Chapter Text
Sleep usually comes later than tonight. Usually 5 AM, around a few minutes before my parents wake up. Today was a rare time that I actually felt sleepy upon retiring to my bed. I didn't even go on Tumblr before my eyes started hurting!
I had slipped into sleep at an indeterminate time, probably before 12 at the least, and I didn't even wake up until what seemed early in the morning. Nothing looked off at all until I took in my surroundings.
A space full of other children, which was rocking back and forth.
My first thought is naturally that my fears of the dark where valid all along and I've been kidnapped. My second thought is that there's no way I slept past being carried out of my bed. The last thought of normalcy I have is that there is no way I'm on a ship because I would definitely have woken to an air horn when it went off.
My next thought is that normal humans do not have orange or yellow or pink or purple eyes, and the children around me has those eyes.
"Uh..." My voice sounded weird. Okay...this has to be some freak dream that I remember in weird detail. "Wher-" one of the other kids clamp a hand over my mouth. Okay, point taken, brain. This is definitely a nightmare. Why is it always the nightmares that have me remembering them?
But the longer I was there, everything felt realer. My surroundings didn't change even a bit, I could move and look around and nothing warped.
So it's real.
I somehow am inside an enclosed space full of children much younger and older than me, on a ship, with unnatural eye colors, and somehow did not get woken up in the events that took place before I got to this point.
I pride myself on having very low emotional responses to things, but right now I am so terrified I can't move.
Some of, if not all of, these children have families. I have a family. And we're on a ship. I'm afraid of being stuck in the air and the sea, it's why I hate airplanes.
What if we fucking sink?! No, scratch that, what if we get to where we need to be and are beat and raped or killed and have our organs sold?! All four???
My muscles hurt from the anxiety. I have to be the youngest out of the teens, at the very least. The oldest looks 17 at the most, the youngest is the age of my surrogate cousin, which is barely toddler aged. This is bad this is so bad!
One of the younger ones closest to me, half my age, shifted closer and put their teddy next to me. Whee they managed to hold onto it while they were being kidnapped I have no clue but I take it and hold it tightly.
No one speaks, but we're all scared. All of us have audible heartbeats, even the smaller ones don't make noise. I don't know how they managed to learn to not speak. I'm not sure I want to find out.
I don't even know how much time passed, I just know that by the time we seemed to have spent at least what must be a night in that crapped cage place, we are docked. No one has been fed, and as far as I can see, every single one of us 20 something children are severely malnourished. I'm used to this from having little to no concept of hunger, but the small children are definitely scaring me like this.
The girl who gave me the bear, who whispered that her name was Cassidy before a boy covered her mouth, did not let me give her the bear back. I didn't know why, but I clung to it. I'd checked that my bracelets and necklaces where on me, and thankfully my orange and black bracelet had been, but nothing else was. I didn't understand.
The thing that brought me out of terror, or maybe plunged me further into it, was the sound of men shouting in...English? No. No, it was not English, but I understood it like English. That hardly made sense. It could be Dutch, the languages are similar in written form. But that hardly meant anything.
Regardless the shouting men terrified everyone, especially when we felt our space being hosted by machines. Now that that has happened, I realized we were in a cargo container. Everyone who could still have energy to scream screamed. I was one of those who didn't have the energy, so I neglected to do so and instead hugged the bear to my person.
No one was heard over the machine. We were placed down on a dock likely.
Now with the noises around, the screamers started actually speaking.
Questions. Terrified siblings talking to eachother. Items exchanged. Cassidy was quiet beside me, probably following mine and a few others' examples. She even slid a hand in mine. I let her have it.
The door to the container opened roughly, like it had been retched off its hinges by something. In stepped men in black, holding guns. I couldn't even gather ethnicity from the faces because they were masked.
A voice spoke. It was harsh. I don't understand what was happening, but I got the feeling we had better listen, if the men weren't enough motivation.
"All of you, up!"
We obeyed. I stood shaky, making an effort not to fall. I hadn't stood in so long my eyes were clouding over with static, which was probably the case for others.
Shots rang out, everyone froze. I felt something fall out of my hand, and I felt something land on me. I did not look at what I was sure was the dead body of a young child next to me.
The consequences of not following an order was getting shot in sight. There's no way I'm making it out of this place without being injured.
"Children ages 10 to 17, follow me. The rest of you stay behind, you're of no use for us until the buyers get here." I immediately went along with the rest of the age group the voice had told to follow.
I didn't recognize anything. It looked...weirdly Asian. I can't be in Asia though. Probably. I don't even know how long I was in that container.
I managed to keep up with the back of the group. Thank God no one was running, I'd be shot dead already.
The voice we were following stopped. We were in an alleyway. Something itched in the base of my skull. It whispered at me to run. Every inch of me wanted to run.
I probably would comply if I had the faith in myself to evade these people and their guns.
We followed the person into a room and were spread out. I finally got a look at the person who brought us here. Blue hair, black eyes. Hunched over.
Unnatural all over. This entire thing is crazy.
I couldn't even get a glimpse of the room. So many people where there.
Before the man could speak, the sound of a door banging open was heard. No. It didn't bang open. It was destroyed.
In stepped a familiar group of three.
Oh. Oh you're fucking shitting me right now.
The man who had blown the door off did not get to speak before bullets ran down. The teen next to him stopped the bullets.
Okay. Okay that's the Black fucking Lizard. What the fuck.
Chaos quickly struck. The thing telling me to run was heeded. I ran out the way I came in, even though I had no sense of direction or anything else. I just ran.
Of course, the running did not last long. Things weren't flat here like in the state I live in.
I'm in BSD. Some-fucking-how I am in Bungou Stray Dogs. That made no sense. Science was not made to open fucking portals. So there's no fucking way this happened.
But everything feels real still. This is so insane. I still can't breathe right and I'm still holding the stuffed bear somehow.
I don't get that far into thinking before I hear running behind me. I hardly get to react before I'm pushed to the ground.
"Sorry about that, kid," A familiar voice. No...not a familiar voice? "Can't have someone escaping."
I struggle, I really try, but something horribly sharp stabs my neck and I am knocked unconscious.