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sowha70-blog · 7 years

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Chapter Three

Days have passed since their meetings about what happened to her. Dawn had wished this were all a mistake, or even a dream. About everything that Young said, her being one of the many experimental biological weapons. That she were captured in a facility island located nowhere in the middle of the sea.

It was like yesterday when Young pulled the curtain behind, revealing below what she could describe as a tropical island surrounded in both blue sea and sky. Saying things that there were military marines and air forces ready to kill ‘anything’ in or out without permission.

“I don’t get it,” to her surprise, Dawn remained calm that day, “why did you tell me all this? Aren’t you afraid that I’ll escape?”

“That’s the point!” He exclaimed, “I want to help you, and those who are treated wrongly here to escape. This is why I took this job, this is what she had wanted me to do.”

“’She’ as in your daughter?”

“It’s a long story,” Prof. Young brushed his silverfish hair, looking away. For a moment there he looked really old and tired, Dawn could imagine the older version of him from the picture. “ I’ll tell you when we have the time.”

But it’s been almost a week and there was nothing regarding to this ‘escape plan’. All she was told before Stone and his people burst in was that she was to be very observant on every staffs, tests schedules, free times and the tours with Prof. Young, and to wait for him before doing anything by herself.

Everything felt like a dream. Things like brain transplantation, human experiments, X-men. Those were supposed to be mere science fiction only.

Dawn learned that not everyone liked what Young was doing, being close with the ‘specimen’ but some had their styles, like Professor Pete, he always had his two-headed snakes a playtime inside their cage. Even the two-headed dogs and whatever creatures with two heads in God knows what lives in this forsaken place. These people with ‘professor’ as their title were people who had authorities to do things, such as experiments, to such like Dawn. Others, such as the woman with the grey skirt that always came to her room, were the ‘team members’. In this case, Young’s team members were all his students, who among the four, only one was from the facility.

They learned that Dawn was, undoubtedly, human for the past weeks. She didn’t show any of her inhuman states other than her radiant red eyes that could’ve been a result of the tests. She was perfectly normal.

The fact that she also recalled bits of her memories, like an album full of childhood pictures being flipped through every page each day, meant things for her that she might be underdoing something which made her went through an amnesia phase before. Young and his team tried to look for clues from the tests but there were nothing out of ordinary from her body.

Each day passed with the feeling of missing home. Missing Nate. Missing mom and home. Drifted by the memories, she started to get teary. She have always been a crybaby, every sad scenes on the movies she watch with Nate she would cry so much. She remembered hating the fact that she never be able to really handle the urge to bawl.

“This is outrageous!” Dawn heard her door slid open with Stone yelling things on Young. “I cannot believe they are letting you like this!”

Young raised his hand idly. “I don’t blame you to not knowing that they owe me big time. Now, aren’t you having too much of a free time to be meddling with someone else’s work? The archive section are always in need of free pairs of hand.”

The bed made a ridiculous creaking sound when Dawn tried to put herself up. It distracted Stone. Rather than the lab gown, she was wearing a different shirt and pants that let her move much comfortably. “Fine!” he said, glaring at Dawn, “I’m done with this bullshit anyway.” He shoved the guards out of his way and left the room.

“Don’t mind him, Dawn, he’s just too passionate on his work. Are you crying?”

Dawn felt the urge to bail, to pull her feet up and dash away from this personal cell and hide. She didn’t, though she did hide her face with her long dark hair form Young. “I miss my home,” Dawn said under her snot.

Young exhaled sympathetically, “of course you are.”

“I don’t understand,” said Dawn, “there is nothing wrong with me. I have proven human multiple of times. There’s nothing out of ordinary from my body, outside of my eye color and that I suffer low blood pressure, I am normal. One thing that should be done is that I need medical attention on my brain damages, or psychiatrist to have my personal memories back to me.”

“I always thought that you are too calm for these past days,” Young stepped closer to her. He brushed his hand to her long bangs like drawing a curtain open to see her face better. “But sooner or later the emotions started to kick in. It is understandable. You know what? Good news is, the Central have agreed to have you moved to a better section.”

Dawn raised her head so Young didn’t have to keep holding her overgrown bangs. “The Central?”

“They practically own this place,” Young sighed, “I’ve been telling them that you are harmless—“

“And Human,” Dawn snapped.

“That too,” Young went on, “which is why today I’m going to show you your new room. I promise you it will be better there than here.”

“How can it be better? I don’t want another room, I want to be released!” Desperation chocked Dawn’s throat. Her voice was shaking. She remembered the day when her mom grounded her for coming home late after her best friend’s birthday party. The temptation of running away from home that day felt like the same, the difference was that it’s the other way around.

Young drifted back towards the mirror, touching it as he spoke gently, “there won’t be any of these mirrors and cameras. I understand that it’s not any better than what it is now. But why don’t we try it out first and see what happen.”

“It won’t change anything. You will still find nothing!” Dawn raised her voice.

“Then we will prove them about it.”

Dawn groaned. She didn’t have any other option but to comply. Unwillingly, she pulled herself up away from the bed. “Good,” Young said, sounded relieved, “follow Sage, I’ll be right behind you.”

Sage, the only woman who was in Young’s team, slender and stiff. Girls with her posture always succeed to envy Dawn in the younger days. She realized rather than jealousy, she was intimidated by her cold stares behind her glasses and stiff expression. Dawn guessed that Sage couldn’t be more than 25.

“This way,” Sage started to walk. She didn’t look back to make sure Dawn followed.

For somewhat reason, the hallway of the facility was built without any sharp corners like hospitals or schools generally made. Was it so that there will be no blind spots on the camera? Dawn wondered.

