Kapitel 2: Diving Into The Abyss
"Do you dream of the outside world?"
It was a sentence Alice never imagined herself to be hearing after all this time. Words of temptation that caused her to hope. Hope that would push her on only to despair at her captivity.
Clenching her fists, she wondered what the price of such a notion could be. The price of freedom she yearned for so long.
"So…" He asked. "Do you want to leave this hell, and trade it for another?"
She nodded. For what hell could be worse than what she had experienced within the last ten years?
Meanwhile, the raven clad man stared at her patiently. He could see the fire in her eyes, burning at the thought of escape. Yet, her face failed to reveal any emotions. For the girl in front of him, her eyes truly were the window to her soul.
"Or would you rather remain locked up in this room?" He added, seeking to edge her on.
There was something in her, something that reminded him of the past. The memory of a dauntless woman he once knew.
He could see the same determination in her as he did in the woman.
Realising her hope was on the verge of extinguishing, Alice reached out in a panic. Grabbing him by the sleeves, she bit her lip before opening her mouth.
"Don't want to stay… please." She uttered with difficulty. "But… I know…a price needs to be paid. "
She wanted to convey her thoughts better but there was a limit to what she could say. Alice was not allowed to interact with anyone except for those that tore away at her, thus she struggled to formulate the right words to properly express her thoughts.
Blinking his eyes in bewilderment, the man was at a loss of words. The young lady in front of him seems to be in her early adulthood. Yet her manner of speech was roughly patched together. A mismatch of tone.
He could tell how hard she was trying to convey her thoughts but lacked the words to do so. Her desperate gaze hoping that he understood what she was thinking inside.
Squatting down, the man sighed deeply before raising his hand.
Thinking that he was going to hit her since she had grabbed onto him, Alice jumped back. She didn't want to offend her would-be saviour if she could help it.
"???"
"I was just going to pat your head but I suppose it might not be the right move." The man raised an eyebrow.
"But, that's fine. There's an old promise I once made to someone. It's highly annoying, by the way. So, I'm hoping someone else can help me fulfill it. I want you to be the one. In return, I will give you a way out of here. But it won't be easy."
Alice nodded without thinking twice. She held on only with the thought of revenge for 10 long years. She was not going to give up so easily.
The man smiled.
"Alright. My request is that I want you to survive in the Abyss. Travel further than anyone has travelled, uncover the truth through mire and blood. It is in the Abyss that you will help me fulfill my promise. It is also in the Abyss where you will find what you seek. Be that vengeance or a new life." He said.
His words stopped her for but a second before she nodded again. She did not completely understand the ramifications of her agreement to this deal, but they did not matter to her.
She could almost taste it. Freedom.
"Now, to ensure you fulfill your end of the bargain, I need one more thing."
Alice stared at him, her eyes filled with confusion. Before she could ask what, the man moved.
"The final price, is that I require an eye." He smiled ominously.
From the darkness, a claw reached out before Alice could react and grabbed her right eye. In one swift motion, it pulled her eyeball out.
The pain was a surprise for her as she did not expect the sudden attack, causing her to flinch in panic. She did not scream, though. Claws gripped her ankles and started to drag her down as the man chuckled at the display.
"When you arrive in the Abyss, find a woman called Allura, she will be your guiding light. Knowing what she's like, she'll keep you safe."
And in that moment, the light disappeared from Alice's world. The shadows consumed her, leaving behind only a mangled collar that had stolen her freedom for all these years.
Standing alone in the room, the man tilted his head back and sighed. Bittersweet memories of an age long lost flooded his mind as he shook his head.
"I have given the girl the Eye, that will let Allura to find her." He smiled.
Upon exiting the room, the man found himself in a hallway littered with shredded clothes and blood. Blaring red lights flashed incessantly in the halls. All a result of his own doing.
"We'll meet again once you have made a home of the Abyss. I wonder how Allura will react upon seeing me." He muttered in a joyful tone before disappearing from where he stood.
###
Falling through the darkness, Alice felt like she was sinking through the ocean.
Her limbs felt as if they were bound and impossible to move from the crushing pressure around her.
No sight, no sound, no feeling. She could feel nothing.
It was a strange feeling, drifting aimlessly amidst the darkness. But it was oddly calming for her. It gave her a moment to digest what had just happened.
She was unsure if she was still dreaming, that this was just a trick played by her mind in order to escape the cruel reality of her situation. A dive into insanity.
But if it wasn't a dream, her heart burned with the will to live. Her soul wanted to indulge in the all-consuming hatred hidden deep within Alice's heart for her family. Her freedom was a golden opportunity, one she wouldn't give up for the world.
With determination flowing through her mind, Alice snapped her eyes open within the darkness, gaze steadfast and focused.
