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Tobias paused for the longest time yet, and when he continued there were tears rolling down his cheeks, and his whole body began to shake.

“And I hung there… and hung there… it seemed almost like I was in a bad dream while I was hanging there, I could never think completely clearly, and I can’t even remember most of the time I was hanging there. Finally, though, someone opened the gate, someone I had never seen before. He made some strange motions, and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up later, still hanging there, the man was gone, and I wasn’t as hungry any more. And that happened every day, once a day, for years… and years.

“But one day, I was waiting for him to come in. And when he did, I focused very hard to stop whatever he did with his hands, but I failed. Again and again I tried that, until finally I managed to do it. I stayed awake, but quickly pretended to be unconscious. Then the man said something about the energy still being there, and I figured it was supposed to stop when he did that. I tried hard to think about nothing, because it seemed that when I thought more, more energy came. The energy dwindled down, but apparently not enough.

“The man repeated what he had said before, and then said he was going to take me to a different chamber, because the crystal must have had some excess energy in it. Then, for the first time in years, I moved; I was tugged off from over the crystal, and taken towards the door. I tried hard not to do anything that would make him think I was awake, and eventually I felt myself being laid down on a table. It was the first time in years I hadn’t been hanging by my wrists, but some physical object was holding me, and I was so relieved.

“But I knew I had to escape, and this was my chance. I felt him doing something near my arm, and I suddenly sat up and grabbed him by the throat. He tried to scream, but I was squeezing so hard that he couldn’t. Eventually his eyes rolled up in to his head and he went limp, and I got very scared because I didn’t know what I had done to him. So I let go, and knew I had to run. I pushed myself off the table, and fell down. I hadn’t used my legs for so long, and they were so much longer than before. I stumbled and crawled, and desperately tried to escape, but I was only halfway down the hall before they caught me.

“They hit me in the head with the handle of a weapon, and I woke up, hanging over the crystal…and I cried, for so long. I cried so hard that I could hear the stone in the chamber bending as the huge amounts of energy pushed against them. I kept trying to escape as I had before, but they kept doing those strange movements, over and over again, to make sure I was unconscious; the longest I managed to resist it was three times, but they always managed to knock me unconscious.

“And the cycle continued, day by day, every day, for years. But I kept trying, I never gave up… well, I usually didn’t give up, at least. But one day I managed to focus my thoughts so hard that I actually managed to direct the energy in the chamber at the man before he could knock me unconscious, and I don’t know what happened to him. The door was open and this was my chance, I used everything inside me to push myself forward, away from that blasted crystal.

“I managed to break free of the energy, but the gate was closing. I thought very hard about moving forward, and I felt myself being pushed towards the gate, very quickly. I managed to get out just before it closed, and the two guards tried to strike me, and they had some kind of strange weapons with crystals on them. But I knew now how to escape; I could not run on my legs by myself, so I used my mind to support me. I managed to stand up and run away from the guards, focusing just on taking another step, and I managed to run, for the first time in years.

“But they must have been expecting that, I felt a searing hot pain on my back, and found myself running slower. Another, and another pain welled up, and the support began to leave me, the only thing holding me up were the legs I didn’t know how to use now. Their weapons were somehow able to make my powers useless. I quickly fell down, and tried to crawl away, but they managed to catch me.

“They shoved a some strange circlet on my head, and tied chains around my hands and feet. Then they dragged me through the hall until we reached a large chamber, filled with bloodstained weapons and tables. They tied my chains to a large wooden board, with big poles on the side. Then the two guards lifted the poles, raising the board and me in to the air. They carried me for a long time, and I was just trying to break the chains, but every time I tried to focus on something my head started to hurt terribly, like an electric shock was going through it.

“Finally they reached a large wooden gate, and told two other guards that I had tried to escape again. The other two opened the gates, and then helped carry me in. They set me down, upright, and all four of them left the room and closed the gate, but there were two others in the room already. I looked up, and there was the man who had started it all… though he looked much older now. I felt very angry, but the angrier I got, the more my head hurt, and I felt like I was loosing control of myself.

