Chained Memories: Night Six (Mythology related, mild language, mild sexual conduct)

Night Six
The scent in the air was tasteless. It was like breathing in water. That was the best way to explain it.
But, then I opened my eyes.
I was in a glass casket that reminded me eerily of the one from the fairytale of Snow White.
Only, this was reality, not some fairytale where the prince came, kissed you, and took you off into the sunset.
Those were for little kids. Stuff like that was make-believe. Life is much harder than in a fairytale.
“You’re awake,” someone said from outside my glass prison. “That’s good…signs are good as well…”
I looked at the man before me.
He was tall—six-two perhaps—with striking mahogany hair and flashing green-silver mixed eyes. Though tall, he looked as if he had no muscle. Whether he had muscle or whether it was hidden was anyone’s guess.
With the white lab coat he wore he appeared to be translucent. He wore glasses though he didn’t look like he needed them.
His pants were the same white as the lab coat and his shoes were a bottomless black.
As I looked around I noticed everything was white. Well…white or gray.
“Where am I?” I asked, touching the glass. It was ice cold and my fingers stung from the brief touch. “Who are you?”
“I am Doubt,” the man said, not looking up from his clipboard. “You’re in Tartarus.”
“Tartarus?” I said, slightly surprised. “Where exactly is that? I mean…what exactly is it? And why do you look human?”
“I highly doubted you would know,” Doubt said, setting his clipboard down.
“Excuse me?”
He sighed again, leaning back against a desk.
“Keep quiet and don’t ask questions until I finish,” he said coldly. “Which I doubt you can do.
“Tartarus is a prison for gods and the like. No one can transport in or out of here and it is heavily guarded so no one can come in.
“When Zeus overthrew Cronus all of Cronus’s followers—the Titans—were thrown into here, unable to escape.
“Then, after so long, a few Titans somehow escaped and another revolution occurred where the Titans took back Olympus and the Greeks received the same punishment they had.
“After so long the Greeks rallied their troops and rebelled. With both nations weakened, they were forced to leave their homes and the heavens were left in ruin.”
“Wait a minute—”
“I told you that you couldn’t keep quiet.”
“Never mind that!” I hissed. “How do I play into this? What is the point for me?”
“I was getting to that,” he said icily. “Anyway, just after the first revolution, the gods decided to create you as a sign of their new home.
“At the time of the second revolution, you opened the box and several evils escaped—Hate, Obsession, Death, Pain, Misery, and Wrath.
“Those six evils helped reinforce the second revolution. And, when they didn’t help completely, they retrieved the others from the box and the revolution occurred. Though, the excitement was premature.
“Unbeknownst to us, a God had escaped from us during the rounding up of Gods.”
“Helios…”
“Yes. The God of the Sun,” he said nonchalantly. “Sun had escaped and we also didn’t know that you had the power of reincarnation.
“Once we killed you, burned you, and left you on Hephaestus’s doorstep, we thought you were done and we wouldn’t have to worry about that damn box again.”
“But you were wrong,” I said, waiting.
“Correct,” he said, crossing his arms. “We had miscalculated greatly and Cronus, being the imbecile he was, pushed the thought aside.
“And then Helios began to create new Pandoras with you. Then the killing began.
“We killed you, hoping your power of reincarnation would be stopped, but soon realizing that we couldn’t kill you before another Pandora was born.
“Then the third revolution occurred and we were all forced out of the heavens and Tartarus was left empty.
“All of the evils then began to rebuild Tartarus, careful to install the latest technologies and updating whenever possible, as we waited for another Pandora.
“Though, Greed, Lies, and Lust were allowed to have their fun when a new Pandora was born.
“Would you like to know a secret?”
I froze, hands fisted as I waited.
“Whenever a new Pandora is born,” he whispered, smiling widely. “The previous Pandora loses her ability to capture evils.”
My eyes widened as he let it sink in.
When I had a daughter, a Pandora, I would become as human as everyone else. My sudden protection I had of myself would suddenly disappear.
“Suddenly, you became an easy target,” Doubt continued. “And, as an easy target, you were easily eliminated allowing us to weaken Sun each time he fell in love with you.
“With you gone for a time, helpless as a child, we planned extensively, sent many of us after you in order to bring you here though we failed every time.
“Until another Pandora was born, we never were able to capture you. Not until last night, anyway.”
“So why am I here?” I whispered carefully. “Why am I alive? Why haven’t you killed me?”
“You are going to help us in the fourth, and final, revolution.”
An image of me covered in blood flashed into my mind and I froze, refusing to breathe.
My ‘destiny’ would happen closer than I had ever thought it could be.
“The fourth revolution,” he continued, “is to take over the Earth.”
“World domination,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Classic.”
Doubt glared at me, walking and putting his hands on my glass cage causing me to cringe back, his green-silver eyes burning.
“Using you, the final battle with the Olympians will occur and the Titans and evils will finally have what we’ve deserved all along.”
“You’re sick,” I said as he finished. “All of you—the evils and the Titans—are disgusting. If you think I’ll help you, you’re all crazy. I’d die first.”
Doubt smiled evilly and I forced myself to hold his gaze.
“After a few tests you follow,” he said, turning and grabbing his clipboard as he walked out. “You’ll be begging us to help.”
“Never,” I hissed.

