43. Dying [XR, Nos-4-A2]

Blood and dust have changed all the colors in my mind
Black has made me see but the truth has made me blind
To the fears... to the lies... they were here... all the time

Here it goes.
He was staring at him.
Captivating him.
There was nowhere to run.
He felt all alone...  He was all alone.
And that BLASTED DOOR wouldn't open!

He swallowed as this creature... this, this… thing came closer and put one of its ice-cold claws on him, lifting him from the floor. He struggled, wanted to scream for help... but whatever he would try nothing could ever be heard.
Nothing would ever be heard.
Nothing.
Except for this alluring voice.
"Resist me not, little one," Where was this coming from? He barely could recognize something... anything anymore, "For you are mine."

And that set him off.
He began to shiver and shake, breathing heavily. His metallic plating rattling against the solid, unmoving hatch.
That traitorous hatch!

He didn't belong to anyone!
But what was he to do? He couldn't run, he couldn't move – out of fright, and he could barely think straight – or think at all.

Suddenly, he found himself separated from the floor and the wall and held with a grip, such an intense but painless grip, he couldn't even struggle.
Didn't even want to try.

All he was able to do was to turn his small cylinder-shaped head underneath the glass of his dome, hoping for help, hoping for someone... anyone to come and help him.

Then it came closer... too close, drifting over the edge of his vision, so that he couldn't recognize where it was heading for. There was nothing, nothing but the top of his torso for him to see.

And then there was something.

A short stinging pain.
He clenched his teeth and flinched, though he found it wasn't even worth a scream. He was used to so much worse by now... What made him want to scream however was the fact that he had no idea what was going on.
But something inside of him stopped caring. No, he was beginning to feel dizzy and numb. It was as if something would lull him into a deep, cold sleep. Like a silent lullaby.
But there was no lullaby and there was no scream. There was nothing but a soundless whispered plea.
All he could still recognize was an itching, dragging pain in his torso...
Somewhere…

He had become weary enough, so weary that he knew it was there, but couldn't locate where it was coming from anymore.
Was it his torso still? He didn't know.
By now the pain was everywhere… and nowhere, for a comfortable numbness had begun to settle.

For a little moment he considered to simply give in and to enjoy this feeling of pure relaxation it had become. But that thought quickly died when an unpleasant surprise had called him back to life.
He was choking.

Something inside of him wasn't working right. Now fully awake and back to his senses, he was gasping for breath, for all the air he could get. A ridiculous reflex they had programmed him with to make him appear more human.
There were no lungs for him, breathing was but a mere imagination; and now it all felt strange.
Maybe it was his motor that started to protest...

He choked again and tried to move… without success.
Panic began to creep its way back into his system as his core more and more lost the ability to 'breathe'.

Barely anymore but still irregularly shaking, he now recognized that he was lying on the floor.
He hadn't even heard the clang of the impact.
His body... felt so cold.

His optics shut down.
Darkness.
Was there... something in his head?

G-go away!

It felt so weird. If he could just move he would bang a hand against his helmet, hoping for it to work. Another useless reflex – it wouldn't work.
He just wished it would.

That something...
In his head.
It was frightening him.

It seemed to... no, no it did! It really did! He could feel it now. It was overwriting his programming.
Stop that!
There was a last resisting jolt and his head dropped against the glass.

Make it stop...

His optics turned back on... and as he did so the dizziness hit him again. Everything around him was flickering.
Flickering, shaking, noise all over the place…

Above him, he could recognize the cause of all this smirking down at him with an evil… awareness.

Who are you?

His shaking started to stabilize, to decline.
And then, his world went dark.

Pictures soaked in gasoline
Twisting through the steel and concrete
The smoke has cleared but I can't breathe
~SR-71 “Truth”