TWO
Sleeping beauty.
Darkness invaded her senses. She couldn't see, but she could hear. She could hear water drip near her; hear the rustling of metal. She couldn't see, but she could smell. She could smell petrichor from last night's storm; could smell something pungent wafting through the air from across the room. She couldn't see, but she could touch. She could feel the sandy ground shift beneath her; feel the jagged-rocked wall against her back. Most of all, she could feel him.
Cold fingers caressed her cheeks, sending shivers down her spine.
"Isn't it strange, my dear?"
Dread and disgust filled her. She would have slapped his hand away, cursed him and all his kin, but she couldn't gather enough energy to speak; much less move. She was completely and utterlydefenseless.
"Isn't it strange how empires fall," he said, running his fingers through her hair, like she was some pet for him to keep, "how old alliances could turn their backs, forsaking their oaths?"
He continued combing his fingers through her hair; knots untied and nails scratching lightly on her scalp. In another time, this could have given her much bliss and pleasure, but now it only brought her anything but.
"How does it feel?" He whispered to her, "How does it feel to have everything you have ever known and loved turn to ash beneath your feet? To know that your people, your world, your history would be nothing more than a fading memory?"
Heat burned inside her chest, thumping and scorching pieces of her heart.
"You hate it, don't you?"
Yes, she did.
"Don't you hate them? The ones that swore to have your people's aid as yours have theirs." He whispered softly.
The heat and pain were growing unbearable.
"Even your precious raven has abandoned you," he said, "left you in utter despair."
No, she wouldn't! She wouldn't leave her here.
"N-N-No…" she rasped out; her throat dry and croaky.
She heard him tut and chuckle.
"It seemed there is still hope within you," he said in amusement before his tone darkened once more, "we just have to snuff it out."
He laid his palm against her chest.
"Let's start with your heart, shall we?"
He pushed and there was light.
Aerith woke up, screaming. Her hand clutching her chest as she tried to retrieve her bearings. The familiar rush of her instincts calmed her down. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, first uneven and shaky. A few moments later, it settled down into an almost steady rhythm. Once she was in a coherent and stable state, she opened her eyes and a few tears slipped down her cheeks.
She hated these nightmares. It was the only thing she had ever grown to hate. They came on random nights; never with a specific pattern. They always left her hollow, trembling and shivering.
These were the nights the wolves she met would stay with her. They would have snuggled next to her, let her lean close to their bodies and feel the comfort of their soft fur. In the morning, the wolves would travel by her side and the birds would appear, singing joyful songs to entertain and distract her from her lingering thoughts. However, they weren't here. Aerith probably would never see those wolves or hear the birds sing again. They were out in the forest, living wild and free, while she was stuck inside a place she may never escape.
Since she was brought here, the days have gone too long and stagnant. All day, she stayed in the cell with nothing to do other than count the bricks on each wall and hum random tunes to herself. Three times a day, they gave her a tray of bland food through a hatch by the foot of the door. The only time she ever got to leave the cell was when she needed to go relieve her waste.
Her time in the cell was lonelier than the first week of waking up in the forest. At least, she had animals she could interact with then. The guards that would come by never spoke to her; never even glanced her way. The only person she could actively talk to, and would politely reply, was Doctor List.
Doctor List would enter her cell once a day to assess her physical health, typing down notes into his tablet.
During these periods, she was able to discover things about herself that she never even thought of. List would bring all kinds of new machinery into the cell. With these items, he was able to get her exact height, weight, blood type, and many other things Aerith didn't get to catch.
List had measured her height, stating that she was taller than the average Caucasian woman (she wasn't quite sure what that meant), as she stood at half an inch away from five feet and nine inches. He had told her that she was thankfully not underweight for a woman of her height, stating that it seemed her time "meandering" (as he would say) through the forest had done her some good.
Through these meetings, she was able to conclude that the doctor was a man she didn't quite know how to feel towards. The doctor was always nice and polite; a great conversationalist, but there was always a distance set between their actions.
He was gentle in the way he talked and handled the procedures. He was kind enough to notice and explain when he could see that there was something she couldn't understand. Despite the circumstances, it was nice to have some company. However, she was not naïve enough to believe that she could trust him. Her instincts told her to be wary but never in an overly alarming way.
Aerith admitted, dare she say it, that she would rather have met Doctor List first than Sera. While she didn't like to think badly of her first friend, she had to admit to herself that this was arguably the longest she had ever felt truly at ease without the help of the animals around her.
For some unknown reason, animals didn't like Sera at all. They like to keep their distance, but as soon as she would leave, they'd come rushing back in. There was also the fact that her instincts were always uncomfortably coiled tight when she was around. There was just a sense of predatory danger around Sera that alerted every facet of her being.
Speaking of the woman, where was she?
