Moon and I walked into a town together once the sun went down. The Temple had teleported us near it, and told us that we should look for a hospital inside. Why is the ironic twist always that the hospital is where the torture is happening?  I’m sure they could get the same effect by having their base of operations in a blood bank or preschool. As we strolled together, silently, we noticed something wasn’t quite right with the town.

“Where are the people?” Moon asked. “No lights on, nobody on the streets… this place looks like a ghost town.”

“Maybe it is,” I answered. “It looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere, so I doubt many people would notice if this place disappeared off the map.”

“But why are carvations here?”

The two of us stopped in front of a hospital, which had broken and boarded up windows deterring people from thinking any signs of life could be inside. The front doors themselves were boarded up, but not well. There were less planks, and loose nails, like it was a lazy and rushed job. Someone had boarded it recently.

“Last chance,” I offered. “Turn back here or there’s no going back.”

“Nice offer,” she said with a smile, walking up to the boarded-up entrance doors. “I’ll give you the same one.”

We each grabbed hold of boards on the doors and started trying to pull them off. We were strong enough that we didn’t have to bother with the nails. We just ripped them straight off. Once the last board was off, we walked in.

The inside wasn’t looking much better than the outside. Inside, tiles and floors were cracked, and walls were crumbling. Furniture was broken or weathered away, and there weren’t any working lights. The place definitely looked like an abandoned hospital, but somehow there were two carvations here who needed our help.

“Keep quiet,” I said. “We don’t know if there’s something waiting here for us…” Moon nodded in understanding.

“Who’s there?!” asked a frightened voice. To our right, down a hallway, there was a man in a lab coat holding a flashlight. He pointed it at us, revealing our dorm to him. I magically summoned my talons.

“Hi there,” I grinned, carefully flying down the narrow hallway with my wings tucked in.

“What are you doing?!” Moon called out.

“I’m stopping him from calling a friend.”

Before he reached the end of the hall, I reached and grabbed him by the arm, then threw him at the wall. As the back of his head collided with it, a small blood splotch was left. On the ground, a small trickle of blood came from his facedown head.

“Did you kill him?!” Moon asked, angry I would hurt a human without like that. She hadn’t seen me in action before.

“Heal him,” I said. “He’s not dead yet, but he’ll wake up with a hell of a headache.”

Moon hovered her hand over the young man’s head, and the bleeding stopped. By the time she finished, I had turned and was walking down another hallway and into another large sort of waiting room. She ran and caught up.

“You didn’t know what he was going to do!” she said, still a bit set off. “You could’ve killed him, and he was just scared!”

“Listen,” I said, turning around. “If you can’t take how I do things, turn it around.”

“You invited me,” she argued. “So the least you could do is try to do it my way.”

“People down here will try to clip your wings and rip out your heart, so excuse me if I’m just a tad protective of you and want to do it my way. We can try it your way next time and see how it goes.” 

Before Moon could respond, there was a shuffling from down the hall. About eight humans carrying knives and batons came into the room. I could see tasers on their hips too. I wasn’t planning on letting them use them though.

“It’s another one of those things,” said one.

“Heh, watch this,” I whispered to Moon. “This always scares the shit out of them." I turned back to the humans. “Humans! Kneel before P'Nimirile, the avatar of destruction!”

“Let’s grab these and take them to Roslin,” another said. “See if we should put them with the others.”

“Tear-jerking performance,” Moon clapped sarcastically. “Where did you get your BA in theater from?”

“Fine, I like my alternative plan better.” I turned back to the humans. “You could always take us right to the others, and I wouldn’t have to put you all in the ICU,” I offered.

“You said we could try it my way next time, and I have an idea,” Moon whispered to me.

“What is it?”

She didn’t even answer before throwing me at all the humans by the tail. I think that one was just to spite me. It didn’t knock out the humans, but it was enough to get them down. One-by-one, Moon went around and knocked them out with magic as I struggled to get up.

“There,” she said when she was finished. “And nobody got hurt.”

“Much,” I mumbled.

I was about to complain some more, but I froze. Time seemed to slow as I saw a human running to Moon from behind. She had a knife in her hand, and was aiming to carve Moon in the back. She wouldn’t have been able to react in time. 

I rushed forward faster than the human could reach Moon. Faster than Moon could wonder why I was propelling towards her, talons outstretched. She closed her eyes and gasped as I reached over her shoulder and slashed the neck of the human. My talons tore into her flesh without trouble, and blood splattered on my hands, and Moon’s wings. The human made a sound between choking and gurgling before dropping to the ground, dead.

I turned just in time to see Moon’s horrified face before the curse activated. That damn curse. The brand from The Temple on my arm started to glow white-hot before the pain traveled up my shoulder and to my neck. It burned with pain that I can’t possibly describe. Like someone was wrapping a collar of red-hot iron around my neck. Veins strained and my screams of agony echoed through the facility for a few seconds before I collapsed to the ground.

“Are you alright?” Moon asked, trying to heal me.

“I’m fine,” I groaned, pushing her away and trying to get up. “Just need a breather. Good thing she had a quick death…”

“Don’t do that…” she whispered, looking at the bloody woman on the ground. “You scared me so much…”

“I’ll buy you coffee,” I groaned. “Will that make it up?”

“I was going to help you up,” Moon said, starting to walk ahead. “But I think you’re feeling fine now.”

*   *   *   *   *

After more searching, we found what we were searching for. Or more, who we were searching for. Two carvations were huddled in the corner, looking starved. They both had large bandages covering their backs, and one had bandages around her abdomen too. The man was a vulture variant with black wings, and the woman looked like a dove variant, but also like she had a tail… Maybe she was a chimera variant too?