I screamed, wanting to die…or wanting to kill something, anything.
“STOP!” I begged, screaming. “Please, stop!”
Tears streamed down me as the evils attacked me. Though, they didn’t attack me physically, they were in my mind. And they weren’t real evils either.
Apparitions—like in the tests I had done for Hephaestus. Only…in these tests my powers were useless.
Hate licked through my veins, burning like poison, causing me to scream in pain once more as Misery’s cry ripped through my mind, blocking my hearing.
Without warning, they were gone, and I fell to the ground, scarcely breathing.
Doubt suddenly stood above me and I glared at him. It was a pitiful attempt with how I looked.
“Ready to help?” he asked, eyes questioning.
“I’ll die first,” I hissed.
He sighed, lifted me into his arms, and carried me back to the room with the glass case before setting me into it.
“It would all stop if you would just say yes,” he said, closing the case. “And that was only the first one. They only get worse. It would be easier if you joined us.”
“Never,” I growled, glaring at him menacingly.
Doubt sighed and left allowing me my privacy though I knew they watched me. The cameras weren’t well hidden.
Four were trained on me, two on the only door and three covering the space in between.
If I so much as blinked, they would know.
“They want to watch,” I said coldly. “Let them watch.”
I took of my shirt, leaving my camisole, and used it as a pillow, ignoring the coldness of the room.
What seemed like five minutes later, I was being ripped up from my case and taken into another room. The first was blue. This one was red.
“This is your second test,” Doubt said from over an intercom. “Are you ready?”
“Let them at me,” I hissed, bracing myself for the excruciating pain I was expecting.
Three people appeared in front of me. One had flaming red hair and brown eyes, another had bottomless blue eyes and blonde hair, but the final one was the oddest.
The final had pitch black hair with raven blue-black streaking through parts of his hair but his eyes were the weirdest.
To describe them as a color was impossible. They were, pure hate, pure bloodlust. Pure…the pure need to kill, to feel the heat of blood on your hands.
Each of them introduced themselves.
The red-haired male was Defeat. The blonde was Obsession. But the black-haired male stood quiet.
“Who are you?” I asked, arms crossed. “Or are you afraid of me?”
Those bloodlust eyes narrowed and he growled out his name.
“Pain.”
His voice was just like his eyes. The sound wasn’t like Misery’s but it had its own uniqueness and caused me to shudder.
Before I could register anything, the evils attacked me. Obsession toyed with my mind—well…tried to—while Defeat forced me down.
I fought against them, crying out when Defeat ripped through my skin, blood covering every inch of my body within seconds.
When I finally managed to deal with them somewhat, I turned back to see the final evil, Pain, watching the fighting from a far.
I froze, holding up the tattered remains of my shirt as I looked at him and waited.
