Moving on to 3! Enjoy. :)
Also should mention that No copyright infringement is intended. Sake and Jess are (c) me :)
The next time she opened her eyes was because of a loud noise. A hatch at the base of the cell's bulkhead slid open and two trays were slipped inside. What passed for a meal was nothing more then tasteless gruel and discolored slop, half cold and fowl-smelling. Jak was already awake, poking at one of the plates before scooping up a dollop of the slop onto one finger and sampling it. Sake could tell by the way his brow furrowed that it wasn't the most appetizing thing in the world but he ate, albeit hesitantly. Then his head snapped around to face her as she sat up and swung her legs off the bench, toes recoiling from the cold floor. A sheet fell from her shoulders. He must've covered her in her sleep, she thought.
Even in the darkness, his eyes seemed to glow with a strange sort of happiness to see her awake. Then he looked at the other plate, lifting it and offering it to her silently. Reluctantly she leaned forward and took the tray. It was old and dented, tarnished from age and dull on all sides to avoid being used as a weapon- at least that's what she told herself. Just as he did, she cautiously dipped her finger into one of the three piles of strange colored chunky paste and sniffed, nose wrinkling as she made an involuntary 'eww' noise. She barely caught Jak's grin and she raised an eyebrow.
"What's so funny." She asked, half mocking his inability to respond, but she'd be damned if she wasn't amazed by his effort to the contrary.
"..Nothing." He half croaked out, blinking quickly before swallowing hard. Then he stared up at her again before standing and joining her on the bed. They sat next to each other for what felt like an eternity before he spoke up again. "Um.. Thanks."
"For what?" She didn't make eye contact, only fiddling with the excuse for food they were served rather unceremoniously. Then again this was likely a routine to look forward to.
"For yesterday.." He was slowly making a dent in his meal as well, at least happy that his stomach had something in it after nearly a day of going hungry.
"No it's fine.." She stopped eating and finally dared to look at him. Sure he was young, round eyes speaking of enthusiasm and a craving for adventure. Even as young as he was, she could see scars up and down his arms from where he'd been injured goofing off or fighting lurkers.
"How did you know..." He paused, as if to find the right words and will them out forcefully from within. "That I was mute?" He too stopped eating, taking a moment to seriously analyze the complete stranger next to him.
"A hunch, I guess. Your voice is weak.. A common problem with people who aren't.. really used to talking much." She swallowed, hoping to save herself.
It occurred to her- She'd already been unconscious a number of times and any one of those bouts could have ended with her waking up in an ER recovery room. But the fact was she didn't. The truth of it all was that she was likely stuck in her own head. Even aware of the dream state, nothing she did or thought altered the events occurring and nothing happened in her favor- not the way it would were it a true lucid dream. In the back of her mind she decided to try a little experiment. Here she was, sitting next to Jak, boy wonder of her favorite digital escape in a dark hole all alone. He'd kiss her, that's what he'd do, or so she told herself in the hopes it'd happen and assure that this was indeed a dream.
When Jak simply sat there, making sense of her response, her heart sank- Half because this was all likely real, and half because he really didn't kiss her. Although she had to admit, it was a sad little pipe dream of a single girl with less than supreme self esteem and quickly canned the thought. He seemed to notice the myriad of faces she was making, all of them involuntary. He made a face of his own, a brow raised in confusion.
"Sorry. Just.. a wayward thought." She commented, staring at the chow on her plate. There wasn't much left and slowly she worked at finishing it. Jak half-shrugged and worked on his own, standing and going back to sit on the floor. Such a gentleman, she thought.
Another hour passed and the two were silent once more. Their empty trays were stacked against the metal door. Sake had made a habit of sitting curled up in the corner farthest from the cell door, trying to make herself as small and insignificant as possible while Jak laid on his back, arms crossed behind his head as he pondered the dead light bulb overhead. There was literally nothing else to do but talk and that was something he didn't do much of. It made it even more awkward as his cell mate was a girl, and even more so because she was a complete stranger. For a brief moment he missed Kiera and wondered if she might be safe and sound somewhere.
