Waking

Nobody

Just so you know it. I regret nothing, not even the badly written parts. Or the fact that I researched different kinds of torture in my break. N O P E. No regrets.

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"I HATE YOU."

The words hit him like a bullet. A bullet aimed for the heart. It made it's way through him until it finally hit it's target with a low thump. And then... then pain. His heart beated faster, as if it that could save it from slowly getting squeezed, but it didnt' help, and all it's effort brought was pain flowing through Leo's body. Like ice to his fire.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, but most of all he wanted to be free. Free from this room of darkness and pain. Free from the power of his own mind. Free from her cold almond eyes starring down at him. Free from Chaos.

But he wasn't. He was caught. Caught in a room with inky black walls, caught in darkness and nothing itself. Left to the mercy of Chaos himself, and Leo had quickly learned that Chaos owned no mercy. He was merciless and cruel, and Leo figured the only reason he hadn't been physical hurt yet was because he needed him. Needed his empty shell and powers. But his soul, that would Chaos take, just to break it in a million pieces.

And that was what he was trying to do in this empty room of despair. A slow and painful process, where Leo's own mind became the best weapon. The room where his demons became real monsters.

"Are you conscious?" her voice was cold and careless, but she had asked neverthless. And against his will, even though the hopeless situation, a spark of hope appeared in his heart. Maybe she cared.

He struggled to formulate any kind of words for a while, pain and exhausting clouding his brain, heaving him down. He felt like he was starring at a text, that letters moving around, and just as he seemed to get a graps on them, the words diseappeared. "Yes," he managed to say at last, his voice coming out hoarse and raw.

"Did you hear what I said?" she commanded, eyeing him coldly as if he were the root to all her problems. And who knew, maybe he were. He had after all been the one who killed her, trying to take her off that stupid island on a half-death dragon. Him and his stupid promise had doomed them.

"Yes," he said again, the word this time coming easier to him.

Slightly worry appeared on her face, just to soon be washed away again. It had been there so shortly, that if you haven't been looking so intensely after it as Leo, you wouldn't have seen it. Or maybe it was because he was looking so intensely he saw it. Maybe he saw shadows were there weren't any. Calypso was gone, and left was this shell in which Chaos had his regime.

She is just a shell. A weapon.

Leo didn't know how many times he had reminded himself of this the last week, trying to gather a shield agains her words. Trying to stop his mind for slowly tearing him apart, like a robot trying to not let it's own shortcut ruin itself. A hopeless fight that nobody could win.

"I need to brandmark you. Since you seem to forget that you're Chaos' soldier for good, I thought you could use a more permant reminder. I'm going to use icecold steal, since, as you know, the fact that you are fireproof makes it hard for you to get touched by red glowing iron." Her words were cold, her eyes drilling into him and a mean smirk on her lips, as if his pain were sweet music to her ears.

"Couldn't I just get a tatoo?" he asked, a weak attempt on a joke. The fact that his voice was thin and barely higher than a whisper didn't help his case.

She eyed him coldly, "No."

"What's the symbol?" he asked, the words sliding of his tongue quick and mumbled. He knew his time was running out and so did she. He knew streching time was useless, but he wasn't brave enough to accept his fate, not yet.