Chapter Text
My body felt light, almost as if I was floating away on a cloud. No matter how much I wanted to remain in a forever trance or a black paradise, my eyes shot open. I found myself in a cylindrical case which was most likely made of a very strong material; seeings as it was withstanding the blows I sent via my elbows. A shiver ran down my spine as I moved from the glass to the multiple sets of eyes on me.
“He’s awake!” The voices broke out but they sounded distant. The observers scattered around in madness now that I had woken up. I watched them through blurry eyes for a while before they were all seated with clipboards and pencils before me. Truly, I felt exposed as so many pupils bore into me; into my mind, body, and soul. I tried to move once again but found just how small this case was. To make matters worse, I found that my feet had been chained to the bottom of this contraption which I also learned was filled with water. ‘Great!~’ I do admit to freaking out once I realized that they were trying to drown me.
‘Calm down!’ The dark voice ripped through my head like rotating razor blades. I immediately brought my hands roughly to my head and let out a cry of pain. As I squirmed around, ankles fighting with shackles, elbows competing with glass, and throat dying for a bit of oxygen, the lab people just sat and recorded crap! ‘I know it hurts! Now stay calm!’ Despite the new pounding in my head, I let my arms fall to my sides. ‘Good, now take a nice deep breath,’ he sounded calm, ‘inhale, exhale. That’s how you breathe, remember?’
‘Are you trying to kill me?’ I continued to hold my breath.
‘I’m trying to help here! Now breathe!’ He yelled loudly causing a severe, sharp pain to split through my head like a screw driving itself deep into my skull.
‘I’ll drown!’ I freaked out as I was beginning to, not want, but need air.
‘You realize that when you had a spaz attack about two minutes ago, you didn’t hesitate to gulp the air down like it was an oxygen buffet in here!’ He retorted again.
‘What?’ I didn’t remember any water getting in my lungs. I know for sure I didn’t remember drowning.
‘Breathe!’ He repeated this a few times until I took in a deep inhale of air, afraid that I would drown. My eyes were wide when I was able to breathe underwater.
“How does this work?” I was fascinated by my hidden ability.
‘Oi, don’t be thinking that you’re part merman or something now! You’re simply in a substance called fluorocarbon.’ Boy was my inner conscience trying to mock me! I do admit that he did bring up some valid points that I’d never even heard of!
“What is...that?” I asked, curiosity killing the cat.
‘What? Well, fluorocarbon is a substance that looks and generally feels like water however it has a different chemical makeup.’ Boy was this news to me! ‘I’m surprised that you can’t see my thoughts like I can see yours...’
“What?” I freaked out yet again, “you can see what I think? How? Why? You aren’t some parasite, are you?”
‘Wow, thanks!’ He sounded irritated by my last comment and I guess I can understand how that might not have been the best thing to spurt out at the moment.
“N-no, I didn’t mean that! I’m just...I’m just super confused!”
‘Confused? About my existence? Your existence? Or should I just say our existence?’ He laughed ever so slightly after muttering those words.
“What...what’re you talking about?” I raised an eyebrow in interest.
‘I am darkness and you are the light that fights against me. Together we are nothing but a simplistic shadow casted on some wall,’ he explained with complete seriousness in his tone.
“I-i’m still confused,” I admitted it openly despite it making me feel….stupider.
‘You’re your mother’s child: blond hair, blue eyes,...an angel. On the other hand, I am father’s child: dark hair, piercing abnormal eyes,...a demon.’ He explained the situation a bit more before the water was oddly being drained from the tube in which I was being held. As the fluorocarbon dwindled by my chained ankles, the cold air hit my bare body, causing me to shiver ever so slightly.
“Lets pull him out,” with the command, everyone was off in a tizzy, running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
“Wh-what’s going on?” I spoke to the inner part of myself.
‘We’ll have to wait and see,’ I could feel the trapped anger rising within me. My eyes definitely would have moved into sharp glares but all of my muscles were too sore to waste the energy on something stupid like that...for now. ‘Get ready,’ the monster that was buried deep inside my mind warned me. I quickly braced myself for a battle but was only laughed at by the demon. ‘Your stance proves just how weak and inexperienced you are when it comes to fighting!’ His mad chuckling ripped painfully through my head.
