Disfortunate Truth

[Smeagollum]

Hagging and coughing, Kira had her eyes peel open, and her head pound and spin as her gentle hand stroked her forehead to ease the pain. She slowly and efficiently scanned the contents around her to try to take in her surroundings and piece together what had happened at the same time. She could remember leaving the jail and someone shooting something at her, but, after that, everything was blank.

Gaining the strength to pick herself up, Kira casually strode from laying down on the floor to a hunched-over, sitting position before her mind was taken away from her. Not too far away, but just out of arm's reach was herself, motionlessly lying on the floor. Patting in fear and confusion, Kira shook as her hand reached onward to touch the rough, coarse, and cold skin of herself. It immediately jolted back at a meer prick of the skin, and it took a few heavy breaths and moments of thinking calming thoughts before Kira felt herself able to squiggle forward and touch herself again.

Definitely dead, Kira thought to herself as her fingers released themselves from the icy skin of the clone in order to take her pulse. It took about half of the track back for Kira to finally comprehend what those words referred to, and her eyes quickly ran around to watch for a sign of any suspicious passerby.

With no immediate threat, Kira shuffled back in thought to work out what this new phenomenon could be. It has to be the clone Kira thought to herself, I mean, what else could it be? Kira paused for the moment and eyed over the clone before sighing from the relief of supposed truth but continuing to have an aching nerve in the pit of her stomach. "It has to be," Kira whispered to herself as her mind remembered the one main physical characteristic that separated her from her clone. Crawling forward, Kira slowly uncovered the right shoulder of the clone for proof that it was her clone. The neckline crept down over the shoulder, and, with nothing being revealed, Kira finally yanked the shirt to fully expose the shoulder and slammed herself back up against the wall. Where is it? Kira choked back tears, It has to be there. I mean, it is the clone. It must be. I can't be. I remember. She doesn't... shouldn't. Pausing for a moment, Kira had her eyes water up with tears as she had to prove to her pessimistic self that all of this was a lie. Inhaling, Kira slowly uncovered her shoulder and gave a quick tug down as she held her breath and her heart skipped a bit. "That's not possible," Kira spoke to herself with the vivid image of the tattoo pressing her memory, "I am not her. I was never her, and I will never be her." Kira spoke out with an inborn hatred of the clone gushing forth. Not believing herself, Kira rose to a new level in forcing herself not to give in as she chanted her past to herself, "I learned I had firepower when I lit a match, and my dad tried to drown me. And the clone can't know any of this. Can she?" Kira, humbled, looked back over at the clone and set herself in an absolute, "My name is Kira Marshall. I know where I came from, but I just can't figure out who I am." With that, Kira moved away from the clone into the back corner of the cell once more, curled herself up, and wanted to be anywhere but there.

[Smeagollum]

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[Skylar instructions inserted here]

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Kira sat on the edge of the cell, motioning her fingers to skim the wall beside her. The rough brick gave herself something to do and a small fantasy to escape. She had figured out that she had also gotten one of those annoying collars a little while ago when she nearly shocked herself to death twice. Choosing to remain conservative and not so quickly die, Kira chose solely to sit as far away from the clone as possible, in order to block the fear of death from her mind.

Creek.

The door to the outside of the cell shoved open, and Kira remained sitting motionless. She had nothing else she could do besides remain silent and hope they didn't notice her. Her hopes didn't last long for, soon enough, one of the broad and overly muscular men came up upon Kira and dragged her away from her spot, forcing her to quickly run behind or be dragged along the cement floor. "Ehh," Kira spat out, still in shock and trying to pull herself back from the man's grasp. "Let me go."

The man, unmoving, simply jostled Kira from in back of him to his front and forcefully held her down as she involuntarily knelt on the floor. Her hands where soon to be bound behind her back, and she was lifted to her feet and lead out of the cell, down an unnaturally long hallway, up about 7 flights of stairs, and into the main scientific experimentation room. Upon entering the room, Kira had given up on fighting back long ago. Her heart was flustered with fear, and her nerves were shaking, but there was nothing she could do. She simply was at the whim of the will of the overlord, whomever that would be.

[Smeagollum]

"Look at you," a demeaning voice resounded towards Kira, who only continued to sulk down towards the ground. She had gone through what she believed was going to happen, but she didn't know how wrong she was. The man walked towards Kira and lifted her chin up to have her eyes meet his. "You seem parched." The man gave a faint smile and looked down at the girl. "I am second in command. I have the authority over your life, so I greatly advise that you listen and respond to me. Do you want to eat?"

Kira remained silent as her head moved back downward to look at the ground once more.

Slap.

The hand of the man jostled Kira as his palm clearly hit her right cheek. "I asked you a question," he reminded her.

Angry, Kira, again, didn't respond. She didn't care. In the back of the mind she knew that they were going to do what they were going to do, and nothing she did would change that. Instead, this time, her eyes looked back up at his and her mouth remained flat in silence.

"Very well," the man continued, acknowledging Kira's disobedience. "I will tell you what is going to happen then. You will go into a room. We will turn the power up to full blast, and you best hope you have fire power just like your clone back there. If you don't, good bye. If you don't have enough strength to hold through, good bye. In the meantime, the clone will be removed from your cell, and you will be put back into the cell after a designated amount of time where you will continue this process day in and day out. The clone will go to the place where we put it, and everyone you know will think that you are dead."

Speechless, Kira listened, involuntarily. She didn't care what happened to her. Nothing mattered anymore. The man, frustrated, simply ordered the men to take her away, and, with the others, the men lead the fumbling girl down another series of steps and hallways. There they tossed her into a room and quickly closed the door as Kira remained there, laying the floor, burning through her chains and collar.

[Smeagollum]

Evaporating tears, Kira lay on her side as her feeble body used all of her strength to survive. The men had turned off Kira's collar and turned out a series of vents that initiated the process of transforming the room into a furnace. The collar quickly melted from Kira's neck, and the binding on her hands was almost immediately burned through. Kira remained motionless on the ground, refusing to move, but she merely continued to examine the passing burning flames all around her as she, herself, was burning fully in order to keep herself alive, afraid that the flames would burn through her fair skin.

[Smeagollum]

It was a long two hours of coughing and wheezing, slowly burning a flame before Kira's surroundings were turned off. She lay on the ground, barely conscious, and focused on inhaling and exhaling. Her arms and legs were limb, falling to the ground the moment they were lifted from it, and her eyes steadily closed as two men picked Kira up off of the floor and carried her all of the way, down the stairs, through the hallways and threw her down into her empty cell.