Echo of a Friend

Part 2

H- When he wakes, it's in a cell with thick cuffs around his wrists and linked to the floor at the center with an even thicker chain that clinked with every little motion. The chamber is dimly lit and oddly roomy, the floor and walls scratched with a multitude of claw marks ranging from small frantic tics, to long dragged out scrapes. There is a toilet in one corner and a bed in the other, the sheets looked new, though a dark stain could be seen marring the concrete just beneath the soft pink comforter dragging the floor.  None of these items quite met the edges of the cage and an orange line of tape wrapped around the enclosure - likely marking the edge of the territory allowed by the chains. Metal bars separated him from the outside, a large tarp draped halfway over the prison to dampen the glaring light from the otherside. Motivational kitten posters and posters of scenery dotted the walls.

Outside the cage, the floor was white and waxed to a blinding sheen, the smell of alcohol and scented candles was strong in the air. Through a tear in the tarp , he would see a worn dull-red carpet at its center, pulled straight from trash can or other probably - with a worrying looking metal table atop it. A small table next to it shined with a clutter of sharp objects.

There were shelves upon shelves of books, jarred organs, bones and stuffed creatures along the walls, some looked...rather normal - there was at least one squirrel. The rest looked...fabricated - stitched together from parts of other animals to make one chimera. There is an entire cat skeleton on a sturdy desk nearby to the right of his prison. Random books and half-finished projects lay scattered about the edges of the room, the place wasn't too organized...

C- Daki slowly came to his senses. His head hurt terribly from the blow, and that headache wasn't going away any time soon. He winced, first facing the floor, but then the scents drew his attentions to his surroundings.

He felt a twist in his gut. Organs in jars. Taxidermy. Chains. A cage. Sharp tools... this was a collector's lair.

His heart rate quickened. "No," he whispered. His breaths rattled in his chest. "No, no no..."

He tugged against the chains, wincing at the clinking noises that came from them, sending further spikes of pain through his ears, adding to his headache. He squirmed, trying to slide his hands out of the cuffs, but they weren't loose enough. He was growing more panicked by the second. He stared around the lab, hoping for any trace that this was some mistake, some part of Sam's charade in order to save him. He could only hope. He didn't want to end up in one of those jars.

H- There's a squeal of a metal door from above somewhere followed by footsteps and voices echoing down the concrete stair case.

"It's noooooot" a familiar voice whines in frustration, the continuation of a conversation he had clearly missed.
"It'll be fine! I'm telling you, my methods will yield better results than - than...-" disgust enters their tone. "Whatever that is."

"I still think you're being too soft on these monsters." another equally disgusted voice replies back. "THey don't deserve anything less than what they get."

Two figures come into view, Sam in a nice shiny white lab coat - and the hunter from before, the one that had hit Daki with the gun. He seemed grouchier than before.

"Why did you even follow me all the way here if all you're going to do is whine about how I do my job?" Sam sighs in front of the cage.

"I want to make sure everything is under control before I leave you here with it alone. I'm sure you don't want pulled out of another giants guts like before. If there is another. You're reckless."

C- Daki stiffened as they entered. There was something so alien about seeing Sam presented like that. Like a cold scientist. A Collector.

He gritted his teeth and slumped against the wall, trying to bite back any words of defense that came to mind. They would do him no good here, he knew. He just had to wait until the hunter left and for Sam to explain everything.