Stockholm Syndrome

Footsteps

Stockholm Syndrome: Stockholm Syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors.

...or falling in love with them.

***
"Ian? Ian wake up." I opened my eyes and saw Derp staring down at me, his eyes wide in panic. I sat up, still half-asleep. "Wha-?" I paused to yawn as Derp got up off the bed/mattress, hostility and fear apparent in his tense shoulders and neck muscles. "What's going on?" He froze, standing deathly still. "Footsteps." He murmured. I stretched and got up, standing beside him. "What did you say?" Suddenly, he grabbed me and pulled my hands behind my back roughly, shoving me down into the chair and picking up the ropes on the floor, leaning against me hard, keeping me pinned down. "Derp what the hell?!" He snarled viciously, his fingernails digging painfully into my sore wrists. "Footsteps." He hissed again. "The Master is coming." I froze and let him tie my ankles to the chair and bind my wrists again, my heart pounding as I trembled in fear. Derp neared his face to mine, his crooked eyes wide in terror. "Ian, the Master is going to hurt you. I don't want that!" I took a shaky breath, my joints stiff and achy. "I-I'll be fine Derp. You have to go or he'll hurt you as well." He blinked back tears and cupped my face in his hands, kissing me hard. My insides twisted and my heart pounded as he drew away, eyes watery with the tears he hadn't managed to withhold. "I-I'll come back for you." It felt like my heart had been tied in a painful knot, every beat leaving me in agony. "I know. Now go." He kissed my forehead, then turned and ran to the door, pausing and looking back at me, a longing gaze lingering in his crooked eyes. Then he took a deep breath and left, shutting the door behind me and plunging me into cold blackness once more. Alone.
***
Footsteps. Louder. Louder! LOUDER! Running. Running. Breathing fast. Heartbeat so loud. I hear Sky Eyes' old scream ring in my ears. It's gonna happen. Needles and pain. Screams and knives. Blood everywhere. I skid to a halt and whip round as The Master disappears into Ian's cell. My chest is heaving. Limbs aching. I can taste him. Smell him. I can smell Ian's fear and pain. I want him. Want to protect him, but I can't. Always can't. No can's. Can't escape. NO ESCAPE. I panic and bolt into the blackness, my palpitating heart driving breathtaking adrenaline rushes round my body. Ian. Sky Eyes. SSundee. I'm yours Derp SSundee. I left him. Like before. The Master will hurt him. I have to help him. Can't. Can't...help... I'm nothing.
***
The door opened and I glimpsed a white lab coat in the gap as it widens. I bared my teeth when I saw Randel standing there. My stomach clenched though when I saw the blood encrusted scalpel in his hand. I wondered if it's Derp's blood. Old blood. His footsteps were loud as he approached me, his steel capped boots clicking on the stone floor. "Ian Stapleton. Enjoying your stay here? How are you finding your prison warden? I see you've been...well acquainted." I feel the stitches on my side and shoulder burn like brand marks. "You're a psycho." I whispered. His sick smile didn't quite reach his cold eyes. "No. Subject 304 is the psycho." "W-what did you do to him?" Randel neared me, close enough that I could see the dried blood under his fingernails; my stomach turned. "Quite simply, I broke him SSundee. You can take a person apart limb by limb, tendon by tendon, but the human spirit is the hardest thing to break. But if you leave someone in the dark long enough, it will creep into their soul and poison their mind." Derp's wild eyes flashed in my mind. Full of terror and misery, pain and anger burning in their depths like the fiery core of a furnace. I was momentarily distracted by this and failed to notice Randel drawing a vial from his pocket, uncapping it and clenching his hand around the scalpel tighter. Suddenly, his other hand was gripping my head tight, wrenching it over sideways. I cried out in pain as the scalpel picked at the stitches on my shoulder, tearing them free from my skin one at a time. I struggled and it slipped, carving a painful niche in my skin. I gasped as warm blood trickled over my cold skin. "Now now, no need to retaliate." I growled and he stopped. "If you fight back, you'll end up like your friend Subject 30-" "His name is Derp!" Randel snarled and stabbed the scalpel deep into my neck, scraping the bone. I screamed in agony as he dragged it down, cutting my nerves. I couldn't feel or move my shoulder, blood soaking my skin as Randel wrenched it down, cutting through my collarbone and drawing more blood. I suddenly felt cold inside, the warmth leaving my body as the frigid cold of the scalpel's heartless metal seeped through my bones. I shivered, trembling and crying in pain. Randel held the vial close to my neck as he drew a knife. I stared at it in horror.

