The white ceiling greeted her eyes as she slowly opened them. Her body felt sore and heavy when she started to feel the weight of her injuries. "Heavy..." she muttered. Harper lifted her arms into the air. White bandages covered her to the tip of her fingers. "You really did a number on yourself." Her blue eyes turned to a woman dressed in a doctor's uniform. The doctor had short light brown hair , cut in a bob head style and thick black glasses in her face. Harper scowled at her in disgust.
The doctor pushed her glasses up with her middle finger, her green eyes glaring down at her with a smirk. "Come now sweetheart. Don't look at me like that, you will get wrinkled if you keep frowning." She scolded. "I don't care what you say whore." The doctor only laughed and walked over to her desk, typing away on her computer.
Harper continued to glare at her, but noticed her grabbing a cigarette from her coat pocket. "Hey whore, gimme one." The doc looked over just when she was about to put the cigarette between her teeth. "No Crow, it's bad for you. Especially in your condition." She just huffed and stared back up at the ceiling. 'Crow... huh.' Crow was her code name in this hell hole. She couldn't even remember the last time someone called her by her real name.
"Your last opponent really mangled your arms. Two fractures in both... but you still won. Tsk." The doc's face turned from smug to irritated in an instant and Harper couldn't hide a satisfied smile on her face, knowing that she's the one that caused the doctor irritation. "Looks like you will be out of commission for a while."
"How long?"
"I would say a week or two."
Harper shot right up from the bed with a groan. "That is unacceptable! I won't be able to fight then!"
"Exactly." She inhales and puffs out a small trail of grey smoke. "Then what the hell am I supposed to do then?!" She looked over and gave me a 'are you stupid?' look. "Read a book, play your stupid saxophone, hell write letter or something! But no exercise or lifting! You are to rest, and that is an order." Harper glared at her with her cheeks puffed out in fury. 'Bitch.' She thought. Harper laidback down on the bed when the doctor got up from her chair and began to walk towards her.
Harper couldn't help a tremor of fear come to her with the doctor walking towards her like a predator stalking its prey. She came up to her bed side and used her stethoscope and placed the cold metal against Harper's chest. "Take a deep breath for me." Her breathing stopped for a moment when she felt that cold metal but breathed out and relaxed even for a tiny bit. "Hmm.."
After a few more breaths the doc pulled away from her finally. "Your lungs are good and your heart beats are steady but keep an eye on any symptoms or sudden pressure to your chest." If anyone thought any better they would think the doc actually cared but Harper knew better. "Well you're free to go. You have been an excellent patient! Have a candy!" The doc pulled out a small ball of candy wrapped in the company's logo from her coat pocket. She shoved the candy up to Harper's face with so much enthusiasm that Harper almost laughed.
Well almost.
Harper looked down at the candy in her hand with revolution but accepted it all the same. 'Sad that this candy is the only thing keeping me alive.' Her hand slowly went to her throat where a metal collar was attached tightly to her flesh. The doctor all but turns her back on her and resumes her place at her computer. Harper followed her with her dark blue eyes but slowly closed them and got her sore body out of bed.
She swings her legs on the edge of the bed, her black combat boots that had small patches of dried blood staring back at her. Harper ignored it and got out of bed with little to no effort. It wasn't the first time that she got blood on herself that is not her own and it wouldn't be the last. She pulled up her gold-black tank top and smoothed out jeans of invisible dust and made her way to the exit. Harper tucked her long, black wavy hair behind her ear in thought. Not even wincing to the pain from her arms. 'How long have I been here? How long do I have to keep doing this shit?' She didn't even realize she was out of the room and was half way down the hall to her cell/room. "So what did the doc say Harp?" Harper jumped at the sudden question and looked over and saw a tall, muscular man with a tan. He wears his short black hair spiked back and has the letters DSMK tattooed above his right eye leaning against his cell door. Harper recognized him immediately since she had the same tattoo on her shoulder. "Senji. Why don't you say hello like a normal person?" She asked while placing her hand over her heart.
She inspected from the tips of his hair to his shoes. He wore dark blue pants with a black belt, a tank top, leather shoes, and a long black coat. She also noticed two rings on his thumbs and realized that she was missing those same rings on her thumbs. "Shit..." she grumbled. "What's up with you?" He asked while cocking his eye brown in question.
"I think I lost my rings in the fight." She sighed with disappointment. "Stupid." He tapped her head gently with his fist. "You didn't answer my question though." She looked up, not understanding how he can be so much taller than her but dismissed it. "I fractured both my arms but other than that I'm okay." She shrugged. "What about your heart?" Harper rolled her eyes. It was always about her heart with these people. Harper has a heart tumour the size of an apple on the outside of her heart muscle. And no matter how many surgeries she had, the fucker just kept regrowing and became bigger and bigger over time. Even with her branch of sin it can only do so much to fix the damage that was already done.
