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❝ TIME TO WASTE.❞
WHEN ELEVEN OPENED her eyes, the first thing that came to her mind was the pain. It was excruciating, as though her brain was trying to thrash her skull with a hammer.
She was lying on her side, her head resting on the cold tile floor. When she looked down, she noticed her hands had been cuffed together by a heavy iron chain. The weight of it bore down onto her wrists, and she felt tired, as though someone had put an anchor onto her mind, slowing her thoughts down.
Eleven glanced at her surroundings. Her flickering vision was dim around the edges, like a blurry vignette, but she could finally make out that she was in a room. It looked like a hospital, or an office space, or—
A lab.
Eleven suddenly jolted upright, but regretted it immediately as her head pounded even more with loud, heavy thudsthat only seemed to increase in speed. A dizzying sensation overwhelmed her, and it took more than a few moments for her vision to clear.
She looked around the room. There was no furniture other than a table and a few chairs, which had been pushed up against the nearby wall. There was a large window to the side, cracks of sunlight peaking through the thin gaps of the shutters. Dust and cobwebs lined every corner. It looked as though nobody had been in here for years.
Her headache, although not as intense as it was before, still nagged at the back of her mind, like a constant, underlying pain. She leant against the wall behind her to keep herself upright.
And then the door opened.
The man who stepped into the room had electric green eyes and hair as dark as midnight. His barrow face was thin and bony and his long arms and legs were like sticks; El could see his kneecaps and elbows protruding from his dark clothing. He didn't look that old, and yet his eyes blazed like an ancient green fire, burning since the beginning of time itself. In his hand was a dark staff, with two sharp prongs at the top and a blue orb in the centre that swirled within its glassy sphere.
"Oh, good. You're finally awake," the man said somewhat chirpily, smiling at El. He stepped further into the room.
El reflexively shrunk deeper into her spot. "Who are you?"
The man watched her with careful observation, as though he was still analyzing her. "My name is Hades," he eventually spoke.
El looked at him blankly. "Do I know who you are? Am I supposed to know who you are?"