The air smelled salty but nice, it was the first time she went outside after she had woken up. Even though she wasn’t literally outside since they were actually walking through an open corridor that connects two different building. The sound of the shores felt pleasant. Even though it lasted only seconds but it calmed her.

Dawn wanted to slow her pace but the guard behind her would never let her. Young were not to be seen anywhere behind. She wondered if he was not really coming.

“He had things to do first. I assure you professor Young will be joining us before sunset,” Sage slid to Dawn’s range of vision on her peep-toe D’Orsay. “You can stop glancing back every second, it will damage your backbone.”

“I wasn’t looking for him.” Sage was actually right on the bull’s eye but Dawn was not going to admit it out loud. “I was just wondering why is this place so dead.”

“I heard from professor Young that you’re a full of curiosity,” Sage landed her palm on Dawn’s back, half pushing her to walk forward. It was clear for Dawn to see a scar just below her left brow. Imperfection on the perfect skin. “Curiosity kills even to cats, as one may say.” Her bun dangled a little as she walked just half step ahead of Dawn, with her palm stuck on the other girl’s back still.

The interior of the other building was different as well as the smell, very less dead. Everything reminded Dawn one of her cousin’s dorm she once visited. She heard faint laughter and chatter across the hallway just like what she remembered the day she strolled down looking for her cousin. The deeper they went in the more people with uniforms were seen busying themselves. Only one person, a boy not much older than Dawn was, or what she assumed her age was, paused his steps and greeted Sage. “Sage,” Dawn caught him gazing up and down on her. He reminded her of the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but with specs. They didn’t halt while the boy tailed Sage as he talked to her, “I was informed that she would arrive after dinner, not before lunch.”

Sage didn’t even flinch. She ignored the boy like he wasn’t there. Dawn pitied him. Now that she remembered that the boy was one of Young’s team member who, most of the time, worked behind the tablets.

“Oh now you’re ignoring me?” Maybe the boy had pushed his luck too much, with Sage glaring at him he looked intimidated, he stumbled on his feet as he tried to follow them.

The three of them, and the guards, who then left them seconds ago, finally found themselves in the threshold of what Dawn could refer as a school cafeteria. Girls and boys in various range of age swarmed with trays of food. Most of them were teenagers, wearing the same shade of gray shirt and pants. None of this made sense for Dawn. To be fair, the days she spent here had never made any sense at all. Why would it be not? Not an hour ago she was inside of what it she pictured as a mental ward and now she was in some kind of school cafeteria?

The chattering soon fell into murmurs, as Sage, followed by Dawn and uniformed boy, entered. Among them there was a dark-haired tall boy left his chair and stood there, his gaze met Dawn’s. Up close his eyes had the same color of the sky she saw earlier that day, the tone of blue and clouds, and freedom. Dawn’s heart fluttered even if she didn’t want to. She reminded herself of Nate.

“Dawn, this is Jesse. He’s one of the eldest among here,” Sage leaded Dawn closer to Jesse. Everyone went back into their original chattering. “Jesse this is Dawn.”

“Hi,” Jesse curled a polite smile.

“Hey,” Dawn returned his smile.

“Jesse will look out for you and teaches you things around here,” Sage said, then inquired to the tablet boy, “and Alex over here will be watching out for you. Think of him as your personal babysitter.”

Alex had a surprised and disapproval look as he followed Sage, who ignored him most of the time, out of the cafeteria. “I didn’t hear that I should—hey Sage!” Dawn watched them disappear while arguing before she felt a grab on her shoulder. It was Jesse.

“We’ve heard about you,” Jesse’s voice rang beautifully in her ears. “Let’s have you meet the other,” He reached out for his tray and offered it to dawn. “But before that, have you eaten yet? It will be pleasant if we can have our introductions while eating.”

“Oh. No, I’m fine.”

“It won’t hurt to have just one cup of pudding. I never really fancy sweets so help me out here.” He grinned, took the pudding off his tray and pushed it to Dawn’s hand.

“Thanks.” Dawn cupped the pudding with both of her hands, tailed Jesse. She hesitated but decided to take the seat beside him anyway.

The table Dawn was sitting was long and full of identical trays of sandwiches, milk cupboards, cups of chocolate pudding and salads. An odd set of triplet of around seven year-old girls sat across facing her, a group of boys beside Jesse and some girls beside the triplet and her. One of the girls in particular caught Dawn’s attention. She had a perfect brown butterscotch hair braided messily behind her back that hung just halfway through, with freckles sprinkled like stars across the bridge of her nose, a girl who Dawn had thought could only be seen in movies with fairies in it. She was right next to the triplet, staring at her in a curious way while poking her fork on her salad. Dawn knew that Jesse realized that both of the girls were staring on each other awkwardly because he then spoke, “She’s Mars,” pointing the braided girl with his fork and added, “or that’s what she wants us to call her. Her actual name is Mary Rose.”

“You don’t have to point that out for her, Jesse.” The girl leaned closer to Dawn. Her eyebrow went up. “I hate to say, but I really envied that eye-color. You’re not wearing any contacts, are you? You know, that tiny cylindrical thing that you stick to your eyeballs, some of the caretaker wear those.”

“I know what contacts means and no, I’m not wearing any,” answered Dawn.

Mars stuffed herself back to her seat as if she had lost her interest and started eating her salad. Dawn tried not to notice how Mars had forgotten on asking her name. “Uh, I believe I heard something about ‘caretaker’?” She turned to Jesse who was prying the tomatoes out of his sandwiches.

“Ah, right. Caretakers are those people who wear the uniforms and tags. They are the ones who teach us things and tell us what to do. I was told that you came from the outside of—“

“Outside?” Jesse’s sentence was interrupted by one of the triplets exclaiming with their mouth full. “You came from the outside?”

