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08:28, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Chapter 4: Abyss.

Posted by BookNookFor group 0
Susan Black
Player, 218 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Fri 23 Aug 2019
at 04:52
  • msg #120

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Susan blinked and tears ran a trail through the blood on her face, "Will..." she grimaced. She didn't know what to say, watching him had made her feel like she was being gutted. All of the talking had made her dizzy and she lost focus for a few seconds, William's form darkening. She fought for clarity, gained a little, and shivered, "How can I fight? I feel the fight leaving me.. I want to do anything to keep you alive so that.. I'm not alone." she shivered again, "Do you want me, to do what they say?" she asked, trying to understand what his meaning was. Her head felt like it was full of throbbing barbwire.. She was so cold.
William Blake
player, 233 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Fri 23 Aug 2019
at 19:50
  • msg #121

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

"No!" He tried to scoot closer to her, his legs pressing right up against the divide. "No. That's just it. You don't have to do anything to keep me alive. You don't have to do what they want, they'll keep me alive anyway. There's no way they'll let me die, after so long of me trying to. And your fight," he said, his face and voice becoming even more intense, "Was what convinced me to keep breathing. You keep me breathing. You keep me fighting. So... you're allowed to take breaks, like right now. But.. when it counts, fight. Okay?"

He wasn't sure what he was asking. He'd never had to articulate this before. Knowing when to fight and when not to, knowing how to react with levity when they wanted fear from you. He remembered being where Susan was now; willing to do anything to make the pain stop, broken, defeated. But he had learned that nothing you did made it stop. He just wanted to bring her there, so she didn't have to learn it the hard way, like he did. But seeing her like this, covered in blood and bruises, it was making him crazy. His thoughts were bouncing faster than he could pin them down to see what they were. It was like his ADHD was back, all his mental control gone. It frustrated him, which just made it worse.
Susan Black
Player, 219 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Sat 24 Aug 2019
at 05:17
  • msg #122

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   "Okay." Susan said thickly, emotion welling up inside her. Hearing him talk about what she did for him made her heart burn, but not in a painful way. She mustered up a small smile, "I think I'm beginning to understand." she sighed and closed her eyes, the cold was driving her to distraction. She looked up at him and flinched, "I wish you could hold me, I'm so cold. Maybe I should try and rest." she whispered, closing her eye and trying to relax. It was harder than she thought.
William Blake
player, 234 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Sat 24 Aug 2019
at 06:18
  • msg #123

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

"I wish I could hold you, too." He whispered. He watched her closely, resting his forehead against the clear wall. "I'll try not to worry. After all, I know that they won't let you die, either. Because then, what would be the point?" He worked up a half-hearted chuckle, and suppressed the sudden urge to cry.
Susan Black
Player, 220 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Sun 25 Aug 2019
at 05:13
  • msg #124

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   "What would be the point.." Susan echoed, giving him a tiny half smile. She tried to think on that more, to figure out a way to outsmart the Doctor, but she just couldn't. She did not look forward to the next couple of days, and determined that she would be strong for William. She would hide her pain from him, and from Dr. Horrible as much as she could. She didn't want to give him any more satisfaction. Her breathing slowed and evened out, and she fell into a fitful sleep faster than she thought she would.
William Blake
player, 235 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Mon 26 Aug 2019
at 23:48
  • msg #125

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

"What would be the point, indeed." Dr. Horrible mused as he watched the screen with dissatisfaction.

"It's not going quite according to plan, is it?" a colleague asked.

"Something we didn't factor in," The gaunt doctor replied. "What the combination of W. Blake's previous experience and newfound motivation would create. It's... odd. A hopeful... fatalism." The doctor smirked at his oxymoron. "He's resigned, even accepting, to all that has happened and is going to happen... it seems. Yet, also determined to fight as much as possible. At least S. Black is about where she should be, mentally. Maybe we should alter the program, separate them for a time, perhaps? See what we can do to this odd state that the boy is in. At least get him and his optimism away from the girl, for now."

His colleague nodded thoughtfully. "I'll arrange a meeting. A shift in the program will require all hands on deck."

Dr. Horrible grunted, watching as W. Blake watched S. Black sleep. The instincts the patient had developed over his years here were complicating everything. Could he really have thrown them so solidly off the mark? His intelligence tests hadn't shown that high a level of cunning, and it was impossible to throw them all. Hell, a year ago he had most everyone believing he was mentally broken, one level above brain-dead. Even if it had been a sham, he had indeed been broken. The girl had helped him over that, according to plan. But now he was trying to help her out of being broken herself. It was a strange turn. An unanticipated one. His empathy for her had a chance of disrupting everything.

But... it still demonstrated their dependence on one another. That they needed each other more than ever. So the bones of the test were still viable. A few tweaks were all that was needed.
Susan Black
Player, 221 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Tue 27 Aug 2019
at 04:27
  • msg #126

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Susan tried to breathe through her nose as much as possible, in order to keep her mouth from drying out. Her attention only went so far however, and she often caught herself gasping after coming out of a dazed stupor. It must have been a day at least. Or more? Time was impossible to keep track of when she would black out for hours at a time. She couldn't move more than an inch at a time, the pain was too excruciating. Her dried blood was itchy, her swollen skin tight.

   For as long as she could, she would keep her attention focused on William. She would give small smiles, assure him that she was feeling alright. Inch by inch, she had moved a hand over to rest it against the wall where William sat. A small thing, but to feel closer to him, made her feel better.
William Blake
player, 236 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Tue 27 Aug 2019
at 05:04
  • msg #127

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

William rested both hands by where she had put her hand, his knuckles and the backs of his fingers pressed against the divide. He sat cross-legged with his knees also up against the divide, occasionally resting his forehead on the clear wall. His healing body ached. When she was asleep, he stretched and dozed. When she was awake and talking, he talked with her. He encouraged her, told her how well she was doing, told her he loved her. He tried to think of things to talk about, small, normal things. But he couldn't. He didn't remember how. His mind was too full of Susan, hurt.

