--Prologue--
My eighteenth birthday. That's when everything changed. I had been expecting a quiet evening with my relatives. What I got instead was a night I would never forget. For many reasons. The first of which was the shocking revelation my father had just made.
"I-I'm adopted?" I stuttered. I was so shocked I could barely speak. I glanced around at my relatives. None of them spoke. They just stood there, waiting to see how I would react to the news.
I glanced at my cousin. He averted his eyes, but I could tell it had nothing to do with guilt or empathy. My cousin had never been a nice man. To be honest, he was kind of a dick. My gaze then travelled to my uncle. Unlike his son, he was a kind, caring man. He gave me a reassuring smile. I moved on to my brother. He refused to look at me, no doubt feeling guilty that he was a member of the family by blood while I was one merely by name. Finally, my eyes landed on my father. He was the one who had revealed my true origins. If anyone could answer the many questions that battled within my head, he could.
"What's going on?" I asked nervously. I wanted them to tell me this was some sort of joke, but their expressions said otherwise. This was real. I was adopted.
"I'm sorry," said my father in a sheepish voice. I had never heard him sound so unsure. He had always been the strong, silent type. "I wanted to tell you," he continued, "but you mother, the woman that raised you, made me promise to keep it a secret." He paused at the memory of his deceased wife. She has passed six years ago. "She didn't want you to feel like you didn't belong. You are a member of this family, no matter what."
I desperately wanted to believe my father, yet there was something that didn't add up.
"Why did you tell me?" I asked. He had made a deathbed promise. Why dishonor his wife's memory by breaking his word?
My father took a sip from the champagne flute he held. Remembering I had one of my own, I quickly drained it. It was a distraction I no longer needed. My relatives did the same. None of us took the time to enjoy it.
"It's complicated," finally admitted my father. "There's something about your mother, your birthmother, you should know..." He stopped talking. I assumed he was trying to find the right words to break the news to me. Or so I thought until I looked at him.
His lips were still moving. I strained to listen, yet I couldn't hear a single word he spoke. In fact, I couldn't hear anything else either. Not the music that had up until moments before filled the air. Not my relatives clearing their throats nervously as my father prepared to shatter my world. I had lost the ability to hear.
Then my head started spinning and my vision darkened. That was when I truly started to panic. I struggled to remain upright, but my balance was compromised. I'm not sure how it happened, but one second I was standing up, and the next I was sprawled across the floor. The last thing I saw before passing out was my father's worried face hovering over me. Then everything turned black.
--Dominated by My Cousin--
I awoke to complete obscurity. No matter where I looked, I saw only darkness. I tried sitting up, but my head was spinning so much I had to keep low for fear of loosening my balance. So there I lay, staring up at nothing but darkness. My head soon began to throb. It made my situation even more depressing, yet also helped prove I was still alive. There was just too much for pain for this to be a mere dream. Just in case, I pinched myself. Nothing. Thisβwhatever this wasβwas real.
I'm not sure how long I lay there. Time is impossible to calculate when you're surrounded by complete darkness. I only know my headache eventually faded and my dizziness passed. In no time I was sitting up. It wasn't until I tried getting up that something new was revealed.
A rattling noise was heard as something tugged on my ankle. I carefully reached down and felt around. My hands soon reached something cold. Metal. A band of it encircled my ankle. To it was attached was what felt like a heavy chain. My heart skipped a beat when I realized what that meant. I was being held captive. I grabbed the chain and tugged on it. After a few seconds of tugging, it was pulled tight. I pulled with all my strength, but it would not budge. My heart now racing, I dropped the chair and struggled to remove the metal bracelet that kept me bound to the chain.
It was useless.
I scanned the darkness, but still there was nothing. I struggled some more with the chain, but it was useless. I eventually decided to do the only thing I had yet to try.
"I anybody there?" I croaked. There was no answer. Only the slight echo of my frightened voice. I tried again, this time more forcefully. Still nothing.
My next move was to stand up and explore my surroundings. I was planning on wandering around with my arms outstretched in front of me. Hopefully I would reach a wall or stumble across something of use.
I didn't. Not because there was nothing there, but because a light suddenly emerged from the darkness. It hung from the ceiling, burning like a thousand suns. I glanced up at it. Bad move. I was instantly blinded and lost all ability to see for a few seconds. I shielded my eyes until they had grown accustomed to the new lighting. I prayed I would now be able to see my surroundings. No such luck.
The light that hovered above me cast a limited glow. A circle of floor had been revealed. Everything within it was now visible, including me. Beyond it stood nothing but darkness. I took a moment to study what little I could now see.