Shattered Sanity

Ffion awoke to the wonderful aroma of a full breakfast, and it made her mouth water. She sat up and stretched, her entire back clicking loudly. She folded up the blanket neatly, and set it beneath her pillow. After that, Ffion headed to the kitchen where she watched Samuel from the doorway with a small smile.
"Hello, Scarecrow" Ffion said with a smile. What the hell?! Why did she call him a scarecrow?! She shook her head, and sat down for breakfast.

Sam chuckled as he placed the plates on the table. "Good morning, Ffion," he said with a smile as he poured her a glass of milk, stirring in some chocolate to turn it that delicious shade of brown. He set it down on the table and then poured a cup of coffee, adding in his cream and sugar before grabbing a bottle water from the fridge. "I'm glad you slept well." A frown creased his face. He'd slept well and that never happens. Usually Roulette's transformations kept him up all night to the point where he never got any sleep...it felt nice to have energy.

Ffion watched Samuel make the chocolate milk, and took a sip once he was done. It was delicious! Jack hardly ever let her have anything this nice, he only ever fed her what she needed to survive.
"This is wonderful. Thank you, Sam." Ffion dug into her breakfast, enjoying every last bite of it. She looked up at Samuel, and smiled. He seemed well rested, and he looked much better than he did the day before., but he also looked confused. "I should probably explain everything to you" Ffion said with a sigh. She had already explained everything to Roulette, but she needed to explain it to Samuel too. Was this what it was like with them? Explaining the same thing at least twice? "During my time with Jack, he'd force me to sing him to sleep, or sing away the pain. Earlier, I sang for you two... Jack weaponised my voice... Now I can't sing without accidentally hurting or controlling someone."

Sam didn't seem too bothered by her words. After all, he himself had been an experiment of Jack's. That's how he got Roulette. Though, out of the two of them, it was Roulette who knew exactly why Jack was experimenting on him and what the bastard was trying to accomplish. Hearing this from Ffion sounded quite familiar, like he'd heard it before. Perhaps that was just Roulette bleeding through his mind, reminding him of something he'd heard even though he never heard it before. "Well," he said, rubbing the back of his head for a moment. He didn't know how to react to that information. No doubt Roulette had reacted a little bit better than he was right now.

"I know I should say something intelligent, but nothing comes to mind. Except I'm sorry he did that to you." Yeah, Sam seemed a lot more of the gentleman that Roulette had called him. Kind and sweet in a weird, artistic kind of way. He tucked into his own breakfast after a short silence and wiped some of the syrup off his face before he spoke again. "I bet you're curious to know what exactly happened to me. Well...I can tell you most of it, if you want to hear it, that is. If not, that's perfectly all right with me." He offered her a smile and continued to eat his breakfast, taking small sips of his coffee.

Ffion took a sip of her drink, and gently set it aside. She knew of a few experiments, and how badly they all ended. Including her and Samuel, there were only four experiments that had not only survived, but escaped. The others had not been so lucky.
"Probably the same thing that happened to me. Stolen from your parents at a young age, experimented on, punished, abused..." Ffion had been trapped with Jack for eighteen years, suffering. Any creature she brought home, slaughtered mercilessly. She fell quiet for a while, hiding in her jersey once again. She was still trying to get over everything that Jack had done to her.
"I apologise for that Samuel. Please, tell me what the mad king did to you." She seemed to be genuinely interested, and a bit concerned for him.

Sam paused in his eating, almost looking like he'd lost his appetite. However, that wasn't the case. He didn't want to eat and speak about what happened to him. With a deep breath, Sam began to speak. "I was five," he said, his voice already beginning to shake. "I remember that my parents were out of the house and they'd left me with a babysitter. I was playing with my toys in the yard when this truck came passing by. It was a frozen treat truck and I wanted some, so I chased it down."

Sam took a pause, folding his fingers together to try and hold in his emotions as he continued to speak after a while. "When I finally got to it, we were in the abandoned part of London. A strip of buildings and roads no one visited. I remember seeing men in masks; remember trying to run. A bag was pulled over me, scooping my entire body into it. The next thing I remember is the smell of the ocean and the cold floor of a warehouse." He stopped speaking again and closed his eyes as the scene played out before him. The large empty room, the men, the money getting switched hands...him getting tied to a ship that took him to New York.

