CHAPTER 1: Eternity Ends
White. A color that symbolized hope and purity, but for Katherine, it was the very essence of despair. White walls, white floors, white lights, white clothes, it all sickened her. It was blinding and invasive to her eyes. Day in and day out, all she saw was white. She'd been immersed in it for so long with no hope of escape. The color white seemed to run through her very blood.
There was a time when Katherine's life had been more than a color. She'd been surrounded by sound and feeling and taste and movement. Her father's laughter, her mother's warm embrace, the jolt of her beat up car as it carried her to campus, the smell of old books in the bookshop she worked at. While she might have laughed to imagine it now, Katherine used to be normal. She'd been a simple college student, two years away from graduating with a degree in literature. Slightly awkward and lonely, but happy overall. She'd had a life before her.
That was when a pair of pitch black eyes entered her bookshop and blown the world to dust. To this day, Katherine couldn't find it in herself to understand what had happened. He'd been charming. Tall, lean, a head of dark hair and a smile that could kill, and to Katherine's pleasant surprise, he'd seemed interested in her. As she'd weaved around bookshelves, sorting a new collection into their proper places, the man had followed her about and talked to her. He introduced himself as Arthur, flashing a row of white teeth at her warmly. It had all been very exciting to Katherine – nobody payed attention to her like this. She should have realized that there was something wrong.
One moment, Katherine was locking up the shop for the night and accepting his offer to walk her home. The next, a large black van had pulled up next to them and Arthur's arms were wrapped around her, shoving her inside. She'd tried to scream, tried to kick out and fight back, but there were so many hands holding her down and a smelly cloth was being forced over her face. Within moments, Katherine was unconscious. She would wake up to something from a horror film.
That's when the color white latched itself onto her existence permanently. From the moment Katherine had opened her eyes to the blinding fluorescent lights and the cold metal table she was strapped to, life was now Hell.
It was the same routine for what must have been years. Katherine couldn't tell how long she'd been captive – when one's existence was contained in a small white room with no windows and a constant flow of artificial light, time lost its meaning. All Katherine knew was that she was left sitting around for hours and then the black eyed doctors would come.
"Hello there, Katie-Angel!" The doctor greeted in his usual, chipper tone. It grated on Katherine's nerves. "You know the drill." He motioned to the metal table being wheeled in behind him. Chains with strange marking hung from it, their clanking beckoning coldly for Katherine's submission.
Katherine remained sitting on the floor in the corner of her room, glaring up silently. Recently, the way her life was had become unbearable. It'd always been hellish and Katherine had always longed for a way out, but now she could feel something inside her ready to snap. With every hour, every time the routine began, her heart tightened and her body itched to do something.
At the sight of her planted firmly on the ground, the doctor sighed impatiently. "Having another stubborn day, are we? It'll pass, little angel. Up now."
Katherine didn't budge. Wetting her dry lips, voice crackly from lack of use, she quietly responded, "No."
The doctor's black eyes flashed dangerously. There had been a time when Katherine was so broken and hopeless that she'd given up fighting and done what was asked of her. She'd been easy to deal with, a limp rag doll that could be manipulated however desired. But that shell of a girl had started to change. She was hardening and something within her had begun to spark. He'd sensed it – they all had. They needed to do something quickly before Katherine became… difficult.
"I'll count to three, and you better be up on this table or so help me I'll make you regret it," he threatened lowly. Katherine watched as he raised three fingers to count down. "One…"
"I'm not doing it," she hissed.
"Two…"
The doctor gave her a look that should have made her shiver, but her heart was stone. "I mean it, I'm done."
"Three."
They were locked in a staring contest of sorts. The doctor's heartless black eyes waiting as Katherine's blue-green ones bore into his in defiance. Katherine jutted her chin up proudly, enjoying the rush this newfound boldness was giving her. "I'm not getting on that table," she told him firmly. Not without a fight.
With a long, exaggerated sigh, the doctor straightened his jacket in resignation. Slowly, he walked back to the shut door he had come in from and knocked three times. Then he turned to her, head tilted. "You don't have a choice, my angel."
Two more black eyed doctors burst into the small room and advanced on Katherine without hesitation. Katherine curled in on herself, muscles tensing as she tried to plant herself in the corner. The doctors grabbed her arms roughly and lifted her with ease. Kicking and snarling, Katherine tried to resist, but her efforts were fruitless. There wasn't much to be done when the girl who weighed little to nothing and had no muscle was up against three strong, healthy men.
"I'm not doing it!" Katherine spat furiously, trying to claw at her captors and thrashing out her limbs with the little strength she had. They were unaffected by her struggle, slamming her down onto the metal table with a thud. Katherine gasped in pain as her head and back hit the metal hard. Taking advantage of the distraction, the doctors worked quickly to hold her arms and legs down, clamping the chains on her wrists and ankles. As she felt the cold metal trap her, Katherine felt the dread begin to boil in her chest. "No, no, no, I'm done with it! You can't make me!" she shouted, pulling against the chains holding her down with all she was worth.
