disappeared.

The scene was simply magical.

It even seemed to me that as I looked at those notes, I began to drown in them.

So long and agonizingly time passed.

Tomorrow, as promised, that "uncle" came back. I was already feeling much better. At least the distorted perception of my surroundings was gone, and I was in control of my body.

Of course, my head was still empty, I felt as if my head weighed nothing, as if it didn't exist.

That was the reason I couldn't summon the flame.

He came back with a syringe dispenser filled with something yellow.

I don't know what it is, but it's... scary. It was one of the rare times I was scared.

"H-hey! What's that?" I asked, pointing to the key.

The man ignored me, quickly walked over, turned his hand and thrust the tool in.

The man pressed the tongue, and I instantly felt my veins feel like they were on fire, which began to rise up my arm, traveling all the way into my body.

That would have been all right, but... it's not my green flame! It's something strange and nasty and low.

"This? Nothing, the goods don't need to know," he said, pulling away and starting to walk away.

"You'll be fed later."

Goods? Me? The product?

If my flame had been with me, there would probably be a new branch of hell here by now.

A feeling of euphoria swept over me, but... ouch... why does it... hurt so much? No, it doesn't... the light in the room became incredibly bright, beginning to burn me.

It was as if I was a demon, chained to the floor and being burned by holy light for my existence.

A soft tingling sensation engulfed every inch of my body. The rage bubbling inside me mixed with suspicion, doubt, despair, and hatred swirled inside, shielding me from the light.

It was as if light and darkness were fighting a battle for my existence, even though I knew it was just the effect of the drug.

The funny thing was, my body even kind of liked it.

I, through this hell, was trying to call out to my curse to release me from this place with its unholy power.

At this point my vision began to blur. A drowsiness began to come over me.

"You bastards! I'll get you all!..." - I lost consciousness.

After falling asleep, I didn't fall asleep. That's weird, too. That's probably how Alice felt when she fell down the endlessly long rabbit hole.

I could see that my body had fallen asleep, and I myself pitched forward as my head began to lurch forward.

Falling, seemingly on the floor, I saw that it was covered with countless cracks and shattered. As if it were glass.

Surprisingly, I began to fall deeper.

The blackness below beckoned and called, inviting me on a new journey.

All I could do was fall down. Looking around, I see my memories intermingled with beautiful patterns and an incredibly bizarre landscape.