When they came for him, the dam inside William finally broke. The moment he heard the door hiss open behind him, a sob forced its way out, and tears began falling. "Love you," he choked as he scrambled to his feet and turned to face the orderlies. When the two men reached for him, he slapped their hands away and made a run for the door; but he wasn't quick enough on bruised legs. He felt a hand brush the back of his shirt and miss, but another closed on his arm, pulling him up short. He twisted and pulled, but the orderly kept his grip, allowing the other to wrap his arms around William's neck in a half-nelson. They dragged him towards the door, and when he started kicking the other orderly had to grab his legs. William bucked in their arms, but they carried him away. The door hissed closed behind them.
Susan Black
Player, 222 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Tue 27 Aug 2019
at 23:24
  • msg #128

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Tears spilled from Susan's eyes as she watched, only able to hoarsely whisper his name, and that she loved him too. She cried weakly for a while, and it was silent in the rooms apart from her. Fear gripped her heart in a vice that seemed to choke her. What would they do to him? She clung to what he had told her. They wouldn't kill him. She repeated that to herself until a heavy wave of blackness covered her, eyes fluttering closed. The last thing she heard was the hiss of the door opening as they came for her.
William Blake
player, 237 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Wed 28 Aug 2019
at 04:43
  • msg #129

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

William lost some time after one of the orderlies choked him out when he wouldn't stop struggling. He woke strapped to a chair in a familiar room; the cold metal extensions on the back of the chair pressed into either side of his neck. In front of him was a plain table, and beyond that a screen mounted into the wall.

This was a testing room. He was about to be evaluated. He struggled to calm himself, but Susan kept flashing into his mind. Susan's blood. Susan's pain. He built up his walls, but his control was slipping; his breathing quickened and it was hard to hold still. The thick strap across his chest felt far too tight. He knew it was pointless to struggle, that it would only get him zapped. His skin crawled in sick anticipation.

Questions started flashing on the screen, stupid stuff like 'Strawberry is to peach like carrot is to..?' and then giving him a few options. A countdown ticked in red numbers in the top right corner.

William's brain was scrambled. What should he do? They hadn't done a test like this on him for so long, it had been one of his few triumphs. He just had to replicate what he'd done before to get them to stop. Gradually making them believe he was broken, but he probably couldn't go back to only answering yes to everything. He'd have time to think about it later. Desperately he tried to get back in his mental state from back then. Cold. Logical. Hopeless. It was far more difficult than he thought it would be.

He began giving answers, getting a few right but mostly slightly wrong. Not wrong enough for punishment. Some he honestly didn't know. Presented with a seemingly random scattering of letters and asked to say what word it was? That one earned him a painful shock when the counter ran to zero. Having to subtract 1,733 from 3,238 in five seconds? Zap. But every time he was jolted with electricity, he tried to make his answers as close to the line as possible. Wavering wildly as often as the questions allowed between mostly right and mostly wrong. Technically right or just barely wrong. The hot agony of electric shock actually helped him get where he needed to be, mentally; soon he barely needed time to consider before he instinctively gave the answer, right or wrong as he felt was appropriate. Anything to throw off their data. Anything than what he actually knew.

It seemed to go on for hours. His chest ached, his neck was burning, his eyes felt dry. His heart felt like it was laboring mightily to just beat. Beat. Beat.

'If Susie has 38 golf balls, a third of which are red and half of which are blue, are only 7 of them green?'

It was yes or no. Not much obfuscating to do. Susie... Susan. His mind tried to latch on to the distraction even as it struggled with the math. Susan... kissing him. Susan, being beaten...
"Y-yes?" Damn, he sounded uncertain. Frightened. A yelp actually escaped him when the electricity coursed through him again, when he'd been silent up til now. He was losing it. Just because he was a wobbly mass of terror inside didn't mean he could show it on the outside.

Thoughts of Susan were supposed to make him stronger! Maybe it was time to unfocus and sink into himself. He'd been shocked enough for that to be believable. He tried and 'failed' to answer the next few questions just in case, then just fell silent, shuddering, waiting for the next shock. He let himself start to be more vocal about the pain. No screaming, though. Just grunting and more yelps. He was still aware of the questions, though his vision was getting blurry. It was time to be wary of tricks. Sure enough, one question flashed for only a moment before disappearing: 'If Susan were dying and Will could save her by dying himself, would he?'

He only spasmed a little. Was Susan dying?! He tried to turn the spasm into a more relaxed sort of wiggle, like he was only adjusting to get more comfortable. He struggled to keep his face the same, not let his concern show. No. They wouldn't let her die. Pointless question. But... would he? When he believed, although it was deep and hidden and shameful, that death was the only escape? Would he let her go and stay behind, alone?

"Yes."

He wasn't even aware that he had said it out loud. The ramifications of his thoughts were too horrible to keep dwelling on, and another sob escaped. She would hate him if he did that... he would hate himself. He had been so angry at her for suggesting something similar, so horrified at the thought of being alone... He was a hypocrite. He didn't deserve her. His desperation to make her pain stop didn't justify making that kind of a decision for her.

Pointless, he told himself. Won't happen anyway. They just asked to unsettle him. But no shock came. He thought that was odd; when he was silent, he always got a shock.

***

In the observation room, Dr. Horrible's face twisted into a grin. "Gotcha," he sneered, unaware that the question on the screen wasn't the question that William had just answered.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Wed 28 Aug 2019.
Susan Black
Player, 223 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Wed 28 Aug 2019
at 05:14
  • msg #130

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Susan woke suddenly, painfully. After a moment of wildly looking around the recovery room, she settled and held her breath. She was strapped down, probably to keep her in the bed and attached to the IV in her arm. She was bandaged and clean, the swelling was down and she was no longer throbbing. She slowly let out her breath. She was alone.

   She leaned her head back against the elevated mattress and closed her eyes, her mouth silently working to form the name, William... over and over. What were they doing to him? Was the Doctor making demands of him? Lying to him? Had she been lied to? She knew that she had been tricked before. She didn't know what to believe.. She knew she believed in William. If he said that they wouldn't kill them, then he was alive. She would see him again.

   Her mind raced feverishly through those thoughts for some time, and she waited.
William Blake
player, 238 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Wed 28 Aug 2019
at 14:46
  • msg #131

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

"As you are all aware," Dr. Horrible began as he stood before his collegues, "This last battery of tests didn't go quite according to the predictions. It was intense, as desired; engendered the feelings intended, mostly, but with quite a few add-ons. Because of these... extra variables, not as much was gleaned as could have been. A slight re-work is in order."

Ideas were bounced back and forth, rejected, exhumed, considered, toyed with, shot down. Eventually they settled on a plan.

