AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so some people were asking how "onyx" is pronounced. It sounds like äniks or on-iks... So there ya go! Review plz?
When I woke up, the first thing that I noticed was the smell: That windexy doctor's office smell that ran a chill up my back and gave me a rapid-fire montage of choking memories.
I tried to raise myself into a sitting position, and succeeded only in scraping my head against the metal lid to a Kanine Kamper. Then there was a horrible, burning pain in my shoulder, and it oozed red blood onto my too-short hospital attire. I didn't bother trying to come out of my crooked position after that—I knew that jostling my shoulder was the worst thing I could do.
So I lay there, one knee to my chest, the other leg awkwardly trapped beneath me, arms clutching my sore head. I opened one bleary eye, but all I could see was the slightly blood-stained floor of the crate. With a groan, I turned my head ever so slightly upward—
And recoiled at the hideous creature beside me. It at first appeared to be a boy—but upon closer examination, it had scales that pushed out of his skin, and a misshapen organ, slightly resembling a heart, that I could see bulging from underneath its flaky skin.
I felt no pity when I looked at him—only disgust. And this unnerved me. Had I really grown immune to such horrors, could it even be possible not to be shocked looking at these creatures? Perhaps after all the horrors I had witnessed—and gone through—as a child here had numbed me.
I closed my eyes again. Regardless of my immunity, I could bear the sight of the dying boy no longer.