White as Snow: Mind Games
White as Snow: Mind Games
For Alex, everything felt like a dream, a REALLY bad dream where waking up wasn't an option. Although he may have survived the impossible by escaping a freak of nature, he had all his morals, his pride, and his dignity stripped away. His ordeal wasn't one someone could've prevented; no living being should deserve to see and experience his pain, but he still couldn't get over the fact that a once innocent 13-year-old girl violated him with little to no effort then tried to murder him in cold blood.
Everything was just an empty cold void for the young husky; he remembered being rescued by an arctic wolf in full black military attire and being airlifted by helicopter and hearing the echoing sound of crackling gunfire before the side doors shut and everything just went completely black.
Alex kept imagining his short time spent with his unborn son; he couldn't help it; it was like he was drawn to it, the little bundle of joy so full of life developing inside Eva's womb. He wondered if he would ever get to feel him again or ever set his eyes on him, but the possibilities were slim now.
Alex slowly began to regain consciousness slowly, but struggled to open his eyes, as rays of light penetrated his eyelids every time he attempted to open them, he made an irritated groan to this, and soon a headache made its way to his head and pounded fiercely inside his skull. After briefly letting his eyes adapt to the light, he painfully sat up and rubbed them as he examined his surroundings with squinted vision.
A white room full of medical equipment and monitors surrounded his white hospital bed, he also noticed his supposed hospital room lacked any windows, and this puzzled him because the idea of a hospital room not having at least a single window for its patients was taboo. Plus, he couldn't tell if it was day or night outside, leaving him with the assumption that it was morning out.
When looking forward, Alex saw a black leather couch standing against the white wall facing him at the far front of his bed, and in that sofa, much to his surprise and relief laid sleeping a slouched Ethan still in his white patient clothes. There was also a flat-screen TV hanging above Ethan, but the controller belonging to it was nowhere in sight.
After examining his surroundings, Alex decided it was time for him stand up, which lead to him throwing the white sheets off his aching body; soon after, he discovered that someone changed him into a hospital gown. He moved his legs off to the edge of the bed and with a grunt stood up, he stumbled to this but quickly regained his balance after taking a few shuffling steps towards a boxed area containing two wooden doors. One was discovered to be locked after Alex attempted to twist the handle to find that it didn't budge, but the other opened revealing a clean bathroom complete with a sink, mirror, toilet, and shower.
Alex first approached the mirror over the sink and stared intently at his reflection noting how messy his fur was and proceeded to turn on the faucet and hunch down to cup some water with his paws and splash it on his face. He slicked the fur on his head back and reached for a nearby towel and dabbed it against his wet furry face.
"Alex?" Came a familiar young voice that could've only belonged to one other person.
Alex quickly spun around to catch Ethan standing in the open doorway rubbing his exhausted eyes.
"Ethan, you're awake." Alex smiled warmly at the pup.
Ethan tiredly walked up to Alex and hugged him much to Alex's surprise. Alex returned the hug and guided Ethan out of the bathroom and back to his bed. But out in the corner of his eye, he saw a black controller laying on the edge of a nightstand next to the bed, which he picked up before taking a seat on his hospital bed followed by Ethan doing the same.
"Are you alright?" Alex asked the little pup, who leaned his head against Alex tiredly.
"I'm just tired," Ethan replied yawning.
Alex wrapped an arm around to comfort Ethan and used the other one to turn the TV on with the remote.
"This is your local on the 8 with Jessica Longburn," The TV displayed what seemed like a news channel, with the camera zooming in on a female golden retriever standing smiling in a beautiful blue dress next to a weather chart leading from Saturday to Sunday.
"Good morning Washington, DC! And welcome back to you're local on the 8!" The female golden retriever then began announcing the weather for the whole week, while Alex sat there a gasp.
"Washington, DC!? Why are we in Washington, DC!?" Alex thought to himself shocked at how far from home he and Ethan were; they had practically moved across the whole damn country.
Alex felt his headache worsen after hearing that line from the news channel announcing their location, which to him made his situation a whole lot more confusing and left him with many questions awaiting answers. He was forced to set down the remote control to grasp the part of his head where the pounding occurred the most; it felt like someone was mercilessly bashing a hammer against his head however that felt.
"H-Help me... Help me, Alex please."
