The Hybrid [malexmale]

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

I woke up feeling heavy and sore.

It felt like my head had split open. How many times was I going to wake up feeling like someone used my head for dodge-ball practice?

I tried to reach up and rub the headache away, but I couldn't move my arms. I groaned, frustrated as I tried to untangle them, but no matter how much I shook my arms and tugged at them, they wouldn't move.

Slightly panicking, I forced my eyes open, blinking at the darkness that surrounded me. I blinked a few more times and shifted slightly, and suddenly bright white lights flashed in my eyes and I hissed, slamming my eyes shut again. I hesitated, however, because my hiss was muffled. I tried to stretch my jaw, then froze as the feeling came back into the rest of my body. My arms were twisted uncomfortably around me straitjacket style and something was covering my mouth... a muzzle, but it didn't feel like the one Akin normally used, nor did the jacket. I tried to rip it off, but there was a heavy layer of magic preventing it.

I rolled over onto my side, breathing hard through my nose, blinking past my throbbing headache, peering my eyes open, squinting against the bright lights. I found myself face down on a clean white floor, half-carpeted, half-tiled. I looked up past my hair, grimacing at the lights and trying to focus on what lay beyond the blindingly white floor and it appeared to be a wall made entirely of mirrors.

I froze at the sight of myself laying on the floor, my stomach dropping.

Like I suspected, I was wearing a straitjacket, tight with my arms twisted behind my back and a matching muzzle that covered my mouth and buckled at the back of my head. Judging from the fact that my hair was greasy and my skin felt chalky, I hadn't bathed in a while...

What the hell am I doing here? What is here?

How did I get here?

I frowned, trying to remember what happened. I shut my eyes tightly, focusing better without the lights. I remembered blurry images... I went to see Raven, and then the restaurant... I went to dinner, I think? But everything after that was blanked out. The last thing I remember doing is stupidly putting wasabi on my sushi.

Ow.

But there was no way that would land me here, wherever here was. I blinked and looked back up at the mirror uneasily, waiting to see if maybe it was a two-way mirror and someone was watching me from the other side, but nothing happened. I rolled back over onto my other side, frowning at the plain blank black wall there. I tried to speak past the muzzle, but it was buckled so tight that it felt like it was digging into my face.

I squirmed again to no avail, then shut my eyes and sent my powers out, reaching for anyone who was nearby. I managed to pick up on power signatures on the other side of the two-way mirror and I recognized one of them as Hades right away. His was the largest power source and it matched the power in the jacket on me. I narrowed my eyes.

Oh, of course. Hades would love to put me in this situation.

The question is... why?

I shut my eyes again.

Hades... Hades, I know you can hear me, even through the concrete in the walls. What am I doing here? I waited several long moments and nothing happened. A small sliver of alarm rang through me that he wasn't responding. I focused on the other two power sources inside the room, but I couldn't really recognize them through the haze.

Hades? Who's with you? What's going on? Where am I? Damn it, answer me, you asshole! You owe me that much!

I was met with more silence. I swallowed nervously, laying on my back now, listening to the ear-ringing silence around me. I couldn't even hear if anyone was talking to Hades on the other side of the two-way mirror. It was driving me insane to be forced to lay here and not hear anything. Worse, it gave me time to think on my own and I didn't want to think. For some reason, I felt sick and disoriented and anxious beyond belief. There was an underlying fearful giddiness that I couldn't explain. A sense of panic and fear I hadn't felt in a long time.