TRIGGER WARNING: BRIEF MENTION OF GUNS, ILLNESS AND INJECTIONS. MENTIONS OF BEING BRAINWASHED, ANMESIA AND DROWNING. PLEASE ASK IF YOU NEED A SUMMARY, DO NOT TRIGGER YOURSELF. YOU ARE ALL VALID.
The last thing he saw before he fell asleep was the moon.
And then he dreamt.
She ran her hands down her ponytail, her amber eyes trained on him.A warm smile rested upon her lips as she looked at her son play on a console, swinging his hips and waving his arms too late to get the points, he turned to look at her and gave her a smile that almost split his face in half.
. . .
"Mama! Tell me another story!" He jumped up and down on his blue bed, his mother stood in front of him, looking at him lovingly.
"Promise to sleep after?" He nodded his head enthusiastically and scrambled under the covers to show her wouldnt break his promise. "Okay okay alright. How about i tell you the story of your name?"
"Yes yes!"
"Okay," she ran her hands through his hair, pursing her lips and tapping her chin with a finger as she pretends to try to remember, "my father, your grandad, was called Michael. He loved the stars. They absolutely fascinated him. He would stay up late at night even when he was a boy to watch the moon and the stars, sneaking out when there was a meteor shower. He lived his whole life, learning and observing the night sky. He knew that while he was a man of earth, his heart was a man of space. It's where he belonged." Young apollo watched his mother intently, his eyes wide as saucers, never leaving her face.
"And then, when he had me, he named me Rosalind- it's one of Uranus' moons," her son began to giggle," i know, they didnt think that one through. Anyway, as i grew up, i shared the same love for the cosmos as my father. In fact, i met your mum at an observatory in London and we fell in love. Then, when i had you, we decided to name you apollo, after the rocket that took the first humans to the moon. And that's the story of your name."
His mother straightened her back and stood up from the bed, pulling the duvet up her son's chest and kissed him on the forehead.
"Get some sleep now baby. Your mamas love you."
"Love you too mamas."
As young apollo watched his mum walk away and close the door, his night light being the only thing keeping the dark at bay . h i
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F L I C K E R
His dreams changed course, he saw a boy, his current age, he had brown hair and eyes, he was wearing some sort of uniform. He was yelling his name. Or at least, he seemed to be, but he got it wrong.
Alexander! Alexander! Alexander! Alexander! Alex!
The boy must've thought that was his name, there was no one else he could be speaking to.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Apollo mumbled in his sleep.
Alexander! Can you hear me? Can you see me?
"My name is apollo."
Alex, I'm thomas. You need to remember, you need to, you're our best chance!
His dreams changed course again, this time he saw himself, curled up in the embrace of a blonde boy, crying and screaming until his throat was raw.
He was with his mum again, except now she looked like she'd been ill, she looked dazed, her face covered as they walked through a crowd of people, everyone headed the same way. Towards the screaming.
Men. With guns.
A necklace.
A laboratory.
People were injecting things into him.
He was drowning.
He couldn't breathe, someone help. Help. Help. Help. Help. Help. Help.
Two girls, one blonde another with box braids, they were laughing. They looked at each other with such love. It reminded him of his mama and his mum. When they would dance together, singing improvised songs with the strangest lyrics.
Alex!
Men.
Guns.
Mum.
Necklace.
Needles.
"Now, be a good boy. If you behave things, will go well. What do you remember?"
He simply stared at her.
"Your name is Alexander."
"You will be a great soldier for us."
"Wicked is good."
"Wicked is good." He heard his own voice mumble.
Drowning again. His head was pounding, he couldn't breathe in, it was crowded around his head. Make it stop make it stop make it stop.
Alex!
Men.
Guns.
Mum.
Necklace.
Needles.
Drowning.
Soldier.
Alex!
Men
Guns
Mum
Necklace
Needles
Drowning
DARKNESS
Apollo finally woke up. He didn't know how long he had been trapped in the darkness. He was panting, his forehead glazed with sweat, his eyes blown wide. He would've fallen from the tree in his startled wake had he not been frozen with fear.
"What the hell." The necklace. He remembered with clarity the necklace he saw in his 'dream', he knew it was the same, he had no doubt and yet he rushed to check anyway. He looped his finger underneath the rope that hung around his neck and pulled it over, feeling the cold silver of the necklace run up his chest until he held it in his hand.
It was the same one.
He knew that they weren't dreams, knew they were memories, but he didn't want to.
He didn't want to be 'Alexander', not if that's the world he lived in, not if he got that name by being drugged and brainwashed over and over again. He didn't want to be their 'best chance.' He just wanted to go back to his mama.
Now that he could remember them, the ache for his mums was strong, it lay on his chest, pressing down on it with all it's strength.
Apollo didn't want to close his eyes again. He didn't want it to be dark again.
He looked up into the sky and saw the moon. He felt connected to it now, knowing that it connected him to his mothers. Apollo rested his head against the tree trunk, not letting his eye stray from the moon. He wouldn't let himself sleep tonight. And so he waited for the day to begin and for the trials to recommence.
A/n: wow! Imagine me updating within the same week, mad that is.
i know this is a bit crap but i couldn't get the words out in a different way to portray the images in my head, so this'll have to do. It's meant to be fast and i coudln't find a way to rite this well that would show that. I decided to separate the chapter with his dreams and the chapter with the trial because it didn't feel right to have them in the same one.
Please eat and drink.
-c