Blinding Light (BLS Book 1)

Present time…

I’m wide awake, but I don’t open my eyes. I can’t, I’m too tired—too worn out. The coldness of the metal beneath me seems to make me sleepier. I feel so disoriented and hazed as if I’m drugged.

Wait, what’s drugged?

…

I don’t feel anything on me except my undergarments. There are straps around my arms and legs, even one on my neck. I force myself to open my eyes and blink.

Once.

Twice.

There it is, that white light from the ceiling that feels all too familiar. I frown, shake my head only to choke on something—the restraint on my neck; I cough. I don’t remember anything.

How did I get here…? Why can’t I remember anything…? A million questions stir in my mind, trying to make sense of every detail that I feel, that I see.

I turn my head to the side, checking my surroundings. White is everywhere: on the ceiling, the walls, the floors. It’s making me dizzy by just looking. I notice a small black thing that’s blinking red in the top corner of the room.

A camera, instinct told me.

Only, more questions resurface to that knowledge. What in the heavens is a camera?

I pull at the restraints without success, so I lie my head back and stare into nowhere else but the ceiling. I could see the tiles of the ceiling hanging loose. And there are cracks all over it in this room—making the tiles look disorganized and out of place.

Strange.

I was about to cry out for help when something crashes down next to me loudly, making me cringe at the sound, my ears ringing. My instinct is screaming at me to run, but I can’t. I’m stuck…trapped.

The tiles from the ceiling are moving away, revealing a black hole that seems to swallow me whole as I look into it. I shut my eyes, hoping I’ll wake up soon, and this is just some nightmare that my brain is confusing me with against reality. I bite down on my tongue to keep a whimper in—the blood warming my mouth in a disgusting yet familiar taste.

This isn’t real. I’m going to wake up real soon, I reassure myself. Right...?

I felt so afraid. I just got Raven back, and I still want to see her again. Never this much twist in my gut with the agony and pain of death right around the corner. I was helpless. But determination allows me to struggle against the restraints—hearing a snap, a victorious smile lights up my face. I stick to the darkness behind my eyelids and try my best to reject this dream from going on.

I am in control. I tell myself as I hear another snap—both of my hands are free.

When the dust falls out of nowhere and engulfs my face, I had to cough. That’s when I hear it, something whirrs alive next to me, and sure enough, my curiosity causes me to peek through behind my eyelids to see that robotic arms are extending from the ceiling.

I don’t even acknowledge how I knew that, but I know that I don’t think, I just panic. A hoarse scream releases itself from my sore throat. I grab the restraint on my neck, yanking and pulling, trying to stop them from drowning me in fear.

Them?

I am trying desperately to get away from those…things. The components come down towards my face right over my eyes and flash a bright light—took a picture, instinct told me again. When my eyes adjust to the setting, everything is hazed from the photograph’s aftereffect.

The robotic arms work around me. Somehow, the restraints end up back on my wrist—I’m stuck again…trapped.

One of the arms sticks a needle into my arm. Unable to move, I can only wince as my arm goes numb along with the rest of the right side of my body. I try to move my fingers, and nothing happens—the right side of my face droops, also numb.

What in the world?!

I can’t move anything. It’s like the side of my brain that controlled the right side of my body just completely shut down. My heart dreads the feeling of losing control.

BROKEN INTO PIECES

As my vision finally clears up, reveals itself, I see that another robotic arm sticks one more needle next to the previous one, piercing the flesh with a sickening sound. I couldn’t even comprehend how I heard that, just that I did. The blood oozes out from the door made of skin, filling my nostrils with a metallic smell. I don’t feel anything, I just watch in horror, in horrified silence. My vocal cords stop working. The arm grabs a long, skinny tube from inside the wall and inserts it onto the second needle on my dead arm just when something creaks—a black liquid leaks from the wall. It almost looks like it’s alive.

Eww! Ew! Ew! Get away from me! I scream inside my mind while struggling against my restraints for the zillionth time.

The liquid thing forms into a giant bubble, as black as squid ink. It’s floating in mid-air. Whatever dream I’m having, it’s drilling my mind with impossibilities and possibilities that I never even heard of before.

