Trash Panda

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Moving was unpleasant, so Cas laid on his side with his eyes closed as he slowly woke up. He hoped they could stop by a pharmacy to get more painkillers soon. Even if the detour delayed his return to the capital, he felt like the tradeoff was worth it as long as he could dull the soreness in his whole body. At this rate, he doubted he would be able to move very quickly anyway. Yesterday, he’d kept up with Iris fairly well because he’d still had enough adrenaline left to push through the discomfort, but after a night had passed, he didn’t want to do anything other than curl up and sleep for a month. Every time he shifted his arms or his legs, his bruised muscles burned in protest. The worst of it emanated from his abdomen, where Regis had punched and kicked him so much that it was even painful to draw breath.

With no distractions to keep his mind off the aching, he wallowed in it for a while until the sound of a door opening drew his attention. Lifting his head, he blinked against the soft light—confirmation that it was indeed morning—and stared bemusedly as Iris stepped into the bomb shelter. He hadn’t heard her get up, so he’d assumed she was still sleeping nearby. Tediously, he managed to get one arm underneath his side to push himself into a sitting position on the bed. As he did, he took a look around the room while the door was still open, curious to see the place they had just spent the night since it was been too dark to examine yesterday.

The bunker was expectedly filthy for a place that hadn’t been needed since the last major war decades ago. No surprises there. He glanced down at the mattress he was seated on, which was just as dusty. There was even a thin layer of dirt covering his clothes after he’d slept on it, but he had been grubby before he’d laid down, so he couldn’t bring himself to care. What he was more interested in was checking over his injuries. He unzipped his hoodie and shrugged it off his shoulders to get a better look at the bruises covering his upper body. He had some on his arms, mostly around his shoulders, and he could feel a few on his legs, though he didn’t take his jeans off to look at them while Iris was in the room. Taking a steeling breath, he lifted the hem of his shirt and then blanched as his gaze fell on his stomach. His skin was mottled with dark shades of purple, blue and green, courtesy of Regis’s boots and fists.

Well, now I know why it hurts so bad, he shuddered, letting the fabric fall back down over his torso. As Iris approached him, he looked up at her and then down at the bottle in her hand. “Thanks,” he said as he took it, lacking the hostility that had tinted his voice before. Because he had survived the night, he felt convinced that he could trust her. It still hurt that she had taken advantage of his trust in the capital, but at the very least, he believed she wouldn’t lead him to his death. He just wished he could get rid of the pit that formed in his stomach whenever he looked at her face. Whether he liked it or not, he’d developed a crush on her in the capital, and he couldn’t erase the memory of kissing her before she’d betrayed him. There were so many feelings tangled up in everything that had happened that he had a hard time figuring out how to look at her now.

Taking the cap off the bottle, he lifted it to his lips to drink some, doing his best to ignore the foul taste. Purified water was something he would never take for granted again when he got home. “I can wait until later,” he assured her when she said she couldn’t get food right away. “I’m not even hungry yet.” For the first time in half a week, he hadn’t woken up famished, so he had no qualms with waiting a little longer for his next meal.

Unable to stomach any more of the bottled water for now, he put the lid back on and let his eyes wander over the room again. He wasn’t sure what to say to Iris now that the conversation had lulled, so he was trying to distract himself from the awkwardness. However, as he did, he noticed something that made him furrow his brows confusedly. “Where did you sleep last night?” he asked, glancing up at her with a frown. He hadn’t realized it last night, but there was only one bed in the shelter.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

That's cool! And yeah, I recommend it ^^ It's by George Orwell, written in 1948 (he just flipped the numbers for '1984' when he came up with the title) so it's an older book, but it's very good! Brave New World is another favorite of mine. They're both really dark, fair warning, especially BNW. Still, I think they're great haha

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I love dystopian stories ^^ I've read a lot of books like 1984 and Brave New World and even a few contemporary ones like the Hunger Games. It's fun to imagine what a world could be like under an authoritarian ruler that presents itself as benevolent when it's actually oppressive. In this case, I modeled the story as a cross between Hunger Games and 1984, where there's a group of people (bourgeoisie) who are really well off, but they don't realize how much better off they are because media is secretly controlled to make it seem like everyone is doing well. This way, the people who control resources can hike up prices and make a small fortune off the wealthy while paying factory workers next to nothing for their labor. So what Cas knows about the economy is partially true. Aspiria's market is booming because the high borns are a big enough group to fuel it, but the numbers have been skewed to make it look like people are well off throughout the whole kingdom instead of just in a concentrated population.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yay, I'm glad ^^ I'd say this is one of my favorites too. It's hard to compare though because all of mine are so different haha. This is the only dystopian one I'm writing right now

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I love how everything going on in this story is tying together cx It's very smooth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

For a man who had been dodging the Aspirian military successfully for years, Regis was surprisingly talkative. Jacob holstered his gun and folded his arms over his broad chest, listening with downturned lips as the rebel leader not only told the team that he’d killed Prince Caspian but also how he had gone about doing so. He marveled that they hadn’t been able to take down such a disorganized man sooner. Although, the stench of whiskey on his breath was a helpful hint. The guard wrinkled his nose in disgust while one of the soldiers struck Nox-Fleuret across the jaw. He’d never captured a prisoner who could be so frustrating and useful at the same time.

