Is This Real? •• Seth&Val
His head was pounding - throbbing, really. Seth's heart thudded heavily against the cavity of his chest and his dark brown eyes stared into blank nothingness. Sure, he was gazing out the front window of Roderick's truck, but he didn't see anything. Really, he had no idea if the younger male was even speaking to him at this point. For all Seth knew, Roderick could be telling him some elaborate and intense plan he had for taking over the government and turning everyone into his personal sex puppet...that didn't seem likely, but point was - it very well could have been exactly what the hell was being said beside him and Seth wouldn't have known. It wasn't that he was trying to be a total dickhead and ignore his friend. That wasn't what it was about at all. It was more that he couldn't help it. His mind wasn't able to focus on anything happening right now because he was so fucking lost and trapped in his own thoughts and memories kept cropping up as quickly as little bolts of lightning to strike him without a moment's notice - each one sent a shock of pain directly through his heart and down to the very pit of his belly.
...a gloved hand reached out and caught him around the wrist. A frown crossed the young teenaged boy's features and he let out a huff, yanking his hand quickly back to his side; "What the hell is the point of all this anyway? You guys do this all the damn time and we never find out a single thing from it!"
The eyebrows of the nurse rose a little and she gave him a reproachful sort of expression; "I just need your arm, please, young man."
Seth's eyebrows rose a little as well and he leaned back on the examination table upon which he sat; "And if I say 'no'? Then what?"
"You're welcome to do so..."
A small groan came from beside him and Seth's dark eyes darted over to meet his sister's expression. Val didn't look overly thrilled with him and she shot him something of a warning glare. The nurse in front of him held one hand out for him to offer up his arm but her other hand rested on what appeared to be a pager of some sort. Her finger was perched just above a small red button and she gave him a sort of 'go ahead and try it' type of daring look. The fifteen year old breathed slowly and evenly, keeping his dark eyes shifting between the nurse in front of him and then darting to his sister. Valerie gave the slightest shake of her head and her eyebrows were crinkled in worry. Seth kept his eyes locked on his sister's a few seconds longer before releasing a heavy and annoyed sigh.
He lifted his arm and placed it in the hand of the nurse, barely flinching when she pierced his flesh with a needle; "Whatever."
Val's eyes met his and the corner of her lip turned up into a grin. His angry expression held a few seconds before he couldn't help grinning and making a face at her.
It sucked but...at least they weren't alone.
A deep breath left the man as he pulled himself out of the memory. It was so...fresh and vibrant in his mind's eye. He could perfectly see Val sitting just across the room from him - her wide brown eyes looking at him pleadingly, her dark hair slightly curled at the ends and hanging down over her shoulders...the needle sticking out of her arm with a tube hanging down from it and connecting to a bag as they collected her blood. His eyes closed again and he clenched his one fist as another memory overwhelmed him.
...a screeching sound left the back of his throat and Seth's muscles strained powerfully against the bands that wrapped around his wrists, forearms, thighs, and ankles. A trickle of blood slipped down across his stomach and his chest heaved up and down with exhausted breaths.
"Are you done now?"
Seth's teeth ground together and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut to try and block out everything around him. His voice came out low and scratchy; "Just tell me where she is. What did you do with her?"
Another shock of pain rippled through his muscles and they twitched - tensing up instantly causing another groan to leave the young man. "We can continue this far longer than you can, Mr. Sparks."
The voice that spoke to him was a clear female one and Seth gave a low chuckle as his head rolled to the side. A sideways sort of smirk touched his lips and he arched a single eyebrow; "You're a real fucking charmer, aren't you, sweetheart? Bet you just turn all the boys' cranks around here, huh?"
There was another jolt of pain that shot through him and Seth heard an almost feral growl rip up from behind his teeth. The back of his head slammed against the table he lay on as his body involuntarily convulsed against the pain coursing through him. "Just tell me if my sister's safe, goddamnit! That's all I want! Fucking take as much blood as you want, just tell me if she's safe!"
"She's no longer a concern of yours, Mr. Sparks. Now please, lie still or we will have to continue in a manner that I am afraid will be most displeasing to you."
"Fucking hell," Seth muttered to himself quietly - not wanting to catch Roderick's attention as they drove.
