(Just as a warning; chapter twelve will not be up for a while. I'm so busy writing all my other stuff and taking naps(GASP) that chapter twelve is coming about... slowly.
Originally, chapters eleven, twelve and thirteen were going to be this chapter... but eventually, logic won out and I split it up.
I'm hungry.
Oh, real quick- due to the sick and twisted philosophy of this world, it's not uncommon for children to have stepparents. (Personally, I 'm glad we believe that health is good.)
Named Characters © Nintendo
Mother, stepfather, daughter © Me)
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Days of Damnation
Chapter Eleven- Oppression of a People
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Derek woke up in a dark room.
His head ached. Where was he, he wondered...?
"Oh, good... you're awake."
Derek looked up-
A woman stood over him, her light brown eyes staring down at the brunette. Derek came to the logical conclusion that wherever he was, he was currently lying on the floor. Slowly, he tried to stand- it was hard, with his hands bound behind his back, and his legs too weak to help him up--
"I don't think so."
He quickly grew still as the woman placed the sharp heel of her shoe onto his throat, pressing down. Derek's brown eyes widened with fright, his breaths becoming slightly quicker and shallower...
"I'm in a good mood today; I think I'll let you ask... oh, three questions should be enough," the woman spoke, her tone playful, yet chilling.
"...uh... where am I?"
Derek's voice sounded foreign to his own ears. The woman chuckled darkly.
"Where are you? The prison. The reformatory. Heaven. Hell. Home. Call it what you want; all that really matters is that you won't be leaving the same way you came in."
"...y-you're going to kill me--?!"
"No, I won't; however, I'd love to strangle that bastard that calls himself Greg Kasal," the woman spat. "But who said that you would be killed? There's hardly any hope of you and your 'friends' being let go, however-- I've seen the footage of the operation you performed. How you saved his life-- the life of the bastard who cared about his life more than that of the woman he loved. The way she kept screaming, 'How could he have left us, why did he leave us to this fate', for what he did to her, he shouldn't even exist--!"
Derek missed the last bit of her rant, his eyes widening- of course, there was a camera in all the operating rooms of all hospitals, how could they have forgotten to destroy the evidence--?!
"Do you have a last question you'd like to ask, before I leave you to rot, Sinner?" the woman's contemptuous voice pulled Derek out of his daze. He silently cursed himself; he hadn't meant to ask the second question...
"...where are my friends?"
"...your friends? You want to know where your friends are?"
Derek only felt a sudden blow to the back of his head before he knew no more...
The woman's eyes glared hatefully at Derek.
"They're not with you."
She left the dark room.
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Greg woke up in a chair.
His head was hanging; he slowly lifted it, groaning, his hazel eyes sliding open. He tried to lift his hand to rub the drowsiness from his eyes--
He couldn't lift his hand.
His arms were bound behind the back of the chair.
"How nice of you to finally wake up, Greg."
Greg tried to turn his head, but couldn't find the source of the voice. He heard the sound of heels clicking softly against the cement floor, coming closer, from behind.
The sound stopped behind the chair.
"...who are you?" Greg demanded, hiding his fear.
"Well, you're much better at asking questions than that silly resident of yours. Who am I? I'm not you."
"Oh, great... mind games," Greg growled. "Why were we arrested?"
"Oh, good... so you know what's happened to you," the woman spoke, her tone amused- almost playful. "Well, for a while, we thought you had learned your lesson, after your precious fiancée and sister-in-law got arrested--"
Greg's eyes widened; she knew about that--?!
"...but when we saw the footage of the operation... when that goddamned idiot resident of yours saved your worthless life... well, now, we couldn't leave you running around, now could we? You can't have a voice after you've been silenced."
Greg scowled.
"...one more question. Where are my friends?"
The woman's lips twisted into a bitter smirk.
"Your 'friends'? Ha! They have damned you beyond redemption, and you call them your friends? ...your one resident is elsewhere; you'll see him, eventually. The girl... we had no use for her. We knew that she would never see the truth. So we disposed of her- we have no use for those who choose to live and believe a lie."
Greg's heart sank; his carelessness had led to Angie's death...? Mentally, he cursed himself- why was everyone he knew dying, dying for being associated with him, for trying to help him...?
"Now now, none of that-- cheer up, Greg. We got a special present, just for you."
Greg looked up, confused--
He finally noticed that the wall in front of him was clear glass. The room on the other side of the glass wall was pitch-black.
"Oh, I think you'll love this," the woman smiled, resting her hands on the back of the metal chair.
The lights flickered on. Greg's eyes widened in horror--
"SIDNEY!"
