He wasn't sure how long it had been since he was taken. He had tried to count the days but when he was kept inside with only artificial light, it was hard. He could only go by when they turned the lights off, but he wasn't sure if they turned them off at the end of the day, the middle of the day, or after a couple of days. Being not able to see the sun made it almost impossible to count the days. He could only guess. However, he knew that it had been at least several months, other than that, he wasn't sure.
He stood obediently behind the two men that had taken it upon themselves to try to turn him into a new person. He looked at the screen they were talking about. He wasn't sure if his heart skipped a beat or dropped to the floor. It was the one person that he wanted to see over anyone else. He knew this didn't bode well.
He had long since learned not to show that he knew who Hakkai was when they showed him a picture. It had taken him a long time to be indifferent when he was shown a picture of this one person, the other people in his former life it was easy to pretend that he didn't know them. Both the men turned around to see if he had recognised their uninvited guest. A pleased little smile played around their lips. He wanted so badly to wipe those smiles off, but he couldn't. He had to play along in hope of having any chance of being free again. He guessed that this was some kind of test. A test that he needed to pass, if he wanted a s chance in being able to leave this building and have a little bit of his life back. After that he didn't know what he was going to do. He would still be under their control.
One of the two men held out his hand with a com in it, "Put this on and do what we tell you."
He took the offered com and placed it into his ear. It went all the way in; no one would be able to see it, unless, they were looking right into his ear. He really didn't have a choice; they had made that clear to him at the beginning. He would have to listen to what they say, and do what they want him to do until he finds a way out of their clutches.
"Also, take this with you and give it to that man. He will understand what has happened and realise that he isn't wanted here." This time it was the other man that held out his hand. He was holding the leather wrist band, the one he had worn every day since it had been given to him. He would never leave the house without it on. He didn't want to give it back; it would hurt him more than he was ever willing to admit.
He took it from the man's hand knowing that he couldn't do anything else. He held it like he didn't care about it, which pleased the two men. He wanted to show them that he hadn't taken to the procedure that they had tried on him and he hadn't forgotten who he was before he was taken, but he knew all too well what would happen if he did.
He turned on his heel and headed for the elevator. He pressed the call button and waited for it to come up to his floor. He knew well enough that there were cameras everywhere, so he couldn't let his guard down. Not until he was in the elevator, it was the only place that they hadn't installed cameras.
When he heard the ding of the elevator, he got in and leaned against the wall after pressing the button that would take him down to the right floor. He gave a heavy sigh once the doors closed and rubbed his forehead. He didn't want to do this.
The elevator gave a small jerk as it started to descend; he looked at himself in the reflective metal on the walls. He didn't look like himself; in fact he thought that he looked far from it. He still half expected to see the fire red hair being reflected back at him, but it wasn't there anymore, instead there was jet black dyed hair. Even though he never really liked that colour of his hair, but he had gotten used to it and came to like it in his own way. It was no longer shoulder length; they had chopped it off so that it was only a couple of inches long. He had fought them the whole way when they started to cut it off, even more so when they tried to dye it. Now the twin scar lines on his face his stepmother had given him were visible for the whole world to see.
After they had dyed his hair they had waited a while before making the next change to his appearance. They waited till they had received some positive results that would tell them that he was falling under their control. They had told him that he would need to change his eyes, but they would let him choose the colour, anything in the normal range for eye colours. They had laid out a tray of different-coloured contacts. He had taken his time looking through them. he really only looked at one section. He had been looking through the green section; he wanted to find the ones that were the closest to the man that he loved. He wanted something to look at in the mirror that would remind him of the man that he loved, the only person that he really, truly, cared for in this harsh brutal world. He found strength in those green eyes, the ones that haunted all of his dreams. The ones that he wanted to see clearly again. He wanted look into their depths and get lost in them once more.
Tearing his eyes away from his distorted reflection and looked disapproving at the cloths they are making him wear. Every time he looked at them he wanted to gag and rip them off. He never wanted to wear a suit in his life. Yes, he had worn dress shirts before, but always with the first few buttons undone, never tucked, and never with dress pants. Then there was the tie he had to wear, the only thing that he saw that it was fit for was to hang himself or someone else with it. First of all, it was not a colour that should be paired with the suit, and second it wasn't just a plain tie, there was some crazy design which he wasn't sure what it was. The jacket wasn't much better. It just managed to make him look like he was some kind of banker with control issues. No one could see the care that he had put into his body, nothing showed off all the hard work that he had put in to getting his body to look like it did. He felt ridiculous wearing such clothing.
He gave his head a shake. He knew he looked like a different person and no one he knew would be able to tell that it was him till they were close to him. Even then he doubted that they would be able to tell that it was him right away. He took a steadying breath; it didn't really help him feel any better. He felt sick to his stomach knowing what he was going to have to do once the doors to the elevator opened. He figured that he would lose the one thing that he held dear, he would most likely lose it with what he was going to have to do. He knew that it wouldn't be any better for the green eyed man that had come here looking for him. He gave another heavy sigh as he placed an expression of not really caring for the person who was on this floor. As the doors to the elevator opened, he stepped out to do the hardest thing he figured he would have to do.