C3-1 No man is an Island

He could smell it as the breeze flew over his face and his hair, the smell of the ocean covered him instead of the stale smell of blood, ash and stagnant intoxication he had gotten used to.
Hedzel opened his eyes as the sand almost halfway consumed his legs, dug in the soft and scratchy grains.
It felt nice to be gone from his captor, from that hideous place he had abided, was it all a dream? Had he been here the whole time? Were all the tubes and hospital bed reality?
This felt as real as the other, the salt water brushing his face, he wanted to stay if only a moment more if it meant being far from the room he had stayed in.
A smile crept on his face, he was happy, relieved to be in the open air, no walls, fresh air and surrounded by beauty.
It was an escape from everything he had grown accustom to, the wretched, wilted, rusted and confined space of the trap that was a constant reminder of the trappings he desperately tried to escape.
If he wasn't to know what reality was then this was the best non reality to stay in and he would stay as long as he could.
He wanted to spend his life here, this wonderful paradise that he either created or just inhabited.
What kind of life could he lead here? He was alone again, Daemon was exhausting to interact with but he was someone, was being alone better than with a tormentor who constantly ridiculed you, belittled you and kept you in pain?
He decided to get up and walk around his new home, Hedzel walked up the shore and into the jungle up and away from the beach.
As he walked the foliage got thicker, the sun disappeared in between the leaves looking like stars, the trees consuming the light as a starving man consumes the sustenance he craves.
Deeper, darker, the trees took him into themselves, Hedzel found himself wandering with little light, noises came and glow of eyes stared, voices of the jungle, haunting him, following him, whispers and strange jumbled words and phrases  he didn't understand.
Hedzel found the closest tree in an attempt to climb to find it was not bark of a tree he had latched onto but that of flesh, a petrified human forest.

C2-4 Pain

Hedzel was in pain, he lay there half dazed, his vision blurring in and out trying to focus on anything but to no avail.
He tried to stand but collapsed to his knees in pain shaking like one of those tiny dogs that seem to shiver even in 60 degree weather.
Hedzel closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath to regain himself, every breath was thick because the air was heavy as if he was on another planet.
"Look at that view" Daemon said casually as he sat in the corner of the ceiling holding binoculars to his eyes.
Hedzel finally regained focus and looked at what Daemon was looking at, it was a poster of a beach with the waves coming in against the shore, palm trees swaying. "You can almost feel the breeze can't you"
Hedzel groaned and looked at his ankle which was still attached to the bear trap which in turn was attached to a eye fixed on the wall.
"We almost lost ya."
"I was there, I could have been free"
"That is an illusion, you don't want that Hedzel."
"Better than this hell" Hedzel said weak and softly.
"Oh I don't think so, You just have to learn how to play, here you can do anything, up there it's bills and work and pain and..."
"Here it's pain and work too, more pain than work."
"Hedzel, Hedzel, Hedzel, you have this world at your command, you could be king if you played by the rules"
"What rules?!"
Daemon grinned, his lips curled in a twisted fashion.
"Why, that there are no rules"
"Who are you? Why are you here, Why are you doing this?"
"You have a short memory, I'm here to help you learn to have... fun"
Hedzel looked at the poster on the wall, He wanted to be there instead of here learning to have 'fun', he closed his eyes and then he was gone.

C2-3 Let's go Fishin'

He was enveloped in the darkness, it was so hard to move, every tiny movement Hedzel made it was like sifting through quicksand.
It wasn't like he couldn't breath, it was like he had gills, it was just a thickness, almost like swimming in a cloud of peanut butter.
he was afraid to move too far from where he was, afraid to open he eyes, not that it mattered much because it would have been a pitch black sight.
He didn't know if he was up or down, if there was an up or down or if this was reality or just a sick nightmare he wasn't waking from.
Then he heard it, a muffled sound through the thickness calling out to him, calling out in the darkness, was it to him? To anyone in general?
Hedzel swam to the sound but felt himself being pulled in a direction, downward to him but it might have been up for all he knew.
This world, this dream was confusing and strange, he tried fighting the current of suction but it seemed that the more he fought it the more he would be pulled, it was so strong.
He wanted to escape and find the calling voice but he felt too weak to fight the pull, he kept swimming toward the voice regardless.
Hedzel reached his arm out to pull himself to the voice and finally felt air over the surface which he was surrounded and pulled his head up taking a huge breath.
He opened his eyes and sat up gasping, the tube clogging his throat making it hard to breath even with air being pushed in his throat.
Hedzel's body tensed up in pain and it seemed that as soon as he was free, it felt like something painful grabbed his ankle and yanked him under into the darkness again, Hedzels eyes rolled to the back of his head and collapsed on his bed once again.
Daemon pulled on a chain through the floor, inching his way closer and closer to the end of the chain whistling all the while a demented tune that seemed to echo in the room.
Daemon pulled down as the chain was on a pulley system over the hole in the floor until the chain reached the end attached to a bear trap which in turn was attached to Hezel.
Hedzel winced in pain as he was pulled up into the room by his ankle upside down, Daemon tying off the chain.
Daemon smiled as he tiled his head to the side and then rolled his head completely off and upside down in his arm slightly fumbling it and catching it quickly.
"I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached" he laughed "Well looks like we caught a biggun' today wouldn't you say Earl?"
"Yup"
Hedzel looked over to see Daemon dressed in overalls with no shirt, straw hat and a piece of straw hanging from his mouth.
Hedzel looked over, dizzy and tired as he passed out as Daemon pushed Hedzel spinning him around.
"Well that was rude." Daemon said with his head in one hand and the other on his hip.