Hellbound - 001/Henry Creel/Peter Ballard

003

"No!" I scream as the two strangers holding me up by my arms, dragging me away from my family. "Mom! Dad! Help me!"

My parents stay frozen, their arms around each other watching me through tearful eyes. Why aren't they helping me get away from these men?

I kick and scream but they overpower me and all my attempts of freeing myself are futile.

The men shove me into the backseat of a black car and the faces of my parents are just a memory now. 

Where are they taking me? Why aren't my parents with me? What happened?

I am so confused. In the span of a few minutes, I woke up in a bed that was not mine and I was brutally taken away by my parents. 

"Hi there." Another man enters the car, he has white hair and a badge on his chest. 

Who are these people? They all seem to know me but I don't. 

"I'm doctor Brenner, nice to meet you." He smiles at me and I draw back.

I want my mom and dad, not this old man.

"Where are you taking me?" I say, my voice trembling with fear.

"To your new home. I promise you will have loads of fun there and make new friends. We have a lot of toys there too, you'll love it." He bribes me. 

I don't care about toys, I just want to go back home and play with my neighbors. 

He draws a syringe out of his coat. He looks at me one last time with sympathy. What is he going to do with it?

He grabs my shoulder and inserts the syringe into my skin before I can utter a scream or protest against it. 

My eyes are too heavy, my breath a bit too slow and I can feel exhaustion taking over. 

I was not tired, why am I tired now? 

--

I wake up drenched in a cold sweat from the nightmare that seems to haunt me to this day. 

I don't remember much of my life before getting in here. I was five when I was taken away from my parents and that's all I remember from my life on the outside. It's the only memory I have and I hold it very near and dear to me.

I don't remember why Papa took me away from my parents. He said I was too special to stay with my parents and I needed special care to cultivate my powers. But as I grow up I start to doubt him. I was brutally taken away from my parents and forced to reside in this institution that as years pass feels more and more like a cage.

I don't know when I'll be freed onto society, or if I'll ever get out of this institution. I have never seen someone get discharged in my thirteen years of living here. Most of my siblings were born here and here is all they know.

They, unlike me, have no hopes of an outside world, this is all the world they know. This is their home, and they don't want to leave. But I do, there is a deep desire in me to step out of these doors and into a massive forest and see nature, see all that we are deprived of. See something else than the repetitive white walls of our home.

I think of Henry's words, of Papa's intentions. The more I think about it the more confused I get. Maybe Papa is right, and maybe this is the only way to unlock the blockade deep in me that prohibits me from using my powers but another part of me is in disbelief that Papa would let me go through such pain and torture instead of just changing my training routine.