Yuina
Amir was his name.
The harsh, magnified sound of automated breathing echoed throughout the tunnel as darkness descended upon the stranger as he shut the door behind him, sealing himself into the vacuum, an oxygen mask sealed tightly over his mouth and nose. Slowly He stepped forward, confused that he could hear anything in the space. His eyes flicked upwards towards a small ventilation unit. Of course. He had forgotten that the "vacuum" was not real, but merely a way of deceiving anyone foolish or brave enough to break through the barriers. He tucked a small knife into the belt of his jeans, but not before removing the blood from the blade. ‘Can’t stain these. Custom made, irreplaceable.’ He shook his head. ‘Security these days are just getting worse and worse. Although the androids they use are getting more and more realistic. What kind of sadist thought to install them with pain sensors though, and fake blood too.’ He mused silently. It never occurred to the man that the security could be real living beings in this place. It was virtually unheard of in these days. The living were a rarity, street vermin, nothing more, nothing less. Slowly he walked down the tunnel, enjoying the sound of his boots clicking on the metal surface. A sudden click sounded behind him. He swung round, his auburn, chin length hair for a moment creating a halo around his head. Staring at the hatch for a moment, he furrowed his brow in concentration, no sound coming from him but his breathing evident as his chest heaved up and down, seeming to elevate his entire body as he stood on tip toes. Nothing. ‘It must have been the automatic locks kicking in.’ he reasoned. Before spinning round once again, and walking towards his target: a small archway, with an entrance like that reminded him of a safe, due to an electronic combination device being the opening method. He was tall, his skin an entrancing shade of blue, with just a tiny delicate hint of indigo in its hue. He walked faster, reaching the doorway within seconds. His breathing had slowed now. He raised a bruised hand to the lock and for a moment placed his palm on the lock. Closing his eyes, he listened as supersonic waves of power rang in his ear, not a sound but a throbbing. A crackling sound soon echoed throughout his mind, seeming to bring with it flashing images of ever bending rays of light, that would flick across his vision in violent colours that he had never seen before in his life, or at least not when he could remember. But memories were for the weak, the reminiscent, for those who lived in that past and not for the present. The future was nothing for him. But if he could change the present now, then perhaps he would die happy, or at least die knowing he had made a difference. And then a loud explosion interrupted all his thoughts, the doorway now flickering in front of him as a hologram. He hated these little mirages they left lying around for him, so distracting and yet predictable, a mere waste of his ever precious time. Taking 3 steps forward, he closed his eyes and waited. He had nothing but patience left now.
When he opened his eyes, he was no longer inside the entrance but in an transcendental chamber. The walls were gold, and blinding so that one could not gaze upon them for too long. In the centre of the room, suspended on a silver ingot mere millimetres thick, was a glass coffin. And inside lay the celestial body of whom he had been searching for. Deliberately, he walked towards it, and reaching out a shaking hand, placed a palm on the lid of the confine in which her ethereal body was held. Her skin was white, a shocking white that to his untrained eyes, used to the grim and filthy from the streets that he was forced to reside in, caused him to narrow his eyes to mere tapered slits. Her thick, violet hair cascaded around her, elevating so that it never touched the walls of her cell. It barely covered her firm, perfectly shaped, pert breasts. Her figure was that of an hourglass, her waist small, her hips ideally formed in their shape, her legs long and slender, her stomach flat and toned. The man breathed out, his breath for a moment clouding the glass, but evaporating faster than his mind could perceive.
"Yuina…" he whispered, barely audible above the buzz that rang out clear in his own mind. And suddenly he knew what he had to do. Taking two steps back, he flung his arms out so that they were perpendicular to his sides, and stared at the roof of the room. He let out a scream, and screwed his face up in pain as blades shot out from his wrists, reaching about half a metre each from his side. He breathed heavily, and glanced at each newly sprouted weapon. Blood dripped from the blades, and infinitesimal strands of flesh clung to the sides of the metal. He growled loudly as he noticed his skin had grown many crimson tributaries of blood that streamed down his arms to form intricate patterns like that you would find on a mosaic. Still breathing heavily he turned to face the coffin. Letting out another scream resembling that of an ancient war cry, he ran towards it and drove both blades into the glass. Each one got a mere inch through, before silver spears shot from either side of the chamber, and drove themselves through Amir’s skin. He cried out in pain and fell back against the wall of the chamber. He did not notice the cracks that started to snake their way around the coffin, as everything started to go black. His breathing became slower and slower, he could feel his heart ceasing to beat, at first missing a few beats, but soon only erratically thumping in a last ditch effort at life. He tried to scream, but could not even open his mouth wide enough for a gasp. His power was gone. And then he realised it.
"I’m not dead… I’m still not dead…." He cried, as a black void swamped him, subconscious paranoia of his claustrophobic situation causing his mind to twist and turn. He was trapped, trapped inside the empty shell that was once his body. The intense pain was excruciating. He was suffocating for all eternity, he could feel he was dead, never to move again, and yet he was still thinking, he was still there, not yet ceasing to exist, not ever ceasing to exist. No escape, only the torture of knowing he had never been real. Surely humans bleed? He had tried to reason as he remembered is wounds. But humans die too. He was not dead. He was not real. Never real. He was a machine, he was all he had ever despised. And he had killed himself for the freedom of a race he was never a part of, faced now with the path that led him to be tortured forever. Somebody had created him to be deluded enough. Only a sadist like himself could have done it. He had killed himself from the day he was born. His death was written upon his palm but he couldn’t see it through synthetic blood. He twisted and turned, The insanity was growing. All he wanted was escape. His breathing, if it were existent, had become jagged, as he tried to throw himself against the walls of his tomb. Nothing responded. Trapped. Forever encased in glass for the world to see. He didn’t know if he was inside or if this tomb, or if was inside of himself.
"…still.. not.. dead…"
A manic bleeping awoke two sleeping guards. One jumped up with a start, the other merely blinked and rubbed his eyes. Their eyes settled simultaneously on a screen that showed the image of the chamber. They did not notice the dead figure on the ground, but instead zoomed in on the glass coffin, more precisely the figure inside. Immediately their eyes widened, and they jumped forward, panic causing the pitch of their voices to jump an octave.
"No, she’s not supposed to be awake yet! The journeys not over!! She has to sleep!! This can’t happen!!" one screamed. The other just stared open mouthed. When had it happened? Surely this could not be?
Yuina’s eyelids, excruciatingly slowly, fluttered open, revealing transparent eyes, with white pupils that reflected colour of the once gold and now blood stained walls of the room. Her vision, ever so slowly started to come into focus.
And then the universe imploded around them.
And trapped in a void of eternity was the spirit in the shell that was once Amir, and the ethereal form of Yuina. She stretched a palm out in front of her, admiring her long, blood red ruby nails. And then closed her eyes and went back to sleep. Amir screamed again. Yuina didn’t hear, She was already dreaming up another universe to destroy upon the nuclear sunrise of her awakening.