Desert Wings

Gone

Darkness surrounds me, flooding my mind. Silence surrounds me. These things for moments define me, for here I lie.
The smoke surrounds me, cool to the touch and sending me back to sleep.

I awake in a grand palace, or at least in a grand throne room. I lay on the deep red carpet for a moment, taking in the arching ceiling and elegantly carved marble walls. The occasionally tapestry hangs beside the windows and chandeliers glitter with diamonds. The room is empty, spare the regal figure sitting upon the throne. She watched me, to far away for her features to be distinguishable to me.
"Kara."
"Hello voice in my mind. How are you today?"
"I am well."
Silence briefly descends, I feel strangely calm as shadows twist in strange patterns on the ground beside me,"Good. Are you Fate?"
"Yes, I am Karma as well."
"How can you be two people at once?"
"No, I simply hold her powers for her until she needs them."
"Odd."
"Sure."
"Are you the one who has been talking to me recently?"
"Yes."
"What were you going to say that night? Before you got cut off or something."
"Your Fusion is completed."
"Now yes. What were you going to say?"
"I am getting there Kara. Patience. Now that your Fusion is completed you are the Desert's, and I control the Desert."
"So I am..." I let the sentence trail off.
"Your fame has spread Kara. You are a character of legend to your people."
"Finish what you started to say."
"Fine. You are mine."
Many things happened at once. I could see her face, she was the definition of beauty, grace and everything regal. Her blonde hair seemed to glow, her eyes shifted like a kaleidoscope, she was super imposed upon my mind. Her voice filled my ears, her thoughts spilled into my mind, almost crowding out my own. I felt invaded as her voices, her mind charged in, ransaking a place no one ever could, my mind. My thoughts spiraled and sunk in the torrent images ran wild, confusion and chaos reigned supreme.
"What's happening?"
"This Kara is what it is to be Fused. Only outsiders experience this. The ones who live, who survive. I want only the best servants so I created the Desert and sat back to watch the show. Let me tell you dear Kara it is a good one. This is what it is to be Claimed. This is only a small part of the life you are going to live, the one you are going to need to live. I now control you completely and oh how I love to play with my dolls." The shadows disappear, then I feel as if they are inside me, bending my limbs despite my desperate attempts to stop them."Give in Kara. Give up. You are mine." I attempt to retort, to do anything but my limbs will not reply I am pinned to the floor by an unknown and unseen hand restrained like a bug.
Fate stood above me a twisted grin gracing her face,"Come." She called to me. I stood.
"Good, you learn quickly." Yeah well I don't have much choice in the matter.
Fate tsks softly, then I realize she can hear the thoughts that cross my mind.
"See, you learn quickly. Now follow me." I follow her, not bothering to pay attention to anything at all. My steps stop of their own accord,"Here we are." Fate and I stood just inside of a massive closet,"Here." She held a gaudy dress up to me,"Wait no. Wrong color. It would wash you out." Fate examines several other dresses before settling upon a light blue dress with a faint floral pattern. Once I was wearing it she nodded in approval before managing to tame my hair into a side braid. I tug on a pair of heels before we leave the oversized closet.
"Come, you need to be introduced to the others." I follow even though she hadn't needed to tell me. As we walk through the palace I for the first time realize that Fate towers over me, even though she hadn't before. Fate had been a fairly average height before hand, only now she seemed to stand several feet taller than me.
Eventually we reach a room with thick oak doors bound in copper. Fate stepped through the door, closing it swiftly as I step through. Hello everyone. Fate speaks directly in our minds. This is Kara, you may have heard of her. Also remember, the banquet is at the end of the week.
"Follow me Kara." I was starting to find her constant verbal commands redundant. We walked through the massive room that was filled with fake streets with apartments and resturants scattered among parks.
Fate lead the way to a smaller door at the room's other end.
"In here." I step into the next room, Fate follows, closing the door and sliding locks into place.
You can take off the shoes, and the dress, clothes are on the chair over there. After I complete the order she has me walk to the center of the room.
Chains rise from the floor, while I watch those other chains wrap around my wrists. When I turn to look at my wrists the other pair traps my ankles.
"Hey! What's going on?"
Fate grins at me,"You need to be broken, taught a lesson. I need to be sure you will obey my word without fail or question. So, we came here."
"Where is here?" I ask apprehensively.
"A place of your worst nightmares." She steps towards a wall covered on weapons and various items of unknown purposes,"Let us begin."

