Oriehn

Chapter 3- Alice

Chapter 3- Alice

My ears rang as panic swelled in my chest; like a wave it receded backwards, building its momentum and biding its time. I felt numb, the slight sting on the base of my neck taking a back seat as Taliesin's words bore through my mind.

"You won't succeed," I said, voice unwavering, despite the blade pressed firmly against my neck.

His jaw tightened as he quirked an eyebrow, "Indeed?"

I nodded my head to the side, directing his gaze to the mirrored wall. He left the scalpel pinned to my flesh, but stared at our reflections, unmoving.

"Behind there is an observation room. The doctors presiding over this experiment have witnessed your every move. They already would have sent for the wardens," I collected my breath, chest expanding, before continuing on in what I hoped sounded like an assertive tone, "And when they come, they'll kill you."

At that, he quirked his lip up in half of a smirk. He shifted the unwavering intensity of his gaze back to me, and for a moment, I was breathless. "That is where you are wrong. You know it, and the doctors know it," he leaned forward and whispered in my ear. "I believe you wish to preserve my life force. After all, according to your doctor's own words, 'that is all we foreign hybrids are worth.'"

"You heard us?" I managed to breathe out.

He leaned back, not answering, although his eyes spoke volumes. I felt as though I had been swimming for the surface while he talked and only just now broke over the waves. I wanted to tear down his confidence, remind him that I was the one in charge, desperation I felt rising into my throat and threatening to tear at my composure. "You didn't see the last experiment. A man of your kind," I bit out, though it pained me, "Dissected alive for his organs and tissue samples."

Taliesin bent his head but his grip didn't lessen. "Our kind. A man bearing the same mark as we do. He was of our kind," he spoke, groaning the word 'our'.

"If I'm truly of Oriehn descent as you claim," I enunciated, loud enough for the men behind the mirror to hear, "You wouldn't venture to kill me. You said so yourself earlier." I shrugged lightly as I watched Taliesin's expression change.

"Is your goal to lock me into this state of perpetual pain? I am trying to restore you to your rightful place," he gritted out, "I'm trying to bring you home."

"Thus proving my point that you cannot, and are unwilling to hurt me," I smiled at him, watching as his rage built. He sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head lightly.

"To kill you," Sin clarified. "I am unwilling to kill you, but have no doubt about this: if bringing you to the brink of death would provide me—us—passage home, there is nothing that I would not do."

I scoffed. "As long as life is still in my body, no one will act on my behalf. This plan is useless."

Taliesin balked, glaring at me. "I am to escape. Whether you aid me in that is entirely up to you. I will find a way, and you are coming with me." He whirled us around, pressing me to him, and faced the mirror. Scanning the outline of our reflection, he raised his voice, "I have several demands. If you value your prodigy's life, I suggest you follow them."

No response came from the mirror. I hadn't expected one. Yet my hearing strained in the silence that followed. "They don't care, you know. What's one warden to them?"

"You are not a warden."

"Bottom-line, I am of no value to them," I grimaced as he held the scalpel closer. "You kill me, and you're still stuck in this room, facing one vital aspect preventing you from leaving."

"And what would that be?" He growled out. I gave a wry smile and twisted to face him.

He dropped his arms from around me and stepped backwards. The panic I had felt earlier began to ebb. All because I knew something he didn't. "You're locked in. And that door?" I paused, brushing at my neck, "That door doesn't open for anyone on the inside." Looking down, I breathed a sigh of relief as my fingertips came away red.

He glanced around, as if seeing this room for the first time. A room he had been tortured endlessly in, sometimes for days on end. I wanted to care, I did. But for the sake of my own future, and my own wellbeing, I had to fight once more to bind my heart and deter its expansion. I couldn't care, not if I wanted to survive. "Perhaps that door is locked," he glanced at the mirrored wall, met my eyes once more, and continued, "But glass is not unbreakable."

I stiffened. He stalked towards me, ignoring my whimpered protests, and held me against his torso. Dragging me to the wall, he took the side table, striking it across the mirror in two intersecting lines.

"That's tempered glass," I told him, trying to keep the hitch in my voice at bay. "No man can break it without efficient tools." I watched as he marked it again in the same spot, etching a large X into his heaving reflection. Over and over, repeatedly, he carved into the glass. I tensed my shoulders at the sound of metal screeching over the smooth surface.

Exertion colored his features in a light violet color, and each breath became labored with each heft of the steel stand. It was clear that while he landed on earth as a highly trained hunter, months of starvation and torment had deprived his body of the athleticism he once had.

I felt concern rising, his weakness becoming more evident as he progressed, yet I stood still and kept silent. Over, and over, Taliesin etched the glass.

"That is the extent of your effect," I spoke, unnerved by his frantic demeanor. He didn't bother to acknowledge my voice, continuing his work, but I continued to speak. "No matter how hard you try, a scratch is all that you will be able to achieve."

He heaved the stand back, balancing it on his shoulder as he looked back at me. "I believe mortals have a saying for this," he panted out, raising the steel chair he aimed for the center of his engraving, pulling it back and tensed his shoulders. "'X marks the spot.'"

Upon contact, the glass shattered in icy fingers, creeping across the surface in veins and fragments. The glass remained suspended within its frame, then cascaded down in waves and scattered across the floor.

Sin lurched into an upright position, dangling the table from his grasp like a child would its teddy bear, and dragged it across the floor to stand right in front of the empty frame. "Doctor Prose," Taliesin acknowledged, "I believe you have a list of my demands that need to be filled."

I peered into the darkened observation room, watching as the initial shock on Dr. Prose and his features melded into a smug, self-possessed look.

"Indeed, Captain Graile," He reached into his lab coat pocket, revealing a flash of cold steel. He raised the gun level with Sin's chest, as I stood with my feet bound to the floor. "However, I regret to inform you that they will have to remain vacant at this time."

Dr. Prose cocked the gun, and I could hear the bullet enter the chamber.