Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Eighteen - Chi no Uta [血の詩]

If ones worth was already set in stone, pre-determined by the world in fate and destiny, then where did that leave the progress of the human soul?

One can start as pristine and beautiful as a morning sky, only to end as twisted and cold as the steel humans used as a structurally sound form of Plasticine.

If destiny was an already pre-determined concept, one that meant ones fate was already assigned a specific meaning, then Amaya had no idea what her own pitiful life would add up to.

What purpose was hurdling these troubles towards her every step of the way intending to serve?

If all destiny had in store for her was the painfully familiar turmoil of drowning every step of the way, then she was going reject the very idea.

If all destiny wanted of her was to drown, then she was going to fight it every step of the way.

Voices peppered the darkness that had engulfed her, muffled through the oceans of her inner world as she slowly rose to consciousness.

She couldn't quite make out the words, though one sounded frightened – Almost to the point of terror.

Pain ripped through her head in pulsing bouts as she managed to slowly open her eyes, a dull pain that merely flared up from a careless movement.

Amaya remained motionless there on what she could depict to be concrete flooring, her gaze unseeing through the dark.

The fogginess inside her head was starting to clear well, and where she was she didn't feel too bad.

Just a little cold on one side, as if she were lying on something damp.

A wince flashed across her face as she tried to move the wrong way, and she curled a little more on her side

It was here that she found her knees and ankles tied together, and her hands tied behind her back. And, almost as if to add insult to injury, she'd been gagged with a piece of cloth. Even if her legs had not been tied together, she was in quite the bind, regardless.

She retraced her memories, something always best to do after an obvious hit to the head.

It didn't take her very long to do, either.

She recalled she'd been jumped walking back home, out of her own stupidity no less. Struck from behind with a plank of 2x4 timber to the back of the head, and a kick to the head to knock her completely out when they'd noticed she was still conscious.

Other than that, there was nothing else.

Everything else was black before she'd woken up, and she was rather certain of that.

The smell to the air was stagnate, metallic with moisture and grime, and her eyes picked up on nothing to help her identify her surroundings.

And yet, her ears slowly picked up on the voices that had brought her edging towards consciousness in the beginning.

'Are you kidding?! Do you have any idea just who that broad is!?' A rather distraught voice practically shouted, his voice reverberating down what seemed to be a corridor or some similar form of space.

'The hell you whining about? Cut it out already.' A second questioned.

'No! You don't get it! Bringing her here is the worst thing you've ever done, you stupid bastard!'

'Seriously, just cut the crap, ya prissy woman!' A third voice rung bitterly. 'She's just some bitch we were told t'drag in, what's got ya--'

'You were told to bring her here?! By who?!'