The Inner Circle

Ignoring the laughing, Orion continued until the male ended up right back in front of him. Squeezing the bridge of his nose, the redhead had to take in an intense breath, exhaling to keep from reacting rashly. He was entirely over the last few days and was just about done with this shitty place. His red eyes narrowed at the view in front of him, irritation increasing ten-fold. He crossed both arms against his chest and cocked his head to the ground at the command coming from someone as low as him.

“I don’t believe you are my boss. So, again, how about you get fucked and leave me alone. I said I need to speak with my handler about our last mission. I don’t have time to mess with dumbasses like you. I will not be bullied by another collared.” He spat out the last word hatefully before glancing down to the wristband on his wrist, fingers moving down to jerk on it again.

“I’ve had just about enough bullying from people in this shitty place.” He sneered, the water in the hallway beginning to swirl around thanks to his anger.
 
Beck took the syringe and held it up to the light for a moment, studying the contents as if he had even the most rudimentary understanding of chemistry or the proper materials with which one could quell the undead thirst of vampiric creatures.

"Don't take too long," he said in his best attempt to actually show some sympathy for Darius' situation before grabbing his coat and heading out of the room, syringe carefully in tow now. He stepped outside the door and found Zieg instantly.

"Your handler seems to think you've got a bad reputation you don't really deserve. We going to have any problems?"
 
What the fuck was happening? Alaska crouched down, holding a hand to her throat and taking in a big lungful of air. Instincts told her to run, but the need to breathe was greater. She grabbed the book she'd been reading and flung it at Morrigan. "I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted straightening up in time to be on the receiving end of a punch.

Desperate times and all that, Alaska attempted to head for the door. Her handler had lost her mind. It was the only explanation. She tried calming Morrigan down, but she couldn't even get herself to calm down, let alone influence anyone else. The adrenaline was pumping, and there was too much happening. Her only real plan, at the moment, was to be faster than Morrigan and get out of here.

(There was, however, a moment of brief consideration where she thought to go for the bookshelf, but even if she could pull out the glass in time, Alaska was smart enough to know what would happen if she used it. It wouldn't matter that Morrigan had barged in and attacked her. There would be consequences.)
 
The boy ran his hand through his hair, and as the strands came loose they were a bright orange instead of neon blue. "I'm not sure you're getting what I'm here for. I was sent, dumb ass. They decided that they didn't like the fact you've made a mess of the pool area. So I'm here to make sure you clean it up. The faster you clean it up, the sooner we can get out of here. But if you refuse, well.. I'm supposed to use whatever force is necessary to teach you a lesson. I don't get a fucking rats ass about the fact you're 'bullied'. This is our life. Get over it. Its better than other places where they're killed for being what we are."

He folded his arms across his chest. "Now are we doing this the easy way, or the hard way?"

--

The huge vampire looked down at Beck and tilted his head slightly. "The only problems we will have are the problems you decide I need to make." He said. "I am bound to you, if albeit temporarily. So your word is law." He gaze seemed to study the man for a short while before he turned it to stare into empty space. He offered no other explanation other than that, his face unreadable through the pained expression he constantly wore.

--

Morrigan took face smack with the book and it only enraged her further. She lunged at Alaska's retreating form, trying to yank a bunch of hair in the process.
 
A bad rap. Done nothing but follow orders. Bound to you. Word is law. Beck allowed the symphony of words from Darius and Zieg swirl for a moment as he stood with the imposing figure in silence. He didn't trust Zieg. Not by a foot, not by a mile, and he wasn't going to let his active mind get far from all the ways that he could plunge the syringe into his new charge at any given moment. Still, Darius seemed to trust him. Then again, the old fool was laid up in a hospital bed and Beck wasn't sure until a few hours ago the handler was going to live in the first place.

"You talk less than the last one. I'll give you that," Beck said, also staring forward rather than engaging eyes in a conversation with Zieg. "I'll find you as soon as orders come through."​
With that, he nodded slightly and glanced back into Darius' room, but feet instead began to carry him away.

