The young drake awoke to the sound of a door closing followed by several hoofsteps making their way towards his bed. Wearily opening his eyes, the drake gazed across his bed to see the face of the doctor that had attended to him the previous evening. The unicorn held within his magical grasp what seemed to be a well weathered, all black trunk which he took special care to place delicately beside the bed before returning his gaze to the patient.
The doctor’s smile was crooked at one edge, but he didn’t say anything, instead just peering down upon the dragon. The drake tried to form words, but found they came out as barely more than a hoarse whisper. The unicorn blinked his eyes in rapid succession before holding up a hoof to silence the dragon. The unicorn held the pose for a moment before, with an abrupt jerk, the stallion turned his head at a ninety degree angle and used his magic to undo the brass locks securing the trunk, his smile never falling entirely. Curious, the young assistant tried to turn his head to see what the trunks contents were, but found that he was unable to move his head more than millimeter back or forth in either direction.
Attempting once more to try and turn it’s head, the dragon was once more met with the sensation of a strap digging itself into his head. As the dragon continued to struggle against the bindings, the doctor moved out of the dragon’s field of vision and gave a giddy laugh of excitement. Panicking now, the dragon tried to move his claws up to undo whatever held him, but found that his arms were also firmly strapped down to the bed. Giving a shout, the young drake tried to lift himself up and away from his prison, but to his dismay felt that even his legs and tail had been tied down to the bed preventing all but the most miniscule of movements.
Once more, the drake heard the bone chilling cackle of the doctor from behind him. It’s each and every note, was like separate claw being gouged across a blackboard. Silence and more hoofsteps followed. Every now and then, the dragon could feel the icy breath of the doctor on his shoulder or forehead. They were long and drawn out at first, but they gradually became faster, turning into short little gasps of air not unlike those of a dying animal. Right when the breaths began to come so quickly that they seemed to blend together into a single sound, they would stop; only to be repeated a few moments later in a different spot.
The drake wanted to scream, but was too terrified of what the stallion’s reaction might be if it were interrupted during the middle of it’s sadistic ritual. So, the drake remained there, frozen in stony silence as he braced himself for whatever happened next. Without warning, the spasming breaths halted in mid crescendo and the room was silent once more. Then he saw it, he had to strain his eyes upwards at first, but slowly descending upon the young drake was a long cylindrical piece of metal. Before he could even release a yelp of surprise, the syringe threw itself into his chest, and injected it’s clear contents into his body.
For a moment, the drake felt nothing. The only thing he could hear were his own deep gasps for air as he watched the needle slowly withdraw from his chest cavity. But then, came the agony. Beginning at the point where the syringe had entered, and rapidly spreading outward, the young drake felt fire course through his veins. The dragon was aware of each and every last blood vessel within his body as each individual one slowly constricted itself into an unholy shape, racketing the young reptiles body with an unending wave of pain.
The young drake’s claws curled up and desperately attacked the chair, the bindings, even the drake’s own body, anything to try and rid the body of it’s pain. The drake felt his breathing become sporadic, and uneven, turning into a combination of deep and short gasps that caused his lungs to cry out in protest. Every breath the drake took was another knife that was plunged and twisted into his side. Every exhale served only to plunge the blade in further, as it pierced through the dragon’s arteries and organs.
As the mixture slowly made its way up the dragon’s spine, and towards his head, a loud ringing slowly consumed the drake’s ears; in a matter of moments, the great cacophony had drowned out the screams of the thrashing creature. Then, when it reached the uppermost part of the creature’s head, an unrelenting torrent of pain lit up his brain. Every nerve there seemed to be encased in it’s own personal inferno that wrapped and weaved it’s way throughout his head. The flames of the poison licked at his head hotter than any fire of Tartarus as the creature’s vision went red, then white.
The creature screamed, and tried desperately to claw at it’s head, but to it’s fury, it could do little more than pull against the bindings that held it tight. It lashed out with it’s fang trying to attack all around it, but nothing could dull the pain as it continued to grow in it’s intensity. It couldn’t even tell if it was still screaming anymore as it’s body was numb to all feelings but one, the unrelenting torment of the serum.
The drake felt no control over it’s body as it lay there, spasming and thrashing against it’s bindings, wishing for nothing more than to rip it’s own heart out, if only to end the pain. The drake felt it’s stomach empty itself out across it’s chest a dozen separate times, not even ceasing when it could do little more than produce a dry retching sound. In and out, like waves, the pain wrapped itself around the dragon. Coming and going with an intensity that no individual should be forced to feel.
The drake felt the agony continue to relentlessly exert itself upon his body for hours. Eventually, the drake just did it’s best to bury it’s head into the side of the bed as the pain drained it’s eyes dry. Waiting for the beautiful moment when it’s heart would finally give out and he would be allowed to die in peace, away from the relentless torture.
After hours of endless torment, the pain finally began to fade away at an agonizingly slow pace. It was hard to feel at first, as the torture had left behind a phantom pain, but gradually, the drake felt his torture begin to conclude. As the young drake’s sight returned, he saw that his body was covered in a mixture of blood, vomit, and other bodily fluids whose origin he dared not guess. Gradually, feeling returned to his limbs; they still carried with them a burning sensation, but nowhere near that of the one that had been there but a minute ago. The drake’s wrists were raw and bloodied from where he had strained against his bindings, looking more like raw, ground meat, than actual flesh; and he could spot dried blood on his cheek when he looked down.
