Beautiful Monster

Pain was the first thing that Reyna knew. A deep pain that seemed to crawl through every nerve of her body, as if her very existence was being forced back together piece by piece. Then, her eyes opened and she saw a blinding light hanging above her. When she tried to move, she couldn’t. Metal restraints dug into her wrists and ankles. That’s when the panic set in. “Where… am… I?” she asked, every word a struggle to get out. Her voice was weak, barely a whisper. A figure of a man moved at the edge of her vision. He was dressed in a white coat, his faced filled with excitement. He looked down at her as though she were a priceless discovery, rather than a person. “Remarkable,” he whispered. Reyna pulled against the restraints keeping her to the table. “Who are you?” Her voice getting stronger and her words getting easier, but the panic lacing them obvious. The man continued to ignore her questions. He leaned over her, studying her face. “After all these years… All of these failures…” His smile widened, “You woke up.” Reyna’s breathing became frantic then. She couldn’t remember anything before the pain. “What did you do to me?” That made the scientist tilt his head. “Do you know how long you have been gone?” Reyna stared at him in confusion. Gone? The word echoed strangely. She tried to remember anything before the pain, a name, a place, a face, anything, but there was only darkness. “I… I don’t remember.” The scientist’s smiled with pride. “Of course you don’t.” He reached toward her, brushing a strand of hair away from her face as if she were an object on display. “The you from before is gone now. All that’s left of you is my crowning achievement.” Reyna flinched away from his touch. “Tell me who I am.” The scientist paused. For a moment, she thought that he might give her actual answers, but instead he simply said, “You are my miracle. You used to be an experiment, now you are a success.” Her stomach tightened., “That’s not what I meant.” “No,” He replied calmly. “It isn’t.” He released the restraints slowly, one by one, watching her carefully. The moment she sat up, pain tore through her body. She looked down and froze. Her hands trembled at the sight. Her body was covered in wounds with stitches that crossed her skin. The wounds made no sense. Long marks traced across her arms, her torso, her legs. Evidence of something horrible. A memory tried to surface, a scream, a flash of fear, a cold floor beneath her, then nothing. “What happened to me?” The scientist watched her reaction with fascination. “I reconstructed you.” Her eyes snapped towards him. “Reconstructed?” “You were dead.” The room went silent. Reyna stared at the scientist. “No.” The denial was palpable. “Yes.” “No…” Her voice cracked. “That’s not possible. Nobody can bring someone back from the dead.” The scientist stepped closer. “It took years, countless experiments, countless failures. But you…” He gestured towards her. “You were different.” He almost looked emotional. “You came back.” Reyna looked at the stitches on her arms, then down to her hands. They were shaking. She felt rage building inside her and with that rage, a strength that seemed unnatural. She grabbed the table she had woken up on and picked it up and threw it across the room. The table had been bolted to the floor, but the task was incredibly easy for her. The scientist’s eyes lit up. “Extrordinary,” was the only thing he said. Reyna stared at him, her breaths heaving from the emotions wreaking havoc in her mind. “What did you make me into?!” The scientist smiled. “My beautiful monster.” Time passed, it might have been days, it might have been weeks. Reyna had no way of knowing. The scientist told her that his name was Mordecai. He never told her the date, he never told her where they were, and he never answered questions about her past. Everytime she would ask, “Who was I?” He would respond with, “That doesn’t matter anymore.” Everytime she asked, “Why did you bring me back?” He would respond with, “Because your body was fresh enough for my experiment.” Mordecai claimed he saved her, but she never felt saved, she felt owned. Mordecai gave her clothing, he gave her food, he gave her shelter, but he never gave her freedom. He placed a metal collar around her neck and attached a chain to it. The first time she touched it, she looked at him in disbelief. “You’re putting a chain on me?” “You are powerful, Reyna.” The scientist said without any shame for his actions. Reyna froze. That was the first time she ever heard her name. Mordecai noticed her reaction. “A beautiful name is it not? A beautiful name for my beautiful monster.” He brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. The scientist began putting her to work, moving things around his lab. Heavy equipment, supplies, and so many bodies. She hated the bodies the most. Not because they were difficult to move, they weren’t. She could lift things that would have taken several people. She could bend metal, she could break through locked doors, the strength inside her terrified her, but the bodies terrified her even more. Everytime she saw one, she wondered: Was that me once? Had she just been another corpse, waiting to be turned into something else? A monster awaiting an awakening? One night, after carrying another covered body into the laboratory, Reyna stood silently. Mordecai looked up from his work. “You should be proud.” She slowly turned to look at him. “Proud?” “You are helping me continue my research!” She stared at him. “I am helping you desecrate people.” The room went quiet as Mordecai looked genuinely surprised. “You have developed a personality!” “Because I am a person!” all of Reyna’s frustrations lacing her words. He just smiled, as if placating the delusions of someone insane. “Of course you are.” Reyna touched the collar around her neck. “I want to leave.” Mordecai stopped his work, then laughed softly. It wasn’t a cruel laugh, it was worse than that. It was as if she had said something childish. “Reyna,” He said as he walked towards her, “You don’t understand.” She backed away, “I understand enough.” “No.” He gently touched the chain and pulled her towards him. “You don’t.” His eyes met hers. “The world outside did not love you.” A chill ran through her at that. “You don’t remember your death, but I do.” For the first time, his expression changed, something closer to obsession gleaming in his eyes. “I found what was left of you. You were mutilated and forgotten. I am the one who found you. I am the one who saw your potential. I am the one who stitched you back together and brought you back.”