[color=red]”Fucking! SON OF A BITCH!”[/color] Alex screamed furiously, delivering a mighty kick to the front of the frail chair and sending it sliding across the room, balanced precariously on two legs. The result of her fury was a smashed chair and a woman moaning pitifully within its wreckage, mostly assuredly from the boot that had met her groin, propelling the seat she was tied to across the room. A cloud of dusty rose up into the air, in a wavering mist-like fashion. Alex laughed sardonically, a memory from two months ago swelling up from the depths of her mind. The musty floorboards creaked as Alex moved across them, the volume of her anger apparent in every step. In fact, her rage seemed to literally manifest itself as swarms of tiny sparks scattering across her hair, like little electric dolphins. She stood over the woman, whimpering pathetically on the ground before her. To her, Alex must look terrifying, still fully dressed in her blood red coverings and tinted goggles. [color=pink]”P-please, I'm s-s-sorry!”[/color] The woman wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks, cutting clean swathes through the otherwise dirt encrusted flesh. [color=pink]”P-please No!”[/color] She cringed, curling up into a ball as best she could, with her hands still tied behind her back. Alex had taken a step closer, provoking the woman's plea. [color=red]”I do not enjoy being made a fool of Cassie!”[/color] Alex seethed, her body trembling with resistant as Alex stayed her hand, this woman could still be of use yet. [color=pink]”Please Alex, I'm so sorry! Please!”[/color] Cassie plead, her terrified eyes searching for mercy, finding only the blackened glass of Alex's goggles. She squealed as Alex lifted her up by her dust colored shirt, that had probably been white once. She hung limply, most of her body resting on the floor still, with her tormentor close enough that Cassie could feel the hot breath on her face. [color=red]”There is only one purpose in my life Cass, do you even understand how much I paid you for that SHIT INFO?”[/color] Alex yelled once more, throwing the woman back. The frail brick wall cracked as her head ricocheted off of it. [color=pink]”I'm Sorry! I-I'll pay you pack. I didn't know! It came from a reliable source!”[/color] This caught Alex's interest, [color=red]”Who?”[/color] [color=pink]”A-alex.. you know.. I can't tell you that. They'll kill me.”[/color] [color=red]”I'll kill you,”[/color] Alex threatened, taking a large breath as she paced to the other side of the room. For a moment regret filled her body, muddled with confusion. Why was she so angry? She got bad information all of the time, two years ago it wouldn't have come down to this, savage torture. She looked upon the form of Cass, huddled against the wall, in nothing but a shirt, worn shoes, and a pair of brown khakis cut short enough to reveal the smallest hint of her plump bottom. [color=pink]”Alex, please, show compassion.”[/color] Cass pleaded again, [color=pink]”Please, I know you. This isn't you!”[/color] Alex turned away from her, tears welling up beneath her goggles. She felt the heavy pit of sadness growing in her middle, a weight of regret pressing heavily on her heart. [color=red]”Fuck..”[/color] Alex started, running a hand through her hair, feeling the static built up in it, [color=red]”Cassie.. I'm.. Fuck, I'm sorry. I don't know what's happening anymore.”[/color] [color=pink]”I won't say it's okay.. but.. maybe we can find you some help?”[/color] Cassie stood tentatively, her legs shaking, a small trickle of blood curling around her neck from the back of her head, staining her shirt as it encroached between her ample cleavage. [color=pink]”Whatever it is, I know someone who can help get you off it.[/color] Alex pushed up her goggles, revealing the pure white orbs of her eyes as she wiped them with the back of her hand, her gloves sitting off in one corner of the old, empty room. There were no windows, the room was a slowly decaying box of brick and mortar, with a lamp hung in the middle. [color=red]”Off of it?”[/color] Alex asked curiously, wondering what exactly Cass was accusing her of. [color=pink]”Yes, it's the smoke right? That hallucinogenic stuff Jackson cooks up?”[/color] [color=red]”You think I'm on drugs Cassie?”[/color] Alex questioned, her composure recovering slightly. [color=pink]”What else could it be? I know at least two other people who get bouts of rage off that stuff.”[/color] Cassie limped over to Alex, her groin still aching but her compassion winning over her fear as she placed a gentle hand on Alex's shoulder. [color=red]”Drugs?! For fuck's sake Cassie! You know me better than that!”