Reaching her hand out, she clawed away at the sludge that was around her. The thick viscous darkness paved her way up toward the surface as a faint glimmer of light managed to break through the layers of shadow.
With the exit now in sight and her freedom at her fingertips, she climbed forth with reinvigorated passion. Her hand broke open the surface of the darkness with a loud splash. Grabbing hold of the nearest object she could find, Alice heaved her body out of the viscous waters.
As her head broke the surface, she sucked in a mouthful of air, refilling her lungs while letting energy return to her body.
Nausea burned her mind, but she forced herself to reach safe land first. She would have plenty of time to succumb to fatigue once her life wasn't in the threat of drowning in deep water.
The strange liquid stuck to her like glue as it obscured her vision. All Alice could make out was a strange body of sand. It was illuminated with a dual tint of silver and purple, unlike the radiant gold sand usually takes.
Ignoring the abnormality, she made her way to the edge before collapsing on the sand. Facing up against the sky, she opened her eyes hoping to see the clear blue sky and passing clouds of her dreams, to reignite the final vestige of her sanity and celebrate a return to freedom. But all she could see was a strange purple moon surrounded by dark clouds.
Yet she was free from her prison. Basking in her newfound escape from captivity, the light of hope returned to her eyes yet her expression remained stone cold.
It was a habit that she had developed, one to make sure they couldn't enjoy themselves from watching her suffer. Even as they tore her chest apart, her expression would not change.
'Where am I?' She thought to herself.
The man she met at the Zenia prison said that he would send her to the Abyss. Was this it? It seemed strange to her. Alice didn't even know the man's name, yet she owed him a debt larger than life.
Wiping some of the strange liquid off her, a nagging feeling Alice couldn't quite out her finger on throbbed in her mind. Setting aside the thought, she looked at her reflection in the inky, yet reflective liquid.
Thanks to the moonlight, she could somewhat see her face. The liquid she was covered in was highly reflective on the surface, despite the impenetrable darkness of the waters close to her.
The first thing Alice saw were her eyes. They were now a vibrant purple and her supposedly missing right eye grew itself back. The right sclera was now coloured black with the pupil being purple. Her hair was messy and unkempt from the years of negligence. Their original colour was a dark brown like the rest of the her family. But in the place of the dark brown was a split of white and dark purple, the snowy hair taking the right side above the darkened eyes while the violet took the left.
'Wasn't my eye gone? Why is it fine now? Alice thought to herself while observing her new right eye.
The observations were short-lived as she suddenly retched, throwing up the same black liquid that filled the lake.
Her eyes widened in panic as the liquid flowed from her orifices. It felt as though her insides were being cut apart with blades before transforming into this substance that forced itself out of her body.
Within this panic, she understood what she had been swimming in.
The waters of the Abyss.
With the appearance of the Abyss in their world, knowledge of its malevolent nature was shared and disseminated to most people, to the extent it became a part of curriculum in schools. Even children knew about the waters of the Abyss, the dark realm's black seas.
Much like the Abyss Blood, the waters were contaminated with the same malicious energy that tainted every being that resided within the hollowed chasms of the Abyss. A normal human coming in contact with this water would be required to be quarantined lest they mutate and infect the people around them.
Anyone unlucky enough to be doused, or worse, completely submerged in the waters of the Abyss would witness their entire being mutate and transform into a malformed beast overcome with bloodlust.
Even with her mutated resistance, Alice couldn't have this liquid within her body for a long period of time. Plus, she didn't have the healing blood injected by her collar to keep herself alive anymore.
Forcing herself to throw up as much of this liquid as possible, Alice felt blood dripping from her nose. Her vision blurred red around the edges.
'Sh*t…' She cursed in her mind. Her body lost strength, and Alice collapsed in the pile of black liquid she just regurgitated.
She knew that the Abyss was composed of several layers, each filled with its own dangers and reached far and wide like the surface.
With a feeling of nausea spreading through her mind and weakness taking over, Alice collapsed against the silver sand while a figure appeared, treading through the rolling mist covering the lands.
"Another one lost to the deep. Urg… Hm?" Noticing something off, he leaned down and saw that the girl was still alive, her body spasming from the effects of the Abyss waters, but not dead yet.
"Alive…? Oh, yes. Although it's a matter of time before she becomes part of the dark mother, she'll make a fine addition to the Slaughter Docks. Hehehe. You're in luck, young lass. You'll have a purpose instead of rotting out in the wild." He grinned, knowing that she'll fetch a few decent coins for his wallet.
Grabbing her by the collar of her dress, he threw the girl against the pile of corpses lined on his wagon.
