Puppet

rule one: never be afraid

Bullets tore through the target placed many feet away from me. It was in the shape of a person, with red spots marking fatal blows, blue minor, and yellow for places that would harm them, but keep them alive. My bullets never missed the red circles until they were all gone.

"Training arena, ten minutes." Fintan walked out, likely getting weapons ready and the arena cleared.

I rushed to my room, peeling off my black shirt and shorts just to exchange them for the same pair. I hurry down to the arena, not looking to be late.

Fintan was already waiting on the side, picking up his favorite weapon to use, a double-sided spear.

I walk over to the table, ready to take my daggers and begin. A hand stops me.

"No weapon for you. You'll be using hand combat against weapons today, no powers either." My hand stayed over the daggers, wanting to pick them up.

"Is there a problem, Moonlark?"His voice held an authority over it, and he knew it. He was in control of me and I could do nothing about it.

"No sir."

We walked into the arena, Fintan spinning his spear as he got in position. I put up my hands, one blocking my head and one blocking my body. I jumped on the balls of my feet to ready myself.

Fintan swung his spear at me, retracting it when I ducked. We fought, him using the spear to his advantage, using it to block, scrape, and hit me.

We were still fighting when I heard the door open, I used this as a distraction, dropping down and swinging my leg to knock over Fintan. He landed on this back, grunting.

"Moonlark." I turned to see who had walked in.

Vespera.

I faced her, standing up straight. Vespera was the worst in the Neverseen, she experimented on people, one of her favorite subjects being humans, only next to me.

"Agent Moonlark, follow me. It's time for another test." She didn't bother to see if I was following her as she walked out, she already knew I would.

I risked a glance back at Fintan as I hurried to walk out the door, catching his glare. I knew I would be in trouble with him later, I embarrassed him in front of Vespera, surely that would call for a severe punishment.

Vespera strapped me down to the examination table, my neck, stomach, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles each had a leather strip holding them down tightly. She got her camera ready. She always recorded her experiment to look back on later in case anything ever went wrong or she missed something.

"Now, shall we begin?" Vespera picked up her gloves, snapping them on as she walked over to stand above me.

I could see the line of syringes on her little cart beside us.

"These needles are encased with limbium, I have the antidote but I'll need to do it multiple times with different time ranges to be sure it works properly." She drew out her clipboard, marking something before picking up the first needle.

"Just a pinch."

The familiar feeling of the needle pinched my arm as she inserted the limbium. I squeezed my eyes shut as my body began to shut down. A faint voice started talking, going in and out.

"We'll give you the antidote in a minute. Setting the timer." My throat swelled up and my airway stopped. I began choking for breath. My tongue grew big in my mouth, not helping the situation.

I could feel myself slowly slipping away. All I wanted was to drift into the darkness, away from this pain. Just as it began to fade, something stabbed my hand, and suddenly my lungs were working again.

I gasped for breath, taking gulps of air like my life depended on it.

Your life does depend on it, idiot.

Oh yeah.

"First experiment done. Round two, starting in three, two, one." I restrained a scream as I felt the needle in my arm again.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again...

I woke up back in my bed, bolting up. My arm was extremely sore, making me groan. I checked the clock on the side of my bed.

11:16 pm

I sighed and got up. My arm was messily bandaged and I could see some blood seeping through it. I started to stretch when there was a knock on the door.

Before I could respond, the door opened, showing Fintan in the door frame. I gulped and stopped stretching.

"Follow me."

I could tell he was still mad from earlier when I embarrassed him in front of Vespera. I followed him down the hall silently, past every room until we were outside.

"Get in."He ordered. I only just noticed the hole in the ground. Fintan picked up a shovel as I looked down.

A coffin sat on the ground, just my size. My breath quickened as he gave me a small shove.

"I said get in." I tried to hide that I was trembling as I crawled into the coffin, lying down on my back.

"You'll be spending the next two hours in here. Make any noise and we will do the same tomorrow." I took a deep breath before the lid of the coffin closed, leaving me in the cramped, dark place.

This is going to be a very long night.