"Fussy today, isn't she?" one of the doctors commented offhandedly.
"She's getting restless."
"We'll take care of that soon."
Katherine rattled the chains frantically as she struggled to get free, but in her heart she knew that she wouldn't be able to get out. Above her, a gloved hand was brandishing a large syringe. The tip of the needle glinted menacingly. Inside the syringe was a familiar substance that could only be described as liquid light. Seemingly as bright as the sun, it hurt to look at for too long. Katherine had grown familiar with the strange injection, along with the misery that it brought.
Still struggling against her bonds, Katherine stared at the glowing syringe in despair. "No…" she moaned. "I don't want it, please don't." Her voice broke with her heartfelt plea.
Two hands clamped around her right arm to keep it still. The needle came closer to the exposed skin of forearm. Katherine struggled violently. "No, no, don't!"
The doctors were deaf to her cries, the needle plunging into her skin without hesitation. Katherine squeezed her eyes shut and grit her teeth as the first drop of torture was injected into her veins.
She'd been through this hundreds of times, yet the pain never became more bearable. Katherine had no idea what was in that syringe. All she knew was that it always brought excruciating pain. As the agony coursed through her arm and out to her entire body, she couldn't hold back the shriek that came clawing out of her throat. It felt like her body was on fire, like white hot flames were licking at her bones and swirling about in her lungs. Her head felt like it might explode. Her sight was all but gone as her eyes were clouded with the torment.
It went on for what felt like hours, though it could have only been minutes. Katherine twisted and cringed, screaming for the doctors to stop, begging for the hateful needle to be taken out of her arm. It was this feeling of absolute helplessness that brought her the most misery. No matter what she did or said, the doctors continued with their work as if operating on a corpse. Nothing could stop the agony.
At long last, Katherine could hear her screams growing faint and her consciousness going distant. She willingly sunk into the welcoming pool of black, allowing it to wrap itself around her mind and take her to a state of sleep.
….
When Katherine woke, she was on her stiff cot, still in the little white room that was always present. Her bones ached, black spots flashed across her vision, and her head throbbed something fierce. Uncontrollable shaking coursed up and down her spine, her body constantly switching from hot to cold. Perspiration coated her skin. Forcing herself to swallow in spite of her throat being raw from screaming, Katherine took a deep breath and blinked up at the ever constant fluorescent lights above her.
Again, she thought to herself belatedly. They gave me a shot again. I can't do this anymore.
She was done with it – all of it. The white walls, the irritating bright lights, the black eyed doctors, the pain that always came back just when she'd recovered from the last dose. Katherine was so sick of everything, her desire to see it end so strong that she could have thrown up just thinking about it. This couldn't be the rest of her life. She had family and friends that missed her, she had school, she had a normal world to spend her days in. How dare they take that away?
Burning anger flashed over Katherine's face. She was not going to spend her years being treated like an experiment, receiving painful injections over and over, letting black eyed men in doctor's coats rule her life. Something needed to change. It had to change.
Cringing at the aching of her body, Katherine forced herself to sit up and swing her bare feet onto the cold tile floor. Stretching and wincing at the popping of her joints, she let out a long breath to ground herself. The after-effects of the injections were never fun to experience – though they were a little less severe this time. Usually, Katherine underwent several seizures, often unable to do so much as lift a finger because the pain was so great. While she still felt weak and everything hurt, she was grateful that it wasn't worse. In spite of the ill effects, Katherine was feeling surprisingly rejuvenated. Something was itching inside of her, telling her that she was capable of doing something. It was a feeling that she hadn't had in a long time.
It didn't take long for the door to swing open and a black eyed doctor to come in. A clipboard tucked under one arm, a bowl of oatmeal-like goop in his hand. "Rise and shine, Katie-Angel." His voice was far too loud and happy for Katherine's liking, it's nasally tone increasing the aching of her head. "Heard you were difficult again. That true?"
Katherine shakily wiped the sweat from her brow and gave him a glare. She opened her mouth to make a snippy comment when her eyes caught sight of the door behind him – left open and unguarded.
It had been a long time since Katherine had tried to escape. Her first while of captivity had been nothing but attempts to win freedom – all of which had ended in additional torture and regret. At this point, the doctors had assumed that they'd beat it out of her. For a while, Katherine had believed that too. But as she stared at the open door only yards away, something stirred in Katherine's chest and she decided why not?
"Katie? Hello? Having sweet dreams, are we?"
Katherine turned her attention back to the doctor in front of her, meeting his black eyes with a newfound determination. Seeing her acknowledgment, the doctor stepped closer and held the bowl out to her. After looking at it for a moment, Katherine silently accepted the poor excuse for food.
Satisfied with her compliance, the doctor looked down at his clipboard. "Alright, the usual questions. How is your sight on a scale of one to ten?"
