Cyber Blood

They took me that night; where? I had no idea. I was walking home when something hit me. Hard. Suddenly everything, and I mean everything, went black.
I groaned and moved, but didn’t move. What’s going on? I thought. I looked down myself to find that I was strapped to a metal table. It was dark…and cold…very, very cold. That’s when I heard footsteps. “Who’s there?” I called out. The lights flashed on, God they were bright, and I looked around. There were these weird instruments beyond my knowing. They seemed high-tech and frightening; my heart began to race as I looked up to meet a man. He had a cyber-mask on with wires connected. If I wasn’t mistaken, they looked as if they wrapped around his arm and penetrated his skin. He wore a white jacket, the ones that doctors would wear. What’s going on? I thought again, they can’t be connected to his arm!
“Evening, sweetheart,” he said softly, but raspy. This wasn’t a harsh voice, nor was it what I was expecting to hear. The entire combination of his attire and voice just didn’t match up right. “Ah,” he sighed lightly, “you’ve noticed my lab. Quite intriguing isn’t it?”
“What’s going on?” I shouted, hearing my voice bounce off the walls, “Who are you? Where am I?” I tried to move, but the restraints wouldn’t let me.
“Oh, where are my manors?” he chuckled, forebodingly, “My name is Dr. Havoc. This? Well you are my next experimentation.” My eyes widened. Ex…experiment…? Wh...Wha?
“Here’s everything, doctor,” said a tall, slender girl, walking in through a curtain like material, yet it wasn’t a curtain. It looked like a strange hologram-like substance, but you couldn’t see through it.
“Thank you, my dear,” said Dr. Havoc, placing the strange utensils on a metal dish, “oh, this is my lovely assistance Xalis,” he told me. I didn’t nod; I just looked at her. She was flawless with long, layered black hair and- wait what? Her eyes were an astonishing deep purple. Impossible… I thought to myself. I couldn’t see the bottom half of her face. It was covered by a purple and black cyber-mask as well as cyber goggles on the top of her head.
“And what experiment is this doctor?” she asked. Her voice… I don’t know how to describe it. It was soft, velvety, and a bit seductive. I found myself in a trance, staring straight at her unconsciously.
“This?” Dr. Havoc asked mischievously, snapping me out of my spell, “experiment 6-13.” She nodded as I figured she was smiling beneath that mask. How could such stunning people be so…what’s the word? Wicked?
Xalis glided over to Dr. Havoc and looked down at me, “You’ve found an exquisite being. How on Earth did you manage this?”
“I wouldn’t label her as exquisite, darling,” he touched her cheek, “You know nothing could compare to you. I’ve had my eye on her for quite some time. I’ve watched her take the ally ways as a shortcut home. I’ve seen the fear in her eyes as well when a shadow passes by. She is unique though and I felt she was the one,” he moved away, “set up everything for me, my dear. I need to run a few things through the device for it to work properly.” With that, he escaped through the virtual curtain, as it blurred for a second.
Xalis moved closer to me, raising the metal bed I was on with a touch of a button. I angled up about a foot more than I was. She started fiddling with a few instruments, wiping some down with a white cloth. She raised the bowie looking knife; the luminescent lights reflected off it making it even more deadly. The knife lowered and cut my shirt down the middle. I gasped in disbelief of what was happening. “What is your name?” inquired Xalis. I stayed quiet, but then she pressed the blade onto my bare skin, “so you’re a quiet one. I asked for your name.”
“Azura!” I blurted in slight pain. The blade made a thin crimson line trickle down my chest. She took it off me and wiped down the knife.
“Ah, Azura,” she whispered, “nice to meet you.”
“What’s going…on?” Xalis began to speak, but Dr. Havoc slithered into the room. He looked down at my chest and frowned; his mask was off, but in his hand.
“Xalis,” he said, “why is 6-13 bleeding? You know you’re not supposed to touch the experiments without me.”
“I’m sorry Doctor,” she looked down, “I was trying to get an answer from her.” He nodded and continued to walk around the room. They both went out of view for a moment then quickly came back with more oddly shaped utensils in their hands. Dr. Havoc reached for something on the wall and the lights dimmed to a red. My heart began racing once again, afraid of what was next. I felt myself being lowered back to a flat position as Xalis loosened the restraint on my left arm. Her touch was soft as she raised my hand and held my wrist to where my veins were in view. “This may hurt a bit,” she whispered.
Then I felt a pain as a needle penetrated my skin. I went to scream, but she covered my mouth with her other hand and shushed me. That’s when I noticed it wasn’t just a needle. It was attached to a strange glowing wire, but I couldn’t see where it led. The pain dimmed, yet my heart was still racing. What are they doing? I wanted to beg them to stop. Finally the needle was pulled out of my wrist as Xalis poured a green liquid onto my wrist. I jumped because it was hot, but it faded almost instantly as the green seeped into my wound.
Dr. Havoc quickly made his way out of the room with a pint of something that looked like blood. My blood. I looked up to Xalis as she strapped my arm back down. “What did you pour on my arm?” I asked her. I was feeling slightly faint from the blood loss.
“It won’t hurt you. I promise. It stops the bleeding more quickly. I can see it in your eyes; you want answers don’t you?” I slowly nodded. “Dr. Havoc and I are beyond your knowledge. You see, we are different. In order for us to survive, we need to find a cure and blood is our elixir.”
“You’re a vampire?” I asked in confusion. A flash of what seemed like offensiveness skimmed across her face.
“Never! Vampires are a disgrace to all beings living and non. It was a plague that swept across our town years ago killing all, but Dr. Havoc and I. We can only be in artificial light,” she raised her arm showing off her pale skin; “our skin pigment is very sensitive now. The sun would burn up our skin in little time. In order for us to survive we need to find the perfect mixture of blood and a venomous liquid called Zerithon. We’ve began to run low of this.”
“Will I be release after this?” I questioned shakily. I watched her sigh.
“Only a rare chance, child. Dr. Havoc usually never lets his experiments live.” My eyes widened in terror.
“Y…you can’t…” I stuttered, “You can’t let him kill me!”
She quickly covered my mouth ordering me to shush.
“Why not!” she shouted, “you’re just a dreadful experiment. Human as a matter of fact!”
I began to cry unwillingly just as the doctor walked back in. He immediately looked at me in irritation.
“Shut your trap!” he barked at me, “Xalis, I need to you in the other room. Shut off all lights.” She nodded at his command, completely forgetting me. He disappeared through the shade portal as Xalis disengaged all lights and vanished.