The room was entirely silent once more. The drake felt something flutter within himself, hope. Was the torment over? Had someone actually heard his cries for help? From behind him, the drake heard the sound of hoofsteps making their way towards his bed. The young drake tried to utter a thanks to his savior, but it came out as little more than a ragged cough. Another moment passed, and yet still his rescuer did not present themselves. The dragon searched all around the darkened room for a sign of his savior, but try as he might they alluded him.
Then, came the laugh. That horrible, giddy, excited, little laugh he’d heard before. The still burning fire in the drake’s limbs freezed at the very sound as it echoed throughout his being. From the corner of his eye, the violet dragon saw his laughing tormentor make his way into his field of vision. The mad doctor gave another laugh as his pinpricked eyes waltzed around the room, unable to focus on a single thing.
The dragon screamed and tried to tear it’s eyes away from the sight before him, but it was of no use, every last particle of his body was petrified. The unicorn half lunged half stepped towards the body, nearly running into it as it’s eyes slowly settled on those of his patient. There, the stallion stood breathing heavily, but not breaking eye contact with the terrified drake. Unmoving, seconds stretched into minutes as the dragon helplessly tried to break away from the stallion’s gaze.
Right at the moment that the dragon was going to try and cry out once more, the stallion broke the gaze with a swift flick of it’s head. Not even a second later, a second syringe flew straight into the young dragon’s chest. The drake screamed in a mixture of terror and agony as the vial slowly pushed it’s way into his heart before emptying its contents.
A hand of ice took a hold of the drake’s heart as his heart seemed to stop beating. The feeling of ice encasing his heart came to the drake as he felt every part of it begin to slow in it’s rhythmic beating until the ritardando brought it to a complete and total stop. For a few brief moments, the young drake rejoiced in the idea that his suffering had come to an end; that he could finally be free from the mad kings reign of terror. But, no such relief was to be his.
As the chill began to grow in intensity at his claw tips, the drake stared down upon them and saw that they had become slightly discolored. His normally charmfully lavender scales had turned to a sickly gray hue; a hue that almost seemed to be steadily creeping it’s way up his hand. The drake reassured itself that it was just a product of his terror induced state, however, as he continued to stare at the cursed appendage, the color merely continued it’s trek up from his hand, and to his bloodied arm.
It was as if the icy grip of Death himself was trying to pour him down to Tartarus. Colder than ice, the feeling traveled up the drake’s arms and legs; the absolute chill bringing with it the feeling of one thousand knives and daggers being applied to each and every inch of his terrified body. As the feeling reached his waist and torso, the pain redoubled as the icy fire of hell attacked his petrified organs.
All throughout this, the mad doctor continued to dance around the drake’s bed. The stallion laughed at each cry of the terrified animal in his chair. He reveled in the desperate pleas for mercy, or the terrified whimpers that accompanied his lunges at the thing. The unicorn’s eyes dilated and undilated themselves separately as his body waltzed to the beat of dragons struggles and hoarse calls for help.
The dragon felt his diaphragm plunge into ice, slowing his breathing to brief raspy gasps of air. He felt himself hyperventilate as he struggled to draw in enough air to support his terrified body. In between breaths, with the little air he could spare, he cried out, and begged for the doctor to kill him. To end his suffering once and for all! But his pleas were ignored by the doctor who continued to dance and hum to some hellish tune that he shared with the Devil.
The movements of the dragon’s limbs had slowed to a crawl as his limbs became the color of char. Eventually, they had become so stiff that he lost mobility in them altogether. Now, all the drake could do was watch as his own body died without him. He tried to turn his head away to look at anything but his own dying body, or even not at the sadistic doctor, but upon doing so, instantly felt the sharp hoof of his tormentor strike him across the brow.
The dragon had hoped that the fact that his heart had ceased in beating might mean that no horrible pain might be felt there, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. When the elixir reached his heart, it attacked it with a great fury unknown to the world until that time. The arctic claw ripped opened his heart and raked it’s claws along the inside, splitting it apart. The animalistic screams of the dragon were unable to do any sort of justice to the agony inflicted by the frozen hand of death that burned hotter than fire. The army of ice ripped open his heart, laid waste to and pillaged all that was there, and left behind blackened ruins as it continued it’s march towards the top of the dragon’s head.
Like a city wall his heart crumbled, allowing thousands of icy swords to swiftly encompass the rest of his upper torso, leaving behind pale scales that mirrored death. The dragon felt his last breath freeze in his throat as the poison traveled up his neck and towards his brain. At it’s stem, he could feel it pause, as if it were taunting him, laughing at his helpless and petrified position. Taking cold licks at it’s base in order to drive the dragon into a frenzy. The coiled snake waited, and then it struck.
The child felt his head split with pain as the frozen axe of death swung down upon it. Screams and tears stopped in their path, and his ears rang with the force of a thousand church bells. His neurons screamed as they were impaled upon the icy spear of death. And he both ran from and welcomed his death as his vision faltered and the world turned black. All while the mad doctor laughed.