"So, final pass. For the duration of one month, the subjects will be kept apart, rotated back into the regular experiment schedule, and will receive no news of the other from any source. Make sure everyone gets the memo, people. When they ask, say nothing, give away nothing. Ignore them. The only acceptable response is mild confusion.

"The girl needs to be handled very, very carefully during this time. There's no chance they'll forget about each other, of course, but we want her to be as distracted as possible. As little time to think on him as we can manage. When we bring them back together we want it to be... jarring for her. We keep trying to break her physically, but no arduous mental tests until after that breaking point.

"As for the boy... he is being resistant to our evaluations, but he let one little thing slip. His desire to die remains in place. Buried deep under his new optimism, but still there. He admitted he would die to save the girl. Going directly against his new 'creed'. This contradiction will be instrumental in... re-breaking him."


***

When William opened his eyes, he was lying down on a cot in a large room full of cots, most of them occupied. His wrists and ankles were shackled to the thin bed frame. Two nurses were leaning over him, one male, one female. He didn't recognize either of them. His brain still felt fried from that brutal question and answer session. "Awake," one said. "Find the vein." The other leaned over and prodded at his arm. He felt a cold swab of iodine, then a pinch as an IV was inserted. They made notes on a clipboard, then moved on to the next bed.

William sat up as far as he could, craning his neck to look around himself with bleary eyes. He couldn't see Susan. Where was she? Was she alright?

His arm felt cold. He looked down at the IV, and let himself fall back. What was this? He wanted to speak out, wanted to ask, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself. He decided to bide his time. The cold spread, and William dozed, occasionally shivering. The nurses came by to check him from time to time, making notes on their clipboards. Suddenly, a few cots away, a man started screaming. Then, a minute later, the man next to him. Then the next man. All their IV bags were empty. His was on its last few drops. William closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. Whatever this was, it wouldn't kill him. Wherever Susan was, she was alive. He had a hope of seeing her again. When and where these monsters wanted, but he would see her again. Hopefully soon.

He suddenly felt like all of his skin had been torn off in one tug, like a magician yanking a tablecloth out from under glassware. William couldn't help it; he screamed right along with everyone else.
Susan Black
Player, 224 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Wed 28 Aug 2019
at 16:13
  • msg #132

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Two days must have gone by before they moved her. During that time, they had fed her, tended to her bruising body and hadn't told her anything. She could see through both eyes again, but the reflection she caught of herself in the metal bars of the bed was ghastly. She was bristling and fidgeting with worry for William and the unknowns. When they came and released her from the bed, she was stiff and it was still next to impossible to move much. An orderly on each side, her arms in their tight grips, she was marched unsteadily from the room.

   She expected to be led back to the divided room. But her trip was much shorter and she was taken into a different room. The floor and walls were lined with panels about two foot by two. She was pushed inside and the door was closed and locked. She stood for a moment in confusion, wondering where William was. A panel on the floor under her bare right floor illuminated and she only had a second before an electric shock shot up into her foot and sent searing pain through her tender body. She gasped sharply and lurched away from the panel as the light under it went out.

   Realization dawned as the new panel she was standing on lit up. She willed her broken body into action, and was quick enough to reach the wall before the buzz of the panel electrocuted her. She was panting already and moaned as the panel she was leaning against lit up. She wasn't fast enough, and choked as the shock jumped through her. She stumbled away, and almost started to cry as the panel she stood on came to light.

   She lurched, stumbled and fell in her attempts to avoid the painful shocks. But the movements where enough to make her vision darken, her body protesting to the physical demands with burning pain. Soon, she was crying out more and more. She was breathless and exhausted. When a panel under her foot, and the panel under her hand shocked her at the same time, her body stiffened and she fell. The Panels under her illuminated and she simply closed her eyes, knowing she wouldn't be able to get away. The shocks made her convulse and she screamed. They kept the voltage going for another few seconds, then it all shut off. Susan lay on the floor panting and twitching. She looked with bleary eyes to the two orderlies that came into the room. They picked her up under the arms, and dragged her out and back to the recovery bed.
William Blake
player, 240 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Mon 2 Sep 2019
at 07:22
  • msg #133

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

It felt like weeks. Experiment after experiment, just like it used to be. After a few days, he had finally broken and asked a nurse about Susan. They had just looked at him. Said nothing. He couldn't get the last image of her out of his mind; lying on the floor, covered in blood, swollen with bruises. Was she all right? He ached to hear her voice. He couldn't even be glad that he hadn't seen Dr. Horrible all this time either; surely, he would have told him something about her. Probably something bad, but at least something.

He was lying down in his room, alone. He took a slow breath in through his nose, and exhaled even slower. He felt fine. Sure, he was tired and worn out. Stressed. But physically, he was fine. Totally recovered from the beating. None of the experiments had been invasive, though most had caused pain. It was like... they were trying to get him back to normal. Pretending that none of it had ever happened.

Well, they could mess with his head all they wanted. He would never stop believing in Susan. There was no way they could convince him that he'd made her up, or that she wasn't real. She was too amazing. No way could he have imagined it. His thoughts shied away from the fear that he would never see her again; of course he would. Of course he would. He just had to stay alive.

A cold shock went through him at that thought. What if... that was what they wanted, all along? To make him fight again? To live? He groaned and rolled on his side, burying his face in his hands. No! He didn't want to think this way, but now that he had, it wouldn't leave him alone. He would see her again. He had hope. He did.

A key turned in his door lock with a loud clunk. He felt a spike of terror, like he always did when he heard that sound. He remained motionless, his face covered. The door opened, and people walked in, paused to regard him. He didn't move. He wondered if they were wary; he had tried to run from them a few times now, actually knocked one guy out once. But then they stepped forward, grabbed his arms and pulled him to his feet. They were bouncers. William kept himself relaxed, his head lowered, eyes on the ground. Their grips were tight. Not buying it.

A gurney was wheeled in by a nurse. The bouncers pushed him toward it, started lifting on his arms. He started to climb up, and when he turned to lay down one of them let go of him. He tried to jerk his arm free of the other guy and roll off the other side of the gurney to make a run for it and try to find Susan, but the bouncer held on. So he lunged back and tried to bite the bouncers giant hand, but the man grabbed a handful of his hair and stopped him cold.