Alex gasped as his headache suddenly dissipated without explanation leaving him gasping for air and a confused little pup looking up at him.
"Uh, are you okay?" Ethan questioned worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine... I think," Alex replied unsure of what just happened. He was rubbing his head, as the sound of a door unlocking followed by three armed guards entering the room wearing black military uniforms with one being the same arctic wolf that seemingly rescued Alex from Eva. He appeared to be carrying a set of clean and folded clothes.
"I need you to put these on Mr. Kane, and I need you to come with me." The Arctic wolf said in a thick Russian accent, as he extended the folded clothes towards Alex, who reluctantly took it from the wolf's paws.
Alex glanced nervously towards Ethan before he stood up to go change in the privacy of the bathroom.
A few minutes later Alex was being escorted out of the hospital room and down vast gray and white metallic corridors, while Ethan walked close to Alex holding paws with hi seemly afraid of the armed men surrounding them.
"Where are we?" Alex questioned the white-furred wolf.
The wolf chuckled, "you're in the belly of the beast, Mr. Kane." he just stated as they began to pass a window stretching along the wall revealing a sort of lab with an extremely muscular male cheetah in only his white boxers effortlessly doing pull-ups while wires and tubings stuck out of his arms, legs, and torso. "May I ask that you, please refrain from looking into any of the passing observation windows, or I'll be forced to terminate you once this whole ordeal is over." The arctic wolf blankly stated.
Immediately after much to the wolf's annoyance, Alex began to play 20 questions with him regarding everything that has been going on so far. "What is this place? Why am I here? Who are you, what's your name? Who do you work for? Why am I even alive-"
"-Why are you still alive? Perhaps, I should fix that right now in front of your little friend." The arctic wolf had spun around unholstering a pistol from his thigh as he did so with incredible speed, aiming it's cold barrel dead center of his forehead just as he came to a stop. "Or you can shut that muzzle of yours."
Alex nodded his head as his eyes crossed to stare at the barrel against his forehead, still shocked at the speed of which the wolf turned before putting a gun against his head.
"Good, I'm no babysitter, so don't question me again unless you want these halls decked in the remanets of your blown out head," The wolf threatened, retreating the weapon to place it back into his holster much to Alex's relief.
The rest of the journey was met with complete silence from both Alex and the arctic wolf. With tensions high between them, the last thing Alex wanted was to get a bullet shot through his head, so he kept his mouth shut. They came to a stop next to a door located within the vast corridors of this unknown facility that made his stomach twist and turn with anxiety.
The arctic wolf opened the door and held it open as he turned to face Alex. "A little advice, I suggest you be as the cooperative as possible, or you'll have me to deal with, and I promise you... I won't be as lenient this time," he said with little emotion, that sent shivers down Alex's spine at the thought of what he meant.
Two of the guards suddenly moved and tightly grasped Alex by his arms while the last one grabbed ahold of Ethan startling and sent him into a panic, while the other guards pushed Alex into the room.
"Alex!" Ethan yelled as the guard held him in place.
"Ethan!" Alex yelled in return as he fought the grip of the guards to which he little to no avail of breaking.
"The cub stays out here." the wolf said closing the door and falling in behind Alex once he was entirely inside the room. The room itself appeared to be an interrogation room with a camera and a black window; at the center of the colorless room was a metal table, two metal chairs at either side of it, and a single white analog clock ticking away.
The guards sat Alex down on one of the metal chairs and slammed his head down onto the cold surface of the metal table as one handcuffed his wrists to the armrests, leaving him stuck sitting down and unable to escape or do anything too drastic... not like he would or anything.
"Let me out!" Alex demanded, tugging on the sturdy metal cuffs.
The guards including the wolf moved and stood at a corner facing Alex. They idly waited and waited much to Alex's discomfort, and by now he had stopped his feeble attempts to escape and just lowered his head with his ears drooping down in anguish.
**Tick-Tick-Tick* *
Several minutes had passed by, and Alex was still sitting cuffed to a chair unaware of what he was even waiting for and constant ticking of time wasn't helping in keeping himself calm or sane for that matter. Fortunately, the mind-melting ticking ended with the only door on the room swinging open followed by a grey-suited Individual walking in with a bulky metallic case to his side.
