Killing A Gemstone

Chapter I - Lapis Lazuli

He woke up to the sound of a creaking door. With no clue at all of where he was, why he was here, where his twin sister was, he layed on top of a table with nothing more to cover himself with, than a sheet. The room he was held captive in was small, but not dark at all. He was able to see everything around him, including the two men that had their backs turned towards him. With no other thought than to escape in his head, he took a sharp glance at the door, which was completely open, before he tried to raise himself in standing position. He failed. His body simply didn't respond. The only part he could move was his eyes.

The two men talked  quietly with each other. He only managed to understand fragments of what the conversation was about, but he assumed the theme was himself. "Do you really think...", "But they are so young...", "Of course they will survive it....", "Maybe not...", "We just have to give it a go..."

They turned towards him, one of them gasping of excitement "He's awake! let's get startet!" The man left the room in a sudden quick manner. He lay there on the table feeling confused, and quite vulnerable with only a sheet to cover himself. And if you add the fact that he couldn't move, he had no idea how to defend himself at whatever they where thinking on doing to him. The other man made a swift move, walking towards him. He didn't look frightening at all, in fact he looked tired. With big, dark bags under his eyes, hands hanging sloppily down his sides, and his face showing no expression at all. What is wrong with this guy? he thought to himself. Before he could continue his thoughts of the man, he started talking. "You probably have an awful lot of questions right now", he said with i sigh. "Where am I? Who are these men? What are their intentions? Why am I here? Where is my sister?". "Well, most of those questions I can answer, but I won't. You can't even talk right now, so there is actually no way you could argue with me. The only thing I can say for sure is that your sister is in just the same situation as you are."

As the man once again sighted, the other man came storming into the room with some kind of clothing in his hands. Eventhough he didn't want to, he had to admit to himself that it was the most magnificent color he had seen. The deep blue color had a few hints of gold sparkles and made a magical reflection when the light in the room hit the fabric. "Have you ever heard of Lapis Lazuli?" The tired man continued. "Blink one time for yes, and two times for no". He lay on the table blinking twice. "As I thought. Well, Lapis Lazuli is a gemstone. It is the only material that was used making this clothing. The fact that Lapis Lazuli is a gemstone, made the process of making the fabric difficult. But at a certain temperature and pressure, we managed to make the impossible possible." He could only manage to blink with his eyes, really fast to hint to the tired man that he wanted to know more.

"This clothing will be put on your body, and after some days or weeks, it will serve as your new skin." His eyes grew wide when he realised what they planned to do with him. "Don't worry son, this skin will make you stronger in every way possible, and it will also work as armour at all times. But we still don't know the sideaffects to it though. But I guess we'll find out soon, eh?" A sly smile spread to the man's face before he continued, "I am afraid I can't spill anymore now, besides, we have to get started. We still have fourteen left after we're finished with you". He consentrated again trying to find a way to get control over his own body. But like the last time, he failed. The only thing he could do, was trying to hold his breath calm, close his eyes and try not to think what would happen to him.

But the human mind is an odd thing, as much as you try not to think of something, the more thoughts you have of it. What else would change? Could these sideaffects be so horrible? No, it couldn't get worse than the fact that his skin would be blue in only a matter of time. In a shock he realised that his life would never be the same. He would never be able to marry someone, or have children. Who would love a blue man? He would never have a family like he used to have. And what about his sister? Would they ruin her life as well? Probably. And what was their mission? Was he nothing but an experiment? Only time would tell.

***

It had been about a week since they put on his new skin. He hadn't seen much to them either the past week, only when they came  to check the skin or to give him food and water. But he always refused to eat or drink. He just realised the fact that he hadn't had any food or water in a week. That's weird, he thought to himself. It was probably a part of the sideaffects. Suddenly he felt this numb feeling in his feet. It spread slowly along his body, but at last he could feel the creepy feeling all over the body. But as sudden as it came, it was gone again. He knew what it meant. At first he only tried to raise himself up slowly in sitting position. He was faced with two shocks; the first; his body hadn't moved at all for a week, and his muscles felt quite tender. the second; as he looked down at himself he saw that his body was blue. It felt so weird, as if he was trapped into the body of someone else. He felt disgusted, and dirty as if he was ruined...

Later that day, the tired man returned, but his face was now filled with joy. "I see you have tried your new skin today?" He didn't respond to the question. "Well, with no serious sideaffects I think you are ready to meet the others." His face lit up at the thought of seeing his sister again, but would he recognize her? Now he started to worry... "Would I be able to meet my sister at first?" He spoke. He would rather meet her alone,  than with thirteen others in the room. "I guess that could be arranged, but first put on these clothes." He did as he was told. The clothes had the same color as he had now, which felt weird, but he had gotten more used to the thought, so now he didn't feel as disgusted as he had this very morning.

He looked over at the man when he was finished. "Come with me." They started walking out of the room, the man guiding him through something that looked like some sort of a castle. The floors were covered by red carpets, the walls were brickwalls, with some portraits of men from a distant time. While they walked, a plan was forming in his head.

The man stopped in front of a door. "She's inside." He slowly opened the door, peeking through the small slit. She sat on a table, with her back facing him. Her body didn't have the blue color he had. She had different shades of green and pink. He assumed that her skin was also some sort of a gemstone. As the door made a loud creaking sound, she almost jumped around in shock. "Who are you?" She asked suspicious. His heart fell. How could his own sister not recognize him? He must have changed more than he thought. "It's me! Your brother." As soon as he started speaking he saw that she recognized him by voice. She looked at him one more time before she ran across the room, and hugged him tightly. "I was so afraid that you didn't make it!" He could hear in her voice that she cried. "You're so different!" She said, "I'm so different." she continued. "They ruined us," He answered, "and they will have to pay for it somehow". She loosened the hug and looked up confused in his eyes, "Wait, what? What do you mean with they ruined us?" Now it was his time to be confused. "I mean they ruined us, as in they changed our skin with gemstones?!" he said, adding a dry sarcastic laugh. "They didn't ruin us, they helped us. We are stronger then we were, we are simply better than we were before." She answered. "How on earth can you say such a thing? We will never be anything near normal again!" He said angrily. "Why would you want to be normal? It's time to face it. We couldn't be better than we were. Our skills in battle couldn't be better. This is our chance!" He looked at his sister with no face expression at all. "Have you gone mad? What did they tell you? You know what, just forget it!" He turned around and stormed out of the door running down a group of people. They all looked at him with angry eyes. They clearly knew that he would try to escape. He flinched, and ran through the hallway with only one thought in his head. I have to escape.