What Minds Create

1- Waking

Celeste woke strapped to cold white table. She groaned at the pounding ache in the back of her head. She couldn't move an inch, the leather straps digging into her skin like large fingernails. A woman in a white coat loomed over her, grinning cruelly while picking up an almost dainty knife. The woman sliced a long but shallow cut down Celeste's stomach, which was bare and fully exposed. When the woman was finished, there was a bloody mark on the surface of Celeste's abdomen. It looked like a star, but the lines curved off into swirls and curls at the edges and points.
A gas mask was placed over her mouth and nose, and Celeste passed out moments later.

She woke again to find herself no longer strapped to the table, but with one hand shackled to the wall, the cuff still digging into her skin and making it raw. There were 12 cells around her, each labeled with a indiscernible symbol above the bars. Celeste swallowed fearfully, gagging at the scent of blood that hung in the air. The cages seemed empty, no sound or even slightest movement coming from them. She shivered at the thought of what things could come out of the suffocating darkness around her. Celeste felt so trapped and enclosed. She shuddered.

A few days later of fear and starving from lack of any food, though there was water delivered daily, Celeste woke from her fitful sleep to an open door. Her shackles were unlocked and the cell door was swung wide open. Full of relief, she sprinted out into the hall-
She stopped immediately when she saw a girl sleeping in the corner of another cell. Her figure was hidden by shadows, but from what Celeste could make out, she was about Celeste's age, and had blonde hair and pale skin. The girl's back was to Celeste, obscuring any facial features from view, and she couldn't see the girl's legs. Slowly, Celeste stepped around the corner.
The girl mumbled, surprising Celeste and causing her to jump and slam onto the ground. She scrambled as quietly as possible to her feet, cringing and hoping that didn't wake the sleeper.
Bad move! It did.
Eyes snapped open. They were a glowing sapphire blue, the pupils shrunk to tiny dots and cheeks stained with tears. That wasn't the worst- oh no! When she sat up, Celeste saw that the girl's mouth had been sewn shut. Blood still leaked from the stitches, and all the girl could form was a crazy closed lipped smile, a tiny white line of teeth showing through. The girl clawed at her lips, and eventually they were freed with a snap and a sickening rip. The girl screamed, blood leaking from her torn lip, stitches dangling from pinpoints along her mouth.
The girl slowly picked herself up, now fully in the light as her hands gripped the cell bars. Celeste now knew why she couldn't see the other girl's legs- they were gone, and a scaly tail ending in a ragged fin replaced them.
Celeste couldn't contain her scream. It echoed through the hall, horror mixed with anger mixed with shock. The girl smiled, the stitches in her lips dancing madly as she laughed. It was soft, hoarse, and chilling.
"No one else is here. You and I are utterly alone." She cocked her head, smile widening, "Wanna play?" The girl giggled madly, hands violently shaking the bars. Her eyes lit with rage, and they shattered with one last jerk. Celeste shrieked and stumbled backwards. No! Oh god, no no no! No! No! No!
"I'm Pisces! Please come play with me..." The end of the sentence turned sad. The girl flinched, tears starting to leak down her face.
Celeste backed away, hands in front of her, "No! I don't want to!"
Again, bad move.
Pisces screamed in rage, lunging towards Celeste and gripping Ber throat. The air for Celeste's lungs started to dwindle, and she choked as Pisces slowly crushed her windpipe, screaming and crying and lashing her tail. Two wings Celeste hadn't seem before, one made of skeletal branches covered with patches of moss, and the other a dark blue dragon's wing with black ridges and pale blue folds, both dripping with blood, flared out. They flapped frantically, smacking the walls and Celeste's face as Pisces dragged her, still holding her throat and hissing like a rabid animal, to her cell. She threw Celeste against the wall, crying shrilly.
Just as Pisces was about to advance on Celeste, something grabbed the end of her tail and slammed her onto the ground. Pisces shrieked in pain and surprise before passing out on the floor.
Now standing in front of Celeste was a tall girl, also about her age, with auburn hair and dark sea green eyes. Her face was stern, serious, and neutral. It betrayed no sudden or intense emotion, cold and blank. Her silky green dress didn't completely conceal her legs, which were those of a goat covered with matted white fur. Goat's horns curved from her brow, impossibly clean and unblemished. A sleek scaled tail the same dark green as her eyes, neatly attached to the girl's tailbone, swept back and forth through the air. The girl looked at Celeste staring at her, expression mildly curious. She picked up Pisces' limp body, shaking her head, and spoke in a relieving calm tone.
"I'm surprised you survived that, much less relatively unscathed. I'm Capricorn, by the way. Come." Capricorn beckoned Celeste to follow with her hand, setting down Pisces and leading them out of the dank hallway. The place they entered was surprisingly clean and neatly kept.
"Who lives here?" Celeste asked, voice hoarse from being choked.
"Four of us. Me, Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Not all of us went insane when..." She trailed off, cringing.
"When what?" It seemed like a sensitive topic, but Celeste was too curious at this point to care.
Capricorn sighed, "When they used us. Experimented on us. It broke most, either mentally, physically, or even both. I don't know exactly what they did, I was passed out, but I do remember waking up in a glass cylinder, floating, in liquid, with these features on me. Horns inserted into my head, goats legs instead of my own, and a long scaled fish's tail attached seamlessly to my tailbone. My fingernails were replaced with tiny blades, and my fingers had webbing sewn between them. I was given gills to go with my lungs, and they forced me and three others to live in a pool for months on end. One of them was Scorpio, and we bonded over that horrible experience." Celeste was silent. How could someone be so cruel as to subject 15-16 year olds to that torture? To the horror of having their bodies altered and disfigured? It was a terrifying thought.
Capricorn swung open the door to a clean room, four beds already set up. Three other teens also Celeste's age sat on or near them.
Capricorn called out to get their attention, "I'm back!"
What Celeste saw shocked her to the bone.