Alex had perked his ears to the unknown individual's entry and out of curiosity turned his head to get a glance at the newcomer which involved him having to twist his head in quite an unusual position to even get a look. The formally dressed individual was a middle-aged male gray fox with sky blue eyes; he, having not said a single word, casually made his way around the table, setting the case on the table and taking a seat in the chair across from Alex.
"Good morning, Mr. Kane, how are we doing today?" The fox asked.
Alex was hesitant to respond; he looked at every corner intimidated by the guards watching him as if he were the most dangerous thing in the world. He just wanted answers and Ethan so they could go back home, but something told it wasn't going to be that easy. "W-Who are you? What is this place?" he questioned.
The fox leaned in closer to the table and folded his paws on it as he stared into Alex's eyes. "First of all, my name is Agent Ayers of the Biotech Special Investigations Division(BSID), and unfortunately I'm not in any position to disclose our current location as this is a classified Biotech Corporation facility as you may have previously saw." The fox or 'Ayers' was obviously referring to the testing room Alex, and his escort happened to pass by.
"What can you tell me?"
"Well, Mr. Kane let's get straight to the point here. We all know what happened back at the asylum and the great deal of pain she may have caused you, but we need something from you if you're willing to comply." Ayers explained.
Alex's cheeks blushed in embarrassment; he remembered all too well what Eva had done to him, the emotions and the sensations that rushed through his body were unimaginable and the very idea of even talking or acknowledging it made him uncomfortable. "I, uh, don't know what you're talking about." Alex lied.
"You don't know? Perhaps this'll jog your memory." Ayers said as he took out a smartphone from his right pocket preparing a rather long and disturbing video of Eva's cell taken from the asylum surveillance system. "I want information, Mr. Kane; I want to know everything you felt, saw, and experienced... every-single-little-detail," Ayers explained sliding the phone over in front of Alex, which had the video of Alex getting raped by Eva, in sound, and in color much to Alex's disgust.
"Okay, okay! Just don't show me this... Please." Alex pleaded as he watched himself get taken advantage of from a whole new perspective.
Ayers smirked and snapped his fingers, followed by the arctic wolf approaching the table from behind Alex and slide the phone back to Ayers upon reaching it. He caught the phone in his paws and placed it back into his pocket after turning it off. "Well now that we are on the same page let's get down to business, shall we?"
The whole process was painful for Alex not physically but mentally, after having recalled almost his entire experience he had a sudden migraine but this was worse than the one before.
"Don't tell them, Alex... ARGH! Don't tell them about the baby... please!" And with the end of Eva's distressed voice came an abrupt end to Alex's migraine.
"Are you alright, Mr. Kane?" Ayers questioned.
Alex blinked his eyes and raised up his head to meet Ayers. "Yeah, must've hit my head." He lied. Ayers appeared to have believed him and went back to taking notes.
"Has the girl mentioned anything of significance regarding her in any way?" Ayers questioned as he hovered a pencil over a notebook.
Alex bit his lower lip. "N-Not that I can remember." He responded hesitantly.
"Are you positive? You're not trying to hide anything from me are you?" Ayers asked in a more demanding tone.
"Yes, yes, I'm positive," Alex replied with a nervous smile.
Ayers gave Alex a suspicious glare but quickly dropped it as he closed the notebook and let out a sigh to show his relief for the interrogations end. "Well, that about sums it up, Mr. Kane."
Alex was relieved as well, but there was one thing he wanted the most right now. "Can Ethan and I leave now?" he asked.
Ayers began chuckling to himself as he stood up and reached for the bulky case resting on the table. "I would Mr. Kane, but not only have you seen and heard too much to the point where I should have you killed where you sit; there is still more use to you believe it or not... But the cub, I'm not too sure if he'd be of any use besides being a breathing test specimen." Ayers grinned menacingly at the idea as he opened the case before snapping his fingers once more.
The arctic wolf immediately moved from his corner and approached the case.
"This is only a temporary fixture." Ayers walked around the table with his paws behind his back until he was to Alex's side. "You'll know if it worked."
"What do mean you'll know if it worked!?" Alex questioned aloud as he fought his restraints with effort filled grunts.
The wolf pulled out a syringe with a slightly menacing needle from the case and slowly approached Alex, grabbing to subdue his already restrained wrist before injecting the clear substance within the syringe into his bloodstream.