Either his friend had run out of things to talk about or he realised that Seth needed this time to collect his thoughts, but either way, Seth made a mental note to thank him for it later. He folded his arms across his chest in an effort to keep himself from fidgeting, not noticing that he was absently tracing a deep scar that ran the length of his wrist to his elbow as he sat. The scenery outside barely registered to him because it didn't seem real.
Nothing seemed real at all.
None of this.
A girl named Val. That was all that he knew about the person Roderick had run into. She was called Val and she had dark eyes and dark hair. That sounded like his sister but...that also sounded like a thousand other girls who just happened to be called Val. Val could be short for a lot of names, right? Not only Valerie. For all Seth knew, his twin was dead and her body had been thrown away because she had tested negative. Maybe the government did that when they had a set of twins and only one was positive. It was entirely possible. After the things they had done to him, Seth wouldn't have been shocked to hear that they disposed of human beings who were 'of no use to them' like they were rubbish to be thrown out.
...a whimper of a cry met his ears and eight year old Seth frowned at the sound. He knew it entirely too well. His sister was crying. He didn't know why exactly she was crying, but he knew he didn't like it. Not one bit.
Twisting on the table he was seated on, Seth scanned the room and his eyes quickly fell on his twin. Valerie's lower lip quivered and she shrank back away from the nurse's outstretched hand. The woman was speaking in a low voice - too low for Seth to be able to hear but it made him let out a huff of annoyance. His sister didn't need to be baby-talked through this stuff, for crying out loud! She wasn't a little kid...she was eight years old! She just needed a distraction, that was all.
Seth snagged the tubing that hung from the needle in his arm and being careful to make sure it wasn't disturbed too badly, he hopped up on the table. Val's eyes darted to him and widened a little but Seth held a finger to his lips to shush her. She remained silent but gave him an almost quizzical look and soon as he was quite sure she wasn't going to point him out, he flailed his arms around in a rather ridiculous fashion - dancing along to the annoying music that was channeled into the rooms, likely meant to keep people calm.
The impact of his silly behaviour was immediate - Val's mouth twisted up into a grin and she let out a series of giggles. As soon as he heard the sound, Seth dropped back to the table with a loud THUD that had the nurse whipping around to look at him.
The eight year old just flashed an innocent grin and shrugged; "Must have been someone in the next room over..."
Seth let his head bump back against the headrest of the truck's seat - doing his absolute best to block out the remaining onslaught of memories that were attempting to assault him. This wasn't the time for this to happen. If he was going to have some sort of mental or emotional breakdown, that shit needed to happen when he was alone and nobody else was there to witness it. Christ, that was why he refused to sleep anywhere near anyone else - they didn't need to know he woke up from night terrors in a cold sweat with his heart hammering away in his chest. Nobody needed to know that stuff. He had survived what the government had done to him and he was fucking perfectly fine. And now he was going to go see this girl, find out she wasn't his sister and then...then he'd deal with whatever came next. Because in all likelihood, this wasn't his sister. It just wasn't possible but there was that glimmer of hope that flickered in the back of his mind and sent little ripples of elation through his heart. He couldn't not find out.
If she were truly this close and he let her slip through his fingertips, Seth would never forgive himself.
It seemed so suddenly that the truck shut off and Seth had to snap himself to attention when he heard Roderick's door click shut. The man drew in a deep breath and pushed the truck's door open, slowly letting it shut behind himself. There was a lump in his throat that seemed to refuse to leave that he did his best to swallow. His dark eyes roved around the place and scanned through the crowd of people in front of him. He stepped forward, doing his best to not just start grabbing anyone female with dark hair so he could examine their faces.
One hand came up and ran back over his hair, pausing at the base of his neck so he could massage at the tensed up muscles there as he spoke lowly to himself; "This is absolutely impossible." A loud shout met his eyes and Seth snapped around to watch a fight break out amoungst the Carnies. Perfect. Juuuust perfect. He rolled his eyes and stepped forward - not exactly one to enjoy throwing himself in the way of others fighting, he wasn't really planning to stop it but then again - he needed to find this girl called Val and chaos ensuing wasn't going to help that along.
Leanly muscled arms snaked out and wrapped tightly around a young blonde male and he yanked him back, pulling him away from someone a fair bit larger than the boy in his arms; "First rule of fighting, kid...pick someone your size or smaller...or be a hell of a lot faster than this..."