“Tell us about the outside.”

“Have you seen snow?”

“What does outside look like?”

More questions were shooting out from the girls like rifles, Dawn was left confounded by what the girls were asking. Does that mean that they were raised here in the facility? She found herself feeling sorry for them. At least Mars began to look interested again and shushed them down. “Is that true?” Mars asked in disbelief.

Before she could answer, the boy beside her started to talk on behalf of her, “Look girls, what I meant is that she was not from our section. She just came out form the Lab, just outside from our facility.”

Mars gave out a disappointed look. “Another sister,” Dawn could hear her mumble under her breath.

An orchestra of disappointment was heard. It was like as if most of the people were secretly listening to them while eating and chatting themselves. It was always like this when the teacher on her school back then joked about the cancelled exams and revealed their jokes afterward.

Dawn didn’t even try to deny Jesse. There was something on his gaze to her that made her decide to bury some of the truths for her own.

“Now, before questions or any more interruptions,” Jesse, hadn’t had his sandwich bit, waved his sandwich-holding-hand towards the triplets who wore longer sleeves and odd gloves, “meet June, July and April. Since you’ve met Mars already I suppose we could skip to Am.” Am waved cheerfully beside April. Dawn wondered, why would she be called April and not August while the other sisters were called June and July. August came after the other two, not April. She considered on asking after Jesse finished. “The guy beside me here, his name is Peter. But since he never looked as old as he is, we all decided to call him Pan as in ‘Peter Pan’”

“Hey!” A voice protested. It was an Asian boy who looked so much younger than Jesse, which probably might not be the case, and since he had his hair cut into a shape of a flipped bowl.

Jesse chuckled before taking a mouthful bite of his sandwich. He turned from his grumbling friend to Dawn, who now was also taking some bite out of the chocolate pudding. “You thirsty? We can share the milk if you want to,” said Jesse with a grin.

“No, you don’t have to. It would be disgusting.” Mars pushed her cupboard of milk to the other side of the table, saving Dawn from having to face Jesse’s charming jest. “Dairy products aren’t my favorite. You can have mine, Umm…”

“Dawn, but I’m fine without it, thanks,” said Dawn, unwillingly. It was like that she admitted her name was Dawn, having it to be spoken by her own tongue. Giving a terrible pang in her stomach on how it reminded her that she still had not recalled her own name.

Jesse was about to say something but as soon as he opened his mouth, a figure loomed behind him. It was Young.

“So you’ve made new friends now,” said Young impressed. “You have even met your roommate already.”

“Jesse is her roommate?” said Pan, choking on his milk.

Young gave out a muffled laugh under his mask, “no, silly! Not him, but Mary.”

“Of course,”

“I’ve never seen you before,” Am pointed out, her pigtails dangling just above her shoulders. Young had caught more attention. Some of the children watched, the others just didn’t really care.

“He is professor Young, he’s new in this section and he will be in charge of us for a while,” answered Jesse, licking the sauce from his fingers uninterested.

“What happen to professor Hunt?” One of the triplets asked.

“She had to take care of some problems so he was discharged. But I assure you that I will take care of you guys better than she does.” Young gave Jesse a big pat oh his back, the boy tried to ignore it. “By the way, where’s Alex? He was supposed to be with you today, Dawn.” He gave out a big disappointed sigh. “Anyway, come with me after you finish your desert.”

It was bothering Dawn that she could not read what Young probably think since the mask was between the way to every expressions Young might be having. But there was no one she could trust more than Young so far. Dawn chugged her pudding whole, half realizing how un-lady like she was in front of the boy beside her, half trying to not care how fast her heart beat every time she caught a glimpse of his elegant features. “We can go right away,” Dawn put the empty plastic cup to the table and pulled herself up.

“NO!”

To everyone surprise, Jesse sprang off from his chair to his feet and had himself turned facing Young. He had a challenging expression. Even Mars was left agape. “Take me instead. It will be my turn tomorrow anyway. I will have her turn so give her some break,” Jesse spoke as if defending Dawn from something bad she had done.

“Jesse, get back to your seat,” now Mars too was on her feet. “Jesse had already taken two of the little one’s turn this week. He barely could even stand this morning and he only just stopped coughing blood last night. If he had to take another test today,” she laid her eyes to the boy’s back, with a grim look she added, “he could die.”

“I won’t die that easily,” Jesse insisted.

Dawn was unable to understand a single thing. Young on the other hand, after drawing his attention from Mars to Jesse, finally realized what the two of them meant. “Ah. You don’t need to worry, I just wanted to have a little chat with her that’s all.” Relieved, Mars went back to sit.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, Jesse.” Dawn could not help to smile.

She could see his ears gone red as she left with Young, who leaded her to what he claimed to be his new personal bureau. It was smaller but tidier than the last one. Such a shame that, unlike the previous one he had, it was lacking of windows, just like almost every part of this entire building. “He likes you,” Young said finally after he closed the door behind him.

“What? Who?”

“That boy with the blue eyes. John—“

“Jesse,” Dawn corrected him unconsciously. “Is that why you brought me here? To find out whether someone will like me? How thoughtful are you, professor.”

“I see you’re getting more honest on yourself,” said Young, flipping out some papers out of a box with a word ‘classified’ written on the lid, he was looking for something. “I brought you here because I think that meeting people and doing more activities will help us to find out more about you that even yourself do not know,” he added, “or forgotten.”

“I thought you’re going to get me away from here,” she demanded.

Young raised his head; his dead-goggled eyes reflected Dawn’s face like two round dusty mirror. “I am. But we actually found something from your cells that is, um, inhuman.”

