Immortalia

Immortalia 1.5 - The Indestructibles

Part 1:

“No!” she screamed aloud, the sound waking her from her nightmare.

Milada jerked upright, her heartbeat racing at thousand miles per hour. Her body shook violently, and she gasped for air as she tried to remember where she was. The darkness wrapped around her, and it took additionally ten seconds before she recognized her location—she was in the Queen’s castle in Hellich, the capital of the Sacred Land—exactly where she’d been for the last two weeks.

She held her breath, clutched her bed sheets, and prayed she hadn’t woken her friends. When no one came running through the cold stone-halls of the castle, she relaxed again, letting out the breath she’d been holding.

Still a bit shaken, she surveyed her surroundings. One of Hellich’s moons shone through the window, illuminating the superfluous room. Different kinds of old weapons and armory adorned the stone walls, making the room seem intimidating in the dark. The king-size bed was big enough to hold three of her, and she almost screamed when she saw something beside her. Jerking away, she got enough light to see what it was—it was just the excess bed sheets.

Relieved, she rubbed her forehead and  drew her knees up against her chest. Then she leaned her chin on the top of her knees, sighing.

The nightmares had plagued her like this every night for the past fourteen days. Queen Sari had requested them all to stay at the castle until after Aurora’s marking, and seeing as it was only two weeks away—on the night of a full moon—she hadn’t thought twice about staying. But now she wished differently.

Not that she had anywhere else to go…

Hugging her knees, she sat in the darkness while calming her nerves. It didn’t use to be like this—she was never this afraid. But the memories of her upringing at Haw Tech—the facility that created her—brought terror to her nights.

Milada didn’t know exactly how long she sat there, but when she could see the sunrise slowly ascending outside the window, she knew it’d at least been several minutes. The morning light didn’t make the room any less threatening, though. Her eyes fell on a spiked club—a morning star they’d called it at Haw Tech—and she was reminded of her early training sessions.

She clenched her eyes shut, hoping to rid her mind of the horrendous images, the memory of them alone was enough to make her start shaking all over again.

At Haw Tech, they’d given her a special drug to calm her down each night. Her "Watchers" said that it was imperative that she slept since they counted on her healing abilities to continue the training. Even after the torturous training sessions, she’d needed the drugs to calm down to shut off the psychological side-effects of their abusive methods. Somehow, it hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind to bring those when embarked on this trip—not that they had any responsibility towards her any longer either.

She was nothing—a freak without a home, contract or memory.

And I have issues, she reminded herself. Her nightmares were returning in full force, and she had no idea what to do about them. Furthermore, she was too much of a coward to voice her problems to their leader Aaron, or to anyone else in the group. It didn’t help that they were all too busy to notice her either.

Milada realized that she wasn’t going back to sleep—even if she could avoid the dreams, she was too restless now. Stretching her aching neck-muscles, she rose from the bed, hurrying to get dressed. She cringed as she saw her reflection in the full-body mirror: long dresses didn’t suit her.

Of course, it was an ancient tradition of Queen Sari’s people to wear these gowns, but that didn’t mean she had to like them. Silently, she was counting the days until she could get her shorts and button-up shirt back. However, she couldn’t do anything before the full moon. Until then, she would have to bide her time, walking aimlessly through the land, in an overly fancy dress that did nothing to complement her physique.