The sound of sirens that blared in her ears caused dark glazed over eyes to look up towards the ceiling. The red gleam that lit up scarred features faded in and out of sight. The air around her was cold and biting, but she could barely feel a thing from the corner of her cell, her knees up to her chest and her lips turned into a simple neutral line.
Black nails' bit her skin as she clung to her knees, the issued khaki pants they shoved her in upon arrival, doing very little to fight the sting. Her blonde hair fell in front of her face when her forehead fell to her knees. She had been in this cell for days; keeping the time by the seconds counted off in her head and the meals they brought her.
The darkness which once felt so inviting, was filled with treachery as it creeped back in and out. Chased away by the red light from the alarm, only to come trotting back like a loyal hound that nipped at her heels to remind her what she was: The Monster.
For a moment, she had had bliss, and love. She had everything she wanted, children, a loving partner, a strong spouse to fight the terrors with her. She forgot what she was, and this was the penance. She could feel the wet tears as they began to roll down her cheeks, and blinked numbly into the dark despite her body's attempt to channel the emotion. Her mind an ocean of whispers as they reminded her of the thing that wouldn't be.
There would be no watching her children to grow. There would be no more nights of sweet pillow talk with her love. No more interlaced fingers, or playful nips. No more hand in hand walks or soft voices. No more gazing at her children as they created and accomplished small and large goals or slept, precious life flowing through them through each breath. Her teeth gritted as she felt the sharp pain of agony well in her chest, her nails unlatched from her legs as she wrung her hands before dragging them through her hair.
She'd been called many names: a ghost, a monster, a killer, a fighter, lover, warrior; hero. But none had been as precious as to have been called 'Mother.' A whimper between bared teeth escaped her.
She would never be called word again.
The lord had ripped her from that world though, like pulling a tick embedded in the skin for too long; and threw her into this cesspit and despair, mocking her ability to run like she had by ensuring her position compromised in her new assignment and guaranteeing her capture and incarceration; with a promise that upon her completion, she would never be deployed to that world again.
He would hide it from her, and steal away the life she'd made in absence of her post. He would ensure she never saw it again. And as one of his many warriors, there was nothing she could do about it.
And even worse, she knew there would never be anything in the schemes of reality, she could do about it.
The pain in her chest grew, and a feral shriek ripped from her to commingle with the alarm. The alternating red and black of the alarm eventually died down, but the sobs that wracked her body were what coaxed her exhausted scarred form into a dreamless sleep.
