I whipped my head around as the door to my cell suddenly opened. I blinked in the bright light that the open door let in.

      Dmitri's rough voice broke my reverie, "Get up, Tesla."

      I scowled at him but slowly stood up. Walking forward, he caught hold of a strap on my straitjacket and pulled me away to face Hundsen.

When I faced the Crepuscule Club's leader, he gave me a disturbing smile and remarked, "I was glad to hear that your mission was very successful. I'd really hoped that you hadn't turned on me; we really could have used you. However, I'm willing to let you move on."

My only response to him was a piercing glare, but the gears in my head were turning. So the job he'd given me had apparently been a test. But what did he mean by 'move on'?

Out of the doorway of the room I'd been tortured in, two men dragged an unconscious Jake Evans to lay at Hundsen's feet. Blood from deep cuts all over his body bled through his clothes. With him being so intimidating and cold, it was strange seeing him finally beaten and helpless.

As I stared down at the comatose boy, I had the thought that maybe Jake and I were the only ones of the eight that remained. Had they killed off the ones that weren't useful to them?

I did my best to numb myself from the possibility. From what I'd seen of Hundsen, he was ruthless, evil and had no regard for life. The more I thought about it, the more rational it seemed that he would've already murdered them.

A strange man stepped forward and opened up a white bag that he'd been holding. Out of the bag came a thin needle filled with some unknown substance.

When I saw the medical tool, I had to force myself to stay planted firmly where I was standing and not to take a step back. My heart raced and my hands began to shake.

Thankfully, the shot wasn't for me. The man leaned down and stuck the needle into the side of Jake's neck. Hundsen calmly watched, arms crossed, and I frantically wondered what was happening.

However, I did take a step back when the man turned to me with another needle in his gloved hand. And I stepped right back into two of Hundsen's gang members. Their hands wrapped around my arms and forced me forward.

I watched the man walk slowly over to me as the two Club members shoved me down so hard that my knees cracked down onto the pavement floor. My head was forced up and a needle stabbed into my skin.

In the moment after, I lost it. As I screamed, objects around the warehouse began to levitate under my might. Gang members ducked for cover.

The prick of a needle tip under my skin made all my muscles tense up.

It wasn't the needle that scared me. No, it was what was being injected into my muscles and making its way into my blood flow that terrified me.

It made it easier to be a killer. Easier to obey the orders I was being given. Easier to be the goddess of death that they wanted me to be. The bigger the dose, the harder it was to resist. And the dose was always enlarging.

Afterwards I was aware of what I was doing. I even had some control over what I was doing. But not complete control. They'd convinced some part of my brain to do their disgusting business.

And that's how a monster was made.

      My vision blurred and I was vaguely aware of my world turning sideways as I keeled over. My whole body burned as the chemical mixed with my blood. I clawed at my head that felt like it was being split apart with pain.

My eyes rolled back into my head, and the last thing I saw before being greeted by unconsciousness was Adiago's insane smile.

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

      Colors exploded before my closed eyes.

      Blue, yellow, red, green, purple, pink, orange and any other color that was imaginable. They all swirled around in my mind and popped like fireworks.

      And suddenly, I found myself swirling like the colors. I felt like I was flying, gliding through the black air. The swirled hues swam through the air all around me.

      Then, the black nothingness opened up to reveal the light blue sky of a city in the morning. The strange thing was, no cars crowded the streets and no hustling groups of people cluttered the sidewalks. I was completely alone.

      I flew around skyscrapers and swirled through the misty clouds. The feeling of freedom and joy right then as I glided through the city was unbelievable.

      It was only when I started falling that the wonderful feeling replaced itself with panic. I was doing everything I could to try and fly again, but my efforts were futile.

      I was hurtling toward the earth like a meteor. Wind screamed in my ears. Everything came into sharper focus as I fell closer, to the ground. I could see every leaf on the surrounding trees, the cracks in the sidewalks, and my reflection in the windows of the skyscrapers. I sailed down, faster and faster, until-

      Opening my eyes, I saw that I was in a training room with a gun in my hand.

     "Bring in the target," Tsolvskein, my instructor, as Orion called him, though he did more beating than teaching me, commanded the soldiers in the room.

     A man with a burlap bag tied over his head was led into the room and sat on a stool. Tsolvskein shoved me to the opposite side of the room. I raised the gun but hesitated when the man made a whimpering sound.

     "Tesla, take your shot," Tsolvskein hissed. "You know what will happen if you don't obey."

     That was enough to motivate me. Pretending like I wasn't ending a life, I pulled the trigger and the bullet found its target.

     Another memory resurfaced against my will and replayed in my brain. I stood motionless in the endless shadows of Red Room, as a dutiful assassin doing her job. With his hood pulled over his face, Orion sat on his throne-like seat like a king that had let the limitless power go to his head.

      The maroon room was wreathed in darkness, and it was impossible to know where the blackness ended and the walls began. Soon, we were joined by two soldiers that had a tight hold on a struggling girl that looked a few years older than me.

