Where.. where am I, my head is killing me, it feels like there's a dumb right behind my eyes.
The last thing I remember was hearing that creepy lady's voice asking me if "I wanted to live" and if "I wanted to hear". I wonder why it asked or maybe chose me, what's so special about me? I don't think I did anything recently to deserve a second chance. I mean, I wasn't exactly the saint type, so why was I asked that? Who knows, it was probably just a figment of my imagination, I was in a coma after all. Speaking of coma, I just woke up, so why is it so dark in here, and what time is it? This is supposed to be a 24/7 hospital.
SO why hasn't anyone come to check on me, I mean I just woke up from a coma, RIGHT!?
I would have at least thought the nurses would have come to bring me my IV fluids or something of that sort. How hard is it for a guy to get some food after waking up?
Now that I think of it even though its basically pitch black I can sort of make out the room while it is hard to do I can tell that it doesn't exactly have the feel or look of a hospital room, more like some creepy dungeon a creep would hold girls in or like a labyrinth that a cool MC would explore and have to fight some dragon, either way WHERE IS EVERYONE.
Why does it feel like my body's crammed inside of some cage, and I'm no rocket scientist, but I can tell that I still can't hear anything, maybe it was all a figment of my imagination, what a liar that voice was.
The lights in the room remained dark, leaving Aoto in a perpetual state of confusion, and then suddenly the lights began to flicker, still leaving Aoto confused, but gave just barely enough light to let him get a feel for the room.
The room was lined with stone bricks that wrapped around the whole place and seemed to be ginormous. Aoto could vaguely make out the silhouettes of people but wasn't exactly sure what was going on, and he could tell that he was elevated on something like a platform.
Aoto realized that he was in a cage immediately the first thing that came to mind was that he had been kidnapped and was being held somewhere, Aoto's hands were cold from placing them along the metal bars, his knees began to bruise from being crammed on the ground he felt anxious unsure of what was to come almost entering a state of panic.
Then out of nowhere, Aoto heard the flick of a lever and the lights came on, beaming a light right onto him but not on anything in front of him, just illuminating the platform that he was placed on. Aoto now having more sight was able to make out exactly what was right before him, a roaring crowd of what seemed to be hundreds of spectators in stands all wearing masks and yelling out Aoto was unable to hear what they were saying but could feel the vibrations coming out from the crowd and straight into the metal cage cause it to rattle.
As a boy trying to live with his new found deafness Aoto was forced to adapt to life and part of that was learning how to read lips, this became the only way Aoto was able to communicate with others since his sign language skills weren't the best so you could imagine how much of a panic Aoto was in when he realized he was unable to read the audiences lips to see exactly what was going on.
A man wearing a long purple cape that flowed down to the floor, being dragged with every step he took, presented himself as the Curator. His face wasn't obstructed by a mask instead, he donned the face paint of a clown and seemed to be in high spirits. The Curator kept moving bouncing across the stage from one cage to another, letting Aoto realize that he wasn't alone in this situation, for a moment the Curator stood straight facing towards the cages, during this moment Aoto was able to read his lips though hastily, Aoto managed to read the word "sell".
With so much going on, Aoto's brain as well as heart were racing a mile a minute, having him start to spiral into a breakdown, his chest felt heavy, bones trembling, short of breath. Aoto kept spiraling and spiraling until eventually he couldn't take the stress and passed out.
Some time had passed and Aoto still appeared to still be out in a cold un-controlled slumber. Until a man dressed in silver with an aura to him that was noticeable to anyone entered the room he was as tall as small oak tree, and had stood beside the cage where Aoto had passed out in.
Aoto slowly awoke and was disorientated, he was unable to hear that there was someone else in the room with him it was only alerted to him that the man was beside his cage due to the vibrations his footsteps the man made, this sudden quake in the ground had caught Aoto's attention causing him to look around the room until he made eye contact with the man's figure.
The man was unlike any other man Aoto had ever seen before, Aoto assumed that he was from the crowd, but unlike the auction audience from before he wasn't wearing mask, but did have a metallic blindfold wrapped around his head that obscured Aoto from being able to see his eyes but still left enough room on his face that Aoto could see the rest of him, his hair was matte black and he had quite a young looking face despite his large frame.
Aoto felt a sense of ease knowing that he was able to read his lips, Aoto's first action when he say the man was to ask for help, but since Aoto was deaf his speech over the years had severely deteriorated since he stopped going to speak therapy after the age of 16, so Aotos cries for help just ended up coming out of mouth as gibberish which wasn't anything new.
Aoto, even knowing this, continued to try to mutter even the slightest plea for help, hoping that the man would understand or at least tell him something of use.
This was to no avail instead Aoto's cries for help had failed instead, the man knelt down besides the cage where Aoto was being held.
The man made sure to talk slowly he placed both of his hands on top of the cage feeling the metal roof and said "you can't hear, can you?"
Aoto unable to convey his words simply nodded and made sure avoid eye contact with the man's blind fold.
The man sighed in front of Aoto, and simply said "this wont do, NO, this wont do at all, calm down calm down you can make this work you'll take him Arcad". He then reorganized himself and preceded to introduce him self.
"Hi slave boy, my name is Garius Mosscrest but you can call me Garius, I know you have no clue who exactly I am but from this point forward we're gonna be working together."
"Understand?"
Aoto attempted to answer "y….y…ye…yes".
Garius: "Good, very good, what's your name, boy?"
"Ao…AO…AOTO. "
"I see is the name of an Elvish descent boy? I've never heard such a name. Tell me what might your sur be?"
"Yamamoto."
"Yamamoto? Boy, I am both unfamiliar with your forename and surname, tell me what country do you hail from?"
"new….New York."
"HA HA HA HA HAA, fine then boy soot yourself don't tell me where your from its not like it will affect our place, but maybe next time come up with a better lie than NEW YORK, I knew you were something else when the Curator, let me take you without making me pay. I mean you passed out right as the auction began HOW FUNNY IS THAT, after he was planning on selling you to a quarry to go work in the mines and probably die by entering some gate, but instead I asked if you could come with me and it just so happened to be that Mr. Curator is indebted to the Mosscrests so lucky me, it would have been nice to know that you were deaf though but never the less here we are."
"Back to what I was saying, I've never heard of such a country in all my years, you must be from the east, Aoto, right?"
Aoto was silent, in his mind he was slowly processing what exactly was going on.
To Aoto's notion just mere hours ago he was in a hospital bed slowly dying alone, to then waking up in a cage, to then being on a stage in front of an audience, then passing out and finally waking back up and being interrogated by a man the size of a tree telling him that they would be partners from this day on.
Aoto took his time to respond, and when he did, he just asked Garius a single question.
"w…where am I?"
Garius still knelt and grabbed hold of the cage, unlocking the latch that had kept Aoto shut inside.
He reached his hand out and told Aoto not to be afraid. Aoto noticed that the skin of Garius had been lacerated and left scars running up as far as Aoto's eyes could see.
Aoto fearfully grabbed onto Garius' hand and was pulled out of the cage, escorting him outside.
As Aoto was being led outside he had a moment to take a good look at exactly where he was, his eyes bloodshot, ears non coherent and his body shaking still with every step all were captivated by where was right in front of him.
Aoto realized that he was no longer in New York; even more, he realized he wasn't even on earth.
Aoto had been summoned to a new world.