The Bonds of Souls
Flesh Brought Into Flesh
The mask lays on her face, keeping her breathing lightly as the knife slits her stomach opening her insides to the moist air. The doctors, men in black mask, stare at her without concern. Clare watches, her body numbed from the anesthetic, her skin chill from the cold air blowing from the open windows.
Her insides hurt, Oh God, why does it hurt so much? She can feel her flesh being pulled apart and she screams, her small eyes going wide.
"Does it really hurt so badly, girl?" a man with a dark rimmed hat asks. He smiles behind his black rimmed glasses. That smile matches the cold atmosphere, without warmth of any kind. "What did you really expect to find when coming here?" he asks. "A fairy tale story? Life is hardly ever so kind."
With these words he turns on his heels and walks out the door, leaving Clare to the surgeons. Rubel. That's what they called him, wasn't it? Did it matter? Oh God. What are they sticking inside? It feels cold and slimy. Is that Teresa's flesh? She didn't imagine it would be...
"Yeeaaaagggghhhh!" she screams despite herself. The blood, something in it stretches into her body twisting and pulling, and she can feel... feel it attacking itself. Fighting. This is... Teresa's blood.
A memory... a young man with dark hair parted in the center, skin nearly as pale as Teresa's with a narrow chin and sad eyes.
"Kaede..." she whispers. Yes, his blood had become mixed with hers, hadn't it. Teresa of the faint smile, a woman who had been a powerful claymore, killed by another who had turned into a monster. That monster had also taken Kaede away. The monster with purple skin, a single horn protruding from her forehead, dull yellow eyes, vacant except for her hunger.
The young man in her memory smiles, his eyes taking a warm glow. Clare smiles back despite herself. It felt good to see him again, even if she knows he will soon disappear.
The image fades, replaced by a white dragon with a rounded face. This one makes Clare's heart thunder inside her chest.
"Her breathing has become more severe," a voice above her says.
They push open the lids of one of her eyes staring into it with a dull fire.
"Her eyes have dilated."
"Doesn't matter. Many don't survive. She'll just be another casualty."
"Casualty? She didn't like the sounds of..."
"Child," a strong feminine voice sounds. It seems it comes from the dragon's form. "Child, I welcome you into the fold. Welcome to Andromodea."
The white dragon spreads her wings stretching her long neck up to the ceiling, her form blocking out the moonlight. Can't they see her? Don't they feel her? she ask herself inwardly. But inside she knows this is all happening in her mind. Somewhere the adults can't see.
The dragon burst into a cloudy mist flowing into her body. Clare screams, arching her back as she feels the flesh placed inside her twist and wrap suddenly expanding within her, spreading like vipers in her blood.
"Hold her down!" a voice yells.
"What's happening to her!"
"Dragon..." she whispers.
"What?"
"We're losing her!"
Someone slams their open palms against her chest, beating frantically against it. A thud against her ribs. She doesn't seem to see, barely hears, her heart speeding within her and rapidly... slowing down.
The boy again, Kaede. His face masked in shadow, his lips twist into a soft smile, his eyes glowing a soft blue. He extends his hand towards her, palm open.
"Clare..." he whispers. "Wake up. Wake up!"
Her eyes blink open, quivering in their sockets. A man with a black hat looks down at her from behind dark glasses. Rubel.
"I thought you wouldn't survive. But you're not through the woods yet. It's only your first trial, and we almost lost you on the operating table. Almost. Perhaps it would have been fortunate if we had lost you there. Perhaps."
She stares at the young man, his shadow looking at her with a tilt to his head.
"Ka.. E.. De..." she whispers.
The young man smiles.
"Are you even listening, child?" Rubel asks.
The young man reaches over towards her stroking her hair.
"You're safe now. Don't worry, it will only hurt for a little while longer."
"Kaede..." she whispers again, shutting her eyes. She feels a light kiss on her forehead and her mind drifts. The pain she feels running through her veins stings, but it is much lighter then before. If Kaede said it will be okay then she trust him.
Her mind goes back to a time when he had been there, screaming at the death of Teresa, holding her decapitated head against his chest. He had screamed and attacked the purple demon, and then part of his stomach had disappeared, and when he did not fall his head followed suite.
"Kaede..." she whispers, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Why did you have to die?"
Rubel stares with narrowed eyes at the young girl sleeping restlessly against her cot. She is crying, crying for that young man he had heard about. Kaede, was it? What a foolish creature to have gotten himself involved with a claymore, even if it was Teresa of the faint smile.
His smile wavers as he observes the girl. Does the wind normally blow hair like that? There is something disturbing about that movement. Like a... ghost?
Don't be silly, he thinks. The only monsters here are ones like myself, no matter what the organization says, we are the true monsters here.
He tilts the rim of his hat a smile spreading across his lips. "And people like you are our pawns child. Our tools for the war."
The girl rest silently, the wind stirring her hair in that unsettling way. His smile falters and he turns on his heels walking out of the dark chambers ignoring the shiver running down his back, the shiver of someone or something... watching him.