Then his thoughts wandered to Daxter. How had his furry friend coped with their separation? Had he made it to safety away from the hulking men in bright red armor? He hoped Daxter was safe and swallowed hard to push away the bad thoughts and fears nagging him at the back of his mind.
Just then both Sake and Jak came to attention. Someone was approaching, Multiple someones. By the sounds of it, there were three or four of them. Seconds later the door opened and in stepped Errol. Two guards stood at the ready behind him, guns aimed at the two.
"You, boy. Stand up." Errol ordered and Jak scrambled to his feet, narrowly smashing his own head into a wall. He was immediately grabbed and cuffed, being dragged out of the cell. Sake leapt from the bench and dove for Errol, blind to the fact that she was pathetically incapable of rescuing Jak. When Errol felt her make contact, arms wrapped around his throat, he coughed loudly before spinning around and grabbing at her shoulders with both hands. He pulled hard and she was taken aback by how easily he yanked her free and grounded her. A swift kick to her side made her stay down as she recoiled in pain. "Feisty. Been a long time since I had one quite like you."
Errol then signalled to his men and they began dragging Jak away who was squirming and writhing to break free in the hopes of making the man pay for assaulting a girl. Plus the way he looked at her made him sick to his stomach and filled him with even more rage. One of the guards hit him hard with a right hook to the jaw and he immediately tasted blood. He feared he might be missing a tooth but nothing came loose.
Sake watched helplessly as Jak was dragged away. Errol stood over her and grinned. When the guards were gone he nealt down and pinned her. "Try a stunt like that again and I'll do more than kick you." His voice was like acid and his presence was like Death. Sake shut her eyes and waited until she couldn't feel him over her before she opened her eyes again. He was gone, the cell's door sliding shut. For the first time since her arrival, she was alone and now more than ever she wished she could awaken. She pounded her head with both fists, on her knees as she choked back tears.
"Wake up.. Wake up.. Wake up.. Goddamnit Sake wake up.." She murmured over and over, rocking a little until her head began to hurt. Then she stood and thrust her fists at the wall in violent bursts. Each punch did nothing but scrape and tear at the skin on her knuckles and she wanted to scream. Finally she crumpled to her knees again and curled into a ball.
This couldn't be real. It wasn't humanly possible. Finally she cried herself to sleep once more and her dreams were filled with dark unpleasant thoughts involving Errol. Hours later she snapped awake, drenched in sweat as cold air nipped at her skin.
Swallowing hard, she stood and immediately threw herself forward at the toilet, emptying the contents of her stomach into its murky fowl waters. Over and over her stomach heaved until not even acid remained and she wished she had something to wash away the taste. As she flushed, she prayed Jak was safe. Where had the guards taken him? Cautiously she stood and put an ear to the barred window. Faint screams echoed off the walls. She couldn't tell if they were Jak's or not but whoever it was, they sounded like they were in deep continuous pain. Just like before her blood ran cold and her stomach heaved, bringing up nothing. The screams were like something that belonged in a horror movie- the result of some mad man's wild imagination.
Another hour passed. Or maybe it was two, or even three. Hell If she knew. The door slid open and Jak's limp motionless body was tossed back in. She narrowly avoided being caught in its path as the door was quickly slammed shut before she could protest. There was a long period of uneasy silence before she willed herself to investigate Jak. She feared he might be dead but his eyes were squeezed shut and his mouth was agape as if desperate for air. Kneeling, she placed the back of her hand to her forehead and yanked it back almost instantly.
"Holy hell he's burning up.. Gotta find a way to cool him down." She glanced around, trying to formulate some genius plan to safe his life, if it was even in danger that is. Her first thought was to hoist him up onto the bed. Despite being compact, Jak was surprisingly heavy- at least a hundred and forty, maybe fifty if she had to guess. Finally once he was laying gently on the bed she made a grab for her pant leg, bending over and biting at it to tear the fabric. With some effort it finally gave way and tore around. Then she split it down one side and folded it into a rectangle, regrettably soaking it in the fetid water of the latrine before squeezing out the excess and using it to wipe away the sweat that beaded up on his forehead.