It grew cold quickly as my tears flowed down my face. I want out of here…get me out of here. I began to shake from the chills that engulfed the room. I couldn’t see a thing. Pitch black darkness was wrapping me in its cold, icy arms. I didn’t want to sleep, but my eyes begged to differ. I strained to keep them open until they slowly slid shut.

I awoke to a bright artificial light shinning in my eyes. I squinted for my life as I tried to see what was happening. Havoc was hovering over me with his mask and goggles on. The goggles were a shade of red that you couldn’t see through, but I could tell that he seen that I had awaken. “Hold still,” he breathed. He pried my right eye open with some object, shinning light into my eyes. If it ever ran across your mind, my eyes were a very vibrant, deep green. I felt my eye begin to water until he backed away over to a counter, writing down something in a notebook. “This isn’t right,” he muttered. Xalis walked over to him wrapping an arm around him.
“What is it, darling?” she said into his ear. He slid her off very aggravated.
“The statistics aren’t adding up. Her blood should be the kind.”
“Maybe you chose wrong?” she questioned, laying a hand on her shoulder. He jumped with rage, throwing her hand off as she flinched.
“I did no such thing!” He was full of furry and that, my friend, was not a pretty sight. It was even a hundred times worse being strapped down to a metal table and not knowing a clue of what was going on. She turned her back and glanced down at me as she walked to the other end of the room. She sat on a counter, diagonally from me. I stared up at the ceiling until I realized that she was staring at me. I looked over as our eyes met. I fell into that dark spell once again. What is this feeling?

