The Demon They Once Feared. {BOOK 2}

|19|Those Eyes.

She gagged, recognising one of the slimy items in a dusted jar. And when she regained her composure, she unexpectedly gagged again, this time, though, almost vomiting the dinner she had a while ago. Her stomach churned, flashes of her past resurfacing, making her glance rapidly around the other items on the tables as she took weak steps forward.

*-*

She moved hastily, thrashing her wrists and feet to the side of the metal, wanting some sort of freedom. But nothing of the sort came. Her weakened hits were useless against the metal that seemed like it would be made of titanium.

"Why try to escape, you know full well that it's impossible to escape at this point," Kabuto said, in his usual annoying voice.

A whimper left the depths of her throat, glancing hesitantly to the sides, with little hope of having something -anything- help her get out of the bindings of metal. Her glazed eyes blurred everything in view, not many things rendering as clear. Mina blinked, repeatedly and hurriedly, only to be horrified at the things she saw.

*-*

Breath ragged and heavy, she abruptly clutched the cloth over her chest, knuckles turning to a deathly white. Her head felt like it was being hit with a brick over and over, and the world actually felt like it was spinning. She lost balance, staggering forward and roughly grabbing ahold of the chipping, wood table. She held on to it for dear life, trying to regain her breath, chasing after it with every heave of her chest. It felt impossible.

Memories she had buried over the months she had been back in the village, came cane crawling out of the dirt like the revived zombie people that threatened her home a while back. She shook her head vigorously, wanting them to be thrown out of her house of memories and never be thought of again. But in a split second, through clouded vision, she spotted a horrifying sight.

The pain intensified tenfold. Now, to the point of almost crippling on the floor in pain, she blinked rapidly. Get it together, she shouted mentally, it's over! Nothing seemed to be of help and the tutting in her head from the voice made it worse. She finally clamped her eyes closed, taking her away from reality and the sight she had just seen, that is with the risk of seeing something much worse than reality -her imagination.

"I believe in you."

Everything stopped. No longer breathing heavy, no longer panicking. She heard -remembered- something worth remembering. The voice was awfully familiar, yet, it was different from the one she was used to hearing. Mina's blonde eyebrows furrowed underneath her headband as she stared blankly at the floor.

Taking a moment to finally regain her composure, she stood up. Not daring to look to the side again, Mina walked to the end of the room, scanning the wall for a secret opening. It should be here somewhere, the thought crossed her mind, Itachi hinted at it. She placed a gloved hand on the cold wall, feeling some of its moisture soak her glove. Flinching away, she used her other, ungloved, hand to search for a hidden button or opening.

Moments passed and nothing was found, so she stepped away, ready to bash through the wall if needed. But it wasn't, with a sudden sound, the wall was flung open, the sound echoing throughout the room and possibly into the ROOT meeting area. She stopped all movement, just to be sure no one followed her through. Hearing nothing again, only the sound of her beating heart. She knew adrenalin was pumping through her veins, so much to the point, she was on the verge of being paranoid. Or maybe it was just a hunch.

Mina took careful, quiet and light steps into the hidden room, observing the emptiness of it. It set a feeling in her stomach, the pure bareness of it was eery.