When Cinder was about to retract his hand, flashes of memories appeared before his eyes, but these memories weren't his own. They were Alina's, memories of hanging out with friends and family, enjoying school, quite the opposite from his own, and for the first time in a long time, Cinder felt envious. Why couldn't he and his siblings have a life like hers with no pain or hardship? It's as if the gods cursed his existence and wished him nothing but misery.
In Alina's eyes was a boy going through luxurious school halls, but something was wrong? This boy had bruises and scars all over his face and yet was ignored by teachers, students even the faculty members paid Cinder no heed. Before Alina could understand anything, the vision faded and was replaced with another. There sat a boy rocking a baby back and forth with shaky arms with another sleeping in his crib. Before Alina could appreciate this scene, double doors behind Cinder busted open to reveal two adults in luxury clothing; Cinder quickly but gently put down his sister in her crib. With shaking steps, Cinder walked over to his mother; Alina could feel the fear and dread emulating from Cinder; noticing something was wrong, Alina felt the urge to protect Cinder, but she couldn't. This was just a memory of past events; Alina was a spectator and nothing more; with Cinder finally, within arm's length from his mother, he looked up.
"....Goo..d...evening..mmo..th.er." Cinder said with every ounce of courage he possessed.
The mother's face quickly turned from neutral to disgust, like she was looking at a disgusting Insect.
"How dare you refer to me as your mother! I would never spawn such a disgrace."
Cinder's trembling started to intensify. For he knew what was coming next, telling himself to be brave over and over again, Cinder closed his eyes. Raising her delicate hand smacking Cinder across his face, falling to the ground, Cinder curled up into a fetal position bracing himself for the next volley.
"UUHG, disgusting, look at what you did to my beautiful carpet, do you know how much this cost! More than your pathetic life!" She said before stomping Cinder repeatedly with her wine-red high heels.
After a 15-minute stomping session, she finally relented and walked off with heavy breaths. Now with just Cinder and his step-father walking up to the bleeding boy, there wasn't an ounce of sympathy or compassion in this man's eyes, only sadistic joy. Grabbing and lifting Cinder by his hair to meet his eye level, he finally spoke.
"Thanks for helping that whore mother of yours blow off some steam; maybe I can go play around with Miss Linda; she outclasses your mom by a landslide. I bet she's tighter too, so don't worry about your siblings; they should be fine....for today."
He said before tossing Cinder, which only made Cinder's wounds worse. You would think the babies would cry in all of this chaos, but they didn't. They seemed to remember not to make any noise, or their beloved father and stepmom would start smacking them, for their big brother was their only source of protection. After leaving the room with lustful thoughts, Cinder crawled over to his siblings and began to rock their cribs back and forth once more.
With tears in her eyes, Alina started shaking with sadness and righteous anger, but before she could witness the next memory. Cinder quickly pulled back and created distance; seeing Alina in such a state, he decided this experiment needed to end for his and her sake. For some reason, he could feel a strange closeness like they had known each other since childhood; was this that feeling she mentioned earlier? Cinder thought.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I..I didn't know." Alina said between sobs.
'Why do I feel sorry for her?' Cinder thought.
"It's fine; the past is the past." Cinder said while shrugging his shoulders. "Stop worrying over past events that can no longer be changed; this is my cross to bear. I will avenge her and give my brother the life he always dreamed of, this I swear." Cinder said under his breath, not knowing Alina could still hear his whispers.
(Intercom) "Clap-clap-clap, it would seem the test was a success we have found our Adam and Eve duo Doctor Chris said with a creepy grin under his white mask.
Before Cinder or Alina could ask what he meant by those words, two groups of guards came in.
"Don't worry, this won't be the last time you two meet; after all, you are our hope for a better future." Doc. Chris said, before leaving to tend to other matters, now with the Adam and Eve project well on its way, he started to go through other faculty's files on his tablet to check up on their progress.
'Oh, looks like project purgatory has found their Lucifer and Lilith, but they won't be comparable to my Adam and Eve.' Doctor Chirs thought while grinning ear to ear.
Being escorted back to his room, Cinder was lost in thought.
'Why can't I get her out of my mind? I need to refocus on my goals. Strength is vital; I need more power if I want to combat whatever is coming and to carve out a path for Leylin and me.'
But what was coming that these doctors kept talking about? Would Cinder be strong enough? These thoughts kept swirling around Cinder's head constantly without rest, almost as if something or someone was trying to warn him of the coming storm.
***
Alina couldn't remove Cinder from her thoughts; what was this feeling? She couldn't comprehend herself anymore. Laying down in her bed, she started to refocus on more previous events to preoccupy her mind.
'Why can't I remember any of my battles? How did I survive?'
Jumping up from her bed, Alina walked over to her bathroom sink to wash off her face. While washing her face, Alina glanced at herself in the mirror only to be scared out of her mind. She was reflected in the mirror, but her reflection wasn't copying her movements; with blood-red glowing eyes with an insidious grin, the reflection started to chuckle.
'Hehehehehehe.' Alina could hear this unsettling laughter in her mind.
Shacking with fear, Alina couldn't move; this seemed only to please the reflection further; with a smile ear to ear, the reflection spoke.
'Do you want power? hehehehehehe.'
*****
Bonus Chapters
25 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
50 power stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
100 power stones = 4 Bonus Chapters
Hope you enjoyed it.
From your author RogueErebus.