Everything ached. More so than I had ever felt in my life. The taste of salt attacked my tongue and the water it was in swished around me violently until I was thrown against something hard. My chest felt as though it was burning with a sudden deep breath that had surged down my throat and into my lungs. While it hurt, a sense of relief swept across me and my muscles relaxed slightly. But I knew I couldn't stop, the crash of the ocean's clingy waves kept hitting at my legs as I scrambled across the hard and unsteady ground. I couldn't open my eyes without them stinging and I felt exhausted.
I didn't stop crawling until I felt something soft and familiar under my palms, grass. With the last bit of energy that I had, I lifted my had and squinted in an attempt to see through blurred vision. All I could see around me was a green and brown haze with nothing that stood out for me to recognise. I let my head fall to the ground and took another deep breath starting to feel dizzy. Everything seemed to distance itself. I was incredibly vulnerable but I was unable to stay conscious. My mind drifted away from my body and, soon, the hurting stopped.
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Marna!"
The song rang through my ears and warmth wrapped me in its arms. A smile grew widely across my face and everything felt calmer. A flicker of light caught my eyes and I could recognise them as candles on top of a cake. The melody was being badly sung by a group of people not too far from me in the low light but I just couldn't make them out. My concentration wasn't holding up and my vision seemed worse than before. They were familiar, the sort of familiarity that makes you feel safe. I wanted to reach out and grip them, to laugh and cheer like they were. But I was unable to move. They were soon becoming quiet and I felt I had no control in whether they could stay or not.
"Do you- Do you think she's dead?" A voice emerged and startled me.
"Don't be stupid, her chest is moving. Means she's breathing you numpty," a second one stated sarcastically. Both boys, Christ.
"Ol right no need to be snappy, peabrain."
Neither of them sounded similar to people I knew, which made me nervous, and I wasn't sure where to put myself. After a few minutes and more of the strangers bickering, I decided to act as though I had just woken up. I twitched my legs and stirred, quickly realising I wasn't in the same place I had passed out.
"Oh my god! She's waking up, we've got to get Pan!" One of them shouted as I blinked my eyes open.
I felt light headed and the bright sun that burned in the sky blinded me momentarily as they turned around, so I was only able to catch what they looked like from the back. For what I could see, they looked young. Too young. My head seemed to pound louder than my thoughts however, meaning I soon forgot what they even looked like at all.
Propping myself up to rest on my arms, I sat on the side of my hip and tried to take in my surroundings. I was in a wooden cage, with no apparent way out, and it made me feel claustrophobic. I hate small spaces. Trying to squeeze through them or sitting in them make me feel entirely uneasy and sick. A different part of my brain hurt when I thought of that, like a memory trying to pry its way to the surface.
The humidity did not help my churning stomach either. Maybe if I was in the shade or a some water it would have been better. But stuck in a small box-like cage with no breeze and a cloudless sky meant the sun could focus directly on my exposed skin through the bars. The air was thick and heavy, causing sweat to roll down my forehead in beads. I couldn't image what kind of state I looked in.
Outside of the tiny jail seemed to be an endless maze of forest, with the hint of suspiciously vibrant plants. I felt a sense of fear set on my chest as I tried to hold back tears welling in my eyes. Attempting to get rid of the lump in my throat, I swallowed forcibly which proved difficult with how dry my mouth was. I didn't know what to do other than panic, really. I was lost, with no direction, and my head seemed to be nothing but a complete fuzzy mess. All I was aware of was how scared I was and I seemingly couldn't think of anything but that. Everything around me felt wrong, like I wasn't supposed to be there.
"And who is this we have here?"
The sarcastically jolly voice made my already unsteady breath catch in my throat and I had to cough to release it. My eyes traveled towards the source of it and they landed on a smirking face. It was unsettling, to say the least, and I stared intently back at him. I'd like to say it was because I was holding my guard up, but in reality I was simply too scared to say anything to this boy standing not too far away from the cage. He had more power in this situation than I, and I could tell he knew that.
The fake smile fell quickly from his plump lips when I didn't reply and he tilted his head, examining me from top to bottom with his peridot coloured eyes. I wriggled slightly under his stare, which seemed to satisfy him slightly, and was even more uncomfortable than before.
He quickly appeared closer to the bars that held me within, grasping at them with a now angry expression. It made me jolt back away from him. His jaw was tighter and his impatience shon through brightly. I noticed plenty of little scars tracing along his knuckles as I searched him, hoping for an indication of something. Anything. Part of me didn't want to look at him at all, because that meant I'd be further under his control, but he seemed to pull my eyes back.
"Who are you?" He demanded.
"Marna," I replied without thinking. It rolled off my tongue with such ease I accepted it as correct. "I'm Marna."