 
His hand moved away from the band again just as the male that was still annoyingly in front of him had a hair change. For a brief moment, Orion was a little awe-stuck, wishing he could do something that cool with his hair too. However, the sensation quickly dissipated the moment the kid spoke again. Red eyes narrowed, and he simply flipped off the stranger.

“Maybe I would rather be killed. It’s better than being a slave of an evil corporation.” His words came out before he realized what he was saying, but in a way, it was the truth. “Okay, I don’t want to be killed, but even you have to see the nefariousness of this place,” Orion added softly, the water in the hallway still swirling around him.

“It’s water. It will eventually evaporate. Now, as I said, I need to speak with my handler. So, move.” It was evident that Orion wasn’t exactly thinking clearly, his mind still whirling with what the unseen assailant had said to him during the attack.
 
Zieg blinked and looked after the man. "You and I are not so different, I think." He said in his quiet nature after the man. "Perhaps that is why you do not trust me. Is it because you cannot trust yourself?" He started towards the 'collared' dorms.

--

"I guess we'll do this the hard way then, kid. Ah well, I tried to be nice." He raised his hand towards Orion, that same lazy smile on his face. His eyes turned a bright yellow from the neon green they'd been. A portal opened wide underneath Orion's feet, water poring into the gaping hole of darkness below him.
 
“Oh my god, can’t you just fucking leave me alone?! You are more annoying than a horde of fire ants!” Orion snarled, beginning to lose whatever cool he still had within, which wasn’t much truthfully. He hadn’t realized it, but after the incident with the unseen assailant plus being forced to calm down by whatever made him calm down, his mind wasn’t its usual cool and collected self. That was clear by his destroying the pool area and hallway and refusing to just quickly clean it up.

Vaguely noting the change of eye color on the kid in front of him, Orion was very much aware of the hole suddenly opening up beneath him. Leaping up instantly, he slammed both of his feet against the walls in the corridor. “The fuck!?” He shouted while the water started to pour into the gaping hole.

“Well, that solves the water problem. Now, if you could just close it on up and let me go, we can forget this ever happened.” Pushing off the wall, Orion sprung himself backward, intending on getting away from the portal and the kid.
 
Alaska's lunge forward was halted as she was yanked backward by the hair. The wind knocked out of her as she landed on her back, and for a moment she lay there stunned, trying to remember how to breathe. "What is your problem?" She shouted, attempting to roll onto her side so she could try and pull herself to her feet.

As she moved, she tried to locate Morrigan and took in a deep lungful of air to shout "HELP!" The collards didn't get a lot of help around here, and they weren't treated great, but they were a bit of a pet project with the government. Surely they wouldn't want her to die at the hands of her handler for who knows what reason?
 
As Orion sprung backwards, another portal opened up above him and all the water that had been brought into the portal came splashing down on him in multitudes. Like, all the pool's water. All at once.

"See, I can't really forget. The little collar on my neck basically makes me do what I'm ordered to do to stay alive. I'm supposed to make you do it. Not do it myself." He started walking forward slowly, hands in his jean pockets. "I'm missing my date with boyfriend because of you. Just do what you're supposed to be doing already, jeez. Once you do, you can go see your fuckin' handler. If you had such a hard on for him, you should taken your aggression out on him instead of the swimming pool.." He rolled his eyes.

--

Morrigan pounced on the opportunity, attempting to straddle Alaska before she could roll over and reared back to throw a punch. But just before she could, something clicked and she froze. Alaska would feel the stun and shock radiating off of Morrigan in an instant as she looked at something beside Alaska.

Then fear.

"Don't you tell a soul about this. Do you hear me? I'm ordering you to not tell a soul." Her eyes gleamed dangerously. "Do I make myself clear?"

The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees suddenly.
 
Alaska flinched away from the presumed hit. When it didn't come and the anger faded to astonishment, she cracked open her eyes and squinted at Morrigan. It became clear that, for whatever reason, Morrigan wasn't going to continue this sudden angry attack. Lying beneath her handler, genuinely fearful for her life for the first time since coming here, Alaska nodded at the request.

Hard to say if she meant it, but at the moment she did agree, "Not a soul."

