Neither Near nor Far
Chapter 2
-Present-
I woke with a start thanks to the horrendous dream that haunted me day and night. My breathing was quick and my luxuriant purple eyes were dilated. The sweat formed on my brow slowly made its way down my ghostly white face; as if my blood flow ceased to exist. The only sounds in the empty room were that of my laboured breathing and the sharp chirping of blue birds outside my window; oh how I wanted to stone them all.
I placed my clammy hands on my forehead and rested my head there for awhile. 'Why is it only that moment that decided to hang around and loiter in my head? Much worse has happened to me than that but...It doesn't seem to go away...Sometimes, I guess; time doesn't heal all wounds...' I slowly reached down beside me and searched for my glass bottle filled with Vodka; I was never without it. I needed it most of the time so that I could escape from this world; this scathing world. In a few short, aggravating minutes I found it and hastily brought it up to my chest. I didn't hesitate to tear off the bottle cap that separated me from my deliverance from this burning world of pandemonium. I then brought my lips to the edge of the clear bottle and threw my head back so as to drink it all down; it was finished in a matter of minutes. I then discarded the now empty bottle and threw the covers off of my slim, athletic body.
'I'm surprised Tala hasn't tried to wake me up yet...Wait, what time is it?' I turned sluggishly around and narrowed my eyes at the large, bold red numbers on my alarm clock; it was 6:40 am. 'I can't believe I'm late...' I threw on my black clothes and meandered out the door while pulling on my black leather combat boots. 'I can't blow it this time...Back then it was different, but now I have to make it up to them,' I thought as I raced down the stairs in a sad effort to win against time; the race was always in the opposing favour. 'I let them down once...In the worst way possible...It ruined any trust that I might have acquired through my time spent with them at the Abbey. I just couldn't stay any longer...I couldn't keep on living the lie that we were alright, that I was alright.'
15 minutes passed before I finally came to the training grounds behind the building. The Blitzkrieg Boys were already there; what a surprise. I calmly marched towards them with my head held in a superior way; my eyes were forward, anticipating their reactions before they noticed my sudden appearance. "Acquilina, get started on your training and we'll talk after," Tala sama growled at me. He glowered at me from where he stood; at least 10 inches away from everyone else. The Sun was out and there was a light breeze, but the good weather did little to improve my foul mood.
-Past-
Her scream sent chills up everyone's spines as it filled the Abbey easily. Dark crimson liquid oozed its way down her right arm and dropped loudly onto the cement floor. The scene resembled that of a river of blood as it flowed into the larger lakes, only so that it could flood the area in a ghastly amount of the deep red fluid. The hollow sound of it falling on the ground followed her whimpering and panting; she was in a vast amount of pain.
The aquamarine-haired freak show loomed over her crouched form. His loathsome grin was plastered onto his ethereal face as he stared at Acquilina in ominous glee. "We told you that we'd make sure you were taught your lesson, girlie!" His dark laugh, mixed with the tremor of the boy's volatile voice, echoed throughout and made everyone else in the Abbey shrink back into their cells; their fear was greater than their need to aid the child. He calmed down after a moment and kneeled in front of the small form, his bloodied claws with steal-like strength remained at his side as his sickly chamomile eyes seemed to brighten with obvious amusement at his art that was now etched down the young girls arm.
Acquilina dared to look up at the experiment that lingered above her. She wanted to get away from him; she wanted to be rid of him, but she knew that if she even tried to, he'd kill her. He snickered again and swiftly kicked the young girl before stalking off in search of his next victim; oh how everyone pitied who ever it may be.
Her right arm was now decorated with a wine-colored tribal dragon; it would remain with her forever. She winced and gradually lifted herself up from the floor. Acquilina's mind raced to find a solution to her steadily bleeding arm and she found one shortly. Her hands worked quickly to tear some fabric from her worn out jeans and tightly wound it around her arm; a home made tourniquet. 'It's engraved into my skin...I'll never be rid of this thing, even if I die...' Acquilina watched solemnly the back of her oppressor as he wandered away to resume his killing spree. "Viridian..." she murmured the beasts name before passing out in the dark and dirty hallway. It was arduous trying to imagine him as being human, of having a normal life.
