Cherreads

Chapter 2 - Veilbreaker

Fffsssshhhhh

In a pristine blinding white room, a metallic pod activated its opening mechanism. The hydraulics activate in an exponential manner. The machine hummed to life, its lid slowly opening.

Hummm

Blue lights flickered along its edges as the lid was lifted, pinkish clear amniotic fluid gushed out of the metallic pod as if something was hatching from an egg. 

A boy, no older than sixteen, lay submerged in the pinkish fluid.His body naked. His frame slender. He was quite tall, 6ft to be exact. His skin pale yet flawless. His hair onyx-black. Slightly overgrown— pixie length. His features held an eerie tranquility, he was attractive, but not striking. A solid seven. 

There were a plethora of tubes connected to the child, his breathing was calm as the respiratory mask hummed with each breath.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The life systems of the pod blared as the boy's heart rate shot up dramatically, his fingers starting to twitch as he gained autonomy over his own body. His muscles tensed rhythmically, his breath rate quickened.

His eyes snapped open—the left dark onyx, the right ashen grey.

— — —

After the horrifying harmonious voice stopped speaking, my mind went blank, I didn't know what to think. This 'thing' knew my name, my age to the minutes and seconds. My injuries, which were life threatening, miraculously healed.

'No way no fucking way am I actually going insane no way I'm in a fucking simulation.' 

I started to feel lighter all of a sudden, my body felt like it was floating in a sort of liquid.

Slowly I felt my muscles twitching even though I couldn't see them, I felt my heart racing. I felt as if I was finally given permission to control my own body. I then could feel a cool liquid, as if I was submerged within it and then I finally was able to open my eyes.

I saw a pink fluid engulfed around me, I was in some sort of pod, before I could even form a thought I shot right up and sat straight spilling some of the liquid off of the pod I was in, feeling the cool air.

My breaths were deep and heavy, I stared at my body, I was unsure of what I even am. To add insult to injury, I was naked— it made me feel exposed…

Vulnerable.

'Am I human, was my life a lie, where am I, who put me here'

Questions flooded my mind as I observed myself, I noticed tubes connected to me, injecting something. In the fervor of my crisis, I ripped out every single tube that was connected to my body. 

I stood up or at least tried to, I basically crawled out of the metallic pod and crumpled to the white linoleum floor below me. My legs felt wobbly and it felt like I didn't know how to walk, maybe since I WAS IN A SIMULATION FOR MY WHOLE LIFE.

The sudden crashing reality induced a level of nausea I've never felt before. As if my body was rejecting whatever world I was thrown into.

'I feel sick… I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I want to die I want to die I want to die…'

I felt my sense of self imploding within me, my sense of identity, reality, everything that makes me me crumbling in my head, the only thing I know about myself is that 

'My name is Kerrigan and I am 16 years old'

That's all nothing more nothing less.

"AHHGGGKK!!!" 

A guttural, raw scream tore from my throat—half-choked, animalistic. My own voice barely sounded human what am I?.

It felt as though my body was finally waking up and it flooded me with a searing sensation of pain. I was confused why I was in so much pain and agony, my body was devoid of any of the injuries or scars I had when I was with the Hoffmire's but I realised… it was the phantom pain from the beating Richard gave me. 

It felt as if my skull was bashed in even though it wasn't hurts hurts hurts HELP ME.

I convulsed uncontrollably on the floor as the pain overwhelmed my bodily senses, I clawed at my face and skin trying to stop the pain as I screamed in agony. Then with the accumulated pain and nausea I vomited on to the floor, tossing the entirety of my guts out of my body. Filling my palate and olfactory senses with an acrid sensation.

Tears streamed down my eyes as the pain intensified, my body felt as if it was stabbed with a plethora of serrated knives and they were twisted in my body. My eyes went bloodshot and then I went unconscious, I completely passed out from the pain, my eyes still open, my breaths raspy as I lay atop my own vomit.

'I want to kill myself die'

I find myself falling into an abyss, falling and falling with there being no ground or surface in sight. It was as if something was pulling me in, like a black hole, it's pull unrelenting. I stared blankly into the void I was falling into, there wasn't a speck of emotion visible on my features. I didn't know what to think, how to process this revelation and the pain I had just experienced.

