Bound by the king of destruction

In the city… I was still seated near the ice cream shop, alone. My back rested against the wall, eyes half-lidded, breath slow and quiet.

A black van rolled up without a sound. The driver didn't step out. Instead, the back door creaked open, and a man in black, wearing a long coat, stepped out. His boots hit the ground softly, but each step felt too measured, too smooth, unnervingly deliberate.

I blinked up at him, confusion flickering in my gaze. Then something fast and cold pricked the side of my neck.

A tranquilizer.

I barely had time to react before three more darts whistled through the air, striking my neck and shoulder.

My limbs stiffened. Numbness spread like fire under my skin. My body refused to obey.

Even while the street was alive with noise, chatter and footsteps, no one noticed what was happening in the shadowed corner.

The driver finally climbed out, and together they picked me up like I weighed nothing.

I could hear everything, feel everything… but I couldn't move.

The van's doors slammed shut with a heavy clang, sealing me inside.

---

The van moved fast, each turn sharper and quieter than the last, taking me farther from the living parts of the city.

We stopped at a place that looked neither like a hospital nor a factory, but something between a facility and a prison. Its windows were narrow, its walls shadowed with rust.

I was dragged through tiled halls, the cold floors echoing every step, before being thrown into a cell like luggage tossed aside.

My head buzzed with every blink, vision tilting in and out of focus.

Footsteps echoed.

A man in black, wearing polished shoes, approached. Each step landed with precise weight, like punctuation on a sentence.

He stopped outside my cell, answering a call. His ringtone buzzed harshly in my ears.

"Hello," he said.

"Yeah, it'll only take three days," he continued, his voice deep, heavy, like a bear's growl.

The voice on the other end was faint, words blurred beyond recognition.

"Yeah, I hope this idiot of a doctor you hired will do a good job. My task here is done, so I'm leaving soon." He ended the call with a snap of his fingers.

Stepping into the cell, he carried something small and metallic in hand. He paused, staring at me like he was questioning if bringing me here had been worth the trouble.

Then he pressed the object against my neck.

Click.

A collar. It tightened, and a small light blinked green then red. It didn't change again.

The man left without a word, his heavy voice rumbling faintly down the hallway.

"Well, I hope this really works."

---

Grandma finally reached the ice cream shop where she'd left me. But I wasn't there.

She scanned every face, every alley, her sharp eyes missing nothing but I was nowhere.

Clara leapt from her shoulder, sniffing the air. Seconds later, she froze. Her fur stood on end as her eyes widened.

"I… I can't sense him," she whispered.

Grandma's stomach twisted, but she said nothing. She knew I wouldn't have wandered off, not in a city I barely understood.

After searching longer than she cared to admit, she turned back home, hoping I'd returned. But that was just a lie she told herself.

---

When she arrived home… even Van was gone.

She stood still, her mind spinning, trying to convince herself we'd simply gone out together. But the unease gnawed at her.

---

The next morning.

She stood by the window, arms folded tightly across her chest. Wind blew through the cracks, brushing strands of her hair aside.

Her golden eyes scanned the city. Nothing had changed.

This was my first time back in Elaria. There was no way I'd just vanish overnight. And worse Clara still couldn't sense me.

---

In the depths of the shadowed facility, I woke lying on a cold floor.

My memories were fragments, like shattered glass. My vision blurred, my head pounding with leftover fog. My shirt was gone, and something heavy clung to my neck.

A collar. Gleaming red.

I looked around. Empty cells lined the walls like open mouths. Dim lights flickered from cracked ceiling bulbs. The air smelled like rust, iron, and old bleach, a kennel for something less than human.

My limbs wouldn't respond. The collar felt like it was draining me.

Footsteps echoed.

A chubby man waddled closer, his white lab coat crumpled and streaked, round glasses magnifying his round, gleaming eyes. He crouched slightly, his grin widening as his fingers tapped the cold metal of the collar around my neck.

"Well… well… what do we have here?" he whispered, almost giddy. "A special subject. Finally, I've waited so long for something like you… something alive, unpredictable, and full of secrets."

His giggle was high-pitched, jittery, like glass cracking.

"Do you know what this means for me? Real discovery! Not dusty books, not boring theories… you are my proof. I want to peel back every layer of mystery you hide. I want to see what makes you tick, what makes you… burn."

He tilted his head, staring at me like I was both a puzzle and a prize. "You have no idea how much fun we're going to have, you and I. Oh, the things I'll learn…"

I lifted my head slowly, fear carving its way into my chest. But this wasn't just fear, this was memory.

I had lived this before.

Caged. Tested. Treated like an animal.

---

Two men in black entered the cell. They lifted my thin frame easily, dragging me down a narrow hallway, then into a room so white it burned my eyes.

The air froze in my lungs. This room…

This was just like The White Unit.

No… not this again.

They strapped me face-down onto a cold metal bed. My wrists and ankles were locked in place. I couldn't fight it. My head still rang. My body was weak.

Three more men entered.

White coats. Face masks. Surgical gloves.

Their eyes… cold.

They carried sharp metallic tools that gleamed under the harsh fluorescent lights. Tools meant for animals, not people.

"How long do you think it'll take?" one asked.

The chubby man giggled.

"It'll depend on how fast we are."

They didn't explain. Didn't warn me.

They just began cutting into my back.

There was no gentleness, only steel biting flesh.

They wanted something. The mark. Maybe to peel it off. Maybe to see what lay beneath.

But they didn't know what they were waking.

---

Far beneath, beyond physical space, wrapped in eternal flame and bound by blackened chains… something stirred.

A creature.

Its body blurred by fire, only its blade-curved horns visible.

Each cut sent ripples through its slumber. Its massive eyes snapped open, glowing crimson.

The scalpel in their hands faltered as my skin hardened.

They switched to a hammer, striking my back as if I were wood on a carving block.

No pain relief. No pause.

Only cruelty.

---

Then it happened.

The creature screamed. The sound tore through the divide between realms.

And I screamed too, my irises flickering to crimson, but it wasn't my voice.

It was deeper, laced with rage, fire, and something far older than me.

The ground shook. The men stumbled, but they didn't stop.

A pulse erupted from my spine.

BOOM!

The shockwave crushed everyone against the wall. Bones cracked. Blood sprayed.

And those four men never got up again.

My back dripped with blood. Half my skin hung loose, like a torn sheet.

The pulse grew, walls cracked, ceilings crumbled. The entire place folded in on itself, burying me beneath the rubble.

---

This wasn't the first time, nor the second. And I could feel it, this storm inside me, demanding to be unleashed.