When Will next opened his eyes, he found himself staring up at the leaves of the trees above him. The wind would gently blow against his face while also diving in through his shirt sleeve and picking up the main torso for a few moments. After a moment the soft air current died down, and Will's senses finally came back to him. His body felt sore; almost as if he just got done performing twenty push-ups and running a mile. However, as he thought back on what happened to him to get him to this spot Will remembered nothing. How could that be though?
DING…DING…DING…DING…DING…
In the distance, Will could hear the sound of the church’s bell tower. Its heavy pendulum would swing and hit the sides of the bell a number of times according to the time of the day. Five booming chimes meant that it was five o'clock in the evening. The last time he remembered hearing the bell make its sound he only heard three. Will had no idea what happened in the previous hour or so that he didn't hear the four o'clock chime.
As he continued to think about where this lost hour of time went a nearby street lamp turned on. It made sense though that it would turn on about now since the sky was already getting dark. Or at least, it appeared that way as many skyscrapers in the city blocked the sunlight from shining down as it approached dusk and dawn. It was a pain, but Will shifted his arms so that they were perpendicular to the ground and held up his torso from the grass.
A groan slipped through his lips as he got himself into a slouched sitting position using his arms for support. From his perspective, the forest looked massive and quite oppressive and wondered just what some of the smaller Pokemon of the world thought of these kinds of parks. "Well, I suppose it's about time I start heading home," Will mumbled to himself. His body still ached with pain, but it would be better for him to lie in bed than lie on the grass.
Still, the thought of not remembering what happened for the past hour haunted him. It was quite vexing not knowing what you've done in that time, and quite concerning in the same sense. Did he do something terrible that his mind decided was so horrific that it wanted to erase it from his immediate memory? Only time would tell, and hopefully, it would come back to him with a good night's rest. That or a good meal might help him remember as his stomach decided to growl at him with hunger pains.
That was enough convincing for Will to confirm he needed a good meal. There were many restaurants by his house, but the only thing he could think of was that pasta he was going to make yesterday and forgot about it. His mind was set, and Will decided it was time to get up and go home. Each movement of his body felt like his arms or legs were going to fall off at any moment. Even though that was the case, Will fought his body and stood up after much aching and pain later.
Once Will finally got to his feet, he stretched his neck and shoulders a little bit. He still wished to know why his body felt so sore, but until he regained his memories that mystery would just remain that, a mystery. As Will started his half-mile trek back home, Will's pace was nothing to gawk at. After all, his body insisted on being sore, so there was nothing he could do about his walking speed.
With that in mind, Will estimated it would take him about fifteen or so minutes to get back home to his apartment. Once he gets there, it will take him another ten minutes to get into his pajama clothes and get ready to cook food, and then another half hour for the pasta to be ready to eat. All in all, it will take about an hour before he can eat which is usually around the time he eats dinner anyways.
Will walked and walked and walked, keeping up his slow pace for the duration of his trip home. He would hum to himself a tune from a popular song he heard on the radio recently to keep his mind off the time. As it was a half mile distance home, it was best just to not think of how long it was taking or risk making it longer. Then, before he even realized how much time had gone by, Will arrived at the apartment complex where he lived.
He walked up the concrete stairs to the security door which was locked as always. A light test pull on the handle told him that, but he had nothing to worry about as he pulled out his keys from his pocket. Each resident was given an electric key card and a physical key to get into the building. First was the key engraved with ‘Front Door' on both faces and with a metallic click, the lock slid back. Will tugged on the door once more and now with nothing keeping the door locked it pulled open easily.
Stepping inside, Will was now in a small room between the large glass windows that separated him from the outside as well as the inside. To his left was a panel that allowed you to call up to residents in specific rooms while on his right were a series of mailboxes. He didn't even bother with them since Will picked up the mail earlier when it first got dropped off. Instead, he moved forward again; this time pulling out the keycard on the same keychain and sliding it through the card reader right above the handle of the door. A soft double beep came from the device and the sound of metal on metal from within the door's locking mechanism. Again he pulled the door open with relative ease and walked through the threshold.
"They always have to make it a pain to get in. I don't understand why they have two locks. It's not like we live in a bad neighborhood," Will thought aloud to himself while walking up the staircase that stood before him. Since he lived on the third floor that meant he had to step up two flights of stairs to get there. With such a sore body it was a struggle just to walk up each stair individually, but to climb up at least thirty-some stairs felt like he was doing a reverse climb to hell.
