“Are you okay? My goodness, You are covered in bite marks. You must be in pain,” I heard a woman chime to me. My heartbeat slowed down to the sound of her melodic voice. I felt soothed; all adrenaline left my body. The woman speaking to me was the person responsible for opening and closing the door. I stared up at her, attempting to assemble my thoughts.
I stood up and dusted myself off. “These wounds are nothing,” I answered, “I am very grateful for you. You saved my life.”
This woman who had saved me was incredibly beautiful- she had long, straight black hair which passed to her lower back. Her eyes were a deep purple that I would get lost in for a moment: I had never seen such a color occupy the eyes. Her figure was thin in all the right areas, but very healthy in others.
She ran over to me with tears beginning to fall from her eyes, “I’m just so happy,” she sniffled, “that you’re okay.” She now had her arms wrapped around me, her chest pressed into my upper abdominal muscles- she was only slightly shorter than myself.
I put my right arm around her and stroked her hair- it was soft like silk. I had never felt hair this soft, “I’m okay, you’re okay,” I said softly.
I looked around to see others silently watching us. They all shared the same pale-white skin the woman hugging me wore. Above me the tunnel’s top was covered in a sort of white tiles, with tubes illuminating artificial sunlight. The room had a strange fragrance to it- cherry? Almost. It didn’t smell exactly like cherry, but it was the closest thing I could compare it to.
This place was definitely strange, and I was very curious. I gently pushed the woman off of me and asked, “Just where am I?” I looked around, inviting anyone to answer my question.
A man with the same purple eyes as the woman previously hugging me stepped up and began to speak, “We honestly are not sure ourselves. Our tribe entered Ignas from the southern entrance in Unterra just about five days ago. We can’t be certain of the time length as the sun does not rise or fall here, but that’s just our estimate. Anyway, after attempting to choose a statue we heard some voice speaking of atonement, fell through the ground below us, fought off the skeletons and ended up here.”
His story checked out, but I couldn’t dismiss my guard just yet. Something felt off- maybe too convenient about this situation. And this place; it reminded me of the Watcher sanctuaries in the neutral zones because of the artificial lighting and bright, white surroundings. I was sent here by a Greater Spirit so I could possibly just be practicing paranoia, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that was it.
“Don’t trust anyone,” I heard the voice of the gauntlet growl inside my mind, “Don’t eat food. Need to find escape, but your body is much too weak. Need rest. I cannot claim vessel to protect you with this low energy. We both die if I try. Find safe room, lock yourself inside.”
Now you want to speak? Why should I listen to you? I questioned the voice, but apart of me thought he was the most trustworthy person in the room. I’d at least known him the longest, and based on past experiences I don’t believe he’d let me die; however, I came here because of him and to stop the mindless killing. I couldn’t sacrifice these people for my own safety without knowing whether or not they are innocent.
The woman who was hugging me began to speak again, “Sorry- I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Anaya and the man speaking beforehand is Rasheed, my father. We are of the Kha’sai tribe south of Ignas,” she grabbed ahold of both of my hands and put them together; enclosing them inside hers, “What is your name?”
I felt warm speaking to her. Her voice was just so pure and her body emitted an unusual warmth. I felt I could trust her for some reason. “Inarashi of Ardent,” I replied, “I have never been South of Ignas. I would love to hear about your tribe sometime, but-“
Anaya quickly let go of my left hand and put one of her fingers in front of my lips, cutting off my speech, “sh sh sh,” she whispered, “I know, let me guess,” she then raised her voice now sounding excited, “you are tired. Correct!?” She smiled and winked.
“Yeah...” I responded, my heart beating quickly.
“Your eyes are so dark, all around them! You look like you haven’t had a good night’s sleep in days!” She said, still excited. Her voice mellowed down a bit as she continued, “we share two to a room. I’m the only one with a room to myself, would you like to sleep with me?”
She had shown so much kindness to me I was a little hesitant to accept. If I went out of control and these people could stop me somehow, I’d hate for her to be the one to die by my rampage, but it made sense for me to go to the room with the least amount of people. The gauntlet just told me he couldn’t take over as well... “Sure, that sounds great,” I answered after a brief pause.
“Great!” She exclaimed as she grabbed me by the hand and dragged me out of the square room we had stood in. After exiting the first room, it was just a corridor filled with seven doors lined in front of us. Two doors twice the size showed to our left and right. She pulled me to the middlemost door and opened it.
