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(LAUREN'S POV)
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Oh God…
The peculiar throbbing assaulting my parietal lobe uniquely complements the sharp ache ravishing my frontal lobe. A dull ache radiating throughout every millimeter of my body, breathing alone becoming a somewhat daunting challenge. In the pit of my stomach a particular discomfort gradually begins to make itself known, yet none of this is what presumably is pulling my mind toward consciousness. No, it's the unmistakable scent of ammonia and arsenic.
Displeased with myself for doing so, I take a deep breath through my nose and force my heavy eyelids open. Darkness replaced with more darkness, my eyes slowly adjusting as I begin to be able to piece together an idea of where I might find myself. Large pipping and air ducts overhead, overly high ceilings, with no windows in sight and dust heavily coats not only the air but the floor as well. Comfortably I would venture an abandon warehouse or factory of some sort.
Gathering what strength I can muster, I push myself up. A new sharp pain ripping through my lower abdomen, but I feel no blood…injury must be internal.
"You're awake." Malik's voice a shocking surprise, my attention snapping to my far right. "I didn't think you'd be awake so soon. They hit you pretty good."
"I uh…" Trailing off, hesitantly I reach up to mimic the gesture he made. My fingertips touching my temple, warm and sticky residue coating my skin. I can't believe I missed that in my self-assessment. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay." He nods, back against the wall. "Think my knee is broken though."
"Don't move." I order, chest growing heavier with each breath drawn. Maneuvering onto my knees I crawl over to him. The distance itself cannot be more than thirty feet, but the journey seems excruciating. "How bad does it hurt?"
"On a scale of zero to ten, I'd give it an eight." He sort of laughs, leaning his head back against the wall. "Only thing that's hurt worse is when my collarbone was fractured."
"It was a break." I correct him, maneuvering myself beside him. His legs already stretched out, which is ideal since I don't believe I currently possess the strength to help him extend them if they weren't already.
"I was being optimistic."
"Optimism is…" Trailing off, my hands run down the sides of his calf stopping midway when I find the tear in the material. "I hope you weren't attached to these pants."
"Why?" No sooner than he asks the question I manage to tear the material apart, stopping just above his knee. "Okay."
"Good news is that nothing is sticking out."
"That's always a plus, I might have passed out."
"Bad news is it's going to have to be broken slightly more."
"Excuse me?"
"It has to be set." My eyes closing involuntarily, proper words to explain myself escaping me at the moment. "Think of it as dislocated."
"This is going to hurt."
"It will, the worse news is I can't do it."
"Something Doctor Lewis can't do?" He almost laughs.
"I don't have the strength right now, I can feel it and my mind…I'm not focused. There's too many variables currently. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. You'll fix it if we get out of here."
"Of course." I nod, running my hands through my hair attempting to focus my thoughts. "Bo, she'll come soon."
"Bo?"
"Yes, Bo. Who we discussed briefly. She knows where I was going and when I don't return she will come looking. We just have to hang in until then."
"Where were you going?"
"I was, uh…I think it's better if you don't know." I lie, I honestly can't remember. "Do you remember how you got here?"
"No." He shakes his head. "I woke up in here and then not long after you were dragged in."
"All of the strength they possess and they always have to drag us rather than carry us."
"We are garbage…"
"I'm sorry?"
"To them, we're garbage." He leans forward slightly, eyes narrowing. "Are you okay Lauren? You seem…"
His voice trails off as my eyes close once more. The odors becoming overpowering. The pain becoming overpowering. My focus like my composure wavering with each passing second. Forcing my eyes back open, I find him still staring at me. Reassuringly I nod, looking back down at his knee almost as if I could do something to aide him. A slight twinge of guilt making itself known as I fully know in this condition there isn't a thing I can do.
"Bo will be here soon." I repeat myself, nodding.
"I didn't picture you as someone who went based on faith."
"Ah yes, well it's not so much faith as a…a…" Shaking my head, running my hand through my hair again as I begin to wonder what happened to my hair tie. I had one…I always have one handy when I'm working. Was I working? "Sorry, my mind is not functioning to its fullest capacity. I just know Bo."
"Do you…"
"What?"