Cracking his neck and stretching the rest of his body, the man grabbed the wagon and made his way through the thick mist that was rolling in. The echoing sounds of his whistle rang out amidst the fog while merging with the distant calls of Abyss Beasts.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Reili
Reili Edited by: Tales Bringer
As always I hope you enjoyed, feedback is welcome since it'll allow me to improve!
Kapitel 3: New Prison
A myriad of whispers filled her mind like tiny ants crawling within her ear. The cries of the Abyss and the howls of those who lost their life.
As though she was hearing the history of every victim claimed by the Abyss Waters, their haunting melodies clinging to her mind and body, Alice writhed in agony.
"!!!"
Jolting upright out of panic, Alice panted heavily as she quickly checked her body. The last thing she remembered was succumbing to the effects of the Abyss Waters. Without anything to heal her, she should have died before her body could purge the effects.
But she was alive. Joy filled her heart as her eyes glimmered with the shine of a thousand stars. Then she noticed the cuffs and a suffocating feeling clawed through her heart. It tore away the joy and bared its fangs at her throat, sinking them deep in her flesh.
Panic and anxiety crashed against her mind as she slowly raised her hand and placed it against the cold metal collar next to her throat.
Panting heavily, she could feel her heart attempting to burst out of her chest while a deafening ringing sound echoed against her ear, blocking out all noise.
Gritting her teeth, she tore away at the collar, trying her best to take it off.
The clashing sound of metal filled the room as Alice slammed her body against the metal bars of her cage.
'Was all of it a dream? Was the hope that I finally felt after all those years a lie?' She asked herself while going mad from rage.
Biting her lip, Alice continued to slam her hands against her collar in a vain attempt to free herself. The metal refused to budge.
A blinding flash of light obscured her vision as the taste of iron flooded her mouth. She felt as though the world crashed against the side of her face as blood rushed towards the impact point.
The impact caused Alice to relinquish all forms of control she had over her body, slamming against the metal bars. Her vision became blurred and a certain numbness settled within her mind.
Blinking her eyes in confusion, she failed to understand what just happened. All she could see was blood dripping against the rusted iron floor of her cage.
From the numbness and heat, pain flashed through her consciousness. It was then Alice realised she was hit by something against the side of her head.
The pain knocked Alice out of her panic attack. She was now able to calm herself to a certain degree in spite of being injured. It allowed Alice to reassess her situation. While there was indeed a collar around her neck, the girl understood that this was not the prison she grew up in.
After all, the one who had just punched her did not look like he belonged to a big family.
Countless, haphazard stitches stretched across his body with patches of skin belonging to different bodies covering the surface. She could only describe him as a towering monstrosity with malformed muscles. It looked like the muscles were expressly needed to lift the sheer weight of the cuffs and chains around his wrists. A large, rusted iron helmet welded together from scrap metal dug into his flesh as gaping wounds bled open on the thing's neck. Despite it all, the wounds didn't seem to inconvenience the behemoth.
Seeing the dent in her cage, she realised that he tried to punch her. The iron bars saved her life. If not for them, she wouldn't be left off with just a bleeding wound.
With Alice now no longer making a scene by trying to get the collar off her neck, the giant sat down and slumped over. Soon, rhythmic breathing sounds reached Alice's ears.
Looking around her, Alice noticed she wasn't the only one locked up. Tens, if not hundreds of deformed captives were in a similar situation to her, their limbs bound to the cage.
Some of the captives had more deformities than the others, looking neither man nor beast — a side effect of Abyss Blood usage. The degree of some mutations made Alice wonder if the captors were using illegal, experimental Abyss Blood.
The worst case she could see within this room was a man firmly attached to the wooden walls with roots growing out of his body. He was in the late stages of transforming into a plant-based Abyss Beast. A familiar variety at that.
He had iridescent purple flowers created from his flayed flesh blossoming across his back and body. A glowing stamen within the centre of the flower dripped with his blood as emerald vines weaved through his skin like thread on fabric. Bloodied roots took hold of his wounds as the man took care not to move from his spot.
Even the smallest movement caused the roots to split, making the man wince from the pain.
All of this pointed to one Beast in particular, one whose blood Alice experienced first hand during her time within the Zenia prison.
During those days, the head scientist leading the experiments would document the Abyss Blood administered, the different types used in combination and those without, including the part the blood came from, the Beast it came from and the results. Alice took care to memorise as much as possible since it was the only other form of 'entertainment' she could occupy herself with.
'Blood Lily, a carnivorous flower that lay traps for its prey with poisoned thorns and can keep itself alive through blood. When their 'blood' is extracted, the properties you'll gain is increased healing through coming into contact with any kind of blood. It can even go as far as regrowing lost limbs…' Alice thought to herself before glancing back at the man.
'Side effects include flowers slowly blooming on the body of the person the more they use this blood. And so, they had their name changed to Vampire Lily and deemed unusable for the general public.'