Sera should have noticed that she wasn't in the forest anymore. Today was one of those days she would briefly come back before going off again. Aerith had no doubt that Sera would have easily found a way in.
So, why wasn't she here?
Maybe she was underestimating the security of this place. Maybe she was overestimating Sera's sneaking capabilities.
She didn't quite know what to think and would rather not ponder about the matter. Because musings set aside, she was trapped in a cell for a reason that she didn't know.
It was easy to rationalize that she was captured because she had, quite unknowingly, trespassed into their property. However, she was sure that trespassing did not warrant her incarceration. Though, to be fair, it wasn't like Aerith was knowledgeable about the subject, much less informed on the rules in the area. In fact, she never even thought there were any rules to be aware of. Afterall, spending so much time wandering in the wild didn't really merit much sight of civilization. Unfortunate as it was, this was the first encounter.
This led her to the question that had been plaguing her mind for her entire stay.
Is she the only one here?
As she always did when the question was internally brought forth, she turned to her side and looked at the cemented wall in front of her. There were times she would stay up at night looking at the wall and just wondering if there was another cell beyond it with a person inside like her.
Call it wishful thinking, but Aerith knew that she shouldn't be the only one held captive in these walls. In a way, it helped that she didn't know. It meant that she could imagine, even for a second, that she wasn't alone in this mystery than she really was.
Her thoughts were cut short when the door began to open. Bolting up, she tensed to see two familiar guards enter with an unknown man behind them.
The man was tall with a clean-shaved head. He had stark and prominent features that made him very stern and intimidating. However, there were two things that struck her most in his appearance: First was the scar on his face, and the second was the monocle he wore. However, what she thought of these two things would remain undiscovered as the man suddenly said two words that chilled her to the bone.
"Take her."
Before her mind could comprehend it, the guards roughly grabbed her arms and dragged her away from the bed. Her instincts raged in full alert but had sent her a small, reassuring wave of calm. Begrudgingly, she calmed down and kept up with the long paces of the guards. The monocle man walked ahead of them.
They went through a long corridor before eventually it led to a set of metallic double doors. There was a pair of heavily armed soldiers guarding the doors that made Aerith gasp out quietly; her nerves full of anxiety.
With a quick salute, the two soldiers opened the doors and they went inside an odd and fluorescent-lit room. Her nose wrinkled in the weird smell that permeated the air. Inside the room, she immediately saw Doctor List with his usual white coat lab. He was talking to another pair in the same coat. Roughly, she was tugged along by the two guards holding her. They made her lie down on a hard cot near Doctor List. Once she lied down, her limbs were tied and strapped against the bed. Confusion and panic ruled her senses.
"It's for your safety, my dear."
Aerith turned her head to look at List with an unreadable look in his eye.
"What are you doing to do with me?" she found herself asking; her voice wavering.
With precise and practiced ease, he clipped a tourniquet around her upper arm and started pressing his two fingers gently on the crook of her elbow.
"For now, I will be getting a blood sample" he answered, "After that, I will need to sedate you for a few basic medical tests."
"Sedate me?" she asked in confusion, not knowing what that entailed.
"We are going to give you something to help you sleep."
Finding what he needed, he stepped briefly away and collected several packets from a closed drawer. He placed them down a metal table next to the bed and began to open them. Her heart rate steadily increased when he brought out a needle from the sterile packaging.
"Why?" she asked, eying the needle.
"Herr Strucker and I thought it might be best to do so — a small precaution," He said.
Aerith watched as List snapped a pair of gloves on and ripped open an alcohol swab and wiped it around the crook of her elbow. She winced at the cool, foreign feeling, and was relieved to see it tossed in a bin after List had done so. However, once it was thrown, he picked up the needle.
List tightened the tourniquet around her arm and picked the dreaded butterfly need up. She felt the cold, hollow tip as it punctured her skin and slipped neatly into a vein. Opting to close her eyes, she let List do what he needed to do.
After a second, she heard a quiet click and stopped herself from moving once she felt her blood being extracted from her body in perfect synchronisation with her rapid heartbeat. The ominous quiet sound of her blood spurting into a vial reached her ears, making her shut her eyes tighter.
Eventually, she felt the needle slip away. Aerith opened her eyes to see the doctor holding a cotton ball over the puncture site, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. Once it did stop, he put a small and round plaster over the puncture. Before she could say anything, she felt another needle inserted into a vein in her neck. Soon, she felt drowsy and slipping away into a blissful moment of unconsciousness.
The next time Aerith opened her eyes, she found herself lying on the cot in her cell. A grey blanket was laid over her body. Instead of feeling slightly refreshed in the morning like she always did, she felt horrible. It was as if she fell from the highest cliff and was smashed by a large boulder. Everything ached. Her bones felt heavy, as if they were replaced by metal. It was the second worst feeling after falling into a frozen lake.
