*Trigger Warning: This chapter may contain strong language and scenes that some readers may find either offensive and/or uncomfortable. You have been warned.*
'Ugh...this shit again?' Cyrus said to himself as he looked around at the crimson void that currently surrounded him.
This wasn't the first time that he had experienced this same exact dream. And for some reason, he felt like it wouldn't be the last either. Just like all the previous times, the void had an eerie feeling to it. And an overwhelming sense of dread permeated practically every part of the young 'tree magic' user's body. Cyrus had no clue what all of this was supposed to mean. However, thanks to his previous experiences in this place, he knew what was about to happen next.
"I see...you're almost ready, aren't you?" A familiar voice suddenly declared.
Immediately, Cyrus turned himself around and faced the large demonic figure that was looming over him. Just like the last couple of times that this happened, the figure was completely obscured behind some sort of shadow. One that covered the entirety of its body. The only notable difference this time was that an unmistakable aura surrounded the figure.
Cyrus couldn't tell whether or not this was some type of mana. If it was, it felt much different from what he usually felt from humans or cryptids. The energy that this creature was putting off felt more... otherworldly. In fact, the only point of reference that Cyrus had for such a feeling was that time Deputy Chief Mubele randomly showed up at the station without his mana-suppressor on.
"You again?" Cyrus said to the domineering figure before him. "Who are you?!"
"You need not concern yourself with that, mortal, at least not now."
"What's going on? Why do I keep coming here? What is this place?"
"You'll find out soon enough. Just know that it's almost time for you to fulfill your purpose."
"What purpose?"
Instead of a response, all Cyrus received was a bright flash of red mana before the world faded around him.
-(o)-
The next thing that Cyrus registered was the feeling of a hand repeatedly slapping him on the left side of his face, followed by a familiar voice.
"Hey, hey! Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" Hannah said to the young man in an uncomfortably happy tone of voice.
"Argh...w-what?"
"Good, you're awake!"
"What-what's going on?" Cyrus grogily asked as he both attempted and failed to shield his eyes from the overhead light. For some reason, his throat felt like sandpaper, and his muscles felt unusually tight.
It only took a few seconds for the 'tree magic' user to remember the events that transpired before he passed out. The moment he did so, Cyrus began to frantically look around the room to try to get his bearings. The room was almost the exact same as when he fell asleep. On top of that, it was still freezing cold. Not as cold as it was before, but still well below freezing.
In the middle of all of this, Cyrus was finally able to take account of the state that his body was currently in.
First of all, he was now completely naked. Everything had been stripped from him, including his underwear. Second, he had a weird soreness in his groin area. From what, he had no clue. However, judging by what happened earlier, he had a pretty good idea as to what might've been the cause of that.
Before the young man could speak again, Hannah was quick to interrupt him. "You did great yesterday, babe! I was able to get a good amount out of you. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. You must've been backed up. What, you and your girlfriend haven't been doing it lately?"
Those words were enough to make Cyrus feel nauseous. Any semblance of denial that the man could've held onto had just been shattered in only a few words. His worst fears were now confirmed. This woman, Frost, had well and truly violated him. And judging by the way that she was speaking, it was clear to him that this wasn't going to be a one-time thing.
"Why are you d-doing this?" Cyrus asked the woman in a shaky voice. "What possible reason could you have for any of this?"
Hannah paused for a moment as she thought about how to word her answer. Her reasons weren't exactly complicated by any stretch of the imagination. But she knew that it would've been hard for him to truly understand her. "Because I want to."
"What?" The man looked at her with nothing but confusion written all over his face.
"Technically, I don't have to do any of this. I'm only supposed to be getting your DNA. If I wanted to, I could've just bought it off of you if I felt like it. But...that's just so boring!"
"You can't be serious...."
"Oh, but I am!" The woman replied as she sat herself down in the space on the exam bed below Cyrus's right arm. "You see, I didn't always do things like this. When I first started harvesting DNA from some of my other toys, I made sure to get it over with as quickly as possible. But after a while, I started to experiment with it more. Mainly because of how long it would take me until I got everything that I needed. After the first few times, I learned that I really enjoyed playing with them. It made the whole thing way more entertaining for me."
'This bitch is fucking crazy!' Cyrus thought to himself. The way that the woman referred to her previous victims as toys started setting off alarm bells in his mind. Whatever sick and twisted game she thought she was playing was far from reality.
"So what, you get off on violating people, or something? You like having your way with people who can't defend themselves?"
"Yes! Yes, that's it!" The woman almost shouted as she leaned over Cyrus with a smile on her face. "That's exactly it! Oh, I knew you would understand!"
"Why?"
"Can't really say." She then shrugged. "I don't know why, but it's just fun for me. I don't think I'm a super controlling person or anything like that. Then again, my brother might tell you differently. And I never really got into this sort of thing before I joined Iznana."
"Why are you with them anyway?" Cyrus then asked.
Like before, the young man was doing all that he could to gather as much information from this woman as possible. But honestly, he was really asking her all these questions as a way for him to keep her distracted. The longer she kept talking, the less likely she was to do something else to him. And the less time she spent messing with him and his body, the better.
"Because they saved my life." Hannah then said as she began caressing the man's face. "Before the Boss came and recruited us, I was living out on the streets with my brother and best friend. Thanks to Iznana, we were able to make a living for ourselves and start a new life out here."
"Is your brother that 'fire magic' user? The one with the McKenna family's special ability?"
Instead of a response, what Cyrus received was a sudden slap to the face. And almost immediately after, the temperature in the room dropped significantly.