He struggled, but the two bouncers and the nurse managed to get the padded leather cuffs around his ankles, then a strap across his chest, then cuff his wrists too. They even secured his head with a strap across his forehead. Finally they strapped a gag onto him by holding his nose until he almost passed out. Then they tossed a rag over his face so he couldn't see, and wheeled him out of his room.

He tried to relax during the short journey. He was wheeled into a room and the rag was taken from his face. The ceiling lights blinded him. He heard another gurney wheeled into place beside him, but he couldn't turn his head to see. His left arm was untied and pulled off to the side. He fought, but they secured it again, sticking straight out from him with his palm facing up. They did the same to the person next him, except with their right arm. He could tell because suddenly he felt the other persons fingers brush his. They reached out for him, questing. So the person beside him wasn't one of the brain-dead subjects. Was it Susan? He tried to reach for the palm and draw letters like they used to, but it was too far. He tried to do it on just the fingers, but the other person wouldn't hold still. So he held still, holding his hand flat. But no letters were drawn. The other person just felt at him, tracing his fingers with theirs.

A nurse stepped up, holding a tray of tools or something. He couldn't tell. The nurse busied for a bit, then spoke. "Subject One," he said, addressing William. "You will be handed a controller with two buttons. The right one represents Subject Two. The left one represents you. I will administer burns of increasing intensity to whichever subject you indicate. If you drop the remote, you will both receive burns. To begin, superficial burns will be applied to both of you. Then, only to whom you indicate. Do you understand?"

William remained motionless. The nurse brought something close to his face, something hot. Hot enough to make him wince even though it didn't touch him. "Understand?" William nodded. The nurse turned away. A moment later he heard a slight hiss. A gasp from Subject Two, and a muffled, high pitched scream. He could tell by the noises that Subject Two was a woman. Was it Susan?!

The fingers fluttered and tried to squeeze his, but the angle was off. Still, she trapped two of his fingers in hers and squeezed hard while she screamed. Finally it stopped, and the fingers went limp. The nurse turned back, and pressed the hot something against William's arm. He gasped, but didn't scream. He clenched his hand, and felt the barest flutters from Subject Two's fingers. Quickly the hot tool was taken away, and the pain dulled from hot agony to hot throbbing.

"Superficial burns applied." The nurse picked something up and reached across William to his right hand. "Open your hand." William did. The remote was pressed into his hand, and William's thumb guided to the buttons. "Left equals you, right equals them," he was reminded. "Choose. If you take too long, burns will be administered to both of you."

What the hell kind of experiment was this? Was it Susan? So close? He couldn't see. He tried to speak through the gag, but of course he was unintelligible. The nurse ignored it, just looking down at him expectantly.

He couldn't know. If it was Susan, and the choice was up to him, he knew what he had to do. He couldn't take the chance that it wasn't her. So he pressed the left button. A red light lit up somewhere above his head.

"Subect One. Administering first degree burn." The hot tool pressed against the inside of his arm in a different place than the first time. The nurse left it for longer. Tears started to seep from William's eyes as he fought it. Subject Two's fingers kept brushing against his clenched fist.

Breathe, William. You have to breathe through the pain. The tool lifted, and he gasped. The relief was minimal; he could still feel the heat destroying his skin. He tried to wiggle his arm, to free it, but it was clamped down tight at the wrist and just below the shoulder. He could barely move it. The two burns throbbed.

"Subject One. Choose."

Staring at the ceiling through tear-fogged eyes, William pressed the left button. The red light lit up again.

"Subject One. Administering second degree burn." Subject Two's fingers were tapping at his. Once the nurse pressed the hot tool against his skin again, he stopped feeling anything else. Pain. He left it there for an eternity. William could feel it going deeper, deeper, reaching for his very bones to scorch them. He couldn't hold still. His legs jittered, making the shackles rattle. But being so tightly secured meant that there was very little writhing he could do.

When the nurse finally took it away, William tried not to sob. He could barely tell that the hot tool was gone, the pain stayed the same. And he knew it would get worse.

"Subject One. Choose."

He didn't want to. He wanted Susan. Was that really her, next to him? There was no way to tell. Her fingers told him nothing, just fluttering and stroking. But if it was her... Shaking, William hesitated before slowly pressing the left button again.

"Subject One. Administering third degree burn." He pressed the tool against William's bicep, then just got up and left. William shouted after him, screamed into his gag for him to come back, but of course he didn't. No matter how he struggled he couldn't knock it loose. It got as bad as the second degree one, then just kept burning. Deeper and deeper into his skin, his muscle. New layers of nerves were scorched and he felt them all.  It seemed like it was all he would ever feel.

Eons passed. William's skin stopped sizzling. The nurse came back and William thought he would take the tool away, but he didn't. He just leaned over William's arm, poking and prodding, making his other burns hurt more too. William knew begging was useless. So he just kept gasping, groaning, sometimes shouting out an unintelligible swear word. His arm just kept burning.

When he finally took it away, William was actually surprised. He thought it would just be left there until it burned off his whole arm. The nurse took the remote from him. Was it over? But no. The nurse kept poking and prodding, talking out his notes aloud about severity and dermal penetration. Then he unscrewed something, and William felt cool lotion smeared onto his first, superficial burn. The stinging pain eased. The nurse watched in silence for several minutes. His worse burns called out for the same relief, and he shifted, tears still leaking from his eyes.

"Improved color." He poked at it, glancing at William. "Decreased pain response." He poked and prodded some more, going on about skin elasticity and what have you. William wanted to scream at him to get on with it. He still felt like his bicep was on fire. Slowly, the nurse applied the cool lotion to each burn, but it seemed to stop helping after a certain point. William began feeling sick to his stomach. He didn't want to vomit with a gag in his mouth, but it seemed he wasn't going to have a choice. He tried to signal to the nurse, but the man ignored him.

Bile rose powerfully, no chance of trying to force it back down, though he tried. Vomit exploded out around the edges of his gag, and his sinuses burned as it forced its way out through his nose as well. He thought his eyes were going to pop out with the pressure. The nurse watched him heave impassively, but when William started choking and suffocating on his own vomit, he sighed, then reached over and released the strap across Williams forehead. William turned his face away from the nurse so he could more easily take off the gag, and when it came free William vomited everywhere. When it was finally over and he could breathe through his mouth, he lay completely spent, arm burning, face burning, stomach churning. He slowly circled the dizzy drain of consciousness, and fought it so he could do one last thing. He laboriously turned his head and looked at the other gurney, whispering, "Susan?"

