Wings

Unum || It's Okay if You're Not.

Panting.

Her breath was being forced to come quick and violent, aggressively being pressed through her body as the tight and unyielding pressure of her chains coiled around her worn arms. They ached, and would ache for the foreseeable future, as the man who had wrapped her in them had wretched and torn the muscles of her shoulders trying to do it. Even after being in the Lab for so long, she had never stopped resisting.

But she didn't care about her arms. A scream tore from her lips again, her lungs begging her to stop as the person behind her was mechanical in their work. Stripping her of her feathers. The blood flowed freely down her back and she let out a wretched sob as they grabbed handful after handful, and though it had long gone dry- she still felt slick and ill. Feathers, what looked like thousands of feathers littered the floor around her as she panted, the pain forcing her breath to come quick, fast and frantic.

Feather after feather after feather.

It was dull and monotonous work for the person behind her, and they settled into a rhythm where they would remove a handful, she would scream and sob and beg and plead, and then they would repeat irregardless of her bargains. Her pupils were thin pinpricks in her black eyes, her mouth open wide and showing her canines as she panted- naked chest heaving in the dark light of the lab.

A throat was cleared and then he stood in front of her.

"Now, Cassidy- tell me. Are ya' going t' be good, and tell me how ta' get t' your colony?"

She didn't even consider the deal before her negative flew out of her mouth, eyes spitting fire as she snarled at the man she had once trusted with her life. A scream still followed, the woman behind her tugging roughly once more.

"Never." She panted. "I will never tell you. Even in death I would not dream of it." She spat blood at his shiny new shoes, a growl bubbling through her blood and saliva. Gasping, another sob left her as his hand, frightfully cold and breathtakingly familiar clutched the back of her head- his grip unyielding.

His dark, beautiful, eyes scowled down at her and she could feel the scream ebbing at the back of her throat; even when he was so horribly familiar he made her heart and eyes ache. Again, he chest shuddered but she couldn't look away from the man in front of her- she couldn't look away at the eyes that had once held the world for her.

"I'm disappointed in ya', Cass." He smiled wickedly before righting himself, a sob bursting through the sharp confines of her chest but it wasn't from the harsh plucking that sparked it. "Though we have nay' even started yet," He clapped his hands and many people walked in, each person clutching a different tool.

A drill started whirring, the high pitched noise almost deafening as the woman stepped back from Cassidy's wings. Imploring, she begged him with her eyes, begged him with her very soul as the panic jumped into her throat-

She couldn't do this, he couldn't do this, he loved her, she loved him, how could he do this. 

-and she desperately wished to die as he walked closer and pressed it to the back of her skull- the coiling of her hair and his figure leaning against a wall as he watched burned into her eyelids.

"Lets have some fun, Cassie."

BANG.

Waking with a start, Cassidy sat up in her bed. Hand pressed to her heart that was drilling a tattoo against her chest and head pounding. Throbbing almost described it better; and she could almost feel his hand in her hair again. Frantically, she slapped her hands to the back of her skull and felt her chest tighten- her breathing changing and tears welling up in her eyes as she fell from her bed. Pain burst under her elbow, and she crumpled- unable to cope as the tightness grew too much. Clawing at her neck, she felt the icy cold band and a sob wretched out of her chest- her fingers gouging the skin so she could get it off. Pressing herself into the corner of her bedroom, she covered her head with her arms and held her breath.