After a few passes, he finally stopped sweating and she draped the wet rag over his forehead after fanning it in the air to cool it off. His skin was pale except for the tips of his ears that burned red. The veins along his neck and wrists seemed unusually dark, pulsing with his heartbeat that was unpleasantly rapid. It was then that Sake noticed his wrists and ankles had been bruised and scraped all the way around so the used her other pantleg to tear into strips to wrap the wounds. It would be several hours before he'd finally come to, eyes opening slowly as he sat up.
Sake had curled up on the floor, in favor of doing so because saddling up next to Jak seemed like a strange combination of embarrassing and awkward, given his stature. From what he could tell, she was asleep and as the rag fell from his forehead, it half startled him. His body ached but not nearly as bad as it had hours before. Even as he hefted himself from the bench, Sake didn't stir and he wondered if they had tortured her too. To his pleasure, she was just sleeping deeply. Perhaps it was best for him to do the same but it somehow felt wrong to exploit the bed when this girl deserved it much more. Damn his chivalrous upbringing.
There was a brief moment of pondering as he decided whether or not to wake her so that she might occupy the cot but concluded he wouldn't since she was resting so peacefully. Something told him that peaceful sleep would be a rare and welcomed commodity in the coming years and if she faced the same fate as him, he'd do whatever it took to make sure she cherished those brief moments of escape. With his mind made up, he laid back down, but not before tossing the sheet over her once more. He curled up, closed his eyes, and drifted into a haunted sleep.
The next time either of them awoke, food was heaped into two trays and slid in, just as before. A jug of water accompanied it. It didn't take long for both Jak and Sake to realize they were horrendously hungry, each wolfing down the tasteless chunky paste then washing it down with the smallest of sips from the jug. The next few hours were spent conversing as neither could stand the silence any longer. It was unsettling and occasionally they would go deathly silent as pained screams echoed down the halls.
"What did they do to you." Sake asked, staring Jak straight in the eyes. Her seriousness unnerved him and he stared hopelessly at his hands, clenching them while watching his own veins pulse black.
"Dark Eco." he muttered quietly. Her face went grim and she considered heavily what they might be doing injecting Dark Eco into people. "They tied me down.. Put needles in my skin.." Each word he spoke was slow and deliberate, his voice still fairly weak and often raspy as he adjusted to this unfamiliar routine.
Dark Eco. One touch meant death. In more innocent times Sake would spend her days milling about the house playing a variety of games but one she always came back to was the Precursor Legacy- a story of a boy, his friend Daxter, and their adventures to stop two maniacal Sages from destroying the world with Dark Eco. But now.. Somehow these individuals had found a way to harness Eco, molding it into a substance that could be used on test subjects. Dark Eco only had one purpose in life, and that was to twist and mutate all that it came in contact with. No doubt Errol planned to use this to his advantage, but Sake couldn't comprehend its effects on people.
"Think.. they'll do the same to me?" Sake swallowed hard, trying not to think of the possibility. Jak's face was dark and he swallowed.
"I wouldn't be surprised." He said quietly, hands folded into each other as he propped his arms up on his knees. Without warning or time for reaction, the bulkhead slid open and two guards stormed in, restraining Jak almost instantly. He tried to break free but found his strength waning quickly. He still felt dreadfully weak from the events of the day before. Meanwhile two more guards made a grab for Sake who only managed to kick one on the chest before they restrained her.
Jak tried calling out, pulling against his captors but they sent him reeling with a swift blow to his stomach before dropping him. Instantly he crumpled and they left, laughing as the door shut. Jak lamented his inability to save her, not knowing that that would be the last time he'd ever see Sake for quite some time.
Sake wriggled and tugged to and fro against the Guards' hold. Their grip didn't relax in the slightest as they hefted her down a few narrow hallways until they were in a grand chamber. More cells lined its walls as far as she could see up and down before darkness obscured her ability to see. They dragged her to a center platform connected to the main walkway by a narrow strip of concrete. From there the two guards hefted her onto a chair and tied her arms and legs down. One then went behind a console and began pressing buttons and turning knobs.
