Our Turn: Book One (Remastered: SAMS AU)

Chapter 8

It's been five hours since Eclipse slept. Paranoia slowly crept in, yet he chose to ignore it and, instead, provided himself with his own entertainment by playing the games that he installed. What he didn't think of was the door. That damn door. Somehow, his charging station was removed, and it wasn't until he smelled a strange substance. That broke Eclipse out of their trance.

They smelled it all over the floor and even on his torn up clothes and damaged chassis. The smell was vaguley familiar. Eclipse recognized the benzene smell. That was usually found in crude oil, though. So, why did it smell strong. A seemingly unatural substance, yet it Eclipse felt like they should know it.

Finally, Eclipse processed the smell, and their pupils turned into pinpricks. They looked up and saw Moon with a lit match and matchbox and once one was dropped on the floor, all of them were dropped on the floor, and he quickly shut the door once he was satisfied. Eclipse quickly stood up and muffled out screams at Moon.

No... begged. They actually begged Moon to make the fire stop, yet due to the cage around their mouth, it was useless. Eclipse hyperventilated as the fire quickly spread, and they were back up into one of the corners. Tears were streaming down their face, watching in fear as the fire surrounded them and felt the fire lick as their chassis as it came closer and closer.

Eclipse hyperventilated more, trying to slap the fire away, but only fueled it as his hands were covered in gasoline, resulting in the flames spreading all across his arm and hand. Eclipse cried and screamed, the fire encasing him, failing as he tried to get the flames to go away. He started to actually choke on the smoke, the embers burning away at his chassis, melting and fusing together along with his clothes.

Eclipse's body began to scorch and melt more, rays falling off from the extreme heat, and some flickers of embers actually got into his left eye; blinding them. Eclipse cried out, fighting the urge to bring their hands up to their face. The cage around their head slowly fused to their faceplate, and chunks of iron managing to actually fall off and into the fire, grazing Eclipse's legs. The more the iron melted, the more excruciating pain shot through Eclipse's faceplate. Eclipse's breathing was laboured and raised shakey hand up to the cage and pulled off the iron, screaming as the iron pulled his casing along with it. Sobbing, they managed to get a huge chunk of iron off, freeing their mouth and throwing it far away.

That was a mistake.

It exploded, the fire spreading more rapidly. Eclipse panicked more and more. Begging and pleading to anyone who would actually listen. Tears stinging away at their face, the fire licking away at his casing, pining him against the corner of the wall. He sobbed and sobbed, begging for the fire to be extinguished. Eclipse screwed their eyes tighter, being suffocated by the heavy smoke. The smoke suffocating his artificial lungs and internal systems. It was literal hell. Eclipse tried one more time for the fire to go away.

"PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!" Eclipse screamed.

Suddenly, as if by some miracle had heard them, sprinklers came down from holes that formed in the ceiling and turned on. Ice cold water extinguishing the fire. The water mixed with burns on Eclipse's flesh made his systems go into shock, causing him to sob harder. He continued to sob as the fire was fully put out and slid down on the floor, eyes shut tightly, bits and pieces of iron still stuck on his faceplate. Pained sobs echoed in the room, and their body wracked with everlasting pain.

Eclipse then turned their head to the ceiling and let out the most terrifying and horrifying scream ever, followed by the continous sobs as they buried their face in their knees, which were brought up to his chest. They hugged their legs and stomach, panic still lingering. Eclipse could hear the mocking laughter from the other side and slowly fading. Eclipse's anxiety spiked so much that they couldn't focus on anything else. In fact, his mind still believed the fire was still there due to the intense pain that lingered.

"Make it stop. Please... I don't wanna die. Put the fire out... please." Eclipse's weak and hoarse voice pleaded.

Eclipse sobbed for what seemed like hours, not realizing that he got his charging station back once the floor was damp enough for the station to be back in the room with him. He didn't even register the taunting voices of his tormentors, and even when they left him alone, once again.

He failed to keep his own promise to himself. He let them see him vulnerable. Extremely vulnerable. Eclipse stared into space as their mind refused to acknowledge anything except the trauma they just went through. Their body forced itself into a shutdown to rest up, and when Eclipse woke up, he blindly plugged themselves into the charging station and stared back into space. Eclipse's body was folded in on itself; knees pulled up, arms tucked in and face buried, what was left of his rays were pulled in to their fullest, and his body twitched here and there.

Eclipse hated the fear. They hated being vulnerable. They hated having beg, plead, scream, and cry to get what they want so as they don't die. He failed himself. He truly failed himself.