At least I had some unloading, and I knew that it would be an extensive project, but not that big of a surprise when I noticed where my power lived inside me. I tried to call it to the surface, but it did not come. It would take its ritual to get it moving. I had hoped, only slightly, that it could have been just another power for me to learn how to manage, but there was no way for me to manipulate it.
I then got to work and kept myself in a strict routine because that was the keyword. Just the right dose of blood at the right time. I set myself eating targets, and I stuck to them. I didn't sleep and just worked part of the time.
I tried to relax too, not work all the time, but work took my mind so perfectly away from those shed session memories. But I had here quite a bit of work to be done inside too, as this was very sparsely decorated, and the yard was a mess. Everything went great for the first four weeks, and then it started.
I was in the kitchen for the first time making dinner and chopping meat when I heard a crackling sound. It was just the crack that could come from anywhere, as this was not a new house, and then I froze. Memory popped out, from somewhere and took me away.
************Memory************
I could feel the wounds from all the spikes leaking out every time the machine twisted and turned me around. My blood and everything else splattered panels around me red. I didn't understand at all other than the pain, the nausea or confusion, and the pain that was present all the time. I could feel the spikes leaking something inside me, and it made the pain intensify. Sometimes it spun me around so hard that lost my mind. Everything went black, only the pain stayed. Eventually, the machine stopped.
I was exhausted. I couldn't stand to be conscious or understand everything. The pain did not let me go unconscious fully. It kept me awake, burning ache, throbbing agony, tearing, wrenching, heated pain that took my strength fully away. Damon came to untie me and was pleased to lift the grates out of me so that the blood spurted out and everything else.
Then it was again time to rinse me first, with ice cold water, that I lost consciousness as it hit my open wounds all over my body. I woke up when he yanked me off the bottom grate and carried me to the table, tied my hands in spiked shackles, and just put a belt across my legs to go.
Damon said, "Let's get some jelly in you then, baby, you get my blood. I'll put you in a bloodbath; it's got my blood in it, and it will heal you, but you've already lost quite a bit of strength and fitness. We'll get on with it. This is much fun."
He lowered me into the pool tied up, and I could feel his blood very slowly starting to heal me. I could feel my skin knitting back together, but it was slow, and he looked at me all the time, watching, waiting, that I would be healed enough. Then he lifted me out of the bath.
He started to jelly me, massage me, and this was the same again, which made my head foggy but made the pain explode in my body. Poisons started to take effect and metals too. Again Damon was enjoying, so fucking clearly enjoying, and doing this slowly.
He came to look at me more closely after rubbing my belly so long it felt like it was mere mush again. It was black with the effects of the snake venom. I always smelt passionfruit as he said," You when you don't then learn, but I'll teach baby this. As you can see, I enjoy it, you don't. I am an excellent teacher and you will learn your lessons. It might take a few centuries, but it is so damn good that you are immortal, perfect plaything for me."
He stroked for a while, smelling the passionfruit, and said, " Well, baby, I have to go on. You'll keep going. This is my gift to you. These memories have little triggers in them. You will see that I will break you and Damon apart. And now, baby, little warning, you don't fall asleep in order for me to visit you."
************memory stops****************
I woke up to my hand being hurt and realized that I had cut my hand. I cursed, got my hand healed, cleaned up the table, and thought about that memory that had popped up when I had just made dinner. That last bit of message from Damien had been damn creepy, but then again, he could manipulate so fucking well. I should not trust anything he says. He probably lied to make these memories even worse.
I didn't think about it so much after a few days. I got my mind set on enjoying and putting myself in better shape. Days went by, weeks too and I got some stuff done, inside, on myself too, and a little bit of outside too. It had been a month already. I got things in order and got things done. Then I was outside weeding one of the flower beds when I heard a noise again. I had gloves, so if there was a bad herb, I would not burn or hurt myself. I had learned to protect myself. noise triggered me again, and memory took over.
**************************************************************************
I was hanging from the ceiling by my arms; they were on barbed shackles on a hook somewhere, and I was confused and aching all over. I could feel how fucking full of jelly I was, and Damon came over to me. I had no sense of time. No idea how long this had been going on. The pain was just too much for me. The barbs were hooked so I could feel them deep inside my wrists and they were strong. I was not able to tear myself free from these.
Damon's voice dripped with sadism as he sneered, "Morning, you've finally awakened. You didn't quite appreciate my little game with the jelly and the gentle massage, did you? You are a little bit black from your tummy, but that is because of those snake venoms and metals too. Well, now watch as I bring these boxes around you. They may not be active yet, but they will be soon. Just wait and see what happens when I hurl this tennis ball at the wall." With a swift motion, Damon threw the ball, and suddenly, a menacing but small piston jolted out of one box, sending a shiver down my spine.
"Now this shed has a theme," Damon chuckled, "with these responsive devices ready to react to anything. These motion sensors are placed all around you, just waiting for you to move. When you do, they'll strike. These four boxes are just the beginning of our little game. Oh, and I'll give you the first movement, my dear. I like to call it perpetual motion, keeping you in constant motion."
