Requiem of Innocence

Innocence is just an illusion.

A lie the world creates for you to believe, to try and fill minds full of innocence, is just an illusion.

A lie the world creates for you to believe, to try and fill people’s minds full of fairy tales and false hopes.

All mind-numbing lies!

Just keep running!

A whole year has now passed.

Don’t look back, keep running!

A whole year since my best friend was stolen away from me, just disappearing with no trace left behind.

If you look back, he will catch you; keep running, don’t stop, and don’t look back!

He told me he would be right back and that he needed to have a few words with the mysterious grey-haired man wearing a white lab coat. He told me everything was going to be ok and to wait for him right there.

He never came back.

I waited and waited, but he never came back to me.

A high-pitched cry fell from my lips as something abruptly grabbed onto my ankle, causing the ground to have an up-close and personal meeting with my face. I lay still for a moment, releasing a soft groan of discomfort as a warm, moist feeling gradually trickled down my forehead.

“Oh darling, look at what you've caused; there's a dreadful mark on my lovely canvas.”

Chills ran up and down my arms at the sound of that horrid, deep voice, causing me to gasp and quickly flip onto my back. My blue eyes were filled with panic as I slowly tried to crawl backward over the fallen branches on the forest floor beneath me, deliberately trying to get away from the lunatic who stood above me.

His falsely warm brown eyes roamed over my body like he was viewing a specimen, as his fake gentle smile caused a shiver down my spine. This man couldn’t possibly be human!

His white teeth peeked out at me from behind his lips as his fake warm smile grew wider, poorly attempting to calm me. "Come here, my lovely canvas; all I desire is to grant your wish – the wish of reuniting with your long-lost best friend. He is the reason you've been seeking me, isn't he?"

I bite my lip as I pause in my sad attempt at escape, looking up again at the blue-haired man before me, my blue eyes locking onto his chocolate-brown orbs.

“Will…will you take me to Elias…?”

His lips slowly curved into a frightening smirk, as if I had just offered him the world, as he reached out his large palm to me. “Of course, my dear.”

“Will…will you promise to let us go?” A simple nod was all he gave me as an answer.

With a gulp and a deep breath, I slowly placed my pale hand in his, a sharp contrast against his dark skin tone, as he slowly helped me up from the ground. “Here you go, sweetie, you dropped this during your ‘little run’.” His fake, warm smile returned once again as his other hand placed a soft, fuzzy black hat in my free hand. “O-oh, um, th-thank you…” A small gasp slipped from my throat as the world suddenly decided to start wobbling and become blurry. My legs felt as if they turned to jelly and buckled from underneath my weight, causing my body to once again hurtle towards the ground.

I squeezed my eyes closed to brace myself for the impact, but it never came.

"Now, now, darling, let’s put an end to those unpleasant blemishes. I require a fresh and clean canvas to enhance your beauty even more." With a swift motion, he lifted me in a bridal carry, gently laughing at my feeble efforts to escape his embrace.

“Y-you promised to l-let us go!” Even the sound of my voice was weak as my vision began to darken.

“That is true, but like I said, I plan to make my canvas even more beautiful.” I tried so hard to keep my eyes open as my mind began to fog; the only feeling in my body was the tingling numbness of sleep. “Wh-what did y-you do to me?!” Another chuckle vibrated through his chest as his smirk reappeared once again, his hand reaching up to mine as he pulled something small and shiny from my thumb. “You touched the needle I embedded in your beanie; my needle was drugged.”

Again, I tried to wiggle out of his hold with all the strength I could muster, to run away again as fast as I could, but my body simply refused to obey. Instead, my blue eyes slowly closed, my mind succumbing to the peaceful darkness.

A soft whine of annoyance came from my mouth as I turned my head to the side, my eyes refusing to open. My body ached all over and felt like it weighed a thousand tons as I lay there in silence. I tried to turn my body onto its side, but my wrists barely rose from the cold, hard surface underneath me before refusing to go any higher, the sound of chains breaking the deafening silence. More chains began to rattle next to me, causing my eyes to flash open to blinding white light, causing a quiet hiss to rumble from my throat in annoyance. “Where am I…?” My voice cracked as my eyes slowly adjusted to the painful light, allowing me to make out blurry blobs and figures of what seemed to be tables and medical tools. Slightly picking my head up from the barely cushioned surface beneath me, I glanced down at my body to find that I was clothed in a thin, loose hospital gown, my street clothes nowhere to be seen.

Once more, the clanking of chains resonated in the stark white room, prompting me to turn my head swiftly toward the source of the sound, driven by curiosity. My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates at what lay next to me, shackled to a blood-covered medical bed, blood caked to his tanned, scared skin. His black blood-stained hair had grown since I had last seen him, long enough to cover his eyes, but stopped at his nose. Growls escaped from his throat now and then as he continued to struggle against the shackles that held his wrists and ankles down, blood also slipping down from his lips. What has that monster done to him? What has he done to my best friend?! “E-Elias…Is that you?”

Everything went silent as soon as I had spoken, my words echoing off the bare walls around us. The only sound I could hear was his labored breathing and my own, along with the sound of my heart trying to beat its way through my ribs. I tried to shrink back away from him as the man slowly turned his head towards me, his growls still lightly audible with his breathing. My skin began to crawl as his lips began to curve into a wicked smile, sharp, shark-like teeth revealing themselves to me. “So, you finally woke up, Lena?” His smile grew wider with each word he spoke, making my heart beat at an unbelievable pace and my eyes start to well up with tears. “Allow me, your best friend, to be the first to welcome you to hell on earth. You should never have come looking for me, Lena.”

