Cold-Blooded

Blur

The room was dark, just one window to let a streak of light through, but the atmosphere was heavy enough that Alias didn't notice it. She had been weakened to the point in which she couldn't hold up her own weight, her wrists shackled above her and skin covered in a thin sheen of blood and sweat. Her head hung low, no strength and lack of awareness to notice the man that walked into the room; he blocked out her abilities with something so simple as handcuffs.

"Look at you. A pitiful excuse of a God," he smirked as he stalked towards her, loosening his blood-red tie and stopped so that he could hear her shallow breathing. He was smartly dressed as if he just attended a conference meeting before coming down here, his blonde hair that was once slicked starting to flake forward and silver eyes that have seen too much. When she didn't respond he roughly grabbed her chin and tilted it upwards, a frown dusting his lips as the glint to her cloudy eyes completely disappeared. "I'm not sure how you inherited the power of Arcadius, but I sure as hell hate you for it. You don't deserve it if you can't even endure a little bit of pain." He clicked his fingers and the chain dematerialised into thin air, the sudden change of weight letting Alias collapse to the floor almost unmoving if he wasn't watching her breathe.

"I'm sorry, Blakelyn," he sighed as he nudged her onto her back with his foot and clambered on top of her, and let his hands slide to her throat. "But I'm gonna have to take Arcadius back now...let's just hope you don't die during the process. It would be a pain if you did. Literally." He tightened his grip and Alias could do nothing but barely grit her teeth, the overwhelming sensations of pain constantly pulling her into unconsciousness. But if she could scream, she would.

And she did.

Her eyes shot open in a frenzy to escape her nightmare and realised someone was holding onto her arms, so panicked even more with tears streaming down her face. "Alias, hey! Snap out of it! It's me! Blake? Blake!" She stopped struggling and stared at Grayson hard, not realising that Morpheus and Kyle were here too, and started to tremble. Grayson could only wonder as he silently ushered the two out of the room, what happened to her? "Blake, are you okay? You were screaming and―"

"It felt...so real," she managed to say, her throat sore from the screaming she didn't know she was doing. "His...his hands, tight around my throat...I've never been so afraid in my life..."

"Blake," he held her shoulders firmly for reassurance. "You're here now. You're okay. I've been waiting for you to wake up. Chaos's power almost brought down Pioneer Bridge if it wasn't for you."

"...for me..?"

"Yeah, Morpheus told me what happened, how you went up against an embodiment of chaos. I'm not sure what you did, but you did. To be honest, I'm glad you're awake. They've been silent since they brought you here, which wasn't...the greatest of times."

She shook her head slightly, "Wait, what are you doing here...?"

"Rex tipped me...in a sorta scary psychic way. It's not everyday you get a telepathic message, I honestly thought I was going crazy."

"And them?"

"They said they sensed a 'change in their reality' and had to come see you, not sure exactly what that means. The girl, Kyle? She's been really quiet, I guess she feels guilty in some way. She spent days taking care of you."

"She shouldn't be guilty, what happened wasn't her fault." She tilted her head from Grayson as she felt his eyes try to burn away her tears, but only now did she become confused at the change in scenery. The bed was way cushiony than she remembered and was that...fine china resting in a wall, glass compartment? "Where...where are we?"

"Jason's safehouse, well one of them at least. Usually he doesn't freely give out these spots, especially to me, but he insisted."

"That was nice of him." She smiled softly as she pulled the covers off her body and moved her legs off the mattress only to hold in her chuckle as her gaze drifted down to her body. "I'm already annoyed by the amount of questions I'm asking but what is this?"