Pausing momentarily, Damon removed the platform beneath my feet, leaving me suspended in the air, my arms straining under the weight. With meticulous precision, he positioned the panels and boxes around me, creating an inescapable trap. Once everything was set, he approached me, delivering a brutal kick to my stomach, causing me to sway violently from the impact. The searing pain erupted within me, tearing me apart from the inside. Poisons and metals exploded in my gut. The pain was almost overwhelming.
Gasping for air, I met Damon's gaze as he uttered, "Now, my baby, I shall leave you, so I to enjoy the show."
He secured the boxes onto me, put them on, and instantly, they began mercilessly pummeling me from all angles. The relentless pounding of the pistons echoed through the shed, leaving me defenseless, swinging helplessly from my arms. Pistons were tiny, but there were thousands of them. The agony was unbearable, and soon, darkness enveloped my senses.
'*****************Memory ends**************************
For a brief moment, I gasped, feeling a phantom pain coursing through me. I realized that I had been trapped in memory for hours, but the memories persisted, haunting me even in the evening hours.
Determined to break free from this torment, I forced myself to rise and seek sustenance. Breaking from my routine was unsettling, as it was the only thing that kept me grounded. Perhaps I needed to find a way to block these memories, to shield myself from their relentless assault. How in the hell do they start when I am awake? I cursed myself as I realized that damn Damien had not lied and there was so damn trigger put in them so they would continue to torment me.
Blocking might not be easy or even possible. But how could I do that when I didn't even know where they originated or where they resided within me? Deep down, I knew that if I tried, I could uncover them, but would it be wise to unravel myself completely and risk falling apart? If there were almost 50 shed sessions ready and waiting, could my mind take it all and be done with it?
With a heavy heart, I nourished my body and headed to the gym, hoping that physical exertion would release the much-needed endorphins and bring some semblance of control back to my shattered mind. This was not a good thing, not at all, and for Pack to be unloading my charge, I was alone with this problem.
Maybe if they had been in here, I might have, might and that was big if, do some cooperation to find those memories. Meaning that I would have tried to uncover them by myself, with telepathic backup. Lepard would have been best, but I was protecting him and he was not available. My choice would have been lepard for the simple reason that in these memories, it was always Damon. Never Damien. I was not sure if any of the Salvatores could handle it.
I was left with questions. What had been the initial trigger? If it was the discharge, if the loose force somehow brought those out, well, in that case, the discharge would have to wait because those, whatever or why those came out, were bad enough. I didn't miss the third bit; I didn't. Or was there a trigger in those memories that once they started to unravel those sounds would trigger them, but what kind of sounds and was it just sounds or smells too? I did not want to try to test that theory. Not at all.
I again got myself back into my routine, trying to keep myself from getting distracted too much. Another few weeks went by, another month went by, and I was inside, hanging up the curtains. Again there was a sound, and the memory took me away.
****************************************************************************
I was in the shuttle. This was a dark, fully enclosed shuttle, and Damon was silent. I could smell, feel, and hear but not see, and this darkness and anticipation were distressing, as was the constant pain and agony that tore through me and my ravaged body all the time. I had been here for a long time. I heard nothing.
Now and then, thousands of thin laser beams pierced me from all sides. They had varied intensities. Some of them burned my skin and some of them shot right through me. I could smell my flesh, my bones, my skin burning, and I tried to endure the pain before the next beams hit.
But there was no pattern, no anything that would have warned me about the next relentless attack. Sometimes, they hit through my eyes and into my brain, and I felt disoriented for a long time afterward until my brain recovered.
The next thing I noticed was that the lid had opened. I was wet and rinsed off. Then Damon came to take me away. He still wasn't talking and carried me into some kind of tub.
Then he said, with a malicious voice, " I rinsed you, but let's pamper you a bit, bath time, baby, this is a heated tub, so you really won't get cold."
He poured some liquid from a big container into the tub, and I was chained to the bottom, with the liquid up to my neck. It did nothing to me. It smelled weird, though.
Then, when it was all poured in, Damon said," Come on, baby, let's get the heat on. So you are not gonna cool down while enjoying your bath. You are a little stuck in there, eh?"
He put some switches on the end, sides, and bottom of this tub and started to warm up. And when the liquid got hot, it started to hurt and burn so damn bad. I could feel from the bottom against my back that it was not as hot as it felt.
I almost felt like I was boiling alive, and Damon said, "Isn't that a nice liquid? It activates in the heat and does wonders for your body. It is not warmer than 30 degrees Celsius but feels like 100 Celsius at least. Enjoy it, baby."
He left me in the bath for a long time so that my skin had almost peeled off. It had burned my skin into red blisters all over and deep, dark red sores too. I had wounds from the laser that had not gotten better and this liquid had made them so much worse. Then he came and lifted me off and moved me into the molten metal.
