AN: NOTE - This is not replacing my other story "Chance" this is just a bit of a side story, completely separate from that. I plan to switch between updates for this and my other story "Chance" and yeah that's about it. Review, like, and favourite if you want and yeah, enjoy. (Also this is a post season 2 story.)
I looked down at my bloody hands, I could still see the lines where I had my hands sliced at if I had stepped out of line, or needed to be put in my place. Nothing would ever make those go away, nothing.
Nothing, I always liked that word, it was a word that summed me up pretty well. "You are nothing to me." Brenner would always say when I couldn't do something... that or I refused to do something.
He'd slap me across the face and throw me back into my holding cell, I didn't mind though, I liked it in there, gave me a place to think about what I had done, it also gave me a place to think about what I could've done, and what I should do.
It gave me a place to plan.
And plan I did. The first time I had begun to plan this I was only 12 years old. Look at me now! 16 years old and the world finally in my grasp!
I remember sitting in that holding cell, feeling like a pile of shit, ready to give up and give in to what Brenner asked until it hit me.
He's dependent on me.
I'd failed or given up so many times already that I'm surprised he didn't shoot me himself. He would have killed me by now, but by the fact that he hadn't already I knew that he needed me for something.
That's when my planning began, my planning to finally escape this hell. The best part is I already knew what I had to do to escape.
Nothing.
Every time Brenner gave me another chance I'd just sit down and wait for the guards to start wailing on my during the test. Sure it hurt but I didn't care, you just have to go through hell to make it to heaven.
Once they were done with me I was thrown back into that cell, the only human interaction being a guard throwing in some shitty food through the little opening in the door.
Each time they tested me, I had to walk to the training area for the test, but that was the most important part, the walk there. Each time I'd study the path we took, memorizing what was inside each room with an open door, memorizing each name on those doors, and memorizing where every single guard stood in watch.
I suppose I should say what this test was, it was a test to see if I was ready. Ready to kill. That's what my only mission was, to kill. The test was to see if I'd be ready and willing to kill whatever stood in my way and to follow Brenner's orders.
The specifics of the test was this, they set a little girl in front of me, different one each time, gave me a knife and said that if I kill her, that I was ready. Then as always to Brenner's dismay, I would just sit down cross legged, set my knife down and stare to the ground. That's when the guards began to beat me to a pulp, just to throw me back into my cell.
But now after four years, I was ready, not to pass his test, but to pass my own, and finally escape this lab.
Let me walk you through what happened.
...
"Alright you little pile of shit, get a move on." The guard said as he picked me up by my shirt collar after I refused to move an inch from my seated position. But that's what I wanted. As he picked me up I shifted my weight and sent him to his knees while twisting his arm, a loud crack accompanying it.
After that I quickly grabbed the silenced gun that was in its holster around his waist and aimed for the guard keeping watch at the door and shot him before he could even react to anything that had happened, straight after that shooting the guard with a broken arm point blank in the head. If this was going to be done, it's going to be done right.
I walked out of the cell and immediately pointed my gun down the hall, turning my body the 96 degrees to the left, immediately aiming directly at the guard standing under that little flickering light, as I pulled the trigger, I knew that today was the day I finally got out of here.
I continued walking down the hall, every guard standing right where they always were. You know? It's funny how the human brain works, once you go through something enough times it begins to burn into your brain, and after seeing these halls for my entire life, I don't think I will ever forget anything about this place.
As I walked I also looked onto every single door I passed by, Room 316, Room 314, Room 312, I'd seen every single one of em. I knew who, what, and where everything was in every one of these rooms, but that didn't matter as I was only focused on making it to one specific room.
"300"
I looked on to the label of the door 'Room 300 - Dr. Martin Brenner's Office'
I slowly opened the door, the first thing I see being Brenner and two guards facing a large window, showing the view of the training area, the training area where I had learned that I needed to kill, and that killing was the only thing I was supposed to do.
I raised my silenced gun and aimed for the two guards heads, shooting both of them as blood splattered onto the window, along with small cracks splattering onto the window from the continued force of the bullets.
I closed the door as Brenner faced me, the fear in his eyes evident as he darted to the now deceased guard and grabbed the knife sheaved in his utility belt, I myself though? I just set my gun down on the counter, a wide smile on my face.
"Son, we could have had this country at our fingertips!" He said shakily as he approached me, knife held out wide, almost in a southpaw stance. I could tell he wasn't adept with a knife.
"Nah, that wasn't really what I had planned." I said as I began to approach him, my hands in my pocket and a shit faced grin plastered all over my face.
"You think I care what your intentions are?" He said as he lunged at me. He aimed the knife directly towards my chest... which I easily stepped out of the way of. I mean, he's on what looks to be the late side of 50, I've seen the way he's walked, like he owns the world, but with a slight limp.
"That was a nice shot, but you've got to be a bit quicker than that." I said as I walked over to the other guard and slipped the knife out of his sheath.
"You brat!" He yelled as he lunged at me once more, but, to be honest, I was kinda tired. I didn't have my usual lunch of disgusting slop they served me, I was fighting on an empty stomach and I was tired out. Besides I wanted to get out of here with a bit of day light left.
So I dodged him and stabbed him directly in his stomach, roughly pulling my knife out straight after.
You should have seen the look on his face! He looked like he had seen a ghost, who knows maybe it was his own. Either way he crumpled to the ground, he was gonna bleed out within a few minutes so I better make my questions quick.
