Stage One: Hope in Darkness

A City Full of Rippers (Annabelle)

It is because of you, inside your genetic code is the key. That last piece of the puzzle. You will help me bring about a new world. A new age of superior beings.
immune to the infection. More than just immune but made anew. We will become Gods.

One last test, one last sample of your blood and I will have everything I need to complete my formula.

He had been so close. So close to finishing what he called his formula before I had escaped. He had spent all that time since looking for me, hunting me. It had haunted my every moment. Now all this time later I was just going to walk right on in. Walk into the lion’s den, for Lara. I could do this for her. I was here for her, nothing else mattered to me except getting her back. 

“So how are we breaking into this place?” Shadow breaks into my thoughts with a sledge hammer. I am not alone, not anymore. I have Hannibal, and even that weirdo Shadow. Who knows what he would do though. They were all I would need to bring back the people he had taken. A two person and one wolf assault team was all I needed to tear the masters world down around him. 

‘There is an underground passage. It will take us right under the city. All the way to his lab, that is where he will be holding them.’ Shadow watches my hands intently, determined not to miss a single word.

“Lead the way,” Shadow’s lips crook up into that wild lopsided grin. Such a psycho. I move us towards the tunnel entrance. Dark, dank, the hint of metallic in the air. 

I try to bury these hints of memory, try to forget them in this moment. We escaped, we lived, we healed. The scars running across my neck start to ache, and I rub at them subconsciously. The marks on my arms left by too many needle sticks pulse with every heart-beat. My entire body is rebelling against me. It remembers the pain, every second of it. My mind tells me that this is something I have to do, for Lara, but my body is willing moving towards pain. They battle for dominance inside me. My body adds sweating and shaking. My heart is working in overdrive. 

Take a step, one foot in front of the other. It’s not that hard. 

One step…..

Two steps…

Three steps….

Breathe….

Just breathe…

Please breathe!

A hand grasps ahold of my face, turning it forcefully. Blue, a cerulean sea deep enough to drown me. Calm and still, a still ocean. 

“Breathe Annabelle…..Stay here with me… Find your way back… I’ve got you and I am not letting you go.” A male voice soothes me, a strong thumb rubs gently at my cheek. A soft caress. 

I focus on the motion, all of my attention drawn to the little circles and those calm pools of blue.

“There you go, just keep doing that. Keep breathing nice and deep for me.” 

One breath….in and out. The voice keeps on encouraging me. Every calm breath is met with praise, and words of encouragement. Good job, you’re doing great, keep that up.

Wind pushes against my sweat through clothes, cooling them against my skin. As my skin cools, the circles soothe and those eyes calm me everything starts to come back. That dark place full of blood and pain fades. In its place is a peace I have seldom felt. 

“Hey there, I was worried we lost you for a second there.” Shadow whispers the words. His voice softened to a calm caress against my soul. Warmth and wetness touches my right hand. It is followed by the soft warmth of fur. Hannibal. My breathing continues to even out. The waking nightmare is being pushed further and further from my mind.