((http://www.menewsha.com/forum/commun...deception.html This roleplay is connected with another but for the sake of spoilers to some I'll just link the one for now.))




It was cold, or at least she thought it was. To be quite honest her senses felt numbed by this point. How long had it been? More than hours, the amount of meals could determine that. But how many meals? Was she getting three a day because if that was the case then it had been fifty-one days. If it was two meals a day then it would be seventy-six and half days and if it was one... one meal a day... one hundred and fifty three days.

Fifty-one, seventy-six and a half, one hundred and fifty three days since she had seen light. The room she was in must have been underground and completely made of concrete from floor to ceiling. There was a bed of sorts, a mattress on the ground with a blanket even. That was her only reprieve from the cold hard stone and it was where she sat now.

"My name is Zeta" she spoke only to herself for she had not another voice to hear but her own. She repeated the same things over and over, trying to stay sane, to remember who she was. "I'm from... Toronto" uh oh, it was getting harder to remember, "wait, no, okay, calm down. Start over." she took a deep breath, she hadn't said her last name, now silly.

"My name is Zeta... Zeta..." her heart began to race, she knew this, it was simple. All she had to do was not panic and she'd have the answer, "Zeta... zeta... zeta" the single name came out over and over but there was no end to it. Her hands were trembling and she could feel her breath catching in her throat as the panic rose.

"Cimmerian" hissed a voice in the dark.

Zeta startled, her head immediately rose as she tried to locate the sound but it came from everywhere, or perhaps nowhere. Perhaps she had finally snapped, was this all in her head? No, she wasn't going to snap, she refused it was a simple as that.
"My name is Zeta!" she told the darkness as she rose to her feet. Her hands felt along the wall until she found the door and she started pounding on it. It had been some time since she tried getting their attention, about twenty-two meals ago. "MY NAME IS ZETA! I DON'T BELONG HERE!" she screamed at the heavy metal door, only praying it would go beyond.

"My name is Zeta! My name is Zeta! MY NAME IS ZETAAAAA!"

She wasn't sure if her eyes were open or close, it didn't really matter because they were empty. Her two hundredth and twenty-third meal had been the last one she had actually eaten and apparently they had noticed because the one after that had smelled of warm turkey and mashed potatoes. Clearly a ploy to make her want it more but the truth was that it didn't matter what they gave her. There was nothing appetizing about spending another two hundred and twenty-three meals in this hell hole.

She had spent thirty-five meals worth of time contemplating the word Cimmerian. It was the only thing they had given her and even that she wasn't sure had been real.

"Cimmerian" she whispered it softly at first. It was the only clue she had, it was all they had given her. She waited in the silence as though hoping something would happen immediately but there was nothing so she continued, pressing herself against the door again, "I-is that who you want me to be?" she asked meekly, "okay... fine, I am Cimmerian. whatever that is."

Silence-wait no, a sound. The scraping of metal, the only sound that ever broke the quiet. She dropped to her knees to feel for the small slot that opened to let her food in. It must have been some sort of double lock system because there was even no light coming from there. Reaching in she felt something soft, unbelievably soft. It must have been a little stuffed animal or something but she didn't care because it was something new. She hugged it close to her body, so grateful for something so simple to hold onto that it brought tears to her eyes.

"Cimmerian... I am Cimmerian" she repeated over and over, the name held a comfort to it now.

"I AM CIMMERIAN" she screamed for the hundredth time though in truth she had lost track of that number as she pounded on the metal door. Nothing more had come from them and the sense of deprivation and fear was settling in all over again, "Common! what else do you want from me?!" her voice was strained by now and her head ached from all the tears.

Sliding down the metal door she ended up in a heap on the floor again, "Cimmerian... Cimmeriiiaaann..." she sang the name over and over again, "Cimmerian, Cimmerian... Cimmerriiiiaaaaannn..." The sound of grinding metal met her ears but she didn't moved from her spot, merely put her hand down to see what was there. Except there wasn't anything there for her, instead she fell back as the door opened behind her. It was still dark but for a moment she could have sworn she saw a flash of green before something jabbed into her arm and her brain skipped off to snoozeville.

*

When she awoke the light was blinding. It sent her mind reeling in every direction and she had to close her eyes so tightly she thought they might retreat to the back of her skull. She tried to cover her face but found that her arms had been secured to the arms of the chair she was apparently sitting in.

"Take your time to adjust" spoke a mature male voice, she was pretty sure he was somewhere in front of her, "there's no rush." he was speaking with a kindness but there was more to it than that, Cimmerian just couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"Where am I?" her voice was as rattled as she felt and even with her eyes closed her brain seemed to be doing cartwheels in her head. Probably from whatever drug they'd hit her with. So long she had been yearning for someone to answer her and now there was someone there, right in front of her. It was driving her crazy to not see who it was, all she had to do was open her eyes but the light hurt so much.

"How are you feeling?" the man redirected the questioning back to her.

"Like I've been stuck in a black hole for Three hundred and sixteen meals" she replied dryly, "How about you?" There were so many questions she had to ask.