"Don't ever say that name around me again...." Hannah said in a much more serious tone than before. The woman's abrupt mood change startled the 'tree magic' user quite a bit. "I hate those bitches and what their family did to us. If I ever hear you utter that word in my presence again, I promise that you aren't going to like what happens next."
Okay, so this woman had some sort of beef with the McKenna family, the same family that Valerie and Chief Chandler belonged to. It obviously had something to do with why she apparently had to live on the streets with the two other people she mentioned. From what Cyrus knew, the McKennas had a bit of a reputation for being hardcore misandrists. But that was only a piece of the puzzle. The young man then assumed that it also had something to do with the 'fire magic' user and his unique magical attribute.
Without warning, Hannah then stood up from the exam table and walked over to a nearby cart. The woman proceeded to fiddle with something for a couple of seconds before pulling out a scalpel and making her way back over to Cyrus.
"Since this is only your first offense, I'll go easy on you."
"H-hey, hey, what are you doing?!"
"Punishing you. Now, try not to move too much."
Cyrus immediately became erratic and tried to wrestle out of his constraints as she watched the woman approach him. Unfortunately, due to the mana-suppressing cuff and drugs currently running through his system, he was unable to stop the woman from doing what she wanted.
The young man could do nothing but watch in fear as the 'ice magic' user slowly brought the blade close to his face before plunging it into the flesh directly below his right eye. The feeling of the cold blade digging into his skin and dragging itself down to his lip caused Cyrus' heart to begin beating out of his chest. For an agonizing few seconds, all the young man could do was clench his fingers in terror as Hannah mutilated his flesh for no apparent reason other than her own dissatisfaction.
Once she was done, Cyrus immediately felt the blood running down the side of his face. Some of it even managed to get into his mouth.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, bitch?!" The 'tree magic' user barked at the woman. However, the second those words came out of his mouth, Hannah once again brought the scalpel down to his flesh.
This time, the 'ice magic' user used the blade to cut a deep horizontal line across his forehead. And she only stopped when she reached the part of his head where his hairline started.
When she felt satisfied, Hannah lifted the blade up on tossed it into a nearby trash can. The woman then took a second to inspect her work.
"Now look, babe, I get that you're scared and all, but you don't have to be rude. I'm under strict orders to keep you alive and in one piece, but I can't have you being disrespectful."
"I'll fucking kill you!" Cyrus shouted at the woman, only to be once again answered with a backhand to the right side of his jaw.
"No, you won't. You're not going to do anything except for what I tell you to do. Nothing more, nothing less."
'I need to get out of here.' Cyrus thought to himself, despite the now hazy state of his mind. He needed to find a way to let everyone else know where he was. But how? He didn't have his phone on him, so it wasn't like he could just call Ayako and the others to let them know where he was at. If anything, these criminals probably already destroyed it to keep anyone from tracking his location.
He couldn't simply scream and call for help either. For starters, he had no clue where even was. For all Cyrus knew, he was probably miles away from Charlotte right now. Hell, he might not even be in the state of North Carolina anymore. Any attempt to beg and plead for a rescue would've met with silence.
The room was silent for the next minute or so as Hannah once again pushed another syringe full of drugs into the IV bag that was hooked up to Cyrus's arm. It was the same kind of green fluid that he saw before, the stimulant that was supposed to help the woman do her job.
What happened next, though, was something that Cyrus hadn't predicted.
Without so much as a word, the world around him became pitch black, courtesy of the blindfold that Hannah had placed over the young man's eyes. The cloth was so thick that it completely obscured Cyrus' vision to the point where he couldn't even see the overhead light.
"What is this? What are you doing now?!"
"Sorry, but I need to do this for my own protection." Hannah replied from what sounded like the far side of the room. The woman was now in the process of removing the clothes from her body and placing them on a nearby shelf. "I hate having to keep this mask and hat on every time I play with one of my toys. And I can't have you seeing my face, it's way too risky."
"What the hell are- oof!"
Cyrus's words were cut off when he felt the strawberry blonde's weight drop down onto his groin. What followed was the woman using her freezing cold hands to prop herself up on his chest.
"Alright, I'm done with all this talking, I want to get to the fun part already!"
"What are you-"
"Now, now, sweetie, just shut up and listen." The woman was quick to cut him off by placing her hand over his mouth. "It's been a while since I've had someone to play with, and I'm really starting to feel the itch. So, you and me are going to have a bit of fun. I still need to get some more product out of you, so I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone here."
"W-wait...are you about to-"
"Yes, yes, I am."
"You're fucking crazy!"
"Maybe, but that's not what matters right now, is it?"
Cyrus then felt the woman shift the weight of her body lower down his abdomen. The room also got significantly colder all of a sudden, so cold that he was now starting to violently shiver all over his body.
"Now, be a good boy and do exactly as I say. We're going to be together for at least the next few weeks, so I want to get you nice and acclimated to how I like it. And the sooner you get with the program, the easier it'll be."
"P-please, don't-"
Hannah was quick to deliver another punch to Cyrus's face before she spoke. This time, her voice was more demanding than anything else. "I just told you, be a good boy and do as I say. Stop making me hit you. I don't want to do too much damage to that cute face of yours."
"Don't do this...."
"Shhh...." Hannah then placed a freezing-cold finger on Cyrus's lips. "Just shut up and let it happen. It'll get easier later on, I promise. But for now, be quiet and let me get what I want."
The next few hours of Cyrus's life could only be described as utter Hell.