Monster Month: Halloween MCYT Oneshots

Day 25- One Weakness

This one... strayed pretty far from the prompt. It's 924 words long, and connected to day 21, so it's a fantasy au but kind of ends up like an evil laboratory sci fi modern thing. Also warning because there are evil scientists being evil so they're doing evil science experiments that are basically just torture.

 Long ago, a fae had made a fatal mistake. It didn't prove to be fatal for that individual, nor for any fae for a long time. All they'd done was mention to a human that their species could only be killed in one way. That, of course, prompted a few humans to try and find the way to kill the fae, with little success. The information faded into a little background fun fact. Until more recently, with scientists and their fancy labs trying to learn about the world...

The mistake was only becoming fatal now, for Katherine. Okay, maybe she was exaggerating. It might not end up killing her, but it would sure hurt. It was... already hurting. It felt like she was going to be killed. She was trapped. And indirectly, another fae was to blame.

The bare white room she was kept in was brightly lit. It always was. Katherine had no sense of day or night, or even the current season. She fidgeted with the metal cuff on her wrist- that was what was keeping her from using magic. That was why she hadn't busted out and killed every scientist in this godsforsaken place. Katherine was faintly aware that she should've been horrified at the thought, as a member of the Seelie Court, she was supposed to be kind. She didn't have any kindness to spare for them, though.

She heard a quiet click from somewhere near the ceiling. Another test. She remained seated in the center of the room. Katherine knew she was being watched. She knew there were cameras, or one-way windows, or something, even though she couldn't see them. She knew her own weakness. She didn't need to let the humans know it.

Water flowed from a hidden pipe, soon covering the smooth floor in a thin layer. The water level started to rise. It was uncomfortably cold against Katherine's skin, soaking through her clothing. She shivered, standing up. The level ever so slowly climbed. It reached her knees, then her hips, then her shoulders. After what felt like hours, she was forced to tread water or else go under. Soon after, the flow stopped.

Katherine was having difficulty staying afloat by treading water, as the cold made her muscles tense. She switched to doing a back float. It was easier, but she still needed to focus on her breathing. Deep breath in, shallow exhale, inhale, shallow exhale.

Nothing else of the environment of the room changed. Was this some kind of endurance test?

More time passed. It was unclear how long. Katherine might have fallen asleep, or just been absorbed in her thoughts. Either way, she was startled back to reality as more water rapidly flowed into the room. Dazed from the cold, Katherine tried and failed to tread water again. The water got close to the ceiling. Katherine took a deep breath, just before the gap of air closed, and she was forced underwater.

She held her breath until her lungs began to burn. She involuntarily gasped for air, instead inhaling water. Katherine choked, internally cursing at whoever was running this experiment. It hurt and she couldn't breathe and she couldn't even die this way.

She must have passed out, because next thing she knew, she was strapped to a table, while human scientists loomed over her. Some kind of tube was in her mouth, pumping the water out of her lungs. After a few minutes, one scientist pulled the tube out of Katherine's mouth. It was uncomfortable and strange, feeling the plastic drag all the way up her trachea. She shuddered, earning a stern look from another scientist. She spat at them. They shoved a gag into her mouth.

"Stupid fae," The scientist muttered.

The other scientist clicked their tongue. "It's no time to ridicule the test subject, even if it's uncooperative. It's time to study."

A scalpel sliced a line across Katherine's neck. Her yell of pain was muffled by the gag. The scientist sliced again, this time going deeper, blinding her senses with agony. And again, deeper, until Katherine was sure from her struggle to breathe that her windpipe was cut and exposed to the air. She writhed in her bonds, but it was useless. She heard the scientists mutter observations as they poked around inside her neck.

Katherine whimpered at the sharp tug of needle and thread as one scientist sewed up the cut in her neck. Uncaring hands wrapped bandages over it, just a little too tightly.

Just when the scientist was lifting the scalpel again, the lights turned red. An alarm blared incredibly loudly.

"Damn it, what is it this time?" The other scientist muttered.

"Hope it's just a drill they forgot to tell us about, or maybe a false alarm," The first scientist said, setting down the scalpel anyway.

A crash came from somewhere outside. Katherine turned her head towards the door, seeing someone get thrown against the small window.

"Shit, not a drill!" The second scientist rushed towards the door, maybe to help, maybe to barricade it, while the first fumbled with their walkie talkie. The door was thrown open, and somebody familiar dashed into the room. She pointed her wand at the scientists, who fell to the ground, then rushed over to untie Katherine.

"Oh my gosh Katherine, what did they do to you?" Shelby asked. She was disheveled, and blood- hopefully not hers- spattered her clothes.

She couldn't respond, since her throat hurt too much, but seeing Shelby, Katherine smiled for the first time in weeks.