The whip cracks back onto my bare sides, singing through the air. I ignore the pain, or at least I try to. Fate is able to control my thoughts, amplifying the pain of each blow. The whip falls on my legs, my arms. I am supported only by the chains, Fate switches her whip for a knife. She is relentless, offering little reprieve. The blade brushes my skin, not hard enough for me to bleed.
"See? This is a home for nightmares."
The blade finds its way to my leg, the cold metal sliding down my bare skin. She digs the blade in slowly, starting a shallow cut that wouldn't be deep enough to scar.
"Oh, great idea Kara. Soon enough, I'll have to pick a design first." She covers me in so many shallow patterns, stepping back to contemplate the appereance of each one,"I think that is good for today." She turns and leaves the room and I fall into a restless sleep, haunted by fear of what will come next.

The next day the chains release me from their hold as Fate enters with a tall, pale man beside her,"This is my freind, Vincent, he will be helping me today. He is a vampire, I have a feeling you know what they do." I stare, unable to reply as every instinct I have screams at me to get away, to run. Fate goes to stand in the corner,"Have fun." Suddenly I can run. I bolt like frightened deer away from the vampire, he leisurely keeps pace with me, slowly exhausting me. Once he grows tired of playing cat and mouse he launches at me, pinning me to the ground. Fear overcomes me, I start to panic, I try to thrash out of his grip but to no use.
Victor grins down at me,"Fate, you didn't tell me how fun this one would be."
"I thought it would be a nice surprise."
"Well thank you." I feel his cold hands latch onto my waist, he slowly lifts my torso, watching with amusement as I try in vain to escape his grasp,"Darling this will be so much easier, no.... how would you describe it Fate?"
"Less painful?"
"Sometimes. Either way works for me, I like it when they try to escape me. They are so cute."
"I know right."
"Who are you?" I manage to gasp.
"I am Victor, a member of the vampire royal family." My breaths come faster as he shifts, shoving me into his lap and my back into the corner,"I might take this one from you one day Fate."
"We'll see about that."
Victor was no longer paying attention to her, instead he was running one cold finger down the side of my neck. Slowly he sinks his fangs into my neck I tried to back away but all I could do was lean into the wall, Victor followed, continuing to drink in my blood.
The control Fate had over me forced me to relax, submit to Victor as my heart pumped more blood into his mouth.
After what feels like eternity he pulls away and walks over to Fate to discuss something I couldn't hear. Fate somehow forces me to fall asleep so darkness engulfs me.

I wake up to see Fate standing over me,"I think you are almost broken." I must look confused because a wicked grin crossed her face,"Or you will be after today." I am jerked to my feet by the shadows. Fear, I had learned to fear her already what more did she want?
I hear the door open and shut, locks slide back into place I feel a cold prick in the side of my neck. The hallucinations start then.

I stood on top of a mountain, swords poking into my back, wings are bound, I am shoved over the edge and plummet. Right before I am impaled on a stone spire I am teleported to the middle of an ocean. I desperately gasp for air and struggle to stay afloat as gradually gravity takes hold of me. I hold my breath as long as I can, as darkness rims my vision. Just before I black out I am suddenly surrounded by air, as much as my thankful lungs can take in. Then I notice the massive land mass below me. My scream is ripped away in the wind as I crash through the cloud layer. Just before I colide with the ground my surroundings change again. Now I stand in a forest clearing, growls echoe off the trees as unseen beasts prowl the trees. One leaps, before I get a good look at it, or my throat is ripped out my surroundings change again.
The near death experiences start to merge in my mind, a morbid collage to torture me into eternity. Then it stops and there is nothing. Only blackness as far as my eyes can see, silent, stagnant, darkness. No stars to grace me with light, no sounds but the beating of my heart. Time becomes irrelevant, marked only by the marching of my mind towards insanity. Then that disappears and I am huddled in a ball on the cold floor, shivering slightly,"See what I mean? Don't worry, no one makes it past three days with me." I offer no reply to her, fear needlessly remained by my side.
"Come on. Stand up, or are you to weak for that?" Fear is replaced by anger, I slowly get to my feet, barely containing my anger,"Good girl, you will train well." I have to resist growling at her.
"Now," she grins,"To prepare you for the banquet."