That Regis was willing to give away his daughter as an accomplice to his crimes was somewhat surprising. Jacob drummed his fingers against his bicep in thought until he realized the girl Caspian had brought back to the palace was the same person the rebel leader was talking about now. She hadn’t just been a member of the Scourge; she had been a blood relative of the rebellion’s leader. He ground his teeth in vexation. If the intelligence team had been quicker at labeling the identities of their enemies, this whole mess could have been avoided. It was because they had been too slow to identify the members of the Scourge that their prince had gone missing—and was likely dead.

As Regis went on to describe the brutal way he’d murdered the future king, Jacob glowered at him venomously. He didn’t need or want to know such details. Prince Caspian may have been his charge to protect, but the guard had been fond of him personally as well. If they’d had the chance to get to know each other better, they may have even become friends. So, hearing that the prince had been battered to death in the basement of a bloodthirsty sadist twisted his stomach into knots. Despite the breach in protocol, he was silently pleased when the solider who’d punched the rebel the first time hit him again.

“That’s enough,” he said, forcing himself to act calmly even though he wanted to shoot Regis while he was down. He strode over to the rest of his team and curled his lip in a sneer of disdain as his eyes landed on the unconscious rebel leader. What a pathetic bastard. It was almost shameful that the monarchy had been tormented by a lunatic like this for so long, but at least they’d caught him now. He glanced over his shoulder at the bloodstained cell, feeling a wave of sadness wash over him. If Nox-Fleuret really had taken the life of their prince, the boy deserved to have a proper funeral.

“Take him with us,” he ordered the soldiers, turning back to face them. “We need to find out what he did with the body.”

--

That night, Caspian didn’t sleep any better than he had in Regis’s basement. He dozed in short bursts, waking up intermittently with a racing heart as he feared his escape had just been a dream. Each time, he sat up on the bed with a start, staring at the void of darkness as he scrambled to determine if he was still in his cell or if he had actually gotten away. The sensation of the mattress beneath him was what grounded him and coaxed him to lay back down to keep resting. There hadn’t been a bed in his prison.

By the time morning rolled around—or what he guessed was morning, since there were no windows in the bomb shelter he could use to check—he was feeling a little better than he had the night before, but he was still exhausted from his sporadic sleep. He rolled from his back to his right side, shivering slightly against the cold. The hoodie Iris had given him to keep warm had helped, but without a blanket to cover him, he could still feel the cool air creep through the fleece fabric and cause gooseflesh to rise on his skin.

At least it’s cold air in a shelter and not in a cell, he thought, trying to be optimistic as his arm pained him again. Squeezing his eyes shut, he clutched the limb in his right hand and waited for the ache to subside. In addition to the stab wound, the bruises that had formed from the beating he’d taken yesterday made the rest of his body hurt as well. He had a feeling he was going to be sore for quite a while.

~Bonsoir~

I figured Vail and Victoria should get a moment before he turns her. Gotta build the anticipation haha

~Bonsoir~

Vail held his breath as the Wynter stumbled and Victoria turned around to shoot him. If she struck him in the heart, he would die on the spot. Unfortunately, she was still new enough with a crossbow—and likely still nerve wracked from being chased—that the bolt pierced the other vampire in the throat instead. A blow like that still would have slowed another of his kind down, but this Wynter just seemed to have been enraged by the arrow protruding from his neck. He only staggered for a moment before he moved to continue pursuing his target.

Straining to catch up, Vail reached out to grab hold of the other man’s jacket before he could take off again, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. He cursed as the Wynter slipped just beyond his fingertips. It felt impossible to keep up with him, and he wondered just how much of the Crest heiress’s blood he’d ingested. After all, he’d fed from her many times before, but he’d never experienced a rush of power like this vampire was now. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, he reluctantly fell behind in the hopes that Gerald would be of more help to Victoria from atop his horse than he currently was on the ground.

As he altered his goals, he arced his course to the right, attempting to take the Wynter by surprise by coming at him from a new direction. In doing so he also avoided the pieces of silver armor that Victoria had begun shedding from her body. When Gerald fired his shot gun, the Hygrace heir watched from a distance, hoping that the other vampire would drop to the ground, but he didn’t. In the chaos of the fight, the Wynter had managed to get his hands on the jewel he’d been after: Victoria.

