Warped

Chapter 14: Lukas

I jolt awake with a hiss, a seething stinging burning from my back. Without a thought, I arc my back to glare behind me, when all of my back burns. My core stiff and groaning and just dead and my arms shake trying to hold me up.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Lukas!" I slowly ease myself back down, hissing at all this fresh pain in my body and trying to stamp out any angry and defensive bubbles boiling up.

"Ner...row..." I curse everything in this place as I struggle to regain human speech so I can talk to Olivia. "N-no, don't be sorry. Not your fault."

"Are you hungry?"

I instantly forget all and any pain as my head snaps over to Petra. Who's holding out a piece of steak, the smell engulfing me now that I'm aware of it. Eating will help the pain, give my body new stuff to repair me. And hopefully these demons won't break me again.

Still though, tight stiff muscles refuse to let me move properly and are making any movements I can make every painful and very unwanted. "Yes please."

Olivia shifts, taking the meat from Petra, with me wincing when I recall she only has one arm to do so, and walks back over to me. My throbbing arms twitch, since I kinda want to grab it from her so I can eat it, but the muscles too weak to move. I try again, only for violent shakes to wreck the limbs before they fall back to my side.

"Here, let me." Olivia, who I've never been so grateful and appreciative for, brings the meat right to my face. My fangs tearing into the beef, my mouth rejoicing that it has purpose again instead of just yowling at demons.

I quickly swallow in haste and take another bite, when my stomach groans at me. I chew slowly then, not wanting to give the pulsating orangs down there any more reason to hurt. Getting food shouldn't be painful, it really shouldn't considering this is the second time I've eaten since being here.

Despite the aches and vague nauseous sensation, I can't stop from eating even if I wanted to. The amazing smell, the out-of-this-world divine taste, just everything about this meat is glorious. Maybe the fish was only so mind-blowingly awesome was because of how hungry I was.

So even with that slow pace, the meat did not last long. My eyes flutter in content and a satisfied hum rises from me.

"Thanks Olivia." I swallow a bit, my throat a bit raspy after all the cries last night. Now that I feel almost sedated by the mere fact my belly is full, I can notice these tiny things. At least until my back begins to burn hotter than the Nether.

"You were the one that got them, apparently you performed 'very well' on some tests and didn't resist too much on your punishment." I flinch, shots of pain firing up, as she said tests. Those terrible demented tests and then that awful punishment. I never want to think about them again, that torture shouldn't even exist.

Petra coughs, and I open my eyes to look at her. "Do you mind takin' about it? We need to know what those demons are planning for us."

Olivia actually lets out a faint hiss, but it doesn't seem nearly as rage filled as mine. I let my tongue graze over my fangs and lips, preparing for the story. Although I'm not saying it twice and I haven't really seen Axel yet.

A flash of panic strikes through me, but then my nose flares, sniffing the iron scent over on another bed. I hate to wake him, I know how terrible it feels, but this is important. And reliving through it once is bad enough, doing it twice is just unacceptable.

"Wake Axel." Petra nods and moves to wake him, while I silently curse myself at my terrible grammar. I guess I could blame it on stress, starvation, or vocal cords that want to meow more than speak, but I still should be able to say 'Can you wake up Axel?' without any trouble.