They refused to die

An old and unfinished piece about the failed rescue of Archer from Nocturna. TW for injury.

They refused to die. They wouldn’t die. Or at least, they thought they wouldn’t die, until they did, and they were whisked away into the dark, shadowy void that they assumed was death. There was nothing in view, only a darkness that stretched far into the horizon. Was there even a horizon? They couldn’t tell.

They couldn’t feel anything, only a numb, empty sensation filled them. They couldn’t think either. Any thought that began to pass through dissipated as quickly as it had arrived. They didn’t even know if there was a them anymore. They had no body or soul, no mind or voice. Everything was just… empty. Nothingness seeped into every crack or corner.

They wanted, so desperately, to feel again. To feel anything, just one more time. They’d thought that nothingness was what they had wanted, thought that they’d never wanted to feel anything ever again, because that meant that the crushing realisation that they thought nothing of themself would go away, and they would finally be at peace; but this existence had no peace, and it had no feeling. Complete sensory deprivation. That was, until, a bright, blinding light filtered in, and suddenly, all at once, they could sense again. They could see again, they could smell again and they could feel again.

The room they lay in was empty and dark, littered with torn paper, empty boxes and various other broken items. The walls were splattered with blood which dripped slowly and eerily to the ground, leaving streaks of it all over. There were lots of tipped over chairs, a white board with a pen attached to the side and a couple of desks, which had been scribbled on in marker. Then, they saw their friends, tied up and scared. Melody stared at them, talking about… something. Archer just stared at them, a vacant look in her eyes, her mouth wide open, as if screaming.

Then, all at once, it hit them. The realisation of what was happening. The searing pain in Trillians arm was so painful that they thought it would drop off. They closed their eyes and winced, not wanting to see what had become of it.

Instead they focused on all of the powerful feelings that had hit them in a matter of seconds. First working through the initial shock of waking up to a dark room, and being tied to a wall, then slowly working up to the anger, and the fact that they were going to murder those scientists for hurting Archer, and finally, feeling the full force of the unending, intense dread. Finally, after all that, they managed to calm a little, and realised that their hearing was beginning to return.

“Ugh… Hey.” They stuttered, forcing a tight, tired smile. “What the fuck happened to you? You didn’t answer me for, like, 30 minutes!” Melody yelled, panic in her eyes, and her fists clenched beside her. “Not to mention that you LOST YOUR FUCKING HAND.” Oh… Trillian had filtered out the pain in their arm as they’d drowned in their thoughts, but as they looked down, they saw it was true. They did not have their right hand anymore. “I couldn’t hear you at all, I couldn’t hear anything, actually, and holy shit. I don’t have a hand.” Trillian was still delirious from being knocked over the head, and the blood loss certainly wasn’t helping. The fact that they could now hear Archer screaming didn’t help either. And neither did the fact that Melody was also now screaming about how they shouldn’t be so calm.