▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

10 YEARS AGO

DARKNESS VEILS HER surroundings, the vague taste of metallic roams beyond her lips, the hoarseness of her voice from the agonizing screams that echo around to the pain that shoots beneath her eyelids. "Mama, w-where are you!" the young girl cries, wriggling from the chains that imprison her in place. "I want to go h-home!" she hiccups, tears staining down her cheeks as dried crimson coats over her left eye, "I-It hurts."

The silence is deafening and terrifying. The presence of many watches her petite, scarred body, analyzing and experimenting on all the methods of pain that she can possibly endure. "She has left you here, girl," the echoing voice of a man taunts dryly, "You belong here now."

"Please, stop," she chokes, feeling her vision begin to blur as the chains tighten against her fragile pale skin, drawing blood from around her neck. "MAMA!"

Laughter mocks at her from all directions, "We will take good care of you," says the man, closing the distance between them. His nails trail down her face, narrowing to her left eye. "A shame if that thing inside your body cannot produce what has been lost." All that is left from the wound is a large cicatrix that lines from her eyebrow down to her cheek. "Do not freight, child, I will make sure that none can harm you again,"

"Die," a child-like voice utters from her lips, sweet and full of malice, but it does not belong to her. "In primis tenebris nocte, dico, alioquin interficiemus te,"

The man roughly grasps her face, his nails dig into her cheeks roughly, "Tell me what you have spoken in that foreign language!" he demands, pursuing his lips to contain his resentment. And when he is met with utter silence, he strikes her cheek swiftly, ushering threats that will be carried through the night.

Alas, a sinister smile etches upon her lips as hysterical laughter disrupts the calamity. Her eyes widen, piercing the darkness as her left eye begins to glow in such an eerie shade of carmine. "In primis tenebris nocte, dico, alioquin interficiemus te," she repeats as if it is a chant. The foreign words slip from her tongue, bringing fear to those who dare listen.

The voice of a woman interrupts the silence, faltering as she murmurs the words carefully as though Death itself will appear. "A-Andres, I suggest we eliminate her before she targets us!"

Before the middle-aged man is able to agree, she twists her arm in the opposite direction, the crack of bones ring through the torture chambers. Despite the preternatural, her wrist is in, her arm reaches for the man that stands only mere centimetres away, digging the dirt and blood-stained nails into his forearm ferociously.

She can sense the fearing anticipation of what she is truly capable of, but at this moment, her mind and body don't belong to her.

He hisses in pain, staggering forward as he shouts an order in agony, "Axataxia's Toxin, inject it quickly!"

There is a burning sensation that overwhelms her, consuming her with tormenting pain in every aspect of her body. A numbness rises in her chest that gradually biles to her throat, forbidding the gurgles and cries of anguish to pass beyond her lips. A distasteful shade of ink runs through her veins, feeling the liquid draw down her palm.

An everlasting ache in her head with eyes closed, dull against the pain. Her lips part, hunger growling in her stomach. The scent of blood mixed with the stench of toxins invades her nose that causes her to involuntarily gag like edged talons forced down her throat and lodging into her heart. "A-At dusk tonight, I-I will kill you."  she manages to splutter, translating her previous words without a hint of remorse.

"Double it," he grits out, replacing the renounced trepidation with feigned courage.

Her eyes fall heavier with each growing second as the liquid seeps into her veins, feeling her body grow limp at the overpowering dosage. Faintly, she bares her teeth at him murderously, glaring directly at his sunken, hollow sepia pupils and the brindle scar in his sclera. His haunting eyes are engraved in her mind that ridicule her efforts of escape, becoming a reminder that every following day, she will face the same nightmare but twice as painful as each.

The previous voices have vanished, leaving her in solitaire. The feeling that another has complete control over her body is gone. It is the realization that her own mother abandoned her, and that none would come to her aid.

Tears inadvertently slip from her eyes as he clutches her face forcefully, daring her to defy him. "Foolish child," he spits in revulsion, "to think that your tears will wash away the corruption you have in your soul, that it will wash away the stained sins that have already tainted you before you have realized." Apathetically, his mouth widens, revealing the crooked grin that is full of animosity. "One day, you will come to thank me, Thana, and I will be awaiting it."