Then again, who would believe her anyway?
 
The moment the water nailed him from above, Orion found himself slamming hard onto the ground beneath him. The perfect flip soon became waterlogged,, and well, he wasn’t prepared for the onslaught to come above him. For a brief moment, mere seconds really, the redhead was sure he was going to die, and for an even shorter moment, he wanted to drown. Mentally shaking off that thought, becoming concerned with his emotional state, the collared sat up, coughing up water and holding onto his left arm, reasonably sure it was sprained.

Snarling at the other male’s words, Orion knew without a doubt that he would never harm Darius, no matter what. The Handler had been nothing but nice to him despite not having to be, and he wasn’t going to spit on that. Sliding to his feet, water draining off his body, the slender collared tossed his head back, sending his wet hair out of his eyes. “I would never hurt him… I’m worried about him because he got hurt on our last mission.” Pausing, he narrowed his red eyes as he angrily added, “ I don’t have a hardon for him, you asshole.”

“I’m sure there are other ways out of this hallway.” With that, Orion turned around and moved off, heading back towards the pool. Any other day, he would have cleaned up the mess while apologizing, but today… today wasn’t that day, and despite the inconvenience, he just didn’t care.
 
The woman didn't move, her eyes dead set on her. "Not one person." She said again, barely above a whisper. "Or it will be the end of everything.." She let go of Alaska and immediately ran out, grabbing her arm as if pained her. If Alaska were to look, she'd find that there was a frozen spike to the right of her head.

--

Orion would find once again that he was being redirected. But this time he'd not find his stroll through a portal so pleasant. As he came back to the same hallway he'd just left, he'd find the strange haired lad aiming to punch him.

"I swear to god you're one of the most stubborn creatures.. Look, if you don't do what you're supposed to do, I die. So I'm very much against that. You and I will be stuck here until you either clean this pool up, or we both die of old age. Neither one of us will get what we want. So just do it!"
 
She blinked, nodding her head and watching Morrigan leave. It wasn't until the other woman was gone, and Alaska was picking herself up off the ground that she saw the frozen spike next to where she'd been.

At first, there was a moment where she realized how close she'd come to losing her life. It didn't register right away what it meant. As she was finger-combing the knots out of her hair, it dawned on her. Dropping on the bed, she contemplated this new information. On the one hand, she now held something over Morrigan's head. Something big. On the other hand, it also meant that Morrigan could decide it was too risky to let her continue living after what had happened. It would be a lot easier for Morrigan to get rid of her than it would for Alaska to blackmail her.

She chewed on her lip in thought. She'd have to tread forward very carefully.
 
Closing his eyes as he walked, Orion’s mind was soon drifting away from the mess that he was being told to clean up and towards the fun times he would share with Schuyler before he was thrown to the wolves. He missed his twin immensely and hoped that she was still alright and that someday they would find each other again. His last fond memory of the two was when they had been left home alone and were out in the pool swimming. He had determined that he had powers at that point, and it was before the bullying incident. She had begged him to make waves so that she could pretend to surf, and he did just that, the two having the times of their lives. Oh, how he wished he could go back to that time, but knew that was impossible.

“Schu… I miss you…” He mumbled, eyes sliding back open to keep from running into anything. Unfortunately for the redhead, his timing was off, and as the world came back into focus, a fist had suddenly come into view. He wasn’t quick enough to avoid it and recoiled from the force, stumbling backward. Hissing in pain, Orion felt out of it. Between the water slamming down on him and now this punch, he wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Look, if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, I die.”

The words spoken by the other kid ran through Orion’s mind as he leaned against the wall, body beginning to scream at him with everything that had happened in the last few days. Eyes closed again, and he felt down his left arm, unsure if the sprain was just that or if the bone had been broken. The water was pretty heavy now that he was thinking about it, and he had been in mid-flip. Finally, after mulling his options around, the young male knew he didn’t want the other collared to die.