The word inhuman stung her ears. “You’re lying! I AM human! I’m a normal person who just lost a part of her memories.” Desperation was heard from her voice.

“Calm down, Dawn. My team was actually keeping your test results clean all this time along. It was so that we can have you transferred here. They thought by that they could, at least, have you be useful for them. We have plans,” Young tried to reassure Dawn. It still bothered her, however, having to be told that she was not what she thought she was, or supposed to be.

“Useful,” Dawn began, “as in turning into their test-subjects like a lab bunny, or mice.” It sounded more like a statement than a question she originally intended to. She came to realize every of her own words before, and gasped, “is that what those people are? Test-subjects?”

“Almost every one of them was raised here, even born here.” Young answered reluctantly. “There are so many desperate mothers out there who are willing to sell their babies for better lifestyles. And these guys are also good at creating life inside tubes, as you can see they are indeed very advanced.” He paused. “You can say that these guys own the children’s life.” Dawn was dumbfounded, she felt pity for them but also terrified for herself.

“Why do this to them? Isn’t it enough already with the poor lab animals?”

“It is never enough for science and human curiosity. Besides, the governments around the globe are willing to pay a big sum of money for new inventions of cures, disposable candidates for agents and spies, and even biological weapons.”

Dawn had to lean on one of the shelf. She could smell the odor of paper and dust filling her nose. All of the information that was given to her sounded crazy, even crazier when it came out from some person with cracking, muffled voice, gas-masked face wearing an identical sickening white lab robe everyday. Ironically, mysteries and science fiction were always her favorite genre before all of this happened. There was a time when she once wanted to have an unusual life, like what the books told her. Magical lands, peculiar creatures, but never imagined how horrifying it was to be facing things she had never understood.

She was lost in her thoughts when Young suddenly slammed the piles of papers back to its box. “For the sake of God, it’s supposed to be here somewhere. It should be here. Where the hell is Alex anyway,” Young sounded frustrated.

As if he heard Young calling out his name, Alex came throwing himself inside slamming the door ajar, breathing hard like he just had a marathon.

“Nice timing, Alex,” Alex toppled some stacks of boxes but didn’t stop to look, Young seemed to ignore it and continued, “where did you put UOR09 file I gave you yesterday morning?”

Dawn just realized that something wasn’t right with him. His face were red and sweaty, he did not wear his glasses and his usual coat. Between his heavy breath, he struggled to speak, “I… The files… Professor… I… She… It was an accident.” He looked really fragile, like he could break from just a single touch. His voice was shaking as if he forced to keep himself from crying.

“You look Dreadful, Alex. What the hell happened to you?”

Alex threw his head down and buried it with his hands, covering his face. “I think,” he hesitated for a while. He took a deep, shaking breath, and said with a much clear tone, “I think I killed Sage.”

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sowha70-blog · 7 years

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Chapter Two

“Is there something wrong with me? Am I in a mental ward? Am I sick?” Dawn finally asked one of the two guys who routinely checked on her every hour. She was quiet for a while before until she confirmed her thoughts about what was happening.

She was given injections before and they all looked like nurses who wore coats for tending the biohazards. Odd but that’s where she got the idea of where she might be. Those people, they were like collecting data of her, like a specimen in a jar. Even if she was supposed to reject their treatments, she still did not have her strength with her and she’s smart enough to know that this facility wherever she’s in must’ve had a heavy security. On the other hand, she should think fast.

Funny, Dawn thought that she could hear one of them said something under his breath, about if she really ‘trying to communicate again’ sounding amazed. Even so, no one tried to talk her back. She felt it sickening for a while, her other speculation was that the chance of her being abducted by aliens were solid. Those people looked like it was their first time seeing a human being, even though they looked like humans themselves.

After some blood testing, weird tests with strange-looking instruments and multiple of painful injections, the men walked away with their stuffs leaving her behind, again alone in her room. There was supposed to be around an hour before the next round of tests but this time, a man with the gas mask came in just minutes after the men left.

They both stared for a while, or that’s what Dawn felt since she could not really see through the mask’s dark thick—maybe film-screened— lenses.

“Nate?” the silence broke, “Nathan, is that you?”

It would be very ridiculous that if Nate was pranking her right now. What do you know? He is a one big goofy and carefree guy who loves this type of show. Maybe that’s the point of the cameras. She was on a TV show not to mention that shows nowadays had the budget and let alone the guts to do crazy things like abduction pranks.

Nate—or the guy in front of her, supposed to have already exposed their tricks a while ago. But he just stood there, tilting his head with crossed arm like some kind of a thinking pose.

He took a few steps towards Dawn.

“That’s amusing,” his voice felt somehow condemned cold that it pricked the spines, he was definitely not Nate.” This… ‘Nate’, can you describe him for me?”

“Who are you?” Dawn leaned on her bed, ready to jolt for a run if she should.

“Me?” He paused, “I am a scientist. Everyone called me Professor Young, you can call me anything you like. But let’s not talk about me shall we, how about you tell me more about yourself, hmm?”

Dawn considered some options for her answer, or she could just not answer him. Although it would probably the best to just scoop some information about what the hell happened to her. But before she said anything either, Young took out something out of his pocket. It was a photograph.

“You might probably feel nervous talking to a man with his face hidden. Here, this is me when I was around ten years ago, before—you know,” he showed a picture of what he claimed his 10 years ago appearance. The photograph looked worn out, folded outlines crossed among the print as if to show how the owner of it always had the picture unfolded multiple of times. Inside, he was seen standing hand in hand with a ponytailed little girl seemed to be his daughter. She could say with their same happy wide eyes and smiles, and both have a very similar shade of fine hair. “I lost her, She loves the sky and her favorite was the Dawn time. It was a terrible accident. Taking my poor daughter even my face with it as well, that’s why I wear this every time even in my sleep if you’re wondering.”