It wasn't her. She was too tall, her hair too dark. William couldn't see all of her face, but he knew that wasn't Susan's nose. All that, for a stranger. William wanted to cry, both from frustration, and paradoxically, from relief. She didn't have to lie there and listen to him burn. It was just some crazy fellow captive who took all the punishment for some unknown reason. True, he had suffered, but he would have anyway, Susan or no Susan. The nurse noticed him looking and threw the rag back over his face. With the sudden lack of visual stimulus, William's dizziness increased, and he quickly fell unconscious. It was a relief.
Susan Black
Player, 227 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Tue 3 Sep 2019
at 05:01
  • msg #134

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Feet pounding on the treadmill, heart pounding in her ears, Susan ran. The oxygen mask on her face was slick with her sweat. The monitor wrapped around her upper arm was chaffing. The other women on their own treadmills to either side of her were panting heavily, just as she was. She no longer wondered how long she had been running. Everything burned, and she knew that she would once again be run down to nothing. The adrenaline test dosage had increased, making her capable of running longer, but still causing major shut downs throughout her body.

   She allowed a short wail to escape between her gasping breaths. She wanted to see William. She wanted to feel him. She had asked about him weeks ago, when she was still healing after the beating. Not that her healing had been restful. She could never remember being so continually sore and tired. The nurse had only looked at her quizzically, and hadn't said anything about William. Then the caffeine tests had kept her awake for days. She couldn't focus, couldn't think straight. Couldn't do the math, literature, and science tests that they put in front of her. Shocking her with prods whenever her attention would wander.

   She felt a crippling pain in her abdomen that made her stumble and nearly fall. She managed to catch herself, blinking back tears from the pain. She new that if she fell before she lost consciousness, they would let her drag on the treadmill until she did faint. It had happened before.

   A nurse appeared beside her treadmill and took notes from the readout on her monitors. She blinked back more tears, a wave of shame washing over her. These short periods of shame came when she remembered that, sometimes, days would go by before she could think on William. Where had they taken him? She could only relive her last foggy memories of him being carried out by the orderlies. Every time she had asked after him, she had gotten nothing but exhaustive activities. She hadn't asked for a week. Or had it been two? Now, she only thought about him silently, praying to see him again.

   The woman to her left cried out and fell. She hit the treadmill with a loud slam that made Susan flinch. The woman wasn't unconscious, and she screamed as the tethers kept her rolling and burning on the fast track. Susan kept her gaze on the window in front of her. Four men in coats stood on the other side, clipboards in some hands, laptops in others. None of them were Dr. Horrible. They seemed to be discussing the developments, and at the moment were keenly watching the screaming woman while another nurse cataloged what had failed. Probably her liver, Susan thought. That is what it felt like to her. Like something on the right side of her stomach was twisting itself like a thorny rag. All she could think about was the burning throughout her body.

   She gasped, black spots dancing before her vision. The screaming beside her finally stopped when the woman blacked out. Susan longed for that dark oblivion. It came to her not long after, and as she fell, the last thing she felt was the burn of the track on her knees and hands.


                                                                                             *  *  *



   A few days later, Susan cracked. She had been instructed and forced to carry sixty pound bags from one end of a large room to the other. When all had been brought to one end, they made her put them back by way of electric shocks. After being prodded into moving them back for the third time, Susan had a sack on her shoulder. She couldn't see straight, couldn't walk straight. She felt a shock on her back and gasped, not even realizing that she had dropped to her knees.

   She looked up at the orderly with the prod, her glazed eyes dark. He electrocuted her again and she convulsed, dropping the sack and falling onto her side. "No, no, no, no, no.." she mumbled, putting her shaking hands over her ears and pinching her eyes shut. Even that position was too difficult to hold for more than a few seconds. She was delirious. Only a tiny bit of her mind felt calm, and all it could say was, 'You're broken.'

   She thrashed under another breath stealing shock and lay on her back. She couldn't stop the shaking, couldn't stop the gasping, couldn't stop the crying. She realized that she was sobbing. The cries were racking her body and all she could think was, 'Broken..' When she felt, deep down, that she wanted to think about someone... Someone that brought her comfort, not pain. He had dark hair.. Broad shoulders. Susan shuddered and couldn't stop sobbing. How desperately she wanted to focus on that person, on him. "No, no, no, no." she blubbered, her eyes rolling as somebody picked her up and carried her from the room. His name flashed through that small, calm part of her brain, 'William,' and she sighed, her head lolling from side to side as she was carried down the hallway.
William Blake
player, 242 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Tue 3 Sep 2019
at 21:54
  • msg #135

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

Was it worth it to keep fighting? Susan wasn't around. Should he keep trying to run, trying to make them work for everything they got from him? It was so exhausting... the punishments were excruciating... but he had to. Susan probably was. It was a way for him to feel close to her. He had fought until a blow to the head dazed him. He woke to find himself back in the evaluation room. He groaned. This was, what? The fifth or sixth time? The electrodes pressed coldly into the sore spots on either side of his neck.

What had he done last time? He had... babbled. After only a few shocks he had pretended to go into a frantic panic. He had answered the questions as quickly as he could, just jabbering out one of the options or giving a random answer that sounded viable to anything else. When he had been shocked, he let himself scream.

Today? Perhaps he would be silent. Perhaps he would answer only a certain type of question. He wasn't sure. He waited for the test to begin so he could make a decision. The first question flashed up onto the screen, the red countdown to pain beside it. The sentence started with a W. Probably most of them would. He decided he wouldn't answer questions that started with a W. He giggled. When he didn't give an answer, he was shocked. He forced out another giggle. Let them figure that behavior out.

The bandages on his arm itched. The burns were still healing. He checked if the next question started with a W. It did, so he ignored it, letting his gaze wander around the bare room. He pretended Susan was there, giving him fiery encouragement the way she used to. He pretended she told a joke, and he laughed until the shock cut it off sharply. The next question was 'Does red and blue make purple?' He answered as alertly and clearly as he could. "Yes." The question disappeared and he wasn't shocked. And so it went on.

Until once, when he glanced to check the first letter, an image flashed on the screen for less than a second. It shocked him to his core.