Slowly, Aerith sat up, forcibly willing her limbs to move. It was an absolute chore just letting herself shift more comfortably on the bed. Cautiously, she stretched her limbs. Her joints creaked and snapped into place and her limbs slowly regained their steady movement. For once, she was happy to wake up in her cell. She would choose this over a measly fur blanket on the rocky ground of a cave any day.
As she rejoiced her gladness on being on a semi-comfortable bed, it was unfortunate to see it end just as quickly as it came.
The door opened once again, and Aerith couldn't stop rolling her eyes and groaning in exasperation at Doctor List's appearance.
The doctor spared a moment to give a look of bemusement before he jumped into the important matter at hand.
"Congratulations, Miss Jude." He said with a small tone of cheer in his voice, "You are in perfect health."
Aerith would not deny that she beamed at the announcement, but it faded when his next words came.
"You are ready for Phase One," he said, confusing her.
Before she would even ponder about his meaning, two guards appeared once more to drag her out of the cell. Barely restraining a huff of irritation, she reluctantly allowed herself to be handled out of the cell.
They walked through now familiar hallways before going through a new one. The new room they entered was entirely different from before. There were more people; more technology in place. However, what really grabbed her attention was the metal slab in the middle of it all.
Swallowing apprehensively, she began thinking that Doctor List wasn't quite as kind or gentle as she thought him to be. Almost absentmindedly, she was placed on the metal slab. Leather straps were wrapped around her arms, torso, and ankles.
Aerith watched numerous people dressed in white coats flit and talk in the room. It wasn't long until some approached her prone body. They attached odd wires with white circles on the end, sticking it on the sides of her forehead, the crooks of her elbows, the small bare expanse of her stomach and chest, and the tops of her feet. The wires were almost everywhere, and she could see that it was connected to only one source. The source being a glass box with a golden sceptre, with a jewel that glowed an eerie blue.
With a small flinch of surprise, she heard a familiar terrifying voice play loudly in thin air. It was Strucker.
"Are we ready to begin, Doctor List?"
She could hear the slight eagerness and impatience in his baritone voice, making her uneasy. For a moment, she locked eyes on the doctor, pleading him to explain, to calm her down; to do something. However, he just stared at her blankly before saying,
"I do believe so."
Something in her crumbled in his cold tone.
Startlingly, she felt a small course of electricity run through her limbs suddenly. Aerith's body stiffened. Her muscles clenched and threatened to tear. Forcing herself not to scream, she felt as if she was lit on fire. It was a suffocating experience that made her gasping for air once it stopped.
Without any forethought in mind, she snapped angrily.
"What was that?!"
"The first round of exposure," he answered plainly.
"Wha—"
Cutting her off, she was struck by a blue glowing energy. It crept around her body, trailing indescribable pain in its wake. This was a pain she had ever felt before.
In her time in the forest, she had her fair share of wounds and bruises, but this was something more. She tried her best not to scream in agony, bottling it up. Her body began to jerk with uncontrollable seizures. However, what really made the whole thing irritating was Doctor List's comment once this all started.
"Now, this was the first burst of energy from the sceptre."
In a way that has never crossed her mind before, Aerith strongly wanted to claw his face off. Looking at the mildly smug face on the doctor made her want to throw anything his way to ruin the expression. Unfortunately, she could do nothing. The pain kept building, becoming stronger each minute it progressed. It felt like it went on for days when it was only three minutes.
Unable to hold back, she screamed, and everything went black.
Coming back into consciousness, Aerith kept her eyes shut. She desperately wanted to go back to sleep. She wanted to go back to being unaware of her surroundings. Never did she ever think that the darkness could be so sweet. She never thought how much comfort she could find in it. She wanted to go back into blissful unawareness, but it was made impossible by the searing light that descended above her.
Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, squinting as she adjusted to the bright light of the room.
She found herself lying down; a needle in her arm linked to an IV drip. Her body felt as numb and tired as her head felt at that moment, but she gathered enough energy to pull the needle out from her veins. There was a moment of pain that buried itself under the stiffness of her dry throat and the heaviness of her limbs.
Gravity pulled her body against the cot, pressing down on her like a large boulder against grass. With every twitch of her limbs was an uncomfortable electric current and soreness that made her wince.
Through the days of journeying through the woods, Aerith knew the ache of tired limbs better with every strenuous activity she had to do for the sake of survival. She had felt it from every trek and climb over mountains and cliffs; from every pull of the taut string of her bow; from every fall from clumsy grips and miscalculated steps. It was a newer feeling to get this from doing absolutely nothing except being zapped by strange blue energy.
While she once confessed that she was open to new experiences, this was not the type she expected — then again, did she really have any expectations?
