Like shards of a dream dissolving before he could grasp them, fragmented visions of events that never happened flashed through his mind, then left, leaving behind a hollow, gnawing confusion.
He was in a forest, yet he didn't know or care how he'd gotten there; the ground beneath him unfamiliar, the air thick and wrong.
The searing pain coursing through his body inhibited any sort of rationalization.
'Argh! Shit! This hurts!'
Rolling over to get a better look at the pain's epicenter — his arm — Axel found it caked in blood.
Upon seeing that viscous crimson, he ripped off his shirt and began wiping it down, his hands trembling as the sticky warmth smeared across his skin, the metallic scent clawing its way into his nose.
'The hell?! What happened?!'
Strangers stood watching the spectacle, their silhouettes forming a loose, suffocating circle around him.
He met their gazes with pleading eyes; yet they returned nothing but fear and disgust, as if he were something diseased.