"Do you think she'll have noticed by now?" He leans in again as I wait for his words to register. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Less and less." I chuckle, maneuvering myself beside him I mimic his posture. "Ammonia and arsenic."
"What's that?"
"The odor, it's an unusual combination. Vaguely familiar." Pushing my head back against the wall, I let my eyes close as bring my hand up to rub my forehead. "I just…I need to focus a little."
"You don't like not being in control."
"It's not that, I like having control of myself in a situation."
"There's a difference?"
"Yes. Having control in general means I need to control everything about the situation and everyone in it. I simply prefer having control over myself in any particular situation."
"Is that why you were so upset about what Sasha did to you? You lost control of yourself?"
My eyes shoot open, siting up slightly I stare as him as he remains still. His eyes closed just as mine had been, his head against the wall. "What did you say to me?"
"What?"
"What did you say to me?"
"I-I didn't say anything." His eyes come to open, head tilting as he looks at me.
"What you said about Sasha, why did you say that?"
"The Ash? I didn't—Lauren what's wrong with you?"
"N-nothing." Shaking my head, a wave of that odor coming over me. Nausea building as the pain in my frontal lobe becomes unbearable. This desire to scream out rapidly overcoming me, but I clench my jaw instead. The tips of the back of my teeth cutting into the sides of my tongue, the taste of blood slowly filling my mouth. "You said if we get out."
"When?"
"A few minutes ago, you said if we get out…not when we get out."
"Did I?"
"Yes." I nod, vision slightly blurring but in the darkness it matters next to nothing. "You did."
"Does that matter?"
"You just always…you're just always so…optimistic."
"Lauren, you're scaring me."
"I…" Closing my eyes, this POUND…POUND…POUND echoing in my mind making it hard to think. Hands coming to my face, palms over my eyes. "Malik…" After several minutes of pure silence I manage to find my voice. "Somethings wrong."
"I think we could say a lot is wrong." He chuckles.
"No," Letting my hands fall to my lap, I find his eyes staring back into mine. "We've been here before."
"You know where we are?"
"I suppose." I nod, jaw clenched as I feel my hands begin to tremble. "You're not Malik."
"…You're not well…"
"This is how we met. We were both thrown here, punishment. Your knee was severely dislocated, I popped it back into place. You passed out from the pain, it was terrifying because I was alone but worrying about making sure you got through it is what kept me sane. We spent four days together. They poured ammonia though the air duct to kill off the smell of our waste that they forced us to live in."
Silence.
"You mimic me. You lean forward, I thought you were concerned but you lean forward because I do. You tilt your head because I do. These aren't Malik's mannerisms…they're mine."
His lips curve into this sickening smirk that makes my blood run cold.
"W-who are you?"
Silence.
"Who are you?"
Silence.
"Where am I? Where am I really?"
Silence.
"Answer me!"
His head tilts to the right as mine tilts to the left, his eyes narrowing as mine do. "They're all going to die because of you." His voice different now, lower and higher simultaneously. My heart racing as I push myself back from him. The pounding inside my head suddenly very real. There's a large metal door somewhere nearby, vaguely I recall being pulled through it on the fifth day of captivity. "One." POUND. "By." POUND. "One."
"Te-tell me who you are."
"I've taken a look into your future Lauren…and there is nothing but death."
"Then do it…kill me."
POUND. POUND. "No Silly…" POUND. POUND. "You're the harbinger…" POUND. POUND. "You'll survive it all."
His words trail and the noise comes to a dead halt. Only the pound of my racing heart in my ears. Maneuvering onto all fours he crawls to me as I push at the floor, sliding backward only to stop when I feel something behind me. Chill surging down my spine, my head turning to the right to look.
There he his. His face managed, his eyes white…he's decomposing. His cold breath on my skin and the unmistakable stench of death cutting through the once pungent odors. His mouth opens and blood splatters over my face. I feel myself scream but I hear nothing. Kicking backward at the ground he crawls after me until I'm trapped by the wall. He climbs over me, face to mine as the tip of his nose grazes my own.
"One…by…one…"
POUND.
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Gasping for breath my eyes open to a familiar darkness. My heart pounding to the point of nausea, but the thought of calming myself slips away from before I ever had a grasp on it. My hands tremble against the wooden arms of the chair. The wire wrapped tightly around my wrists keeping them in place as are my ankles. I can't move.