Judging by his physical state, Alice understood that just one more dose of the blood would kill the man.
She couldn't help but think back to the head scientist who constantly preached about how her body was a gift from the unseen gods, a path for humanity to discover the uses of Abyss Blood.
He showered her with news on what the latest product had done for the world. His fanaticism with the cursed blood that runs through the depths of the Abyss reached heights Alice couldn't even imagine, with her body the perfect toy for him to use. He would talk about how, if one person's suffering could cure the world, it was that person's job to offer themselves up.
Alice shivered.
Shaking her head, she tried her best to ignore the past. She needed to find out about her location. The strange man told her to search for a woman called Allura, but he didn't mention what she looked like nor what her full name was. How was Alice supposed to find a woman just based on the first name?
Standing up, she instantly felt a wave of lethargy kick in from the head trauma as she tripped over her own feet.
"Unless you want the Bruiser to punch through that cage and kill you, I suggest you don't move around too much and just sleep." A voice whispered as Alice glanced over.
The voice belonged to a sickly woman with short grey hair that looked as if it had the colour sucked out of them. She had a single golden pupil, the other having disappeared into a flower. Similar to the man in the late stages of Vampire Lily abuse, the woman's eye was turned into a Vampire Lily. She wore a tattered burlap sack with the same cuffs and chains as Alice.
"Okay. Erm… here, where?" Alice asked after a short pause, trying to find the words in her mind. After being thrown into the prison with nothing but experiments to look forward to, her family didn't really place education high on the list of things to do.
"That's a weird way of talking, but okay. I'm not too sure either since I've been recently resold to this place after my last owner got fed up with me. They said this place was like a fighting arena or something. That's all I know, sorry." She apologised with a small smile.
"I'm guessing we'll find out tomorrow so just rest for now. Plus, you got this guy sitting in front of our cage. It's best we stop talking and just sleep." The woman pointed at the Bruiser twitching and showing signs of waking up once more.
Nodding her head slowly, Alice laid down and stared at the metal roof of her cage. Countless thoughts crossed her mind but she only had one goal. To get out of this place and find the woman who would apparently help her get her revenge.
She was skeptical of the strange man's lofty promises but for someone like her, this was probably the best chance she's got to get back some semblance of life.
'Please don't let this be a dream… I don't want to go back. I can handle being collared like this… At least I can die if I want to…' Alice thought to herself as she rubbed her finger against her choker once more. She didn't fear death. For her, she had been living side by side with death for 10 long years. What she feared was a life worse than death, one where she couldn't end it even if she desired.
Suppressing the anxiety within her mind, she allowed herself to rest on the stack of straw in her cage. Even though this cage couldn't compare to the room Alice's family gave her, she felt more relaxed here.
###
Standing in the empty white room while holding a mangled collar, a man stood in deafening silence. Wearing a decorative red coat that hung off his shoulders, adorned with golden markings, the man wore a black and gold nobleman's attire beneath the jacket with an ornate sword hanging off his waist. Despite his age, he still had a head of dark brown hair swept back along with a full beard.
Behind him was a corridor filled with countless patches of blood and hundreds of bodies. They were some of the finest guards in the Zenia family, yet all of them met the same fate.
Known by the name Luthor Zenia, head of the Zenia family, he was Alice's father. The one who ordered she be imprisoned after her physique was discovered.
He could remember the creature he kept in this room, the one who used to be his daughter.
Clenching his fists, he shattered the collar without any issues.
Bitter memories from Alice's birthday filled his mind, a time where his world was cut in two.
"Assign people to find out what has happened here. Get our trackers to hunt down any traces. I want to know exactly what the hell happened in this room. If the subject is alive, she cannot be allowed into the hands of another family. Capture her at all costs." He ordered through gritted teeth.
"If you can't capture her…
"Kill her."
His eyes blazed with a cold flame.
The light in the corridor flickered as a few dozen shadows appeared for a moment, coalescing into monstrous figures, before disappearing into nothingness.
Once alone, he pulled out a locket. Opening it, he gazed at the picture of a beautiful woman. She had dark purple hair tied into a low ponytail. Wearing a silver dress, the woman carried a small child in her arms while two boys stood beside her.
"Sienna…" He muttered before taking a deep breath and putting the locket away.
"Concerned about the monster we kept in here, dear husband?" A feminine voice rang out behind him as Luthor shook his head.
"Do not worry about it. A monster like her has nowhere to go." Luthor reassured while leaving the white room without looking back.
AUTORENGEDANKEN
Reili
Reili
Edited by: Tales Bringer
Chapter length will be less crazy in the future and settle down around 1.5k words like nanomancer and be uploaded at 3pm UK time daily. Feel free to leave any feedback as it helps me tremendously. Thank you for reading as always.
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