"Goodnight, Mr. Kane," Ayers smirked. The words that escaped Ayers muzzle following that were distorted and became increasingly slow before there was nothing but Alex's heavy breathing; his eyes fluttered as his body fought a sudden burst of fatigue leaving him too weak to continue fighting for his escape and with a vision that became increasingly blurred until there was...
...Darkness...
Devoid of any form of light and sound laid an unconscious Alex on a shiny black floor, his eyes twitched and moved underneath his eyelids possibly dreaming, but of what was currently unknown. Although chances they were terrible because not too soon later, his eyes shot open with him quickly sitting up and looking around in shock.
"W-What the-" Alex observed his surrounding to find nothing except a faint far away purple light floating empty dark landscape before him.
The light slowly approached Alex, as he stared blankly at it unsure of what it could be; it reminded him of a firefly yet it was nowhere close to being an insect and besides, what insect glows purple? The purple anomaly stopped its advance once it was a few feet away from the frightened husky and just hovered around as if examining him.
Alex followed the light as it flew circles around him and even attempts to poke at it but to no avail since it merely dodged every attempt he made. "What are you?" Alex questioned aloud as the light began to float away into the darkness with him slowly in tow.
The light seemed to be leading Alex nowhere, but without any warning, a blinding white light flashed before him forcing him to shield his eyes, while it left him disoriented and confused. Everything seemed to change with Alex's vision temporarily disrupted; everything appeared to adjust mysteriously: the atmosphere, the lush, the brightness, the noises, and the sensations seemed to fill the surrounding environment leaving Alex in a false sense of reality.
Alex slowly unshielded his eyes and let them adjust to the new scenery. The lush fields of crops covered the distance disappearing into the horizon. A cozy little farmhouse sat idle a few feet away from Alex with the sweet smell of blueberry pie emitting from it and a radio sitting on the porch of the house was playing Chris Stapleton's Tennessee Whiskey. Alex was speechless; he couldn't imagine a place more peaceful than this supposed farm, but a question still lingered in his head. Why was he here? Although, it seemed that he might get the answer he was seeking sooner than he may have expected.
Sitting on green grass just a few feet away from Alex was a young female arctic fox who he quickly recognized as being the psychotic monster back at the asylum.
"Eva?" Alex said cautiously, as he watched the fox slowly turned her to glare at Alex with her purple eyes, which he backed away too.
Eva merely lets out a sigh and just went back to doing what she was doing, staring off into the wheat-filled horizon with the wind rustling through her pure white fur. Alex tilted his head curiously, and instead of backing away, he approached her and stared off into the distance alongside her. "What is this place?" Alex asked glancing over at Eva who ran he paws through the soft grass beneath her.
"It's a little piece of paradise," Eva replied. "A paradise that perhaps, I'll never get to see with my very eyes."
"But aren't you happy here? It all seems surreal." Alex replied
"Happy? No ,I'm thrilled; wait no, I'm exhilarated!" Eva said sounding more and more sarcastic as she went on.
"I don't understand, why are you being sarcastic?" Alex asked having taken notice.
Eva let out a saddened sigh and continued her stare into the golden distance. "I wouldn't want you to understand, as much as I still want to rip out your internals and parade them in front of you, I don't need your sympathy," Eva explained quite horrifically. "Besides this place is as fake as it could get."
"How is that possible?" Alex questioned still surprised at how calm she was around him after having failed to murder him in cold blood.
Eva scoffed, "I thought it would've been obvious by now, I must've overlooked the idiotic factor in you."
"Hey! I'm not an idiot." Alex huffed.
Eva rolled her eyes, "It's possible because... because this is all within the confines of my imagination and those pricks must've figured out I've melded onto you." Eva explained, which didn't entirely seem to hit home for Alex.
"What do you mean melded? What does that mean for me?" Alex questioned sounding a little worried.
Eva giggled and stood up to boop Alex on the nose. "It means your mind belongs to me and only to me. You're the property of Eva and don't you forget that." Eva explained, smirking as she watched the poor husky process all the information in his head, which she strangely DID hear and thought it was quite funny how he was mentally freaking out without her knowing.
"You can't be serious, Eva. I can't have you going into my head whenever you like..."
