III: The Floor Chapter 1: Tortured Flesh, a kingdom hearts fanfic

So it seems I have time to write this first chapter. I went over it in my mind, and I decided rewriting for Solar Advent can be put off until I have a lot of time free. As for this story, I can start it and just be slow with it. Nice and easy slow-ish. So, I hope you like it.

So about the song, I downloaded it not long ago, and kept on listening to it. Because I thought about how well it fit this story. Don't worry God will save them all in the end, this is just another test from him. Gabriel has yet to pass this one. It won't be easy.

Animal I Have Become, Three Days Grace

I can't escape this hell; so many times I've tried. But I'm still caged inside. Somebody get me through this nightmare, I can't control myself.

So what if you can see the darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe it's not the real me, somebody help me tame this animal. (This animal, this animal)

I can't escape myself (I can't escape myself). So many times I've lied (So many times I've lied). But there's still rage inside. Somebody get me through this nightmare, I can't control myself.

So what if you can see the darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe it's not the real me. Somebody help me tame this animal I have become. Help me believe it's not the real me. Somebody help me tame this animal.

Somebody help me through this nightmare, I can't control myself. Somebody wake me from this nightmare, I can't escape this hell

(This animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal)

1: Tortured Flesh

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If any light shone through black water I might have some actual hope of surviving. I couldn't help but be frantic in the warm water, trying to find something to grab onto, as the unknown force below me pulled me farther under. This was the deepest lake I had ever fallen into. And I have fallen into a great many of lakes in my earth days, let me tell you that. None of them even stepped up to the plate next to this one. Was this some whack-o dream? Hopefully it was. I couldn't breath. Suffocating in a numbing state. My lungs seemed filled up with water already, either that or they were so pressured from the dense water or not being able to intake air. I wasn't entirely sure which was it was.

My mind was being jumbled up in all my memories, past and present, flickering in my sight. Maybe I had died. Maybe this past month has all been a dream. Did I die the day Cole hit me? Is Charlotte still depressed? Did we ever come to the Old Mansion and start a real life? Most of the things didn't seem real to me anymore.

Except this pain.

It was everywhere, all around me, closing in on my mutant body. Snapping my wings and breaking my bones. Darkness swelled inside me.

What's happening to me!

My sides felt as if they burst open, something crawling out of them. They were demons burning through my muscles and pushing past my veins. Fire licked at my throat and my eyes became holes of blackness. I was becoming of that I hated. A demon. A monster. More of a monster than I had ever thought I could or had been. My insides burned slowly, eating my flesh, drinking my blood. I could feel my wings protrude from my back once again, and the pain that came with it. I was struggling in my own blood now; the water had turned the crimson color of liquid agony.

Screams roared in my ears, battling with my ear drums which tried to shut the noise out. My head splitting down the middle, such pain should not have even existed. Whips lashing against my back, no shielding help from my wings. Black feathers floated in the blood as well, my own of course. Teeth piercing my lower lip, I was still wondering if they were my own.

Thoughts darted back and forth in my mind, in front of me. I saw Charlotte's face, twisted up into a cry of sorrow, and I could hear her screams and cries in my worn ears. They bled from the sound of her voice, the woe that filled her beautiful eyes. I felt hot tears running down my carved face, salty water getting into the deep cuts that deranged my appearance.

Blood trickled in my hair, staining my blond locks, turning them a dark scarlet also. My life was of the truest reds, surrounding me, pulling me in. Showing my entire life through the red shades that were beaten, scraped, whipped. I yelled out.

Claws grew from my fingers, slicing through the skin they had been touching. The floor of the lake was finally beneath me, not penetrating my thick wall of anguish that so incarcerated me. Sand between my toes, the ground was gritty. The blood dripping down my legs suddenly wasn't surrounded by water. Air filled me, along with stabbing pain from something in front of me. Bruised and broken, I fell to my knees, thousands of knives seemingly digging down my arms.

Sight was clouded by a gel-like substance that oozed over my eyes. It numbed their stinging. Dry cloth wrapped around my arms, hands in my wet hair. Soothing sounds of footsteps in my pounding ears, soft and unpronounced as the shouts and screams died away. I collapsed into a half alive state. Slowly I felt a safe existence wash over me, silently emanating from the person next to me. They brought me sudden comfort. My skin stopped crawling. My sides drew back their swords, and my mind fell into unconsciousness.

Her lips placed on mine, my own cut and bloodied. "Be alive…" She chanted tenderly.

Sleep brought rest.

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"Gabriel? Are you awake?"

It was my Charlotte, several feet away from me. I could hear her even through my sliced ears; my brain deciphered her standing point. We were in the Mansion….and from the amount of light that's leaking in through this blindfold; I'd say we're in the Drawing Room. Wait…blindfold? Why the blindfold?

I lifted an arm, pulling the cloth back, I heard Charlotte step forward. Towards me. "Gabriel! You're alive!"

"What?"

I let my eyes fall upon her soft face, soreness still rung through my body, but it had since numbed more. Charlotte's expression turned slightly, her brow creased, looking more worried than she had before. "Charlotte, what happened? Am I alive?" I asked warily, sitting up. She jumped a little at my decision to sit up; either that or she was frightened of me. "What's wrong?" I asked again, my voice going gentler.

Her face softened once more, and she sat down next to me, I was almost afraid to look at myself. What if I had really been mutated? But why should I be concerned if I didn't look human anymore? It didn't matter what I looked like. I looked into Charlotte's eyes again, trying my hardest not to catch my reflection in them, instead I just stared past it into her. I kept my gaze on her eyes; watching them slide back and forth over me, then lovingly settle on my face. I froze my stare on her face, keeping them from looking down at myself like they so eagerly wanted to. I internally wanted to know. To know if I was too ugly to look at. To know if Charlotte could still love me.

She played with my right hand, until in was inside both of hers, she then placed it to her cheek. I screamed.

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