Let me feel your beating heart

Oh, how I wish mine danced like yours 

....

"She's dying."

Isaac narrowed his pupils into half slits, refusing to bow his head before the woman in front of him. She peered down at him, silver knife in hand. A wicked smile was plastered across her face, curling her lips against a row of yellow teeth.

"She's dying and you're here watching her."
Another whip cracked down across his face, slashing away at his already torn skin. He let out a cry, sparking more laughter from The Huntress.

The whips hesitated as she strode towards him. Isaac didn't pull at the cuffs suspending him from the ceiling; he could no longer feel his arms.

"There there Isaac, it will be alright," Georgina cooed as she twirled the knife delicately in her fingers. "Her death will save her from further torment."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Isaac spat, meeting Georgina's grey gaze.

She made an amused noise. "You don't truly believe she'll survive the games do you?"

Isaac held her gaze, ensuring to surge every bit of hate he had for the woman without a word.

Georgina took in his face, watching the vein line his neck, the sweat drip down his forehead, the determined gleam in his face, and cackled. "Oh dear boy, you are as naïve as I feared."

Isaac hissed, attempting to move his arms but the only response was the slice of a whip against his back. He could feel his skin split, splintering against the whips end. Blood flowed down his bare back, coating his jeans.

"She is nothing Isaac, nor will she ever be anything," Georgina purred. Within an instant, a screen lit up in front of his face, flickering to show Renee's face.

She was suspended in water, her eyes closed. Moonlight shone on her face, twisting in her hair, dusting her fingers. Isaac could see the lack of pulse at the base of her neck. A thin dress billowed out in the water, surrounding her like a cloud.

She was beautiful, Isaac thought. She always had been.

The picture disappeared, and with it, Georgina's face returned. Her pupils were narrowed into thin slits, a taunting look smeared across her face.

"She doesn't have long left now," she murmured.

Isaac curled the corners of his mouth. "I could say the same about you."

Georgina's lips twitched with amusement. "Coming from a boy hanging from the ceiling."
"What do you want from me," Isaac hissed, ignoring the taste of blood in his mouth.

A whip was his answer.

Soon, after Isaac had regained his breath and bit back a cry of pain, Georgina answered him. "I want to kill your kind."
"I'm human," Isaac said. The words felt full in his mouth, like words that held a certain weight to them that made them somewhat vulnerable.

He hated the thought of his fragility. He hated knowing the point of a knife could take away his life as easily as a whisper. He hated the feeling of his bones aching, and the sight of purpling bruises along his arms.

He hated himself.

Georgina looked at him, a knowing look passing across her eyes. "Indeed, which I'm sure you'll be enjoying thoroughly."

Isaac flashed her a glare but said nothing. It was already clear the misery of being vulnerable was like an anchor clamped to his ankle. He was too sullen now. Too drowned. Too far gone to be saved.

"You thought you've felt pain before Isaac. This is a new pain." Another whip greeted him. He took it without so much as a flinch. Instead he stared down the woman who watched him with an empty gaze. "You can't heal from this type of pain. Humans are weak, they always have been."

She examined him, a wicked smile playing at her lips. Tapping the side of her awful looking armour, she took a step forward, close enough so Isaac could see the lines of past scars bury deep within her skin.

"But you know what I like best about humans?"

"They have a sense of humour you seem to lack," Isaac snapped, but Georgina ignored him.

With a quick hand she gripped the side of his face, her nails digging into his cheek bones. He stilled instantly, anger stirring deep within his chest. He pushed down the strong urge to spit in her face.

"I can break every bone in their body. I can snap a particular section in their spine that can paralyse them from the waist down but leave them in agony." She searched his eyes, her smile maddening. "And I can rip their eyes out, stab them in their limbs and puncture a lung while they die. Slowly."

Isaac swallowed against her words, conscious of her grip on his face gradually increasing. He felt his eyebrow rise in questioning. "That's a lot coming from someone who once was human."
He didn't have time to flinch before her palm connected with his cheek. He let his head drop, spitting out the blood that began to bloom on his newly busted lips.

"Never compare me to one of them." Isaac heard her hiss.