The vibe of him changed, even though he told his story with his menacing voice, he sounded earnest. The mask or the result of the accident, he said might be the one causing his voice sounded like a dying person.

“I’m sorry,” Dawn returned Young’s photograph for him to slip it back to where it always belong.

“No, you don’t have to be sorry. Anyway, you must be really confused and most likely scared. Not to mention some of us had done things to you that you might find it uncomfortable,” he gestured an apology and continued, “you ought to be frightened so I come here in personally to see your condition and you look very healthy, but also very curious indeed. I assume that you are not what we think you are, you looked much calmer than we thought you might be when you woke up so I rearranged some of your schedules and as for today, you will be coming with me for a stroll. I know you have so much to ask so please come join me, or you can ask along the way. Well, I cannot answer to everything but I can manage to ease your worries or you can share me things about yourself.”

Young signed the one of the cameras. Seconds later two heavily armed white men walked in. Apparently they were their ‘guards’.

“Don’t be scared, they’re not going to hurt you. They are going to protect us.”

“Protect us from what?” without hesitation, Dawn asked.

He didn’t answer her immediately but walked away towards the door; she followed him outside the room with the guards tailing them close behind when then he answered, “there are some ‘things’ kept inside here,” Dawn could see her room from the giant window they just passed, “some of them—most of them are dangerous, some lethal and some of them, well, unpredictable.” It took Dawn a minute or two to digest every bit of the words given right in front of her face.

Has she gone mad? Judging by how the doctors handled her like a fragile being there’s the possibility of this place being a lunatic hospital full of murderous sick-minded people. But he said scientists, not doctors.

The corridors were wide, cameras are all over the corners and surprisingly it didn’t really smell like hospital anymore. More guards and lab-coated guys walked past them, eyes trailing at them as prof. Young continued their chat, “I am actually amazed by how normal you are. Three days after you woke up in a place like this with people you don’t know and you are as calm as even a human could never be. You are surprisingly quiet.”

There was a brief silence before she spoke. “I am not sure what to react with all of this,” Dawn said.

After a couple of turn, Dawn found herself walking past another giant window like the one in her room, but this time it was quite different.

“Where are we go—” She took a big gasp.

She could not believe her own eyes, how could she. What she saw was a really odd-looking creature inside the room. When you imagine the things from the fantasy novels or movies, they all look very beautiful and breathtaking. But when the real deal is right in front of you, it felt entirely different. Like all of your comprehension of life were all sucked in and the dreadful feelings that all the creatures mentioned in the top ten shits or whatever on the internet were not all hoax. Very upsetting.

It was a goat standing all two, like a human, wearing the same clothing like Dawn. His build didn’t really look like a goat, it looked like a man, like the ones you see in the Narnia movies. But the horns were cut off, its hoofs seemed dull and even one of its eyes was covered in an eye-patch, faints of scars were to be seen on its shoulder and chest. It was standing on the side of his bed like it was praying, looking very tired.

They both stopped and gazed there in front of the glass that parts them with the creature. “Crazy right? Like he was coming out from a creepypasta or a nightmare. Such a poor thing he must’ve endured lots of pain being here, I cannot do anything while he’s under someone’s supervision. If you asked me, I would at least talk to him so he would feel less harmed. You wouldn’t believe how much humane are these things”

“You’re a human? I thought—“

“Young!” Another all-white man headed towards them, half yelling between Dawn’s words, “I told you not to do anything ridiculous!”

“Stone! Oh have you met Dawn? She’s transferred to me when she came here. A very lovely girl, I feel bad not to let her out and look around.” Dawn and the ‘Stone’ guy had their eyes met and he frowned.

“Young, I know you’re new here but stop being such an idiot! She’s not allowed wandering around like this.” Stone signed the guards something.

“No, I can let her. She’s in my supervision and you have no authorities to ban me doing this.”

This dumbfounded Dawn, as she just remain there silently watching them argue.

Stone Grabbed Young on his sleeves and dragged him away from Dawn so she might not hear a thing of what they were going to discuss. “Listen, Young, we still don’t have enough information about her…”

For somewhat reason Dawn wasn’t interested in their secrecy that she was supposed to. She stared into the room of the Goat-man. The thing that she caught up was that they both wore the same clothes, imprisoned in the same type of room, being supervised altogether that concluded both of them were in the same shoes. The sad look of the creature gave Dawn the urge to tap the window, which she did, that made herself being pulled roughly by the guards away from the window. Which then made her see her own reflection, for the second time.

She didn’t recognize her own skin.

But soon she remembered. Her memories of her childhood came back like burned films, her mother’s name, her boyfriend’s name, even the glimpse of her last memory before she was lost conscious. However, why couldn’t she remember her own name, or even her own face? Was this what it supposed to feel like having amnesia? There were so many questions to ask.

“Hey!” Young’s broken voice startled them all, “she’s just curious so let her be.”

“Oh, you’ll never understand! I’ll be reporting this to the superiors and let’s see you having fun tomorrow,” Stone stomped away to the path Dawn and the others came.

“Then I’ll let you try,” Young cracked a mocking laugh. He was good on how he teased with his cracking voice. He could be smiling gleefully under his mask. There was a hint that he could not be that old, since he had such a humor. “He’s funny, he wanted to look almighty even thought he was no more than a newcomer like me. But you see, I am smarter.” Young patted Dawn’s shoulder and stepped beside her, staring the same window together.

“Why am I here, Professor?”

