LivingLethal : | : Oswald : | : Male
The Selfless
Pain. The wretched metal chewing at my wrists and ankles, bandages constricting my lungs and lapping up every lackluster drop of musty air that entered my system. Darkness. Over my head, a cloth encircling my head, restricting my vision and my circulation. Voices. For just a moment, the white noise buzzing incessantly in my ears ceased to let through subtle chatter, unfamiliar voices whispering from up close, or yelling from far away.
"Where am I?" My own voice sounded unfamiliar in the setting, warped through the blurred perception of my disorientation. In the background, the voices paused. An uncertainty hung in the air for just a moment; an inaudible whisper vibrated past. Then, faint footsteps.
"Awake at last, Ozzie boy?" An voice laced with arrogance echoed through the room, piercing my ears. The footsteps continued growing louder, until they completely stopped. A hand laid itself roughly on my forehead, gripping on the cloth covering my eyes, and ripped it from its constricting place. Even in the absence of the blind, the room was disturbingly dark; shadows danced on the face of my captor, sealing his identity.
"You've been out for quite a while... I almost worried you wouldn't wake up!" His cackle echoed through the room. The silence of his subordinates worried me slightly, but the pounding in my head clouded my thoughts. The man continued, "Do you remember what happened last night, Ozzie darling?"
In the fragments of my cracked memory, I willed the previous night to come to mind. The response was only of a particularly sharp throb; a wince contorted my face for a mere moment. Still, the moment was enough to show weakness.
“Oh, poor Ozzie! You can't remember, can you? I'll tell you, don't you worry!” Through the shadows on the man’s face, I pieced together a wicked grin. “Well, you left your base in a big hurry - you, of all people Oz, becoming a deserter - anyway, we intercepted you immediately! Oh, you were carrying that serum!”
At the mention of a serum, a ghost of a memory flashed past my thoughts. I recalled a crimson vial, bubbling vividly in the night. Further, I remembered fear - utter spine-chilling fear. He returned to his story: “...So, we knocked you out for a little while, skimmed over your possessions, then we decided to bring you here! After all, dear Ozzie boy, now that you're a deserter, won't you tell us what your little laboratory has been up to?”
Despite my fogged judgment, the threatening lilt at the end of his inquiry froze my blood. Still, the importance of a threat to the laboratory far outweighed threats to me; despite leaving, for whatever reason I may have chosen to do so, I couldn't blindly comply with his demands. The lives of my comrades… former comrades… could be endangered by my hasty decision. I raised my head, meeting the shadows pooling beneath what appeared to be his eyes, and the faintest trace of a, “No,” escaped my teeth.
{499/500}
The Selfish
If only for a second, an aura of pure, irrevocable rage exploded from his figure; it was evident in his stiff posture, the shadow revealing his clenched jaw, and the way he caught his tongue in his mouth. Then, despite my pounding mind, it was clear to me: my captor was no sane man. By no stretch of the imagination would he hesitate on his threats. His smooth, silky voice etched itself out in the air: “Why now Ozzie, that's not a great decision you've made just now.” His voice paused, considering his next options. “Are you sure you don't want to tell us what the laboratory has been up to?”
It didn't quite register to me as a question at first. As the seconds grew to a minute, I realized he'd paused for my response. My next quip was well considered: “Yes, I am sure.”
This time, he definitely frowned. “Ozzie, I'm… disappointed. You stole the miracle serum, a clear betrayal of your laboratory, yet you won't tell us a bit about your old friends?” He turned on his heels, his footsteps obvious as he walked further from the room. Before the man exited, one final phrase weighed on the room: “I'll be back, Ozzie dear…”
The voices present for my awakening began murmuring once more, though the ominous aura captivating the room never lifted. I counted the seconds as they spanned to hours, and soon, the room was silent. Then, footsteps.
“Ozzie… I'm back.” The heels of the man’s shoes clicked on the floor, familiarly halting in front of me. “I've got a present for you, would you like to see?” This inquiry seemed quite a bit less open-ended, so I decided silence was key.
“Playing coy, aren't you? Well, I'll show you anyway.” The man waved a vial in front of my face. Through the shadows gathering in the room, small specks of light twisted within the crimson liquid, bubbles reaching the surface to dissipate into the air. On the back of my neck, hair raised.
The man's voice held a frigid streak absent in the previous encounter. As he opened his mouth to speak, gravity weighed down upon my chest. “Now, dear
Oswald, I'll tell you how this'll go. You tell me where your base is, or else I'll give you this serum. Do you understand?”
As if on its own, my head reluctantly bobbed up and down. My mouth opened to comply, and though I didn't quite hear the words that resulted, I knew they would have ramifications that I could not yet comprehend.
“Good job, Ozzie boy. Though I may have lied a bit…” In the darkness, a glint manifested in the deranged man’s eyes. My mouth dropped open ever so slightly, and a crimson drop fell from the vial in his hands. As the fiery liquid dropped onto my tongue, his smirk burned into my eyes. Darkness.
{484/500}