“He began to talk to me, about how trying to escape was useless, but I could barely hear him because of the pounding in my head, which I couldn’t even hold up any more. He told me that he needed me for his important plans, just as he had told me years ago, and that I would stay there forever. Forever… it struck a chord inside of me; I refused to stay there forever. I opened my eyes and saw my body, hanging there, just as it had when he had first put me over the crystal, and everything that had happened seemed to rise up inside me, making me even angrier and sadder.

“I looked up at him, the pain was unbearable, and it felt like my head was about to rip open. He said something that I couldn’t even hear, and began laughing… after all he had done… after imprisoning me for years and taking away whatever freedom I had had… he was laughing… laughing.

“It was too much for me to bear, I screamed as loud as I could, and it felt like everything that had grown inside me since he had captured me was exploding in hatred toward him. I heard a shattering noise, and the pain went away: I had broken the circlet. His laughing face turned very fearful, and he ordered the guards to stop me. But it was far too late… but this time it was too late for him, not me.

“All I could think about was anger, how much I had lost, how horrible the past years had been. And I felt the two guards grab me, I looked at them and told them to get off, and they were knocked off their feet and slammed against the walls. The chains shattered, and I stood up and began to walk towards the man who stole my life. I could barely stand, but I kept walking. He looked terrified, and ran for one of the windows, but I thought about keeping him in and all the windows shut, and the door locked.

“He had nowhere to run, and every moment I was getting closer to him. The banners in the room flew upward, as though a huge wind was coming out of me. All the torches began burning higher and higher, the objects on his desk began to shatter, and even he seemed to be having trouble standing up. I was standing right over him, I had never been so angry in my life. Everything was breaking, the stones on the floor were breaking to pieces and flying up toward the roof, the windows were breaking and the shards of glass were spinning in the air, his desk was snapping in to pieces, and everything on it had already vanished, and his large chair was crumpling up like parchment.

“Everything was swirling, even the air was moving quickly, and his elegant clothing began to tear. He raised his hand up in the air, and I began to focus everything in my on ripping him to pieces, but suddenly there was a flash of light and he was gone. He had used some trick to escape, and I was alone in the room. I gasped and everything stopped, the things that were flying fell back down to the floor, and I heard the door being knocked open behind me.

“But it was no time to give up. I was finding out how to use the energy I had, and I thought about the guards being slammed in to the ground, and it happened. I thought about running very quickly, and I found myself sprinting down the hall. I passed many people, all of them tried to stop me, but I just thought about nothing being able to touch me, and everyone and everything that got too close was knocked away. I ran and ran, and finally burst through the outer gate and reached the outside. But I kept running, I was using everything I had to keep running, because they were following me.

“They chased me for a long time, but I could outrun them all. After a while I forgot about protection and just focused on running, and the trees and branches began to hit me as I went. But I knew if I was going to escape I had to use every bit of energy I had to keep moving. After what seemed like ages, I knew they were too far behind to catch me, and I stopped. As soon as the energy stopped supporting me, I fell to the ground, panting heavily.

“It was cold out, and the ground was hard, and I didn’t know what to do, so I began to cry. I don’t know if I was happy or sad then, or maybe just scared, but I cried. But I knew I had to keep moving, so I forced myself up. I forced myself to use my legs, I was too tired to use my mind as well, and I felt so drained. After what seemed like ages, I saw a light in the forest. I didn’t know if it was real or not, but it was the only thing I could see besides trees.

“I desperately forced myself to keep moving, and I got closer and closer. I was so tired; I fell down on my stomach and broke a branch that was underneath me, cutting my chest. I had never been cut before, and it hurt horribly, and I would have yelled if I had had the energy. But I had to keep going: I pulled myself along with one hand while I held my wound with the other, but the light disappeared. I dragged myself closer to where it had been, and finally managed to get on my knees and pull the bushes open. I saw you standing there in the clearing. I reached out trying to grab something for support, and then I fell unconscious. And, now, here I am… with you.”