“Well, so sorry! I don’t really have a lot of room in this tube to take an intimidating stance!” I retaliated with my quick tongue.
‘True,’ I could feel a smirk oddly pulling at the muscles in my face, ‘I guess it would be hard to take this seriously when you’re stark naked, floating around in a glass cylinder.’ My face flushed a deep red at the comment on how under dressed I truly was. ‘Whoa! Look who turned into a blushing little girl!’ The laughter caused me to feel embarrassed. That feeling however quickly changed when my cage had been opened.
Cold, gloved hands were placed above the shackles on my wrists. I tried to get them off but their grip was strong and my body was weak due to the drugs that they must have forced into my system while I was drowning in a sea of death and darkness. My body was pulled out from the glass container by two strong pairs of hands that had gripped me tightly under the arms after, of course, unbinding me. They laid my drugged shell down on a metal table that was surprisingly colder than the air that had previously wracked itself around my body.
I went to move but found my slow-reacting limbs were hooked brutally to the cart via leather straps that would definitely prove to be a hindrance if I tried to escape in my current, weakened condition. “Don’t move,” a hand rustled my mixed locks, “we don’t want you getting hurt now, do we?” I opened my mouth to speak but was instead met with a gag, forcing it’s way in between my upper and lower sets of teeth. At this point I was shivering in complete and utter fear. I was being pushed down creepy white hallways, strapped to a metal cart.
“Here he is!” One of my mover’s spoke once a door opened up and I was pushed inside. “So, is he really a winged being?” My eyes widened at this. Madam Aquina had told me about my wings and how dangerous it would be if people, humans specifically, knew the truth. She told me about men in white coats that pulled her from her home in Russia due to her strange abilities. My mother warned me that these ‘scientists’ would do much worse if they found a child, such as myself, who proved to have wings.
Just as I remembered Madam’s words, I felt a needle pierce the tan skin of my forearm. A surprised gasp left my filled mouth cavity. They, the lab men and women, pulled the syringe from my flesh before they grabbed their notebooks to most likely write down my reaction to whatever they had injected in my system.
Not even a minute later, pencils were scribbling away at speeds that were almost inhuman. The lab members were keeping track of how my pulse jumped, my metabolism flew off the charts, and my blood pressure soared.
The odd rush forced my eyes to fly wide open, my body to convulse, and my heartbeat to pound in my head. I threw my head back, hair messily falling onto the metal contraption. My fists clenched, knuckles quickly losing almost all of their color. My mind was painfully swirling in a million directions from the drug that they had injected into my left arm.
“His wings aren't budging yet. Are you sure that this is the one?” A woman’s voice echoed loudly in my head.
“Yes, this is the subject that police found outside of the tent fire in Déste Bay. The officers reported him having grey wings with black tipped feathers.” A male’s voice hit my ears this time. The audaciousness of their vocals caused my eyelids to fill up with tears.
“Hold him down while I extract his lacrimal fluid,” the same woman’s voice tore through my ears like a child brusquely ripping paper.
“Got it,” with that, the sound of two chairs being relieved of weight filled the room. Next, a large hand connected with my sweat stained forehead. Pressure was applied and I let out a muffled scream. The weight that the man was using made it, the pushing, with the help of these hallucinogenic drugs, to feel as if he were nailing a rivet into my skull. The man had pulled his gloved hand away for a moment before replacing it with just as much or maybe even more pressure. My mind trailed off as my vision blurred, adrenaline pumping, and pulse quickening.
“Keep him calm! We can’t have his heart rate going up too high or he could go into cardiac arrest or have a stroke!” An older female yelled, hitting my ears at a volume in which could practically explode anyone’s eardrums. “Give him some Haloperidol if you’re going to continue with this extraction!” My ears were pounding and my heart was seemingly beating out of my chest.