It was dark in the room, I couldn’t see anything. I could feel Anaya’s other arm move and suddenly an artificial light radiated from atop of us. I could now see the room-there were two unusual looking beds. They were framed by steel in unnecessary design and had a slim, long rectangular padding to lay on. Based on looks they looked much cleaner than that of Ardent’s- even those in the infirmary. Beside one of beds was a wooden stand with drawers and atop of it was a mirror.
Anaya then began to pull me to the other bed. As I walked past the mirror I looked to see my condition. My silver-white, slicked back hair stood up same as always, loose strands here and there, but it was very dirty- parts almost looked blonde at the moment. Anaya was spot on with my eye examination. My green eyes were circled by black which made my brown skin look light in comparison. On my face and neck were bite marks from the skeletons I had fought earlier. Dried up blood covered the holes where their teeth had punctured.
“And this is yours!” She said with a smile, pointing to the empty bed in front of us, “I’m going to go get some food, I’ll get you some as well.” She let go of my hand and began to walk away.
“Wait, uh, no thank you!” I shouted after her, “I’m not very hungry.”
She turned around and put her hand on her face confused, “Oh really?” she questioned, “That’s fine. Well, I’ll be back shortly then.”
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I sat on the bed she led me to. It felt amazing. As I laid down I sunk in and the cushion surrounded me. I felt as though I was being consumed by the comfort. This was leagues above even the infirmary’s beds. I was astonished. I never knew such a thing could exist. Just where is this place? What is it?
Lying on the bed, lost in the blissful feeling surrounding me, my eyes began to slowly close. As soon as they had fully shut I saw the faces of all I had killed. I shot up and yelled, “Arrhhgghh!” I clenched my fist and slammed the bed beside me, creating a hole in it- cloth shot up on the impact of my fist.
I heard the door open and Anaya rushed inside the room holding two steel buckets full of water. She stumbled on her way and a slight bit of water splashed out of each bucket onto the floor. She looked at the water on the floor and then looked at me, “Are you okay?” she asked, “I heard you scream. What happened?”
“Water? Weren’t you going to eat?” I asked, bewildered.
“I decided...” she started off slowly, dragging her words, “I was going to clean you! I’m sorry if I’m intruding I just thought it’d be nice- I hope you don’t take it the wrong way!” She spluttered with a bright red face.
I couldn’t help but laugh, “I don’t mind at all. Thank you very much, I just noticed how ragged I looked on my way in. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.”
I turned around and began to take my clothes off. It was a little embarrassing getting washed by someone else at this age, but I really could use the help. My body was now running past empty, and with my inability to close my eyes, some comfort felt very nice. A part of me wanted someone to take care of me. It’d been so long since I got this sort of treatment. It’d been so long since I felt this helpless.
She covered the bed with a large, thick towel. I laid down on my stomach, and turned my head to the side staring at the blank, white wall ahead of me. She squeezed a wet hand cloth above my head, and my hair became soaked with water. She put some type of thick soap in my hair and began to brush her hands through my hair spreading the soap around. With each stroke of her hands her fingertips would gently scratch the scalp of my head inside of my hair. It felt good. How long had it been since something felt this good?
My eyes slowly began to shut. All I saw was darkness. There were no faces; no blood; no death. All that I could pay attention to was Anaya’s fingers with water and cloth making their way from my head to my back. Carefully she would rub my skin with enough pressure to almost feel like a massage on my aching muscles, but not enough to feel any sort of pain. Upon reaching the lowest section of my back she slid her hands towards my stomach, gently squeezing my hip along the way.
Instinctively, I slightly lifted my body from my abdominals down, giving her hand room for free movement. She traced my abdominal muscles with her nail; careful not to scratch, but glide through the indentations in my body. Slowly she flattened her hand and her palm made its way down my body. Upon reaching my penis she wrapped her small hands around it with a light, subtle grip and began stroking it. My flaccid penis slowly became more and more erect with each stroke- and with each stroke Anaya would increase in speed fueling my need to grow.
Simultaneously, I could feel her breasts pressing further into me, squishing themselves against my back. I could slightly feel her nipples amongst all the soft skin on my back peak through, yearning for attention. I felt lost in a sea of Euphoria, everything felt right. As I focused on how right everything felt, I began to turn around carefully to not interrupt her movements. As I turned guilt slowly began to release it’s toxins into me. My closed eyes suddenly saw the face of Kara and I pushed Anaya away yelling, “stop!”