       The pitiful girl was thrown down at Orion's feet. She raised her eyes to her pitiless master, the terror evident in her bold eyes.

      "Cervantes, my soldiers tell me that you refuse to shoot in target practice." Orion's voice filled the room, and it somehow sounded both like a breathy whisper and a growl at the same time.

      "Yes, sir. I won't do it. It is utterly disgusting," the girl stated firmly in English, knowing that her punishment was coming. She didn't avert her eyes but I heard the bordering of fear in the way her voice shook.

      Orion suddenly rose from his seat, but the girl hid back a flinch. She was brave, I'd give her that. But not a survivor.

      Not looking at me, he spoke again in Romanian. "Secerător, what is the punishment for those that defy me?"

     I stepped out of the shadows so the girl could lay eyes on me, Orion's prized weapon that struck fear into his enemies' hearts. "Death, unul exaltat." I called him by the name that felt hollow and false in my mouth, though he had had to beat me until I'd finally submitted to calling him 'exalted one'.

     Nodding his covered head, he stated in his whispering Romanian, "Correct. But not just any death. A slow, hideous, torturous death that will make you regret standing against me. Take her away."

But the girl struggled and fought too much for the soldiers to quickly relieve her of Orion's presence. Holding up a hand, the leader stopped the soldiers.

      "You do not approve of the targets I use? Then you will become one yourself," Orion stated, and whirled around. As he turned, two wickedly sharp blades slid out of his sleeves and slit through the air towards the girl. Before she'd even had time to blink, the two daggers had pierced her in the heart.

     The girl fell to the ground, her glassy eyes staring upwards. Yet another name scribbled on the never-ending list of Orion's victims.

     I would never forget the way she looked at me as if I was her greatest enemy. As if I was one of them. She believed the act I was forced to put on to become the most dangerous assassin Orion had ever created.

     It changed again, and I opened my eyes to find myself on the familiar mountain. My cloak fluttered around my firmly planted legs in the wind. The base burned before me as I stood watching, in the freezing cold snow.

      Fires licked at my flesh, eager to devour me as they did to the thousands of other unlucky people in the crumbling building. I'd barely gotten out of the explosion and fire in time with my life. No one else could say the same.

      The building's massive roof came crumbling down onto itself, sending rubble and smoke soaring into the cloudy sky. I'd singlehandedly brought down the entire edifice, and it was only a taste of what I could do. 

     As I watched the fire I'd started, the memory of the brown-eyed boy who'd been my only hope became fresh in my mind. He was either burning to death now or already dead. Either way, his corpse would lay among the thousands of others. The fallen edifice and stench of death would be the only evidence that they'd ever existed.

     The familiar guilt and tug at my conscience sat in my stomach as I stared at the destruction, but I could live with it. It had been my final chance to destroy evil, but I had no idea how many had had to die for me to completely exterminate those under the devil's spell.

      The memory turned to black, but only part of the mixed feelings of grudging pride and utter devastation left me.

      Scene after scene played out in front of me as I relived all of my worst memories. I tried to open my mouth to scream, to yell, to do anything, but nothing would come out of my mouth.

It was suddenly dark for longer than it had been before, and I felt so utterly alone. The darkness was eerie and quiet.

The black turned slowly to bright light and I found myself in a room made completely of white. It was a torture method that eventually drove most of the prisoners crazy with sensory deprivation. It was psychological torture in its worst.

      I screamed as every cell in my body felt like it was on fire. I was in agony. Electricity flowed through my body, and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think, the pain was driving me out of my own mind. I felt like I might explode with the pain that was more horrible than any pain I'd ever been in.

     Random things flew around the room as my power went out of control. Doctors dodged medical equipment that was under my power and held me down as I struggled in the machine. Tears streamed down my face as I half-sobbed.

Somehow, the pain got even worse. It was unimaginable that any human being could ever feel this and still live. I could literally feel my body shutting down, dying. They were killing me.

      Then my eyes began to close on their own. Everything blurred more than it already was, and the last thing I saw before my eyes rolled back was Orion's satisfied smile that made it obvious he wasn't sane.

      The shock of the unknown memory that I'd just seen seemed to have jarred me out of my deep unconsciousness. A sharp pain ran through my body, but I couldn't decipher where it was coming from.

      It was then that I became aware of something shaking me slightly. There was a faint rumbling sound that was becoming louder the more I came to. For the next few minutes, I stayed in between semi-consciousness and complete unconsciousness. I couldn't open my eyes or move any part of my body.

      My brain felt like it had been liquified. My thoughts swirled like the clouds I'd been flying around in my dreams.

      I awoke completely when I was harshly jostled and hit my head sharply against a hard surface. When I finally opened my eyes, everything was pitch-black.

It took me a few moments to figure out that a blindfold was tied around my face. My arms ached in the straitjacket. But one question arose in my mind above all the others: what had Hundsen done with me?