The cobble stones surrounding Acquilina's still form were covered in thick, succulent blood. The smell of it could have brought many failures to her, though their trepidation of the one named Viridian over-ruled their thirst; their want for the child's blood as it coated the surface of the ground of which they strode. The substance filled all the cracks and notches in the rock easily as the pool stretched out among the floor; it enfolded her stagnant figure effortlessly.
-Present-
My arm began to throb unremittingly; all during practise and even after Tala's 'pep talk'. I tried to disregard the pain in my arm but it didn't seem to succeed. 'I need my pain killers...I should have taken them before I left; I'm such a fool. Well, at least I have some to ease this unquenchable ache,' I thought as I trudged up the stairs to my room.
I was greeted by silence when I opened the door; it was so different from what it was back then when Carina and Adrasteia were with me...I slammed the door shut (while killing my train of thought; I knew where it would lead to) and continued marching inside my vicinity; it was ineffectual to think of such things when they weren't going to come back. When I reached my bag I tossed everything out to find my prescription drugs; ironically, it was at the base of the bag. I hastily took the recommended dosage and relaxed for the first time today; it was 1:02 pm.
The pounding inside my arm slowly decreased and, eventually, became a memory only to be forgotten. My thoughts slowly drifted back to my dream; another nightmare of my child hood. 'Some scars will never truly heal... Though, every scar is a bridge to somebody's broken heart.'
-Past-
She woke up to the sound of distraught voices above her; was something wrong, or was she dreaming? Acquilina's eyes blinked back the sleep that she had yielded to earlier that day; the loss of blood was most assuredly the reason behind that nap. The sounds slowly drifted away as the child of 9 years stood from where she had fallen. Her friends, the Demolition boys, were there.
Ian was the first to break the horrid silence. "Acquilina what happened to you?" She smiled kindly and waited till Bryan was finished hitting him till she replied.
"Viridian happened to cross my path while being in a homicidal mood. I'm sorry to have worried you..." her voice drifted off quickly and her once recognizable words became a murmur of jumbled noises. Acquilina's voice was always unobtrusive while addressing anyone, so the boys were used to her sentences that seemed to run off into a whole different section of incomprehensible syllables and grunts.
"It's alright, Acquilina, it happens...Come on, we'll fix you up," Bryan said soothingly while concealing his anxiety for the poor child; what had she done to deserve such cruelty? He took the 9 year old female's small hand and led her to their cell; they had medical supplies in there due to injuries against Tala, mostly.
'I owe them so much...I never want to leave their sides as long as I live...Even if our time will forever be in this abyss of suffering,' Acquilina thought as she was carefully being led away from where she had been attacked prior to their arrival.
-Present: Night Hours-
I wandered aimlessly around the dark streets of Tokyo. 'This place...It seems so tedious compared to Europe,' I thought dully while allowing myself to slowly relax. I passed underneath a lamp post as I continued walking to my destination; a fast flowing river only an hour or so away from where I called residence in this pathetic city of lights. As I passed beneath the radiant glow of the light all of my multiple piercings glinted off from the glare. 'This day could have gone better...Though, it had gone well compared to what I had anticipated.' My thoughts had been interrupted by a shudder that rocked my body as my heavy steps continued to fall onto the cement sidewalk; I was freezing. 'It never occurred to me that it might be cold down here. Stupid instincts...They always lead me in the wrong direction when I choose to obey them.'
I shook my head in disbelief at how imprudent my actions were right now. Here I was, walking alone in the dead of night, in a city of which I held no pleasure with. I had left my coat at the room that I spent the rest of my day in alone; the night was the only place left for me now.
The slight wind rippling across the sidewalk alerted me of how late it was becoming; I couldn't care less if I was late, again, for training tomorrow. My sharp and dangerous deep amethyst eyes took in everything surrounding me, including the thugs in front of my path hiding in a pitch alley. I sighed softly and the soft glow of the oncoming light glinted off of my pointed, glistening white teeth. My hands relaxed at my sides as more of the glow bounced off of the spikes on my knuckles. 'Whoever they are...They're going to have a quick and painful wake up call,' I thought bitterly but restlessly; it truly had been a long day.
As my quick, but measured, strides brought me past the opening in the thick cement walls, I could already hear the four 'men' creeping up behind me with sloth-like movements; a man would never take so much time to attack a woman. My authoritative steps abruptly halted. The four decided now to make their move. Oh, how wrong they truly were.
