//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 'Purgatory' Sec.1 'Memories of Red' // Story: V-472 // by SimpleWriter //------------------------------// I lied on that log for quite some time. Even after the dragons or whatever they were, were long gone. As most of the flock has passed, the few that trailed behind were all that were left. A red one, with white running along its spine was flying at a slower pace. It had big spikes that sprouted from its wings and large eyes with long narrow slits for pupils. I don't know if it saw me as prey or it was just curious, but it looked directly at me. It's head turned to look down at little me as I lied paralyzed on an old log. It didn't seem to give me much of a second thought, as it turned to look forward. And it was gone. No goodbye. No fond farewell. After they left, I couldn't do anything else but just look out into the frozen valley. I remained on that log for a very long time. Maybe they forgot about me, or maybe they just didn't care. Either way, I didn't care neither. I didn't care if they came to get me or left me behind. I didn't care if I was freezing cold. I wouldn't even care if I suffered from Hypothermia and croaked. I just didn't care. But they did get me. After what seemed like hours, they finally got to me. I distinctly remember hearing a gruff male voice announce to anyone within ear shot... "Oh hell! His shoulders' bleeding! Somebody help me with this guy!" It was then, two pairs of hands gripped me by my wrists and ankles and I was lifted into the air, my backside was barely lapping at the ground. As they carried me to wherever, one of them made a comment about my hand, or lack of one. "God damn, I keep needing to readjust my grip! Why does this prick only need to have one hand?" "Just shut up." I heard the soldier at my feet scold. "You know how our superior gets if she hears us complain. Just get him to a doc, yeah?" "Wait." Wrist man paused. "This guy...one arm. Isn't this that dude who had that scuffle with R.D? He's the one who threw her down a stair case right? Stairs on-" "The side of a building, yes, this is the guy." Foot soldier responded. "Damn dude." Hand soldier leaned forward a looked down at me. His glowing eyes burned into mine. "Why'd you do that to yourself?" The soldier asked me. "She's gonna FUCK you...UP. Really bad, dude." "Oh my god, for the love of holy Celestia, shut up!" Foot soldier scolded. "He isn't going to get tortured, not from what I've heard. I hear that he's another addition to 'Purgatory'." "Purgatory...you mean The Boneyard?" "Call it whatever the hell you want, but people are starting to call it that." A ceiling suddenly covered us. A solid wood ceiling. It was dark, but dimmly lit. It could come as a pattern. Ceiling light...panel. Ceiling light...panel...ceiling light...panel...ceiling- "Yeah, I can see why they would call it that." Hand soldier sighed. "I like Boneyard better though." "Whatever. Call it what you want. Hey! Stretcher! Get a stretcher over here!" Far off somewhere, I could hear the loud squeaking of a set of wheels. It got closer and closer fast. Up until the squeaking was right next to me on my right, was when the two soldiers practically tossed me on this old hospital stretcher. They rolled me over, making sure that I was on my belly, exposing my shoulder. "What happened here?" I heard a female ask softly. Her voice was sweet and calm, but something was off. There was something about her voice...an accent. Was it Swedish? No, no, it sounded French. "No idea." Foot soldier responded. "When we got to him, we found that his shoulder was like this. Look at it, it's still gushing!" A tearing of cloth echoed through the supposedly empty hall, as I heard nothing else than this little group. "Pour bien vouloir!" She sighed. "Thank you. Get out there and do your job. I'll take it from here." The pairs of boots stomped away from me, up until I couldn't hear anything anymore. With their absesnse, I was taken away. The woman pushed the stretcher along a long hall. Lying on my stomach with my head turned to the right, I could see multiple wooden doors, all closed. The white paint that was once nice and smooth, was now chipped and broken off in patches. The whole area from what I could see, was decrepit. The nurse would turn a corner and the both of us were traveling down soother hallway. Door after door whizzed on by. Listening past the squeaking of the stretcher wheels, I could hear the moans and whailing of other people just like me. Their pain could be heard behind closed doors. I didn't want to think