Painted in Blood

Below__Past

Niadraug P.O.V

I am a drawing. I wasn't born. I'm not an orphan but I literally have no parents. The only person that is kind to me is the old animorph who drew me. The ethrealmorph who made me is cold, which I find ironic since she made me so emotional. Case and point I scream now and beat against the cold stone walls that hold me prisoner here. I've been in here for six months, only being visited every now and then by Sabian or Life accompanied by a teleporter. There is no door to this room. I was made six months and a day ago, but the second I opened my eyes Life's went cold. Already I wasn't the daughter she made me to be. I pleaded with Sabian to tell me why Life keeps me here like a broken toy stored in an attic when it's clear she's disgusted with my existence but he merely shook his head with disappointment. Sabian teaches me things, but he won't tell me anything about who I was supposed to be or what I'm doing wrong. He tells me about the Hollow and the more I learn the more I hate. 'I am to bring peace to it' he says. That is why I was made. But my powers are so destructive and uncontrollable, I don't understand how I'm supposed to do that. Being a phoenix isn't exactly peaceful, being part human is a whole other s**t stick.

    I stop throwing a fit when Life walks in with her usual teleport escort and a stranger I don't recognize but identify as a level two telekinetic by his two red armbands on his bare upper left arm. He is wearing a satchel I have no doubt contains STEM fluid and I stiffen. Life pulls a piece of paper from her robes and hands it to the telkie.

"Like this" Life says in an emotionless voice. The stranger nods then opens his satchel and a clear liquid rises to his hands and I flinch away from it but my movement is restricted in this small round room that couldn't be bigger than five by six. I am soon covered by the fluid. 30 minutes of violation before I feel the cool pulsing liquid harden and then I hear snips as my white nightdress sheared by the telkies invisible grasp. The STEM matter twitches a little around the edges of where it lay against my skin then it chills. I look down at myself. I now wear black jeans, a bloodred sash around my waist, covering what I think I feel to be knives. I also wear a grey crop top and a pine green flannel jacket. I look up at the stranger with disgust and a raised eyebrow. He huffs and the STEM matter changes again making me cringe. I'm taking the next outfit even if its mesh. I want this bullshit off of me. The next outfit is dark blue jeans, combat boots, a dark red plaid flannel shirt and the same pine green hoodie. I plaster on a smile and the telkie seems pleased. Now it's Life's turn to raise an eyebrow but she just shakes her head and scoffs.

"Thank you Nai," she says and hands him a few Eir coins and then the teleport takes him away then returns I assume just for Life but this time he takes my hand as well. A small shriek escapes me as suddenly I am standing in a busy port city with a jungle and an ocean on either side of it. I see Sabian right as he sees us and he comes over. Life waves away the teleport then nods coldly to Sabian as he approaches. Sabian huffs and tosses his half-eaten chicken leg to a dog not wearing any armbands so I know it's pure. I look around with wide eyes, then Sabian breaks my bliss while worrying his scruffy silver shot beard.

"Why did you bring her here? You know Niadruag does not look natural" Sabian growls. I am surprised he can manage to say my name respectfully while I stand two feet from him and not address me at all at the same time. I look at my dark brown hair that flows around me like a living liquid in a nonexistent wind, and my skin, weirdly pale even though "blood" pumps through it. According to Sabian, I took weeks to draw, he had to draw everything for me, my organs, nerves, chemicals etc. I asked why Life didn't just revolve organs or tissue from the girl I was supposed to be but she never answered me. I looked like a zentangle drawn by a four year old by the time Sabian was done drawing me, then Life brought me alive, 'woke me up' she calls it, or so Sabian tells me she does. Life has never once actually directed any sort of commentary towards me.

"I want it out of my life," Life says angrily.

"Legna they'll crush her like-" Sabian starts, using his pet name for Life but she cuts him off with the coldest glare I've ever seen to give to anyone other than me. Sabian huffs and glares back clearly perturbed. I scoff and walk away towards the sea. People avoid me like shrapnel with confused glances and mutters as I make my way to the shore.

"Must have been experimented on" "Spliced with incarnate DNA?" "Fugitive?" "Lost?" "Member?" "Abandoned?" "Dangerous?" "Just a child"

    I feel my skin getting hot but I attempt to rein it in so as not to expose myself in front of all these people. I see my hair start to look a little auburn in the light and I squash my core down further until it looks darker but its hard to keep control. In anger and confusion, I bolt into the rolling waves to cool off. I was made to be a child but for some reason, they made me a monster, put me in a 20-year-olds body, and they wonder why they're disappointed? Scratch that, I wonder. I swim down until my ears protest the pressure then I let out a feral scream. Water boils around me even though it was freezing a few seconds ago. Suddenly a tiger shark with three green bands around it's left fin and a scar over its right eye swims up to me lazily and nudges me back towards shore. I kick off against its nose and swim back. Sabian comes out behind me, rubbing his wet face and glaring daggers at my back.

    When I stop by the shore to shake myself off I notice a storm siren is blaring. Sabian never told me where I live but this close to the sea I'm expecting hurricane or tsunami. Every region of the Hollow has at least one major storm that frequents it so everything is built as well as possible to withstand it and so are the people for the most part. An alarm blaring means the storm is above a level 6.5. I look to Sabian curious as to why we're not leaving then when I see his expression it clicks. I'm not going to survive this storm. Sabian turns into a particularly large ape-like creature then aims a huge fist to crush me. As it comes down, betrayal and fear color my scream, and then I black out. The last thing I see being a wall of water I can't see the top of arching beautifully over my world like an artfully crafted blade.