I made no sound. In four lethal (and strategic) actions; they had no time to react, I had each of the burly males on the ground. They were all covered in their own wine colored blood. My blood boiled, but I resumed my blissful walk with such grace; one would have thought that I hadn't discontinued my pace at all. Their bodies twitched on the ground behind me and I faintly overheard their moans and grunts of pain and aggravation, though some had already passed.
Again, the wind ripped past me and howled next to my ear; I wanted to flinch, though it came to no avail. The gust brought along the scent of the liquid pooling around them. The moon, bright and peaceful as it looked down upon us, accented the dark circles underneath my deep, ebony-colored eyes. The moon was the only one who would know of this horrible night. I closed my black eyes for a moment while I contemplated turning back and finishing the job hastily. But, when I re-opened my pitch-as-night eyes, they were slitted down the middle, and it was the most gruesome form of red.
-Past-
She awoke with a start to the rash yelling from down the hall. 'Who was being tortured this early in the morning?' Acquilina thought acrimoniously as she tried in vain to get back to sleep; it didn't work. The screams escalated to such a high degree, that it sent cold shivers down her spine.
Acquilina slowly stood up from where she had made her bed. Her small, feeble steps stopped just short of her door. 'It feels as if something is telling me not to move...My instincts I bet,' the child thought innocently. What she didn't know, was that down the hallway from her cell, Tala was in the midst of another of Boris' 'procedures'. The young girl waited. Finally, it ceased and relief flickered across Acquilina's ghostly pale face. 'It was probably nothing...' she tried to convince herself, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she just made a horribly significant mistake by lingering in her chamber.
Meanwhile, Tala was writhing on the cold coble stone floor as shots of pain seared through his small frame. His icicle like eyes were tightly shut even when his tormentor had finished probing him with various sizes of needles. Tala was one of the many that succumbed to Boris Balkov's punishments meant for 'bad-children-that-were-too-far-away-to-be-helped-anymore'.
In the dark laboratory, an unstable chuckle emitted from the back of the area. Boris had left the injured male with one of the worst beasts ever 'created'; Viridian. The red head opened his porcelain blue eyes to watch as the slender criminal crept closer to his chained body, a sinisterly hazardous grin marring his ghoulish features.
"Well, hello Tala," the avocado-haired abnormality whispered in the dark, "we didn't think that you would be here so soon...Forgive us, as we're a bit unprepared..." Viridian's grin turned devilish as he approached the terrified Tala. "We'll have fun, though, Tala...Yes, we will always have our fun," he growled out before lunging at the horrified red head.
-Present: Room-
I had woken on time this morning, which didn't surprise me; I usually didn't sleep after concluding one's 'life'. I spat the foul tasting toothpaste into the sink before me. The dastardly chirping birds apparently rose with the Sun; they would surely pay for their distracting sounds. Other than my faint breathing and my toothbrush, there were no other sounds in the normally silent, desolate room. I reached over with a still hand and washed off my brush only to replace it by the edge of the shimmering sink. My vibrant violet eyes were closed now; they were no longer angry.
'I did not commit any misconduct last night. Those bastards were partially alive when I left them,' I tried to convince myself while I changed out of my clothes from the previous day and into clean, new clothes. I quickly fastened the silver buckles on my iron-toed boots and pulled my pant leg down. An inaudible sigh escaped my ashen lips when I moved towards the door right before Tala knocked on it; it reminded me of the old days.
He greeted me with a cold glare and moved past my door; something I had to get used to from now on. I followed him, my head held high and my incisive eyes kept a good hold on Tala's back. My steps were calculated and weighty as I pursued my new 'captain'. There was nothing on my face that indicated that I had not slept in 24 hours, though, some looked unsettled from the dark purple circles underneath my eyes. With my jaw firmly set and my hands clenched tightly at my sides, I appeared intimidating to most, if not all.
My eyes moved ever so slightly to gaze at the red heads' back and shoulders. I inwardly shuddered from the memories. 'I need to start ignoring my intuition, though I should have learned that lesson long ago...When my feeling to stay broke all reliance that they had in me; when the feeling to leave cost me the closest thing I came to love. But there are no happy endings for something such as me; a hybrid concept, a disastrous assay...'
some mistakes cannot be forgotten or forgiven