There was a little boy who went to the moon with his mother in a cardboard box. He roamed the gardens on the moon picking flowers for his girlfriend who sat in class on Earth awaiting his return. While he picked the most beautiful flowers he could find, carefully avoiding the geese and other various creatures that roamed the moon, the boy’s mother retrieved a new and beautiful species of flower that she had discovered. When they were both done they returned to Earth in their box and went about their business in the sunshiny colorful world.
But all was not well at the elementary school. The building was empty and the boy’s girlfriend was nowhere to be found. Something was horribly awry.
The next day the boy and his mother returned to the moon so she could finish her research. But when the woman explained to her son that he had to go back to Earth and go to school while she stayed on the moon for a few days, he cried and begged her to let him stay with her until they could go home together, but she said it was out of the question and put several small boxes together and taped her son inside. But the woman was not fast enough in sending her son away and the evil shape-shifting master of darkness, Aku, came out of the shadows and captured the boy for his own.
It is at this pint that the dream shifts and the woman and her son are both forgotten as the scenery changes and new characters come into play. I am one of these characters, captured by Lord Aku and imprisoned in his fortress, which is carved in the side of a dark foreboding mountain. We briefly see an unnamed genderless hero scaling the wall with a coiled rope in hand. The barred windows are dark.
Inside the mansion I am sitting in a hot bathtub in candlelight listening to the voice of Aku. He forces me to masturbate as hard as I can and won’t let me stop. This goes on for a long time before he sends me to my room in extreme pain. We do this every day for weeks, and slowly I build up a resistance to the pain and become accustomed to doing what he tells me. Aku captures more people every day, and does to them what he has done to me. We are all slaves and one by one we are led to the bathtub where he forces us to masturbate in great pain.
One day I discover that my brother Benji has become the newest victim. I find him in his cell slumped over and crying in pain. Aku has sent him away to get his wits about him before round 2. I go to a cabinet in the hallway to retrieve some numbing ointment (I know the mansion well now) and bring it back to my brother. I tell him to stay where he is and I walk back to the candlelit room to take his place. I close the door behind me and stand in the darkness waiting for Aku’s voice to arrive.
“You took pity on your brother and came in his place,” he finally said.
“Yes.”
“Then take off your clothes. The water is hot.”
The water was always exceptionally hot, and always crystal clear. I sunk in slowly and leaned back, waiting for my instructions. It was several minutes before he spoke again.
“You are a good sister to take his place.”
“I’m used to it. He’s not.”
“You are no longer afraid of me.”
I pause for a moment to ponder the strange psyche of my captor. He remains quiet and I feel almost as if there is a bond between us. Finally I ask,
“Why do you make us touch ourselves? Why not do it yourself?”
“You do not think what I do is enough?”
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” I say, “most sexual predators want to get their hands on their victims.”
“I am not most sexual predators.”
“You’re never even in the room when you make us do it. We can only hear your voice. Why don’t you want us to see you?” I’m surprised he hasn’t made me do anything yet and I move around in the tub, knowing that Aku is watching me from somewhere. I wonder what he’s doing. I imagine him in a room full of television screens.
“Do you have nerves in your body?” I ask. “Could you feel it if you touched me?” He answers vaguely, not answering my question. He seems embarrassed by what I’m suggesting.
Suddenly there is a commotion in the halls. One of the prisoners is trying to escape. Aku is now occupied, attending to the problem at hand, and Louis and Arianna come running through the door to retrieve me.
“Everyone’s leaving,” Arianna says. “We have to go now.”
I follow them into the hallway and the entire building is crumbling. The prisoners are all running for their lives and soon there is nothing to stand on, we are all falling through a dark sky among bits of shrapnel and furniture, and Aku is nowhere to be found.