Pain glared at me before looking down and ripping my shirt clean off of me. I let out a startled cry and wrapped my arms around myself.
He raised an eyebrow as I tried to slap him but it was cut off when Obsession and Defeat tried to drag me back. I started to protest, but, suddenly, they were gone, and I was alone with Pain.
I looked at him, putting some distance between us, before ripping off the shredded remains of my pants and glared at him.
“So what happens next?”
Pain shrugged.
“Can’t you talk?”
I looked at him, mock curiosity on my face, as he glared at me.
“Yes, I can.”
I smiled, sitting and leaning against a wall, waiting for him to attack me.
“So,” I said, fingering my fresh wounds, trying to stop the blood flowing from them. “What happens now? Are you going to attack me or…?”
I trailed off when Pain stepped over to me and pulled me into his arms.
“What are you—?”
I gasped when Pain lifted my arms to his lips and licked a fresh wound. His tongue was rough yet gentle as he licked my cuts, unbelievable pain ricocheting through me.
When he finally pulled away I fell to the floor, wounds healed, pain ebbing away.
“W-Why did you do that,” I stuttered, trying to ignore the pain. “Why did…you help me? Heal me I mean.”
He shrugged and turned away from me, suddenly disappearing as Doubt entered.
“Well done,” he muttered, ripping me up off the floor. “I was right about turning down the rate…if you were to multiply pi by the rate of heart beat and divide that all by the number of screams you should get…”
He continued, speaking mathematically and I just ignored him, thinking back to Pain.
It was a shame I would have to kill him eventually.
Without warning, I was uprooted and being dragged through the halls. It was the first time I had actually been able to look at Tartarus.
Doors lined the hallway, a perfect distance apart from one another and each door was inscribed with a name.
All the names were evils other names, human names, were scribbled beneath them.
I ticked off the names of the evils in my head. If every evil was here, I would be saved a long time of figuring out how many I needed to capture.
People who I had captured had their names painted white while those I’d yet to meet or capture were in black.
I read the names to myself I was walked…well, stumbled.
Greed, Indifference, Jealousy, Narcissism, Nightmares, Selfishness, Strife, Violence, Disease, Lust, Lies, Secrets, and Disaster. Thirteen.
Those who remained were Distrust, Hate, Intolerance, Irresponsibility, Obsession, Death, Pain, Wrath, Doubt, Misery, and Defeat. Eleven.
Twenty-two evils in all. Twenty-two creatures with a story.
And I was only a little over half done.
I shuddered and caught a glimpse of a door that was slightly open.
Through the opening I could see a bed and a man sitting on it.
He was tall, silver shoulder-length hair framed gorgeous crystal green eyes with ivory pale skin. All the man wore was a pair of denim jeans.
Muscle…hidden…and there was lots of it.
I shivered and managed to catch the name inscribed on the door.

