"up…ak…up!" I slowly opened my eyes. I could feel every muscle in my body scream in pain as I tried to lift myself off the cold tile floor. "…ally." My head felt like it had been smashed into a wall. My throat was dry and swallowing felt like I was drinking dust. With a loud groan I managed to sit myself upright. The world turned rather slowly and a wave of nausea passed through me. A garble of words left my mouth trying to form the words 'where am I'. "…oth…ing…it's…less…" Suddenly cold water was splashed onto my face.
"Ugh!" I coughed as I felt the coolness pull away the groggy cloud over me.
"Guess I dosed you too hard when I put the drugs in the vents." A cold male voice chuckled. "Oh well…You should be thanking me. By now that apartment is completely destroyed. Not a trace to be found. I'm sure by now those RFA liars!" The voice growled and hit something. He breathed in and out trying to compose himself. "Those liars are mourning the loss of their dear," his voice grew closer, "beloved," he was in front of me, "Rika impersonator burnt to a crisp." I felt a hand grip my hair forcing me to look up. "Pwahahaha! You look utterly pathetic with your mouth hanging open like that!" He roughly threw my head down as he walked away cackling.
For a moment everything was a complete blur. Slowly I blinked my eyes wiping away the sleep that kept them closed shut. "Who…are…you?" I drawled out. The person in front of me was a pale man, no older than twenty, with albino white hair and mint green eyes. He wore a red wife beater with a black jacket than hung loosely on his shoulders. I could see a spiked wristlet on his left hand as he rubbed his neck in irritation. Why did that look familiar?
"The savior who brought you here." He scoffed again. "I was sent to get you and some important documents." He padded a pile of folders on a small desk. It took me a second to realize we were in a small room with no windows. The cold floor was a bright reflective grey I could see my drowsy, pale face. I looked ill. The walls were grey with not even some much of a crack in them. Behind the strange man was a door that led to a pitch black hallway. To his left was a rusted metal table where his stolen files laid upon. I leaned my head back only to feel it fall back onto something wooden. Looking behind me was a wooden chair with leather straps on the arm rests and at the base were the legs would be located. On the headrest was a leather strap dangling on the back rest.
Panic set in greasing the gears of my clogged mind. Suddenly my morning rushed back to me. "The…alarm… that was you?"
"Smart woman."
"Th-then you kidnapped me?"
"Yup." He smiled happily. "All to make him feel like nothing but a failure. His perfection had to end someday. I bet he thought it would end up with him being killed. Not you. It kills me that I can't see the look on his face."
I gasped. "Are you also…the hacker that brought me to the RFA?"
He winked. "Bingo! I'll repeat, you're a smart woman." He sighed and ruffled his white hair with slight wisps of orange. "Yeah…the idea was that you would be there to unlock the damn place. But jeez I didn't think you'd make that much of an impact on them. Still it all works out in my favor. I got the files, you make a great addition, and that idiot Luciel can feel the utter remorse of having your death on his hands." He threw his head back with a maniacal laughter. "To think. If he would have answered your phone calls before the siren went off, you'd be alive and laughing with your idiot friends."
"You hate Seven that much?"
His eyes darkened. "Don't you ever say that idiot, dumb, ANNOYING, LYING BASTARDS NAME EVER AGAIN!" He grabbed me by the hair pulling me into a standing position. "AHAHAHAHAAAA! This STUPID girl is going to join the paradise because YOU couldn't save her fast enough!" He shoved me into the chair, my neck snapping back hitting the headrest right in the back of my head. "She's here because of you Luciel!" The name Luciel left his lips as if it was poison to him. His eyes locked onto mine, his attention back on me. "I was abandoned by him and now the same fate will happen to you. He'll leave you. Forget you about you. Throw you away like trash because that's exactly what you are. Trash like me!"
I struggled to stand up trying to avoid his grasp on my wrists as he attempted to tie me down. But this man was fast. He strapped in right wrist so tight I could feel the leather dig deep into my skin. I swung my left arm. He swiftly caught my wrist and with both hands twisted it to the right causing me to follow with it.
