Only Once

Chapter One

Noise. That's what I heard. Not anything in particular. Not breathing. Not a heartbeat. Not people or wind. But noise. And that continued to be heard for what seemed like forever. I knew that I was alive, for I could feel my body moving. But I couldn't figure out how because I felt as though I was restricted. And then I realized that something was indeed, as I had thought, not right.

The noise became higher, louder, more rushed. It pounded against my ear drums and I wanted to feel myself wince. But I didn't, I couldn't. I continued in this state for another forever and was almost pushed to the edge before I felt something shift.

The shift snapped and broke the noise, breaking me along with it. The ringing noise moved in my ears before I felt it fade away. I relaxed slightly and began to hear myself breathe. My mind beginning to tell itself that it was okay. Everything turned hazy, and then, I woke up.

I awoke to the sound of grinding metal and rattling chains. I snapped my eyes open and felt my breath hitch in my chest. I coughed harshly in the musty air, moving to lean against something but only found myself falling onto the floor beneath me, cold metal hitting my face. Gasping at the impact, it only caused me to cough more.

I leaned upwards onto my elbows and looked around, noticing how dark it was. I pinpointed various things in the dark, such as crates of supplies, barrels, pens, and large amounts of mesh and cloth. I raised a brow before leaning up fully. I knelt onto the ground, listening. There was no sound. I didn't like that.

I started to get nervous, unsure of what was happening more than when I had woken up. Moving around and towards a corner of the room I was in, I placed my hands against the wall. And just in time too, as suddenly, the room gave a large groan before surging upwards.

I grabbed onto the wall and held myself in place as the room moved upwards, everything rattling in it's ascent. A light finally appeared above me, then passed me, and went down below as I went upwards. The light appeared again and continued as I ascended towards what must have to be the surface.

But as soon as the room began to move upwards, it's started to slow down. The rattling stopped and I could no longer hear anything except my quick breathing. Suddenly, a loud creak and a bang happened and light started to pour into the room from above me. It wasn't a sort of artificial light, it was sunlight.

Shielding my eyes with my arm, I squinted up at the surface, not sure of what to do. When shadows slowly shuffled forwards, I saw the outline of many, many shapes. They were all similar and I guessed them to be living. As my vision focused, I saw the hazy shapes begin to grow into human shapes.

Then a sound happened that I wasn't expecting; laughing. I raised a brow again before lowering my hand. A few shouts happened and I saw fingers pointing down towards me. One more shout happened and the laughing stopped.

A rope with a loop threw itself down and into the room I was in. I stepped back in surprise, tripping over it and stumbling into the wall behind me with a bang. The people above me burst into laughter, causing my cheeks to flush hot. Scowling slightly, I grabbing the rope and pulled myself up and out of the room. Standing up, I didn't realize that there were so many of them until I could see that they were all there.

But the strange thing was, there were just boys. I creased my eyebrows in confusion before opening my mouth to speak but was caught off guard by a dark skinned boy stepping towards me quite strongly. He looked intimidating. I didn't know why, but his whole image emitted anger.

I stepped back a little and waited. The boy obviously knew that he had gained the chance to speak as he did.

"'Name's Alby." He said in a low, rumbly voice.