"So dad, how are ya?" I asked as I patted him right were I stabbed him, staining my hand with blood and eliciting a loud grunt as the pain was evident on his face. Sure I was a bit of a sadist, but seeing this guy in pain? Let alone seeing him die? Man I wouldn't miss it for the world!
"Ugh..." Was all he said as he let his head drift to his chest.
"Eh, it's alright, you don't have to answer that now." I said as I walked back over to the counter and grabbed my gun before walking back over to this piece of shit on the floor.
"Riddle me this though." I said as I lifted his head with my pointer and middle finger.
"Who is she?" I asked, raising my eyebrow and pointing over to one of the walls in his office, full of photographs, a map, post-it notes full of writing, and in large writing a banner that said "Hawkins"
"Why don't you figure that out yourself?" He said looking at me with a burning hatred in his eyes.
"Awww, you're no fun." I said as I patted his stomach again, this time with my other hand, soaking the other hand with blood as I walked over to the big display of this "Hawkins" place.
Two pictures caught my eye, one of a little girl, along with four boys and another girl sitting with her on the ground outside of a small house, but the other one, the other one was of that same girl but a picture of her wrist, the number eleven tattooed onto it.
I looked down to my own wrist, the number one tattooed proudly on it. Brenner actually told me what the numbers meant once.
The number on each subjects wrist is the day they first exhibit their powers. This girl must have shown off her gift at eleven days old. Me though? I was different, I don't actually have powers, at least not in a natural sense.
'Your power is to kill!' Brenner said to me one time as he was beating me mercilessly after I refused to do what he asked. The number one finally made sense at that moment.
I was raised to be a killer since day one.
But hey, It looks like Brenner didn't see himself being the one killed when he raised me like this! Kinda funny, isn't it? But either way I detested this name, I always called myself something else.
I had some schooling, I knew how to read and write (not cursive, but that's beside the point), I know basic math, and I even got some religion classes. It was in one of those classes that I learned about the seven deadly sins, specifically Pride.
Pride puts his wants and desires before the wellfare of others, also having a sense of being better or greater than others and well... that kinda suited me, at least it does right now. Hell, if I had to kill the entire world to get out of here I'd do it in a heart beat.
From that day on I knew myself as Pride, the only name that had any meaning to me.
Snapping out of it, I ripped off the two photos that were hanging there, along with the map of this Hawkins place and some other random photos which might help me out along the way.
"Well it's been fun pops, but I really should be going." I said as I walked around his desk to the phone and picked up the receiver and pressed the button labeled "Emergency"
"Dr. Brenner? Is everything alright?" The woman on the other line asked.
"This is Dr. Brenner's personal guard, subject 001 is loose in the west wing of the facility, Brenner's orders are to send every single person who can fight to that part of the facility." I said in the best 'Trying to sound like an adult but failing because you're sixteen voice.'
"Ar-Are you sure? Could you please put Dr. Brenner on the phone."
I looked over to Brenner, his head leaning against the wall, obviously in a huge amount of pain, which I had to stifle a laugh at.
"Dr. Brenner is critically injured and cannot come to the phone. Send the reinforcements now or the subject will escape."
"...Fine, sending in back-up." She said finally after some short silence.
"Good, now evacuate the rest of the building."
"Yes sir." Was the last thing the woman said before I slammed the phone back down, within seconds hearing the emergency alarm go off, along with that same voice that I was on the line with ordering everyone to evacuate and for all soldiers to head to the west wing of the facility.
I walked over to the door and put my ear to it, hearing multiple footsteps as people began leaving this part of the building. I opened up the door, ready to leave before almost forgetting one of my main reasons for coming here.
"Nearly forgot!" I said as I spun around, walked over to Brenner and shot him right in the chest, the last signs of life leaving him... I also may have taken his wallet but I mean hey, he's dead, I don't think he's going to be to annoyed with me taking his wallet.
"If this was going to be done, it's going to be done right." I said, echoing what I thought just a short while earlier as I stepped out of Brenner's office and into the now empty hallways.
It was only a short while of stumbling later that I finally found the back entrance of the east wing of the building, it took a while though, considering that beyond the hallways leading up to the training area, I'd never experienced anything else.
I opened up the back doors of the facility, nobody in sight as it led into a small alley. I walked down the short road and found myself in a bustling area, full of lights and big screens, like the computers in the facility.
One of the screens displayed something I myself had never seen before.
"I 3 NY"
...
"Dustin! Give me the remote!" Lucas yelled as he grabbed the other end of the remote that Dustin had in his iron grip.
"No! I'm choosing what movie we're watching!" Dustin yelled as he pulled back with all his might, trying to pry the remote from Lucas' hands.
All of this happening while the four of us just sat there, Will with his head in his hands, amazed by how ridiculous the two of them were, Max just sitting there sighing as she looked on at her immature boyfriend, El just watching the channels flash by as the buttons were pressed on the remote, and me, just amazed that Dustin and Lucas still have this fight, even in high school.
I watched on until the remote flew out of both of their hands, not by accident, but by El, who now held the remote in her right hand.
Without saying anything, she pressed a few buttons taking us... to the news channel.
"What? I don't wanna watch the ne-" Dustin said before being shushed by El.
"Look." She said simply as she pointed to the screen, the headline shocking all of us.
"Massacre at downtown New York government facility, 15 dead including government official Dr. Martin Brenner."