Arms Wide Open

Parte 2 torture

this chapter is timed right before the first chapter before Serah and Fang find Amodar and Falcon. I hope this clarifies the confusion. Thank you so much!

ooooOOOOOO XIIIooooooooooo

Lightning knows she's asleep, in between her dream she's perfectly aware it's nothing but a dream... but the drenching smell of burned flesh is far too real, far too perceptible, and so intense it nauseates her, almost making her vomit. The pain and the dizziness, are also just too real to be nothing but a dream. Her ears are ringing, and she feels disoriented, her body aching everywhere. Though her eyes open slowly, the scene is blurred, enveloped in faint darkness that sometimes is replaced by what she thinks should be daylight. The earth around her feels like shaking, or is she the one moving? There are shadows, lights, and figures moving fast, running in a frenzy, and in between her confusion, she realizes that sometimes she's able to see the ground, while the next moment she's facing the sky. She can't make out anything correctly, the only recognizable feature is a dim light in front of her and someone's faraway yells of help... though she can't place the owner of the voice... and then, as if her mind would've been expecting it, but without really being prepared, the blackness consumes her whole.

After what seems like only a moment, through her closed eyelids she notices a faraway light that, in an instant, occupies her whole field of vision, and the sensations change. That's the moment she realizes the previous images hadn't been a dream, but something that had been happening to her, a memory; and now, as she tries to open her eyes, the blurry scene in front of her is filled with a white, cold light that envelops her whole, hurting her sight, and she shuts her eyes again.

Slowly, Lightning becomes aware of the rest of her body and hears whispers beside her, male voices she cannot place. She tries to move, to ask for help, but her body doesn't respond to her orders; it feels as if her limbs don't belong to her anymore, and instead, as if in payback for her unwelcomed commands, her whole body yells back at her in the form of a shockwave, as she's enveloped in sheer, insurmountable pain, which seems to be born from her womb and expand towards each part of her flesh. The pain is so intense, that it seems to illuminate her closed eyelids with a yellow hue, and travels with an electrifying hunger, consuming her body whole.

She tries to scream for help, as it seems as if an eternity of torture has passed by, but the moment she feels she can't sustain it anymore, the pain soothes away by itself, the only remnant a pulsing soreness on her belly, head, torso, and right leg.

She keeps her muscles tensed, ready in case the pain would come back. When a moment passes by and it doesn't reappear, she lets go of the breath she's holding and is about to relax, but then the pain returns with a vengeance as if mocking her, born from her lower abdomen and burning through her lower back, only to spread once again towards the rest of her body, consuming her blood like fire consuming a forest.

She wants to escape, to move away from it, anywhere but here, but her muscles wouldn't respond to her, even her voice seems to be shut down. As she feels completely helpless and vulnerable, desperation tears her mind, consumes her, and swallows her being with anguish she thinks she's never felt before. Lightning isn't aware anymore which one is worst, the pain on her body or the fear in her soul. The intensity of her agony is such, that it makes her want to throw up, to double over herself, to scream for help, anything that would keep the pain away. But once again, as fast as it comes, right before she's about to give up and plead, humiliating herself, the aching disappears, leaving her involved in a faint soreness, and she feels exhausted, consumed, scared like never before.

Lightning exhales, feeling her whole body trembling out of fatigue, but feeling also her strength and senses coming back to her. It's as if the pain takes over her mind, and when it recedes, she's allowed to reign over her body once more.