"Don't roll your eyes at me kiddo, you know how concerned I am about you."
"You're only two years older than me." She glared up at him but had a small smile on her face. He smiled down at her, giving her gentle pats on the head like a big brother saying 'you did a good job today.' Harper sighed in defeat. "Still the same Senji." A sad expression crept over Senji's face but surely he shouldn't be surprised. The news hasn't changed over the years and it's not going to change now. She moved his hand away from her head and gently held it in her. The difference in hand size was baffling. His hand looked like it would swallow her whole. "I'm not dying yet, Senji. Trust me you're stuck with me till we are old and grey." She giggled. Senji snorted and scratched the back of his neck while a blush covered his face.
Senji blushed even harder when he saw what Harper was wearing. Her tank top had no sleeves or strings which left her bust and shoulders all exposed and her jeans had so many rips and holes that he could see inches of her legs and thighs. Harper cocked her head in confusion when Senji snatched his hand back and began to remove his black coat. "Senji?" She asked but was suddenly enveloped by warmth. Senji made sure that his coat covered her body well. "Geez! Put some more clothes on! You're showing off too much!" He scolded, his face still burning like a red tomato. Now it was Harper's turn to blush.
She knew that her friend worked out everyday but damn! 'An eight pack?! Really!?' She thought. She rolled her eyes again at his comment and tried to shrug off the coat. "I'm not showing that much, thank you very much!" She snapped. Senji held the coat tighter against her. "I'll tie this up on you if I have to... just humor me." He pleaded. Harper sighed in defeat and pushed her injured arms through the long sleeves. She flopped them around in amusement. The coat was way too big on her. Senji coughed and scratched his neck again. "So I'm going to assume you're not going to be able to join me in the carnival corpse?" Harper nodded with a look of guilt in her eyes. He leaned against his door in thought, not really paying attention to her.
Harper took it as a sign that he was disappointed in her and began to defend herself. "You know it wasn't my fault! The bastard was three times bigger than me and." She got interrupted by a cough from a prison guard in a full white bodysuit and mask. Harper glared at him for interrupting her but thought twice about starting an argument. "What?" Senji growled. The guard gulped upon looking at the two. They weren't called the Crows of Death for nothing. The duo killed over 84 prisoners upon arrival of the prison. They were not the ones you want to fuck with.
"Umm.. Ms. Crow..."
"Crow is fine." She hissed. "Well, Crow. You left these at Dr. Rei's office." He opened his hand to reveal two silver rings. "Oh shit, thanks." Harper was surprised. Any normal guard would toss them away. Guess this guy was new. She reached over to grab them but the guard flinched and backed away in response. Senji pushed off the door with irritation. "Are you going to give them to her or what?" You can see the guard shivering in fear at Senji's intense gaze. Harper grabbed Senji's arm gently and gave it a squeeze. He looked down at her and shook her head, telling him through her eyes 'Don't start.'
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm him down. "M-My apologies! Here." The guard dropped the rings on the floor before anyone could say anything and ran as fast as he could. Harper looked after the fading white suit and shook her head. "He's not going to make it." She got down on her knees and the rings by her bandaged fingers. Senji ignored her last comment and kept staring at her damaged hand. "You know I wasn't going to scold you right. It was a close fight and you were doing it alone for the first time. So I'm not mad." Harper breathed in relief. Normally whenever there is a carnival corpse Harper and Senji would always fight together as a team. Everyone else thought it was unfair since most of their opponents faced them alone. But it's not their fault. They didn't make up the rules and Harper was quite grateful for it. Some of the opponents are... shall we say very dangerous if one is alone.
Harper got up from the dirty ground and placed the rings back on her thumbs where they belonged and made way to her room. "God I'm tired." She muttered. "Get some rest kiddo. By the way it looks like you won't have any fights for a while. What are you going to be doing?" He teased. She shrugged and went into her room without another word.
Upon entering her lovely cage, Harper took a moment to look around her room. Her walls were all white as well as the floor. She had a queen sized bed at the corner of the room, a bookshelf with various types of books, an office table on the far right with a laptop and office materials, a yoga matter with weights in the centre of the room, a stand with a saxophone resting peacefully for its owner, a dresser and last but not least a tv hanging across her bed. It wasn't luxurious but it was something. She immediately went to the bed and plopped down with a deep sigh.
The day finally got to her and she can feel her energy draining. But even though Harper's body was tired her mind was wide awake. She recounted the events of her last fight. The man was huge, not muscle wise but fat. So fat that he should've been arrested again for being so fat. She chuckled at the thought. In size he could've overpowered her but his movements were sloppy and slow. She planned to high jump kick him to stun him and then pin him down with her Crow Blades but... she clearly underestimated him.
