INK & FIRE

CHAPTER THREE

Once again, another splitting headache as ShadowSeeker woke up. It was already the second time and it was annoying already, trying to process the new environment felt like a jumbled blurry mess of thoughts. Maybe it was the stress, the constant thinking about going home, but she was determined to get back, she needed to get back. For her tribe, and Sparky, and some other people she was too lazy to list because she couldn't think of their names off the top of her head so they probably didn't matter as much.

She opened her eyes, wincing in pain. Her body was aching, maybe worse than before, it felt like she couldn't move without that pain intensifying. How much was she thrown around on the way down in that elevator? Wait a second. Her eyes widened, looking around at the new place. She wasn't in the elevator anymore.

She was at one end of a very long table, chairs lined across all sides of it. The rest being completely empty. She looked down, her brows furrowing at the fact that she still was in a human body. It might've sounded repetitive, but every nerve, every muscle, every vain, ever sting of pain, every limb felt wrong to feel, she almost wanted to rip it off of herself, as if it would fix anything, but that would just make her bleed out to death, and she doubted that dieing would bring her back to her original body.

Even if it did, that would only be a one choice option she couldn't take back, so definitely not, she wasn't interested in that.

"Well, your finally awake." A voice spoke, footsteps clicking against the ground. ShadowSeeker looked up, directing her attention straight to the direction the voice came from, fully alert of who it could be, and she feels like she should be alert of everyone ever since that ink guy said every known figure was violent.

From the hall came a human- well, sort of human- she wore a black dress with a bow on her chest, pitch black gloves that just more looked like ink splattered accross her arms, yellow horns on her head, long black hair, and a yellow halo poking out of her head. Did it get punctured in there? Was ShadowSeeker's first thought, tilting her head in curiosity. Once she turned her head, the left side of her face just looked like it got pushed into lava and left bubbles behind as a scar on her skin. It even left a hole in her lip, showing more of her teeth, and her eye was just a black void.

She stared silently, feeling revulsion just from staring at her face. Was she self-conscious? Is that why the ink guy told her not to insult her? Well she could get why. Alice narrowed her eyes, probably seeing the disgust on ShadowSeeker's face, not hiding it well enough. "You were out for a while, so I decided to bring you back." She scoffed, walking over. There was an odd echo to her voice, not just from the elevator. Was her voice damaged?

"Uh, thanks... I guess." She looked away, not wanting to look at her right now. She was really giving off IceShatter vibes, too much for comfort. She could just tell she was not trust worthy, but there's no one to blame but herself. She wanted to go see Alice even after being told she was dangerous, that was her fault, but this also may be useful for her, maybe she could get more information of the place since that guy couldn't handle her questions.

Alice walked over, smiling sweetly, but in a sadistic way that made ShadowSeeker shift away in her seat. She watched her cautiously, her eyes narrowed. She definitely didn't look even close to any of the pictures littered across the walls, and she was sort of glad, she felt more scared of the idea of seeing something exactly from that poster, walk over to her all cheerfully, that is something to be scared of. Nobody's just that jolly after dragging you somewhere else.

Alice stood at the side of her seat, crossing her arms as she stared down at the ShadowSeeker, but she kept her own gaze stern while keeping her own distance in her seat, not letting her guard down. Alice poked at her side, causing a spiking pain to travel through her body, like thorns puncturing every inch of her skin. She held back her pained cry, shoving Alice's arm away. "Don't touch me." ShadowSeeker snapped, breathing uneasily from the pain.