It was cool, and Damon remarked as he looked at me, helplessly submerged up to my neck into metals, "There's a horror four and an enormous pile of others, treated that way. They do not need to be warm. New invention. They're liquid, and they absorb; you'll feel the effects, baby, pretty damn soon; there's also mercury, and when you're about right peeled off so..."
One deep gash in my abdomen felt like it was exploding from the pain.
*************************************************************************
I woke up on the floor, in pain and I noticed that I had a curtain rod stuck through my stomach. I pulled it out and cleaned the room. I was getting better, but it was getting creepy. I went to eat and realized I'd been in the memory for eight fucking hours. That's a long time to have had a curtain rod in your stomach, and now I'm supposed to watch out for infection because it went through my gut.
For some reason, the multiple enzyme blocker didn't stop the spleens from growing, so I could make quite a crop of them. I just have to remember to soon take the implant. I realized that it was soon time, but Colin had assured me that it would hold on longer than three months.
But I will tell nobody about this. I don't need anyone to know that these memories have such an impact on me, not anyone, not even Charles. I pulled myself together and went on. Keeping up my routine was paramount and maybe when I get my mind crystal sharp, and fully functional, I could stop those memories from taking over.
It had been over three months since the holiday, and I had not got myself as fit as I would have liked. I took my implant pretty soon when this holiday started, I should check soon and make a new one in place. I hoped that the holiday would go on for at least another three months, and then maybe, just maybe, I would get myself in shape.
I persevered with my project and got myself more in shape. I had just noticed one thing after these episodes. After each episode, it had taken me a little longer to convince myself that that was Damien. I remembered that Damien's almost promise. God damn it. I was not sure if my rage would be the key to stopping these memories, so I came up with a little test in my mind.
Mariella had told me about Damon's brief minutes, during which he had been present, but could do nothing. So my question, one of many, was had Damien felt those minutes too? Did he know that Damon had been present, confused, unable to act, but on top? If so, he knew, did he use those times somehow in these memories to make Damon appear more, so I could not convince myself that it was Damien?
But how had those memories been made? It must have been part of that spell, and that damn spell affected me, too. But I had always got myself right. It just took time. I did get in my mind that had been Damien and it had sunk in those memories that had unraveled so they were now just like normal shed-session memories among so many.
I kept putting the house up; another month had passed when I was pruning and climbing trees. I had an implant gun reserved. I had attention on putting new implant once I got my gardening for this day done.
I was a little late on my schedule, but I had taken a quick scan a month ago and had no extra organs, so I was good. It was maybe better to try to take those implants a little less so my body would not get used to them and they would stop working. My body was so damn weird, so I really could not trust anything in that regard.
I was sawing branches, and they were falling in a pile at the base of the tree. It would be good to chop them up or burn them in the outdoor sauna. I was cutting with my branch cutter a very thick branch when a sound triggered the memories again.
***************************************************************************
I was lying in the shed, unable to do anything. I had been here in the shed for so long, going through all the fucking equipment, being poisoned, metallic, tortured, in pain, and now I was cold, shivering, tired, and wishing it would stop. Balls were rolling around inside me, with poisons and Damon's blood in them, so I was cured, but it did not cure me anymore.
Now, it was causing an allergic reaction that was going on inside me all the time, as the balls were spewing. God knows what's inside me. This bed, a pallet with a thin mattress, was cold and unforgiving under my frail skeletal body.
Damon came up to me and said, " Baby, you must be running a fever by now. You're weak, and I can see your straps are hurting already. But I will not kill you. You still have a lot of straps left. I'll just weaken you up well. See now that I'm in control, even if my touch causes an allergic reaction."
He brushed my skin. causing red blisters to form.
He whispered, evilly, "I'll keep the good side firmly under control, or should I say in a dream, maybe. He won't remember a thing about this. I'll take care of it, but first, baby, let's go a little further. I'm gonna give you some more bacteria; they're in these Petri dishes, and I'm gonna leave them open right here next to you, and then I'm gonna pour these cultures on your skin, and you're gonna get a real infection. Let's see how long you last. When do you run out of straps? But they only will run out when you're in treatment. You see, the baby when the fever's gone. I'm gonna deliver you right into Samuel's arms, and because my good side knows nothing about anything, he's gonna have a hard time helping you. You baby, you ain't gonna be in no condition to tell nobody nothing."
He opened the dishes, and poured stuff all over my skin, leaving me getting sick more and sicker.
Damien walked next to me, crouched down, and said to me, "Do you enjoy reliving these times, like the first time they happened? I can tell you that you have actually died five times, not two times but those three times, once you ended in my mind, I let the good side take over and that was so freaking wonderful, him feeling you in his mind, knowing that he had killed you..."
His voice taunted me, more even.
"When you get those sessions, baby, you will be a whole new woman. Then I have used his powers against himself so he has no memory either. Your body is what it is and now you are allergic to Damon's touch, baby. It might be the same thing when you wake up because you have trouble remembering. That is it, not Damon, but me. Let's see how funny your life would be then. No more epic love."