Chapter 10 : Empty
Her eyes gazed at the incoming feeders. Ten cycles. They came, took and left. Her mind was empty. Even the ship was silent. Dead it was not. It just seemed that she was cut off from the pulsing life. The whispers danced around her mind, gleefully announcing a killing one at a time. She tried to shut the whispers out from her mind and focused on the flames far from the void in the endless empty void. They grew further away as they echoed taker of life. Loss. Tragedy. Empty.
Her right palm was forming a life of its own. It burnt through her painfully deliberately. It started from her palm and now it radiated through her arm. No one looked at her. Nothing said. Nothing done. She felt invisible. A prisoner of her dark thoughts. The cocoons remained silent. Except a sense of betrayal pierced through her when one was drained. They knew there was no sympathy on her part. She looked at her right palm. A swollen welt has formed in the middle. It itched painfully as though something was forming under the thin epidermal layer. She winced as she touched it.
She walked to an empty cocoon and curled up near the soft white threads. Her head rested on it. It was a soft cushion of mess. She pulled a thread and another. Endless. Like the webs of the Iratus.
The organic door opened again. Sigh. Eleven cycles. Her eyes caught the familiar form of the one who goaded her. The one with the mind of a light bursting through. The bigger one of the group. He stopped and looked at her. No feelings. Empty. He picked his feed, slammed and the screaming started. She muted all the screams out. It became a habit.
She stood up and walked towards him. She was staring blankly at him as he stared down on his prey shrinking into death. He refused to meet her eyes. No communication. She stared blankly and raised her right palm. He turned his sight to her palm. Silent. His mind blocked hers out. She sat down and looked up blankly at the cocoon of his prey or whatever was left. He turned around and left her in the dimly lit hall. The doors shut. Eleven cycles.
She walked towards a cocoon with a face. Her look was ice cold. Feed, said the whispers. The eyes of the face looked at her in silence. Cold blue eyes. Ah yes. No wonder it was so familiar. She remembered him. The one who demanded her segregation from them. {Grab his neck}, urged the whispers. She grabbed it firmly with her left as a gasp escaped from his dried lips. His eyes looked at hers in silent terror. He did not understand. {Drain him} , the whispers spoke gleefully. Instinctively, she raised her right hand and slammed it on the cocooned area of his chest.
As she did that, her body froze when the most horrifying scream rang out. Her palms had a life of its own, the feeders tore through but there was no pain. She looked into his fading eyes and saw his immediate thoughts. Abomination. You should not have survived. His memories started flooding into her. The slideshow were horrendous. Experimentation on live subjects. Tied down and conscious. An Iratus was brought out. Unspeakable. The subjects looked like Ancients but the agony of conscious experimentation. All for Ascension. She increased the drainage to delve deeper into his mind. She saw more. She forcefully injected her mind presence into him, knowing full well how much agony it would cause on his mind. And I am the abomination? His heart was nearly giving up from pain. She reversed the flow instinctively. I want to know more. Who am I? His mind was giving up soon. A slow void was filling his thoughts. A fire entered her thoughts. A most agonising scream came out.
The organic door opened as three shadows looked on at the strangest sight. She turned and looked at them. Her eyes had fire around them. Brutality. And her palm felt only the dried skeletal remains. She removed them. The cocoons quivered at the sight. Smell of confusion and fear. Weak.
She smiled sweetly at the three shadows lingering in the doorway.. Power. Trepidation. Predator. The lifeforce she has taken was sweet in its powerless struggle. She closed her right hand as she felt it closed up. Its hunger satiated. The whispers disappeared. She was satisfied and walked towards the pensive shadows.
Empty. She felt nothing. She is no longer their Miriya, an experimental toy of the Ancients. She is now their predator.