"W-what did he DO to you?" Derp tensed. "Kn-nives...and needles."

I shut my eyes tight but couldn't escape the agony that spasmed through my body as the lethal blade slashed through my skin, blood gushing from the wound, overflowing the vial. I whimpered, not having enough strength left to cry out. "See? Broken." I growled again. "G-get a-away f-from m-me you psy-psychopath." He laughed coldly. "I have my blood sample. Now I just need some tissue and bone. Hmm, where to begin? Decisions decisions." I felt the blade run softly across my throat as I forced my eyes open, the knife barely drawing blood.

He was so close I could feel his hot breath on my skin. I shuddered as the blade ran across my skin softly, leaving a stinging sensation behind. A single bead of blood ran down its metal point.

Then, I felt a blinding pain in my upper leg. The knife ripped through the skin, sinking it's metal teeth into me, the serrated edge grinding against my bone. I yelled in pain as Randel got out a smaller knife, digging into my flesh and taking off several layers of bloody skin and placing them in another vial. "Tissue sample; check. Lastly, bone sample." I felt the knife return to my neck. I flinched away from its cold touch, but Randel grabbed my head and held me in place against my will as he got a small hacksaw out of his breast pocket on his lab coat. Tears of pain ran down my face as he scraped at my exposed collarbone, peeling back the skin and taking off thin, flaky layers, picking then out of the gory wound. I whimpered and bit down on my tongue. I realised something. I was scared. I wanted Derp. Then, he backed away. "I have everything I need. Thankyou for cooperating." I summoned enough energy to spit on the ground. "Y-You're a monster." He ignored me and looked down, taking my sunglasses out of my pocket. I bared my teeth as he waved them above my face, teasing me. "Are these yours?" I didn't answer. He smirked and dropped them on the ground before stepping on them. My eyes widened and tears pricked at them as he ground the lenses to dust beneath his boot. "Oh, so sorry." He grinned at me maliciously. "My mistake." He hissed. Then he turned on his heel and strode out of the room, shutting the door behind him. I heard his footsteps fade away. I was in the dark, bleeding profusely from my deep wounds and dying slowly. My sunglasses in pieces on the ground, cracked and broken like me. I had nothing left to lose. I threw back my head and screamed his name. I screamed until my lungs gave out. Then my head dropped onto my chest and my mind faded away.
***
Footsteps. Metal on flesh. Metal on bone. Screams. Laughs. I tremble, tears running down my face. "Sky Eyes." I whisper. He can't hear me. CAN'T. C-Can't escape. Then, silence. A scream. A scream I knew all too well. Ian's scream. My name amongst his shrieks of agony and anguish. He was screaming my name. I start running. I reach the cell door. Open it. Stand still. The Master has done so much worse than I thought he would. Ian is dying. DYING. I leap forward, a sickening sense of déjà vu flashing through my mind. I blink back tears when I see the true extent of the damage I wreaked on his fragile body yesterday. There's congealed blood everywhere, all over his clothes- NO, NO MORE MEMORIES. I whimper and lift his head off his chest gently, cupping his face in my hands like I had before I left him in the dark. "I-Ian! Ian wake up, please!" His sky eyes flicker open, dark and broken inside. "D-Derp-" He croaks before coughing, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I ignore it and kiss him, wanting to be able to heal him with my lips. I draw away and see his eyes closing again. My eyes flicker to the gaping wounds in his neck and leg. I choke back a sob. I can see how much pain he's in. "This is my fault. I should never have left you-" He looks up at me, eyes half closed. I see the intense suffering behind his tired façade. "N-not...your fault." Then his eyes roll back into his head and his head slumps to the side. I kiss his neck softly, his blood on my lips. "I-I'll get help." I hear a voice from behind me. "Derp? W-what have you done?!" I turn round.

It's Max.