about it, but looking down at the floor...I could've sworn I saw blood leaking out from underneath one room. I could hear agonized sobbing, and pleads for mercy. "Here we go." The stretcher made an abrupt turn into a white tiled room. From what I could see, small, white, square tiles were plastered everywhere. They covered the floor, the walls, the ceiling. Without a warning, I was lifted into the air without much effort. No hands were clung to me to move me into this hospital bed, only energy. Looking down, I could see that tiles did cover most of the floor, but I mentally shuddered when I saw a small drain in the center of this small room. I was placed lying on my stomach into this hospital bed. A moment passed before the light illuminating this room got brighter, as it was brought closer to my back by this mysterious women. "Do you speak English?" The French voice asked, hearing her tinker with metal tools in the background. I grunted. "You're obviously paralyzed, but you should be able to give me some sort of a responce. English? Do you speak English?" "Ruunngk." I growled. "Is that a yes?" "Hnnng...please....don't..." "I'll take that as a yes." She sighed, her voice not skipping a beat. The woman took her time. Steralizing, readying her tools, reading through papers. "Oscar...C-Clutch?" The woman said puzzled. "That your name, Oscar Clutch?" I remained silent. "Whatever. Let's get this sucker fixed, yes? Let's see...does this hurt? Can you feel this?" "Hgnnn. Hgnnn..." "Well alright! This will be a cake walk." For the next hour, hour and a half, two hours, they were spent with her picking away at the gaping hole in my shoulder. Disinfecting, cleaning the wound, stitching it shut. I didn't feel a thing. I didn't feel anything at that. I believe those soldiers refers to that rainbow pony as 'R.D' What ever "R.D", did to me has numbed me to the point I was one of those quadropaligics. I couldn't talk well, or even to react to much of anything. I didn't know...but it feels like it numbed my emotions too. That, or I was just exhausted. This woman who stitched me shut was quiet most of the time, occasionally asking me a question or humming a tune to herself, oddly calm. She was humming a tune at the time, when there was a quick snip of wire and then she patted me on the lower back. I could hear her slapping against my skin. No, they didn't feel like fingers. "There all done." She cooed. I heard her place the tools on a metal tray behind me. I could see my shadow being casted against the wall. Looking hard enough, I could barely see the metal wire sticking out from my back. I grunted, already imagining the pain once these effects wear off. Who knows when that'll be. I couldn't see her though. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" She asked me. "Would you like a lolipop?" I heard her. I heard her ask me that question. My eyes widened and I wheezed in shock. How could she? How could she ask me that, fucking bitch. My eyes twitched, my neck was shaking. Shaking with so much anger, so much rage. I couldn't stop thinking about Christa, how she was...how she was....how. That fucking horse did this to me, she killed her, she killed me! She killed a part of me! She smashed it to pieces! That horse took one of the few people that I held close to me, and she ruined it! She destroyed it! She ruined me! And all she had to say for herself...was that question! Was that same fucking question!! I heard the woman walk up and stand right beside me. She leaned it close. "Why are you crying? What's wrong with you? Are y-" I wanted to punch her. I wanted to knock her down on her fuckin ass for asking me such a vile question! But then all of the sudden, everything was working again. A surge of pain washed over my body. It was so sudden, so unexpected, I froze and let out a high pitched yelp. My joints locked up, my muscles tensed, the sharp stinging in my shoulder was agonizing, but I found myself angrier than before. I growled, turning my head towards the nurse, but I paused. I was taken aback when I was glaring at another pony. She was pressed against the wall yelling for help. She wore a white labcoat but I can't hold see the black fur that I assumed covered her beneath. She was banging on the wall, still calling for help frantically, never taking her bark blue eyes off mine. Her eyes, which flowed in the same fashion as the soldiers, resembled what reminded me of the dark abyss of the ocean. I reached a leg over the side, and I stood in the center of this operating room on two wobbly legs. "Where is she!!?" I screamed. "Where