Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 17 - Old Acquaintances

A fuzzy and lethargic mist seemed to have hooked itself to Keira's brain. The gentle sound of an occasional waterdrop falling to the ground caused her face to scrunch up in pain as she fought to remain conscious. But the pounding in her head was too overwhelming, making it difficult to focus, and the black void overtook her once again.

The next time sound invaded her senses, the pounding in her head had lessened. But the fuzzy feeling in her head was still there, hovering around her brain and making it difficult to think. Carefully, without opening her eyes, she used her other senses to try and feel her way through her body, to feel the injuries one by one.

To her relief, it didn't seem like she had any open wounds, although her body hurt like a bitch. It felt like every inch of her skin was bruised, making her sore to the very touch of air. But why was she so sore? What had happened?

Trying to think back, she was met by nothingness. Her memory was like a blank piece of paper, as though her memories had been erased from the page. Food is good for energy, and maybe that's what she needed to kickstart her brain into remembering? She rolled to her side, only to realize that she couldn't.

Her eyes snapped open in panic, but she closed them again immediately. A bright white flickering light almost blinded her. Despite the constricting feeling creeping up in her throat, she did her best to keep her breathing slow, counting her breaths. Why the hell was she being restrained?

Then, all of a sudden, it all came rushing back to her. The beautiful jaguar. The mission. The ancient temple. And last, but not least, getting struck by an arrow.

Her throat tightened involuntarily, causing her to gasp for breath as the overwhelming wave of memories threatened to drown her. They flashed across her closed eyelids, making it impossible to focus on anything else. She just needed to ride it out, let it take its time.

After a while, the wave settled down, like all her memories had been sorted into the correct slots. Okay, so now she needed to find out where she was. Not wanting to be blinded again, she used her other senses. Splaying out her fingers, she was met by a cold, steel surface.  The sensation of the cool metal caused a gasp to escape her lips, and she quickly bit down on her bottom lip to stop any more sounds from escaping her.

But it appeared as though it had caught somebody's attention because someone cleared their throat from the right of her.

Slowly this time, Keira peeled her eyes open to try and catch a glimpse of who had spoken. Letting her eyes adjust to the blinding light, her gaze wandered around the room. It was made of stone, and after a little while, she found the hole in the ceiling from where the water she had heard earlier was slowly dripping.

Glancing down at her own body, she saw metal restraints around her wrists and ankles, along with a thicker one over her midriff. It was apparent that somebody didn't want her to escape. Discreetly, to not draw attention to it, she tugged at the restraints around her wrists, but they didn't budge.

The thin, white cotton shirt and pants that she was wearing were thin, and Keira could almost see her own skin beneath the fabric, some of her tattoos even standing out. Lying on the metal table, splayed out like a frog ready for dissection, she felt exposed, almost violated.

Knowing that someone had changed her clothes, and seen her bare skin, made the blood in her veins boil.

Throwing a look over to the side of the room, she saw that one side was covered in metal shelves that were filled with jars. The jars held different colored liquids, and upon getting a better look at them, she saw that things were suspended in them.

At first, she would've guessed it was small animals, or maybe even parts of animals. But looking more intently at them, she saw to her horror that some of the body parts looked too big, even human. What kind of a psycho would have conserved human remains on display? She got the answer to her question quicker than she would've expected.