I jumped when the sound of a door being thrown open and hitting a wall echoed loudly throughout the room, followed by the sound of a metal-rusted cart being rolled in. “Oh, well, good morning, my beautiful canvas, did you sleep well? I see you’ve found your best friend; doesn’t he look wonderful? I did it myself, it was hard to keep the little fighter still, but I’m sure I won’t have that kind of trouble with you, right, my darling?” I bit my lip in frustration as the blue-haired man came and stood above my bed, smiling his fake warm smile down at me as he began to fasten a medical mask over his mouth and nose. “Why are you doing this? You sadistic lunatic, why did you do that to Elias?! Why didn’t you take me first and leave him alone?”

“Because I wanted to save you,”

My eyes flickered back over to Elias, confusion clear on my features. “Save me from what, Elias?"

The man lay back down on his bed, looking up at the ceiling as he let out a quiet sigh. “That freak, Dr. Voss, was planning on taking you first, Lena. He was going to kidnap you first because he knew that if you went missing, we all would have gone looking for you. He knew that Noah, Soren, Myra, Ivy, and I would never have stopped looking for you until we found you, and he would have gotten all of us.” A dark chuckle came from Dr. Voss, and he began to clap his gloved hands together. “Very good, my canvas, you are quite the smart one. A reason why I accepted your bargain.” His last word caught my attention as I looked back up at the dark man, my eyes narrowing with hatred. “Bargain?”

“Oh, he hasn’t told you that part yet, my dear?” I could hear the smirk in his voice as I shook my head no, keeping my eyes focused on every move the man-made, my teeth gritting together in anger. “Well, you see, dear Elias here decided to sacrifice himself to take your place, knowing that no one would try to look for him like they would you, the only fault in his plan, though, was you. He hoped that you wouldn’t come looking for him, that you would give up on him and go on with your life, but you didn’t. You continued to look for him day and night, refusing to give up on your best friend, the boy you loved, and now look where you are. Here in my hands, where I can do whatever I want with you, to make you into the most beautiful piece of art I shall ever create, just like I did with Elias.”

I jumped with a small squeak at the sudden sound of chains being pulled to their limit, metal clanking violently against metal as growls and cries of hatred echoed throughout the room. “Don’t you touch her! Don’t you lay a finger on Lena! I will kill you, I swear to God I will! Get away from her!” Elias continued to fight against the shackles with all his might, the bed beginning to tip with how hard he was wiggling and bucking against the bed. “Now, now my boy,” My eyes widened as Striker pulled a syringe from his coat’s pocket, flicking the needle a few times before jabbing it into Elias’s arm. “There is no need for all of this ruckus, just lay back and take a nice long nap, and by the time you awaken, your friend shall be the most beautiful creature you will ever have laid your eyes on…or well, lack of eyes.”

‘Lack of eyes’? I didn’t have time to question that statement as my eyes began to water again at the sight of Elias suddenly going limp at the end of Dr. Voss’s sentence as he slowly removed the needle from his arm. “Now, my dear, this will only hurt for a moment.” Before I even knew what was happening, a sharp pain raced up my arm, forcing a small cry to escape from my mouth as I arched my back off the table. It felt as if my blood had suddenly turned to concrete as it drug through my veins at a painfully slow speed, causing my heart to feel as if at any moment it would burst through my chest as it suddenly went into overtime trying to speed up my blood flow. I glanced down at my arms to find another syringe had been fished from the man’s lab coat and stabbed into me, the spot where it protruded from the inside of my elbow was covered in spider webs of my veins, so vibrant against my paper white skin. “Why are you doing this?”

His brown eyes were clouded with demented excitement as he removed the needle from my body and placed it back into his pocket, his smile twisting his face as it grew wider each second. “That’s easy, my dear, simply because I want to.” My eyes grew wider at the sight of a scalpel being twirled in the man’s gloved hand as it drew closer to my numb skin. I tried to shy away from the sharp blade, but my body refused to cooperate as the metal finally came in contact with my skin, allowing crimson to soon paint my white skin. My body may have been numb, but I could feel the sensation of the contact with my skin, causing screams to slip from my body in fear, my blue eyes locking shut as I refused to believe that this was reality. I could feel the cool sensation of the blade running down my arm, with the warm sensation of my blood closing in its trail before it finally stopped at my middle knuckle, before he repeated the same design on my other arm. My screams grew louder within the white room, bouncing off the walls as I tried to thrash my body on the medical bed with no prevail.

My breathing was labored as I finally gave up on trying to escape, my eyes heavy as I lay there quietly with my heart racing at an abnormal pace. “Finally accepting your fate, my beautiful canvas?” I wanted to growl a no at him, but my body seemed to grow weaker with every breath I took. I could feel a warm sensation run over my jawline, a different warmth, not like the feeling of my blood. My eyes opened to find Striker’s thumb running down my jaw as he examined my face closely with his fake smile. “Just relax, my dear, and soon you will be stronger, faster, and the most amazing being this world will ever have seen; rest, Darling.”

Without even trying, my eyes slipped closed as my body listened to his command, my head falling to the side with my hair falling into my face as my mind slipped into that dreadful fog.