-1Chapter 16
Despite sleeping soundly, Priscilla had a horrible dream about her past. It had been years since she had any kind of dream. If anything, she wished it would have been no dream at all.
It started out with Priscilla laying on a mattress in her cell, all covered up with her tattered blanket. She was shivering uncontrollably as Prisca had purposely made her cell a moderately unbearable temperature as a punishment. The freezing pretztail couldn't sleep like this, the cold air kept her awake all through the night. Suddenly a voice over a intercom like device on the ceiling barked at her.
"Wake up Priscilla," the voice clearly belonged to Prisca. The freezing pretztail was too cold to do anything and uncovering the sheets would be just worse, "not following orders will result in vile consequences, do you understand? Because I believe I had gone over this with you before countless times," Prisca threaten her.
Priscilla still refused to listen, she kept herself positive hoping that just maybe Prisca would be merciful today, but there was never a day that she was.
The cold pretztail kept shivering as Prisca when on, "Just remember…. Your disobedience makes this your own fault," and suddenly Priscilla's lungs began to tighten up.
Prisca had dished out punishment by removing all the air in Priscilla's cell. The suffocating pretztail hoped that death would come quick for her, but alas it was just the opposite. Priscilla tried to resist moving, but the desire to inhale made her throw off the sheets and run to the glass window. She attempted to bust it open as her lungs were crying for air, however her efforts of getting out of bed rewarded her with the return of the air supply.
"Good, see what happens when you follow my directions?" Prisca said cruelly as the tears trickled down from Priscilla's eyes. There probably wasn't a day where the miserable pretztail didn't shed any tears. Priscilla awaited further orders while drowning in her sorrow.
Falkor and Melony ended up being dragged outside, Pandora wanted to show them what she was able to do without Priscilla's help. The blue pretztail took a blade of grass and focused into it, slowly transforming it into a tomato. It took about three minutes for the change to be complete. The patient pair of piñatas were astounded from Pandora's improving talent.
Pandora kindly asked Falkor for a request, "Falkor, could you get some target boards out here?" Her tone was sounding much more nicer than earlier this morning. Falkor was happy to oblige, he ran into the house and in a few moments three wooden targets supported by stable rods appeared about twenty meters ahead of Pandora. The eager pretztail waited for Falkor to return before taking any further actions.
"So what did you need these for?" Falkor asked Pandora as she chuckled a bit before replying, "I wanna see something," she said to both of them.
The blue pretztail turned to face one of the targets and put both paws out in front of her, thinking of a deadly laser in her head. And sure enough a small stream of condensed light shot forward from her paws and penetrated into the target. Pandora wasn't happy with it's size, she pictured it growing larger in diameter, and within a few seconds the light in her paws began growing. Pandora waited until the target was engulfed completely before stopping herself.
Being completely exhausted of her energy, Pandora fell face first onto the ground, the target was completely gone and the what was left of the beams that balanced it were also on the ground and the severed edge had smoking emitting from it.
"Pandora!" Falkor shouted as he had kneeled over her, "are you okay? Wake up!" There was no response. Falkor checked her pulse, she was still breathing, Falkor was thankful for that. The worried fudgehog asked Melony for assistance to help bring Pandora in. She agreed to help him without question.
Jorelo stood at Priscilla's bedside watching over her, and also hoping she wouldn't ruin the new sheets again. The curious fudgehog wondered what went through the limp pretztail's mind. It's matter got lost as he sat in the recliner and rocked back and forth while his thoughts had taken him other places.
Priscilla unfortunately, was still trapped in her dream. Prisca ordered her to complete target practice.
Regardless of being confined in her cell, Prisca had came up with a way to virtually change Priscilla's surrounding to make it seem like she was outside. With each time Prisca did this, Priscilla was fooled into thinking that it was real and started running for her life.
Prisca would either let Priscilla run until she had ran her little heart out or forced her to stop with one of her many punishments. The enslaved pretztail had refused target practice by just not complying to what Prisca wanted her to do, completely ignoring her.
Prisca was not pleased with this one bit. She gave Priscilla a decent electrical shock until she was on the ground in tears. Priscilla took a deep breath in before getting herself back on her feet. The blue pretztail's anger started to grow, thanks to Prisca provoking her. Priscilla had lost herself for just that moment and was out of control. Luckily for Prisca, she was behind the glass laughing at the poor thing.
Priscilla had made the earth beneath her rumble, or at least the one that was in the virtual place she was in, because the surroundings of her cell wouldn't be taken down so easily. The blue pretztail's pupils were already dilated and eventually faded away, she began to look like she was possessed by an evil spirit. However, Priscilla was only possessed by her own rage and vengeance. But Prisca knew the trance wouldn't last long…
Jorelo was now standing in front of the bed, watching Priscilla squirm around in discomfort, he wondered whether or not to wake her up. For someone in Priscilla's condition, sleep was quite important. Jorelo got the idea that this is probably the way she sleeps every night. Before his thoughts could trail on, Falkor entered the room backwards, carrying Pandora's head, followed by Melony, who supported the limp pretztail's legs
"She passed out," Falkor said, hoping Jorelo wouldn't freak out from it. Instead, Jorelo had only grown curious as to why.
"What from?" Jorelo asked while looking back to Priscilla, who was still tossing and turning in her sleep.
"Over-exerting herself," Falkor answered as his tone of voice got more excited over the recent events that took place, "she was doing the most unbelievable things Jor!" Falkor exclaimed, almost dropping Pandora to mimic her movements, but he kept his urges contained. Jorelo rolled his eyes and sighed at the eccentric fudgehog.