At this, he forced his pounding head up to narrow his gaze. "If you hate tunids so much, why devote your life to saving them from Night Children?"

Georgina looked at him, disgust etched into her face. "Tunids are not a priority, killing your kind is. It is just luck they are benefited from our ways."

"Right," Isaac whispered under his breath.

He expected a whip to strike him again, but all that echoed around him was silence. Spitting out another mouthful of blood, he closed his eyes. He was growing numb to the pain, which he knew immediately was a sign of losing consciousness. Too much blood was clotted in his lower limbs, and he was sure his shoulders would dislocate if he was not released within the next few minutes. But his pain was not where his thoughts lay.

They were on the brown eyed girl who looked at him with that beautiful smile. Despite his heightened sense of self-loathing, he knew he couldn't lose her. He had refused to look her in the eye before she disappeared to Idin. He couldn't let her see the pain he was drowning in.

The unspoken message that he couldn't feel anything. He was lost without a trace of who he once was. Broken, bruised and alienated, Isaac couldn't touch Renee without touching the part of him he'd lost.

He knew it wasn't fair on Renee to push her away out of anger for what the Parazonium had done to him. But how could he hold the girl who had risked everything for him when he wished more than anything he could take his Night Child side back? If he told her her efforts in the War meant nothing, she would never tilt her lips in the smile he loved so much.

If he told her the truth, she would never forgive him.

So now, numb to the whips trailing patterns on his skin. Ignorant of the woman's cackles against his ears, he closed his eyes. He closed his eyes and prayed she wasn't hurting as he was now.

He prayed she was stronger than him.

....

"Isaac."

There was a rustle, and then a sharp pain in his shoulder blade.

Isaac woke with a start, rising from the ground in a swift moment. Before he even registered who had woken him, he had his fingers pressed to their throat, fingernails digging into their soft tissue.

He heard them take a short breath, but they didn't flinch. "Isaac," the stranger said, "let me go."

Now, once his heart had lowered its rapid beating, he finally recognised the voice.

"Why should I?" he hissed through clenched teeth.

Melissa Argent swallowed against his grip. Isaac could feel the movement through his fingers.

"Because killing me now wouldn't benefit you," she replied back, her voice was as stripped as her face.

Isaac considered this before slowly retracting his hand away. She took a step away and turned to face him. There was a new swelling bruise above her right eye and a light cut above her lip. Her skin was drained of colour, now matching a sickly grey. He wondered gingerly if he looked the same.

"What are you doing here?" he asked pointedly.

Melissa narrowed her gaze. "I'm trying to help you, like I promised." Her brown pupils shifted to his bare chest, pausing to focus on where the whips had broken the skin near this shoulder and collar bone. Now that he had time to acknowledge the pain, it was nearly unbearable.

However, he had learnt over time that pain is only temporary.

"Georgina told me you collapsed during the whipping so they took you here until you woke."

"How thoughtful," Isaac snapped but the thought of him unconscious at the hands of Georgina angered him. Never would he allow himself to be that vulnerable in any other circumstance. Now he was as breakable as glass.

While Melissa studied him with those cat like eyes, he gave himself the time to examine her. She was dressed in a white like armour that carved up her body. It illuminated the paleness of her skin and the blue veins that crawled up her frail arms. However, as he narrowed his eyes, he could see the outline of muscles in her torso and legs. Individual scars littered every piece of skin that was exposed to the dull beam of light in the empty room. Her hair was twisted into a centred braid.

"The Arcade is starting in twelve hours. Renee is still completing her final course, and so will you. Which means, we don't have enough time to prepare you."

"What is the final course?" Isaac asked, suddenly curious.

Melissa tugged at a part of her armour. "Finding your aurora. Its harmless." She swallowed, her lips thinning. "Then you'll be presented to the people of Erindale."
Isaac felt his lips curl. "Presented?"
She nodded. "They gamble on the the last survivor. After the election, the games will start."

Isaac frowned, rage surging through him. If he didn't know any better, he would consider himself nothing but a show animal, stripped of an identity and with no meaning but to please others.

"Sounds appealing if you ask me," Isaac said after careful silence.