Luckily for Will though, his apartment was only a couple paces down the third-floor hallway from the door to the stairs. Room three hundred seven, and looked beat up from the resident children who liked to play pranks and beat on it so hard. A soft sigh came from Will as he found his house key from the keychain and placed it in the lock. “Sometimes I just wish I could leave this place," He thought to himself as he twisted the doorknob and opened the door.
After closing the door behind himself and making sure it was locked, he leaned his back again the door. It creaked in that way when wooden objects are under stress from pressure as he leaned on it, but didn't show signs of budging. In front of him was the short hallway that housed the closet for jackets and shoes to his right, and the first room it opened up into was the kitchen just past the closet. Beyond that was the living room, if continuing down the hallway to the left was another hallway leading to the bathroom and bedroom.
Will gathered himself to walk again and made his way through the carpeted walkway to his bedroom. Most of the room was taken up by his bed with his dresser against the right wall opposite the door. He shuffled his feet against the used shirts and pants that littered the floor until he stood in front of his dresser. One of the drawers had been left open from the last time he used it, and it just so happened to be his pajama pants. Standing in place, he unbuckled his belt; slipping the thin strip of leather through his belt loops and tossing it onto the bed behind him. Next, he unbuttoned his pants and slid them down to the floor before stepping out of them. It wasn't really a conscious choice at this point as he merely grabbed the first pajama pants at the top of the messy pile and started putting them on in place of his day jeans.
Once more, Will’s stomach reminded him that he was hungry by sending out a few growls into the air. He rubbed his belly in a circle a few times before he walked back to the kitchen. Sitting on the counter already were a box of manicotti noodles and a small bottle of hot sauce. Those were two of the ingredients needed for his favorite pasta meal.
All Will needed now was some butter from the fridge which was easy enough to get. For now, though, Will opened one of the ground cupboards and pulled out a large deep walled pot. Will placed it into the sink and turned the water on hot. As it filled with water, he grabbed the package of noodles and opened it up into the cooking pot. It filled with water quickly, and Will turned it off once it was half full with water and carried it over to the stove top. Because of its weight, Will had to be careful not to drop it, but managed it just fine and turned the dial to its highest setting to get it boiling faster. Now it was just a matter of time until they were done.
As he waited for the noodles to be done, Will shuffled back towards the fridge and pulled out a stick of butter. He tossed it unceremoniously onto the counter nearby before reaching up into a cupboard above it for a plastic container. Will looked at the butter for a moment as he set the container down. It seemed like a lot of butter for what he was making, so he took a knife from the knife block and cut it in half before tossing one half into the container and the other half back into the fridge.
Then, as Will was closing the fridge, he heard something that shouldn't be there. Feminine giggling that sounded like it was coming from the living room. He gently placed the container he was holding back on the counter and slowly walked to the edge of the counter to peer into the living room. However, when he looked into the room, Will saw only what he expected to see. Along the right wall was a three seating couch, a small coffee table in front of it, and his TV along with his PlayStation and Xbox. His eyes narrowed slightly as he inspected the room for a few moments before rolling his eyes and moving back into the kitchen.
"I'm just paranoid because of earlier. With as tight of security as there is just getting into the building, I doubt there would be anyone in here with me." Will went back to taking the half stick of butter and placing it into the microwave to melt it. He set it for about seven minutes before heading back to his living room. His body was exhausted, and now it was finally time to sit down and relax.
As he sat down and leaned his head back, Will could feel sleep clawing at his mind and body. Though he desperately wanted to just fall asleep, Will fought through it since he had water boiling and he was just hungry. "Hungry, huh? Well, that can be arranged! What do you like to eat on occasion?" Will chuckled and his mouth watered as he thought that, and his mind immediately went to that cake he had a week ago. Then it suddenly occurred to him that he didn’t think that at all.
By then it was already too late to do anything about it. Just as Will attempted to move his body and stand up, he found that it refused to do what he told it. Will heard the giggling once again, but this time it was much closer. "Cake, huh? Cake sure sounds delicious right about now!" Said a female voice that for some reason sounded far too familiar. However, as he tried to turn his head to look in the voice's direction, he still couldn't move.
