They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

I don't know what's going to happen. It only took me a while before my eyes to adjust against the darkness. The bulb above is illuminating only faint lights. But I can discern my surrounding. Slowly at first.

I was in a solitary rectangular room with a single chair. No bed, no toilet, no food just a room. Then everything around me lit in bright fluorescent light. I tripped on my feet. I covered my eyes. 

The barricading walls around me lowered. And I was in a wide hall. Alone. At least I am, until the door hisses and fifteen Beasts, all eighty foot tall. Like giant statues with bats and knuckles so big I'm afraid they'll blast me to the sky like baseball came in. 

I gaped. The towering height, the ripped muscles, the sheer strength… It's nothing compared to the baby Beasts I use to pound my fist with. 

Now I understand why Seven asked me 'Why Lista urged me to fight baby Beasts when Faeries is our real enemies.' For the first time, I began to regret my actions. My trainings…everything Dad and Lista taught me was a lie.

Lista never cared about me. Dad too. I trust him not to give me away. Yet he did. So gladly. I assumed coming to Chicago was for our safety. I didn't imagine it was for all their plans to be put to motion.

If only I had known, I should've listened to Magnus. I should've let him kill Dad, I should've come with him, maybe Seven came with us by then. We could be cruising the sea right now.. or having long road rides to find the other Eklektos.

I was still bound in chains. I can't fight them off. Fifteen against one. The Beasts move sluggishly towards me. They're color pure Red, belly protrudes like amusement human rolling ball in size. 

I hopped. I writhed against the chains. Tried to break it with all my strength. But I cant. Four chains shot in either side and caught me in its bind. I was lift off my feet. 

I attempted to scream and shout hundred thousand cuss words to Lista. Yet I didn't. I remembered Seven and Magnus convulsing form. Watching them, I can imagine their pain on my skin. 

Especially Seven. She said she has life blessing. I got the notion when opposite clash, they tend to destroy the holder they're detained to. I gulped in horror. I'm sure her insides almost burst into shocked explosion by then. 

But she didn't scream. Magnus didn't scream. They refused to show weakness to these dumb idiots who's proud to entrap kids and torture them until their brains spilled out. 

The Beasts bulging eyeballs spin like pachinko, clearly dead set on me. I writhed from my bounds. I got a bad feeling about this. I think I know what they're trying to do. The ground shook when the fifteen thousand pounds monsters run like zombies… heading towards their prey.

One grab me by the arm and sank his teeth to arm. Tearing it off my body. I grit my teeth so hard, two fell off. My blood is bleeding endlessly. My ears are ringing against the pain. My head swam in utter naseousness. 

I thought it's over. But it doesn't there. Only one took a bite of me. There's still fourteen. 

***

Lista was not lying when he said that pizza he fed me in the van was the last tasty food I'll ever savor. My body can't move. My clothes are soaked dry of my own blood. I smell of disgusting fresh ripped flesh and tang of iron. 

They… they didn't put me down from my bounds the whole night. They feed me to the fifteen giant Beasts like how you feed innocent deers to wolves. They took torn in ripping my flesh, savoring my blood and munching me like I'm a raw pig of meat they displayed in a butcher house. 

And after they have their meals… I'm left in a broken pile of mess. My arms and legs are missing. And they're hanging me only by the neck. I can't breathe. I thought I was going to die. 

Then a strange thing happened. One homeless man, in tattered clothes and full of maggots caking in his hair, was dropped to my side. He's also hanging by chains. He's eyes are dilated. He's still alive. 

I can tell by the rising and falling of his chest. A thirst for life surge through me. I became a monster who hunts for any living things it can find. I stared blankly at the man, with his one seat apart teeth and started to inhale the sweet filling he possess in his very being. 

His life force. 

He shook like he's been electrified. Slowly, my arms, my legs, and every bones, tendons and skin grew back in my body. While the homeless man writhe. His complexion turning dangerously pale. His lips chapped and cracked and turned so white it's difficult to tell whether it had color or not.

The maggots in his hair fell off, dead on the spot. His hair fell out too. His skin wrinkled so much he looks like a petrified man transformed into a tree. I know I'm killing him. I look like that evil witch in movies. Where she absorbed youth from young women. Turning them into very old granny while her features turn ten years younger. 

I know this is wrong. But reasons can't defeat my thirst for survival. I can't die today. There's still things I need to do. Seven… Magnus… the other Eklektos…

I wanna see them again. Even if just once. 

I gasped in fresh air as excruciating pain from my limbs tore off disappeared. The homeless man hang limply in his chains. He was dead. 

And I got to retrieve my whole body intact. More like replaced body parts. At the end corner of the hall, a wide screen flashed and Lista's grinning face came out.

"Good job surviving that Lance! I know I can count on you. So! Let's start over again shall we?" 

The Beasts twirled around and ran towards me like wild dinosaurs on a hunt.