Vail stared in horror as the vampire picked her up as if she was a trophy. He could smell the odor of her blood in the air as his sharpened nails broke her fair skin. Hastening his pace, he sprinted toward them as fast as he could to intervene, only change course one more time when the Wynter threw her at a lamppost like a ragdoll. While Gerald kept their enemy distracted, the Hygrace heir wasted no time sweeping her broken body into his arms and carrying her the rest of the way to the nearby manor. The armor that she hadn’t had time to remove burned his skin through the thin fabric of his coat, but he ignored it, determined to get her to safety while they still had a chance.

Swiftly, he rushed past the last line of Saints and Moncouriers waiting to fight the Wynters and threw open the front door. He didn’t bother taking her up to her room. He’d heard her bones break upon impact with the metal pole with which they’d collided. As soon as they were inside the foyer, he dropped to his knees and set her down on the marble floor, tearing at the remaining silver plates to get them off her lithe frame. With the obstructions out of the way, he pulled up her shirt just enough to take a look at the damage. The sight that greeted him made him blanch.

Beneath her fair skin, he could see dark splotches of color forming, a telltale sign of internal bleeding. Even though he wasn’t a trained doctor, he could tell some of her organs had ruptured. For a moment, he sat motionlessly, unsure what to do. To a vampire, an injury like this would be excruciating but survivable. He doubted a human would be able to recover at all though.

“Victoria, stay with me,” he murmured, taking her hand in his. Outside, he could hear the sounds of battle, and he knew they didn’t have much time. “I’m sorry. I should have stayed closer to you, and—” he started and then stopped with a shake of his head. As frustrated as he was with himself for making the wrong decision, he wasn’t sure it would have made a difference if he hadn’t left her side. The Wynter they’d faced was too strong. “I love you,” he finished instead, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead as his heart felt like it was splintering inside his chest.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yeah. It'll also make Cas and Iris's lives a lot harder when the war starts getting more intense. They'll have to dodge the fighting while trying to figure out how to get Cas back into the capital.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

As soon as Regis disappeared through the front door of the house, Jacob signaled to the soldiers and jogged quietly toward the building. He drew his revolver from its holster at his waist and held the weapon tensely in both hands below his hips. Usually, he didn’t involve himself in matters beyond the walls of the capital. He had been a soldier in the army twelve years ago but had since been assigned as a personal guard to the royal family. He’d always been a hard worker, and after a decade of loyal service to King Atlas, he’d been promoted to the position of captain of the royal guard. His range of expertise had thus been limited to the palace, and he rarely found himself in a situation that required him to prepare for combat. However, that didn’t mean he was incapable of falling back on the old habits he’d developed when he had been a soldier.

Sporting a bulletproof vest for protection, he turned his gun’s safety off as he led the way into the house with the other members of his team directly behind him. He’d been prepared to break the door down, but to his surprise, it seemed like the rebel leader had left it unlocked. The man was either very confident that he was safe here, or he was unexpectedly forgetful. Either way, the oversight allowed him and the other men to slip inside without drawing attention to themselves.

Moving slowly, Jacob remained on high alert for movement, his dark eyes flitting back and forth over the room they had entered. He’d expected to find more people here than just Regis, but it seemed like the leader of the rebellion was more solitary than they had thought. There was no one else in the house.

He signaled again to the others to keep quiet, stalking toward an open door where he could hear Nox-Fleuret’s voice coming from a basement below their boots. There was nowhere for the rebel to go at this point, but they didn’t know if he was armed. There was also a chance that Caspian could be down there with him. They needed to proceed with caution to make sure that none of the soldiers or their prince got hurt. So, he guided them downstairs as silently as he could manage until the underground room came into sight.

Their efforts weren’t enough. Almost as soon as he made it to the bottom of the steps, he stiffened as Regis whirled around and began firing his gun. He quickly hit the floor to avoid the wild spray of bullets and fired a shot in return, striking the seemingly crazed man in the knee on the first try. He guessed that Regis was used to hiring others to do his dirty work for him, because none of the projectiles had hit their marks. His words had left an impact though.

While the soldiers rushed forward to apprehend the fallen rebel, Jacob stood up and took his first real look at the basement. When he did, he felt his mouth grow dry. “Jesus…” he whispered, his gaze traveling over a cell that was thoroughly covered in blood. Some of it had pooled and congealed near the back wall, while some of it had been streaked and spattered on the floor as if whoever it belonged to had been fighting for his life. He stepped over to the row of bars, scrutinizing the sight with a concerned frown. The only thing missing was a body, but he was smart enough to deduce that the blood had come from their missing royal.

“What the fuck did you do with the prince?” one of the soldiers behind him yelled at Regis. The team had disarmed the rebel and pinned his arms behind his back to prevent him from getting away.

“Where is he?” another man pitched in angrily, standing inches away from Nox-Fleuret’s face.

Jacob turned around and stepped over to join the group with a frigid expression painting his chiseled features. If the rebels had killed their future king, he was interested in knowing as well.