“What’s going on? Who’s there?” Will shouted while still struggling to break free of this paralysis he seemed to be afflicted with.
Again the giggling was heard, but this time it seemed to come from nearby on his right side. “Aw! Willy, I’m hurt that you don’t remember me! Oh, well I guess that’s also partly my fault. I did erase your memory for that whole hour so I guess you would have trouble remembering me.” Erase his memory? Will had no idea what this person was talking about, but he certainly didn’t like it. “Don’t worry though! I’ll make sure to give you all of your memories back after I make a cake though!”
“Make a cake? I have nothing in my kitchen to make a cake with,” Will muttered as he again attempted to resist this paralysis.
She started to giggle again, but it sounded slightly muffled as if they had their hand in front of their mouth. "Oh but Elle has all of the ingredients that she needs!" That name sounded familiar to Will for whatever reason, but he had no clue where he remembered it from.
Just then, as he was starting to remember, pain shot through his body. He would’ve screamed in pain, but something forced his mouth closed as he did. Will could feel his body changing in a way that it definitely wasn’t meant to. His legs and arms felt like they were burning, or more precisely that it felt like they were melting off. It almost felt like they were getting submerged in lava, or maybe as if he was reaching into a hot oven. In either event, it was hurting far more than he could handle.
Unfortunately, Will couldn’t scream to try and get someone’s attention as each time he would think of doing it his mouth would clamp shut immediately. At this point, it became obvious that someone was controlling his body so that he couldn’t get anyone’s attention. After what felt like an hour of just his arms and lefts melting it finally stopped, but now it felt like they weren’t even there. That wasn’t the end of it, however, as now his head and body felt like they were melting as well.
Will’s body took no time in melting away the lower half of his body, and soon he couldn’t actually see anymore as his vision went dark. He attempted to ask Elle what was going on with him, but now it felt like he couldn’t even talk. "Remember how you told Elle that you had nothing to make a cake with? Well, Elle found a way around that which is just turn Willy into a cake!" Will could hardly believe what he just heard. Was he really being turned into a cake to be eaten by this person? No, that was impossible to do; it didn’t make any sense as to how it would even happen!
Soon the burning and melting sensation stopped, and nothing else happened. Well aside from being lifted up into the air by nothing and set down on something that felt wooden, but there was nothing wrong with that right? "Willy looks so delicious!" Elle cooed as she touched his side with a finger and seemed to swipe across him. He wondered what she was doing, but it didn't take him long to feel a random wetness, and a tongue. Why could he feel a tongue on him, or was Elle licking him possibly? So many questions floated about in his mind, but even that seemed clouded and felt like his brain was stuffed with cotton balls.
“What is going on? She isn’t making any sense with her words,” Will thought to himself as he continued his futile struggling. No matter how much Will tried to move, his body wouldn't do anything other than sit there.
During his insistent struggling, Will soon felt a very odd and unusual sensation. What could only be described as something being stabbed into his body is what he felt. Though as this cutting sensation continued, he found that no pain came from it. All that came about from this was uncertainty and awkward silence.
"Oh, this cake is going to be so yummy!" Elle chuckled as the sound of something metallic hit what Will assumed to be the coffee table. Immediately after that, he felt a similar stabbing sensation followed by the gentle cutting and slicing once more. Then the weirdest feeling of all followed right after another light tapping of metal on wood. Will felt his body get picked up with something, but at the same time, he could still feel his body on the table.
Just what was going on Will wondered as he felt that disconnected part of his body get touched by something. “Oh, Elle can tell by reading Willy’s lingering thoughts that you are so sensual now!” Will could not for the life of him figure out what was going on. Then as he felt like he could get a grasp on the situation, everything got flipped on its head. Will felt teeth, and not just in a nibbling fashion but in a way that told him that someone was chewing. This sensation continued on and the more it did, the more he realized that a part of his body was being chewed on.
Quickly, Will's level of panic skyrocketed when he learned of himself being eaten, and he tried to struggle once more. Unfortunately, his body was still unresponsive to anything Will told it to do. Questions flooded his mind as he tried to make sense of what was happening, but none of them would be answered. He felt his world starting to collapse around him, and as he was about to struggle again, Will felt his mind go blank. White filled his vision as if someone dumped white paint all over his head. Everywhere he looked he saw nothing, and soon, his head would be left with nothing.
