Chapter 1: Stone Dungeon
Evelyn awake in full panic. Even before she could fully compute her surroundings, before all the information traveled through the nerve wires and cognitive functions of her brain, she knew that everything was wrong. That everything had been taken from her all over again.
Her eyes flew open, her heart racing, slamming into her ribs so hard they already hurt. Her lungs felt like they were being squeeze in cold iron. Like her hands. And ankles.
Panic flaired inside her again. She tried to move. But she couldn't. Her hands and arms were still clamped inside the shackles Janson placed on her, back at the Right Arm camp. Her boots were removed, leaving her in bare feet with cold iron bitting into her ankles. Her shackles where chained to the wall behind her. With her blood pumping through her, she felt beads of sweat forming, fear, panic, sadness and an all consuming feeling of cold dread.
Evelyn felt hot tears prickle her eyes, her chest rose and fell in shallow gasps. She tried to regain some kind of control. A deep voice popped into her head, why his voice of all people, but her wild spinning mind latched onto it...
"Kitten, go through your list, list your happy thoughts." Goose's voice boomed in her head.
"My happy thoughts...My...my name is Evelyn...My name is Evelyn." She whispered. She clamped her eyes closed to the dark gloom around her. "WICKED calls me a Healing Witch. I have powers to heal the broken. I am wounded. My power is destructive now. My home was the Glade. There is no more Glade. I am an infected Crank. And I'm dying. I'm not scared of dying. It's forgetting that scares me."
Tears leaked down her cold cheeks.
"Newt. Minho. Chuck. Nick. Sonny. Jeff. Tommy. Frypan. Tessa. Sonya. Jorge. Jaz. George. Jack. Gally. Alby. Clint. Winston. Noah."
She whispered the names a few times. She repeated their names. Over and over, it calmed her racing heart. Taking a slow deep breath, she whispered the last few sentences.
"These people are my happy thoughts when the crank becomes too much. My friends. My family. My love. My home. I say them over and over; like a prayer. Trying to keep me sane; trying to hold on."
With a shuddering breath she slowly blinked her eyes open again. Trying to look around. She tried to not panic again. Evelyn was laying in a dark gloomy stone dungeon. The damp stones were old and ancient, a grey brown. Turning her head she saw an old rusty metal and steal jail door. There was a flickering light in the stone hall trying to make its way into her cold dark cell.
Evelyn struggled to her knees, and leaned in the corner. Her arms were chained to the wall. Her ankles were chained to the wall. There was enough slack in the chains from the wall to her shackles that she was able to move around a little. The chill from the stone seeped into her body and settled deep in her bones and joints. She shivered and her teeth started to chatter.
Evelyn struggled to her feet and tried pulling the chains. They were too attached to the wall. Evelyn frowned shaking the chains in frustration. Clenching her fists she tried using her powers, making her hands frosty. She could feel it, the sharp pain of frost bite in her veins. The metal frosted over. Nothing happened. With a scream of frustration she tried a wild surge. Hoping maybe she could crack the metal. Nothing happened.
Anger and frustration made the tears come. They froze as they fell. She felt the stone jail cell frosting over. The frost and ice spread out from her and creeping closer to the iron metal bar door.
She cried and yelled in frustration. She jerked and pulled on the chains. She tried over and over. Nothing seemed to work. She sagged into the walls, finally giving up. Her voice raw from yelling for a few hours. Her arms and legs were sore and tired from pulling and yanking on the thick chains for hours. The skin on her ankles was red and raw. Her mind was exhausted. She curled up as best she could. She clamped her eyes closed. She heard the crank in her mind, cooing, trying to calm Evelyn.
"Shhhh my poor little feral creature. Shhhh. I will take care of you."
Evelyn almost felt like the crank was holding her and stroking her in comfort. She curled up in her mind into the arms of the crank, whimpering and sniffling.
