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.
"Huh? What?" Axel's deep echo like voice resonates through the room. He sits up, looking around and looking quite confused. "Something happening?"
"Lukas is telling us what's going to happen to us, pay attention." I should also smile at Petra's brutal words, the nice familiarity in it, but I can't. Everything hurts to much and everything seems too dreary to leave any room for happiness.
"Be prepared for the devil man, he was there." Memories flash through my mind, the pain throughout my body steadily rising.
"I was awake for only two tests, so I don't know the first ones. Fainted from dehydration. Not enough to keep me out forever though."
The arm they tested on radiates that crushing pain again, the bones throbbing miserably. "They were crushing my arm for the second, I think they wanted to know how much force was needed to break it."
My lungs clench, before I know it I'm panting. As if I didn't have enough air. "I couldn't breathe after that, some iron block over my head or something. I nearly passed out again before they lifted it."
Black dots swarm my vision, and it feels as if someone is pouring cool water in my brain. My eyelids flutter open and shut, thoughts dragging through mud as my heart continues to pound frantically. Memories overwhelming.
"It hurt..." My tongue is a puffer fish right now, it feels prickly and puffed up and it is so hard to move in my dry mouth. My throat so raspy too, everything so sore and just tired. Why am I awake again?
"Okay, lets drag him to the water." I try to see again at Petra's words, but only the endless black everywhere. Even her words were so far away, and I can't do a thing when they lift me up. I can however hiss and groan to my heart's content. My very sore and anguished heart.
In the few agonizing seconds it took for them to bring my body over to the water tank, my stomach clenches. Nausea and pain flooding my brain, delirious and drowsy in pain. I probably shouldn't drink this.
Someone practically shoves my mouth into the straw thingy. With a twinge of doubt, I start drinking. And relief flashes through the pain and suspicions. The water reviving my mouth, every drop absorbed by my mouth before it could even get to my throat.
I take another gulp, the nausea I still have strong enough for me to be cautious. Half the water makes it to my throat this time, and those spare pieces of steak are even washed back into my stomach. Maybe that's with the sudden dizziness, I suppose my body needs water to digest stuff.
Another gulp, and it mostly get downs my throat. I never thought I could actually feel that area though, I've never experienced any sensations go through there. But man, the relief that blasts into my mind is even greater than the food.
With the next two gulps, I'm growing impatient, the glorious liquid floods into my stomach. Despite the meat in there now, the water bounces into my stomach before it gets completely absorbed.
Drinking a bit more eagerly, I stop taking gulps once I feel the water slouch into my stomach. Smiling at the pleasure emitting where nausea once was. I feel so drowsy now, maybe I should go back asleep. My friends wouldn't mind, they'll understand and I'll tell them when I wake up.
...If they're still here.
I jolt back from the straw, my legs scurrying to support me and tail furiously thrashing to keep me balanced. I hear the gasps from my friends, but my legs are the only part of me that isn't in pain. I can use them to carry me over to a bed. Even if my back burns from being stretched and my organs throb at the sudden movements.
Sitting down with a flop, I clear my throat. I'm just going to plow through anything and say it and then sleep. Or maybe I should try to enjoy more time with them? When I awake up I may be seeing their beaten bodies on the floor.
"Only the punishment gave me these bruises and marks came from. They chained me from the ceiling and just started to beat my arms with clubs. I'm pretty sure you guys won't get the same, they were pretty angry at me. After some whips and more beatings, they carried me back here."
My arms weakly clutch my stomach, the organs throbbing with all the bruises they got. And then there's that twinge, that awful twinge in my stomach when the skin and fur on my arms brushes up against my fur on my sides. That twinge which pushes down the fact I'm not human, humans don't have fur. Which can't be ignored since they tore my shirt off for my punishment.
Growls, I hear Petra growling but I don't bother to look up. I mostly feel the vibrations when Axel punches the wall over and over again. The bed creaks as Olivia sits down then rubs my shoulder gently with her one hand, the twinge growing into its own nausea when her hand moves over my fur.
"Thank you Lukas." Finally my eyes decide to look up from the ground, and right into where Olivia's eyes are. I can't see them, but I know what they look like. Sad, dull, the life sucked right out of them.
"All I've been doing is trying to keep going." Despite that I just restored life into my throat, it's so empty. I can't even manage something greater than a whisper. "That's all what any of us are doing."
She sighs, squeezing my furry shoulder. "Yes, but you're at least trying to make us feel better. Trying to make things better. It's kinda like-"
Olivia sobs, so very strained, and Petra and Axel go silent. "Jesse did that, Jesse does that. I know I shouldn't be thinking this but when you try to help us I always think of him and how alone he must be."
She pulls her hand off of me, using it to clutch where her shoulder, her shoulder that lost its arm. Her words muffled by sobs, the whimpers so much more devastating than the punishment I just endured. "He's been turned into some monster and he has to fight that all alone! It's just- I can't- I can't..."
Olivia trails off into sobs, and ignoring any burning or throbbing body parts, I hug her. Then we're both pulled onto the ground, where Axel and Petra wrap their arms around us too. And I desperately ignore the furious stinging all throughout my body when the skin and fur get stretched, that doesn't matter.
Olivia's sobs become muffled and someone's tears somehow slip onto my arm, Axel's deep cries buzzing throughout all of us. My stomach buckling back and forth, the food bouncing around in there. Silent sobs pounding in all of us, which does hurt.
But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much we cry or how much pain my limbs are in being like this. It doesn't and I don't even care.
All of us have lost the title of human, but that doesn't mean we aren't friends anymore. They can throw all the pain they want at us, they can try to rip us apart as many ways they can think of. It changes nothing.
We are all still friends, we will fight together and stand strong together. If they try to separate us, if they try to permanently take each other away from us, we will take them on. And should we fall, then I'd rather die fighting for someone than at the hands of a demon.
All of our tears though, all of our cries, I can feel them strengthening me. It's as if a switch as gone of in my brain and it refuses to budge now. My heart set in stone, lips tighten in determination.
I'm done hearing them cry and break due to these demons. I'm done waking up to pain and suffering and hopelessness. I'm done. I'm through. It's not happening anymore, I'm going to take control of this.
I'm going to figure out how to get the hell out of here. I'm going to learn how to escape from this hell. We're the Order of the Stone! We can get through this, with our fangs and fur alike, we are getting out of here.
They should know better than not to put us through torture over and over again. Because we will endure it, we've endured everything so far. And then we'll be too tough for them to control, and we will break free.
A growl bubbles up in my chest, and so not to alarm my friends, I mask it as a purr. But I, we, will escape them! They can't do this to us and get away, we will attack. For each other and for others, even if that may be the last thing we do.
I don't care how long this takes, we deserve to see the sun again and those demons don't.
****
Lukas is getting angry...
Now please mix his personality and the ocelot together and let boil in a prison of torture where he's seeing all of his friends slowly break apart and desperately trying to remain human.
Any guesses on how his behavior might change?
And with that note, I'll be gone now! Well, until I publish again in another five days!