“He’ll be fine! I promise we’ll finish this lacrimal fluid test without any changes to his current or future health,” the reply came quickly.
“And if he dies?” My body convulsed due to a chill that rapidly skidded down my spinal cord. I hated to admit it but I was scared to the point that I almost urinated. My life had almost been taken from me countless times but with each near-death experience, I found that my will to live was greater than previous times.
“He won’t,” the woman’s tone was laced with confidence; be it false or not. My life was now in this psycho’s hands; great!
“He better not or you’ll be fired it you aren’t executed first!”
“I understand. Now, please excuse me while I extract a tear sample!” A blurred hand and tool came into view. The two objects grew larger showing the dwindling distance.
“Be careful with that wire speculum! He’s not out so be careful not to poke his beautiful eyes out!” My fears multiplied and my body’s need to release urine was growing stronger by the second.
“I’ve got this!” She cried out and my body jumped. “Hold his eye open with your thumb and index finger.” I very much disliked the idea but I had no reason or way to retaliate. I had no reason to make my situation any worse than it currently was. The man’s chubby fingers pulled the skin of my eyes tight as the metal piece grew closer. The sound of the EKG filled my thoughts as the tool was placed against my left, golden eye. A pipette soon came near but instead of going straight for the eye moved to pick up some of the tears that moved down, caressing my paling skin. “Alright, we’re done,” the materials were taken away.
“You got lucky this time Lizaveta,” the older woman let out a sigh of relief.
“Believe me, I know!” She laughed but the sound hit my ears like an explosion. A scream slipped out of me, startling half the scientists.
The next few hours were spent being watched as the drugs I’d been given caused my mind and body to go completely haywire. As I lay, freezing cold, my limbs shake and spasm every so often. The anxiety of having people stare at my naked body and record every move begins to grow worse. Along with the embarrassment, my mood began to worsen. Before I knew it, I, after having the gag removed, released all the contents of my stomach beside me on the cart. As saliva and bile dripped out from between my lips and stung my throat, my world fell into a hazy, pain-filled abyss of darkness.
The next time I woke up I was fully conscious, without any drugs tampering with my mind, body, or comprehension. I looked around the metallic lab, catching my reflection off of a few machines. My tan skin had grown awfully pale, my eyes seemingly sunken halfway into my skull, and my arms bruised, and covered in scabs due to the many injections they have given me of the past...week? Perhaps I’ve only been here for a few days. Heck, I could’ve been here for two months for all I know! There were no windows, calendars, or clocks so it was practically impossible to tell how many days have gone by especially when you’re drugged to the point that you can’t even remember your name let alone count how many days you’ve been held in confinement by sadistic, cruel, Russian scientists.
To make matters worse, I mixed with ‘the voice’ so I had no one to talk to; no one to keep me from going truly senile. I do owe the demon some credit however. If it hadn’t been for the extra willpower of my second half, my wings would’ve been exposed long ago. I guess they had yet to prove me a mix-breed but they already knew that I wasn’t a human considering the fact that they hadn’t fed me a single pinch of food since I’d woken up in this hellhole. I had to admit that my stomach cried for something like bread which is surprisingly easy on the damaged digestive system. At this point though, I didn’t have any hope for the first meal that I would get after this torture session. They’d taken everything away from me; my pride, my happiness, my privacy, my flesh, my blood, my tears, my own body has been hijacked by these jaded bastards! They’ve controlled me as if I were nothing but a puppet on strings since day one! they’ve used my skin as their personal injection dummy. They’ve tested my pain tolerance to the point of breaking my left ring finger. They have pumped drugs into my system to see if my body would reject it or have an automatic defense against the high. They’ve even cut me open, taken as much blood as they wanted, and left me in a doll-like state. They never treated me like a person, ever! The scientists used me as a project, a piece of property to science! I was no longer a respected member of society but a kidnapped lump of flesh and blood for these scientists to torture and hold hostage.
