Prologue

    She wasn't sure she could halfway enjoy the color orange anymore.

    For what felt like an eternity she had been cocooned inside this tank - inside a liquid prison - displayed as if a morbid novelty plaything. Consuming her was the orange gunge, slightly bubbly, and she could've sworn it used to be white. Perhaps this was what happened after sitting for so long.

    Her senses were constantly bombarded with a gripping stillness with little to no stimulation, her ears constantly tuned in to that deafening, yet quiet whirring of some piece of machinery outside of her range of sight. She was convinced that her ears may bleed or explode if the whirring were to ever stop, or even change, for that matter. Her eyes saw nothing but the orange, beyond that an abyssal, looming darkness, nothing discernible apart from the nearby bubbles inside the sludge. She couldn't feel anything, anything at all, suspended in a never-ending limbo that was to be her life.

    It was impossible to tell how long she had been there for. It could have easily been just 30 - maybe 40 - dreary minutes, or it very possibly could've been years. At first when she awoke inside this prison she eventually began to count the seconds. She could remember doing it.

    One... Two... Three... Four...

    Four hundred... Four hundred and one... Four hundred and two...

    Eventually, she lost count.

    Since then she was her own entertainment. It was a very demanding job, of course, considering she was immobile, just barely outside of a comatose state. Her eyes screamed for relief, wanting to see something other than orange - other than darkness - but never received it, stinging her head with complaint. She attempted to occupy herself with jokes at first, but even those she couldn't remember now. She couldn't remember anything.

    Perhaps she was a test subject for a sickening experiment. Perhaps she was the result of a scientist's perverse, horrendous curiosity. Or perhaps she was a prisoner, beneath a crime long forgotten by all, including herself. As if she could ever recall. She couldn't recall her name, where she was, how she got here, where she came from, anything. She couldn't even quite remember that she was, indeed, a she, and rather assumed it, liking the idea of being female much more. She didn't know why - maybe she didn't get along well with males before this - but it fit her much better.

    She had never felt this isolated and alone before. In fact, she wasn't sure she had ever felt anything else. However, for the first time in what felt like a dreadful eternity, she could feel... Something. She couldn't pinpoint the feeling but it sent winter-cold chills down her spine, raising the hairs on the back of her neck and freezing her to the bone. She had the odd suspicion of something else being there.

    It was an off feeling indeed. Nothing had ever been there besides herself. Just her, the slime, the bubbles, and the unseen machine. She felt a surge of new feelings. One gnawed and ate at the pit of her stomach, making her feel sick and weary, while another raced her heart to its very limits, testing it. Then, for the first time in her known history, she heard something else.

    It sounded dreadful: a shrieking, squealing, rusty noise that ground her ear drums into her head. Her head was pounding, and she felt ready to be sick. What was that disgusting sound? She thought it but at the same time did not, almost as if she had forgotten how to think but in the back of her mind it still occurred. Upon hearing the treacherous sound her eyes were blinded with a stinging, white light that forced her eyes tightly closed. She had near forgotten what colors other than orange and black looked like, and she didn't like it. It stung and watered her eyes, and she rapidly blinked to try and be rid of it, as if it would force the light away.

    She heard more. She heard what sounded to her like thunderous footsteps, like a mighty god had entered to finally seize her. To take her away. About time, her subconscious told itself, eager to be free. A freedom via death was as good as any other at this point, but she felt no pain, no change, no stinging, and certainly no freedom. Not until exactly 158 seconds later - she counted - did anything change.

    The whirring of the machine behind her suddenly ceased, filling her ears with a completely deafening silence that filled her head to the brim, making her feel even emptier and more alone than before. She could not feel it, but she slowly opened her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the stinging, blinding light of the room. Upon her eyes finally adjusting she saw that she was lowering closer and closer to the ground, and she felt her legs come into contact with something sleek and cold. She still could not move and collapsed onto the thing, feeling its iciness and freezing her to the core. She was face-down and could see nothing, and her body spasmed uncontrollably out of her knowledge. She was completely numb, unfeeling of a single thing, and she felt extremely dense and heavy.

    Again she heard the thunderous sound of steps, but quieter this time, as her body slowly adjusted to active senses. She could taste the roof of her mouth, she could smell the frigid air, and she could feel her blood rushing through her body. She could do everything but touch. She helplessly watched as two black objects made their way into her view. It wasn't long before she heard someone speak, and the words echoed in her mind for what seemed like an eternity. She couldn't remember ever having heard spoken words in her life.