[/color] Alex half pleaded with her, [color=red]”I don't even smoke the normal stuff!”[/color] [color=pink]”But.. Alex..”[/color] Cassie started, placing her other hand on Alex's opposite shoulder and squeezing lightly, [color=pink]”You know I've never judged you.. you've always been a good girl to me.”[/color] [i]Good girl..[/i] [i]...good girl..[/i] Alex shuddered, squeezing her eyes shut. [color=red]”There's something wrong Cassie, I'm not in control of my own life.”[/color] [color=pink]”I won't leave you Alex, we can fix you, there's got to be somebody who can help.”[/color] Cassie embraced Alex gently, hugging her. Forgiveness wrapping itself around her, convinced that it wasn't Alex's fault. It was her condition, her sickness. [color=pink]”We can fix you.”[/color] [i][color=orange]”We can fix you,”[/color][/i] A rough, female voice said through the darkness, as Alex huddled naked on the floor, illuminated by the only source of light in the cold concrete room,[color=orange] “You may not be much now, but we can fix you,”[/color] The voice laughed, a cloud of smoke drifting across Alex's bare flesh, dampening her senses and making her feel warm and frightened at the same time. [color=pink]”We can fix you, I promise.”[/color] [indent][color=orange]”We can fix you, I promise”[/color] The voice laughed.[/indent] [color=pink]”That's a good girl Alex... just breath.”[/color] [indent][color=orange]”That's a good girl Alexia... just breathe.”[/color][/indent] [color=pink]”Alex?”[/color] [indent][color=orange]”Alexia?”[/color][/indent] [color=pink]”Alex? Answer me. Alex?[/color] [indent][color=orange]”Answer me Alexia!”[/color][/indent] Alex flinched, expecting the lash of the cane against her body. Her breath caught and her teeth clenched, but the pain never came. She blinked, looking around her. [color=pink]”Alex? What's wrong?”[/color] Cass asked, concerned. Alex shuddered, chills running through her spine. She fell to her knees, grasping her head in both hands, [color=red]”No... no.. no,no,no!”[/color] She whimpered, this time she felt it, physically felt it moving through her body. She tried to stop it, to force it down, to ignore it. She opened her mouth, she wanted Cass to run, to leave her here. [color=pink]”Alex it's alright! We're going to make it through this.. together!”[/color] Alex hated them. She hated them so much for what they did to her. She was no longer in control of her life, she didn't know how to be. She needed control. No, she needed to be controlled. No, she was free now, free of them, free of that hell. No! It always plagued her, followed her, tormented her. And how she hated them, how they caused rage to boil in her blood, and her heart to beat with wrath. [i]Thump... Thump...[/i] Her heart beat. [color=pink]”Alex?”[/color] [indent][color=orange]”Alexia.”[/color][/indent] [color=orange]”Alexia?”[/color] Alex looked up, her hands falling to her lap, [color=red]”What did you call me?”[/color] Cassie knelt next to her, embracing her, [color=orange]”Alexia.”[/color] The voice said, drowning out Cass. No, it was Cass, the voice, wasn't it? She was one of them, one of the demons from her past. She hadn't killed them at! She had missed one, and now she was here, to seduce her back into the maw of hell! [color=red]”Get off of me!”[/color] Alex seethed, shrugging away from Cassie. [color=pink]”Alex! Please! I'm only trying to help you!”[/color] [indent][color=orange]”Alexia. We're only trying to help you.”[/color][/indent] [color=red]”I said NO! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!”[/color] Alex screeched, electricity violently erupting from her. Cass screamed, falling back and scrambling away from the explosive torrents of energy quickly, until her back was pressed once more to the wall her head had been cracked on earlier. [color=pink]”ALEX! PLEASE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!”[/color] She screamed, straining to be heard over the cacophony of destruction happening around her. The room shook, debris falling from the ceiling in clouds of dust. At this rate the room was going to collapse. A chunk of brick dislodged itself from the ceiling, landing a few inches from Cassie's leg. [color=pink]”ALEX STOP!”