“Pull him out and give him a dose of anesthetics,” a woman called just before the room was abandoned by any and all lab doctors. All that was left were the noisy machines, my cage, a guard, and a chair that definitely instilled some fear within me. Said seat was something you’d expect to see in some horror flick that was set in some insane asylum. The majority was wood, arm and feet rests included. Leather straps for around your wrists, ankles, and even a belt to hold your abdomen in place. The scariest part of it all’ the neck restrainer. The piece would clamp tightly around the nape, holding your head in place like a brace does.
As I stared at the contraption in bewilderment, the perfluorocarbon drained. My vision was pulled away by the audible opening of the cylindrical case that I practically floated in for hours on end every single day. As my manacles were released, two others entered, one quickly piercing my marred inner elbow with a dosage of stimulants. By now I was completely used to the pain and even developed a slight tolerance to the anesthesia.
“On three, pull him out and we’ll set him in the chair,” one of the three spoke, gripping a hand beneath my left arm. A slow count rang out and I was pulled out of confinement. My body trembled like a scared pup as we neared the chair. The two didn’t hesitate to get me, a possibly dangerous hostage, into a new version of captivity. As they were only feet away from hooking me up tightly, the third person brought a medical gown. As I was dressed in what could’ve been the first outfit I’d had in days, weeks, and may be even months, my hair was let loose. Mixed colors flooded over my eyes and I took in a sharp inhale at the view. ‘How long have I been here for my hair to go from scruffy to maidenly? Also, when had they tied my hair back? Since when have I stood mere inches below the guards?’ Thoughts swirled around and the next thing I felt was my feet leaving the ground as I was once again carried. As my body was oddly lowered towards the seat, I spasmed. The jump shocked the 3 men who returned a jump of fear and surprise. They quickly released my now frail arms, dropping me on the floor. The motion of falling caused my body to jar backwards once my rear connected with the tile floor. As my upper body collapsed backwards, my head met the wooden arm of the chair. I lay twitching on the freezing floor, back of head in my hands.
“Oh shit! We-we’re so screwed!” The three raced over to my side, checking for any damage; be it life threatening or not. “We’re so dead!” One of the guards pulled his moistened hand away, rubbing the sticky red substance between his thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. The other’s faces paled at the realization that they failed and would bruteley be punished for letting harm befall the priceless test subject.
With that, they hastefully pulled my body off the floor, shoving me frantically into the restraining chair. I let out a horrified whimper as they clasped the piece around my neck. The need to urinate hit as it usually did at this point of fear and discomfort.
“We have to speak to Bruce about this incident so he doesn’t tell someone ‘bout the kid’s tumble,” the leader nodded, receiving another two bowing heads in agreement. Then, the 3 dashed out to confront this ‘Bruce’ person while leaving me simply tied up in a torture chair.
The heaviness of my lower abdomen remained, growing worse with each and every passing minute in the chair. After what I’d considered to be a few long minutes, a large man; in both height and girth, came in, army swiss knife in hand. ‘W-wait! Wh-what’s going on here?’ I flinched at the reflection of the man who neared the backside of the chair.
“This’ll be interesting,” the man groaned, while scratching at his large beer gut. I flinched at the sudden vocals that were low like a rumble of thunder. “Is this even a boy?” A greasy hand gripped at the locks that ran slightly past my shoulders. The comment irritated me slightly however I couldn’t deny that my current body shape was nothing like a boys but like an anorexics,. I couldn’t help but be scrawny and have long hair when these people never fed or took care of me.
“Well, lets get this over with, “ his voice ended with a guttural groan. Bruce went through his army knives until he got to a special blade meant to cut hair. Of course, I freaked out because I couldn’t see a single thing he was doing except for the blurry reflection in the metal of the machines. I pressed my knees together tightly as the uncomfortable feeling of having a full bladder hit me.
“Remain calm,” he gripped my hair, sending shivers down my aching spine. Then, slight pressure was applied and the knife cut through my long, matted locks. I flinched at the unfamiliar feeling. “Well, this one’s a tame one,” Bruce continued chopping away, leaving me with hair that was about two inches in length. I didn’t have a bowl cut however this had to be one of the worst hairstyles ever!
