Hurricane and Shadow

Promise

  35 Chapter 3: Promise

"NO! LEAVE ME ALONE! STOP THAT! I DON'T WANT TO BE A MONSTER!" Nila screamed. She was tied to a table. A meter away Elisha was in the same situation, but...some men dressed in black clothing had cut her stomach open. Nila saw blood. Elisha's blood. Then she saw how a man brought a piece of green and purple flesh. With horror she realised that they wanted to put that into Elisha.

Those men had found them shortly after the Claymore had killed the monster. They had dragged them to a place they called "Headquarters" and had said to them that they would make warriors out of them. Nila and Elisha had tried to resist, but it had been useless. They had brought them here and were now making them into half-Yoma half-human monsters.

Now she felt how someone cut her belly open. She screamed in pain. "I'M NOT A BOY! I CAN'T BE A CLAYMORE! STOP IT! PLEASE!" But there was no reaction from those men. Like she wasn't even there. Then she saw the piece of flesh that was meant for her. Nila tried to move. Tried to break free. Why was she so weak? Why was she always so damn weak? "NO!" she screamed, but it was useless. She could only watch how the men brought the flesh to her table and then...

Her body met the purple flesh of the Yoma. A burning spread from her stomach to the rest of her body.

What was that? What the hell was that? This pain was unbearable! With terrible intensity she felt how this flesh became a part of her. How her veins spread through. How a connection was made. Muscles and fibres grew into this Yoma meat and bound it to her body. Nila felt how blood that wasn't hers spread through her veins. It felt so disgusting! Like someone was rummaging around in her body.

And then for a moment she felt an incredible hunger. Only for a second she wanted to rip those men into shreds and devour their guts. She wanted to bathe in their blood and to hear their screams while she was slowly eating every ounce of their flesh. Then this moment was gone.

She wanted to stop it! To stop this mutation, but she wasn't able to. Again she was too weak. Why can't I be stronger? Why can't I be strong enough to fight back? Why can't I be stronger than all of them?

Elisha next to her didn't scream. She didn't make a sound at all. She was just crying. Silently enduring the pain. But she was thinking exactly the same as Nila.

Nila lost consciousness and woke up again for a few times in the next hours. She couldn't remember how and when she got there, but she woke up in dark cell. Her body was hurting! It was hurting so much! Again she started to cry, but she wasn't able to scream. Trembling she crawled from the middle of the cell to the wall. She leaned against it. The cool stone helped to soothe the pain a little bit. She groaned.

"It hurts so much!" Elisha sobbed. Now Nila realised that she wasn't alone. Elisha was lying on the ground a few meters to her right. She crawled to her. Her eyes were closed. Tears were running down her cheeks. When Nila could see the details of Elisha's face, she flinched. Her fiery red hair was now light blond. Like straw. Her skin was ivory-coloured, although her features were still soft. But her ears...were pointed. Like the ears of the elves she had seen in a fairy tale book. She looks like a doll! Nila thought with wide opened eyes.

Then Elisha opened her eyes. Her silver eyes. The green colour had just vanished. "Elisha, you have sil...silver eyes" Nila whispered. The girl starred at her and said "So have you!" Shocked she looked at herself. She could see her long curly hair that was now platinum blond, almost white and her skin was even paler than Elisha's. She touched her ears. They weren't pointed. She sighed a bit relieved.

"You...look...so differently" Elisha said amazed.

"So do you. But...but...but you look pretty, not like a monster" Nila replied and tried to smile.

Elisha tried to sit up. "Thank...you. You don't look like a monster too. I...like your hair. It's so...shiny."

Nila now really smiled. "Thanks! I like your skin. It looks like porcelain."

Elisha blushed. "You are only flattering me" she whispered.

Nila shook her head. "No, I meant that." Suddenly she touched her stomach and groaned. "It's so painful!"

Elisha moved closer to her and wrapped her arms around the pale girl. "I know. Why did they do this to us? We aren't boys. We can't be warriors."

Nila clenched her fist. Yeah, why had they done this to them? Maybe because they liked to see someone suffer or because this was some kind of sick experiment?

Suddenly it occurred to her. "But...if we have those silver eyes...can't we be as strong as those other Claymores?"

"You mean if we can become warriors like them?" She looked at her curious.

"Why not? If they did this to us, then we should be able to become strong. As strong as them. The gender can't be important. Not when it comes to monsters. Don't you...don't you want to kill those monsters? Don't you want to be able to kill them? To slice them into little pieces like they did...with all the people?" A tear was running down Nila's cheek.

Elisha looked at the ground. "Yes. I want to kill those monsters. Those damn Yoma! I want revenge!"

Nila understood her anger and hatred perfectly. "So let's make a promise! We become warriors together! We will become strong and kill the monsters that are to blame for all this!" She looked at her Elisha determined. The short haired girl looked for a while at the wall. Then she answered "Alright. We will get through this! Together!"

Nila nodded and hugged Elisha a bit tighter. "Together!"