is that mother fucker!!!" The door bursted open. Two very strong human women stood in the door way. Wearing the armor that I've become accustomed to, one pointed a very large pistol right at my head, yelling for me to freeze, get on the floor. I froze, instantly retracting my hand away from the black pony. While one had a pistol on me, the other charges towards me like a full grown bull! "Careful!" The French pony pleaded. "I just had him sti-" Her shoulder dug itself deep into my gut, briefly lifting me into the air before I tumbled to the ground. I first landed on my feet, but due to the angle and having the wind knocked out of me, I rolled back. My head slammed against the tile floor, and I let out an enraged cry of pain. I counted two snaps of metal wiring, and pain exploded in the shoulder! "GOD DAMMIT STOP!" The French pony thundered. The two soldiers paused, looking at one anothe with their green orbs for eyes, unsure of what to do. They simultaneously nodded, before the bigger one of the two, sent a rock hard fist down upon me. The fist was an uppercut, connecting with the left side of my face which was facing the floor. I groaned, my head feeling upwards to the ceiling. "I have an anesthetic!" The black pony sighed. "Let me-" "Let us do our job!" A soldier barked, as they were both now biting me again and again with their bare knuckles. I don't know how many hits I took, but I just remember being beaten to the point where I passed out, a good chance it was from a concusion. My body gave up, all limbs went loose and I just collapsed onto the tiled floor. The small white squares that covered the surfaces quickly morphing into one, big, black mass. I dreamed for that duration of time. Most of the time when I sleep, I don't remember anything about what my brain manages to mesh together...but this was different. This felt too real, too vivid. This was more of a vision than anything else. I didn't know how I could tell because I couldn't looks down at my own body, but I was walking. Just slowly strolling forward. My eyes were open too, as multiple large spheres appeared on both sides of me. These spheres were large, big enough to allow me to stand at my full height if I were to be placed inside one. Like a crystal ball, they were all projecting images. No, not images, movies. Not even movies, these were memories. Moments from my life from my point of view. These spheres were like of the ones I could see in the void...the void of my mind. The first ball was too my left. Staring at it gave me a very strong sense of sadness, and regret. It filled my heart to the brim with this gloomy feeling of depression, even as I saw Christa's beautiful smile. I could see my arms wrap themselves around her. With her forehead pressed up against mine, she whispered to me... "Stop it, it's not that bad." Her eyes opened. "You'll always be the one for me, and I'll never let you go." Oh...I see. I'm his was after the hospital, wasn't it? After everything I've done, every mistake I made to lead me to that point. How could I have been so stupid...and weak. I just stared at a younger version of me tightly embrace her. Just as I barely spotted a sliver of bandages on my left arm, the orb paused. It just stopped in the same fashion as someone would press the pause button. Confused, I tried to touch it, but my hand would go strait through it. Nothing happened, so I pressed on, letting the ball sit in silence. The next orb, was a turn of my head to the right, and I was no longer feeling this depressing fog in my heart. Instead, I was washed over with...concentration? I could see my own two hands, holding what appeared to me my dad's shotgun, the double barrel. I was younger defiantly. I had to be around twelve at this time. I remember this! This was was time we shot up Dad's old computer! CLI-POW! The sound of the metal trigger and the thrunerous roar of gun powder and buckshot filled me with excitement! Score the force sent me falling onto my ass, I could briefly see the computer screen explode into millions of shards of glass! I laughed maniacally, my younger self. "Awww YEAH!" I cried. "You see that!? You see what I did?!" My voice awkwardly cracked. "I sure did, my boy." My dad said, pulling me off the ground. "Wanna go again?" "For sure!" "Right." Dad said, pointing to the gun. I didn't know if I was smiling, but I remember this opinion about my dad. Every since I was little, I always thought my dad was sophisticated and proper because of his accent. With him being British, he made everything he said sound interesting and intellectual. Even