Parasitic Humanity

Captured

The first thing I noticed was the cold ground. The worn concrete scratched against my cheek as I sat up. My entire body was sore, especially my forearms. The world was a blur of dark shapes and distant sounds. It took awhile for my eyes to fully adjust back to normal.

I was in a small room with no furniture or any sign that anyone had ever been in here before. A small sliver of light peeked through a slim crack underneath the rusted steel door. A sharp pain jerked up my arm as I moved it slightly. Looking down, I saw that my forearms were covered in white gauze. How the gauze was wrapped was a bit sloppy, so my best guess was that Jasper did it.

Jasper!

Bolting into a standing position, I scanned the small stone room. There were no signs of any other people. I was alone, which meant my twin was too. Wincing as I stepped, I darted towards the door. There were no knobs on the inside, and the hinges looked to be crudely fixed. In fact, it was the only part of the door that wasn't rusted. Seeing no other way of escape, I banged my bandaged hands against the metal surface.

"Let me out now!" I ordered, no answer. "If you so much as touch my brother I'm going to rip your throats out!" Still no answer. For the next hour or so, I banged against the door and screamed myself hoarse. From death threats to pleads, I said it all. Exhausted, I crawled out of the way of the door and slumped against the wall. I unconsciously traced every scale that covered the surface of my pointed tail. Every time I regained enough strength, I went back to harassing the door. Every once in awhile, I would see a shadow block out the sliver of light, or hear voices outside of the door.

Frustrated tears ran down my face in a hot waterfall. My knuckles were torn and bloody under the bandages. The soft white gauze was grey and sticky with sweat on my forearms. I didn't want to give up, but I had been playing this game for days. My vision was blurry and I was now too dizzy to stand. My limbs felt heavy and my stomach hurt too much for me to move. My body wouldn't even produce any waste, it's only concern was keeping my alive.

I spent most of the time sleeping, hoping to regain at least an ounce of sleep. But all it did was make me lose track of time. How long have I been in here? Days? Weeks? And what happened to Jasper, was he okay? If anything had happened to him, I would kill Monte even if it killed me.

A bright light nearly burned my eyeballs out of their sockets. The blurred image of a person stood in the doorway. Familiar black hair and emerald green eyes formed themselves as my eyes adjusted. "Jasper!" I called out, but it came out barely above a whisper. I tried to move towards him, but I couldn't even make my tail twitch. My blood was ice cold too, I could die at any second.

"Nova!" He shouted. Jasper knelt down at my side and pulled me into a sitting postion. His warm skin felt hot against my own. My head lolled pathetically to my chest. His head turned toward the door, a murderous expression on his face. "What did you do to her?" He demanded.

Another being stepped in the doorway. His amber eyes seemed to glow against his dark figure. A pair of cat ears flicked in our direction. A wave of rage passed over me, but I was too weak to attack. "I didn't do anything except for leave her in this room. She's the one who refused to save up her energy." Jasper moved to attack him, but I weakly grasped his sleeve.

Jasper sighed and pulled me onto his back. My head rested on my brother's shoulder, my arms loosely draped around his neck. He trudged over to Monte, my limp form lying uselessly on his back. "You're going to help me fix her." He ordered.

Monte smirked. "Or what?"

Jasper returned it with a snarl. "Or I'll rip off your tail and shove it down your throat." Shrugging, Monte lead us outside. Being as close to death as I was, it was hard to process anything that I saw. Shapes of people passed by us in blurred masses. Doors and hallways blended together in a confusing maze.

A warm wave of heat welcomed me as Jasper stepped outside. The sun was bright and cruel, but it was warm. A small sign escaped my lips as my frozen form began to thaw. The soft sound of crashing waves reached my ears. Jasper softly sat me down against a large boulder. The sand was soft and warm under me. A wooden cup was held to my lips and I gulped down the cold liquid. Water had never tasted so good in my life.

Some bread was held up to my mouth as well, and I ate the whole loaf in under a minute. Jasper continued to pull water and food out of a bag made of braided cattail leaves. Soon I was able to move on my own. Monte stood behind Jasper the entire time, watching silently.

I pulled off the old bandages and peered at my skin. The surface was still torn, but someone had done a decent job of stitching it up. Scales were beginning to cover the torn areas like human skin would scab. It was strange, even for a lizard. Jasper handed me a new roll but I ignored it. Jumping up to my feet, I lunged at Monte before anyone could draw a breath. I was still very weak, but that wasn't stopping me.

He sighed and wrapped my arm behind my back. Monte pulled my hand up to my shoulder blade and held it there for a few seconds. "Well, aren't you something?" He taunted. Struggling against his grasp, I fought to find a way to pin him down. A crudely made knife was held to my throat.

Jasper rushed forward. "Stop! I'm sorry that she's being to aggressive, that's just how my sister is. Please forgive her, don't hurt her!"

"Shut up, Jasper." I growled. "I can take care of myself."

Monte chuckled. "I'm sure you can." Drawing the knife away from my throat, he threw me into Jasper's arms. Spinning around, I prepared to strike again. Dashing forward, I prepared a punch for his neck. At the last possible moment, I fell to the ground and kicked his legs out from under him. The knife fell from his grasp as I pounced. My knees pressed down onto his thighs, my claws pressed down on his forearms. Almost as if it had a mind of its own, my tail curled around the hilt of the dagger. His own wrapped around the scaled surface and stopped me from moving the knife any farther.

"You're good." He admitted, not at all fazed by the fact that I could easily rip out his throat. "I was right to bring you and your brother here." Before I could blink, he reversed our positions and pinned me down onto the hot sand. Stealing back the knife from me, he stuck it in a crude leather sheath and stalked away.

With a scared look in his eyes, Jasper helped me up. "Nova, I really don't think it would be a good idea to get on his bad side."

Seeing that Monte was no where in sight, I slumped against my brother, too exhausted to move. "Just hand me the bandages, you stink at treating wounds."