"One wrong move and this wrist will be nothing but a limp, useless, appendage!"
"L-let go!"
He twisted it to the far left, I could feel my bones strain to stay together, and slammed it onto the arm rest as he strapped the other strap. I was in an immense pain. My muscles were screaming for rest, my head was pounding in pain and I'm pretty sure I could feel blood running down my neck, I felt nauseous as if in any moment I would retch up whatever was left of yesterdays dinner, but despite all that I flailed my legs about. Kicking and swiping trying to keep him away.
He could see the pain twisted in my face and laughed. "You think that hurts?"
With swift precision movements he dodged my flailing growing closer to strapping down my legs. I had to aim. Three places, his knees, his shins, or his groin. One of those could at least stagger him.
I kicked with my right leg.
I missed.
I kicked again with right.
I missed.
I grunted in anger as I kicked with my left hitting him square in the knee. I could see it bend inward as he fell back with a surprised yell. "You." He growled as he struggled to stand up. "You are irritating." He used the rusted table as leverage as he stood up. There was a broken pipe on the table. He gripped one end as he dragged the metal against the metal. Walking up to me he raised the bar and struck my knee.
"GAAAAH!" I felt something crack. Through my jeans I could see blood pouring out and white fragments tearing through the fabric. I threw my head forward sobbing as my wrists struggled to break free.
He tied my legs up and limped towards the files picking them up and taking a light breather.
"You…" I sobbed. "You don't know what Seven's been through."
He turned to me. "Stop saying that FUCKING NAME!" He limped towards the door. "Now SIT THERE and be a good girl!" With labored breathing he disappeared into the hallway. Heavy footsteps began to approach from the opposite way the man left.
Three men entered the room. I only assumed they were men for there was no distinctive way to tell. They wore long grey cloaks that reached floor covering their entire bodies. On there faces were grey masks with no mouths, black holes for eyes, and a mint colored third eye on the forehead. On the bottom of the mask were two air compressors like that you would see on a gas mask. They wore black gloves and each one seemed to be holding a briefcase. Simultaneously they placed their briefcases on the table.
"Welcome to paradise." They said in unison. The masks they wore distorted their voices making them sound mechanical, almost cold and unfeeling.
The three men bowed. There was a short one, a stubby one, and one of average build. The shorter one spoke first. "You are lucky. You've been saved from that dirty, sin infested world. You must praise Magenta."
The average one spoke next. "Magenta is a Goddess. Praise Magenta! She is the Goddess of all things pure in the cruel, corrupted, ugly world. Praise Magenta! She wishes for all her children to be cleansed. Praise Magenta!" He raised his hands in the air chanting in some strange language.
The stubby one walked behind me grabbing my forehead and pulled me back hard enough to slam the back of my head into the head rest as he strapped down my head forcing me to face forward. "We must cleanse you. First we must let you dream. Dream of the beauty of paradise.
The shorter one opened a briefcase. He pulled out a two inch syringe. It had to be half an inch thick.
"W-what are you doing?" I finally spoke.
"Cleansing you." The average one answered.
The shorter man picked up a bottle with a red liquid and filled the syringe to about 3 mL. He tapped the base making the air travel downward and squeezed some of the liquid out before walking towards me. "Dream. Of paradise." The stubby man forced my eyes open as I screamed for them to let me go. The needle grew closer as the short one aligned it with my left pupil.
The average man began to scream. "PRAISE MAGENTA PRAISE MAGENTA!"
"STOOOP! NOOO!" There was an excruciating pain. I could see the needle in my eye. I could feel it touching the fragile veins and suddenly all I could see out of my left eye was red. I could feel some of it leaking out. Through the reflective floor I could see the blood colored liquid drip down from my pupil and watched it roll down my cheek as my body spasmed in shock.
"PRAISE MAGENTA! PRAISE MAGENTA!"
I felt my body jolt as my hands brushed over crumbling brown dirt. I was in a room with red florescent lights barely fighting away the darkness. There was rubble everywhere and smell of something decaying. I sat up and looked near my hands. Something was written in blood.
"They're watching."