Melissa watched him, clearly unimpressed with his attitude. "I've seen the other competitors Isaac. Some have already teamed up to survive. They plan on over throwing us."
Isaac titled his lips. "How unfortunate people are retaliating against you after you kidnap them and make them perform life threatening tasks before they fight to the death," he clicked his tongue. "Must be very frustrating for all of you."

Melissa frowned. "This isn't a joking matter Isaac."

He felt his eyebrow quirk. "But isn't it? Isn't this whole thing just for entertainment? You toy with lives and your city watches us die a horrible death for the sake of feeling better about yourselves." Isaac watched a muscle in her jaw jump. "You steal us from our own world, trap us in cages, make us lab experiments, then push us out into an arena and say go, see how long you can last." He felt his own words seethe with anger, as sharp as venom. "So forgive me for finding humour in the ridiculousness of these games. While you watch Renee die on a big screen, I'll make sure to control my sarcasm."

She advanced, closing the distance between them. "I don't want Renee to die, I never have," she hissed.

He rose to the bait. "It didn't seem like that when you allowed Georgina to nearly kill her."

Melissa flinched openly. "I didn't mean to—"

"You knew, you knew for months the Parade was coming for us," Isaac lashed, his voice echoing off the small room's walls. "And yet you let them find us. You let them find her."

"I couldn't stop it, I had no control—"

"No Melissa, you did. You could've stayed with Renee instead of leaving her in pieces when she killed her own father. You could've rebuilt your relationship with her, or ensured she didn't come back to an empty home but you didn't," Isaac said. "You left because you're a coward."

Melissa swallowed audibly, the noise stimulating a sense of achievement within Isaac. Her fingers itched at her armour. Isaac was sure it was to retrieve something to slit his throat. However, she seemed to compose herself before she replied. "I know, and it's something I'm not proud of. But I am here now, and I promise you I will do whatever it takes to ensure she lives through these games."
Isaac regarded her through his eyelashes. "She could've died in those sections. I didn't see you attempt to save her then."

He didn't see the whip curl around her arm until it struck him. By now, he was used to the pain the sharp material inflicted on him. He felt the hot trickle of blood clot on his cheek. Now, his anger sparked. Taking a step forwards, he advanced towards the woman, feeling his blood boil with frustration.

Melissa held her ground, her fingers playing at the silver whip that coiled around her wrist. "Isaac, I know you hate me. I don't blame you. I ruined your life, killed your kind, and let Georgina rule my life to the point where I sacrificed my own daughter to her." Isaac stopped, one metre from her. He hoped she could see the fury in his gaze. "But Renee is my daughter and I love her. I will do anything to get her out of this world."

Isaac snorted. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Listen," Melissa hissed, her voice instantly persistent. "Both you and Renee are instantly targets. She is the most priced item in the games. If the Parade doesn't get to her first, the Forsaken will. Lead her away from others you don't trust, collect resources." Her eyes shone, catlike and slitted in the darkness. "Trust nothing easily, and never stop moving."

I am human. I can't stop a grown Night Child alone, Isaac wanted to say. But he knew he would never allow anyone to understand his worries.

"The Parade never plays fair. They will pull cruel tricks, and make you turn on each other to end the games quickly." She stroked her whip. "The Arcade is for entertainment. Sympathy or mercy is not an emotion we possess. Both of you are alone."

Isaac watched as the whip seemed to slither back upwards into her armour, like it was nothing but a deadly snake crawling back to the shadows. He said nothing. What more was there to say? He knew he was destined to die.

"Isaac."

He rose his eyes to meet Melissa's heart shaped face. He knew she would've been a beautiful woman in the past. But lies and manipulation had carved jagged scars on her once perfect skin.

Melissa closed the distance, tilting her head slightly to meet his eyes. "There's a book I stole out of Renee's possessions when The Huntress captured her. When I enter the Games, I'll leave it in a place only you can find."

Isaac felt his lips downcast. "Why would I need a book?"

She met his eyes, a silent message hidden within them. "Pay attention to its detail."

And then, she stepped back into one of the walls, leaving Isaac to stare into silence, his jaw clenched with fear and his heart pounding with adrenaline.