Evelyn had no idea how long she stayed like that. Mentally curled up into herself. Seeking the crank for comfort, it must have been a long time. She dozed on and off. Her joints were stiff. Her body became used to the cold.
She finally woke up a little bit more than the other times. She sat leaning against the cold damp walls, staring listly into the jerky nothingness. There was a tickling in her mind. But it felt different than the Flare. Her head felt like it was vibrating, like a phone was ringing inside her head.
"Evelyn."
She sat up straight. A voice in her head.
She tried to wrap her arms around her head, but the shackles prevented her.
"Evelyn?"
Turning her head this way and that, trying to figure out what was going. Trying to see if there was a speaker or something behind her.
"Evelyn!?"
"Tessa?" Evelyn whispered.
She frowned, was she sitting in the dark for so long she was hearing more than one voice in her head?
"Oh thank shuck! Evy!"
"Tesa! What's going on?"
"They put us in another dormitory after the Berg landed. We've been here a few days, just sitting around doing nothing. They take one or two of us each day but they always come back...well except for Minho, Thomas and Newt...and you!"
Teresa was worried, scared, even. That much she knew for sure. She could feel it. She had no idea what happened or where they were, let alone her.
"Wait...A few days?"
"They took you away as soon as the Berg landed. They keep telling us it was too late, that the Flare is too rooted in you. They said you've gotten crazy and violent. They took Tom, Minho and Newt a day later and we haven't seen them! Evy! I can't talk to Tom any more either!"
Evelyn tried to hold it together, tried not to think about how WICKED could wipe memories...and mess with minds. She knew WICKED and Janson were behind this. David lied. WICKED lied. Again. She felt her anger rising, her betrayal and hurt. The crank was starting to coo and cackle in her head.
"It's all part of their stupid trials, Tesa. Whatever they said about it being over. It's another shucken damn trial!"
"Where are you?"
"I...I don't know! Chained and locked away like a wild animal! But...how many..how many days have you been there?"
"Evy...we've been here a week!"
Evelyn couldn't respond. Almost wanted to pretend she hadn't heard what Teresa had just said. The fear she'd been holding back began to slowly seep into her chest. Her short shallow breathing picked up again, the pain in her chest from her infected veins sent sharp pain shooting down her arm, into her shoulder and down her back. Cold sweat coated her body again.
"Evy?"
Evelyn's mind was in wild tailspin of panic and dark abyss if the all consuming depression.
"Evelyn! Evel-"
Teresa's worried and scared voice was cut off. The ringing and vibrating in her head was cut off like a cord being snaped. Evelyn was alone again with only the crank voice shushing her.
With more tears leaking out if her clamped eyelids she curled up back into the arms of wild crank in her mind. As wild and unstable the crank was, she was the only consistent thing in her life right now. It was familiar. She whimpered again, a few more tears slid down her cold cheeks. How sad had her life become when she was taking comfort from the wild manic phsycotic voice in her head.
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It was the fact she couldn't use her hands that Awas driving Evelyn mad. Not being alone for over a week. Not the cold old damp stone walls, ceiling and floor. Not the lack of windows or the fact that there was no change in the flickering light in the stone hall.
They had taken everything. Her bag, her notebook, her axe and dagger. She was wearing the same dirty blood stained clothes when she was captured by WICKED.
Her hair was now stringy and greasy. The dried blood of the guards she killed had dried and made her skin itchy and dry. But she couldn't use her hands to scratch. Every time she woke up she tried to pull her hands free or tried to freeze the metal off. Her efforts were in vein. Nothing changed. Nothing happened. The steady constant dripping of water falling down the stone wall landing on the stone floor was slowly driving her mad. It was constant and steady; slowly counting the seconds.
After Evelyn had fallen asleep after her quick chat with Tessa she had woken up with an IV inserted in her arm. There was no information to indicate what was in it. Every time she fell asleep a fresh IV bag was hanging in the stone wall. That was the only change. The new IV bag. She had tried to stay awake to figure out what it was and who was doing it. She figured after a while it must have the nutrients her body needed because they never provided her with food or water.