“Somebody! Help!” I scream. And this time, I could hear myself, much better than last time. Even as a croak of a sound, at least it’s better than nothing. My eyes widen in terror as the shape itself moves around in mid-air. I stare at it as it comes closer to me, fear eventually clouding my judgment.

It plunges itself into the tube attached to the needle and disappears into my arm. I can feel it in my veins.

It’s inside my blood.

Pain explodes everywhere. My numb arm comes alive, and something cracks. I scream to see my arm bent at an unnatural angle. Blood is spurting everywhere. It’s on my face, in my mouth. I can taste it, I can smell it, but I’m numb to my senses except one: touch. The pain travels through my blood, going into my arms, snaps echo around the room. I scream at each sound. One…Two...Three…

I count twenty-three, my hands burn, as if they’re being ripped apart by force. I don’t need to look to know that all my fingers are broken, and perhaps more than just those fragile bones. Tears wet my face, along with my blood. It’s taken a toll on me and broken down my wall of defense.

It enters my mind…

Memories flash, my mom dying on the bed, someone being taken away from me, someone grabbing me.

“My beautiful angel, stay safe…” she whispers. “I’ll never really leave you…I…love yo—” she takes one choked breath in and exhales. I bite my lower lip as tears stream down my face.

“No, mama. I won’t leave you,” I growl in frustration, drawing blood as I bite my trembling lips. “Don’t leave…don’t leave…”

“Mila!”

Someone grabs my wrist, yanks me away. I scream and kick, but it’s no use. My mother takes one last look at me and smiles. She exhales, and her head flops to the side on the pillow.

“NO!” I scream, only turning to meet my mother’s eyes. I gasp but realize it’s my brother. He holds my shivering body tightly.

“Mila, listen to me. You’ve only experienced five years; you have your whole life ahead of you. So, you must run!”

I only respond with a whimper.

“S’il vous plait (please), Mila, you can’t let them find you, you can’t let them find out what you are. You are so special,” he sniffles, and I hug him close, not wanting to let go until he pushes me away.

“Run!”

He pushes me back. I almost fall over. Tears fall from his face, drip…drip…onto the floor. I scramble up and run out just before the front door opens with a bang.

“Run!” I run, deep into the forest, I don’t look back, I don’t stop.

***

Gasping, I see the white room again. The pain comes back; it doesn’t give me to react, then the pain comes back like a whirlwind. Another memory fills my mind.

A girl in a red dress, weak and fragile on the floor, crying. I look down to see myself holding a blade.

NO!

I scream, a joy from the girl I can’t describe. A specific determination from her eyes that I can’t decipher, yet at the same time, familiar. But it’s gone in an instant as I plunge the blade deep into her stomach, I can feel the blood come, warming my hand. I scream at myself to stop, but I only push the knife deeper. My face is so emotionless like it’s detached from my mind altogether.

She inhales shakily, and her eyes roll to the back of her head. I pull the blade out, kicking her lifeless body to the side, and walk away.

I’m crying inside, but my face remains calm and cold on the outside. There are bodies everywhere. Every step I take, more blood drips from the blade, people run, but the power I feel is more than anything I’ve ever felt. I feel the hatred, the betrayal, building itself up. The pain…so much pain…too much…

I fall onto my knees, clutching my head. Something deadly rises from the ashes. And the complete loss of control forces me to take it, yank it back to myself.

I stand, feel my vision redden, and tighten my grip on the blade until my knuckles turn white. I feel nothing: I am nothing, just a weapon, just an experiment. I look to the terrified faces around me, and I kill without hesitation—slashing at every living thing.

They underestimate me to think they could take everything away from me and thought I wouldn’t fight back.

Soon blood fills the room, and my senses are coming back, so I run straight into the wall, breaking it apart as I come to a world of nothingness. I turn to see that the building had erupted on fire, so bright and blinding. I see the flames licking and spreading at each block of wood, gobbling at each living thing that’s stuck inside. I only turn away.

They don’t know what I feel. They will pay for what they’ve done.

I will get my revenge.

And when I do,

They do not want to be on the receiving end.

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Thanks, with lots of smiles

☆•Yiona•☆