Hi y'all! Wow, I know, a second chapter! I'm determined to hopefully not just write one or two chapters for stories and then just not write for like a year LOL Anyways I'm going to keep this short but I hope you enjoy! Please tell me what you think!
I love you guys! Thanks so much for reading!
TW FOR FIRE, VIOLENCE, AND EYE HORROR.
Limits.
Everyone has them, but not everybody knows them. I guess one of those people who doesn't know them is me. To be fair, how was I supposed to know Hyperion would set my house on fire with me still in it?
I wake up to the pungent smell of smoke in the air and the crackling of burning wood. My eyes shot wide open and I sat up quickly. Oh god oh god what is happening?
I heard the creaking of floorboards and a voice yelling something. Who was that? Was it my father? The smoke filled my lungs and I stumbled out of bed. I knew I had to get out. All around me the house was collapsing. I struggled to my feet. I had to see if my family was ok. I staggered through the house, watching in horror as the place I had called home for so long burned.
The kitchen, destroyed. The living room, decimated. My sisters room. Oh my god! My sister's room! I bounded to Mary's room and looked around desperately for her. She was there on the bed, paralyzed with fear. I sprinted over and put my arms underneath her, picking her up. "Hey, hey, just hang on." I whispered in a pathetic attempt to comfort her. My eyes stung with sweat and it felt like my feet would give out any second from the unbearable heat. I hurried to leave, but there was a loud groan and a crash and I yelped as a wood beam fell from the ceiling, as well as a whole bunch of plaster and rubble.
There was another set of footsteps and my dad appeared on the other side of the mess.
"JACOB!" He yelled out desperately. That was the last time I'd hear my real name again for a while.
"I'm here!" I managed to cough out with a bit of struggle. There was enough space in between the rubble to fit Mary through and for my dad to get her out of there, but there was no way in hell I could get out. If only we didn't live on the outskirts of the village, there could be people here by now.
I managed to get Mary through the tiny space and yelled at my dad to go. Before he could protest, I heard another crash and felt something crash onto me. The last thing I remember before passing out is the horrible sensation of burning alive.
I was out for 3 days. When I awoke, the first thing I felt was pain and confusion. How the hell was I alive? No, actually though. My house had burned down on top of me and I… I was still alive?
Well, dad had always said that Tundran Prometheans were resilient. Maybe if I had come from The Hells of Promethea instead, we wouldn't even have blinked at the fire. I struggled to open my eyes, and when I did I was hit with blinding light, and strange figures above me. Well, they were humanoid in appearance. The strange part was that I could hardly see them. There were hushed whispers.
"Dad?" I choked out. It was a bit silly in context, perhaps. Sounded incredibly cheesy. Oh, stereotypical kid gets in a tragic accident and immediately after waking up in a strange hospital, he calls out his (probably dead) dad's name. I immediately felt awful for being so cynical and pessimistic. Was I really so desensitized that I cared about sending silly after my house had been burnt to the ground? What the hell was I even saying anymore? Even thinking?
I struggled and rolled my head to the side to try to get a better look at the figures standing at my feet. One of them froze up and the others did as well.
"You can… call me that, if you like." The middle one said hesitantly.
"Where am I? Where's my family?" I struggled to sit up but I was tied down. It was then I realized that I wasn't in a hospital. I was… somewhere else. Somewhere worse. I was tied to a cold, steel table, not a hospital bed. The figures were much further up and behind tinted windows; an observatory room.
And there were more people in here with me.
I began to panic and struggle against my restraints. I had to get out of was nothing could that could come of this. I grunted and cried out, but soon the figures approached. They sedated me with some awful drug, and I blacked out. Well, kind of. I faded in and out of consciousness and part of me wished I could stay asleep forever. I was in a strange place with no family and no way of even knowing if they were alive.
And Nate…
Krieg's eyes shot open. No, he couldn't give in. He couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't submit.
He had to get out of here, had to get out and back to Nate. His eyes danced around and his head rolled back and forth to glance up at whoever was looming over him; doctors, surgeons, scientists.
And Handsome Jack. He recognized him from the posters. He was the only one in the room sporting a smile.
Krieg struggled and thrashed against his restraints, arching his back to try to create enough distance between himself and the table to snap the restraints. He shook his head no, so hyped up on an ungodly amount of sedatives and painkillers and… something that they had pumped into him. His eyes darted from face to face as he took in the sights and sounds.
Jack's eyes glowed with either malign intent, morbid curiosity, or both. Krieg was covered in disgusting welts and burns and had been injected with enough sedatives to put an elephant to sleep. Yet still he was fighting. Jack seemed to take a disturbing amount of sadistic pleasure in that.
"Huh. Gotta say Sammy, I haven't seen anyone fight back like this in a long time." He chuckled. "I mean, it's amusing, but at the same time it's a little grating. Our doctors can't get shit done if he's writhing and screaming like that. Whaddya say we get rid of his eye?"
Sammy (Krieg was assuming that was her name) shot a look of disgust and horror at her employer. "You can't be serious! He's obviously in enough pain as it is and permanently damaging his eyes could be an extreme hindrance to your wishes for him! There's no point to this senseless viole-" She was cut off by Jack getting in her face.
"Do you forget why the hell he's here in the first place?" His voice dropped to a dangerously low tone. "He's here because he's a filthy bandit lover-"
"Allegedly."
"-and he's spreading anti-Hyperion propaganda and lies. He deserves what he has coming to him. Unless you're volunteering your dear wife to be next." Jack stared her down until Sammy looked away in contempt. Sammy sighed and called two men over to hold him down.
Krieg was terrified as he watched this exchange and felt himself being held down. It took a lot of weight to keep him there (the men had to push with their whole body weight) but eventually he was still enough for Sammy to approach him with a scalpel. She looked extremely conflicted, but she was still doing it anyway.
"I'm sorry, kid." She whispered quietly. Krieg shook his head and tried to say something, but no words came out. The scalpel came down into his eyes and he screamed in anguish and terror.
Sammy closed her eyes and tried to drown out his screams and get it over with as soon as possible. Soon it was out, and the boy had passed out the unbearable pain. It seemed they had found Krieg's limit.
"Great. Now get the replacement in."
It was several hours before Krieg awoke again. This time he was in a small, cramped room with iron bars. It dawned on him that he had been put in a jail cell. He clanged on the bars with what little strength he had before falling to his knees. He was terrified. What was going to happen? It was then that he realized his left eye was burning hot. He started to scream, but his voice was already so hoarse from the screaming he had done earlier. Everything had a sickly purple tint.
His screams quickly turned to quiet sobs, until even his tears were dried up. He curled up, exhausted and afraid, only turning his head up when he heard a voice call out to him from across the hall.
"You new here, kid?"
Krieg nodded, glancing up at the voice with wide eyes. He must have been another prisoner. He looked awful. Emaciated and skinny, sunken eyes and extremely purple veins. This was not a good sign. He looked at Krieg in something close to pity, but he had probably wasted all of it on himself. He shook his head.
"Welcome to the Hyperion Preserve, kid. Good luck."