"Hm, you were counting the meals?" he asked, though it was more of an observation than anything. She could hear him writing it down to. "Tell me, what is your name?"

She ventured to open her eyes, just a little but it still hurt so damned much, "who are you?"

"I suggest you answer my questions" he advised, she didn't like the tone in his voice.

"Where. Am. I?" the girl demanded for a second time.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Zeta, now tell me what I'm doing here!" she yelled at him and almost instantly he walked out of the room, the door slammed shut and the lights were out, plunging her into pure darkness once again. "NOOO!!!" she screamed, tears beginning to fall again almost instantly, "come back... please... please not again" her body shook with sobs, "don't leave me... I... I'm Cimmerian?"

The shadows were swirling around her, Cimmerian screamed but they only closed in tighter, creating a greyish-black cocoon and blocking her vision of the rest of the large white room.

"Stop resisting it" the voice of the scientist spoke, unimpeded by the dark cocoon.

"I can't! Adam! Help!" she pleaded. It had started off simply enough. She vaguely remembered her life before coming here but what she did know was that these shadows had always been drawn to her. It was only now that they were running out of control. She fell to her knees, tears welling up in her eyes. Why were they becoming so much stronger? They were growing out of control.

"You can do this" Adam replied firmly, "Remember what we talked about. Breathe, be calm."

She took one shaky breath and then another. Shutting her eyes tightly she forced herself to relax. Focusing on her heart beat she managed to get it to slow down, beat by beat.

"I told you you could do it" Adam smiled, tilting Cimmerian's chin up. His touch caused her to open her eyes and see that the shadows had retreated to the walls and were relaxing as she was.

With a joyous yelp she bounced at him and wrapped her arms around the scientist, "I did! Thank you Adam! I did it!"

"It's a good thing we brought you in when we did" Adam patted her on the back and she finally let him go, "Your powers have been advancing very quickly. If this had happened out there, you could have harmed innocent others and yourself."

Smiling, she nodded, "I am very grateful." her gentle brown eyes were wide and innocent, she believed every word of it. That they had found her on the brink of her powers losing control. They of course had to lock her up for her own safety while they figured out how to help her and now that they knew what to do, things would get better. Adam was brilliant, he had even come up with a little serum to help her out-and it was a good thing to because not long after he started giving her the shots, her powers were growing out of control! But with his kind words of guidance, she always managed to handle it just fine.

Adam had saved her...

The last dose had been bigger than the rest, Cimmerian noted with curiosity. Had they found something in her blood again? Something big was coming? Then why wouldn't Adam tell her? It must be nothing, she shrugged it off. At any rate, it was time for another lesson and she had come too far now to start questioning things. Adam knew best.

She began with a deep, calming breath before starting her movements. It was a form of Tai Chi they had taught her and was very effective in controlling the motions of her body and the shadows that surrounded her. A pure and calm mind... She winced slightly, feeling a bit queasy.

It was nothing, she took another breath and moved to the next motion, letting the shadows swirl around her like a pool of water spinning at her feet. Suddenly feeling dizzy she stumbled to the side, catching herself at the wall with a light gasp.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked, stepping forward.

"N-nothing" she went to wave him off but the shadows reacted to the slightest motion and they hurled Adam across the room, slamming him into the far wall. "ADAM!" she screamed in horror and instantly the darkness grew around her. One second lacking control and she was lost in a sea of darkness. The walls were dripping with it, playing with the light and dark of it all, creating random and sporadic shapes through the room. Some were solid while others you could pass through, it was a mess and spiralling more and more out of control as the seconds passed.

Adam had been dazed by the blow and was trying to get back to his feet, he reached for something at his side but Cimmerian couldn't see what it was through the dark. And then a mass of spikes came from all directions, the floor, wall and ceiling and in a split second of horror Adam had been skewered from all angles.

She heard a scream fill the air. Everything seemed to slow down, the shadows grabbed her, pulling her away from the him but she fought against them as she watched the light fall from Adam's eyes.

And then the room was plunged into darkness.

Suddenly nothing was holding onto her, her heat felt as though it was ripped from her chest and her skin was on fire as every shadow immediately died. There was something wet and sticky falling from her nose and then she keeled over.

At some point the lights had come back on and she was falling in and out of consciousness. Several men had entered the room, one in particular was looking down at Adam's body with disapproval as he picked up a gun from Adam's hand and gave it to another man before glancing over to her and... smirked.

Adam had a gun.
That one simple fact resounded in volumes through her mind. Why did Adam have a gun? What possible reason would he have for needing that? Of course there was only one explanation that made sense... to defend himself. The shadows had spun out of control and the first thing he did was reach for that weapon... if he hadn't been skewered by the darkness, he would have shot her. Killed her. After all they had been through.

But that wasn't the first time was it? Now that she thought about it, any time it seemed like her powers were starting to slip out of control, Adam typically still had a hand in his pocket, or under the table. Despite his kind words and constant encouragement-Ha! He had even said that he believed in her and yet he had been ready to kill her from day one.

She had been deluding herself, this was not a place of kindness, this was a place of survival, she should have known that from the start and it was time she started playing that game.