Altered Futures

Chapter 1 - Unloved

Thursday, January 5 --- 6:15a.m.

A shock woke Edward up. The electricity coursed through his body, alerting him of where he was: in the mansion of the person who had bought him.

His captor, as he now knew him, had green eyes and short chestnut hair. His skin was so pale, a sheet of printer paper barely looked any whiter. They were about the same height, give or take a few inches and he only looked a few years older than Edward.

It was no surprise he was freezing as normal. Sleeping without a blanket on the wood floor in the middle of winter did that to you. Goosebumps covered him from the cold. Like it had been for years, today would be another bad day. Not feeling good, he sighed and felt another powerful shock run through his body, worsening his mood.

I should have seen that coming.

Nightmares had become practically daily since the day he was kidnapped, so it was normal for him to have had another one. There were not many occasions where he would be able to slip into a dreamless sleep, but when he could, he enjoyed them.

Glancing at his body, Edward reflected on how much his physical appearance had changed over the last year. Since last December, he had become skinnier, his hair grew longer, his skin was dirtier and the clothes he wore were covered in stains, tears and holes. That was not surprising since they were the same clothes he had arrived in.

Pushing himself up reminded him how bitterly cold the floor was. Sticking out his hands, Edward prepared to have his hands and feet chained up as he had been every morning for the past year.

Forced to sleep on the floor, he had gotten used to the hard surface, but for the past fortnight, Edward had gotten sick from sleeping on the cold floor.

Trying not to show signs of sickness, such as coughing, was difficult but had to be done. If he let his guard down, even for a second, he was shocked repeatedly. To his captor, it was a sign of being weak and pathetic to give in to sickness, so he had to hide it the best he could. At least it seemed like his cold would be over any day now. 

After Edward was chained up, his captor grabbed the chain connecting his wrists and hauled him inside a dark closet along the hall and two doors down on the right. The room was so dark that he could barely see his fingers in front of him. As much as he knew what was coming, he dreaded hearing it.

Each day, after he woke up, headphones would be placed on his head. Strange voices played inside them. It lasted for about half an hour today, as usual.

"Pathetic," one voice echoed.

"Worthless," another chimed in.

"You're a nobody."

"No one likes you."

"You will never amount to anything besides a useless slave."

A variety of voices filled his head through the headphones. The words felt as sharp as daggers cutting into his flesh.

What if those voices are right? What if I really am trash? Why else would she have ignored me in high school? Why else would I have gotten the "Christmas present" that I did? Ha! Some present.

After half an hour had gone by of the various voices playing inside his head, the door opened and Edward came out, head hanging in sadness while the headphones were taken off by his captor.

Not much later, he felt a sneeze and fought to hold it in.

Come on Edward! You said your goal was to cough less than ten times. That counts sneezes too. You're failing already. Pathetic.