Prof. Young sighed, “I know you might wonder things like this, it is actually confidential on why and how but…” he paused, “it doesn’t really hurt to tell simple answers by now. Since you can ask me questions, it is fair for me to ask you back then.”

A fair bargain, “then can I have my answers first?”

Prof. Young nodded. “We suspects you for an unidentified being.”

That was short, Dawn thought. For her it was one of the most likely answers so she was not surprised.

“My turn,” Prof. Young tapped Dawn’s shoulder and led them through the hallways. As they walked he asked, “Do you know, or even realize, who you really are?”

It baffled Dawn, “I believe I am a human being, you know, from planet Earth?”

She could hear a hushed chuckle of probably one of the guards. Rude.

“That seems like it. You have zero idea, huh?”

“You mean, I am not actually human?”

“Hmm,” Prof. Young’s gestures were always obvious. The way he swings his head when he think, how he waves his arms when describing. Now, he’s thinking, “I am actually new to this facility. I volunteered here long after you were already here. Your data were almost left none because the incident that happen a year ago so I have only a little idea of what you actually are.”

It made Dawn more confused, “A year? I’ve been here for at least a year? What about Nat—I mean my family? Friends? Won’t they be looking for me?”

They stopped facing an elevator, the hallway was quiet and only few doors and the rest are just floors and artificial plants other than the pair of elevator doors they were facing.

“Nobody came for you Dawn.”

Her heart sank, “they probably doesn’t know that I’m here.”

“Unlikely.”

The elevator opened and they entered. Inside was surprisingly has its interior made classic, unlike the sleekness of the hospital elevators. Even if it still has the odor of chemicals, the mood changed a bit. The strange part was that it has no buttons of floors any elevators used to have, cause it only has what seemed like a scanner and a small keypad that you probably see on a safety deposit box.

“How about you tell me how far you can remember about your past, I wish to know in detail of what you recall until the last moments before you came here,” the elevator went up as they continued their conversation.

They were now left alone in a room full of books, papers and dirty mugs. The guards didn’t come inside; they just stood in front of the closed door outside. There was a drawn curtain behind a desk that looked like it was cleaner than the other corners of the office.

“Now!” Prof. Young clapped, “we’re finally alone. I assure you nobody can see or hear us here, not even a hidden camera.” He waltzed around the laying books and sat behind his desk. Dawn could only see half of his face within the piles of documents on the desk. She stumbled some books until finally she could see the chair facing the desk.

“Why are you doing this?” Dawn sat facing him, trying hard not to glare at him, “why do you risk bringing me here to talk this kind of things? Aren’t you going to lose your job?”

There was a minute of silence until the other one finally spoke, “as you can see I am not fond with their rules and regulations. I do not intend to keep this job as well. And if what you say was true, it looks like you were just merely a human being.”

“I don’t get it. Then why am I here?”

“Good question!” Prof. Young straightened his seating position and leaned on the desk, “Why would a human, who only lost her memories of herself be here, in a facility of peculiar beings? Let me tell you something. Do you remember the half beast half man before?” He waited her to nod and she did, asking why, “he was a human too before. Born in a normal life, normal family, working as a normal soldier, until one day, he was sent to a mission. He never came back.”

“What happen then?”

“Apparently he was sent, not to a mission, but a sanctuary full of crazy biological weapons. He was then being experimented, meanwhile announced dead to his wife, two of his daughters and one infant. It was a failure, he wasn’t strong enough for the standard so they sent him to a death sentence but he ran away. This organization had found a way to catch and lock him here for good, like what we did to you.”

It was really clear now, Dawn caught herself holding her breath, “so, what you’re saying is that there’s a possibility I am being abducted?”

“Even worse,” Prof. Young exhaled, “there’s a chance you were remodeled.”

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sowha70-blog · 7 years

Text

Chapter One

It’s raining, just like what the weather anchor said.

This miserable girl can’t believe that her boyfriend still forced her to go to the beach. Even though she told him that it was pointless and even if it’s sunny, she wouldn’t like to go anywhere outside the hotel. It was too late now and the sea was already visible.

“Cheer up, love, it could be worse,” said the boyfriend with a grin, carefree as always.

“I told you this is stupid,” she pouted, crossing her arms, looking straight outside through the car window. Her boyfriend, who was two years older than she is, really liked surfing. She didn’t mind, though, his tanned skin and seashells collecting hobby. But this is going too far. They were planning on a holiday, which involve both of them having fun, not her watching him surfing all day long under the heat of the beach. Her idea was to go somewhere high like mountain or some tourism place like the lost cities or whatever she could’ve heard from the traveling shows.

Trouble did not stop there. As they were pulling the car to the nearest convenient store, the car broke down. As if the world wanted her to not enjoy her vacation.

“I know what you will say so don’t,” he sighed, “I should’ve rented a better car next time. Come on, let’s not ruin the mood. We came so far just to let you forget about your classes and shits back home.”

“Oh just shut up and do something, it’s like a typhoon outside,”

“It’s just a small rain, don’t be so dramatic. You want me to buy you something? Or you could just come with me,” she shook her head before he went outside the car and dashed onto the convenient store.

Her head hurt a little. Could it be she was going to have her period? She was unbelievably grumpy today, her tongue tasted sour. Part of her wanted to just leave this car and go somewhere else alone.

The car windows rattled by the passing thunder, shaking the ground a little. What ticked her so much is that she left her phone in her room—by his request—and what made it worse is that the car’s radio couldn’t catch a single frequency, she was terribly bored.

What took him so long? Probably he was looking, or calling someone to help fix the car, or is he looking for a generous lift? Back to the hotel she wished. Not that she couldn’t wait a bit longer, it’s just that there’s something off with the weather that was getting worse all of a sudden.

