Wires snaked through her skin, feeding into various machines that monitored her every move. She could feel the weight of the tubes connected to her veins, each one pulsing with life, each one pulling her deeper into the procedure she had been forced into.
Her pulse quickened as her chest tightened. The familiar cold of the lab felt suffocating. She tried to move, but the restraints held her in place. The wires were constricting, pulling at her flesh like invisible chains. She could barely breathe, her lungs feeling heavy with each inhale.
Hojo's voice cut through the sterile silence, cool and calculating, as the scientists around him worked in unison. "Prepare her for the procedure," he ordered.
Her eyes darted around the room, her mind struggling to hold onto any shred of clarity. She couldn't escape. The sound of footsteps and distant chatter faded as the weight of the situation sank in. This was it. They were going to finish what they started—push her to the very limits of her power, unlock the full potential of what she was supposed to be.
Victoria tried to suppress the panic rising inside her chest, but it was futile. The tubes feeding into her body made her feel like a mere puppet, a test subject in the hands of the very people who had created her. She could see the glass surrounding her reflect the fear in her eyes, the desperation mounting as the process began.
A sharp pressure built up behind her eyes, like a storm was raging within her mind. She gasped, clutching her head as if she could stop it. The voices began.
They whispered at first, like faint echoes coming from the depths of her consciousness. It was the same voice from the days she had spent lost in the labyrinth of her thoughts—the voice of the Ancients.
"You cannot escape it, child."
Victoria gasped, her fingers curling into fists around the metal edges of the tube. The voices grew louder, pressing against her mind, demanding her attention.
"The light cannot exist without the dark. You cannot be whole without embracing both. The only way to rid yourself of the darkness is to confront it."
The words rang in her ears like a warning, a cruel reminder of the weight of her existence. Her eyes darted wildly in every direction, but there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. The light inside her felt too bright, almost suffocating, as though the power within her was too much for her to control.
"To absorb the darkness, to purge it fully from your being, you must relive it. You must face it all over again."
"No..." Victoria whimpered, pressing her palms harder into her head, as though trying to crush the voices out of existence. But they would not go away. They were insistent, relentless, like a tidal wave crashing against her sanity.
"Feel the darkness again. Relive every painful moment, every sorrow. Only then will you be able to truly embrace the light."
Victoria's breath came in shallow gasps. She closed her eyes, the weight of the truth crashing down upon her. The darkness. The memories. The pain. It was too much. She couldn't bear it.
She fell to her knees inside the tube, the pressure inside her head becoming unbearable. She clawed at her hair, the sharp pain of the tugging nothing compared to the torment inside her skull. Her body trembled violently, and she felt like she was going to break apart.
"You will break. The darkness will consume you unless you relive it. The light will only be yours when the darkness is no longer part of you. Only then will you be free."
The words echoed in her mind, crashing over her like a wave. She screamed, her body shaking, as flashes of memories began to surface—flashes of pain, betrayal, moments of darkness so deep they threatened to swallow her whole.
YOU ARE READING
The Story of Victoria Strife
FantasyI decided to re-write this story as I wasn't happy with how it went.
