Raven screamed out as Cage walked yet another circle around her with a new torture device in hand. Whatever he held gave off an ear-splitting screech at a frequency that had to be unsafe for human ears. He must have worn earplugs, but she couldn't be certain as her vision had remained blurred for days.
Accompanying the shrill shriek of each phase came the unbearable pain. Agonizing, soul destroying torment in the form of electric fire. Raven had been hooked to what she could only imagine being some kind of electro-shock device. She didn't understand the purpose of these sessions.
The sound hadn't bothered her in the beginning. But as time went on, Cage had successfully brought the brunette to merely stop breathing at the first sign of the high-pitched noise. She'd shut her eyes and tense her entire body as she readied for the flurry of thunder to ignite. The brunette found herself longing for the now familiar sting of a needle in her neck to come that signaled the sessions to be over.
She had promised herself in the beginning she would not yield to whatever manipulation these experiments had in store for her. Within a few days however, Raven Reyes broke.
The days turned into eternity, and Raven found herself wishing more and more for the injections. They helped with the stress, the pain, the fear, the hunger. Whatever the drug was, she had fallen in love with it. Nothing and no one had ever understood her better. Nor had anyone offered her such sweet respite.
At first, the red serum had surged through her like liquid fire, causing her to squirm and seethe in pain as it singed her insides. She remembered hallucinating a sky raining flames but always woke back in that darkened room still strapped to that uncomfortable chair.
After the hallucinations, her vision would blur, and a red haze would cloud the area and take over her sight. She didn't understand. As the days went on, the less she tried to make sense of anything.
Raven swallowed hard as the piercing alarm died away and Cage injected her reward. She let herself float away on yet another cloud to another world once more. She used to fight these hallucinations but now gave in and embraced them readily. Each time she remembered hearing Cage's maniacal laughter in the background as she weightlessly drifted off.
This was her life now. The ark, the grounders, her friends, they all became a distant memory. Nothing else seemed to matter but her daily dose of the red.
"Wake up, Raven. Time to rise."
The brunette opened her eyes and sucked in a deep breath as she searched her memory for where she was. She tried to move against leather straps biting into her arms but remained trapped in that damn chair.
Something was wrong this time, though. Her memories came slower. Flashes of red, a man with shaggy brown hair, a woman in a lab coat, and a blonde warrior she couldn't remember the name of.
She felt strong, edgy. Her fingers twitched beneath her bindings. She needed something, craved something. But her mind wasn't working. She just wanted to return to whatever realm she was in before. What was going on?
"I have some bad news for you, Raven," said the man with the shaggy hair. His name was Cage, she finally remembered. "I only seem to have one of these left."
Raven beamed when she saw the small gun-shaped injector in his hand. The vial full of red liquid. She wanted that shot. Her body yearned for it; her muscles tightened as her jaw locked and fists clenched in anticipation for it.
She groaned as Cage waved the vial in the air teasingly. "You want this don't you Raven?"
She nodded eagerly, as much as the strap around her neck would allow her to anyway.
"Unfortunately, someone else wants it too."
Raven couldn't help but whimper. Nooooo. She wanted it. She needed it.
"Well," Cage sighed. "It wouldn't be fair of me to pick favorites. If you want this drug for yourself, I'm afraid you're going to have to fight the other girl for it."
Raven furrowed her brows. There was another girl? Suddenly, Raven's lids flew shut as the screeching device sounded again. She could feel the straps loosening and unclasping but couldn't move beneath the harsh shriek of the alarm piercing her very soul.
When silence returned, Raven opened her eyes and sat up from the chair, finally released from the straps that bound her for so long, she was finally free.
The door to her room closed and on the floor before it now sat a girl trembling with need. The same need Raven had for the single injector lying in the midst of the room between them. Raven stared down brown orbs with her own; in an instant, each girl leaped toward the drug but collided in the middle.
The girl with wavy brown hair straddled Raven and with a familiar war cry raised a fist high before raining it hard against the mechanic's cheekbone. But it didn't hold Raven back from reversing their positions and smacking the back of the girl's head against the concrete flooring harshly with a sickening crack.
Like Raven, the pain didn't seem to bother the girl. They were both too wired and had begun to enter withdrawal from the drug. It was apparent neither would relent and the only means of escape and claiming the prize would be by one killing the other.
With great effort, Raven swung her new leg onto her smaller opponent's chest and ground her knee against the bones there as hard as she could. There was a satisfying snap as the bones beneath her metallic limb began to collapse on themselves.
Raven's target cried out and whined as blood protruded past chapped lips. The girl gritted her teeth and tried desperately to push Raven away, but the mechanic refused to budge and instead slithered rough hands around the younger girl's neck.
Small hands clawed at Raven's chest and neck as the younger addict gasped for air, soon, an alarming amount of crimson bubbled from the girl's mouth initiating the beginning of the drowning process.
She stared Raven down hard, holding onto dear life but never losing the scowl on her face until the engineer had a sudden flash of memory. She squeezed down harder feeling bones crack and pop beneath her fingers not caring to wait for the memories to surface.
In her mind's eye, she could see this girl standing by the blonde woman that kept surfacing in her thoughts periodically throughout the week. Raven stood behind them, laughing and joking, wrestling then laughing some more. She kissed the blonde who gazed back at her with adoration and an affectionate smirk. Raven turned to the younger girl with wavy brown hair and taught her how to high-five.
Tris.
With one last gurgled gasp in a failed attempt for air, Tris began to shudder then stiffen beneath Raven's hold. By the time she released her grip and realized who she had strangled and battered it was too late. Tris' lifeless browns fell to the side and stared into nothingness. Her mouth fallen open in a horrified o. Blood continued to flow from a now disturbing too pale face.
Tears fell from the mechanic's unblinking eyes as she sat there in disbelief, her heavy robotic limb still sinking into Tris' broken chest. What have I done? She had killed her friend. And for what? For what?
Raven turned her gaze to the instrument behind her. With trembling fingers and tears still running, she reached for the device and brought it to her neck. Only the red could deliver her from what she'd done. Only red could understand.
Swallowing hard, she pushed the needle inside and pulled the trigger; letting out a fierce war cry of anguish as she did so.