She jumped but was immediately grabbed by her ankle by a fatty hand and was thrown down to the ground. Harper was prepared to get back up but he hulked over her and held her arms down with a sinister smile on his face. Subconsciously Harper pulled her arms to her chest and rubbed them up and down in a haze. She can feel the brute squeeze and twisting her arms like they were twigs. She could still hear the sounds of her bones breaking by his brute force. She shivered. At the moment Harper truly thought that she was going to be killed. The man looked at her like he was going to devour her. It was a frightful sight.
Just when she thought the last thing should ever see before she died was those hungry eyes, she saw a trickle of blood pooling from her forehead. Harper was so preoccupied about her arms that she didn't realize that she had a head wound from the attack. With enough will she forced the blood to move and shoot out to the man's eyes. It was a direct hit, the blood shot out like a bullet and pierced his eye socket. He hollered in pain and recoiled off her. With the adrenaline pumping through her veins she lifted herself up into a crouch and did a sweep feet kick, knocking the pile of blubber to the ground. Harper got up and slowly walked over to the wailing man. His hand became stained with blood from his injured eyes.
She stopped in the middle of his bloated stomach. 'I'm sorry.' She lifted her leg in the air and pushed down and landed on his stomach hard. The man gasped, blood spitting out of his mouth and falling unconscious from the pain. The cheers from her audience was deafening. She could feel her heart beating uncomfortably, the cheers disgusted her. Harper would normally flip them off but remember that she couldn't lift her arms. 'The winner is Crow!!!'. Harper snapped out of her head and remembered something. She immediately grabbed her remote control from her nightstand and turned on the tv. What came before her on the screen was the carnival corpse plate form. In the middle lay the fat man, still bleeding from his injuries strapped to a chair while the whore doctor was setting up the fun wheel.
Harper looked at him with pity. She knew the game all too well. If you lost in the carnival you go through a min game where you will lose something even more than the game itself. "Well ladies and gentlemen! After that fantastic fight I say it's time for the main event!" The announcer broadcast. Harper sat up straighter, giving her full attention to the th screen. "Now let's see what I get today, fat boy!" Doctor Rei pulled the lever of the wheel and the thing began to spin like a slot in a casino. The first slot stopped and the camera zoomed in. The letters said 'Kidney'. "Oh no."
The next slot said the same thing. The man began to fidget in nerves, hearing the jingle of the slots stop over and over again. "He's losing a kidney today." Harper sighed. "Look at that folks! We got ourselves a kidney!" Cheers and applause echo throughout Harper's room like a bad song. She wanted it to stop. She wanted to cover her ears and tried to ignore the cheering crowd and the soft cries of the poor man. The remote was in her hand, all she had to do was turn it off. But for some reason she couldn't bring herself to turn it off or look away.
Rei slowly walked over to him, two guards beginning to un-strap him. "No! Stop! Get away from me!" Red blood poured out of his eye sockets that were supposed to be tears. Harper leaned forward in anticipation, waiting to see if this man would make a last attempt at escape. "Use your branch of sin! Come on!" She whispered. But nothing happened, he just sat there crying like a little baby. "What?" Harper's body trembled. "Ha... ha... hahahaha!" A historical laugh slip passed the poor girl's lips, mingling with the man's wails of pain when Rei began her... dissection. Bile immediately came up to her throat and without hesitation Harper went straight into the bath to throw up the rest of the contents in her stomach.
Once the screaming died down to nothing Harper finally exited out of the bathroom, giggles still leaving her lips. "Hahaha... I shouldn't be surprised. It's not the first time they put in a regular prisoner just to be slaughtered." Her hand covered her face as the giggles continued. She gritted her teeth when she finally calmed down. A deep seeded hatred washed over her.
'I hate them..'
'I hate them..'
'I HATE THEM!'
She quickly grabbed anything she could get her hands on and sadly it was a vase filled with water lilies and threw them against the wall. A loud crash and splatter of water tumbled to the ground in a hep. Also her bitterness and hatred poured out of her in that throw. She didn't know what to do with herself. Anger radiated off her in waves. She paced back and forth trying to figure out what to do with herself. Her arms throbbed at the unnecessary movements but Harper didn't care. Her eyes stopped at her desk that was lined with papers and pencils and speed walked to her chair and followed the advice of the loving whore of a doctor. She began to write. Sure she writes music notes or drawings from time to time to calm herself down but this time she was too far gone with her anger. No this time she just wants to write a letter to the universe, asking why the hell she was put here in this place or anyone for that matter. She wanted answers but she knew that she wouldn't get any. So just writing on paper addressed to no one seems like a great idea to her.