Susan, on her side, curled into a fetal position, hands over her ears, eyes closed, pain in every line of her body. It was there and gone so quickly, but it threw off his strategy. What question was this? It didn't start with a W. He had to answer. But he couldn't focus. The question just echoed in his head, the words sounding strange and foreign. He couldn't comprehend them. So he just said "No," as strongly as he could. He must have gotten lucky. No shock came. The next question started with a W so he took a moment to process.

Susan was out there, alone. Fighting alone. Was she thinking of him? Was she staying strong? He tried not to worry; it wouldn't help anyone. But there was lump in his throat. She had felt so fragile the last time he'd been with her... a shock stiffened his body, and he laughed, the sound crackly from his sore throat.

The next question. He glanced up, and the image of Susan flashed again. Concentrate on the question. It didn't start with W. It said, 'A three letter word, when put in front of the following words, makes a new word. Name the word. FUSE, CLAIM, DUCT, CREATE, FIT, FOUND, LONG.'

Oh no. He had such a hard time with these ones. He pursed his lips and stared at the list. He narrowed his focus to the first two. If he could figure those out, the rest should fall in place. Words buzzed through his head, trying not to get derailed by the name Susan. Ah, he got lucky again. It came to him quickly.

"Pro." No shock. He didn't want to think about some of those words.

The next several questions started with W. His mind wandered between shocks. He giggled and laughed at every odd thought. But when he happened to look up once, the image of Susan was back. But it moved. An electric prod jabbed her in the back and she convulsed. His body stiffened, his mouth opened, he was about to call out to her... but stopped himself. The clip ended and disappeared, replaced by a question that started with W. He couldn't make himself laugh. But he had to keep up appearances. He knew it was important.

Should he give in to the rage? At least a little. Just to clear his head. The next giggle he made sounded more sinister than anything else. He hoped it was enough. He hated them. He hated them so much... no. He couldn't get into that now. He had to concentrate.

He got through the rest of the test without breaking his facade again. They dragged him back to his room. Dropped him on the floor. He crawled into bed, and wept.
Susan Black
Player, 228 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Wed 4 Sep 2019
at 03:09
  • msg #136

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   At first, Susan thought they had weighed her body down with heavy irons. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she wasn't even tied down. Only one orderly stood behind her, muscled arms folded. She was sitting in an examination chair, sensors and electrodes attached to her head, neck, back and arms. Why was everything so murky? She knew they hadn't let her sleep merely doze in a half conscious state. She was so sore, after her muscles were torn over and over with no real rest period, she wondered if she would ever feel good in her own skin again. Staying in her chair took most of her concentration. She closed her eyes tightly and opened them again, her memory crashing back, bringing with them a shake that was strongest between her shoulder blades. She couldn't make it stop.

   She closed her eyes and kept them closed, refusing to look at the screen before her. She shook so violently that her teeth clacked, and she solidly clenched them together. Focus! She thought harshly, attempting to piece together the image of William in her minds eye.

  A small zap, not enough to hurt, jolted her and she opened her eyes. The screen before her had a picture of a woman and the question; Is this person: Sad, happy, confused, or angry?

   Susan said nothing, she didn't want to. Her fear of being broken was physically crippling. After she was carried out of the room with the heavy sacks, she had cried, screamed and shut down. She hoped that the small, quiet part of her mind was her own. She hoped that it meant that she was still in control of herself. That she wasn't letting William down. The lump that came to her throat at the thought hurt. She imagined she heard his voice, echoing through the raging chaos that was the rest of her mind..

   Electric pain lanced through her exhausted body and she nearly fell over, gasping. She laboriously reached up to grab hold of the sides of the desk before her, "No." she said forcefully, thinking that if her body couldn't fight anymore, she had a voice. William would want her to fight. To fight now. A lancing stab of fear chilled her, could she still fight? Was he there to fight for?

   The image of an old woman came up. Is this person: Healthy or sick?

   What kind of questions were these? She waited, watching the timer count down. When it ran out, she was electrocuted and it made her want to cry. It hurt so much. "No!" Susan shouted. She couldn't think of anything else to say. It felt that, right now, the word 'no' was an encapsulation of everything she was, and a denial of where she was. Everything was wrong!

   The image of a dark haired man appeared. Susan sat up a fraction straighter, blinking when she confirmed that it wasn't William. It looked a lot like him though. She looked down at the question; Is this person: Alive or dead?

   Susan's mouth dropped open, and before she could fully comprehend what she had seen, the screen flickered and presented a different person, and a different question. It was her own picture.. She couldn't keep her gaze from looking at the words at the bottom. Is this person: Alone?

   Susan drew in a deep breath and started screaming. She screamed like she was being ripped apart, because screaming was easier than thinking. She gripped the desk and screamed through the electric shock, tears clinging to her lashes. She reached up and began tearing the sensors from her body, the orderly behind her stepped over and easily restrained her, pinning her weak arms to her sides. She kept screaming, and focused on the noise she was making. She didn't want to think about anything, and the noise was her own distraction.

   Two more questions came and went while she shrieked. A desperate defense, but it was still easier to scream than to think about how much she was hurting. A nurse came in, removed the sensors, and the orderly bundled Susan out of the room while she screamed.
William Blake
player, 243 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Wed 4 Sep 2019
at 05:17
  • msg #137

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

William sat and tried to be tranquil. Legs crossed, hands relaxed and open in his lap. Eyes closed. Head bowed.

He had to re-adjust. Things around him were changing. There were aspects to some of these tests and experiments that he had to be prepared for. Things involving Susan.

He carefully controlled his breathing. It wasn't hard to remember how to do this. He could almost hear his mother's voice, guiding him through, relaxing him. The difference was, now he could sit still. Now, he could concentrate, focus, hear nothing in his mind but white noise.

Re-adjust. Re-center. Susan. She was his center. Thinking of her made his heart go all shivery and achy, made his throat constrict with fear. He remembered the first time she kissed him. The first time she made him angry. He remembered how she had saved him when he had broken. He had to be ready. Ready to save her.

The clip of her they had shown him tried to play in his mind. No. He saw it. He knew. They were hurting her. She was going to need him.

He wanted to keep crying. He had cried most of the night. It just hurt so badly, knowing that she was somewhere, alone, hurting. Suffering.

