The Empowered

Chapter 1: Never Ending

Sarah lit up the end of her finger, creating a small flame. She quickly put it to the wall of her cell and dragged it down, singeing yet another talley mark on to it. The power-resistant cell bars were glowing purple and Sarah's flame was flickering. Sighing, she put it out and the color from the bars slowly faded away.

"Ah, was that the telltale purple glow of the bars I saw?" Sarah stiffened and Lily walked into view. She clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"You know you're not allowed to use your powers, Sarah!" Lily chided. She looked down at Sarah and grinned.

"Time for your punishment!" Sarah said nothing as she was pulled to her usual torture chamber. Once she was firmly strapped down, Lily opened her knife drawer and took out her favorite knife. She then opened a cupboard and pulled out a jar-looking object.

"Do you know what this is, Sarah?" Lily asked with her back turned to Sarah. Sarah grit her teeth and remained silent. Lily whirled around and plunged her knife into Sarah's arm.

"You forgot to answer me," she growled. Sarah screeched and her eyes and hair began glowing. Lily pushed the knife down further.

"I asked you a question," she hissed. Sarah's chains were glowing a deep purple and absorbing all the fire energy she was trying to let out. Lily sighed and twisted the knife, resulting in a shriek from Sarah.

"Would you care to answer it for me?"

"I... I d-don't know what y-y-you have L-Lily..!" Sarah yelled, tears streaming down her checks. Lily grinned, satisfied, and pulled the knife out. Sarah was breathing heavily and sobbing as blood raced down her arm forming a pool on the table and floor. Lily licked her finger and stuck it into the wound. Sarah yelped as a fresh wave of pain wove its way through her. Lily pulled her finger back out and lapped up the blood.

"Could use some more salt," she muttered. Lily returned back to the counter, allowing Sarah time to catch her breath. The chains combined with the torture Lily had just done left Sarah panting and weak. But she knew Lily was just getting started.

Lily was holding a bag of salt when she spun around. She opened the bag and gleefully dumped it's contents onto Sarah's arm. Sarah grit her teeth as she prepared for the pain that was about to come.

Lily began rubbing the salt into Sarah's bleeding wound, pushing deep with her fingers. Try as she might, Sarah couldn't stop herself from screaming, crying, and struggling against her restraints. Lily stopped and grabbed a nearby jar. She took the knife she used to stab Sarah earlier and began scraping blood into the jar until it was about 3/4 full.

"Looks like we're done for today," Lily sighed. She brought Sarah back to her cell and left, leaving Sarah alone. She stepped back and counted up her talley marks for the day. There were now 337 marks. Sarah curled up on the board tied to the wall and fell asleep, whimpering. The torture never ended. It haunted her dreams and her mind at all times.

~-~-~-~-~

Llana walked around near the back of the facility, looking at some of the more depressed and silent prisoners in their cells. There were less insults hurled at her and more people cowering away from their bars or faking sleep. Llana found the back cells to be boring, but they hadn't been touched for a while and someone needed to do it. Llana approached a small girl and recognized her as the 7-year-old she had once played with.

"Hi Bella~!" Llana chirped. Bella whimpered and stepped back. Llana grinned and pulled out her axe.

"Do you wanna play again?" she giggled. Bella shook her head no and Llana's eyes flashed. Her smile grew until it looked much more insane than happy.

"You don't..?" she muttered, raising her axe. Bella yelped and scampered to the back wall of her cell. Llana laughed and swung her arm down. Her axe flew through the air and landed right on Bella's arm, pinning her to the wall. Llana let herself into the cell and slowly walked over to Bella.

"Tell me, Bella," she began," if you are in one of the original cells without power-resistant bars..." Llana grabbed her axe by the handles.

"...why don't you use your powers and stop me?" Bella screeched as Llana slowly began moving the axe down.

"B-Because... my power is to s-see people's a-aura's..." Bella stuttered. Llana grinned.

"Ooh, is it? So then, what does my aura look like?" she giggled. Bella gulped.

"Y-Your aura is... it's fl-flashing so many c-c-colors... it's a-all mixed up... it's sc-scary..!" Bella cried. She was sobbing now, her face stained with tears. Llana smiled sweetly.

"Sounds pretty," she whispered. She pulled her axe out of Bella's arm and left the cell, locking it on the way out. She turned around and something caught her eye. It was a cell with multiple talley marks singed onto the wall, 416 of them. Llana tilted her head as she walked into the cell and began running her hand up and down the wall.

"Is this cell empty now?" she questioned. Bella, in the next cell over, responded.

"Y-Yeah... a girl named Sarah was there for having fire powers." Llana stared at the wall for a bit longer before she asked another question.

"And where is she now?"

"I took care of her 2 years ago," a voice sounded behind her. Llana turned around and saw Lily, looking smug with her arms crosses. Llana grinned.

"Did they lose the game?" she asked. Lily chuckled.

"Yes, Llana, they did. They lost the game."