When I regained consciousness, I was lying on my side. The floor underneath me was cold, and felt rough. 

Slowly, I opened my eyes, but when I saw where I was, I wanted to keep them shut and never open them again.

Although, I guess it was what I didn't see. 

The entire room was pitch-black. 

I'll admit it- I'm scared of the dark. I've always been scared of the dark. When I'm somewhere, if I can see, I know what's around me and what to expect. 

Darkness gives me nothing to work with. 

It only gives me bad memories. 

I remembered the older kids from the Kingdom, the ones who were sixteen, and old enough to start to train to be soldiers. Some of them liked to mess with me, because I was smaller and not good with a sword, or anything for that matter. They liked to scare me by popping out from behind bushes with mob masks on, or with creepy drawings that weren't so bad at first, but late at night, they would seem a lot scarier. 

I shut my eyes again, and curled up into a ball, hoping and praying that this wasn't real, that I was just dreaming, that everything was okay. 

No such luck. 

Wherever I was, I knew that logically, I couldn't get out by just sitting there. Even though I really didn't want to, I slowly sat up, my eyes still closed. 

The others. 

I remembered what had happened before I had woken up. All of the others...Shane, Jenna, Quinn, Alyssa, Tyler, Skylar, Macey. What had happened to them? Were they dead? Was I dead? I had no clue. 

I took in a breath, and thought out my situation as best as I could. If I didn't have any answers, I would have to find them myself. The only way to do that would be to-

"HELP!" 

I was jolted out of my thoughts by someone screaming, and not five seconds afterwards, a bright came on, turning my vision red as my eyes were still closed. 

I slowly opened them, letting my eyes get adjusted to the light. 

And I immediately wished I hadn't. 

A younger boy, one I didn't recognize, sat in the corner of the room, shaking. He looked to be around six years old. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and his shirt sleeve was bloodstained. 

"Help me!" He said, sniffling. "The scary man, he's coming fo-" 

The boy's voice was cut off as a sword, held by someone invisible, went straight through his heart from behind. 

"No!" I exclaimed, and reached for my own sword, only to find that it wasn't there. 

"Why didn't you save him?" A voice whispered in my ear, and I jumped, hitting the air around me, but no one was there. 

"You're weak."

"You couldn't save him."

"You'll never be strong enough to fight." 

"You're not as good as the others."

I pressed my hands over my ears, hoping to block out the voices, but they only got louder. 

"You're such a disappointment."

"You couldn't save your mother."

"What a pathetic excuse for Ssundee's son."

"Stop it!" I yelled. 

"You want them to stop?" 

I looked up to see Tyler standing there. 

"Tyler?" 

He grinned, and suddenly, Shane was standing where Tyler had been. 

"Not quite." 

"Who are you, then?" I asked.

He didn't respond, but a sword appeared in his hands, and another appeared in front of me. 

"Fight me and win. Then they'll stop." He said. 

"You can't win."

"You're weak."

"You'll lose."

"You'll die."

"You're pathetic."

"I...I don't want to fight you." I stuttered. The voices were right. I couldn't win. I was terrible at fighting. 

The person changed a third time, and now, my dad stood in front of me. 

"Too bad." He said. "Because you don't get a choice." 

The lights in the room went out, leaving me in the middle of the darkness.

I shrieked at the sudden darkness, shutting my eyes and reaching out, grasping for the sword that had been in front of me. 

Gone. 

The sword was gone. 

"Worthless."

"Pathetic."

"Weak." 

"Die here. It's not like you matter." 

The voices...no, they couldn't have been voices. They were my thoughts, weren't they? Yes, they were my thoughts, and they were right. I was nothing. The others could fight. I couldn't. I was a pathetic excuse for everything I was supposed to be. 

I sunk to my knees, letting my arms drop.

"-Couldn't save your mother-"

"-Couldn't save the boy-"

"-What sort of hero do you think you are?" 

Suddenly, an explosion went off in front of me, sending me flying backwards into a wall, and I was at eight hearts. 

As soon as I hit the wall, the room changed, and I was lying on the ground in front of my house in the Kingdom. 

I looked up to see my mother, frantically slamming her fists against the invisible barrier. 

No.

Not again. 

Was it real?

It had to be.

She was screaming at me, and I could just barely hear her through the barrier. 

I stood, pressing my hands into the barrier, trying to break it down. 

"Mom!" 

"Cameron, run! You've got to-"

The roof collapsed, crushing my mother underneath. 

"No! Mom!" I yelled, hitting the barrier as hard as I could, trying to get to my mother. 

The scene changed, and I was back in the dark room, hitting my fists against a concrete stone wall. 

I yanked my hand back on the impact, feeling pain I hadn't felt when hitting the barrier. I ran my other hand over it, only to feel some sort of liquid that I could only assume was blood. 7 hearts.

Another explosion went off beside me, throwing me to the side. 5 hearts. I slowly pushed myself back up. I had to keep getting up, keep myself ali-

"No. Die here. You are too weak to be of use."

"You couldn't save your mother, what makes you think you can save the world?"

I sunk back down to my knees as my thoughts, the thoughts that were right, overtook my mind again. 

I couldn't save my mother. I sat there and watched her die. I sat by and watched Quinn's mother die. I sat by and watched Jeremy die. I only ever sat back and watched people die. I didn't deserve to try and save the world, and I wouldn't be able to, anyways. 

I pressed my hand against the wall to lean against it, and that's when I felt it. 

Part of the surface my hand was on felt smoother than usual. 

That's when the gears in my head began to turn again. 

Those weren't my thoughts. I couldn't die. Not yet. I wasn't done yet.

"You are worthles-" The voice started up again. 

"Shut up." I said, doing my best to block out the fake thoughts. 

Think, Cameron, think. I thought to myself, slowly standing up. 

I ran my hand across the edge where the smooth metal met the rough, and it was just big enough to form-

An iron door. 

A smooth iron door, with all four holes for the window, was right beside me. I didn't know what could be blocking light from the window, but I didn't see that as important. 

I felt around the door for a lever, but no such luck. 

"Well, are you even going to try and fight back?" Skylar's voice rang out. "Or are your fighting skills just that pathetic?" 

Another way to break the door, another way to break the door...

I heard the sound of TNT from the corner, and knew another explosion was about to-

Another explosion. 

That was it. 

"Just try and blow me up!" I yelled, and moved just a little bit the the left of the door. 

The explosion threw me sideways, and cost me two more hearts, but when I looked up to see a dim light, I knew I had accomplished what I wanted. 

"What? Impossible..." I could see fake Jenna in the corner of the room.

I stood, and ran to the door. "My fighting skills may be pretty bad," I said. "But my brain still works like a charm." 

And with that, I ran out of the room, and she disappeared. 

I knew what I had to do next. 

It was time to find and free my friends.