Sidney lay crumpled on the floor, unconscious, bleeding. His thin shirt was partially soaked with his blood, and Greg could see bone sticking out from Sidney's left leg--
"What have you done to my brother?!"
The woman smiled as Greg tried to wrench himself out of the chair, desperate to rush to his brother's side.
"We couldn't just let someone so close to you go scot-free, could we? We got him last night-- but not before he'd gotten his residents out of the house. Stubborn man... he wouldn't tell us where they'd gone... so we had to teach him a little lesson. Just a little one, though."
"Let him go! He didn't do anything, why are you doing this to him?!"
Greg let a sudden cry as he was hit in the back of the head. He quickly grew silent, but his eyes never left Sidney, silently willing his younger brother to rise...
"'He didn't do anything'?" The woman's tone was scornful. "He let his wife be dragged away- let her die, without trying to intervene. A fine example of love and dedication, wouldn't you agree? And he insisted on trying to save your life- your worthless life, which you obviously valued more than your fiancée's--"
"That's not true!"
The woman was quiet, waiting patiently for Greg to continue.
"...you... you could never know, how much I loved her..." Greg choked out, tears slowly rolling down his face. "You could never know...!"
The woman smiled.
"Well, then... I suppose now's your chance to atone for the sin of abandoning the one you love, isn't it?"
Her thin fingers entangled themselves into Greg's messy hair, pulling his head up, forcing him to look forward--
Greg saw someone holding Sidney up, a large hand wrapped around his narrow throat; Sidney was now fully conscious, clawing at the hand as blood fell from his mouth.
"Si--!"
"Oh, would you just shut the fuck up about your damn brother!!"
Greg's head slammed into the back of the chair; he cried out in pain.
"Quit your bitching and listen," the woman growled. "Listen-- you be a good man, and see the truth-- come back to the righteous side, and we'll let you, your twin, and your resident go. Of course, someone would be watching you from now on- never going to be able to leave you unsupervised now, are we? But hey, you'd be alive-- that's all you really want, isn't it?"
"No."
Greg's voice was dangerous.
"You could never understand. I will never deny my beliefs for the promise of a long life... I could never face Sidney and Derek again, knowing I sold my soul to the real lie."
The woman sighed.
"Too bad you said that... now you've sealed their fates..."
She signaled to the man in the other room.
Sidney's actions became more desperate; he teared desperately at the hand around his neck, which had tightened-- the man's other hand crushed Sidney's ribs in its grasp, causing blood to spurt forth from his lips--
"Let him go-- let Sidney go!" Greg tried desperately to break the bonds that chained him in place. "He hasn't done anything, why are you torturing him?! He's not the one you want--!"
A cruel grin formed on the woman's pale lips.
"You heard him, Ian- let him go."
The man nodded before flinging Sidney aside. Greg watched in horror as Sidney crashed into one of the walls of the small, dark room.
Sidney slid to the floor and did not rise...
"Sidney--"
"GODDAMNIT, SHUT UP ALREADY!"
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"Daddy, Daddy, they have new Sinners! Can I go see the new Sinners, Daddy? Please?"
A young girl tugged excitedly on her stepfather's arm. How was she to know that he wasn't her real father- he was the only man she had ever known, apart from Adam. She didn't care about how he looked at her with such disdain; the girl had long ago fooled herself into believing that he just hid his love.
The man looked down at her with frosty blue eyes, an emotionless smile on his pallid face.
"Did you ask your mother already?"
"Yeah, but she just got that look again and stared out the window. Can I pleeeeease go, Daddy?"
"Just let me talk to your mother for a minute."
He walked into the bedroom, where his wife spent most of her time. The young girl waited on the other side of the closed door, her ear pressed against it as she listened.
She could hear her "father" yelling angrily- something about a new life... he always said something about life when he yelled at her. The girl winced when she heard the slap; her stepfather usually hit her mother when she was depressed.
The door opened- she quickly backed away, looking up into her stepfather's eyes.
"Mommy will take you to see the Sinners tomorrow."
"Yaaaaaay!"
The girl's mother heard her child's exclamation of delight.
Her dull eyes were empty of emotion, save for sadness, as she stared at the wall.
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(End chapter eleven.
Now wasn't that dramatic. I mean... daaaaamn.
Alright, quick question time- out of sheer boredom, I wrote this Trauma Center essay, which really is just a collection of focused rambles. Since it's not fanfiction, I can't post it here... but if any of you want to read it, you can email me and I'll send you a copy- my email is on my bio page. Do you want to read it?
It's a more real depiction of what I sound like, since there's not plot to follow.
Please review!)
