One…two… three, the slow deliberate claps sounded in the arena before I caught onto his scent, his figure, then his voice.
"Well, I knew you'd come around soon-"
" What do you want?" I have no time for his games, not today.
" i knew you'd come around, my little-"
"Don't call me that-"
"Don't interrupt me!" He took a deep breath. " You will begin aerial combat training tomorrow, see to it that you are here by 4am. Not a minute later understand?"
I muttered curses under my breath then one of the romans shot my leg. "Understand?"
"Yes" I'd grown used to normal bullets, but they still did damage especially with such close distance. Blood leaked onto the floor like a fountain. Such a pretty color.
Mikado turned and finally noticed mom standing pale and horrified
"Su my love, how are you doing?"
"Are you fucking-" The roman shot me again. the same leg.
"I said not to interrupt me Girl. Take the boy down to the labs, I have use for him, you know how it is to play, don't you boy?"
"Y-yes"
I looked at Kage who lowered his head, dodging my eyes. I suddenly understood why he'd been off today. He'd been putting it off for so long.
It was time he left for the mainland, for his second official mission. To do that he would need to be stuffed completely with whatever combination of Dahlia black was given to him.
And he was never himself when that happened.
Someone shot at me from behind, while another pair dragged Kage to the labs.
I caught it.
It was not a bullet. No.
It was a dart. A… tranquilizer dart.
I hurled it at a mikado, only to have several shot into my back.
This time… they didn't miss.
But I certainly did.
"Wow, that's enough to get a bear down in an instant" they whispered.
"Twice actually, that's twice a bear's dosage."
"And she's still moving."
I listened to them speak. Right before my body betrayed me. I threw a vulgar gesture at mikado, then lost my consciousness. There I slipped into sleep.
A dream i think, First i've had in ages.
It was …me… then kage. I was in a castle, it's so huge, and quite beautiful. He was on the outside, being beaten. Shot at, over and over but still smiled. Something he'd always done when he was high on adrenaline.
Or just high.
He was a 5yr old with the body of a 10 yr old and the mind of a killer with 20 yrs work experience. The most absurd thing - to a normal person.
But this time his eyes…. They had that eerie glow.
Then the blade of the guillotine raised high, and off went his head.
I could swear it. He still had that smile on his face. Still smiling.
Still staring at… me.
But the light had left his eyes, his body hollow.
It was thrown out into Akeldama, where the dead kids' bodies were dumped. The closest they ever got to a proper burial.
*Akeldama is the name given to a land outside the inner wall of the asylum in the mountain of the massive island where the asylum was erected. It's inspired by the land in the bible of the same name meaning Field of blood.
But still his head kept smiling. Like he planned something like he was happy, but it was an uncanny smile his eyes retaining their eerie glow
. Then he said,
"I'll find you. I promise, i'll always find you"
And then they said, "He's dead". Then i was screaming, the other children awoke- the ones who lived in Akeldama- They crawled after me and i screamed louder.
"She's gone mad" they said
"They are coming" is all I replied.
Then I saw Nico, the senior my mother used to know, saw him die too. On his second ever mission. He was shot in the chest. 17 times, I'd counted it. I was sure.
I saw it on the cams, he was thrown to akeldama as well. The children, they crawled after me, they begged "Save us, save us" They said and-
I awoke with a jolt, My eyes… they were purple, their eerie glow so identical to kage's in my dream. The dull reflection in the ebony metal wall told me that enough. I was in the chair, the one I usually sit in whilst they inject all manner of things into me. I was chained, this time a dozen or more tubes coming out of me. Some bringing in a black liquid, some taking out my deep red blood.
I am dizzy. So very dizzy.
My breathing uneven, and Kage's mangled body laying in a bed beside me didn't do much to help.
Neither did seeing my mother's body chained with tubes sticking out of her arm help either. She was unconscious. But… alive. Kage…
He was…
Alive… barely. If you call 30 bpm alive. And it started dropping, slowly. Then he started shaking. Whatever black liquid was put in me, double was put in him. Him and the little boy beside him.
I screamed for help. No one answered. Who would when the asylum walls echoed the screams of the children before, you'd never know if it was someone in trouble or your hallucination. It didn't matter nonetheless, we were not trained to help, or to save. We were trained to destroy.
My mother woke up. She was too weak. I ripped out of my chains when I saw him drool blood. Suddenly, before I had the chance to do anything. His heartbeat stopped. Completely. Right as the lab doctor ran in. The long beep resounded.
"He's dead"
The boy beside him suddenly woke up, his heart almost literally jumping out of his chest with the way it beat fast. He coughed up blood as well. " Save us"
And he fell off the bed. And his heart did not beat again.
"Save us. Save us" they had said.
The children of the asylum beg for retribution even in the grave.
I sat on the floor, blood draining from my body. The tubes, I'd broken, rested on the floor.
They took him outside, everyone saw. they threw him there in the pile of people long before him. To Akeldama, the field of blood outside the inner wall of the asylum, in the mountain of the island. It reeked of old rotting bodies and blood. Quite a pleasant sent to me. It triggered my killing instinct. Such a beautiful painting. The tower of Akeldama. They threw him there and left. I stood in front of his body.
Staring. Staring at their bodies.
"I'll find you"
His voice echoed in my mind.
"We'll get out of this. They'll pay for what they do to us"
His eyes they've lost their light. his mouth frozen in a soft smile.
I stared at them all. Some so old they no longer had flesh to conceal their bones. Some clothes the moths had eaten.
"Save us. Save us" they echoed.
"The children want vengeance" My undead copy said. Mother wasnt the only one with hallucinations.
I walked away from the cavity in the mountain.
Back.
Back to the castle. The walled city of mutants. The asylum.
What a massive beauty.
Like a beautiful casket that hordes death and rotting corpses.
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