STRAIGHT ESCAPE.

Prettier Than Poison

On a dark and crisp night of 2013, muffled screams broke through the silent air, as to mark the arrival of midnight. It was hardly audible. But deeper, deeper below, in one of the red room's hidden basements, someone was screaming in agony. Loud enough to make any sane person hearing it feel sick. Except in the red room, nobody could really identify as sane, hardly even the girls being trained. Brainwashed. That's about it. They weren't much more. The cold and thick russian wind seeped into the dirty room but didn't seem to affect the people's business.

Two men. One.. thing. The equivalent of a living heap of bones, curled up on the floor. Blonde and dirty hair covering her face. Was she even human? Alive? But that didn't matter. In the red room, the girls were faceless to the instructors. They were nothing more than weapons. At least not before their Graduation Ceremony, then they could be considered as great spies and assassins.

But this little girl may not have the pleasure to be seen like this, maybe she will never know what it's like to have a path to follow. Because she might die tonight. There was little hope for her, but it had to be done. They liked her better with blood covering her face, when she lost her temper and just snapped. It made her seem less fragile. In these moments, her name didn't belong to her anymore, it felt too soft for a messed up mind like hers.

Right now, the only thing that might snap was one of her bones if the agents kept on hitting her. She was paying the price of acting like a seven year old girl. Her charming face covered in blood could just perfectly trick any normal person. However in the red room, it would just make people smile. And it would even make her smile. The hitting stopped. Panting sounds. The little girl slightly lifted her head up. Her eyes were glistening with tears but it was barely visible due to the dry blood covering the major part of her face. Her shaky hands seemed to be trying to dig into the stone floor.

But she was smiling. The corners of her lips slightly, shakily turned up.

The lights turned off. The room was now completely dark and the child let out a chocked whimper, she crawled in the closest corner like a useless being. She seemed even smaller in her big and dirty piece of clothing, it made it difficult to guess her age in this moment. Her eyes frantically looked around as if to try and perceive anything.

But the next second, she felt a tight grasp on each of her arms, holding her so hard that it hurt. But the child didn't move an inch. She let them do so and walked as well as she could in the dark hallways, hobbling due to the pain.

Burns. She was being dragged to the unknown, whimpering painfully but without a fight. She felt that she was finally going to be useful. What was she if not valuable?

Nothing.

She is nothing.

Has never been.

Her life was just a vain pleading for validation, that was barely even reachable in her biggest dreams. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the pain as the air got colder and colder. More and more stairs.

Colder.

A door was unlocked and the sudden freezing atmosphere awoke the few working parts of the half living child. Light?

But she didn't have time to even try and proceed where she was, a hard kick on the back of her head made everything go instantly blurry. She fell on the frozen floor like a broken doll and the two men just left her here. Alone.

Cold. Hurt.

Everything stopped making any sense, the informations entered her brain out of order. The world around her became blurred. So cold.