“Alright… I don’t want your death on my hands. I would never be able to live with myself…” He frowned, head shaking just a little as he spoke. “I’m sorry…”

With that, Orion shifted just a little in his stance, glancing towards the water and the open door to the pool. With a bit of concentration, the water started to swirl around, and he sighed as he directed it back to where it came from. Any water that was where it wasn’t supposed to be was soon flowing into the empty pool, filling it back up and emptying up the wet areas. He could feel where he had been punched starting to swell and just grunted in his work, head hurting immensely at the effort. He had used up too much of his ability, and his head was starting to spin hardcore. Finally, the task was done, and he ended up on his knees, eyes half-closed beneath the red hair that had cascaded across his face.
 
The man sighed at the sight of Orion on his knees. "Jeez you're hopeless." He grumbled, running a hand through his hair again and this time it came out neon green and his eyes shifted to blue. "I don't even know why the hell I have a soft spot for kids like you, eh." He walked over to Orion and grabbed one of Orion's arms, pulling it around his shoulders to help lift him up. "Come on. Let's get you to the infirmary, dumbass."
 
Was he going to pass out? Orion wasn’t so sure, but the idea sure was tempting. He remained leaning forward just a little, not focusing on much, although with the locks of his hair in front of his face, it wasn’t like he could see anything anyways. Barely catching the other male’s comment, the redhead couldn’t even muster up a reply. Yeah, he was hopeless. His usual demeanor had gone by the wayside ever since the mission, and he didn’t like that. Whoever caused him to become calm suddenly did a number on him. Well, that and the words spoken by the attacker. His half-open eyes gazed briefly at the collar around his wrist, and he snorted just a bit.

Ignoring being called soft and despite the two having been at each other moments before, Orion allowed the collared to help him up off the ground. His body strained at the effort, and for a moment, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stand, but with the assistance, he managed. “I’m not a dumbass… just… struggling.” His words came out soft, and he just hissed at the movement as they headed to the infirmary, the place he had been trying to go previously. He still wasn’t sure why he didn’t just go there initially, but it didn’t matter anymore.

“Sorry I fucked up your date night…” He added wistfully.
 
The boy scoffed. "Shut up." He grunted as he made his way out of the building, holding up Orion as best he could. "You're only struggling because you're fighting the system. If you behave, you can carry on living almost as if nothing's ever happened. I don't understand why that's so hard to figure out. There are worse places than this out there. There are places that out right hunt and kill people like us on a daily basis. They don't collar them or give them a chance at all." He grumbled. "At least we're alive."

He looked down at Orion, his blue eyes glowing slightly after he apologized about the date night. "Ah well. Next time, though, you owe me dinner." He grumbled again. They reached the infirmary and he called out for one of the healers and plopped Orion down on the table. "Name's Zade. I'll catch you around, dumbass." He waved as he started out of the infirmary. The healer started sending her energy over Orion in order to heal his wounds.
 
"That's not it... I know about the other places, I just... it's hard to explain. Something happened while we were out there. I can't explain it, but it fucked me up. My mind is jacked..." Orion sighed, head shaking as he felt his legs trembling. He wanted to say that he desperately wanted to get out to find his sister, but didn't need them hunting her down.

"Forget it..." He grumbled before glancing into the glowing blue eyes, cheeks flushing a bit. "S-sure thing, but there probably won't be a next time..." He managed to stutter, glancing back down quickly. Hissing as he was placed down on the bed, he shifted his gaze as the male finally introduced himself.

"Sure, see you around, Zade." Dropping back down, he closed his eyes, ignoring the healer for a moment before opening them in order to find Darius.
 
The healer didn't take a lot of time to heal the wounds that Orion had. A bit bruised and battered, and maybe a sprained bone or so. She'd felt worse. The blind girl smiled up at Orion. "You should be good to go. Though, if you want to speak to your handler.. He's a bit down the hall and around the corner. Sorry.. I heard your thoughts as I was healing you. I.. Don't know how to block them. I'm sorry.."

Darius had been settled back into his bed by this point, the man relaxing slowly. The pain meds were holding back most of the pain, but he still felt the ache of the last few nights. It hadn't been the first bite he'd gotten, and it probably wasn't going to be the last if he kept up with this line of work.
 
Back
Top