I awoke in a cell. The ground was cold and damp, the rocks slippery with moss. The cell door was red with rust, and outside was too dark to see. My skin was rotten and falling off in places, exposing muscle and bone. Despite the injuries, nothing hurt: I couldn’t feel anything, my body just felt numb. I had no memories of who I was, or how I got here. I felt no want or need to leave, I just lay slumped against the wall where I awoke, unmoving forever. There was a grate in the ceiling of the cell. Light would bleed through it, giving me sight. I could sometimes hear sounds coming through it, footsteps and voices, but the only thing to ever come through seemed to be the water. The water would drain through it, pouring into the cell. It wouldn’t flood, and instead drained through the cell door, out into the darkness. I wished I could go with it. Flowing wherever it was led, seeing so many things, going so many places. The first time the water came was the first time I moved. I reached my arms out and pooled it into my hands. I stared into it, seeing my reflection. The skin on my face was rotted as usual, my gums and lips were thin, and my eyes were so sunken I couldn’t see them through the shadow of their sockets. After staring and wondering, I drank the water. It poured straight through my body, emptying out through the gaps in my skin. It was unsatisfying and was accompanied by a feeling of hopelessness. I slumped back down against the wall and waited again, until something would change.
There was a light outside the door. A white light that formed an unwavering sphere. Upon seeing it I was filled with energy and excitement. I stumbled my way towards the gate and reached out my hands to use the bars as a support. As I grabbed it, the gate broke off its hinges under my weight. We both fell forward and I landed hard on my shoulder, scraping bits of my skin off onto the ground of the hall. Once I managed to stand, the light sat in front of me. I reached out, touching it, and the darkness around me dissipated. My shoulder hurt, and I held out my arms, taking in the sight of my restored skin. It was lush with life again. I could see the blood flowing through my veins, and was enlightened with the warmth of life. I easily began to walk down the hall, curious about the place I had stayed for so long. It was lined with cells just like mine, most of which were empty, but certain cells held entities of the same state I had been in. The hall was slanted, declining towards a doorway which is where I walked to. There was a square room through the door, and on the floor of the room was a pool of water. I crouched down quickly, and took some in my hands, looking into my reflection again. My cheeks were red, my lips were full, and my eyes were presented in their sockets, as they should’ve always been. I quickly drank the water, wanting to know if I could taste, and to my enjoyment my body did not leak any water, instead feeling wonderfully replenished. I kept on my exploration of the assumed prison, walking through door after door. It seemed empty and abandoned no matter how far from the cells I traveled. There wasn’t much else interesting until I came upon a broken down wall which sat across a staircase. I checked inside and to my surprise, there was a person clad in armor lying injured against the wall.
“Pray thee be careful,” he groaned.
“I don’t want you to end up like myself,” I hurried over to him and attempted to talk, but my throat wouldn’t budge.
“Don’t strain yourself,” he sputtered.
“I couldn’t talk when my hollowing reversed either. Just please leave here before I return to hollowness, I’m afraid I may hurt you. You needn’t try and aid me… I’m too far gone. Just leave before it finds you like it found me. And take my sword, I won’t need it now,” I knelt down and retrieved the straight-sword beside him. He wished me well as I went on my way, and I did my best to gesture my thanks. I continued out and up the staircase, traveling through more and more of the same stone hallways. Eventually I was met with a doorway to the outdoors. The prison building was built on a cliffside, and the only way to walk was down a broken stone pathway, lined with a graveyard. I walked along the path until it ended and I was met with a beautiful view of the edge of the cliff. A sprawling kingdom sat underlooking the prison, and enclosed in a ring of mountains. I sat staring at the view, for hours. No more rocks and rust, or the smell of rotting flesh. I felt free to live, and do as I pleased.
I heard feathers ruffle behind me, interrupting my bliss, and I turned to see the source of the sound. There was a decrepit man behind me, his back sprouting two large black wings, which seemed to do a better job carrying him then his legs did. He held a curved greatknife between his hands, which had sprouted feathers, and grown talons where his nails had once been. Much of his body shared partial birdlike features. Legs bent greatly at the knee, offset by the bend of his raised ankles, attaching to his feet which also supported similar talons. His eyes were that of a bird’s, yellow and uncoordinatedly blinking. He spoke, voice broken and quivering.
“Come back to your cell, child. Those like you are not meant for the world,” I gripped the sword and held my stance.
“Hold your disdain. It’s not I who made the rules,” he taunted, before bursting towards me in a plume of feathers. I held up my sword and fell to the right, dodging his lunge. Looking into the air he hovered above me and screamed in a terrible way, a blend of a bird and a man, before launching back to the ground, swinging his knife wildly in my direction. I stepped back, too afraid and too unsure to attack. He stopped swinging once he realized he had missed every attack. Infuriated, he jumped into the air and hovered above me.
“I’ll kill you just like I do to every other damn hollow that thinks they’re worth anything more than that! Just a bloody hollow,” he howled. He pierced down at me. I couldn’t dodge in time and he cut across my chest. It stung. A wave of pain came over my body and I struggled to stay standing, as my vision went blurry. I saw his knife stuck into the ground, as he struggled to pull it out, and I knew this was my chance. I attempted to run at him, still stunned, and blindly swung at his body. I cut into his wing before falling to the ground, and he screamed his terrible scream before ripping the blade out of the ground. I struggled to stand as quickly as possible, before he could attack me again. I stood as he tried to fly again, but to my delight he fell back to the ground, unable to fly with his damaged wing.
“Oohh! Ye wretched hollow,” he scolded before erratically lunging at me, clearly upset without the great support of his wings. I peeled off to his side and grabbed the feathers and the back of his head, holding him in front of me. I swung my sword straight for his exposed neck. I stuck halfway in, and with a gurgled scream he fell to the ground. I pressed my foot against his back and ripped the blade out of his wound, seeing it covered in his black blood. After waiting over him for a while to confirm his demise, I walked back to the edge of the cliff and kneeled down. The blood hadn’t stopped pouring from my chest, and although the pain was causing my head to spiral, the loss of blood was. I stuck the sword into the ground in front of me and held my hands on the hilt using it to support me. I didn’t want to be hollow again, like the man back in the prison would be, but it seemed unavoidable. The cycle had to continue. I only hoped the light could come for me again.