Anaya shrieked and fell back toward the lower half of the bed, her head barely missing the steel frame. I saw tears begin to build up at the bottom of her eyes. I felt remorse, I should’ve said something sooner. What was I doing allowing that as long as I did?
“I’m sorry, Anaya... You’re incredibly beautiful, really. And you’re so sweet. But I can’t take advantage of your kindness. I’m... It’s best not to get involved with me, really. I don’t deserve to be here, you should not have let me in this place with all of you. I murdered them... I murdered them all...”
Anaya got up, wiped her tears, and came close me again. She wrapped one arm around me, and stroked my face with another. I placed my head between her neck and shoulder and let myself cry as she held me.
She began to speak, her soft voice a little shaken eventually becoming hysterical, “Shhhhh. It’s okay, Inarashi. I... I’m the one who’s sorry. I only did all of this because father told me to! I’m so sorry, I didn’t think you were this type of person! They told me you were an evil person- that you were gifted from the Greater Spirits to them! Inarashi, please don’t fall asleep! Please you have to stay up and get away!”
As she spoke my eyes slowly got heavier. By the end of her confession I had no will to move my body. Run? Why? I’m with you, aren’t I, Anaya? It’ll all be okay, I’m sure.
I heard the door of our room slam open. A familiar voice began to speak, “Good job, Anaya. I knew you could tame this beast. You have fulfilled your father’s wishes, what a good daughter. Finally the Greater Spirits gift me with my first human. All of the others all got to have their fun before me, but finally! It’s my turn!” The tone of his voice often shifted from high to low throughout his words.
“No, father! Listen to me!” she begged, “he’s not a bad person! I know it, I can feel it!”
I could open my eyes, barely. I was in the arms of Rasheed now, my vision blurry. My body jerked with every step. Where was he carrying me? Down the corridor?
I heard Anaya’s voice fading with distance, “Let go! Let go of him! Let go of me! We can’t do this! I won’t let th...”
Rasheed carried me through a door into another room. He began to set me down. My body laid flat on a steel surface, all except my head peeled slightly up to view the rest of my body. My arms were offset and elevated a little aways from my body, resting on steel rectangles. All around, my body began to be tied down in chains restricting any sort of movement. A device was put in front of my face. It had steel arms the spread open my eyes. An eerie, vibration-like noise suddenly entered the air.
My eyes stormed to the sound’s source: a blade with many edges rapidly spinning in a clockwise motion. Rasheed very slowly moved the spinning blade towards my skin, assuring that I would see it’s destination being my left arm. “You see...” he started with a brief pause, “this! You see this! This is magnificent! This disgusting creature on your arm. You want it removed, don’t you? Yes, yes, yes. I will remove it! Thank me later, don’t mind.”
He pulled his face in front of mine mid conversation and stared me in the eyes. His erratic speech continued in his excitement- occasionally screeching certain words and speaking in a flurry of tones. His spit now covered my face from his lack of saliva control, and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his face. While under normal circumstances I would be grateful for him to take that thing away from me; I couldn’t bring myself to believe these were normal circumstances. I could tell when we first met he was hiding his true self which was now shown before me. This man, Rasheed, had a few screws loose in his head.
As he pushed his instrument into my skin, blood began to spit into the air all around the entry point along with the consumed skin. “You won’t feel it yet, don’t worry,” he said half laughing, “not until I hit the bone. That bath Anaya gave you had a little drug I invented in it. It relaxes your body, making moving very, very difficult. Luckily for you it also reduces pain. But once I get to the bone... Well, I think you’ll be able to feel that.”
He was right, I couldn’t feel a thing. I just stood there silently watching as the blade cut through me. As soon as the blade started hitting my bone I could feel the blades’ rotation cutting through, “raaargghhg!” I screamed in pain.
The blades weren’t sharp enough to cut clean through. It took several rotations of the eight spinning blades impacting my bone at high velocity to move down further. Rasheed would mess up the location by not keeping his hands steady as well, sometimes bringing the weapon up and lowering it back to the bone. That was when I would feel the most pain. About halfway through his sawing on my bone I had passed out from the pain. The room had a strong stench of blood and sweat. I was happy to be rid of it. I was happy to be rid of the pain.