[Monster Inside] - Chapter 11
Eyes Closed, Her Mouth Is Open
12.3.2010
updated 7.4.11
When the girl opened her eyes, she was in some sort of thick, yellow-green liquid. On her face she saw a strange piece of equipment that covered her nose and mouth; she could only assume it was giving her oxygen since she could breath in the substance she was immersed in. She looked around, but when she tried to move, she was constricted. Her eyes slowly found the source of it. She was restrained by some sort of curved bar that went over her chest and arms. Another restrained her lower legs. She opened her mouth to speak, but her voice felt empty and nothing came out.
Glancing beyond the liquid she was in and the glass she was behind, she saw a... a laboratory. It was familiar and yet not so. There were advanced machines everywhere, with wires and screens, keyboards and controls, and all colors of lights blinking and shining. She could not remember why she was here or where here was. In fact, she really did not know who she was, except that she was her and nobody else. She could grasp at her name after some thought but it seemed foreign since she had no voice to say it aloud, so she let those thoughts slip away...
An overwhelming emptiness filled her and she wondered what should be there instead. Abstract thoughts of happiness and sadness, anger and laughter filled her mind, but what were these things? Did she experience them before? Was there a 'before'? Surely there had to be, or she would not have any sentient thoughts about such abstract ideas.
A shadow moved beyond the glass and she stopped thinking about abstractions and focused on trying to ascertain who or what was in the lab. It moved from screen to screen, pushing a button here, pulling a lever there. She heard a voice, murmuring outside the glass, but she could not figure out what it was saying. It sounded like a low voice though, possibly a man's. Her guess was confirmed when he stepped closer to the glass, peering inside at her. He was old, all of his hair was white and grey, and his skin was the color of dry leather... at least, she thought it was, the green and yellow of the liquid she was in could be tricking her eyes. Everything was tinted the color of glowing sickness.
The man was in a long white-tinted-yellow coat, probably a lab coat, so she assumed he was the owner of the laboratory. Surely he would get her out of this liquid. Surely he could explain to her who she was and what she was doing here. He tapped on the glass and smiled at her, but it was not a kind smile. What constituted a kind smile? He took a syringe and pulled a tube forward, injecting something into it. The girl watched as the syringe liquid slipped into her prison and left little blue clouds as it merged with the greens and yellows.
It did not take long for her to feel whatever it was in her system. Sharp pains began to shoot through her limbs like lightning. She arched against her restraints and tried to scream. No noise came out! She screamed quietly, or maybe she was screaming loudly! Did her ears work? Her throat felt like it was burning, so noise had to be coming out, right? She did not know, the pain was too unbearable to keep thinking. The man outside the glass watched her and she glared at him, wanting to shove the syringe in his skin so he could feel this horrible pain.
Why was this happening to her? What had she done?
Images flashed through her head, though she could make no sense of them. People, smiling and happy, gathered around her. White hair, blonde hair, and red hair. Blue eyes, blue eyes, happy and sad, glaring at her, angry. A different laboratory, had she always been someone's experiment? Or maybe she had done something horribly wrong, and this was her punishment. If only she could remember, remember more than just fragments.
The sun rising, the grass on fire with orange and red; the sun rises high and high, it keeps going until it disappears. More people, they seem the same but they are different. Guns, loud guns, shooting over and over. Screaming. Smiling faces. The sun is high over head. It's really hot, her arms feel like they are on fire. Why was this happening to her? A familiar voice, "You wanna go play?" Stairs, a pretty ornate staircase, spiraling, empty and then filled with dead bodies and blood.
Blood. It's everywhere. Dripping, in puddles, in her hair, on her skin. Blood, blood, what had she done?
She couldn't have done this... right? The screaming wouldn't stop.
Who's screaming? Who keeps screaming?