The only thought I had in my head was 'Why?', why was I even in that simulation in the first place? Why was I subjected to that mental torture? Why would any sane individual put a 2 month old in that I want to kill them? I wanted to know, no, I NEEDED TO FUCKING KNOW WHY I WAS PUT THROUGH ALL OF THAT!

Suddenly, I stopped falling and found myself standing atop an invisible platform above the black void that was relentlessly pulling me towards it. I looked at myself, I was like a shadow, my features indiscernible, I was like a black mist which was granted shape and form.

"Look at you, you pathetic slave kukuku…"

A familiar distasteful voice entered my head. One I detested to the very fibres of my fucking being, with every single fibre and cell of my body.

"torturer Richard" 

Saying his name made me want to vomit. I turn around to see where his banshee voice has come from. It turned around to see a white visage of his incorrigible figure, looking at me with his mocking gaze and snarl. But even though I felt angry and furious… A part of me felt dread and terror don't come near me… The memories of all those times he taunted me, abused me, tortured me, beat me, they all flooded in to my head as if a dam broke get out of my head, GET OUT.

My shadow-like hands trembled and he didn't fail to notice, his grin widening. He looked me in the eyes and spoke.

"Scared already… How pathetic,, where did all that gusto go when you screamed FUCK YOU, when you spat on me… where did it go Kerrigan, what do you only grow a fucking backbone when your mind is on the verge of breaking… tell me please I'd love to know where this PIG got his guts from"

Those words were like a slap to my face. I couldn't respond. I didn't know how to. I could only tremble like a bitch. I wanted to fight back but I couldn't.

"How does it feel finding out that you experienced so much from something that isn't even real HAHAHAHA I'm not even real Kerrigan yet you're so afraid of me, but… can I tell you something… it's not me you're afraid of, … I know how much you want to kill me, dissect me, tear my guts out, rip me apart, I know how MUCH YOU FANTASIZE ABOUT THAT!"

He moved closer no don't come near me, every step of his illuminating the invisible platform we stood upon with his footprints. He then held my face softly as if caringly but his eyes betrayed the sensation, looking at me with sadistic joy take your filthy fucking hands off me. He leaned in and whispered in a voice that was equally soft and caring as it was malevolent and sadistic.

"You're afraid of yourself Kerrigan… You're afraid of that thing inside you, what it will do if it will lash out at me… That MONSTER… It doesn't care for the world, it doesn't care for anything but its own self, its survival YOUR SURVIVAL… yet you chain it like a dog"

As he said that, a visage of white chains constricted around me and held me down like a prisoner and I looked at him with confusion and trepidation evident in my eyes let go of me LET GO.

'You're lying YOU'RE LYING'

"You chain yourself, you restrict yourself because of YOUR FUCKING FEAR… I know that deep down within you feel rage… pure rage BOILING within you… wanting to kill the ones who put you in that fucking pod when you were a MERE STREET BRA-"

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I yelled at him, my voice returning with vigor. The visage of Richard laughed in joy, as if in pure bliss, his grip on my face tightening as he leaned even closer with that malevolent smile of his widening.

"HAHAHAHA YES YES YES, THERE IT IS THAT RAGE! THAT VIGOR YOU HAD! GIVE INTO IT! KILL ME KILL ME KERRIGAN! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! YOU'RE A MONSTER LIKE ME ADMIT IT-"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP"

I wanted to reject it but the more he spoke the less faults I found. I want to kill them, I want to kill Richard, I want to kill myself all those responsible... But I felt terrified, afraid that I wouldn't be myself anymore…

Richard laughed even more, as if reading every fucking thought in my head. He stepped backwards and stretched his arms out as if waiting for me to hug him.

"Kerrigan, stop fighting it… Stop fighting the devil which resides in your heart… Accept the fact that you're a destroyer… Wherever you go you either destroy yourself or what's around you, like you destroy your mind by holding that IMPULSE within you."

I finally realized something. He was right about one thing, no, two things. He was right about the fact that at this point I only care about myself and that I only now want to kill the ones responsible for all of my studying. But He was wrong about everything else. I wasn't anything like him… I wanted to destroy but not for my twisted pleasure yes I do, but for my retribution, my vengeance against the fates, the world, the universe, the fuckers who put me in that simulation and all those who stand in my way. 

