Prologue

He sat there in the blazing lights, watching. His arms wrapped around his knees, his eyes shifting around the shrill white room. It was unbearably bright. The blinding lights revealed all, allowing no shadow to linger. Naked and exposed, he could feel the light burning into his flesh, branding him with an incessant aching. Though body and mind grew weak, the beast festered. It thrashed in a restless rage that commanded attention, submitting him to its will.   

He had to get away.  

The longer he withered away in this prison cell, the longer the monster consumed, eating up his life, his soul, and all memory of a place beyond. If he remained, all the fragile pieces that had made up his life before would flitter away, turning to ash that was easily crumbled in the fist of despair. The days had already melded into one long stretch of a time unable to be comprehended. There was only night then day, day then night; each the same as any other. They watched, and he waited. Biding his time for that one moment when he could find escape. Yet it never came, and before long he found it hard to recall the warmth of sunlight, the embrace of rampant wind, nor even the sight the faces of those he had once loved. For it all was lost, and he was damned. There was nothing left of his old life to behold, except her. 

His gaze lifted. Two large ovals of wicked intent met his, radiantly shimmering with golden flexes of deceit. Her full lips parted as a smile laced with straight white teeth gleamed in his direction. He couldn’t understand her smile, her delight. He was the cause of this. He was the reason she was here. Yet even so, day by day she awaited him eagerly while they forced him to oblige. It was sick. The very thought of it caused a wave of nausea to hit him hard.

A thick wall of one way glass took up half the room, allowing them to monitor and observe their every movement. They were unable to blink without their knowledge, privacy a thing ever so greatly desired, but never obliged. Years they had been subject to their power, forcibly submitted to their will. Hidden eyes watched, roamed, and calculated beyond the wall. He could see them now in his mind.

He could no longer stay here, letting his life slip by, only receiving moments of pleasure at the expense of a lifetime of misery. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to get out. His fingers dug into his arms, unable to keep his anger and frustration locked away inside. The way they treated him, poking and prodding at him like some twisted science project. He felt heat flaring in his chest as the hate emerged, the demon inside struggling angrily to be unleashed. For a moment he let himself wonder what it would be like, to let lose the beast once again, just to feel the sudden release, let this part of him take control. It would be so easy. It was almost too tempting to even think about. His eyes wondered to the one-way glass. He knew they were watching him. Examining and observing him, writing notes on their little note pads. Oh how he wanted to smash through and take their little heads in his hands and…he sighed. There was no way out. He would never get out of this. They had no reason to let him go, to set him loose. They created him for this purpose. He was the most qualified for the job. They needed more, and he was their only solution. They had to force him every time, as she willingly awaited him. He couldn’t think of their eyes watching just beyond the thick wall of glass. He couldn’t even think of what they made him do. He was their dog, lead by a leash, a leash that would never be untied. They had him by the throat, and he would never be able to escape their grasp. In his heart he knew that what they had made him into was something more, more than he had ever been, and for that he was kept here, under their observation, never again to see the outside world that he had loved so dearly.

This was his fate.