The man pulled a mirror; showing me, for the first time in ages, what I looked like. My skin was as white as the clouds in heaven and my eyes were sunken as if my flesh was trying to devour them. My face was thin from malnutrition and it was obvious that I’d still grown despite my treatment.
“Do you know how old you are?” His deep, scratchy voice cut through the silence, ending my thoughts. When I went to speak, I found that my voice wouldn’t leave my extremely parched throat. In turn, I shook my head the best I could with the neck piece digging in to my thing flesh. “Do you know today’s date?” He spoke again, voice echoing through my head. “Damn...hold on while I go snoop for some info.” With that, he moved around, picking up the clipboards as he moved throughout the room. Every new report he read made everyone, even Hitler’s, eyes water. This man’s lips twisted into a slightly larger frown.
“Well,” he let out a sigh while rubbing his thick neck, “now I know why you are this calm.” He set a lab report down, “leave it to the scientists to claim that a kid is some monster that deserves to be pumped with drugs on a regular basis.” This man didn’t belong here. The Russian’s who ran the lab must have randomly chosen a man to come in and cut the hair of all the lab rats here. Boy was this guy in a terrible position be it what he was doing or where he was! I sorrow for Bruce because he was most likely forced into this torture institution. I can only pray that he has much better luck than I do in here.
“You’ve been here for a total of 374 days.” he told me and wasn’t surprised to see my heterochromatic eyes open widely. “You’re seventeen now, right?” I let my memories flow as I searched for a response to Bruce’s question.
‘Happy sixteenth birthday Polovic,’ Madam Aquina’s face flashed in front of me, forcing a cry to slip from my lips. The realization of my year long disappearance and the forgotten memories of mainly Madam, caused me to all out bawl like an infant child. Pain began to fill my every gross gasp as my adam’s apple bobbed out, causing the chair’s headlock to become tight against my neck. The repetitive constriction stopped when Bruce hit a button, releasing the neck stand. My disgusting sobs became louder however they were still sounding like a bunch of rushed screams.
“I’ve got to leave now or we’ll both be in trouble,” I nodded, snot dripping messily from my nose. Beneath my eyelids were red, puffy, cheeks. Hiccups wracked my body every few seconds. He laid a kind yet greasy hand on my boney shoulder before whispering, “good luck,’ and walking out.
I sat quietly in the chair for a few minutes before the two men came to move me back to my unforgivable confinement. Once they unhooked my wrists and ankles, they stripped me of my medical gown, leaving me cold and naked once again. They kept a tight hold on me as the tank refilled with the water-like substance. They hoisted me up, putting me in via the top entrance only after injecting more anesthesia and binding my limbs.
“W-wait!” One of the main, older doctor’s ran in, the two guys dropping me brusquely into the glass cage. The rough movement was hard on my body however I still managed to adjust to the fluorocarbon. Once I was back to a normal, drugged state, I caught muffled pieces of their conversation.
“Where’s the injection you gave him?” She asked in a panic.
“It-it’s on the cart over there!” One of the two answered before running to grab the now empty vial. The man carefully passed the needle to the professional scientist who’d been studying my every move for the last year.
“You fools!” The glass injector shattered on the floor only seconds after she chucked it angrily at the two guards. My skin crawled and my heart sped up at the woman’s breakdown. The second my heart leapt, my throat began to close and my head was overwhelmed with millions of different sensations. “That is a Red Level drug that hasn’t been stolen by the public yet due to it’s extremely high death rate!” Her voice screeched like a bat as my blood rushed, hot, through my body.
“We aren’t doctors, how were we suppose to know?” The two retaliated.
“I don’t care! If you two would’ve read whose tray you were foolishly grabbing from, this wouldn’t have happened!”
“Maybe if you lunatics had a better system here we’d actually know what the hell we’re supposed to be doing!”
The fight continued until my knees and elbows cracked against the bulletproof glass. I was submerged in the fetal position while covering my ears to stop the multiple voices from invading my everything.
