CONTENT WARNING: hints of assault

~Rhett~

If I'm being honest, I feel like absolute shit. My head is spinning and I keep going in and out of consciousness because of the poison they injected into me. I don't think it'll kill me, but it is making it hard to stay awake. Plus I'm dizzy as all hell and I can't hear a thing. Obviously they took my hearing aids, I've known that part for a while, but I keep forgetting and then remembering and then forgetting again. On top of that, it's hard to tell where all the pain is coming from, I know most of it is stemming from the bright ass cuffs around my wrists, which are seriously burning me and I can barely feel my fingers anymore. There’s also a fuckton of pain coming from the brand that they burned into my stomach, honestly it could’ve been worse-- it's just a symbol of something written in runes, it could’ve been like a duck or something. 

Aside from the scattered cuts and bruises, the only other thing that really hurts is my ass becasuse one of them decided he was going to have a good time and he forgot all the rules of pleasant sex when he did. Honestly my legs are pretty numb but the poison is fucking with my brain and I can’t stop giggling, really, its kind of getting creepy. I just think its so fucking funny, they keep talking and thinking that I can hear them or understand them despite the facts-- which are that they, stupid idiots, took my hearing aids, and they poisoned me, which is blurring my vision and consequently making it impossible to read lips. So, really, I’m not sure what ocean of stupid they’re swimming in, but they’re just neck deep in it at this point.

All I know is that they’re pissed. Although, I’m not sure if it's because I’m still uncontrollably laughing-- and it's only getting more hysterical-- or if it's because I’m not responding to whatever they’re saying. You know, because I can’t hear. Or, there's also the possibility that it could be because I’m not giving them the information they want, I’m sure that’s a factor. But in the end, I just really don’t care. 

What’s confusing, is that it almost looks like the three people in the room are freaking out, they’ve suddenly stopped and the guy that was on top of me ceased his artistic carving over my ribs-- which are probably broken. A few of them at least, but it’s fine I have like twenty-four. I wish I could hear what was happening, everything is blurry but everyone seems so frantic and then suddenly there's a loud crash-- at least I assume it was loud since I literally felt it-- and it takes me a second to realize everyone in the room just dropped to the floor, except the guy who was carving into my chest with a tiny, annoying, piece of shit dull blade-- because he fell to the side of the stone bed thingy and honestly, that probably wasn’t a fun fall. 

Then there’s Avian, the hero of the city who’s been trying to turn me in for, what? Three years? That's so strange, I wonder what he’s doing here. “You’re the prettiest hallucination so far,” I’m giggling again, not even really aware of the words that leave my mouth. He really is pretty though, I mean, he looks terrified… and pissed, I’m not really sure why he’s pissed, maybe I said something other than what I think I said? Weird, but I can’t say I haven’t done it before. I think he’s trying to say something, but I can’t stop giggling long enough to focus on his lips… but it might be nice to kiss them, maybe he’d let me kiss him and get the unpleasant taste of blood out of my mouth. 

Suddenly I’m in his arms and I can feel the sharp pain that stabs through both my legs and up my spine and all across my chest as the laughter dies in my throat, replaced by an uncomfortable, tortured gasp and a little bit of a sob that shocks me. Am I crying? I didn’t think I was capable of crying anymore. “Don’t… drop me” I force myself to laugh again, trying to joke, but I can feel the choke in my words as I say them. Is any of this real? Am I dreaming? Am I hallucinating? They did inject quite a bit of light-magic into me… potent… not fatal, but definitely potent. Maybe I’m still being carved into like a block of wood and my head is just trying to show me what I want to see.  

Something touches my ears as he carries me through the door and out a hole in the ceiling, his wings spreading like soft blue and grey clouds around us. Then I can hear him, the soft sound of his voice saying my alias over and over again, a weak pain in his voice that shocks me. "You feel so real," I chuckle again before I can think to stop myself, this time hearing the broken sob in my voice and subsequently making it worse. Tears blur my vision and my hand tightens in a fist around the fabric of his shirt. "I wish you were real," my breathing catches and the pain gets so bad that I'm grateful when the sweet release of unconscious darkness numbs me from my toes to my fingertips and then finally shutting off my spinning brain.

