Kira
The harsh fluorescent lights flicked on for the millionth time, rousing me from my half-sleep.
Great, another test session, I thought bitterly as the metal doors to my prison screeched open, revealing the white-haired man. I hated the white haired man. I wanted to rip off his stupid face and feed it to the stupid nurses that jabbed me with their stupid needles.
I was pretty cranky today.
The white haired man walked into the room with his head held high and his steps precise, even.
"Good morning Kira." He said sweetly, with a smile plastered on his aged face.
I glared at him as my ears pulled back, clenching my fists and wrenching against the chains that held my tight to the wall, binding my wrists and ankles.
He sighed and pulled a key from his white lab coat pocket, clicking it into each of my shackles.
I landed softly on the balls of my bare feet, keeping my eyes trained on the white haired man.
"Today we will be training to collect data from the recent serum." He said matter-of-factly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Well, that was better than more testing. I really hated those needles they stabbed me with.
The man pulled an ever-bounce ball from his other coat pocket, holding it down at my eye-level in front of my face.
"Now," He said, his voice turning cold and business-like, "Fetch."
He tossed the ball, and as much as it pissed me off to do so, I darted after it obediently.
I don't remember the point I'd decided to start obeying the white haired man, the point I'd stopped resisting. I guess after so many years, I just gave up. I hated this place. I hated these people. But fighting back got me nowhere, except tossed in the "time-out box". The time-out box was a lovely little cage that not only kept me cramped inside of it with no chance of escape, but it was fed an electric current that would shock me every half hour for as long as I was in it. Once you get put in there so many times, you realize you really don't want to go back.
I'm not getting out of here.
The sad realization struck me at one point, but yet again I don't know when. The years all meld together now into a nice little jumble.
My parent's accident. The white-haired man finding me hiding out in the woods. Taking me in. Then plopping me into this facility to test me.
I still wanted out. I still hated these people. But it was best to keep that locked up inside for now. Even at 10, I was no idiot. I would come up with a plan, and I would get out of here. I had to stay hopeful, gather more information, test their weak points (which were none at the moment), but now wasn't the time. Now was the time to keep it all inside and plot.
X X X X
I caught the ball in mid-air, jumping a few feet off the ground, and chucked it back at him with as much force as I could muster, aiming at his forehead. I was hoping it would crack open his skull, but it stopped a measly few millimeters in front of his face, levitating.
Damn his telekinesis.
"Now, you wouldn't have been trying to hit me with that, would you?" He asked innocently, arching his white eyebrows as the ball moved to levitate next to him.
I gave a wry smile, "Never."
He rolled his eyes, not dignifying me with a response, "Now, try using some wolf instinct this time, okay?"
I didn't respond. The truth was, no matter how much I hated this place, I still had to keep everything bottled up. I had to keep my emotions in check.
Being a Neko means my DNA is intertwined with animal DNA (wolf DNA in my case). If I let myself give in to my emotions, the inner animal would take over. And if I was being honest, I couldn't think very clearly when that happened. I ran on wolf instinct alone.
These people pushed me to the limit in hopes that I would let the wolf take over, they wanted to see how far I'd go—but I was actually . . . scared. What if I couldn't pull myself back out of that state? What if I lost the human half of myself? I knew it was possible. That's the first thing you learn as a Neko child.
It was a lot of responsibility. A lot of work, especially since I was just a kid. I hated it. I hated being a Neko. But I had to deal with it. I had to get out. I had to . . .
"Kira." The white haired man said firmly, pulling me from my inner turmoil, "Now." His dark eyes were like glaciers, freezing me from the inside out. His pleasant façade was gone and he was really ready to "train".
All at once, the ball came flying at me, breaking apart into hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp pieces. I gasped, tripping over my own feet before bolting in the other direction, trying to outrun them. Now I was scared. Maybe the needles would've been better. Did I mention I hated telekinesis?
The room was huge. Pure cement all the way around. There were very few things in this large room, aside from chains on the wall and a few items in a steel closet in the corner. Other than that, barren.
I felt one piece rip through the white sheath-suit the man made me wear and cut into my arm, another in my leg. I could taste the panic rising in the back of my throat, trying to climb out, and I let just a thread of it trickle through, fueling my speed. It was the same as letting just a tiny bit of wolf bleed through. I was tapping into a tiny bit of it, just to get use out of basic wolf abilities without the instinct.
My speed picked up, but I was quickly running out of room to run, as I was about to smack into the wall, I kicked off of it, ducking under the ball shards and flying in the other direction, back to the white haired man. Except he also increased the speed of the shards, and I could feel a few more cutting into my side, my cheek, my tail.
I trained all the time, but this time he seemed more hell-bent on killing me than he ever had before. His face was out rightly hostile and at the back of my mind I wondered what exactly he expected me to do.
My panic was increasing. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. I had to stay calm, I was getting too worked up. My legs hurt. So did my feet.
As I neared the white-haired man, a blade rose up in front of him, coming straight at me. Too fast. It was coming too fast!
He'd never tried to hurt me during training. He' beat me around, give me a few cuts or bruises at the most, but this was too much. This was extreme. I didn't have time to dodge it.
Fear clawed its way out of my throat in the form of a shriek, and I felt my heart speed to the beat of the animal. My hands transformed into claws and fur sprouted all over. This was different though. I'd let the inner wolf take over only twice before, and each time had been terrifying. But this was different. I'd never changed. I had the wolf ears and tail. They were my attributes. I'd never gained more.
I felt my bones shifting, breaking, and I fell to the floor in pain. This was like nothing I'd ever imagined. Fire was shooting through me, licking at my insides and intensifying. Loud snaps filled the room, and all thoughts of the shards and blade were halted. My vision went red. Screams tore from inside me, but I couldn't hear them over the pain.