we were in the past before we knew it.
I found myself being pulled up whilst I slept, it was Ever, an uncharacteristic sense of determination for one so typically free spirited. Her ignoring of my requests for her to let me sleep highlighted it even more. "Adam it's time,we have to go! If we don't, I can't save you." She sounded shaky.
The trepidation and concern finally roused me, getting up as she pulled me towards the door which hung open. I turned to look at the other beds and they were all empty, my heart pounded as I realised something was wrong. 'Where are they all? Every bed was full' I thought, my mood darkening at the notion our deal had been broken.
"Taken, not long ago, I heard them saying they had to seal us in quickly, before you woke up. I think they know I'm here." With those final words I was fully motivated, keeping pace as she navigated the halls, pulling me along by the hand.
As we rounded a corner she slid to a stop, telling me to stay back then she fell, blood pooling as the memory of a similar scene involving my mother entered my mind.
My eyes turned to gaze down the hallway, the far end of which several people and automatons stood. I started toward them, blood boiling, vengeance my only desire. I raised a hand ready to wipe them from the world. "No, you have brought suffering to the god of it. Your deaths won't be easy."
I ripped the automatons apart to prevent them interfering, then did… something to the humans. It was horrific, like they endured every ounce of suffering the world had seen in an instant. As each man begged for it to end for the third time, their wish was granted.
As the last met his end I turned, the sight of Ever on the floor bleeding seemed ethereal, I roared in pain and the metal panels warped and buckled.
A borderline theatrical slow clap sounded behind me, like a chilling blade to cut through my grief. "Glorious, truly glorious! Now cease your tantrum child, if you do, I'll save the girl you seem so fond of and I assure you of course she will be free in good time, oh and no harm will come to her."
I turned to look at whoever was arrogant enough to address a god so cavalierly. "I am the god of suffering mortal, address me again and I will grant you my blessing." My eyes fell to someone standing behind him, it was the girl who had already been warned. "I see. You chose to defy my decree a second a second time. I'll have to be creative in your punishment, when I'm done, you can save the girl."
The man responded and lost an arm as punishment for his arrogance, when a god gives a command he should action it without a word.
I then approached, walking toward them, each foot step utterly void of sound. Finally reaching the girl, I grabbed her forehead. "Suffer, without end or relief, mortality won't save you from my wrath." As I released her, she seemed confused by the lack of pain or torment, the true nature of her punishment was isolation. A brand on her soul, which would see her rejected, neglected and alone, through that life and every life
With my revenge exacted, I turned to the man, leaning against a wall for support as he bled. "Now, save her. Do that and I will forget your trespass against me." The man groaned as he approached me, so I raised an arm thinking he intended to ignore my warning.
"I only do as I need to in order to save her. Blood loss has made moving difficult, take me to her." I grabbed his collar and dragged him across the floor toward her. He then examined her and told me time was short, instructing me to introduce some of my blood to each of the penetration points.
I did as instructed, though it wasn't easy. I tried slicing my hand on the jagged edge of a buckled panel, but healed too fast, growing desperate from the implication of not having much time. If a cut wouldn't do it, I thought, then perhaps crushing it would. I held my arm over her, then some unseen force acting to enforce my will twisted and crushed it, as though wringing out a wet towel. With the amount of damage, the blood should've gone everywhere, but it pooled and streamed directly into the wounds.
The man began to cackle as the wounds closed. "I knew it! your blood has poisoned everyone we gave it to, but this girl is different. But, is it because of her power to go unnoticed, or is it because you chose to allow it? Glorious! wonderful! sublime! Truly, a wonder!" The man returned to his feet, telling me that she should stay under their observation to be certain, then would be free to go when they were certain she would survive.
I placed a hand on him, branding his soul with a glyph of contract, offering a warning about the totality of the consequences of breaking it. I then faded, things began to darken but I bit my tongue to stay lucid. Scooping Ever up from the floor, confused and instantly letting everything slip from my memory, but knowing I had to focus on her.
Others arrived soon after, the man instructed them to leave us be but escort us to the lab and make sure the girl was unharmed and made healthy. I was to be kept close by, and hooked up to a monitoring system. "I should probably ask. What about the girl who betrayed you, will your ire spread if we help or hurt her?" His tone was curious, like he didn't quite know why he was asking the question.
I looked around, anger bubbling away into confusion when I couldn't see any girl other than Ever. "Who are you talking about? There's no one here…" My grip tightened on my ward, and my vision went strange in one eye as I got paranoid. "You better not try to hurt her."
The man grunted in pain as something seemed to exasperate his injury, until he apologised and wondered to himself if he was becoming delirious.
As I turned to continue walking, my leg felt heavy but I forced it to move, assuming my body was trying to go into shock from my own injury. Ever's breathing changed and I told the ones leading us to pick up the pace as I grew concerned, despite their assurances they did as I asked.