    "Don't worry, love. I'm here to take you home." It spoke, with a deep, rumbling voice, like thunder upon her ears. She couldn't remember much about her kinds of beings but she knew for sure that this one had to be a male. There was emotion in his tone yet she couldn't even slightly tell what it was. She couldn't remember what most emotions were, if any. She could have sworn she heard whispering in the back of her mind but quickly dismissed it. So much was happening right now, who knew what it could have been.

    She couldn't feel it but she could see it when she suddenly began to get further from the ground, being brought towards what she could only barely remember as another body, adorned in an odd color that she couldn't remember seeing before. It was like blue, but slightly off. Also like red but slightly more blue. She could only remember red, blue, yellow, orange, and black, and this body had much black on it as well, as well as the odd red-ish blue-ish. Her body sagged somewhat, completely limp against the body she was up to, her head thrown backwards and her arms hanging down from her body.

    Then she began to move, closer and closer to the blinding white light that the thing had entered through, and she was forced to squeeze her eyes tightly closed. She kept them shut for a long time before slowly beginning to open them, having to snap them shut again a couple of times before her eyes fully adjusted. Before she could process anything but white light, the light changed, it turning dimmer and more orange instead of white, which was very much easier on her eyes. She was unable to process quite what everything was, but she knew she was in a different place than before. It looked much nicer, although she had forgotten any sort of details she could use to describe it.

There was a lot of the blue-ish red-ish color, as well as a lot of an odd, special, shiny yellow, and much black. The light was coming from above, from a big, intricate thing that she didn't understand. She saw the male again, right next to her, and she felt another odd feeling that didn't feel quite nice.

    "Don't worry. You're safe here." The man spoke, his voice still pounding in her ears. She could hear what he said but couldn't fully understand most of it. He reached over near her head and did something, although she couldn't feel it or see it, as she had squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of him hurting her. Albeit, she had forgotten what it felt like to be hurt. He then pulled away, and she felt her whole internal body seize at the sound of the corner of the room pounding, revealing another man. She was immediately put off, as he looked nearly identical to the first one, although he was covered in black instead of blue-red. He spoke, his voice almost hurting her ears to hear.

    "She's pitiful." The man in black said, his voice sounding awful to her, even more awful than the man in blue-red. She felt a less-worse sort of sense, most likely caused by correctly guessing that she was, indeed, a she.

    "I know, so go ahead and take her back." The man in blue-red said, part of his body going upwards. She had forgotten what the body part was called. After the man in blue-red spoke the other man approached her, and she quickly found herself lifting into the air again, traveling without moving. There was a sudden flash of white, causing her to have to squeeze her eyes tightly closed again, slowly blinking them open to find her staring upwards at more white, cut into identical shapes above her. She sat in silence for what felt like an eternity before hearing a small, high-pitched sound, and everything went black again.

    She felt almost instantly returned to the brightness, nearly blinded once again, her entire body tingling like she was covered in pins and needles, paining her rather badly. This is what pain feels like? She thought, before her mind jumped. The voices in her head had been her the entire time. She had been thinking, a thing that she had forgotten that she could do, talking to herself for an eternity. She swear she could feel a painful slam inside her very skull, her mind rushing for information that had been long forgotten, she remembered almost everything but herself. All her information from school, the math, the colors, but no people. No emotions. Only her basic, raw information. Now she could not stop thinking.

    One, two, three, four. Numbers.

    A - B - C - D. Letters.

    Red, orange, yellow, blue. Colors.

    Hands, feet, faces, hair. The body.

    Fear, happiness, sadness, excitement. Emotions.

    Where is everything else?

    She knew that couldn't be everything, she knew that she was someone, she knew that she had known people, but at the same time she did not. Her mind began to converse with itself over the information, in voices she could not recognize, and they frightened her.

    Wasn't that quite the shock!

    You must be dead.

    Are we dead?

    She tried to tell her mind to shut up, to be quiet, but her mind only ridiculed her for it. Don't tell us to be quiet! It said, You're not the boss of me! Another said. Why did she suddenly have so many voices? Shouldn't one person have one voice? She was only one person.

    The pins-and-needles feeling across her body slowly faded into nothingness, leaving a cold feeling of the room and the metal table against her back.

    Cold! That's cold!

    Get off of it you idiot! Get up!

    At that, her hands flew into the air, slamming down on the table beneath her and hoisting her body upwards, leaving her in an upright position. It didn't feel like she was moving at all, instead feeling like she was being dragged by something else, and she hated it. She saw the man in black again, with the man in purple - That's the color! - standing right next to him, and was finally able to process more details about the two.

