The Red String Thickens

Sophia found herself in a familiar darkness again. The red string was right in front of her this time. It seemed to have grown thicker since the last time again. Without hesitation she picked it up and followed it. The same portal of light appeared shortly after and she went through.

The first thing she saw was the familiar cell. Sophia was again a passenger in a young Kieran’s body. She felt the pain coursing through his body and noticed that more inscriptions were on his body than last time. Young Kieran suddenly looked up. Someone stepped up to the cell door. It was one of the hooded figures Sophia had seen so often in his dreams. It opened the door, came inside and pulled the hood back. The face of a young man with brown hair appeared. There was something strange in the look he stared at young Kieran. Something that invoked fear in Sophia. The man came closer and said something that she could not understand. Young Kieran put his right arm out to the side on the wall. The man kicked against it without warning, breaking the ulna and radius in the middle. Young Kieran screamed as he looked at his broken arm, with one of the bones slightly sticking out a profusely bleeding wound. Sophia felt the pain with him. A inscription began to glow and the broken arm slowly repaired itself. It didn’t take long and the bone was back in place, and the wound had closed up. The pain was still there. Young Kieran’s hair was grabbed and his face turned. The man, hovering over him, smiled wickedly as he cocked back his right arm. Sophia noticed something shiny around the knuckles before they got buried in young Kieran’s face. Sophia felt two impacts, one in front and the other in the back, then her vision went black and she heard someone laugh.

Sophia saw a castle in the distance. It was night and a huge battle was raging in the small town around it. A lot of buildings were on fire and soldiers fighting in the street could be seen from the small hill young Kieran was standing on. He looked to the left and Sophia saw three hooded figures next to him. One of them extended his arm in the direction of the castle.

“Kill the lord of the castle!” a cold voice rung in Sophia’s mind.

Young Kieran began to move without hesitation, and he sped down the small hill. The next Sophia saw was a middle-aged man in plate armor under her, bleeding from his joints and his throat. The Visor was open and his face frozen in shock. Young Kieran stood up and looked around. Sophia saw that he was in a great hall and a dozen knights were on the floor around him, lying in a puddle of their own blood. Young Kieran jerked around as a group of lightly armored soldiers with crossbows came through the door. Somebody cursed and screamed and they took aim. Young Kieran rushed towards them, a longsword in hand. They fired. Sophia only saw a flash of steel and then blurred motion. As her vision became clear again, she was behind the group of crossbowmen, who had fallen to the floor with gushing wounds. Young Kieran looked down at himself and Sophia saw two bolts stuck in his stomach and one in his leg. Her vision went black.

Sophia was back in the cell as young Kieran again. A few more inscriptions seemed to have been added to his body from what she could tell. Young Kieran looked up as one of the hooded figures stepped towards the cell door, opened it and came inside. The face of a woman with black hair appeared from under the hood. Her brown eyes were full of lust and excitement. She said something that Sophia didn’t understand and young Kieran got to his knees. The woman stepped closer, grabbed him by the hair and forced his face upwards. She looked down with an expression of superiority and spat into young Kieran’s face. The woman then lifted her robe up and said something. Sophia could feel the mark react and watched with disgust as he was forced to pleasure that woman in various ways.

Suddenly Sophia found herself alone in the cell again. She still was in young Kieran’s body. Time had gone by, since some new inscriptions were visible. A hooded figure appeared at the cell door again. Sophia could feel the fear rising in him. The hooded figure pulled his hood off, without coming into the cell. Sophia was surprised to find the face from the person was strangely distorted, so she could not make out any feature, besides one golden blond lock of hair that dangled down to the right of the strange distortion. Judging from the build of her physique it was a woman. She crouched down and shoved a bowl into the cell. Young Kieran got closer. It was some kind of stew. Young Kieran immediately sat down and began to wolf down the food. The blonde woman with the distorted face just sat there and watched him. After he had finished, she reached slowly through the cell bars and took the bowl out of young Kieran’s hand, touching him seemingly by accident. Sophia heard a strangely distorted giggle. She felt that something about that woman was off, and it wasn’t just the distortion. Sophia felt deeply uncomfortable and distrustful of her. Young Kieran did not share this feeling. On the contrary, she could feel warmth rising in him, that was not only from the stew. The woman put her finger in front of where her lips were supposed to be and then vanish into the darkness.

Sophia then began to see more of these scenes after another. In some she was over the body of a dead man or woman. In most of them she was in the familiar cell and had to watch through young Kieran’s eye as he was used as a punching bag or for pleasure, and sometimes both. The perpetrators were women and men in various combination of numbers and activities, but their faces were always visible. Unlike the woman with the golden blonde lock. Her face was always distorted, and she never came into young Kieran’s cell. She only brought something to eat and watched him for a while. Sometimes she would reach through the bars and touch him slightly on the cheek or gently patted his head. But for a strange and unknown reason, Sophia dreaded the scenes with her more than the others. Young Kieran on the other hand, did not. She could feel the warm feeling in him rising every time he saw her, even if the food she brought was cold.

Sophia watched countless of those scenes and noticed more inscriptions being added on Kieran’s body. Until it looked like they were all over him. This was when something irregular happened. The woman with the golden blonde lock and the distorted face appeared at the cell door and opened it with nervously shaking fingers.

“Quick! Come with me. I’ll get you out of here,” she said with a strangely distorted voice and held out her hand.