Breed and Burn: Skinless

chapter 4- pretend you're dead inside

Axel could not help but feel a twinge of disappointment as the carriage landed. After some while of sitting in the carriage, he had let sleep consume him. As the sun began to rise, the copper rays gently roused him making him aware of the lofty winds and coolness of the air. As he shed the sleep from his brain, he felt the carriage gradually lower itself.

As the Pegasus's slowly ran to a halt, Axel dared not look outside. What was beyond the wall of this carriage determined so many things. However, his peace had been unhinged and he had been forced back intro reality like it was a thin, cluttered pipe which only went one direction. Down.

"We are here, Channing," said Braedon as she climbed inside of the carriage.

Axel felt something sickly pulsate inside of him. Even something as insignificant as Braedon not using his name, stripped away his humanity. He felt so degraded. Swallowing hard, he looked up at her.

"Where..." No matter how hard he willed himself to, he could not complete his question.

"You are too be blindfolded," she said without warning she pulled a piece of dark cloth over his eyes and knotted it forcefully at the back of his head.

As her finger brushed against the nape of his neck, he flinched. It was like a thin layer of ice, indistinguishable to the human eye, was constrained against her skin. She noticed this and merely commented that the colder you become on the inside, the colder you start to become on the outside.

The blackness was perfect; it was a visual silence. It formed with primal hatred and the despair of what it had taken previously. Now, it had an overwhelming sense of purity like it was the colour white in disguise. Nothing on Earth could ever come close to mimicking this colour.

"Come along, Channing," said Braedon. "And now that were are to be in the presence of Faceless, you must call me Subject Eleven or Eleven for short. Take my hand."

Contrary to her words, she roughly seized his arm and tightened her fingers around his wrist. Axel was surprised at how much it hurt but he kept a steady face.

To move in a world that was an utter black was strange. His other senses heightened and he moved with caution.

As she lead him down the steps, he felt his face slacken in regret. It washed over him like long, shallow waves on a beach. Why had he not looked outside beforehand? He had not seized his opportunities and was facing the backlash.

With ferocity, Braedon pushed Axel down the last step. With a loud thud, he fell onto the ground face first. Every muscle seized up. He had let his guard down and now there was blood spurting from his nose.

"What was that for," he said although he knew why. Despite her blood, Braedon was Faceless.

"Axel Jae Channing, Facesmiths are here to escort you to dome number four." Her words were void of all emotion but he felt a cruel smile stretch across her gaunt features.

Trembling, he picked himself up as he wondered why a tiny part of him felt a sense of betrayal. Braedon was the worst kind of enemy- the one who pretended to be your friend. Trying to stem the flow of blood by pressing his sleeve against his nose, he wondered whether his mind was an engine or an exhaust. Emotionally, he was just so drained. He waited for each betrayal, each broken bone, each torture like those things made up his home. If a day didn't include those things, he felt forgotten and a small part of him would lapse and fall away.

This reminded of the first few weeks of being in the cage- Axel would scream and beg for escape and throw tantrums. However, just like the orphans in his rekindled memory, he stopped crying when he realised no one was coming for him. For hours on end, he wondered whether his parents were alive. Whether he had people to go home to.