    They were both identical with slight differences in body and clothing. The man in purple stood up straight and was very clean-cut and groomed, keeping his appearance rather tidy while the man in black had darkness around his chin and lower jaw where he messily shaved, stubble still poking through his skin and the skin around his eyes dark. The man in black was now just wearing a messily-done white button-up shirt - all of the buttons one hole too low - half of it untucked from his black dress pants. He wore fine, leather, black shoes, but his laces were sloppily tied, one loop tiny and the other far too large, and his hair was clearly brushed but his hair was slightly fuzzy and dry, as if he didn't wash it often enough. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing a small amount of black hair across his arms and the backs of his hands and fingers. She could remember him wearing a long, black trench coat and a black- and grey-striped top hat with a red feather tucked into the band, although he had taken both off while she was unconscious.

    The man in purple, however, had clearly kept himself neat, trimmed, and tidy. He wore a black dress shirt that was fully and neatly buttoned, a purple bow tie tied beneath the collar. She could see that he was wearing a waistcoat, which was a color slightly darker than lavender, with a dark purple tailcoat worn around the whole thing. Similarly to the first man he wore black dress pants with black leather shoes - his being neatly and meticulously tied - and a purple and lighter purple-striped top hat with a black band, three cards tucked into the band: an ace of diamonds, an ace of clubs, and an ace of hearts, in that order. He had neatly trimmed stubble along his jaw and chin and, like the first man, shoulder-length wavy, black hair. The man in purple's hair had much more volume, and there was hardly a stray lock or strand on his head. She could tell he put time into his looks.

    What a hottie!

    Look at the purple one. I'd love a piece of that.

    But the one in black! What a rugged look!

    Her mind continuously argued with itself, the voices bickering back and forth about the two men. What struck her the most were their eyes. Both of them had striking, violet eyes with slitted pupils, and while the man in purple's eyes shone brightly and with vibrancy, the man in black's eyes were dull, appearing nearly dead. He looks like a walking corpse, she thought. Granted, one that was just run through a shower perhaps.

    "It's good to see you up and about." The man in purple spoke, his voice low and husky, almost purposefully seductive. She began to back away, frightened, staring him dead in the eyes.

    Listen to him!

    He sounds just like he looks.

    I bet he's planning something. He wants to do things to us. Look at his smile!

    She had to agree with herself for once. The man smirked, revealing gleaming, thorn-sharp teeth. She stumbled over the metal table as she backed into it.

    "Look at her, she's primitive." The man in black spoke, his voice deep but crackling.

    He sounds like he licked gravel one too many times.

    I'll show you primitive!

    Her mind was overrun by anger towards the man, and she couldn't control herself. She launched herself at him, baring her sharp fingers and attempting to slice him with them, only to be dragged away by the other man.

    "Let's end it on that note." The man restraining her said, as the other man shot an odd look she didn't understand towards him and left the room. She was then released. She quickly rushed away from him, turning to face him and baring her claw-like fingers at her sides.

    How dare he touch us!

    He touched all over us!

    Let's show him too! Let's show all of them!

    She then sped towards him, attempting to claw him as well, but he simply caught her arm in a firm grip. "Calm down. I won't hurt you." He said.

    Yeah, right!

    He already touched us and grabbed us!

    She struggled violently in his grip, but it was to no avail. He kept her arm held extremely tightly. He had an odd look on his face, and she could just barely pinpoint the hint of sympathy in his features. He was upset about something, she could tell, she just couldn't tell what.

    He has no right to be upset!

    We have the only right to be upset!

    His grip! So firm!

    That's good!

    That's bad!

    Her mind raced with heavy flows of emotions, switching from positive to negative to somewhere in-between seemingly every millisecond. The man in purple seemed to speak again, his mouth moving as if he was forming words, but she tuned him out completely.

    He isn't worth listening to.

    That was the first time she had heard her own voice in a small while, and it felt odd. She was so used to hearing multiple separate voices - male and female of low and high pitches and everything in between - that she could hardly differentiate her own voice from them anymore. There was only the slightest bit of memory that kept her holding on to her original voice. She panted, her chest heaving from the adrenaline rush her attempted attack gave her. She felt exhausted, as she hadn't moved so much at once in a very, very long time.

    "That's it. Just relax" The man in purple said, a hand placed on her back for support as she was slowly lowered down onto the bed to relax.

    "I'll see you in the evening, Lumiiioxa."