if it was the stupidest shit ever, it sounded smart. It was funny to me. He could be talking about how the Earth was flat, and it would be interesting. "Remember, both shells are going to fly out, so be sure to stay out of the way so they don't possibly hit you in the face." "I will, Dad." I started to move on, not looking back, but I could still hear my dads' voice. "Be aware that this is not a toy. This isn't like one of your video games. you will kill somebody or yourself if you are not responsible! Be careful around this, son." The orb paused, ceased all movement, just like the first. I just stared at a still image of me looking at the shotgun in my two hands. "Yes sir." I whispered. "I will." Number three was one when I was still in Highschool. I was just leaning up against the lockers while people were busslinging by. Me and my group of friends were just minding our own business, talking about random shit, or girls we had a good time with for the past week. I was laughing at the time. Somebody told a joke, but I couldn't remember who said it or what the joke was even about. I just snickered, and turned to look down the hall to my right. And there she was. Leaning on the same side of the hall as me...there she was. My snickering faded as I was taken aback by her beauty. This wasn't just simply my head telling me that she looks like good boning material, this was something else. She just leaned up against a locker, talking to a chubby looking dude who looked the kind of guy who would be jerking his gherkin to hentai in him mom's basement. But she just smiled and continued talking about whatever to him. She didn't notice me staring at her. At the time, I just thought she was pretty as I looked at her, before one and of my friends pulled me out of my trance. Right as my view of that girl was rotated towards my friends, the memory stopped. I didn't expect nothing more than that, but...something strange happened. I didn't notice anything at first, but as I inspected the orb, I noticed that everything was under a minor shade of the color pink. I stood there puzzled, and the more I watched, the darker the color became. From a faint pink, to a light red, then a dark shade of crimson. Everything was painted red. But still, trying to touch the orb, my fingers would just go strait through. I continued forth, looking back occasionally at the...memory, if I could call it that. Soon enough, I couldn't see anything or anyone on that orb, just red. "Alright, I'll be back in a few hours." I heard my dads voice again, it came from the next memory. My head turned quickly towards orb to my left. I was young, very young. Had to be no older that four. I was in a livingroom, sitting on the floor to an apartment that I barely remembered. I just remember that dad and I moved in there for a little bit. One light was on, and that was the T.V behind me. It was playing Blue's Clues. I was playing with some toys. It was storming and outside. Lightning turned night into day for a brief second, before thunder rattled the little apartment. Dad stood in the front of the front door, wearing a over coat with his fancy suit underneath. He had an umbrella in his hand. He waved at me, before talking to somebody behind me. "Thank you so much. I'll pay you extra for being such sort notice." A chirpy female voice said with a happy, "No worries Mr.Clutch. I needed some quiet time to study anyway." "Great...great." Dad sighed. "I'll be back soon. There's some Coke in the fridge if you want some. Fix up a dinner for Oscar and you." "Will do. Bye bye." "Bye!" Dad called as he opened the door. Fat raindrops poured down on his umbrella as he closed the door behind him. Just as the door was closed and locked, monstrous thunder shook over our heads, as I looked up at the ceiling. "Well Oscar." The nice girl quipped. "What do you want to watch? Bob the Builder? Blues Clues?" "Blues Clues!" Little me cried out. Then the memory stopped. I didn't think much of this memory in particular. I stared at it for quite sometime. The longer I stared, the more I got this nervous feeling in my gut. There was also this...itch. Not like a mosquito bite or whatever. This was something in my head. I remember this, but at the same time, I couldn't. I wouldn't. It was on the tip of my tongue on what happend in this, but I couldn't figure it out, not for the life of me. "You did this to yourself, kid..." A voice, I heard a voice. It...it was coming from somewhere off to my right. I looked in that direction, and there was a final orb. The past four were off to the side, as if they were