Everything hurts as I push myself up, my eyes shaking open as the pain sharpens and gets worse the more I move. It's these stupid fucking cuffs, they’re still glowing blindingly on my wrists and its one of the worst feelings in all of the existing existence. UGH. Fuck this shit honestly. Fuck the fact that my hips and back and ass feel like someone just fucking ran me over with a rotatiller. Not to mention the stupid brand they burned into my side-- I barely even fucking know what it looks like. I just know it hurts. 

My muscles scream at me as I try to push myself off the bed, swinging my legs over the side and dropping down with the preconceived notion that I'll be able to stand. Spoiler alert, I was wrong. The moment my feet touch the ground, my legs give out and I yelp, trying to catch myself on the bed and barely managing to hold myself up as I glare at the mirror in front of me. It looks like a door… closet maybe? 

I look dreadful, my eyebags are worse than usual and my black hair is a mess of greasy curls knotted around my skull. There's bruising around my throat and the dark golden burns are travelling all the way to my elbows now. It's getting worse. I only have a few days left before the curse from the Light-Binding cuffs makes it to my magic-core and just fucking kills me. So that's great. But at least I'm wearing clothes. The ripped black jeans are mine, but I'm not sure where this bright ass blue hoodie came from. I look like a childs fucking lollipop. 

Not to mention my throat is dry as shit. Water would be nice… but I'm not exactly sure where I am, so maybe I should figure that out first. Right, okay. Location, threat assessment… water. 

Got it. 

I'll worry about the fact that my stupid, trecherous skull is spinning and the room is spinning and the fact that I'm still barely holding myself up later. Sounds like a plan. Stormy skies, where is my Gift when I need it?

My legs don't stop shaking as I push myself to a standing position, still holding onto the bed rail and grumbling to myself about how stupid this is. Not to mention--wow, I say that a lot, don't I?-- the fact that my eminent demise just got sped up by a great deal of time and I’m fresh out of clues as to where I could possibly be. That and I can’t hear jack shit because who knows what those fuckers did with my hearing aids, everything just sounds fuzzy and static… which I mean, would be fine if I wasn’t aware of my impending doom. I might need to at least fucking walk, universe. Though, there’s not much else to hold onto, so I push myself up as much as I can and slowly let the weight rest on my legs, having to try again after I collapse the first three times. But, you know, try and try again blah blah blah. 

Eventually I manage to take a few steps and not crumble to the floor like a fucking infant, so I make it to the door and hope beyond hope that its not squeaking as I open it because that would be fucking rude and obvious. Still, if they didn’t want me out then they should’ve fucking tied me up or at least locked the damn door, so this is kind of on them, really. 

Wait, that's… that’s not even the point… what am I even saying? 

Thinking… 

AHHHH, fucking damn it all. 

My feet seem to guide me through the dark, empty hall as my night vision eyes start to do their thing and help me see-- thank stars. One does not need bad hearing and bad vision, fuck that. 

I make it to the end of the hall, to what I think is the living room, and look around at all the cool decorations and the many many plants and the bird nests that are just… around. Until, that is, my eyes fall onto the winged boy laying on the couch and I let out a shout of surprise, which probably wakes him up, but also makes my headache much worse because of the speed in which I flinched, which makes it harder to focus, which makes me immediately collapse against the wall at my side. 

I think someone might be saying something, but you know, I’m never really sure at this point. 

A warmth spreads over my shoulder and it takes me an extra moment to recognize that the warmth is a hand. When I look up, my gaze is met with a pair of deep, forest green eyes and tree-bark skin and a worried face with beautiful kissable lips that are repeating my alias. “I can’t hear you,” I chuckle, my head still spinning while I watch the realization cross his face. Man, he’s adorable when he’s flustered. But that doesn’t make sense, how did he get here? How did I get here? “Hang on” I watch his lips say, hearing nothing but a wordless buzz as he helps me to the ground and I realize how much my fucking ass hurts when I try to sit. They really fucking went at it, didn’t they? Torture and some side sprinkle of sexual assault, super original on their part, really. What I want to know is why they even wanted to know Hero’s weakness in the first place? Actually nevermind, it makes sense. They want control. 

The beautiful spinning haze of Hero steps in front of me and kneels down enough that I can tell he's facing me even though everything just looks like a functioning blurr. Wait, that's weird. Why is everything blurry?