"Ten," Katherine answered quietly, blinking back the black spots in the corners of her vision. The doctor wrote it down. For the next couple of minutes, he asked similar questions. Katherine responded drily, her mind somewhere else completely.
"On a scale of one to ten…" the doctor began, pausing when he noticed that she hadn't touched her food. "Why aren't you eating?"
Katherine slowly raised her eyes to his, steeling herself for what she was about to do. Part of her wanted to hesitate, but the burning in her chest encouraged her to keep going. Swallowing, she tilted her head slightly. "It's a little hot."
Before the black eyed doctor knew what was happening, Katherine had thrust the contents of the bowl in his face and knocked him into the wall. As he shouted out in surprise and scrambled to get the burning stuff out of his eyes, she shoved passed him and was out the door in seconds.
Adrenaline rushing through her, Katherine raced down the long white hallway. Behind her, the doctor in her room was shouting in alarm and tripping to the alarm button just outside the doorway. A siren plunged through the air loudly, echoing about the white building. In Katherine's mind it felt distant. She skidded around a corner blindly, bare feet slapping the tile below. In all her times of attempted escape, she'd only made it around a few corners before she was stopped. As she rounded a second corner, Katherine prayed that it would be different this time.
A third corner, and the sounds of heavy feet pounding after her could be heard. Shouts of "Stop!" and "Get her!" filled her ears. Katherine pushed herself onward, heart in her throat.
I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it, I have to make it…
There was no telling where the way out of this labyrinth of a white halls was. As Katherine came to a split in the halls and mindlessly sped down the one on the left, she grit her teeth anxiously. She had no idea where she was going and the footsteps behind her were coming closer. Come on, Kate, keep going. She wasn't sure what she was even looking for; A big door with a red EXIT sign would be much appreciated at this point. The more corners she turned, the more desperate she became. There was only so much running she could do – being trapped in a small room for who knows how long made the exercise rather shocking to her body. She needed to find a way out soon.
As yet another long hallway greeted Katherine, she let out a cry of frustration. The black-eyed doctors were only inches away. Then, to Katherine's horror, a second handful of doctors came barreling down the hall in front of her. She was cornered.
As Katherine stumbled in her shock, the doctors behind her were finally able to catch up. A large hand clamped down on her arm, a fist tangled itself in her hair, and Katherine was quickly locked in a mess of grasping hands. "No!" she shouted, flailing wildly. "Let me go! Let me go!"
"Chill out, little angel," one of the doctors snapped gruffly. "Let's get you back in your room."
"I'm not going in there!" Katherine protested furiously. "I'm not doing this anymore! Let me out!"
"Put her out, someone!" a doctor called.
Katherine continued to shriek and claw at her captors as they managed to pin her down on the ground. A syringe made itself known in the corner of her eye – no doubt a sedative. Her heart felt ready to explode as she realized what was about to happen. No, no, no! Katherine could feel herself slipping as the needle came closer to her arm. The thought of being forced in unconsciousness, only to wake up trapped once again, was unbearable. She couldn't go through it anymore.
As her desperation and fury reached a point of almost hysteria, something hot bloomed inside Katherine's chest. The fire quickly spread through her whole body, entwining itself around her nerves and bones. With a scream, Katherine felt her eyes go aflame.
"Whoa!" The doctors faltered in shock at the sight of the girl's eyes glowing brightly, as if they held the sun under her eyelashes.
In a blur of white hot light, Katherine could sense nothing but the sound of the doctors about her screaming in pain. Pain exploded in her chest and she opened her mouth to cry out, but nothing came. It was as if the air had been knocked from her lungs. Nothing was making sense. The ground disappeared below her, she was blindly in limbo. It was happening so fast that Katherine couldn't begin to figure out what was happening to her.
Then the light was gone and she felt herself land on something… wet? Laying on her back, Katherine sucked in sweet oxygen and squeezed her eyes shut, afraid to move. The screams of the doctors were gone. The pain was gone. All was silent and still.
Collecting herself and letting out an involuntary moan, Katherine forced her eyes open and blinked up at the dark sky above her.
Stars?
A black canvas of jewel-like twinkling was spread about before her. For a moment, she wondered if she was outside, but that couldn't be. Katherine thought she must be dreaming. That is, until a drop of water landed on the tip of her nose. With a frown, she realized that drops of water were covering her entire body.
Rain?
Katherine started to sit up when she realized she couldn't. With growing panic, she found that her body refused to move at all – not even a finger. Every muscle was weighed down with exhaustion. As blackness began to cloud her vision once more, Katherine knew that she wouldn't be conscious for much longer. She fought to keep her eyes open hopelessly. She had to stay awake – she couldn't be left unconscious in the middle of nowhere. What if something dangerous found her? What if the black eyed doctors found her?
Her mind was sinking into darkness in spite of her fear, and Katherine's eyes drooped shut.
I need help.
With that last, sickening thought, Katherine's awareness was no more.