forming a pathway for me to walk along, but this one. This was right in the center of the path, showing the end. It was completely black, it was almost impossible for me to see at first. "Did you forget the fact that you took this very same bat, and beated the holy fuck out of him?" No. No. It can't be. Not now. Not now, not you! The orb lit up to reveal an abandoned construction site. Concrete walls were all around. Innocent men women and children were tied down, gagged, and crying; pleading for their lives. Soldiers with their soulless eyes just watched and giggled like hyenas. I was on the floor, tied into a chair, sobbing myself into exhaustion. Her blonde hair which was once silky smooth, has been violated. WHAM! Her beautiful face...mutilated. WHAM!! Her life....annihilated. WHAM! WHAM!! WHAM!!! The picture twisted in on itself, flashing glimpses of the man I brutally beaten. It would switch from one to the other so fast, frame by frame. It was almost as if I was watching some sick snuff slideshow. Every time the bat struck their heads, they were both in sync with each other. Soon enough, I was just watching an on going loop of Christa's death. I watched the pony beat her, bludgeon her, murder her. Pulverize her until her head was nothing but a putrid pulp of brain, blood, and hair. A sinking feeling in my chest, in my heart, send me into a trembling fit. "You twisted my arm here, you know that, right?" The memory stopped, showing a clear view of Christa's once beautiful face, once was full of life. The voice continued to taunt me. "If you would've gone by the rules, then I wouldn't be in this mess." I felt weak. I felt dizzy. My legs gave in and I fell towards the floor, only there was no floor...just the void. I fell and kept on falling. The orbs grew further and further away. Cold air blew through my hair and whistled in my ears. "If you didn't kill one of my guys, my men, my valuables, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, your girlfriend would still be here, still alive and kicking." I could feel my consciousness slip away. Exhaustion has taken over. "That's on you. This is ALL on you." I continued to fall, my arms flailed above me, there was nothing now. No orbs, no memories. There was just me, the voice, and the void in between. "Until next time." Then I woke up for real. My eyes slowly slid open as everything came into focus. The first thing that I could see was a cell door. A door of metal bars that led into a mysterious hallway, dimmly lit with only one light from the ceiling. With a pounding head ache, I groaned, massaging one temple at a time. I paused and looked down at myself. I was lying on a small bed that was suspended in place by chains in the walls directly to my right. I sighed, I lied my head onto my pillow before I let out a shocked gasp of pain! It felt like somebody dragged a red bot knife right across the nape of my neck! That was when my senses became clear! Questions, so many questions flooded my mind! Where am I? Why am I here? What did they do to me?! I jumped out from the cot, tumbling to the floor before I found myself backing into the bars. I hissed as the sting of my shoulder collided with the bars. "Shit!" A women gasped. I pressed up against the bars, my heart was instantly pounding hard against the walls of my chest. I pointed a finger at the figure laying in the bed above mine! "Who...what...where am I!?" I gasped. "Oscar! Ssshh" The figure hopped down onto the floor and scurried over to me like a creepy fucking demon! Her blonde hair masked her face as she drew nearer and nearer! Before I could protest, a hand clamped down onto my mouth and held my trembling body still! "If you're loud enough, they'll kill us both!" She whispered. With her other hand, she moved the hair back to reveal her face. I recognized her. It was Heather. It had to be Heather of all people. Her lip was swollen and had a cut in it, deep too. Looked like she took a bad beating. Slowly removing her hand from my mouth, she hushed me once more, quietly creeping back to the bunk beds. "Where are we, Heather?! Where!" I hissed softly. "Shut up, and go to bed!" She mouthed. I sat there and watched her in a stunned trance as she climbed back into her bed on top. However, just before she lied down, she looked at me with a worried expression on her face. She whispered something to me, but I couldn't even make out what she said. I was outing words together in my head, staring at the freezing cold floor. Three words, that I couldn't comprehend why she said what she did. "You're....fighting....today."