Halcyon (DISCONTINUED)

3

AN: TORTURE

My healing process is sped up. 

The Takers, I learn, have more things they want to try with me. 

It's when my back feels heavy but doesn't burn anymore and the ache deep in my hips is gone, The Takers burst into the nursing room. 

Everyone flinches back, some even hiding underneath their beds. Even the babies go silent. Everyone's terrified and the pressure in the room is so intense, I can't move. My body refuses and I'm trembling violently. There's the sound of liquid splashing onto the floor and I glance over to see a little boy, about six, staring wide-eyed at The Takers as they come closer, dark ski masks covering their faces. The wet spot on his pants grows and The Takers laugh. I feel bad for the kid but I'm frozen in place when one of The Takers places a hand on my shoulder. 

I feel like I'm about to vomit when The Taker leans down to growl into my ear, "We're going to have fun with you." 

I'm taken to another room, sealed off from everyone else, only this time it's different. There's tools on a silver tray all laid out, glistening deadly in the faux light on a table. The walls are white, giving it the appearance of being larger than what it actually is.

I'm stripped once more and tied down to a bed on my stomach. "Do you think he'll need anesthesia?" I blink and feel myself pale. Fuck.

"Nah." 

There's a sound of a drill and I close my eyes tight in preparation of the pain, tears leaking through my eyelids. Begging will only make it worse.

The heaviness on my back is accompanied with a burst of pain, and I bite my tongue hard enough for it to bleed. The sound of the drill echoes in the room and blood splatters onto the ground. I sob - my head is floating - the pain is too much. 

Something's stabbing into my ribs and I feel myself open up. I'm screaming and crying as they peel back my skin and more blood rapidly drips onto the floor, pooling onto the ground beneath me. 

"Shut him up, will ya!" 

I van barely understand them, my head is either ringing so loud or the drill is in my ear - something is stabbed into my neck and I fall into blissful sleep. 

Sleep is my only escape anymore. 

When I wake up, I'm in pain. I'm not sure where I am. Pain. Overwhelming pain. Pain pain pain. My back feels like fucking fire and all I can do is scream and cry. 

I try to sleep as much as I can. An IV is in my arm so no one doesn't have to worry about feeding me and a catheter is in me. 

The Takers hook a face mask over me and I'm soon back to sleep. 

***

Waking up not knowing what happened to me is exhausting, mentally and physically. When I wake up again, my back feels sturdier and heavy. 

Like something is attached to it. 

I'm forced to stand up and The Takers lead me up a flight of stairs. My legs burn with the new activity and I can hardly keep up. They pull me along without patience and I'm close to fainting when we finally reach the top. A door is opened and I'm pushed out onto the roof. 

It's high up here. Three or four stories. Looking down makes me sick. 

Something hits whatever it is on my back and I flinch in pain. "Can you feel that?" One of The Takers ask. 

I nod. "Yes sir." 

"Good boy." He pats my head with a gloveless hand. I can smell the rubber gloves, his sweaty musk that smells oddly like mushrooms. I know this scent will be ingrained into my memory.

I'm pushed to the edge. "Do you think we should start out with a smaller jump?" The one that smells like mushrooms asks.

I hear them both laugh, and the other one, the one I can't get a good sniff of, says, "Every bird needs to leave the nest." 

Bird? What? 

I finally look back. Disgusting chicken wing things are sticking out from my back, feathers placed haphazardly onto it. I scream and look away, horrified. The Takers laugh. "This is the only way to make your instincts kick in and fly!" 

My hearts hammering and I'm trying to take steps away from the edge but they don't let me. "I-I'm a werewolf, not a bird!" I sob. The trees look like chairs from up here. 

"We'll see about that." 

They push me. I'm falling...

My heart is in my throat and the extra limbs on my back are shit- 

I hear my legs break before I feel it. Blood splatters everywhere and white bone pierces through my skin.

My ribs shatter upon impact. 

Then my head hits a rock and I pass out. 

***

I'm told by the Nurses I didn't wake up for two weeks. By now, my ribs are almost healed, but my legs have a long way to go. 

I have a constant headache. I beg Nurse Amy for pain killers but they are running low and have to give them to the weres that are in worse conditions. I don't blame them. Hearing screaming every day would make me want to choke them with pain killers but the pounding in my head makes me vomit.

I sleep. The Takers don't come back for me. I thank God, if there even is one. 

Two more weeks go by and I'm placed into a new cage, back in that small hallway. My legs haven't healed and I'm scared they never will.

There's empty cages on either side of me but I can see across from me there's other severely injured werewolves. Lost causes? I sigh. Death would be easier for me than this living hell. 

The limbs on my back are no use, but I feel every time they bump into something. It's hard to get used to them. It hurts when they run into things and I wish I had something to cut them off with. They're ugly and a constant reminder that I'm trapped here. 

I wonder if there's even a world out there. I see glimpses of it when they let us outside into the 'prison yard', they call it. There we can run around (if you can) and talk to other weres and smell the trees and grass, but that's all we know. 

I find myself daydreaming about what the outside world would be like from my limited knowledge of the world. Would there be other weres who live in freedom and aren't ripped away from their parents? Do they love? Do they have kids? 

Questions fill my mind as I lay on that hard, cold bed. 

Little did I know, soon they would be answered. 

A little foreshadowing there ;)

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had a little bit of a hard time writing it. 

-Ally