“Don’t be afraid,” Moon said, rushing to their side. “We’re here to help.”

Moon started using her healing magic on them, but looked concerned. I would too, because of their missing limbs entirely.

“How long are you going to take?” I asked.

“Almost done,” she said. “Just a little more…”

Moon finished up on healing, and helped the two carvations up. Silently, we slipped out of the room. I figured that it wouldn’t be this quiet for long, and that the front door wasn’t good anymore. The Temple specified that they should be outside when I call for it again; I don’t know why, but the last thing I need is the building teleporting the whole hospital away-

“Who are you two?” one captive asked.

“I’m Moon.”

“Gryft,” I grumbled. “What did they do to you?”

There was a pause for a second, and one spoke up.

“They… cut off one of our wings each, and Nina’s tail… I don’t know what they did… or why. Our magic failed, and we couldn’t fight or leave.”

“They’re probably studying it as we speak,” I said darkly. “They’re always looking to study something.”

As I said this, we came into a room with hospital beds lining the wall. One of them had curtains drawn entirely behind it, with equipment on the outside of it actually looking operational. It was a dead end, but something called me to it. I creeped inside carefully, as if to barely disturb the air around the room.

Something was weird about this all though. I didn’t like the abandoned hospital feel already, but the overall aura of the place just screamed that some bad acts were committed here. The kind that they don’t show on television because they’re too twisted for the public to know at large. The kind they hide behind curtains and sweep under the rug.

Moon was close behind me with the rescued carvatians. I motioned for her to be still, and I grabbed the curtain around the hospital bed. I had seen a lot of things, but my stomach turned when I saw it. Moon covered her mouth, and I think one of the rescued vomited. 

On the hospital bed was a bare-chested man, or at least what remained of one. His pale white form looked to be physically good for a human, having been in good health. He was strapped down by restraints and actual iron chains. He was bruised and cut in dozens of places, and I wasn’t sure whether he was alive. On his back were a pair of wings, one snow white and stained red in some places, and the other a dirty yellow with red splotches too. Attached to his abdomen was also a tail like a crocodile. Red skin had been grafted and sewn onto his body in places, and it made him look even more freakish.

“Is it… alive?” one of the captives asked fearfully.

“I don’t know,” I said, readying my talon hands. “But let’s hope the chains keep it down.”

“Can we… help it?” Moon asked, pained.

“Help it?” I asked. “Whatever this thing is definitely is beyond-”

Just then, the man woke up with a scream, and tossed and turned against the chain restraints. The groaned and creaked from his tussle; clearly he was stronger than an average human. He gritted his teeth and pulled harder.

“Moon, get them out, NOW!” I ordered. 

She grabbed the two captives’ hands and ran out of the room. Just then, the thing’s chains pulled loose with the snap of multiple padlocks. He propelled himself up with his wings and shakily stood across from me. His breath was labored and his chains rattled as they hung from his wrists.

“I can put you back in that bed, or in a box,” I threatened. “How do you wanna sleep?”

Just then, he bolted forward faster than I could react and grabbed my throat. Keeping his grab on me, flew me into the wall. Actually he flew me through the wall, and we both ended up sprawled out on the floor coughing.

“Ok, fine,” I growled, struggling to pull myself up, but readying my scorpion tail. “In a box it is then.”

When we both got up, the experiment looked at me with wild eyes full of fear and anger and confusion. Like he didn’t quite know what was going on or who I was, but he was assuming that I was the monster here.

“One more chance,” I said, not quite as clearly as before. I wiped a bit of blood that was on my head. “Stand down or get put down.”

The thing scrambled forward and I readied myself. Moon had tried teaching me some of her martial arts, and most of it went over my head. I did call upon what little I could remember. She told me it was all about control, not strength.

“If you’re not going to stop,” I said as he lunged at me. “Be unstoppable that way.”

As he came around, I used my talons to clutch onto him, then threw him the other way down the hall, crashing him into a wall. I took that chance to run away and hide. No way I was gonna fight that thing. It freaked me out too much, and that’s saying something.

I ducked into a doorway while the dust was still settling so he couldn’t have seen where I went, and I closed my eyes and listened. I could hear his chains clanking around, giving a roadmap of his movements to my ears. He wasn’t going for stealth. He wanted me to come out.

“Oh come on,” I whispered. “What do I do…”

“Gryft,” said a voice, making me jump. It was a chorus of voices like the marble slab in the sky. “You are to carry out your mission.”

“I don’t remember asking,” I mentally countered, looking over my shoulder.

“Where are your rescued?”

Ah shit, I forgot about that. I ran away from the science experiment, wondering how I was going to get outside. The abandoned hospital was pretty big, and taking door after door would be tedious. There was a window though, and I just broke that and jumped out. If there’s no doors, make one.

“MOON!” I shouted. “WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Here!” she yelled.

I dived out of the air and landed next to her. I cleared my throat, held the brand on my arm, and looked to the sky.

“Alright Temple, take us home.” I asked. We all stood there waiting, and nothing happened.

“Is this… supposed to happen?” Moon whispered, not wanting to worry the other two.

“The thing’s just being petty,” I said. “Come on Temple, stop screwing around”

Through the hole I came out of, the creature came flying out, stutting in its flight. Its eyes set on me before it started its own flight.

“Temple!” I shouted. The creature was closing distance. “Temple! TEMPLE!”

The world around us disappeared in a flash of light, and when we could see again, all four of us were in the middle of The Temple. We all let out paranoid sighs of relief. I fell to the ground and sat down, still imagining the thing’s fists only about a meter from my throat.

“Gryft, were you worried we would let you down?” The Temple asked with what I swear was smugness.

“Oh fuck off, marble slab,” I growled, flipping off the ceiling.