I can feel my heart beating faster and faster, as my skin grows cold, my hands tremble and sweat starts to accumulate across my entire body. As if time itself had slowed down, I look at Mary and her expression is just as shocked as mine. We look back at the door as it swings open revealing two guards men. They enter and shout.

“You two!? of course it’d be the no-good hold overs bumbling about doing lord knows what!”

The guards march over, one grabs me by my scarf and hoists me up to his face. I grab at the collar trying to the release the pressure on my neck that is currently supporting my entire body weight. My body squirms as he shouts at me.

“You best explain yourself now before I reserve the right to give you-“

The guard whips out a stick from his belt and swings it at one of the laundry machines, it extends and hits the machine with a loud, metallic smack.

“-on the spot corrective rehabilitation.”

“…”

As if I were in a nightmare where I couldn’t shout, I bend my mind to its limits attempting to utter a single sound. It is painfully clear the guard is unaware that the mask prevents me from speaking.

“S-stop! He ca-“

“SHUT UP!”

The other guard slaps something around Mary’s neck and it clicks into place. It resembles something that is like my tail leash.

“This is so you don’t try and get clever with us, spirit girl.”

The other guard shouts as the one holding me up says.

“Not a talker ey?

The guard whips the metal rod into my side, it makes a muffled thud sound as if it had just hit a pillow. My body tweaks and contorts as it writhes and agony, my mind bombarded with the sensation of pain. I scream in anguish but the only one to hear it is Mary.

“…”

“Tough guy huh?”

The guard strikes again and again, my arms instinctively go to block the blow but they too become assaulted with pain as the wand hits my arms. I couldn’t think of anything right now, my thoughts were clouded with one thought and one thought alone. PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PLEASE STOP PLEASE STOP STOP STOP STOP! After what felt like an eternity the guard lets up. My thoughts become pierced by the sound of screams, I look over my shoulder and see Mary being tortured with the symbol of the school. I can see what almost looks like smoke emanating from the contact point.

“Real quiet type huh? That’s fine we’ll have her deal with both of you.”

The guard throws me down to the ground, my legs make an effort to catch and support my weight but it’s in vain. My momentum continues until I collapse onto the floor. I try to stand up but the pain shoots through my body as I make every attempt to stand but it makes me collapse back onto the floor.

“What’s wrong pal can’t walk. Here lemme give you a hand.”

The guard once again grabs at my scarf and begins to drag me out the door. My body screams as it is forced to contort and having all the weight of my body being supported on this scarf. As my mind grows numb from the onslaught of pain being constantly sent through it. My eyes briefly meet Mary’s, she is being muffled by the guards hand and lead behind us. I stare at her and a familiar feeling begins to burn into my chest. The same feeling I had felt when those students had said those rude things about me. I lose control of my thoughts as my emotions take over and immediately start chanting.

ALL YOUR FAULT ALL YOUR FAULT ALL YOUR FAULT! HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE! Yes of course, this emotion isn’t unfamiliar to me. It just occurred to me now that this is the emotion I had felt that day, and even now.

“…”

She shows no emotion. Words don’t leave my mouth, but I can feel my jaw unhinge and open as my lips pull back and I mouth the words in my head. I knew my message would reach her and I didn’t care if it had hurt her. In fact, I wanted it to hurt her, I wanted her to feel the pain she had put me through. I could have served my time as a hold over, gone to the facility and made Angel happy that way, but now I have once again spit in The Vanarch’s face, even Angel’s face after all the kindness they’ve shown me.

My head slams to the floor as the guard releases my scarf, and my eyes are met with a starry night sky. We were in the courtyard of the school. No one else was here except for a few other guards coming to see what the commotion was. I begin to claw at the ground trying to withstand the pain as I writhe around trying to find a position that doesn’t irritate my injuries. My breathing becomes ragged as I hear a familiar voice.

“My my my, just what have they done to you.”