She couldn’t see where he was because he parked the car facing the wall side of the building. Great.

All of the waiting and the upcoming storm really made her anxious, she had had it enough already. The car moved a little, possibly blown by the huge wind. Some more cars were pulling off filling the parking lot.

Perhaps she should just go check in whether he had forgotten about the car or her. While she was starting to take off the seatbelt, all of a sudden something hit the car somewhere real hard that it moved backward heading to the main road fast.

“Oh Lord, HELP!” She cried, fortunately she didn’t bump her head on the dashboard thanks to the yet unbuckled seatbelt. On the other hand, she was trapped inside a broken shrieking wheeled coffin heading toward to a road, which she might die being flown by a passing truck and that’s bad.

People inside the store were screaming, some were out already fighting the rain towards her, obviously couldn’t do much but yelling.

“Stop the car!” someone yelled their lungs out.

The car finally crashed, or to be exact someone had crashed his or her car to her side so she would stop sliding backwards but sideways onto the wall. It made her hit her head to the window and coughed all the air in her lungs. The impact was unforgiving; one of her brain cells might go dead.

“Is she alive?”

“Are you okay ma’am? Hey you, help me out here,”

Wet footsteps and rumbling attempt to open the locked door sounded far. Then a familiar voice rose, screaming out frantically. For minutes there the damned vehicle slipped again but this time some guys got hold of the car weigh with a little groan. “Why the Hell they had this road built tilted!”

After sometime, she finally got hold of herself to take off the seatbelt. Her boyfriend had already unlocked the door for her to just slip to his arms wet and shaking ambushed by the pouring rain.

“Good thing those teenagers are fast enough to hit her or else she could end up blown by a running car or worse, fell to the sea across,” said a big guy with tattoos on both hands, looking scary but surprisingly sounded gentle. He was the one who kept the car from slipping for the second time before.

“Yeah well, they could’ve killed her!”

“Nate! Stop! Just… stop all right. These guys just saved my life, you’re supposed to thank them not yell at them,” she said weakly, “and by all means thank you everyone.”

A mid-aged woman rushed for aid with her umbrella and they all went back inside to the store trying to get cover. The staffs prepared a cup of warm tea from the machine for her.

“Let’s just call the day off,” Nate finally said.

“Right.”

Dawn woke up recalling some pieces of her memories.

Going back to the hotel was the smartest idea. Outside the room’s balcony, she remembered both could see the rain becoming a vicious storm. It was a literal dark that whenever they saw the clock, they would assume the clock was the one lying.

She remembered all of her complaints about the whole idea of the holiday grew to a horrible fight of their relationship. And so then she ended up running away from him aimlessly under the rain to a place where the sea is visible. There was a moment of hesitation on to go back or to just be lost for an hour or two. Those feelings of irritation for Nate were still lingering now. Still, she missed him.

Speaking of missing someone, does Nate realize that she’s gone? How long has she been here? A Couple of hours? Even days? She felt a little of hunger, so probably not that long or she could’ve starved but it came to her mind that those people could possibly drugged her which means being here days was not an impossible idea.

But then, what happened after she left the hotel?

Neither the lab-coated people with her right now, she was unable to ask anything for clues before they all left because everything seemed strange and confusing too suddenly. Now she was trying to remember what had happened to her from the last memory she had.

The air smelled like anesthetic. Dawn faced the mirror, tracing her features. Was she always been this small of a figure or is it that the drugs made her forget every detail of herself as if she just realized how red and vibrant her eyes are, how pale her skin and how dark her long hair have always been. Everything seemed new to her. She even had forgotten her own face nevertheless her own name.

A wash of childhood memories took a form in her mind. Things like embarrassing moments in elementary days, stupid jokes to impress a crush and even forgotten boring vacations to Uncle Jim’s cottage.

Frustration that took over inside her guts made her sick. Her vision got blurry and hot, but no fluids were caught on her fingers as she rubbed it vigorously at her eyes. She could cry but she won’t.

Dawn turned to face one of the cameras asking in her unfamiliar voice, “who are you people?”

It sounded skittish. Like a lost child she tried to walk properly but it was hard. Something tells her it was pointless. Gave up, Dawn sat on the bed for a while, closing her eyes and digging her mind to look for anything from her last memory she had before she was captured.

The room drifted away.

“You know? Screaming your lungs out can help you relieve stress,” said a man, a veteran, she thought, “what are you doing out here in this weather, young miss?”

“Relieving stress,” she said, shouting a little so that she could be heard against the nasty sound of rain and wind.

The man, with his raincoat and boots on, offered her his umbrella, “well can’t you find somewhere safe to do it? You might catch cold, became lost, or worse, got flung away to the ocean.”

She laughed, “Believe me, I will be glad if the storm really can take me fly away from this worse date.”

The wind worsened.

“No, I’m serious,” the odd man did not sound amused at all, “it is dangerous out here, the weather is not usual. You should go and stay inside somewhere.”

That moment she didn’t really think it was odd that no one and no cars could be seen visible, but then she could care less with her emotional state she had at that time. The rain was definitely terrible so she accepted the umbrella offer and had thought to hitch a ride back to the hotel.

It was just then something weird must have happened. The last thing she remembered was the man’s wide-eyed expression seemed so far away as her surroundings fell apart from the chaos of the heavy rain into darkness and silence.