[/color] Something swirled through Alex's mind. Like a tornado of wrath clouding her senses. Her vision wavered, and a wave of nausea wracked her body as she tried to stand, making her fall to her knees again. Her vision blurred, darkening, as if the light in the room was slowly dimming. There was a voice screaming in the distance, but it was of no matter. There was only the pain. The immense pain flowing their her body, like live embers crawling beneath her skin. Her heart pumped desperately in her chest as the electric flow around Alex reversed itself. Dramatically the expulsion of energy stopped, ceasing all together for just a moment. A whirring buzz filled the room. A terrified Cass watched as the light bulb exploded from its place in the haphazardly swinging lamp. But the room quickly lit up anyways as Alex pulled the surrounding energies into herself. Cassie could her the faint sounds of light bulbs popping in other rooms, barely audible. The tide of energy swirled around Alex, diving into her body as it erupted from the cables running through the floors and walls. Tendrils of blue energy snaking out from power sockets and light fixtures. Outside the late evening streetlights erupted with the surge of energy being pulled through the conduits that fed them. The whole block wavered, the tell-tale sounds of buzzing and flickering lights indicating an abnormal flow of energy. [color=pink]”ALEX! WHAT'S HAPPENING!?”[/color] Alex couldn't speak, she was rendered speechless inside her own vortex of energy, gathering inside her until she felt as if she would burst. That's exactly what it felt like, as if she were about to explode from the inside out. She didn't understand what was happening, it was as if she wasn't in control of herself. As if something were trying to tear it away from her. She screamed. Her voice carried the weight of the world off of her shoulders. She stood slowly, the weight of the gathering energies threatening to push her back down. She screamed again and lightning erupted from her hands, blasting chunks of concrete from the floor. For a moment she felt the tiny bit of relief that releasing energy brought. She could fight this, she could stabilize and bring herself back under control. She screamed again, her raw emotion snatching back control of herself. This time the cyclone of electricity stopped all together, the whole block falling into the dead black of a power outage. She had siphoned this block dry, it was all gathered inside her, ready to tear her apart, to consume her. Her heart smashed a painful chorus in her chest. The pain of it adding to the raw, primal control she had seized. Cassie opened her mouth tentatively once more, her body trembling, [color=pink]”Alex..?”[/color] And then the whole world seemed to erupt around her. Cassie felt the wave of roiling energy burn its way across her body, faster than she could scream. Her body fell limply towards the earth as the wave of energy swept through the building, blowing out already weakened walls. The wave stopped, a circle of roiling energy backtracking violently towards the conduit it had come from. The wave smashed into Alex's body, causing her to stumble. Though she did not fall, through no power of her own, held up only by the sheer velocity of the column of power violently dispersing from her body into the darkening sky. The late evening's veil of gathering darkness pierced only by the soft glow of the city, and the beam of electric energy shooting through the clouds. It lasted only one, violent moment as Alex regained control of herself. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she fell to the floor. It was amazing that there was even a floor to fall to. Cassie was gone, thrown out of the now shattered brick wall into the gloomy streets below. [color=red]”So much for love,”[/color] Alex wheezed, crawling her way to the door, which was gone. The frame still stood, barely, and Alex used it to lift herself onto her unsteady feet. Sweat dripped off her forehead as she did so, and her heart beat with a force the wracked her chest with pain. For a moment it seemed to stop, an icy chill gathering itself around her body. She panicked, searching for some form of electricity, grabbing onto a faint, distant pulse of power. A quick blue flash arrived, leaping into her body, restarting her heart beneath the hand clutching at her chest. A brief wave of dizziness mixture with another of nausea passed through her was the warmth returned to her body. She slowly made her way to exit the building, before any undesirables arrived. She stumbled down the cracked, dark hallways, with their columns of dust still hanging in the air. She felt sick, like she was about to throw up. By the time she reached the exit, she did. Twice. The sight of Cassie's blackened body brought on a third bout of vomiting. Alex turned away remorsefully, sadness pulling at her heart. She would miss Cassie, dearly, but she didn't have time to dwell on what she'd done. She had to get out of here.