It was a familiar voice that had put my mind at ease time and time again, even now. I struggle to get a view but I finally manage to prop myself up on to my elbows to get a clear view. Yes, I wasn’t mistaken, it was her.

“My poor little darlings just look at you both, you look absolutely awful. Just what have they done to you both. What have you done to them!”

Angel speaks in such a soft and comforting tone before snapping and raising her voice at one of the guards. The guard assumes submissive posture with his hands behind his back as he stammers out a response.

“M-Ma’am we found the hold overs outside of their quarters past curfew.”

“The holdovers you say, past curfew?”

“Y-Yes ma’am.”

Angel turns from the guards and makes her way towards me. She gestures to the guard that has Mary locked up and releases her, she collapses to the ground on her knees.

“I see.”

She motions with her hand to the guard and he releases me. I wince as my body slams to the ground. She kneels and lays her hand on my chest. A warm comforting sensation. I can feel the warmth radiate throughout my body and little by little I can feel the pain going away. Eventually I feel nothing and sit up properly like brand new.

“I know my boys can be a little rough at times.”

I press my hands together and bow my head to gesture a thank you. Angel smiles at me as she tilts her head and makes a satisfied hmph.

“Oh don’t you thank me, after all-“

A sudden pressure enters my stomach and my vision is distorted as my weight gets tossed around. I make impact with something solid and my vision comes to. I see angel a distance away from me with her foot hiked up. I cough and some sort of liquid shoots out of my mouth, a metallic taste covers it as a sharp pain shoots through my chest. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! My body bounces off one of the pillars of the courtyard and I slam to the ground.

“-I can be vastly rougher.”

She takes off her coat and hands it to one of the guards as she walks over to me. She picks me up and I am once again met with that same warming sensation. She slams her knee into chest, uppercuts me into the air and slams her heel into my back as I come falling back down knocking straight into the ground with force. The wind is completely knocked out of my lungs and once again the familiar agony comes too.

“You worthless sack of shit, do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me. With every fiber of my being, I hate you! The fact that you look up to me and tried to impress me makes me absolutely sick!”

She says, digging her six inch heels into my back as she spoke. I feel my vision waver and my mind goes foggy as my mind drifts into a comatose state.

“Oh no you don’t.”

The warmth again, my body returns to normal and as if suddenly awoken, my eyes widen. She has me by the collar and has me raised over her head.

“If it were up to me I would’ve had you imprisoned in a cage for all eternity but he wanted to see if he could rehabilitate you, to make you one of us. I tell you it sickens me, but no longer.”

She slams me onto the ground, I land on my stomach. She grabs my left arm and yanks it up at the same time she stomps on it. An audible snap is heard, and my body begins to writhe and contort out of control. My mind once again filled with nothing but visage of pain. She lets my arm go and I begin rolling on the ground bracing my arm. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! No other idea, no other emotion, nothing could come to my mind other than the immense amount pain that was coming and going through my body.

She presses her hand on my chest and I hear my arm snap back into place and once again my body no longer in pain. However, my mind was exhausted, there may not have been any pain, but my mind still believed it was there. My mind still could remember that pain. She balls up her fist and cocks it back.

“I’ll make sure you wish you were never created.”

BWAAAAM BWAAAAM BWAAAAM

She stops with her fist cocked back and looks back.

An intercom fizzle is heard and a voice speaks up.

“ALERT! ALERT! HIGH CLASS PERSONEL HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT. ALL GUARDSMEN BE ADVISED!”

Angel drops me and immediately barks out orders to the guards to secure the perimeter and to report the whereabouts of this personnel immediately. While that happens, I feel a stinging sensation hit my arm. I look and see there is a needle, I feel a cool sensation through my arm as it grows numb. I look up to see where it came from as I see a dark figure staring down at me from the roof of the school. It waves at me as my eyes flutter, and I begin to grow drowsy.

I pull the needle out and collapse to the ground falling unconscious with the last image I saw being Angel’s wide-eyed stare.