PHOENIX. [sequel to 067]

11. ... is this fear?

a defeated sigh leaves his lips as his hands rest on the wood of his desk. he could search for you all on his lonesome or he could take a gamble and alert pierro of it. despite him being one of the two people, who knew about where that vial was.

pierro couldn't have been the one to bring zander back - he didn't even know zander was dead. he never mentioned it in the meeting and dottore never mentioned any "clone death", as the tsaritsa mentioned.

that left zandice. why him? dottore could most likely beat the information out of him, if he were to find him-

he doesn't know where any of his clones are.

   "fuck!" dottore shouts as he pushes over his desk with a single motion. he, then, made his way out of his office with the anger boiling inside of him.

he has to get others involved, surely. pierro is heavily interested in your results and what you could to do for the organization, the tsaritsa ... had a liking for you, and pantalone owed dottore a favor. or, should he risk it and go on his own?

dottore turns right to his office, where the more "underground" level of his little laboratory resided. he's doing this on his own, he decided finally. there's no reason for him to go and cause an issue with his superiors when he could very easily get this over with himself.

and there he was, staring off into the hall as thoughts swarmed his mind. it took him a moment to gather himself, but when he did, he set out. taking steps down the ground, he pushed open the closest doors to him; which, each revealed either his other subjects he had been neglecting for you, or pure emptiness.

so far, no sign of you.

a loud whine escapes your lips as zander tosses you against one of the walls of the strange room you're in. he never once answered your questions about who he was, why you were here, or what was going on; leaving you to your own terrified and rambling thoughts.

the room's dark and full of cobwebs, though some were most likely spider webs. a few bones laid off in the corner as most of the walls were blood stained. then there's that awful stench - the stench of death.

   "this is where he throws all the failed ones, darlin'" the man before you speaks as his hands place them directly onto your shoulders harshly, "name's zander, judging by the looks of you darling, you died too, huh?"

too? his eyes went up and down your body before he presses his thumb against the protruding scar on your neck, where you had sliced yourself. he mentions failed ones lightly, as if it meant nothing to him that ... dead bodies were here.

you flinch at his touch, but you can't exactly move away from it as his hand was practically digging into your shoulder blade. which prevented any form of sudden movement from you as adrenaline pushed itself through your veins.

    "anyways, does this spark any .. memory for you? my coworker warned me of your loss of memory, odd," zander rambles as he moves away from you after pulling the door shut. he mumbles under his breath, something about how it's weird that you lost your memory but he kept his, but you couldn't hear the entirety of it to be sure.

   ".. why am i here?" you ask him as your eyes tried to adjust to the scenery, but the stench of death burns your nostrils. which only made them water.

  "how.. boring of you, no memory? really?" he groans before turning to face you. his hand lifts up your chin as he gazes down at you, "you're here because i wanted you to be here. is that so bad?"

  "yes," you grumble out as you make a small attempt to pull away from him, to no avail.

you have no idea as to who this man is, why he wants you, or why you were so special. special to both dottore and zander, the weird fuck before you. zander practically dragged you over here, handsy as ever, despite your attempts to pull away from him.

your body isn't at full strength, most likely, from what you could tell. about how your body moved so slowly and continues to stumble, even as zander was dragging you, and your attempts at hitting were .. beyond pathetic. most wouldn't hit him, but the ones that did only caused him to laugh and say "awe, cute."

    "ouch, you wound me, darlin'."

    "okay?"

    "you're not as fun to tease anymore," zander whines as he pulls you close to him,

"you lost your spark. though, you're just collateral. i just want your little boyfriend."