#story character idea raw original

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sowha70-blog · 7 years

Quote

if you are not crazy, i mean absolutely crazy about what you love, then i beg you, either find a way to be insanely crazy about it or throw it away. you were not born with half an ass human therefore you have no right to half-ass the intensity in which you love.

christopher poindexter (via sleevesofgrass)

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sowha70-blog · 7 years

Text

Brigid, Goddess of the Sacred Flame

I am She 

that is the natural 

mother of all things, 

mistress and governess of all the elements,

the initial progeny of worlds, 

chief of the powers divine, 

Queen of all that are in the otherworld,

the principal of them that dwell above, 

manifested alone and under one form 

of all the Gods and Goddesses.

- Lucius Apuleius

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sowha70-blog · 7 years

Note

So, I don't know how to write pain like! What words do I use? how do I describe it! I really need some help here!

No problem! And sorry about not answering sooner, I was on vacation. To make it up to you, I’ve made one of my trademark Long Posts about it.

TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE PAIN (FOR BOTH ORIGINAL CONTENT WRITERS AND FANFICTION WRITERS)

When I first started writing, about eight years ago, I had the same issue as @imjustafuckinggirl.

How are you supposed to write about pain you’ve never experienced before???

The characters in my book suffer through all sorts of terrible shit, and in no way am I writing from experience, which is marginally easier to do than write about something that has never happened to you.

However, with time, I managed to gather up a few strategies on how to write pain.

1. Don’t Write Paragraphs About It

I know, it’s tempting. You want to convey to the reader just how much pain the character is in, and you think that the pain will be emphasized the more you write about it.

This, however, is a lie.

As a reader, when I’m reading a book or fanfiction where, whenever the writer uses agonizingly long paragraphs to describe when a character is hurt, I skip it.

Entirely.

It’s boring and, quite frankly, unnecessary, especially during a fight or huge battle, which are supposed to be fast-paced.

When it comes to writing about pain, it really is about quality and not quantity.

In my own writing, I stick to short, quick paragraphs, some of them which are barely a line long. This gives it a faster pace and sort of parallels with the scattered, spread out thoughts of the character as they suffer.

2. Describe it Right

Many times, usually in fanfiction, writers over-exaggerate certain injuries.

This partially has to do with the fact that they’ve never experienced that injury before and are just thinking about what it might feel like.

As a girl with two brothers and who often participated in rough play-fights, I can assure you that getting punched is not as painful as you think it is.

(However, it does depend on the area, as well as how hard the punch is, on top of the fact that you have to take into account whether or not the punch broke bones)

I’m reading a high school AU where a character gets punched by a bully (Idk where they got punched it wasn’t stated) and the author is describing it like they’d been shot.

It was to the point where I was like Did the bully have brass knuckles or something????

It was very clear that this author had never been punched before.

When describing the pain of an injury or the injury itself, you have to take into account:

- What object was used to harm the character

- Where the injury is

- How long the character has had the injury

- (For blades) How deep the cut is

- (For blunt force trauma) How hard the hit was

- Whether or not the wound triggers other things (Ex: Concussion, vomiting, dizziness, infection, internal/external bleeding).

There’s also the fact that when some authors described wounds caused by blades such as knives, daggers, and swords, they never take into account the anatomy of a person and which places cause the most blood flow.

Obviously, a cut on your cheek will have less of a blood flow than a cut on your wrist, depending on what the blade hits, and I hope that everyone consults a diagram of veins, capillaries, arteries, etc. when they’re describing blood flow from a certain place.

There’s also the fact that you have to take into account where the blood is coming from. Veins? Arteries?

The blood from arteries will be a brighter red, like vermilion, than the blood from veins, which is the dark crimson everyone likes to talk about.

Not all places gush bright red blood, people!

3. DIFFERENT INJURIES HAVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PAIN

Here, let me explain.

A punch feels different from a slap.

A broken arm feels different from getting stabbed.

A fall feels different from a dog bite.

I’ll give you a list of all the kinds of things that can be described for the three most common kinds of injuries that happen in stories:

Punch/Blunt Force Trauma

How it feels:

- Aching

- Numbness (In the later stages)

- A single spike of pain before it fades into an ache

- Throbbing

Effects:

- Vomiting (If the character is punched in the gut)

- Swelling

- Bruising

- Broken bones

- Unconsciousness (Blow to the head)

- Dizziness (Blow to the head)

- Concussion (Also a blow to the head)

- Internal bleeding

- Death (In the case of concussions and internal bleeding and broken bones- ribs can pierce lungs)

Stab Wound/Cut

How it feels:

- Stinging (only shallow wounds have just stinging)

- Burning

- With stab wounds, I feel like describing the effects of it make it more powerfully felt by the reader

Effects:

- Bleeding (Consult chart of the circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what color the blood should be)

- Dizziness (Heavy blood loss)

- Unconsciousness

- Infection (if left unattended)

- Death

Gunshot

How it feels:

- Depends on the caliber bullet, from how far away they were shot (point-blank range is nothing like being shot from a distance), and in what place. Do careful research and then make your decision.

Effects:

- Bleeding(Consult chart of the circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what color the blood should be. Also take into effect the above variables for blood flow as well.)

- Dizziness (Heavy blood loss)

- Infection (if left unattended)

- Death

Some things that a character may do while they’re injured:

- Heavy/Harsh/Ragged breathing

- Panting

- Making noises of pain

gasping

grunting

hissing

groaning

whimpering

yelping (when the injury is inflicted)

screaming

shrieking

wailing

- Crying/ Weeping/Sobbing/Etc.

- Clenching their teeth

- Unable to speak

- Pressing their hands against a stab wound/cut to try and stem the bleeding

- Eyesight going out of whack (vision blurring and tilting, the room spinning, black spots consuming sight)

- Eyes rolling up into their head

- Trembling/shaking

- Ears riniging (from gunshot)

HOPE THIS HELPED!

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