Desired Life

Chapter 15: Piece by Piece

Chapter 15: Piece by Piece

When I come back to, I find myself lying inside a room.
I twist around, facing a glass door and the wall beside it. Right in the middle of the wall, a window is positioned in a way that I can look clearly through it at everything that's happening on the outside.
I push myself up from the floor and clumsily support my still-asleep body against the wall behind me as I stare through the window. Somehow, I seem to find this place familiar. I stare around and notice a wooden table far away with someone small strapped to it.
Who might it be?
I am not able to see clearly, so I decide to keep looking around the place. I try opening the door, but as soon as I touch the doorknob, a jolt of electricity runs through my arm, cramping it up.
"Ouch," I mutter, pulling my arm away from it.
I try teleporting away from this room, but something keeps me anchored to this place. I look around a second time, glancing out of the window.
A chill runs down my spine as I recognize the place. It's the same place where I found myself in Comayagua. The penitentiary.

I sit on the floor, and after nearly an hour later, someone enters the room. I stand up and walk to the window, trying to find out who entered the room. As soon as my eyes lie on him, my mind links the events.
Our raid on the Corporeal Hybrids; Paula; my friends; Grindel taking them away; me trying to leave and being hit hard, fainting. It all makes sense now. As soon as Grindel took off with my friends, I was planning on leaving as well, but Narcissus abducted me.
So here I am now, waiting to be possibly tortured by the Hybrids.
I stare into Narcissus' eyes, catching his coldness in them. It makes my blood boil, sending a wave of rage roiling inside me. I raise my hands and hit the glass with my open hands, letting them stay there.
Narcissus smiles coldly and then awakens the shape that lies over the wooden table. As soon as the shape sits properly -unstrapped now- I feel my heart nearly give away.
I am looking straight at my lovely little brother, Joseph.

I gasp and cover my mouth with both my hands. I feel my eyes water and tears start trickling down my face.
"John?" His voice sounds sleepy and somewhat hopeful that I'm here, but it only makes my heart falter.
I stare straight at Narcissus.
"What is he doing here?" I ask, trying to keep my voice stable, yet it still breaks a bit.
"You betrayed us, John," Narcissus replies.
"You lied to me," I say. "You told me that you wouldn't hurt my friends. And what did you do? You erased my memory and sent me with a group to kill my friends. Now, my best friend is dead and there's no way to bring him back to life."
"You killed one of us. I think that's fair," Narcissus answers.
I slam my hands against the window again and shout, "No, it isn't! You had me thinking that I could trust one of my best friends, and he turned out to be the one who basically killed every Outsider that has died at the moment!"
"You have killed a lot more of us than we have killed Outsiders," Narcissus replies.
"Fuck you!" I scream. "What do you want you to with my brother?!"
He sighs and says, "I was hoping a more polite and efficient discussion. But apparently, that isn't possible. Therefore, I will proceed now. No interruptions."
I hear the sound of my room click off and I am left here to no avail.
"By the way," Narcissus informs, clicking the sound on again, "your brother already knows that you're here, so don't be surprised if you hear him screaming your name." I hear the sound click off again.
"What do you mean by screaming my name?" I question. "Narcissus, answer me now! Narcissus!" I keep shouting, trying to make him come over, but he seems to be ignoring me.
Someone else enters the room with something sharp and hideous in his hand: a butcher knife. He walks over to where my brother lies now, strapped again to the wooden table. Realization dawns on me as I watch the man bring the knife down to my brother's hands. With this, I die a little more inside.

"John!" my brother shouts for the third time.
Blood is pouring out of his wounds. The butcher starts slowly taking off Joseph's skin as he wails. Tears run down my face as I pace around the room trying to figure a way out. I try to force the door with my body, and it fails.
I charge some telekinetic energy, ready to shoot it straight at the door, but just as I am about to release it, the entire room comes alive with electricity. It runs through my whole body as I scream a pained scream. I exhale and inhale sharply.
Don't give up. You have to do this for your brother.
I try again.
Electricity runs through my body again, intensifying the lingering feeling of the electric energy. I keep trying and keep getting attacked with electricity discharges. It hurts my every muscle and bone, but I need to save Joseph.
I can still hear my brother screaming my name fiercely, each time louder and louder. I see blood pooling around him. I try to feed off of this, but as soon as I try to use my powers, another wave of electricity runs down through my body.
My body is getting weak as each discharge is made. Soon, I am on my knees, glaring at where Narcissus would be right now.
I try to stand up and start charging telekinetic power, but then another wave of electricity is used against me.
I fall to the floor definitely this time. I stare at the door and try charging power, but my mind no longer works. It's just a frantic jumble trying to get out of this room and getting my brother out, even if I die in the process. But I am too weak to even try.
I stare at the door. I am listening to my brother screaming my name. I look helplessly at the window on top of me as a tear slides down my cheek. And soon, the shouts simply stop.
He's dead, John. He's dead.
I feel as if I've been torn apart, piece by piece, ever so slowly. My resolution to stay strong breaks apart and I break into a helpless, crying, heap of mutilated humanity.

I am being chased by five monsters. Two of them frighteningly resemble my parents, the other two Dean and Hansel, and then the other smaller monster is Joseph. I run away from them as hard as I can. I don't want to see them. I don't want to face them. They are dead and there's nothing I can do. And still, somehow, they are chasing me, waiting to kill me in the most sadistic way possible.
I turn around a corner and find myself standing in front of them. Little monster Joseph opens his mouth and all of a sudden, I'm spinning in a black void.

I wake up with a start.
I look around the room as I force my senses to awaken. My mind reconnects as every memory flows back to my brain.
Joseph is dead.
I stand up and look out the window. Blood still bathes the wooden table, but there is no longer a body there.
I jump as I find myself staring straight at Narcissus. But it only takes a while, because then I growl at him and slam my hands into the glass in front of me.
Narcissus seems to be taken aback, because he jumps a little bit, quickly recovering himself in a manner as to not let me see his fright.
"Do you want me to keep up with what happened today?" Narcissus asks.
With this simple question, everything goes down to havoc and chaos. I start cursing and hitting the glass in front of me, spilling everything that has been in my thoughts ever since I first met the Hybrids.
Narcissus stares back at me with a face of boredom as he yawns and covers his mouth to signal that he doesn't care what I'm saying.
"Do you want me to keep up with what happened today?" Narcissus repeats, taking a threatening tone this time.
"No," I mutter.
"Then it would be convenient for you if you shut your mouth and listened," Narcissus replies coldly. After a while, he sighs and continues, "It is my pleasure to announce that now it's your turn to die. We can't just let you run around anymore. But first, thanks to your acts, it is confirmed that we will not rest until every Outsider is dead."
Narcissus looks at me and smiles.
"After everything you've done, we haven't responded to our fullest. But now..." He chuckles and then keeps talking, "you'll get war."
"If it is war what you want, then it is war what you'll get," I mutter, pronouncing every word with intensity.
Just at that moment, the room blows up and dust billows around the room, blinding me for an instant.
I hear a soft click, and when I turn to look around the room, I notice that the door is slightly open. I run out of the room and try to make my way out through all the dust and smoke inside the building.