Thinking of his mother made him think of his father. How badly he had wanted to make things like his father did. To write. Most of the little schooling his parents had given him centered around literature. And he had loved music. He had gone so long without it. But being back in his old cell; seeing the lyrics carved into the wall had brought a lot of it back. Songs he had memorized. Poems, soliloquies. Maybe now...

His eyes flew open at the thought. He could sit still now. Maybe he could write something. Something for Susan. He bowed his head again, thinking. Yes. A poem or a song. Something.

And just like that, words flowed. They came haltingly, cautiously, but they came. Drawn from all he knew, all he felt. All that Susan had reawakened in him.

He needed to write.

Ripping at the bandage on his arm, he uncovered one of his burns. Barely wincing, he tore at the scab. Blood welled onto his fingers. He stood and reached out for the wall, and hesitated. This was only for Susan. She would be the first to know it. In code, then.

William smeared his blood in symbols that he attached phrases to in his mind. Sometimes he spat on his other hand and removed a symbol, or moved it to a new place. His head felt hot, and he worked feverishly, the only sound his own breathing and the slow drip, drip, drip of blood from his fingers.

He had a strange sense of deja vu. He had strong flashbacks to kneeling beside the cinderblocks in his old cell, fourteen years old, frantically scratching with the stub of a screw until his fingers cramped. He kept it sharpened on the metal toilet. He dug and carved and tore at those walls, but only deep enough for words, important words. When they had broken him, he had used that screw to slit his wrists. The scars were faded, almost gone, just dark lines among many on his body.

He had to tell her. How she had saved him. How he loved her, forever.
Susan Black
Player, 229 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Wed 4 Sep 2019
at 22:31
  • msg #138

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Susan was finally given time to sleep. It couldn't have been more than a few hours, but curling up on her bed and falling asleep as soon as she had closed her tired eyes had felt blissful. William had walked through her foggy dreams, smiling at her and reaching for her. As hard and as fast as she had run, she couldn't catch him.

   "Wake up!" a voice shouted. Susan came awake abruptly and opened her eyes with heavy foreboding. She was dragged from her bed and roughly set on her feet. She swayed, feeling little rested after her short sleep. A rotund examiner with glasses as round as his belly came into focus before her. His nurse stood behind him with her laptop on a small portable desk. The orderly behind her tightened his grip on the back of her neck in warning.

   His examination began. He checked her eyes, ears, mouth, lungs, and heart. All the while dictating notes to the nurse, "Decreased vision by .2%, still some bruising. Hearing is fine. Schedule a dental checkup. Lungs are strong." He listened to her heart for a long time, his eyes closing and his head nodding slightly. He leaned back with a trademark doctor sigh, "Weakened heart. Some murmuring." The nurse set a scale on the ground and Susan was placed on it, getting a pinch from her orderly to stand still. She looked down at the display and gulped. She had dropped to a dangerously low weight, it frightened her. William wasn't around, and now her body couldn't be relied on.

   These men of science... Susan's thought trailed off and she paused to think for a moment. William's words came back to her, 'Maybe it's not how you should fight.' But what would William do? She let herself wander down that path for a while.

   Picking her up from the scale and sitting her on the bed, the orderly resumed his position beside her. The doctor checked her reflexes, and didn't have a positive response. He turned to the nurse as he was finishing up, "If the scheduled tests proceed as planned, the subject will most likely suffer permanent damage. Be sure to pass that along." he said offhandedly.

   Susan raised her head slowly, her voice low and rough, "Did you hear that?" she asked. She hadn't heard anything, but the nurse and doctor turned back to look at her quizzically, stopping what they were doing to listen.

   She paused, enjoying what she knew would be a fleeting moment of power. Cocking her head to the side, she raised her eyebrows, "Ah. It's just your bullshit!" she shouted, fighting weakly against the orderly in an effort to stand up. The doctor and nurse winced against her sudden yell, and moved toward the door with a tightness in their shoulders that betrayed their annoyance to Susan. She couldn't stand up past the orderly, but kept shouting, "What a performance! You're all liars!"

   The orderly put a finger to his ear, paused while he received instruction, and nodded, "Punishment." he said, wrapping a hand around her throat. It surprised Susan so much that she gasped, panic seized as her air was cut off. She reached for his hand and tried to pry his fingers away, to no avail. He turned her by the neck and forcefully lowered her to the bed, deflecting her wild kicks with his other hand. Susan choked and struggled, she could feel the cold darkness closing in on her. Agony, fighting to draw breath, her lungs bucking in pain. Was he going to kill her?! She scratched his hand and arm, drawing blood. Tears ran into her hair as she closed her eyes, her lips turned blue and her writhing body jerked weakly this way and that. Eyes rolling back, her mouth open in desperation for air, she shuddered and slowly fell still.

   William's face fluttered in her mind the second before the darkness swept her away.


   In the room, the orderly waited a moment after she went still before releasing her bruised throat. The fat doctor returned and checked her, nodding to his nurse. They set a brace around her neck while the orderly secured her wrists and ankles to the bed. Assuring themselves of her condition, they left her there, wheezing in tiny breaths.
William Blake
player, 244 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Fri 13 Sep 2019
at 19:14
  • msg #139

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

William sat on the battered metal chair in his room, strapped in a straitjacket. His ankles were secured to the chair. He stared at the symbols he had dabbed and smeared all across one grimy white wall. Sometimes his lips twitched with a mouthed word or two.
There was a doctor in the room with him, but William was completely ignoring him, his voice a dull buzzing. He was asking why, what they meant, what he was thinking. William didn't answer. His mind was too full of words.

Words for Susan, and no one else. They started hurting him to try and make him answer. He was silent. They zapped him. Struck him. They covered his mouth and nose and nearly suffocated him, but still he said nothing. Not even when they produced that hot tool that had burned him before, and threatened his feet with it.

What felt like hours later, the words were still safe in his head, but he had to concentrate everything he had left to not speak them aloud. He waited for more pain, but nothing came. Finally he brought enough of his wits together to look around the room. The orderlies were gone, there was just a single doctor left, standing silently in front of him. He made himself look up at them.

It was Dr. Horrible. Cold terror flashed through him, and he dropped his head to hide it. He saw bloodstains on the front of the straitjacket. Saw the angry red burns in neat lines across the tops of his feet. He let himself start to get angry. He had to defend against this man.