"She's too dedicated," Jorelo sighed half irritably, "she was probably doing all that because I told her practice would help her gain revenge on her Mo… Er, Prisca," Jorelo really didn't want to use the word mom for someone like that, Prisca was no motherly figure in Jorelo's eyes.
The dark fudgehog saw that Melony was starting to struggle keeping Pandora up, "just put her on the recliner, Priscilla's going to make things worse if we put Pandora on the bed.
Falkor offered another option, "how about we just place her on our bed instead? We won't mind," Falkor's random kindness to Pandora was starting to show.
"Sure, that'll work," Jorelo nodded and thought, "great, now I have to keep watch on Two piñatas, shouldn't that be our mother's job? Geez…"
Falkor and Melony had taken Pandora to their room and placed her in bed gently. The bored fudgehog wondered what they should do next, since their entertainment fell asleep on them.
"I wish could do magic like that," Falkor sighed while Melony giggled.
"Why not go back downstairs and snoop for a bit? The door's still open," she tempted him.
"Huh, you sure about that?" Falkor questioned Melony as she hummed and nodded. Falkor had gone over to the doorway poked his head out into the hallway to check, and of course, the door was wide open. "Well what are we waiting for?" Falkor chuckled as he motioned for Melony to follow him. They both walked down the stairs, and all seeing Prisca didn't give a care at all.
Falkor switched the lights on, the cell walls from yesterday were still missing. The curious fudgehog had gone to the control panel against the wall on his left, there was a nicely sized monitor built into the same wall above it. Melony grew anxious over how much technical stuff was in here.
"Do you know how to work these Falkor?" She asked him. Seeing him at work with the matter creator was a guaranteed yes, but actually Falkor wasn't taught how to use these things.
"O-of course!" Falkor lied in a defensive tone, he wanted to impress Melony, but he knew that something like this shouldn't be messed around with. "Well… Here goes nothing," Falkor thought to himself as he pressed a random button, hoping he wouldn't blow anything up in the process. The screen turned on. "Whoa!" Falkor was astonished, this only made Melony confused.
"Is there something wrong?" She asked, thinking the machine was at fault. Falkor shook his head.
"No-no, I think it-," Falkor cleared his throat, "I mean it's suppose to do that, I'm just a bit jumpy after seeing Pandora do all those things," Falkor made an attempt to cover up his faults.
"Oh… Okay," Melony didn't really care about Falkor's edginess. The screen was filled with scrambling static. Melony grew sick after staring at it for awhile. Not wanting to throw up, the pretztail forced herself to look away, "Falkor, I don't like that moving picture," she whined, wishing it'd go away.
Falkor, wanting to please her every whim, pressed another button, this time a video started to play. Melony glance back at the screen, she saw Prisca on the other side. The golden pretztail looked slightly younger to her and Falkor. Prisca stood where the pair were standing right at this moment.
"What's this…" Falkor's voice trailed off as Prisca started talking, "video journal entry one-hundred-seventy-four, I have recently started working on two specimens, they will be my aid for destroying the scum on Piñata Island," Falkor already heard this before, but he didn't mind hearing it again. Though to Melony, this was ear candy. Melony tried to reach through the screen to touch Prisca on the other side, but Falkor took her paw away from it after she fail to get into the screen.
"Don't do that please," Falkor ordered and she complied. The golden pretztail continued, "they will be code named Priscilla, and Malak," she took a minor pause between both. Falkor wasn't sure he heard right, didn't she mean Pandora and Jorelo?
The roused fudgehog was tempted to rewind the video to hear it again, but he had no idea which of the many buttons did that. Knowing he was going to miss out on valuable information, he returned listening to the video.
"…They will not only help with just that, but they will also help with their future generations, since these two specimens are my very first living weapons, they are bound to have flaws… That I will not doubt" Prisca nodded. The hungry fudgehog wished he had some popcorn to go with this, his hunger grew with her going on and on about these specimens of hers.
"Falkor," Melony spoke up, "what's she talking about?" Falkor told her to shush, but before he could get back to watching the video, it had already ended.
"Dang it," Falkor let out, "now I missed what she was saying!" Falkor got a bit ticked off and Melony felt bad for interrupting him during the video.
"Can't you just play it again?" Melony wondered. The frustrated fudgehog wished he could, and an instruction manual would be of much help. However a message abruptly appeared on the screen saying: "Would you like to see the most recent video entry? Yes/No."
Melony reached for the screen, but before Falkor could stop her, Melony pressed the yes option, the monitor beeped and skipped to the recent entry.
"Wow, a touch screen as well?" Falkor thought as he would really have to keep a good watch on Melony's paws now. The date of the video was 6:35 AM of yesterday. Quite awhile before the group had gone in the basement for the first time. Prisca was in the same place as last time. Priscilla could be seen also, starting at the camera all the way from inside her cell hoping that that someone Prisca was talking to would come and save the her.
"Video journal entry two-hundred-fifty-eight," Prisca started, Melony couldn't help but keep focused on Priscilla, she was about to take her paw and try and grab her out of there until Falkor stopped her.
Melony, being deprived of modern technology, had no idea what videos were, she seen it as a window to another part of the basement.
Prisca continued, "nothing much has changed, it seems Malak has not followed me here from the sour fortress yet, but I am sure that he will find his way back eventually, I hope Jorelo and Pandora will be ready for that time, for I fear the worse could be right around the corner."
"The worst? What is she talking about?" Falkor wondered, Prisca had a hold of his interest more than ever now.