Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Aretha Tesla: Dreaming of Screaming

And then the nightmares came. If Alistair's goal was to scare me into insanity, he certainly had an easy job of it once he had me in that box. He didn't have to do anything- even the blood I was still coughing up didn't matter- I made my own nightmares, and for me, nothing could be worse than that. I had always had to deal with them- for as long as I could remember, I saw monsters everywhere. In the trees, the bushes, in houses, in rocks, even in people, and especially in the shadows. Especially in the dark.

It scared me to death when I was learning how to walk, it scared me to death when I was learning how to run, and when I was an assassin and had killed monsters of every sort the ones that I dreamed up still scared me to death. And the very worst part wasn't even the fear- it was the fact that I knew they weren't real, and it didn't matter. I was utterly petrified of them, and the fact that they weren't real didn't make them look or feel any less real.

When I was attacked by something solid, I could fight back. But when it was just my imagination,there was nothing for me to do- I just sat, frozen and terrified, my eyes wide open because if I closed them it was only a thousand times worse. Except surrounded by darkness, a thousand times worse became the norm. Alastair didn't have to do a single thing- even his initial whisperings hadn't really been necessary. He could just leave me there and I'd eventually freak myself into insanity. But apparently he had other plans. After all, he did promise to tear me apart, tiny bit by tiny bit. 

"Somebody let me out!" I shrieked as I pounded against the wall. My cries got weaker every time- no one ever listened, and I was starting to think no one ever would. My screams, on the other hand, only got louder, and more often than not they were mixed with sobs. I got used to no one answering. I got used to seeing the monsters. I got used to screaming and to coughing up blood. I got used to strange noises, whispers, and growls. I got used to hearing claws scrape the floor.

I wasn't used to the sharp teeth that sank into my leg. I threw my head back and released some strange mix between a gasp and a scream, and then two pairs of claws joined in and the teeth raked down, tearing off long, thick strips of flesh. There was too much pain for me to tell how deep.

"Alistair," I gasped, "What-" I was interrupted by another bought of bloody coughs, "Do you... Want... With me?"

More growling came from one side of me, and before I even realized what was going on, another dog sank its teeth into my neck and tore a chunk of flesh away. I let out another inhuman groan and wondered how I was even alive anymore.

A set of long, ragged fingernails dug into my side and started digging, deeper, and deeper, and deeper. So fear wasn't enough after all. Now is the start of the pain. The clawing continued. Something blunt dashed itself against one of my hands, pinning it to the metal floor just as whatever had its mouth on my leg started pulling. I started off gasping, then moaning, then finally screaming again, just when I thought I didn't have it in me.

"I told you," he whispered in my ear for the first time since I first woke up in the dark, "You are never, ever, leaving this box." My head lolled backwards and my mind went numb. Finally- a release. 

7 comments:

  1. Wow... You seem to make Fabi's nightmare look almost cuddly.

    This was a well-done chapter that I probably shouldn't be reading in the dark...(or mostly dark). Eep!

    I don't think I particularly like Alastair...


    Sorry gore the disconnectedness of this comment... I need sleep now!zzzzzzzzzzzz

    Aie! Nightmares!

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  2. Aretha Tesla, I will save you. Believe me, Alistair will pay with his worthless blood, Niccolo will live and you'll live happily ever after again. I promise.

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    1. That's a bold promise to make, especially for a dying girl.

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  3. *laughs* Oh, you people are too funny. "I'll save her!" "I'll kill you!" And what makes you think you could do either or those things? None of you even know she's there, and even if any of you did, none of you can kill me, and I assure you I would not simply hand her over.

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  4. No one has seen me angry before Croatoan. When I killed Slit after Ian's death, that was shock and minor annoyance. I am comparable to Mevolent when I'm angry.
    Answer me this, who would you rather kill you: Mevolent or a psychopathic little girl with killer eyes? Mevolent would be only slightly more powerful. The people I have killed, tortured and harmed all because they have hurt my friends.
    I have tracked down people who are travelling the world for something a friend of theirs did.
    I will kill you, slowly and painfully. You will scream as you die and I will laugh with you. You will know what it is like to feel the pain of your actions. Everything you do will be repeated twenty-fold on your worthless hide.

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  5. I am not Niccolò Croatoan, and you do not know the things I've seen. You also don't know who I am. And no matter how much you may hurt me, I'll enjoy it. And you promised Aretha that she'd "live happily ever after again"- have you seen her life? Have you seen your own lives? There is no happily ever after anymore. That's what makes it a war.

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  6. But I am the one who well end this war. Not the war with Mevolent, the war inside you. I will get that idiotic Niccolo (no offence) back. I will do it, I've already died several times so I am not afraid to do it again.
    And do you think I know it is not Croatoan? Of course I know. Despite what you might believe, I'm smarter than you all. Don't tempt me on this one.

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