“Get help now!” She screamed at one. “You, pull him out and set him on the corpse cart, now!” She snapped her fingers once and the two screw-ups that could easily cost me my life moved.
Two hands grabbed beneath my arms, slowly hoisting me out as I thrashed about like a drowning animal. Once I was out, my convulsing, burning body was dropped due to my sudden jolts. My back slammed to the ground, making a disgusting crack that cut through the endless mirage of voices. My body felt no pain, only heat. The majority of the blazing fire was centered near the inside crook of my shoulder blades.
“You’ve killed him!” She hissed loudly at the man. “You owe us two million rubles!” She screamed, slapping at the mover’s strong arms.
I lay still and wide-eyed on the floor. My shoulder blades, still heated, felt like they were dislocating themselves. As if my bones were teeth, they shoved into others, allowing room for another. With that, tears streamed down my face, nails digging into the skin of my back, and screams echoed throughout the whole building, others quickly joining in the room. My eyes shot back and forth as my body rolled around on the tile; complete sanity gone at this point. My blood rushed quickly, causing heat, my head blank with an empty black, and my back burning and tearing itself up. Chunks of my nails, stuck in large bleeding cuts on my shoulder blades. Said wounds ripped open further, blood pouring out rapidly as screams ricocheted off the walls.
“What the hell’s going on in here?” Doctors spoke back and forth, some panicking, some helping. A group of about five scientists tried their damnedest to hold my convulsing body down to no avail. Their hands and weight were rough however I, at this point, despite being greatly impaired, had the upper hand strength wise.
“Inject him with the serum already” One of my restrictors hissed loudly at whoever was trying to stop the muscle contractions and intense high.
“I’m trying but I can’t get him when he’s moving around so much!” A male retorted before everyone was pushed away from my body that just so happened to stop twitching and spasming madly like a person having a severe stroke.
A huge pressure built up in my crimson soaked back, causing me to yell out in pain and discomfort. My shoulder blades felt as if they were trying to break out from underneath my skin as they seemingly tried to repel from one another. My breath calmed for just a single moment and the pressure weakened greatly. At the realization, I rolled onto my stomach the best I could and let my body relax, hands on the ground beside my splitting shoulder blades. I released a shaky breath as calmly as I could in my current state. With the expelling of oxygen came the beautiful unleashing of the pressure within my back. The unsheathing of two wings; one feathered, one not, proved to be the cause of my splitting shoulders and the previous compacted feeling in my back. Despite the new found relaxation, I was unable to remain unharmed and calm. A team had entered the room, guns in hand. My body was covered in little red dots signaling that I was being held at a distanced gunpoint by a good sized group of individuals that wouldn’t hesitate to shoot me.
The wings stretched out, guns moving and blood flying off the black plumes that had emerged from my back. “Stay back and no one gets hurt,” a deep and scratchy voice echoed. My wings bent back to a comfortable position. As I stood, challenging these armed guards, a few scientists snapped pictures of my two, beautifully different, wings. Seeing as I wasn’t under their control, I decided to act not as a puppet but as a person. I was no longer attached by their chains or bound by their drugs; I was free in some sense!
“You can’t shoot him! He’s a very valuable piece to science!” A woman shrieked, lights still flashing as pictures were being stored into memory.
“At this point safety is our main concern, not saving this monstrosity!” The leader of the S.W.A.T. like team retorted against the woman. “It’s your faults anyway!”
“Ha? Seriously! You’re going to put everything on us? We’re just doing our job; not killing the subject!” She hissed back, malevolence rolling off of her tongue.
“Sure because drugging kids till they can’t remember a damn thing anymore is so helpful!” His voice was stern.
“We’re trying to find the ultimate, indestructible soldier!”
“By starving and torturing a poor kid? That’s bull shit!” He spat.
As the two leaders fought, I splattered the last of the blood off my already heavy wings. Now that my feathers were dry and my body had time to adjust to the new weight, I was ready! It was finally time for me to escape from this horrid place be it by death or by actually making it back out to civilization.