The darkness begins to fade ever so slightly as does the deafening silence. I sit hostage at the head of a very long dining table, a feast for kings spread out over it. Bo sits to my left, Kenzi to her left, Hale to hers, Sasha to his and Malik to hers. Dyson sits to my right, to his right Trick, Vex to his right, a man I don't quite recognize but quite comparable to Hale sits to his right and a woman I don't recognize of presumably eastern Asian descent. They're all talking and laughing, but I can't hear them. They're laughing so much and they keep glancing at me. Sasha leans forward, saying something with a smile…she's waiting for a response but I don't know the question. Soon her smile fades and the others turn all turn to look at me. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.
There's only silence.
I want to answer…but I don't know the answer.
The sickly sweet scent of almonds fills the air and I feel myself growing lightheaded. Focus wavering as something lurking in the background catches my attention. Quickly it moves in the shadows all around us, but I'm the only one concerned. I jerk at my restraints, the pain unbearable but the fear grows greater than reason. Hushed in the background I can hear…music. It's sort of upbeat and jolly but unique and does nothing to calm me as it grows louder. My head on a swivel as I try to keep an eye on this figure in darkness.
Slowly the music grows louder and I begin to place it, its carousel music. Not just any carousel music, but one I know. The carousel my mother would bring me to as a child in new town over Rosewood, at least until the one year when the…
My thought trailing off as my heartrate quickens. Hands trembling, body jolting. My attention shifting from the shadows to the table…a once beautiful feast now rotted with rodents running about freely. I turn to Bo only to have my eyes fill with tears. Each of them still stare at me but now with dead eyes, their heads limp as blood trickles from the corners of their eyes like tears.
This isn't real…I know this isn't real…it's not…
But the music grows louder and the more I stare at them the more I lose grips on an already flighty sense of composure. Dim lights dim further and then brighten and then dim, this pattern repeated over and over again keeping rhythm with the music.
"Do..do…do…" Humming along with the music from the shadows out steps Pongo the Dancing Clown. My entire body trembling with fear. "Remember me?" He hops around at the other end of the table. I hadn't even thought about him in years, over twenty to be exact…but now I'm that seven year old little girl again. "Still want that balloon girly?"
Shaking my head unnecessarily I jerk back in the chair attempting to get away but all I do it tear the flesh further from my skin. He hops up onto the table and I jump at the thud his weight makes. Crouching down he suddenly has that white balloon from my childhood…I know it's the same one because the way the blood trickles down it is just the same. My vision begins to blur the world spins away. The music growing loud enough I hear my ears pop. He dances his way toward me and just as he reaches me I feel the world begin to slip away.
Goodbye Bo…
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My eyes open to find…brightness this time. It's so bright it hurts…but it's not actually all that bright, it's the pain in my head that is making it worse. My eyes begin to roll back as my head does the same, I find myself staring up at a tall white ceiling, a single chain hanging down from a bracket where my hands are currently bound to. Letting my head fall forward I find my ankles bound together, shoes and socks missing as my toes scrape against the floor.
The humming of that song beginning again as I feel my body tighten. From behind me comes a man, who by all accounts appears regular and vaguely familiar. I think I've seen him once before speaking to Sasha. Maybe. He's barefoot and bare chested, his hands raised slightly as his fingers loosely bend except his index fingers that move through the air along with his humming as if orchestrating and orchestra.
"You still remember that song as if you just heard it."
I nod.
"Why did it terrify you so much? I didn't dig quite that deep, I was having too much fun."
Silence.
"Are you feeling alright? The process while euphoric for myself can be a bit grueling for some and creates a bit of a headache."
Silence.
"Your mind is quite the complex and astonishing maze. I am betting even you don't realize the depths of…naughty places you have in there."
Silence.
"Have you figured out who I am yet? Have you placed me?"
"Yes."
"Good." He claps his hands together. "Then you know the repercussions of misbehaving, right now we're having fun but if you were to misbehave then…I might have to make you peel off your own flesh sliver by sliver and eat it."
"P-please t-tell Sasha…tell her I'll be good…tell h-her I'll behave."
