The infirmary trip was testy.
The cuffs were loosened and the liquid dripped over the fresh wounds. Modern medicine was harsh. it stung and bubbled, it merged the remaining flesh together other than actually healing the discarded viscera. The tightness in her hands hurt more, the skin stretching as the cuffs were forced back on, and that oh so nice, but oh so frilly feeling tempted her body.
the drug. again.
she enjoyed the feeling physically but the softness of the environment only went so far. her brain felt no difference now, as opposed to the first head trip she was pushed into. this time the physical effects were much stronger on her body. she was there mentally, but her body wasn't, she was trapped behind her eyes and the tapping of the guards footsteps carrying her lulled her to a sleep, one that she didn't warrant, but couldn't resist, no matter how hard she fought it.
------------ A few hours later ------
the headache was explosive, like a small bomb going off behind her eyes. Was it that drug? she didn't know how she was feeling this way, but the cool touch of the floor kept her calm from the head of her forehead. the pain swelled, then decreased over and over the blood rushing from her appendages to her head, it was tight, the pressure inside her skull felt unbearable. she opened her eyes to a bright light cascading around her, a shadowy figure blocking the light from worsening her pain, she thanked it for saving her from headache she would otherwise have from the light hitting her face directly.
The figure started to come into focus the further she fell into consciousness. the shortly cut hair brushing over the woman's face above her. her eyes bright and awake, like pools of gold shining a gentle light onto her face. the woman started to move toward her, coming down toward her face and staring.
the fuzz was still prominent in her ears, even with her vison clearing it was hard to make out what she was trying to say. Her hand waved close to Rina's face before another fell under her head and.. under her side. the sudden pressure of the two arms under her pulled her toward full consciousness.
she took a deep breath as the girl waved cool air into her face
"Hey.. Helloo?" the girl's echo's subsided in her head as she sat up. Rina rubbed her temples as she finally got a good look at the girl. her mind wasn't so confused when she saw the four arms and two placed on her hips.
"That makes sense.." She pandered to herself, looking the girl up and down, a deep blue jumper was placed upon her body, her second pair of arms were haphazardly stitched a pair of arm holes.
"What.. makes sense?" The girl had an insolence about her, her second pair of arms crossing as she stared her down. "Maybe your just looking me up and down like I'm some sort of threat." It wasn't insolence, it was insecurity.
"That you.. have four arms, not that i was judging you, i promise-"
"Promises are pretty big for someone who's been looking at my arms the five minutes we've know each other." She sat on the cot, rubbing her face before looking at Rina sprawled out on the cold ground.
"I-I guess.." her head was pounding but the room around her was vaguely familiar. It was just like her last room, just wider with enough room to keep two people from losing their minds.
"Well, i guess it'll be better than having to choose which bunk to sleep in each night so.. top bunk or bottom bunk?"
"I Don't care.. uh.. bottom bunk?" she stood and gazed beside where she once was laying to see the same plasmonic door keeping them within the cell. fuck
"That's fine, i don't care, maybe it'll be good to have someone here before we get to Typhin."
"You mean like the maximum security Typhin?"
"No i mean krypton you dumbass.. OF course i mean the prison!" she was playful, obviously letting her guard down with her obliviously
"Yeah yeah, of course-." she let a small laugh out in-between. "- so, what's your name? I mean, like.. what do i call you?"
"My name is Akali, my friends call me Kali, and everyone else.. i don't really care." she clasped her hands together as turned her head away and back toward Rina's face.
"So what about you? I've heard you're quite the biter.. at least that's what the guards said before they threw your body in her, i thought it was some sick joke at first but then you woke up, so i was curious, that's why i was above you, I'm not some kind of creep... promise." Rina went over toward the bunks and sat to the side of them facing the familiar door. She had no doubts that Akali wasn't a creep, but everything else she was unsure.
"So uh.. what are you in for?" she stifled over the classic question, knowing it was cringe inducing to ask, and also not have a response for it either.
"Well, do you want the story, or do you want me to show you?" Rina gaped at the answer.
"What do you mean.. show me?" the girl had an annoyance to her face.
"Here, give me your hand.." Her annoyance was twinged at the end as Akali grabbed her hand.
Yikes. She thought as her hands grasped hers. they were rough and calloused, workers hands if she could put a thought onto it. She felt the roughness fade as the woman in front of her started to become misshapen, she felt the softness turn to a waxy feel and it dripped through her fingers, she looked down to see an ooze coming from her newly introduced roomate.
"What the fuck?" she fell back watching in awe as the ooze dripped down her body, the viceral looking shell starting to flop, and plop, and splat to the ground. revealing a relflection of herself.
Her long dark locks of hair, the ones she had cut many times before.
her mid-toned gray skin, the skin she cursed everyday at it's unnatural form.
the eyes she hated to stare at everyday before leaving her shitty apartment for the useless office job she had been assigned.
and the same prison jumper she had woken up in alone in that cramped cell.
it was her.
"What.. The fuck??" she couldn't stand to see herself standing there, drips of the formally made up alien were now patchy on her boots.
"I might have lied a little bit, i still have to tell you the reason I'm here. , but for the record, I'm a- she raised the duplicated hands up in front of her "Shape-Stealer" she spoke in air quotes, her same tone as before just with similar motions to what Rina would have done.
"so, i guess you could call me ahh.. shapeshifter? -but everyone else seems to think I'm stealing people's bodies, and so on and so fourth- But i uh, promise I'm not bad, and no i wont steal your body, I'm not a parasite or anything-"
"Don't ramble, i understand- I mean I'm not a shapeshifter or anything but i can understand having to overexplain yourself to everyone else, i mean look at me." she was uneased by her face talking in a voice she couldn't recognize, but she.. sort of? understood, she didn't think it was weird, just weird seeing her own body and features in front of her.
"OH- okay cool.. I mean I usually try to explain to people I've never met before but i got you." Her body seemed to further relax at the idea Rina didn't care as much as she thought she would.
Akali piped up again. "So what are you in for?" a bubbly voice peaked out of her throat, it was a tone switch for sure, but she seemed to have gotten comfortable, uncomfortably quick.
"Well I- don't exactly know. I was called a-." she used the same air-quotes "bloodsucker", -"-but all I can remember is entering the courthouse back home, and ending up here. i mean.. that's it.."
"Well i guess that's something-" Just then an alarm rang out in the cell, and presumably everyone else's.. they were both taken off guard by the sudden ringing.
*All cells are to enter a sub-duement lockdown."
"Akali, what the hell is a sub-duement lockdown?" she questioned, the probability of that being obvious high enough. She looked at the girl to see a blatant fear in her eyes. it made her chest start to feel confined, compressed by the unknown, unable to avoid it.
she trembled slightly and answered "I don't know, let's- just get to our cots, I'm sure well be okay in the morning. Akali climbed up to the top, she could feel her shaking above her.
"What was up with this girl?"