As I realised that, the white chains that bound me started to wither away into dust. I calmly directed my gaze at the visage of Richard who gleamed in joy in his assumption that I agreed with him. I felt the manacles forged by my mind break and crack away slowly.

"Yes YES YES YES! THERE YOU GO THAT'S IT!" Richard exclaimed in his fervor.

I took a step forward towards him, 2 chainz broke off, withering into dust and sucked into the black void below. I calmly spoke.

"You're wrong… I'm nothing like you… I'm worse"

The visage of Richard flinched as if I struck him with a blow and cracks formed in his visage. His face contorted with fury and underlying panic as he lashed out.

"The FUCK did you say Kerrigan, you fucking mongrel… you are me, we're cut from the same cloth! YOU AND ME WE ARE MONSTE-!"

I cut him off, my calm voice contrasting his panicked one.

"You're right about that… I am a monster but I'm nothing like you I'm much worse… I want to destroy… but not for my lowly sickly pleasures…"

As I spoke Richard's visage cracked more and more, his face contorted from fury to fear, he tried to cut me off but I wouldn't let him. I kept walking towards him. The white chains snapped off my shadowy vessel, my fears dissolving with the chains.

"You destroy those around you because you're a sick being… You were designed by the ones that subjected me to this torture… You're nothing more than a tool… a tool is all you amount to Richard…"

Snap… snap… snap…

Chains kept breaking… shattering… crumbling… I kept getting closer to the crumbling visage of Richard who fell to his knees in horror. Before he knew it, I was standing before him, he looked up at me, his slave standing over him.

"You're right about one thing though… I don't care for anyone apart from myself because in the end… it will only be me and me alone alone alone…"

Richard looked like he was going to cry… You have no idea how that made me feel … I would be lying to you if I said it wasn't the most joyful moment in my shitty life maybe he's right. I smiled at him I'm so much worse. He made me that way. With a trembling voice he begged and begged.

"PLEASE NO! YOU NEED ME, I OWN YOU, I WON'T EXIST WITHOUT YO-"

"Shut up…" I calmly interject.

"You're just a fuck-ton of ones and zeroes… You don't exist… why would I ever need you… why should you exist within me… you are nothing but a tool designed for my torment… nothing more nothing less… and now you can't fulfill your purpose because you have no power over me in this place… Here I'm stronger and you're beneath me… so now die Richard die, die, die I want to see the life fade from your eyes…"

I placed my hands on his head, one on his face and the other on the back of his head, I looked him in the eyes with absolute apathy. He screamed for mercy and salvation.

"NO NO NO DON'T DO THIS PLEASE I BEG YOU NO- kHrRR"

I snapped his neck… I felt the final white chain of fear break away… I let go of Richard's face, deformed from fear cracking away. I twisted his head so hard he's looking behind him, his screaming now silent I loved every bit of it. His form crumpled to the invisible platform and began to crumble. I felt a weight taken off of my shoulders but not all of it… A part of me still agreed with him I am a monster, I enjoyed killing him. I couldn't care anymore… I didn't have the energy to I feel like a corpse. Maybe I am one.

"Richard— May your name be forgotten…"

Vuaammmm

I felt a warm sensation progenerating in my torso… more specifically dead centre of it near my sternum am I dying?. It felt warm and comforting, like a mother's embrace not that I'd know how that would feel I'm an orphan I think. Then a calming and harmonious voice reached my ears with a holographic tablet materializing in front of me, it was onyx-black in colour with titanium white text. The voice read out the text on the black holographic tablet.

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[ KERRIGAN, YOU HAVE PASSED THE FIRST TRIAL OF XURIAN ]

[ YOU HAVE BEEN DEEMED WORTHY BY THE PRIMORDIALS ]

[ YOU HAVE AWAKENED ] 

[ YOUR RANK IS NEO ]

[ PICK YOUR FIRST SKILL IN THE SYSTEM INTERFACE ]

[ YOU HAVE GAINED A BLESSED TITLE ]

[ YOU CONQUERED YOUR FEAR AND SHATTERED THE VEIL OF LIES THAT HAD SUFFOCATED YOU SINCE INFANCY ]

[ THE PRIMORDIALS BESTOW THE BLESSED TITLE { VEILBREAKER } ]

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