"Sasha?" He laughs, dancing over to me. "She has grown weak in your presence, as amusing as it has become to witness…I can't even tell you if she's still alive at this point."
"W-what?"
"I found it interesting, your lack of hatred for her." His head tilts, flashes of the version of Malik he had created in my mind playing over.
Silence.
"I also found your feelings toward the child interesting. Explain to me how you can love someone so much and yet…trust them as little as you do?"
Silence.
"In fact, I personally wonder if you even really like her…which only makes it more interesting."
Silence.
"Not a huge conversationalist are you Doctor? That's fine, I don't need you to speak to get those answers." He shrugs, hands ghosting over my body. "Do you know why you're here?"
"To finish the serum."
"And?"
"To prevent Bo from intervening."
"No! No, no Love. You're here to assure that she does get involved. See the sooner she gets here the sooner Syra kills her and the sooner we can all move on." He leans further, lips just barely an inch from mine as his cold eyes stare into my own. "You've always done what's right in the past Lauren, can we count on you now?" He smiles at me and from where I find the strength I don't know, but slam my forehead as hard as I possibly can into his nose sending him stumbling backward. "I guess not." He laughs, genuinely amused as he spits out some blood.
.
This time when my eyes open it's a normal darkness, the darkness of night. Rain pours down but the moonlight and several streetlights bring a strange sense of comfort. The street is desolate, it's only me now…and this entity that I feel lurking. It's been with me since the beginning…I don't really remember the beginning now…it's all starting to fade but I know it's familiar.
It's him…?
Him…who?
'This is where it will all begin.'
"Where what will?" I spin around, searching for the low ambiguous voice.
'Everything.'
My eyes search for a street sign, but come up empty. "Where is here?"
'The beginning and the end to everything.'
"Are you him?"
'Him who?'
"I…I don't know…"
'Remember this place and you can change it.'
"It's a street…" Running my hands through my hair, anger beginning to form over fear and confusion. I begin to remember…things. This isn't real. None of this is real.
'Every tale has a beginning, yours began here.'
"Thought you said it will begin?" Laughing to myself at the ridiculousness of it all, I begin walking straight ahead, eventually I have to run into something or the next portion of this hell or maybe even wake up.
'You have many beginnings and many ends.
Another is approaching.
Avoid this place and change your path.'
Come on Bo…you have to have realized I'm missing by now.
'Is she really on your mind or is she the only response you know.
After all it wouldn't be appropriate to call for Sasha.'
"Great. You can read minds too."
'Do you run to church, look up to the cross because you feel it will help?
Or do you do it because that's what you were taught to?'
"I-I don't know what you're asking me." I come to a stop, confused by the question.
'In the depth of your mind you were thinking of praying.
I can feel it. The lingering traces of faith you can't quite shake.'
"Bo is coming for me. She will come for me because she always does." Pointlessly I argue with the voice. Pace quickening only to find my knees locking as I realize I've actually gone nowhere. The street remains the same. "Bo will come for me."
'Eventually you will learn to save yourself.'
Emerging from the alley between two of the buildings a dark figure and I want to laugh about how cliché it is. A perfect entrance from one of Bo and Kezni's stupid movies, but all I feel is frightened. A different type of frightened than what I had been accustom to tonight. From the darkness a woman approaches. She's my height, without her heels. She's my build, with a little more muscle. Her hair the color of mine, only a little darker and shorter, a little more styled. Her features like mine, only a little more defined in every way a little more…more.
She's me.
'Remember this place Lauren.
Remember this place well.'
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"Bo!"
The sound of her name jolts me awake, a moment needed to realize it's actually the sound of my own voice that's woke me. Heart racing, nothing short of agony ripping through every millimeter of my mind as sweat laces my body, but my mind is clearer this time. He takes a step back, somewhat surprised. His head tilts and his eyes narrow as his lips curve into this sickening smirk. Sweat dripping from his forehead and it takes another moment, but I realize he's had a difficult time doing…whatever it was he's doing.
"You're stronger than I gave you credit for." He laughs, shaking his head as his hair falls into his face. "This is getting seriously fun." Stepping back into me, his hands on either side of my face as his eyes lock with my own and that horribly familiar feeling of terror begins to creep in.
Bo…please…hurry.