"You don't have any other choice now do you? I'll have my revenge either it is face to face or inside your head!" Eva laughed maniacally. "I'll tear you apart piece by piece everytime you close your eyes until you go completely insane and have to live out the rest of your sad days inside a mental asylum! MUWHAHAHA! Oh, the irony!" Eva laughed as her eyes glowed red and horns protruded out if her head.
"Is that how you view me, Alex?" Eva giggled which knocked Alex out of his trance. "Don't know if I should be flattered or ashamed, but I do like the laugh."
Alex felt himself wanting to faint, but when you're inside an evil teenagers head such as Eva's, there's no use in even trying.
Eva smiled and laughed to herself, but her expression turned grim soon after. "Alex, I know I've caused you so much grief, but, I never thought of all of this happening... Ethan is in trouble; he doesn't deserve to die or suffer because of me, I can never change what I did or can I change who I am, I'll always be the same. He needs you, Alex, he needs someone to call family."
If Alex wasn't already confused he was now because this sudden change in her dementor wasn't what he expected. Then again he hasn't been straight up murdered yet and risked asking. "Why are you telling me this? As much as I hate to say it, this isn't you."
Eva chuckled and turned her head to look off into the distance. "You're right it isn't," the once golden color of the wheat off into the distance lost its color as a dark shadow emerged from the horizon and slowly advanced towards them covering and killing any piece of light and crop as it made its way towards the two canines. "It's only a dream of a false reality with no means of achieving... you know why?" Eva questioned.
Alex was almost lost at the moment watching the once beautiful landscape became a darkened grave. "No, w-why?"
A group of black helicopters appeared over the horizon with their whipping propellers echoing throughout the land and spotlights brighter than the sun itself searching the darkened land as they quickly flew towards Alex and Eva's direction.
"Because in reality, I'll never be the same person, this personality of mine is only a piece of what I can never be again; my mind was forever altered with the desire to mate and reproduce to produce new offspring to carry on my forcibly acquired genes. This is all but a mind game, Alex, and I'm a slave to it." Eva explained
"Eva-" Alex managed to say before she interrupted.
"And I've done my job," Eva said rubbing her belly. "And soon I won't be able to hide him with my powers; they'll doing anything to get their filthy paws on him, even if it means cutting me open."
Not too soon after Eva finished talking the approaching darkness washed over them leaving a gust of dust in its wake momentarily obstructing Alex's vision.
"Alex, I'm going to end it all, I'm gonna stop this madness, I'll show them that they got more than they originally bargained for and in the end destroy my infectious tree."
"Eva, you can't," Alex coughed as he rubbed the dust away from his eyes. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I'll only kill you along the way, save Ethan and get out as fast as you can... goodbye." Before Alex could even open his eyes, Eva had vanished after saying goodbye.
"Eva? EVA!?" Alex screamed into the foggy dusty air.
"There's no use in escaping; you're too weak, too fragile," came a deep Russian voice from within the fog. " There'll only be suffering and death."
The dust finally cleared and the arctic wolf that Alex had met was staring at him with a wicked grin where Eva once stood.
"No one can save you, everyone, you know, and love will die because of you." the wolf laughed as he advanced towards Alex.
The air suddenly became heavy, followed by it becoming redder and redder as the wolf approached, the once green grass grew blood red, and the wolf's white coat turned a dark shade of gray as his yellow eye glowed bright gold. There was no escape, no sanctuary, and no hope; was this Eva's whole perspective on these monsters? Alex thought to himself as he backed away from the wolf.
Alex accidentally tripped on a rock that seemingly appeared out of nowhere and fell flat on his butt. He found it impossible to stand up as his eyes locked onto that glowing golden eye as it's owner reached for a handle protruding from a sheath on his waist just above his tail and pulled out a menacing machete.
No remorse, no mercy, no pity, and no compassion. He could feel it, Alex understood precisely of what had to be done; he has no other choice, he had to for Ethan...
The wolf reached down and lifted up Alex with his free paw choking him, as he positioned the blade parallel to his throat.
... And for her.
The wolf smiled sadistically and satisfyingly slide the sharp blade across Alex's neck leaving a gushing wound in its wake, and a gagging Alex as his life began to quickly pour out of his body despite his sad efforts to keep it inside of him, but it only seeped through the gaps of his fingers.
Alex's eyes fluttered, and soon his raspy breaths came to a halt and found himself staring into the wolf's eye with his vision becoming engulfed in darkness once again.