Kapitel 153: Traumatic Memories

"Stay here for a bit." 

A five-year-old boy was huddled up in a silent cave. He could hear or feel nothing except for his own rapid breathing and heartbeat. 

It was eerily scary until—snap!—a sudden pull. Rough hands dragged him from the cave's suffocating darkness as he repeatedly screamed for someone to help him.

A flash—bright lights blinded him. He blinked, disoriented, his small body now standing on a raised platform. The lights burned his eyes, making the world beyond them a blur of shadows. 

Hundreds of predatory eyes bore into him. Assessing him from the audience. Fear clawed at his chest, tiny hands clenched into fists, but there was no escape. He was trapped like a mouse in a den of wolves.