Above her a machine sprang to life, three prongs rotating as violet sparks danced about. Then a fairly large man approached, red sash draped over his shoulder and a sword holstered at his side. His eyes, though grim and set deep into his skull, spoke of pride and confidence. His brown hair had obviously begun to grey with age and he looked upon her with brown eyes.
"This is the girl you recovered from the rendezvous point?" the man asked. Errol was behind him, but he quickly rushed ahead and circled to the backside of the chair. The second guard stood aside, weapon at the ready. All the while Sake's heart pounded in her chest and she stared fearfully up at the spinning prongs.
"Yes Baron Praxis." Errol seemed strangely subservient to this hulk of a man whose voice spoke of authority and control. Moments later the man came closer as if to inspect.
"She's young." He observed, and for a moment Sake thought there might have been a glimmer of shame in his eyes.
"No younger than the boy, Sir." Errol protested and Praxis gave a small nod.
"Very well then. Carry on. I hope she's more... resilient than the last dozen subjects." Praxis took a position on the far side of the platform, one hand resting on the hilt of his blade while the other came to rest at his side. Errol sneered and the second guard approached. He gripped two leads and at the ends of each were fairly large long needles. Sake panicked and tried to yank herself free of the restraints but they held tightly and the metal dared to cut into her skin. Finally the guard pushed hard enough on her arm that she stopped moving and he slid the needle into her skin. She hissed in pain, half tempted to fire off some sort of explicative at the man but fearing the consequences, she held her breath. The second needle was placed in her other arm just moments later and everyone gravitated away to a safe distance.
"Start the injection cycle." Errol ordered, pointing at the guard behind the console. He nodded in response, raised a red cap and flicked a switch.
A fragment of a millisecond later Sake felt what she would later describe as absolute agony. Every inch burned as her heart raced and the world became a wash of white. As the Eco found its way into her, she screamed at the top of her lungs and twitched violently in the seat, restraints holding her firmly down so that only her hips had room to maneuver. The metal dug into her skin, drawing blood but the sensation was nothing more than an afternoon breeze compared to the fire that flowed through her veins.
Errol, Praxis and the two guards watched, their faces void of emotion or care as they watched Sake's body twitch and writhe as if possessed by a demonic presence. Minutes later Errol gave the signal to shut off the machine and the flow of Eco stopped, the prongs winding down until they came to a stop.
"Dark Eco injection cycle complete. Bio readings Nominal and Unchanged." chimed a feminine voice.
Errol inspected his latest victim. She was breathing heavily, muscles recoiling rapidly as all her nerves twitched. Small sparks of violet danced around her. She wasn't dead and to him that was progress.
Sake's mind was elsewhere, shut down and locked away to hide from the God-awful pain that crawled up and down every inch of her being. She felt cold, alone, and terrified and tears streaked down from the corners of her eyes. She dared open her eyes but the world was blurry and the lights above were blindingly bright, clouded, and unfocused. Someone was standing above her.
"Better than I had anticipated." Errol remarked. The guard who had inserted the needles prior now approached and removed them. The veins along her arms, neck, and legs seemed to flow black.
"But will it work." Praxis asked, approaching to perform his own inspection. He watched as Errol searched for the right words quietly.
"Results with the other successful subjects look promising. Some have already begun to display signs of changing. We simply need to be able to control them." Errol stepped aside and the two guards closed in on the chair. They worked quickly, un-cuffing Sake and hefting her into the air. "Take her to the new cell. We don't want her and that boy getting too friendly and concocting wild escape plans. We'll have enough trouble dealing with them separately as it is."
As Sake was removed from the chair and hauled away, she couldn't help but feel a new presence tingling at the back of her mind. A cold bloodthirsty conviction crawled up her spine as her mind clouded with images of something untamed, beady black eyes staring back at her.
Then, nothing.
Thanks for reading! Please RNR!
Also you can read the original on my profile!