Despite the pain, she nevertheless moved. Limbs were forced to cooperate as she willed her mind to clear itself. The moment she finally positioned herself to comfortably sit on the bed, the door opened.
Of all the people to enter, Doctor List was the last one she wanted to see.
He stepped inside the room, holding a tray of food and a glass of water, with an expression that acted as if he had not just put her through a series of excruciating experiments. Silence dominated the room; neither inclined to speak or start small talk like they usually do. He walked towards a small metal table Aerith didn't notice was in the room. Once Doctor List placed the glass and the tray down, he turned to look at her, examining her appearance with a calculating but thoughtful gleam.
His gaze was assessing as if he was looking for a specific detail. It seemed that he must have found it since he turned back to the items he brought, putting them on the table's surface and arranging them as if they were preparing to dine for dinner.
"I must say I am impressed," he began, the clink of metal utensils echoing through the expanse of the room, "You've made it through Phase One with flying colours."
List looked at her with an expectant smile, pulling out the seat for her to sit down on.
There was something in his face that made her stomach churn. Maybe it was because, despite the warnings from her instincts, she still decided to put a small degree of trust in the doctor. Aerith could admit to herself that his presence had become a small comfort for her in her bleak entrapment.
To realize that, he was essentially preparing her for the steps of painful experiments was a blow on her psyche. As fragile and superficial as their interactions were, it was still the second interaction she had properly had with another person like her. This marked Doctor List to have a special unintended and unwanted position in her life. To know that this person would not hesitate to do what he had already done to her was…
…she didn't know what word to best describe it.
Yet still, Aerith stood up from her perch — expectedly weary and reluctant — and sat on the offered seat. Once she was seated, List moved from behind her and settled on the chair on the other side of the table, opposite of her.
Gingerly, she reached for the glass and took a slow sip of fresh water. The relief that flowed down her longing throat was a joy. Like a dry flower finally healed with rain, her body slowly regained strength. The moment she had drunk her fill, she glanced at the older man, noting the thoughtfulness in his gaze as he watched her.
"How long was I asleep?" she asked; her throat still scratchy but on the road to recovery.
Aerith could have asked many more questions than the one she decided to voice.
Why did you dothis?
What was this experiment?
What have you done to me?
However, her instincts told her that she would receive no answers to these questions… at the moment.
"You have been asleep for a week," he answered plainly.
The mouthful of water she decided to intake was spat out from his answer. Coughing, Aerith was mortified to find that she spat it near his clasped hands. Quirking a sharp eyebrow at her, List took out a white handkerchief from his jacket, wiping whatever part of him caught the surprised jet of water.
"I know it was quite surprising," he said dryly, "but curiously, I must ask whether or not you're feeling any adverse effects? No nausea? Severe headache? Vertigo?"
Aerith placed the glass down, scrunching her face in thought.
Now that he mentioned it, she felt infinitely better than before she drank the glass of water. Just a few minutes ago, she felt as if she had climbed a whole mountain with an adult bear on her back. Now, she felt… good. Honestly, she felt better than good.
Her answer seemed to be clear on her face as List hummed in contemplation.
"Interesting…" he muttered, "You're already exhibiting some changes."
"What changes?" Aerith couldn't help but ask apprehensively.
List gave her a smile that was probably meant to reassure her.
"If circumstances would permit it, all will be revealed in due time, Miss Jude."
"And if not?"
Silence reigned once more as List's smile faltered for a moment, an unfamiliar glint in his eyes.
"…Then it would be a tremendous shame."
Aerith gulped in trepidation.
The way he said those words implied so much more than a simple disappointment of it possibly coming to pass. It seemed to be permanent—as if the circumstances (whatever they were) did not come, then it would end with something that placed a hollow feeling in her chest and pit of dread in her stomach.
In the flash of a second, List's demeanour went back to an almost warm disposition.
"You must eat, Miss Jude." He encouraged and announced, standing up, "Phase Two would begin soon. A week would be allotted for your rest and preparation for it."
He moved to walk out of the cell. However, before he could open the door, she found herself asking,
"What do you want to accomplish with this, Doctor List?"
List paused in his steps. He turned around and gave her a considerate look — a look that seemed as if he was debating on what he would tell her. The question, as simple as it was to her, seemed to elicit a contemplating thought from him. It was like he never thought about it before.
After a while, it seemed he had found an answer.
"A miracle, Miss Jude." He said, "I wish to create a miracle."
With that, he turned around and left. The door that was once open was closed once more. The locks were put in place, echoing its existence in the quiet space. In the air of foreboding that she was left in, she sat still on her chair; alone once more in despair.
A/N: So that is chapter 2! HAHAHA I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to review to let me know what you think about it so far. Have a nice day!