DEATH
Talisen Oullette

Death’s door was open, waiting for someone. Waiting for who, I knew, was either me or the world.
I lost my view of the door as we rounded a corner and followed a series of hallways until, in the center of what I now considered a labyrinth, I was taken into my room and put in my glass cage.
Doubt took several notes, clearly agitated, before he paced the length of the room and turned to glare at me.
“You,” he hissed, “need to die. And if it wasn’t for your damn ability, we could see you in the flesh, not as holograms!”
He stormed out, leaving his clipboard behind, and slammed the door shut.
Seconds past, followed by minutes and I looked, trying not to move, at the clipboard.
What I saw there shocked me.

September, 1976
Patient exhibits signs of strength. Little is known about neither this new Pandora nor her daughter.
Sun attempts to reclaim this Pandora. Studies end up empty every time.

October, 1976
Patient is terminated. Now it is time to start over and focus on the patient’s daughter who she has named Jennifer.

I froze, looking at the paper in twisted fear and revulsion.
September, 1976 was when my grandmother was Pandora. October, 1976 would have been my mother, Jennifer.
I laid down, away from the clipboard, and processed the new information.
I wasn’t the first person to be tested on by Doubt.

“Are you ready?” Doubt said over the intercom.
I nodded, tired from my previous trials with the evils. Doubt had double the numbers and I was fighting the same evils over and over. This was the fifth time today.
Pain, Distrust, Hate, Intolerance, Irresponsibility, Obsession, Death, Wrath, Doubt, Misery, and Defeat surrounded me. Well…every one but Pain and Death.
I tried to fight the evils off as much as I could while they surrounded me, never giving me time to adjust to the pain long enough to attain my bearings.
A scream erupt from my throat and I made a blind attempt to attack them but ended up in Pain’s arms.
“Need help?” The question was nearly silent and I knew it was just for me.
Pain licked through my veins and I let out another cry.
Then it was gone and I looked up at Pain just at the moment he looked down at me.
We stood, frozen, while the remaining evils, save Doubt stared at us with blatant disbelief.
Pain reacted quickly, grabbing my wrists and locking me in place as he kissed me sending tiny waves of pain into me. Not enough to hurt but enough to tell me what to do.
I screamed, a scream covered by his gentle lips, as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to his body. My body went limp in his arms and I felt my heart skip a beat when he deepened the kiss.
Suddenly I found myself being pinned against the wall, my hands held above my head by Pain’s one while his other hand, placed strategically on my back, pulled me closer to him.
Another scream left me as more of that pleasurable pain shot through me, forcing me to succumb to Pain.
“Please,” I whispered breathlessly when he pulled back and kissed his way to my throat sending tendrils of pain through me with every kiss. “Please, Pain…please stop…”
My hands fell free and I put them on his shoulders to steady myself.
“Pain,” I whispered as he slid an arm under my knees and lifted me as if I weighed nothing. “Please stop…please. Helios…”
That was all it took. Pain dropped me, glaring at me with distaste, before turning his back on me, leaving me to the other evils.

I gently fingered a fresh bruise and cringed.
I was covered in fresh bruises and cuts from the trial. Looking at Pain had been harder than fighting off the evils. They were a cakewalk compared to simply looking at him.
“Are you feeling better?” Doubt said, entering the room. “That was quite a display in the testing area today.”
“Thank you,” I said sarcastically. “It couldn’t have been easier.”
“Oh, I wasn’t referring to how you fought,” he said, writing something down on his clipboard. “I was talking about what occurred between Pain and yourself.
“Perhaps I should but you two in a room together…maybe we could do the E-Project after all…”
“E-Project?”
Doubt blinked, pausing, before looking up, I mean, down at me in my glass case.
“E-Project,” he explained. “The E-Project is when we send in two people in a room, injected with a dose of Lust and leave them there for a week before taking them out.
“One week after, when the injected dose is clear from their system, we send said people into the room and see the results—see if the occurrences in the first trial affect the second experiment.
“E standing for the Greek God of Love, or Lust, Eros.”
Silence hummed between us after that until he finally sighed and opened my case.
“Get out.”
I looked at him, confused, and he ripped me out of the case before dragging me through the hallways, stopping at a door with no human name on it.
“What are we doing here?”
Doubt said nothing as he threw me into the room. A noticeable ‘click’ sound I took to be a lock resounded from the other side of the door and Doubt’s voice was heard from the opposite side of the door.
“Welcome to the E-Project,” he said calmly. “We have skipped the injection, let us observe how you react now.”
“What the—”
I turned and stared at Pain, eyes wide, as I tried to open the door.
“You’re not getting out,” he said coolly. “None of us can unless we’re on the outside.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“Pandora,” he whispered, crossing the room and taking my hands. “What’s going on?”
Two words left my lips and Pain swore, jerking away from me.
“Eros Project.”

Please reply. I apologize in advance for any incorrect phrasing or wording. ****It is copied directly from the microsoft word document so font variations have been canceled out****

Interesting chapter; I definitely like how the plot is playing out (again, good use of Greek mythology). Oh, and Doubt certainly makes a very interesting villain, in mine opinion.

There were no typos this time, at least none I could spot.

I look forward to the next entry.