“Come on Andrei! Catch the ball at some point in the next year, will ya?!” yelled Paul. I was never coordinated, so why start now? I caught the ball a few times that day, just not the last few times. I guess Paul thought that if I can catch it once, I can do it again, and again, and again.

I rubbed my tired eyes underneath my thick-rimmed rimmed glasses with the hand that was not holding the ball. Giving my friend a small smile, I tossed the ball over toward him. Laughing, he caught it.

“Those glasses bothering you already, Andrei? You had just gotten them a few days ago.”

“I know. That doesn’t mean I have to enjoy them.” I had recently gotten glasses, a cursed object that strikes fear into every teenager’s heart. The word most certainly struck fear into mine. The teasing, the bullying…I had hoped it would go away in high school, but it was already my junior year, and it still had not stopped.

Paul, a sixteen year-old in my class, and I were just playing catch that sunny day in August, that fateful day. I can still remember it as if it was yesterday. Paul throwing the ball, me catching it, throwing it back, him catching it one-handed, and then me not being able to catch his next throw, all those visions are so vivid. The next part is where both of us get a bit lost. A flash of lightning coming out of nowhere and me disappearing are all that Paul can conjure up. As for me, all I remember is the ball coming towards me and then darkness.
Upon waking up, I felt something hard under my skull. “Ugh, my head” I whispered into the darkness. “Paul, are you there, man? Paul?!” No response. I felt the cold floor with my hands stood up quickly which cause my world to begin spinning. I cried out as I fell on my knees. A vision came to me, one of Paul running into a police station. That was all I saw. It came and was gone in a flash.
I must get out. I have to get out. Feeling around for my glasses, I once again cursed my bad eyesight. Why couldn’t I have been born with perfect eyesight? Standing up, I began to walk around. I felt the walls with my hands and I came to the conclusion that I must be in a small room of some sort. As I walked around, I began to feel suffocated and pressured. I couldn’t see a thing and it unnerved me to not know where anything was or where I was. My head suddenly began to hurt and my legs turned to jelly. My forehead felt hot and my heart was beating a thousand times a minute as the blood rushed to my face.

I stood up more slowly this time, and took a look around. I was in what seemed to be a cell and as the reality of the situation settled, my nerves became even more unnerved.
“Help! Someone get me out of here!” I yelled as I banged on the walls. Panic invaded my body and the only thing I could think of was that I had to get out of here. After about thirty minutes of this, the idea finally got into my head that all I was going to get out of this were bruised fists. With a sigh I sat down and began contemplating what I was doing here. Magic kept on intruding my thoughts, but I continuously pushed it aside. Magic was an absurd, illogical thought… “But it does explain the random lightning.” With a start, I realized I was talking to myself, a new habit. Putting my head in my hands I began wondering what will happen to me. Will I go insane? Will I ever be found? What was that vision? The creaking of something brought me out of my thoughts. The first thing I thought of was a door, and turned around to see a man step through a door and into my prison carrying a lamp.
“I am glad to see you are finally awake, young man.” The man said in a low voice. The person was old and bent by a hump on his back. In the dim light of the lamp I could see he was missing numerous teeth and his hair was mostly gone, except for a few white strands on his cranium. His eyes were what scared me the most. Despite the man’s appearance, the eyes held a killer look to them and made me feel as if this stranger would be able to strangle me with his bare hands if he ever wanted to. They made me feel small, helpless, and weak, those eyes, the ones of a true murderer.
“I have been waiting for you to come along for a while now.” The man continued in his intimidating voice.
“Wha- what d-d-do you w-w-want from me?” I finally managed to say, although I was ashamed at how weak those words sounded. The man looked at me like I was a lunatic.
“Don’t you know who you are?”
“Yes, I do. I am a boy who was kidnapped and now wants to go home, so let me go!” I said with much more confidence than I was feeling. The man gave me a death glare that chilled me down to my bones.
“Tsk, tsk. That was not the answer I was looking for. You see, you are a wizard.”
“Yeah, right. Me, a wizard?! That’s the most absurd idea I’ve ever heard. You’re crazy if you think I’m…” My voice faltered as he struck me with that penetrating gaze of his, the one that felt as if he could see right into my soul.
“I thought you wouldn’t believe me. So how about some proof?” As he said that he seemed to throw something at me. I did the first thing I could think of and that was put a hand out in front of me. The object stopped moving and fell down onto the floor. My breath hitched in my throat and I felt sick and doubled over, nearly hyperventilating. Magic would explain everything…except the fact that it could not exist.
“You appear disbelieving. Not to worry. I will teach you well and then we shall rule the world, you and I.”
I looked up at him like he was a maniac, and at the time his cackling made him seem very much like one.
“What do you need me for?” I managed to stutter while trying to get my breath back.
“My dear boy, I need your powers. They…may be stronger than my own, but together, we will be unstoppable!” He raised his arms while saying this and the whole cave shook.
“I…will….never…join…you…” I said between breathes. The man did not seem to like that statement, for he pointed at me and the next thing I knew, my whole body was writhing in pain. It felt like I red-hot knives were stabbing me all over and finally, after what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes, the pain stopped. Oh god….my whole body was covered in a cold sweat and continued to spasm violently for a few minutes. The whole time the man-no, the monster-watched me and eventually walked out without saying a word. I continued to shudder and shake until the welcoming warmth of unconsciousness overcame my senses and I knew no more.