The Diseased Heart

Chapter 4

Everything was dark.

My whole body felt numb and distant, I couldn't even tell if I was breathing. Everything was cold, was that why it was so numb?

I felt a faint bump from inside my chest, it confused me, until I recognized the distant sensation as my heart starting to beat. With blood pumping again I was able to start breathing a few moments afterward.

I was confused, and my memories were fuzzy, but I also felt groggy and disoriented, as if I had just woken up from a deep sleep. A sleep that left almost my entire body senseless.

Feeling slowly began returning to my body, along with the warmth of my heart pushing blood once again. But once it did, the pain soon followed suit, starting dull and growing into a siren that wouldn't stop blaring. My neck and face hurt the most out of everything, I had a strong feeling this wasn't just from sleeping in a bad position and cramping up. Was I in a fight again?

I realized how badly my eyes hurt. I thought I had experienced eye pain, but this was on another level, enough so it almost made me want to claw them out. I tried to blink away the pain, but trying only made me realize my eyes were wide open, and now they had been closed, they refused to open. I was so light blinded that I couldn't tell the difference.

So I had died, whatever happened must have been worse than Raven's fight. It left me dead on the ground with my eyes open to be blinded for who knows how long.

I should try and move my body, see what's broken and whatnot. A fight that bad is going to leave some nasty wounds, and how healed I am should help me tell how long I've been out.

I tried to flex my fingers, it hurt like literal hell, but I could. They cracked and twitched, as if my skin itself had stiffened up. My wrists, elbows, and shoulders seemed...stuck. I couldn't move them without feeling the faint itch of blood rolling down around the joint, and a massive shock of pain that made my head spin. My knees and hips felt the same, which was both weird and extremely unnerving.

I couldn't do much with my body stuck like this, and being unable to see anything was also not helping. I had to wait out my own eyes before I could do anything else.

Thankfully it only seemed to take a few more minutes which could have been hours for all I knew. Squinting at the glare of the dim lights, I looked around a bit, as much as I could without moving my neck. It looked like I was in a large, oddly shaped room, I could make out a couple large tables in the center, and what seemed like windows along some of the walls.

My eyes were slowly able to adjust, still coupled with searing pain throughout almost my entire body enough so that it almost masked the burning in my eyes. I was soon able to male out that it was not windows I was looking at, but in fact glass dosplay cases, like the ones my highschool used to display trophies and sports teams.

Confused, I tried to step forward with my Crawler legs, only to realize I couldn't lift them. Trying to move them made me more aware of where they were, as my neck refused to let me see for myself. Two seemed to be suspended in the air, while four felt as though they were stuck down. It took me a moment to realize they were, in fact, fastened down, and I felt my heart drop.

They were screwed to the floor.

Panicking, I yanked against them, to no avail. There were metal plates or something similar across my Crawler legs, holding them in place. I tried to regulate my breathing, and think of a smart way out of this. The two Cralwer legs that were suspended had cables holding them to the ceiling, so I was simply able to unhook them to get them free. What was all of this about? This is a very unorthodox way to restrain a Crawler...

Woth those two unhooked, I was able to feel around and pry the metal off, so I could finally step forward. I bumped into another glass wall. I hadn't even seen it! I was behind the glass, like these other things put for show, I wasn't liking the picture these puzzle pieces were making. I was restrained behind a glass display case? Bad news.

I looked around, as I was starting to become desensitized to the pain in my neck, and I was able to spot out that there was a small latch near the floor of this case, which would easily be flipped up from the inside, but would need a key from the outside. I assumed this was for cleaning the glass or something like that.

I opened the door and slid it open until it was just wide enough to fit through, not wanting to risk anything, and I hesitantly stepping down onto the floor which was about two feet below my case. My joints still felt locked up, and I noticed that my jaw also locked half open, just enough for my fangs to show in a resting position.

Trying to bend my joints or close my jaw still hurt like hell, but I was getting used to it. I looked at my arm to see if there was anything visible on my wrist, and there certainly was.

Just under my sleeve, out of view from anyone that may look through the glass, there was a small metal plate screwed into my wrist, holding it in place. It was safe to assume that was the same story everywhere else where things refused to move without pain.

I growled lowly. This won't be fun. Pulling my arms together, hearing faint pops and cracks, and feeling blood trickling down my shoulders, I managed to rip the plates out of my wrists, then my elbows and shoulders, grinding my teeth, causing my mouth to slowly fill with blood. The crimson liquid flowed from the wounds, and as it did, my hunger grew. Things were getting worse before they got better, and I was trying to get it over with as soon as possible.

Now that my arms were freed, I got the bolts and screws from my legs out, so I sat down in the floor, letting my Crawler legs rest for a few minutes. Feeling the back of my neck, I realized there was a metal plate with one screw in my back and one in the back of my head. That was strange, maybe it was to keep me looking in one spot? I didn't think harder on it before taking it out, nearly tearing up at the pure agony that came from tearing at that sensitive skin.

Now for the part I dreaded. I prodded at my jaw with a shaking hand, I could feel something inside holding my jaw in place. With a heavy sigh, I punched myself in the jaw with the full force I could muster, which sent way more pain through my arm than my jaw. With a crack, the two bloody screws came loose, and I wasted not a second spitting them out. I had to wipe the blood from my mouth quickly before it got out of hand.

Whoever put those in would have hell to pay. I flexed my jaw and rolled my shoulders, however long I had been there had taken a toll on my muscles.

I wasn't bleeding as much as I normally would, which was normal for Crawlers right after they had died and come back, but the pain in my neck worried me, as it would for any Crawler. Feeling around my neck, I realized there was a faint scar going the whole way around. Someone had probably tried to make me bleed out, not knowing Crawlers couldn't die that way.

Despite knowing that I was apparently imprisoned by an actual idiot, the longer I remained hurt, the worse my hunger got, begging for me to eat and regenerate. I decided not to fight it, and go look for something to try and eat before escaping this place.