REinitialization. Step One. Laceration.

The glitches seem to be getting worse heh.

Is it me or is everything acting like a computer? Haha, I forget.

Whether I dwell within the matrix or not, tis time for a pretty blatant update.

Tis the season!

Christmas is in the air!

If by christmas they mean blood, urine, and rot.

But I'm pretty sure I'm not fortunate enough for that.

I managed to scrounge up some pretty fucked up lights though, they flash green and red.

Good news though is that my impressive goal of forcefully extracting samples from...

bleh.

Good news is that I've been tentatively serenaded into opening the closed doors of yesterday's trash and revealing tomorrow's.....

hmph.

He had me swear to keep my mouth shut and keep to my duties like a good little girl. I've failed in every aspect of the word. He doesn't even look at me with pride anymore.

So I have been sat down in front of a computer with only one rule and one directive.

Watch and listen.

And don't fuck anything else up.

.........hell my punishment hurt....

The man with crooked arms can't get to me though as long as I don't piss off Father anymore.

Which makes me slightly less depressed.

But I'm still left alone, even with Him looking over my shoulder again, everything that has happened these last... god felt like years... has been cut off from me.

It feels as though I've been forced to stop reading a book right as it got to the good parts.

I can tell it pisses me off.

But I'm not allowed to let it get to me.

Might be for the best.... right?

Post Trauma Rain Check.

......Cold, dark room /Check.

......Stolen laptop with damaged case /Check.

......Hackable wifi adapter within close proximity /Check.
......Half empty bag of stale cheetos /Check.

Re-initializing.... Corrupted data recieved.....

Welcome back to the fold, Anarchitect.

WE'VE MISSED YⓍU.

Strongarm.

Hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush.

I repeat that word with every thundering heartbeat.

Mind you it was the last thing on my mind for it to take me seriously and stop.

Now that would be rather counterproductive towards my inevitable end goal.

Rather, I prayed for it to simply slow.

To calm it's pace long enough for my form to slip by unnoticed.

I would much rather not incite a confrontation with the man with crooked arms.

No.

I needed to slow my pace, strengthen my resolve, and slink by upon the adopted paws of a cat.

Heh, even in the face of death, I'm playing pretend.

Let's hope that if I fuck this up, I can play dead.

Hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush hush...

I crouch down upon all fours, reaching out a single limb to stroke aside the askew hair of the imitation me.

She looked so peaceful. Oh so at ease.

Pity I must shatter her calm beneath my wretched evil.

A quick glance behind my back revealed the resting form of my enemy. Motionless but for the occasional twitch of many a finger.

I still possessed a scrap of time.

And with that my gentle touch upon myself converted quickly into that of ragged fingers twined around a slender throat.

Her eyes snap open, a sudden exhale followed by a broken gasp.

Panicked eyes set upon me and my twisting smile.

With a snap I drag her closer until our noses barely touched, My grip tightening every passing second. Refusing to allow her the sliver of time she needed to alert her protector and damn me to another multitude of months gagged and bound inside her skull.

My jagged teeth tear into the words I sent hissing through silken lips.

"I want me back."

The barest whisper laced with countless wordless threats and insults. I knew she could hear them echoing inside my head. Fuck, we were sharing the same goddamn brain!

The twitch in her muscles sent my nails digging deeper into her throat, point cut across, she stopped struggling before she started.

"Get your little butt back inside your gilded cage before I make you."

I flat out lied.

But I only needed it to scare her. Any chance of a muffled sound would wake the man behind me, and that would do nothing but open a doorway to more suffering.

I could hear our heart beating madly, due to a mix of my desperate adrenaline and her panicked horror.

She needs to break for me to win this one-sided test of wills.

And the only thing I have on my side is scare tactics. Should those fail.... fuck.

I drill my darkened eyes upon hers, gazing deeply into those two dimming spheres of innocence.

"Let me free..." I seethe.

"No." I argue breathlessly.

I shake her violently, unafraid of causing undue neck damage.

I want her to hurt.

"SET ME FREE!" I hiss viciously into her ear.

I see her resolve waver and I take my chance, thrusting her roughly against the floor, the back of my head cracking against it.

Waking the monster lying in wait behind me.

I can already hear the slither of claws.

But I had not only found my window.

I fucking threw myself through it.

I forced myself through the cracks etched into the walls of will that encompassed her control.

Flowing freely through the faded mental defenses that the man with crooked arms used to dethrone me from my own mind. Nothing more than empty memories to me now.

My eyes were set upon one thing and one thing only.

That of which I had myself wrapped around in a matter of moments, kicking the mindless child out into the cold and granting me control once more.

With a violent shock my body started and I was already using my thin limbs to thrust me to my uneasy feet. A quick twist of my neck revealed the bloodthirsty form of the man with crooked arms. The look of rage on his face the most disturbing visage I had ever seen.

I had beaten him and taken his trophy.

I won.

And oh was he a sore loser...