The memory grew distorted, then reformed as I sat in a chair keeping vigil over Ever. "I don't believe she slept this long naturally. You wouldn't be responsible would you?" I felt strange, barely recognised my own voice.
Protecting the girl was a singular thought, the driving purpose of my existence, the atmosphere was filled with fear and tension. It was clear that everyone in the lab was desperate to see some positive sign of her recovery.
"Of course not. The truth is we don't know why she hasn't awoken, or why she hasn't died." The man speaking was the director of this place, the same man whose arm I had stolen. A man who should have known better, his subordinates shrunk as he mentioned her dying, but he seemed to lack any sense of danger.
I stood from my chair, some frayed restraint snapping, if they couldn't help it was safer to remove them all and continue to watch over her. A fact which would have been true, if not for everything freezing in place and ceasing of all sounds.
"You truly intend to wipe the world clean for the sake of this… What is it? Is it a mortal god? No… She's almost a god, but incomplete… But almost. What did you do!?"
I turned to face the origin of the words, a featureless being of pure white and a truly disconcerting form. I jumped back, something deep within me demanding my caution. I asked who or what, it or they were, earning derision.
"You truly don't know me? Then your punishment is self served it seems. I warned you coming here was foolish, now you have made whatever that is." It made a gesture toward Ever and in an instant I ignored my instincts and moved between them.
I snarled like an animal, but confused by their hesitation, I knew I was barely an obstacle to them. "I don't care who or what you are. If you try to hurt her, I'll make you suffer."
"Of course you will, you are the god of suffering and it seems you aren't entirely lost yet. If you wish this one to survive though, she needs to disappear." My snarling stopped as something changed, my vision turned strange again and the figure flinched. "I am not trying to deceive you fool! Her physical body is fighting the infusion, it needs to be destroyed before her soul can fully integrate the foreign divinity you introduced."
I turned to Ever and approached, putting a hand on her as if to verify what I was told. "Thank you Ever, I'm sorry I have to rob you of this life." I then turned to the formless being. "Do it, finish her for me, I don't know how anymore." I didn't even know what I meant by 'anymore'.
"I am not your servant brother. I will do it since she is a new addition to our family, but it will cost you all memory of her and a cruel addition to your punishment. Only then will the eldest leave me be to work." The words were testing, I sensed them taking some measure of me.
I smiled ear to ear. "Thanks, that's all I want sis." My voice was filled with deep joy, knowing she would live was all I needed.
The other figure approached and held a hand over Ever. "I don't understand, I don't agree with you, but I want you to know... I respect your unyielding resolve. The rest of us are fickle by comparison. Goodbye elder brother, I doubt we will meet again." She then disappeared, long with Ever.
Time resumed, I collapsed onto the floor, serenaded by the monitors flat-lining.
The memory quickly distorted and the next thing I knew I was standing beneath a blazing sun, the once sandy dunes now cracking glass beneath my feet. I recognised it well, Idir's homeland, my grave. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop this. I tried to save you back then."
An unfamiliar voice startled me, beginning to fill me with regret and longing, but then my heart suddenly settled and left my body numb.
I turned to face whoever was intruding on this hallowed ground to see a girl. "I don't know who you are but I should thank you for trying, I wish someone had succeeded." I closed my eyes and lowered my head, opening them to find the girl right beside me.
"Don't worry, Idir made sure someone would. look up and when the darkness recedes, please complain. If you complain, I'll see you before you know it. Not that either of us will know." She hugged me, as she spoke.
I looked up as instructed, smiling as I saw the sky blotted out by myths. A weapon of such destruction the mere rumour of them was enough to rob me of thousands of allies, 'Nemesis warheads' an armament which made nuclear weapons look like rubber band guns.
"I don't know why, but I get the feeling we've met before, I'm sorry I disappointed you."
The warheads hit and lapped us in fire, but that wasn't all, something else emanated from each and I began to feel strange as my mind and perception seemed to twist.
"What is this? How is…" The girl began to cough and splutter, then seemed to disintegrate.
I roared in pain at the sight of her annihilation then raised a hand and swiped it, erasing everything but the glassy surface. Holding on to the space she had occupied as though it would pull the atoms back together.
Then I felt calm, composed, but tears dripped onto the glass as I fell to all fours. The reflective ground, showing several different forms of me reflected. "You dare take from me? Fine. you will suffer for it." I punched an arm into the ground, shredding it to ribbons as thick shards stopped it from sealing the multiple deep lacerations.
As my blood flowed into the earth it shook and cracked, then ruptured and burst so violently everything faded to black before I could even think about it...
Unlike the other times, I didn't awake from this memory, I was blown from it. I was in Eve's arms as she told me not to worry, that she was there.
Pain and sadness filled her face and I started laughing...