Alone.
Evelyn was absolutely alone.
In a cold dark stone cell, devoid of color, gloom and murkiness grey walls rusty steel bars of her jail door. The only exceptions are a small, almost-hidden stainless-steel toilet in the corner.
Alone in an unbearable silence, with unlimited time to think about the disease rooted inside her: the Flare, that silent, creeping virus that slowly took away everything that made a person human.
The crank in her head was company. She whispered to her. Whispered how her life would have been different...better if she had stayed with Goose in Saints & Sinners. She could have been free, to do what she wanted, when she wanted..all the food, a warm soft bed, she could have had Goose.
Instead she was alone. Trapped and chained like feral animal.
Those dark thoughts, solidified her knowledge that she was succumbing to the Flare. She knew she had it, knew she almost turned already. Maybe it was a good thing they kicked her away. Kept her away from everyone she loved, this way...they wouldn't see her turn into a mad, raving cannibalistic former human. Maybe Tessa was right and they took her away when she turned again, she didn't remember anything after Thomas stood up to David saying they were done being mice in a science experiment, she must have become crazy and violent. Again. That she'd already lost her sanity before coming to this awful place.
And underneath all that was the worry for her friends her family...her loved ones. What had happened to them? Where were they? What was the Flare doing to the mind of the last Glader? Was he even sick..and who was it? After everything they'd been subjected to, was this how it was all going to end? With her chained to a wall, alone in a stone dungeon.
With those dark miserable thoughts swirling around her exhausted depressed mind, she curled up into the chilly wall, curling up in her mind, desperately calling for the comfort of the crank.
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Evelyn woke and knew right away that something was different. It had always been quiet, the unbearable silence had gotten even more so. It weighed on her. It was deafening. It pressed in on her, almost suffocating her.
The dripping had stopped.
As soon as her brain figured out what was different. She heard a sound that made her flinch. It was so loud in the silence she had grown accustomed to. Her heart sped up, her stomach dropped and her wild heart jumped into her throat. It was a a soft thump.
"Shhhh. Feral little creature. I will protect us. Shhh."
The thump was now rythmic. Footsteps. It was footsteps on the stone. Evelyn was too stunned to move. Out of the gloom of the hall came a shape of of human. Talk and skinny. When they turned their head she saw a profile view of their face.
Janson.
She growled. Her eyes narrowed. The anger sat hit and heavy in her chest.
There was jingle of keys, and then a loud squeal of rusty metal grinding on stone. It reminded her of the Maze walls. Evelyn shivered. Janson swung the door open. He stood in the doorway.
The rage crept in. She was shaking uncontrollably. Anger boiled in her veins, it burst in her chest.
Janson took a few steps into her cell.
WICKED had done all this to her. Janson...and WICKED. They had taken her life and those of her friends and were using them for whatever purposes they deemed necessary. No matter the consequences. She hate Janson. And he had to pay.
"Yes! Yes my murderous little creature. Claws out. It will protect you! Do it. Make him pay."
Evelyn screamed. The first time she used her voice in two weeks. She roared a wild feral inhuman scream. She lunged and with all her strength tried to reach Janson. The chains held her fast. She was a foot away from Janson, she couldn't get any closer. Her arms pulled back behind her, hands locked in the shackles, and chained tight to the wall. The room went instantly cold. Walls and floor becoming frosty and icy.
"I'll kill you!" She screamed.
She struggled and caught, thrashed and pulled. Janson stood their with such a condicending smug look it made the anger double.
"Oh Evelyn...you still haven't learned."
He pulled out the black remote and pressed a button. The stone jail cell filled with the screams and cries of everyone's pain.
**A little Dungeon aesthetic**
**A little trauma train right off the bat**
**That one picture is Elsa's shackles from frozen, which I got the idea/inspiration**
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