"It's simple to see that you are planning something with all this." The doctor waved at the symbols on the wall. "We just want to know exactly what. Tell me."

"Take me to Susan." William spoke in a thick whisper. "I'll tell you if you take me to her."

Dr. Horrible was silent. He stepped closer, then moved his shoe to William's feet, pressing down on the burns. William hissed in a breath. "Susan," he demanded on the exhale.

"Who?" Dr. Horrible asked, slowly starting to twist his shoe back and forth, pressing down with more of his weight.

William controlled his breathing, fighting mightily to keep his eyes clear of tears. He would not tell him, especially not him. "You... know my demands. Hurt me all you want. I. Won't. Talk." As he spoke, he lifted his head to stare into the doctors eyes. He made himself keep eye contact while the spiteful man ground down harder on his foot. Finally, with one last savage twist, Dr. Horrible stepped away. William kept staring at him, the urge to look down at his feet almost overpowering him. But he fought it.

"Hmm." The doctor stepped around him and left the room. William sat alone for several minutes before nurses and orderlies arrived. They cleaned and bandaged his wounds, then untied his ankles and made him stand. He was too weary to fight back, until he saw an orderly step up to the wall with a bucket and sponge. The man waggled the sponge at him.

"Last chance," he said. William looked at the symbols. He had it all in his head. They could erase it and it would still be in his mind. So William started laughing. He laughed as they wiped away the blood. He laughed as they strapped him down to his bed. He laughed as long as he could after they left him alone with his bruises and burns, and he knew that he would see Susan again very soon.
Susan Black
Player, 230 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Sun 15 Sep 2019
at 00:06
  • msg #140

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Susan was outright crying now. Two orderlies had been battering her around all day, switching with another team when they got tired. They hadn't been beating her exactly, a few punches here and there. She'd been slapped, kicked, shaken and jostled between them for hours and hours. She was utterly exhausted, they wouldn't let her sit or lay down. She felt like she had been ripped in two. A big, ugly tear between her mind and her sanity. No neat lines drawn or boxes to put herself in. It was chaos, it was raw, and it was red.

   She stumbled and fell while sniffling and trying to wipe her face with her hand. A shoving kick hit her thigh and she rolled onto her side. She wasn't exactly sure what she was saying, but she felt her mouth moving and was aware of her own voice being heard. Was she telling them to stop? Or was it nonsense? She looked up at the man as he stomped at her and raised a threatening fist. Susan flinched back in terror and covered her head with an arm, screaming, "Please!" Wow. A word.

   He grabbed her defending arm and moved it before slapping her soundly across the face. Her crying resumed amidst the stinging. She was dragged to her feet and forced to walk from the room without preamble. Confusion mingled with relief romped through her mind, "I've already been to the dentist." she mumbled while they took a turn. She was stopped before a door that she recognized and her hopes lifted. It was her room. They brought her inside and deposited her on the bed. Then they left.

   The moment of shocked silence broke when Susan noticed a plastic cup of water beside the bed. She snatched it up and gulped it down without a second thought. Replacing the cup, she laid down on the bed and closed her eyes. She only wanted one thing.. She paused, no. Two things. One: To see William. How his image had remained intact in her minds eye was beyond her, and she didn't care to ask. She wondered where he was. Maybe if she found him, he could fix her. She sighed, knowing she had told herself that so many times, and wondering if she believed it still. She wrapped her arms around herself as the familiar pain in her chest whenever she thought of him stung her painfully. Two: To sleep. So she focused, and refocused on William's image as she fell asleep.

                                                                                             *   *   *

   Her awakening was rude, as always, and Susan rubbed her eyes. The raw tear inside her seemed to howl in displeasure at being denied more rest and she kicked angrily at the orderlies that had begun to drag her from the bed. One raised a fist in warning and Susan couldn't stop herself from flinching back. She stopped kicking and dejectedly walked from the room, leaning heavily on the orderlies, "Where are we going?" she asked flatly, directing her question to the faded floor tiles beneath her feet.
William Blake
player, 245 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Sun 15 Sep 2019
at 04:27
  • msg #141

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

The orderlies didn't answer, just kept walking. They marched her through corridor after corridor, and after a few minutes Susan heard more footsteps fall in place behind her. Occasionally the footsteps fell out of rhythm, and she heard slight scuffling or a grunt. But they always caught up to her again, keeping pace behind her and her escorts.
Susan Black
Player, 231 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Sun 15 Sep 2019
at 05:59
  • msg #142

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

      Susan tried to look over her shoulder, curiosity guiding her movement. The vigilant orderly's hand shot out like lightning to slap her, and she gasped in surprise more than pain. He gripped the back of her neck and bent her head forward, throwing off her gait and making her footfalls heavy and uneven. Her mind raged in it's crushing disorder and she desperately tried to catch and piece together the question that made her stomach clench into knots. If they didn't want her to see who it was, was it William?

   She had to know. Were they just tricking her? She shivered at the thought. How could she dare to raise her hopes so high? She had been tricked so many times before. The  gaping tear inside her thrashed as she was moved along. Now she was too scared to look. If it wasn't him... she worried that she would loose the weak grasp she had on sanity and waste away completely. She felt like such a coward.

   She waited in terrified and shameful silence until they stopped her in front of a door and began to open it. She tried to peek over her shoulder again, and got a peripheral glimpse of the persons behind her.
William Blake
player, 246 posts
No escape but death.
They won't let me.
Sun 15 Sep 2019
at 08:07
  • msg #143

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

It was William. She glimpsed his unmistakable shoulders and shaggy hair; and the black blindfold covering his eyes. He couldn't see her, and stood between two orderlies with a grimace on his lips.
Susan Black
Player, 232 posts
Escape is the plan.
Revenge is the goal.
Mon 16 Sep 2019
at 03:32
  • msg #144

Re: Chapter 4: Abyss

   Many things happened at once for Susan. Her mouth opened to scream, tears stung her eyes, and her chest burst into searing flame. "Wi-!" The orderly had finished opening the door and had seen her, clamping his hand over her mouth and turning her shout into muffled nonsense. She screamed into his hand and lurched in their arms, the shot of adrenaline that burst through her fueling her fight. She shook her head, wrenched her arms, and stomped her feet. All while they dragged her through the door and into the room.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:36, Mon 16 Sept 2019.
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