Sera's POV
The chains are burning my skin.
I wake up screaming, but no sound comes out. My throat feels like I've swallowed broken glass. The metal around my wrists and ankles is hot not normal hot, but alive-hot, like it's drinking the heat from my body.
I can't remember my name.
I can't remember anything.
Panic hits me like a wave. I pull at the chains, but they don't budge. The room is dark except for thin lines of light coming through cracks in a heavy wooden door. Stone walls. Cold floor. The smell of earth and something else something that makes my skin crawl.
Help! I try to shout, but it comes out as a whisper. Someone help me!
A shadow moves in the corner of the room.
I freeze. My heart pounds so hard it hurts.
You're awake.
The voice is male, quiet, tired. A man steps into the thin light. He's tall with messy black hair and eyes so green they almost glow in the darkness. He looks exhausted, like he hasn't slept in weeks. Dark circles shadow his eyes. His clothes are simple a black shirt and jeans but there's something old-fashioned about the way he stands, like he's carrying invisible weight on his shoulders.
Who are you? My voice cracks. Where am I? Why am I chained up?
He doesn't come closer. Just watches me with those careful green eyes.
My name is Caspian, he says slowly, like he's talking to a scared animal. And you're safe here. I know it doesn't feel that way, but you are.
Safe? I yank at the chains again. They burn hotter. I gasp in pain. You chained me to a wall! Let me go!
I can't do that. He sounds genuinely sorry. Not yet.
Why not? Tears burn in my eyes. I hate that I'm crying in front of this stranger, but I can't stop. I don't understand what's happening. I can't remember anything. I don't even know my own name!
Something flashes across his face pain, maybe, or guilt.
Your name is Sera, he says softly.
Sera. The name feels right and wrong at the same time. Like wearing someone else's clothes that happen to fit.
How do you know my name when I don't? I demand.
Because I've been taking care of you, Caspian says. For a long time.
Taking care of me? I look at the chains. This is taking care of me?
Yes. He finally steps closer, and I see how young he is maybe early thirties. But his eyes look ancient. I know you're scared. I know you're angry. But the chains aren't to hurt you. They're to protect you.
Protect me from what?
From yourself.
The words hang in the air between us. I want to call him crazy, but something stops me. A feeling in my chest like a sleeping tiger that might wake up.
I'm not dangerous, I whisper.
You don't remember, Caspian says. But you are. Very dangerous.
That's insane! I'm just I stop. What am I? I don't know. I don't remember anything. I'm just a person!
No, he says quietly. You're not.
Anger explodes inside me. Hot and bright and overwhelming. Stop talking in riddles! Tell me what's going on or I swear I'll
Light erupts from my hands.
Pure, blinding white light that fills the entire room. It's coming from inside me, pouring out like water from a broken dam. The walls shake. Dust and small stones rain from the ceiling. I hear cracking sounds the stone breaking apart.
I'm doing this. Somehow, I'm doing this.
Sera, stop! Caspian's voice cuts through my panic.
But I don't know how to stop. The light keeps coming, brighter and brighter. The chains are glowing red-hot now, burning into my skin, but they're also doing something else absorbing the light, drinking it in.
Caspian runs to the wall and presses his hands against strange symbols carved into the stone. They start glowing blue. He whispers words in a language I don't understand old words that make the air vibrate.
The light pulls back into my body like its being sucked down a drain. The shaking stops. The room goes dark again except for the faint glow of the symbols.
I collapse against the wall, breathing hard. My wrists are smoking where the chains touched them, but the burns are already healing. I watch in horror as my skin knits itself back together.
What am I?
Caspian stands there, breathing just as hard as I am. His hands are shaking.
You see now? he asks sadly. That's why you need the chains. You could have brought down the entire fortress just now. You could have killed us both.
I stare at my hands. They look normal. Plain. Human.
But they're not.
What's happening to me? I whisper.
Caspian looks at me with something that might be pity. Or fear. Or both.
That's complicated, he says. And telling you everything at once could make things worse. Your mind isn't ready to remember.
Remember what?
He's quiet for a long moment. Then: Who you used to be. What you lost. Why they're hunting you.
My blood goes cold. Who's hunting me?
People who want you dead. He walks to the door. Or worse than dead. That's why I keep you here. That's why I use the chains. I'm trying to save your life, Sera, even if you hate me for it.
He pulls open the heavy door. Light from outside floods in, making me squint.
Wait! I call out. Don't leave me alone! Please! I need answers!
Caspian pauses in the doorway. For a moment, I think he'll turn around and tell me everything.
Instead, he says: Get some rest. I'll bring you food soon.
The door closes. I hear a heavy lock slide into place.
I'm alone in the dark again.
I pull my knees to my chest, chains rattling. Questions spin through my mind like a storm. Who am I really? What am I? Who's hunting me? And why does Caspian look at me like his heart is breaking?
But the biggest question the one that terrifies me most is this:
If I was dangerous enough to chain up and lock away, what happens when I remember everything?
What happens when the monster inside me wakes up completely?
And then I hear it.
A whisper in my own mind, in a voice that sounds like me but isn't me:
Soon, my dear. Very soon.
I'm not alone in my own head.
Something else is in here with me.
Something that's been waiting to wake up.