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Shade didn’t realise she was digging her nails into her head until she felt the flowing release of blood pool on her scalp . Forming a shallow pond of murky liquid in the now cavity of skin.
This was how she often found herself after “treatments”, wondering how long it had been since she was awake (or conscious) She grabbed her shirt and gave it a gentle tug straightening the creases and giving her hands some occupation apart from her now painful head .
Shade closed her eyes tight and breathed deeply . More grounded and aware shade took in her surrounds . She was in her room , or what they called her room . In reality it was more of a containment cell with padded yet reinforced white walls and the simple furnishings of a single bed and small chests of drawers firmly screwed into the wall to prevent wrongful use.
The floor was made of simple white squares of unspecific material with the exception of a lone black square in the back centre of the room and a small metal drain in the back corner
Shade was pulled out of her observations by the sound of high heels clacking on the polished corridors just outside of her door.
.
Hello 9 “ says a lady in white , wearing a sleek lab coat with a tail coat esk design. The acknowledgment was left unanswered as she walks closer to the girl sitting crawled up against the wall . Her head facing down in an almost bowing position. She kneels down gracefully next the small child trying to be swift yet gentle as to not scare her . Not much does though, she supposes.
The child stays silent as she brings out a small device , its shape similar to that of a pen . “Just some routine blood work “ nothing to worry about” she says as she lift the child’s hand and gives her right index finger a small prick with the device . The girl gives a small hum in response as the device let out a quiet beep. The woman packs up the small about of equipment she brought in and stood up stopping herself from leaving jsut yet to take a real look at the girl.
She’s small, not small like a kid, small like a stray cat who had been forgotten and left to rot .small in an unhealthy way , it was obvious by her protruding collar bones and sunken cheeks .she tried to recall hearing the girl actually speak not just in grunts or whimpers and pain but real human words .. She couldn’t recall.
.
It was late in the day , shade would out her best guess on early evening, when the door opened to a familiar woman entering the room her hands holding a worn yet usable pack of cards . The woman, whose name shade was still unaware of, sat down with her legs crossed placing the cards deliberately into three piles in the centre of the room with herself slightly off to the right .
Shade slowly shuffled over matching the woman’s position on the other side of the cards , reaching out to pick up the pile closest. The woman sat still simply observing as if to ensure shade wouldn’t crack under the tension of the interaction before slowly picking up her cards and placing one down in front of the centre pile.
The game steadily picked up pace from then on until both players were acting much more relaxed than before. For a second the woman hesitated holding one of her cards in Her left hand and the rest in her right. Shade looked up with a calm surprise looking into the woman’s eyes ;her face was full of deliberation , her mouth opening just wide enough to let out a slim change of hope only for it to snap shut like the unsaid words would materialise and form daggers if unleashed.
After a few more rounds of playing cards in awkward silence with the tension basically boiling and bubbling over the woman sighed and put her cards Down still gripping them from above . “Are you… are you happy?” She settled on, seemingly having gone over the question in her head . Shade blinked . She looked down at her hands then slightly off to the side. Am I happy? After a brief silence the question was met with an unsettling answer. “ I’m not anything at all.”
The woman left seeing that the girl wasn’t going to proceed with any other interactions and as she did shade looked up . The ceiling was made of polished white tiles; squares which could be split into squares, which could be split into squares , into squares, into squares. An endless pattern to match the endless routine she had fallen into .hell she didn’t even know what day it was! Nevermind the Month or year.
She was lost, trapped in the white walls of this infernal room . She looked down at her hands barely recognising them as hers anymore and let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding in. Happy. She wasn’t happy , she wasn’t anything at all .
.
It was just a normal day for shade , according to her counting and surprising strength she was due for treatment soon. She’d always hated the “treatments “ . The way the doctors doing them said they were “helping” her. Stabbing her with Vials of glowing liquid. It was a poison, at least to her it was, reacting with the Same substance they had put into her when she was young.
She knew it was just to control her; make sure her power never grew , keeping her weak without eliminating her entirely. No they couldn’t do that , they needed her to study , otherwise there would have been no point in this entire operation. There’d be no point in her.
Deciding not to fall down that rabbit hole today shade took to counting . It was an odd habit of hers . Sometimes she’d get to a hundred before being interrupted by a person or another thought , other times she’d reach half a million before losing count or passing out from exhaustion.
“Two thousand twenty seven, two thousand twenty eight, two thousand twenty ni-“ An explosion sounded from outside shade’s room. Before she could begin to stand another explosion went off , swiftly followed by the sound of a blaring alarm forcing her to immediately cover her ears with her hands . The door to her room was now open as shade carefully stood at the doors entrance checking for guards or other people . After finding none she flew down the corridor ,running as fast as her debilitated legs would carry her.
She ran around yet another corner only to be met with a stare down from what looked like an un-branded swat agent. The seconds of eye contact felt like eternity as shade felt her heart racing under her skin. Her breath was hitching when the man broke the silence and shouted “ hey! What are you-“
Shade ran. Bolting back and Turing down a different corridor . She didn’t know where to run , she didn’t even know where she was trying to go until shade stopped in front of a door with a green exit door sign fixed above it . Finally ,this was it; she would be free, she could go where she wanted to without being escorted and tortured and hurt. She was free.
The door led to an old and wooden staircase. It wasn’t the outside world just yet but it wasn’t that same white tiling she had seen nothing but for who knows how long and that in of itself almost brought a tear to shade’s eyes. The staircase soon ended and was completed by a much older and more disused door with an old copper handle. The feeling of Turing that handling and walking out of that door and into the real world was something out of a dream.
The world was bright and overwhelming to her senses . After the initial shock faded shade found herself walking on rough earthy ground. The world around her was sandy and orange with sparse vegetation and scuttling insects hiding in the bushes.
Shade made it only a small few minutes of walking before an enormous explosion sounded behind her rocking the earth beneath her bare feet . The sound of it was deafening and a piercing ringings noise burrowed in shade’s ears ,refusing to give even a small out of hearing away.
The force of the explosion pushed shade to the ground confused and dazed with sounds of screams and miscommunication slowly creeping into her senses. Gunfire broke out which only increased the screams and why was the screaming so loud ? it’s so loud it’s loud too loud… what was the brown liquid on her leg?
Her leg was in pain , lots of pain. but she couldn’t feel it , she couldn’t feel anything ,just a desperate need to escape to run to get away. She started to crawl , using her elbows to propel herself forward. Slowly making it further away but was she really getting away or just laying in place ? Shade could feel herself falling further down into unconsciousness. Her exhaustion finally seeping in.
She was spent,more than Normal , her body not used to such strenuous activity after years of restricted movement. She reached her hand out . Not touching anything, just hoping for something to happen , with all her willpower just.. hoping. Shade sat there for one second maybe two , time had no meaning in the moment. A large circle of light opened in front of shades eyes glowing and swirling , beckoning to her . Safety, hope, refuge. Shade closed her eyes and moved.