I was experimented on for a few weeks. They injected me with strange liquids and Xalis told me it made my body adjust to the depletion in blood, no food, etc. The experimentations didn’t cease. It was the same thing over and over again: blood being draw out, being injected…on…and on until this day.
Dr. Havoc busted into the room making a loud bang as some things went flying to the ground. “This isn’t right!” he screamed, “nothing, nothing at all is adding up!” Xalis followed him, but was ten times calmer. He began to pace back and forth. “We need a lot more blood,” he stated to himself, “no matter what the cost.” He looked up at me and grinned, “Xalis, my love, get the devices.”
He tilted my neck to the side as he held the large needle in his hand. “Havoc, what are you doing?” she yelled. He didn’t listen as he jammed the needle into the soft spot on my neck. I screamed as the pain raced through my body. He pressed a button on the needle and instead of feeling what I usually felt; I felt something being injected into me. My legs quivered as the room began to spin wildly. Then another needle was inserted into my wrist where so many punctures had already been made.
Tears shrieked my face as I whimpered in absolute pain. “You’re going to kill her!” Xalis kept screaming at him trying to yank him off of me. It made the needles inside of me jerk, making me shriek. Dr. Havoc let go of the needles and slapped Xalis across her face with all of the power he had.
“Don’t you ever try to prevent my doings, Xalis,” he shoved her across the room and then he removed the needle from my neck and slapped me across the face as he did with her, “You pathetic humans don’t know a thing about pain!” He tore the needle from my wrist then stormed out of the lab, dragging Xalis with him.
Blood seeped onto the metal table as I cried out. I lifted my left hand to watch the blood trickle down. It was slow, but surely it would kill me. What did he inject me with? I tried to undo the strap on my other arm, but it was sealed. The room was spinning once again and everything was growing faint. Everything went black.

My restraints were being loosened as I woke up weakly. “What are you-?” I went to say, but a cold hand covered my mouth. All of my restraints were released as I felt the figure pick me up. I was too weak to react. It was too black to see a thing. All I could do was lay there in the unknown presence, closing my eyes once again.
“Are you okay?” the female voice asked me quietly, laying me against a cold wall. I slid my eyelids open and looked into the eyes of Xalis.
“Wh-what’s-?” she quieted me again pressing a finger on my lips.
“I need to get you out of here,” she whispered so low that I barely heard, “Havoc is planning to completely kill you. He injected you with Zerithon, thinking that by mixing it in your body, it would work, but he was wrong.”
“W-w-why…” I stuttered, “why would…y-you care?” She turned her head for a second.
“I can’t explain it. It was a feeling.”
A feeling? I thought, could it be like what I felt?
“The toxin needs to be released from your body immediately,” she said quickly then she tilted my neck back as I jolted. “Trust me, Azura,” she breathed. Even that shocked me; all these weeks, I had been called 6-13. I felt her fingers pull at the skin on my neck where the needle had struck. I gasped in pain as the wound split back open. I felt her lips on it drawing out the venom. A strange relief shook my body as the Zerithon escaped from me. I felt as if I had a bit more of energy and tried pushing her off. She was gripped to me until she pulled away, spiting on the ground. “There…” she sighed. It was quiet for a moment.
She stood to her feet and pulled me up and told me I needed to get out of here. I nodded as she led me through a secret passage way. We came to the end and I looked at her. “Up that ladder,” she spoke, “is the city. Get as far away as you can from here.” She pulled me against her body and kissed me hard and deep. My eyes widened, but I didn’t pull away until she did. “Go,” she whispered.
I climbed up the ladder and slid open the rusty, latched door. Moonlight shined through. It was a relief to see the outside world and breathe fresh air. Then pain, emotional pain, swept through me as I looked down at Xalis. “Go,” she whispered again, “I’ll find you.”
A half way smiled and said softly, “thank you.” I escaped into the night and ran away from the bloody nightmare.