"I don't remember much of the warehouse, except that there was another group of men there. Foreigners. Americans. They spoke, money got transferred and I was taken to New York, where I was put on sale like a common dog." Tears threatened to spring out of his eyes now as he recalled how he'd been bought by Jack. Then he calmed down, giving his head a shake.

"When Jack got me to his place, he began to have his doctors experiment on me. Serums, needles, pain...." He flinched visibly and gave his arms a rub as his insanity began to threaten him. "It was after I turned six that I began to count backwards from one hundred. For four years, I counted during my experimentations. When I turned ten, Jack himself began to experiment on me. I became smarter than any other teenager my age at fifteen, thanks to the courses he made me take." His mouth went dry and his eyes threatened to change to Roulette's blood red, which usually only happened when he got pissed off, but his hair did fall into his face. "Sixteen is when my sanity finally snapped. I killed most of the doctors in that damned place and fled. Been on my own since then..."

He made note of one serum in particular: his strength. "The one thing that contributed to my insanity was a serum that gave me strength. Roulette has the strength too." And there it was. His entire past laying out, open like a book. He wondered how she would react...

Ffion didn't know what to say or do, let alone how to react to what Samuel had said, so, she did the only thing she could think of. She slowly rose to her feet, and made her way over to Samuel before she wrapped her arms around him. His story sounded similar to hers, except she wasn't sold like an animal, she barely stayed sane, and she didn't escape until now.
"I'm sorry for what he did to you, Sam..." Ffion still had her arms wrapped around him, trying to comfort him. She knew he would just wiggle out of her embrace, or shove her aside, but she felt like he needed someone.

Sam seemed to melt into her embrace, his eyes closing as he stayed there in her arms. It felt nice to be held by someone again. Instead of pulling away from her, Sam pushed into her. He didn't want to be let go. A single tear touched her arm. He was....crying? He hadn't cried in a long time. It made his body shudder and soon, he was sobbing in her arms.

Ffion just stood there, gently hugging Samuel. She knew he needed it, a good hug and a cry. She hugged him tightly against her, as she rested her head against his. Just how long had he been holding this back? How long had he been alone, trying to hold himself together? Perhaps it had been a good thing that Roulette had spared her? It was clear that both Samuel and Roulette needed her in their lives.

It was a good long while before his sobs quieted and his body stopped shaking. He felt better now. Better than that. He felt like he could finally live again, though he knew he could never have a normal life. Not with his split personality. No one except for Ffion even knew both sides of him. The artist and the serial killer. She knew them both perfectly and he felt better knowing there was someone there to help both sides of himself. "Thank you," he said, tears still in his voice.

Ffion held onto Samuel for a little while longer, just to be certain that he felt better. Perhaps it was also for her own selfish reasons? During her time with Jack, she had not been shown an ounce of love or affection, and it felt nice to have someone in her arms. Finally, Ffion let go, and returned to her seat.
"You're welcome, Sam. I'd want someone to do the same for me."

When she pulled away, Sam was quick to put his hands to his face and began to rub the tears away. He sniffled a few times before he reached for a tissue and blew his nose. He tossed it into the trash and pulled his breakfast to him again, finishing what was left in a few bites. "It's definitely not easy to tell that," he said softly, getting up to place his plate in the sink. He'd do dishes later. "It hurts. The memories...there are nights I feel like I'll wake up on the slab again when Roulette retreats.." He was afraid...

Ffion hung her head, and made her way over to the sink to take care of the dishes. After Samuel's escape, security had increased, stricter policies were imposed, and punishments were far worse than before. With Samuel gone, Jack focused all his time and anger on Ffion.
"You're lucky you got out, Samuel, things got much worse after you left." Despite everything that had happened, she didn't blame him for any of it. How could he have known that she was trapped there too? That she was Jack's little toy? "He won't get to you again, Sam. Not while I'm here" Ffion said quietly.

"The same goes for you, Ffion," Sam said with a small nod. "Roulette will make certain of it." He pulled out his sketch pad soon after speaking and began to draw.

"I have no doubt about that" Ffion said with a smile before turning her attention back to the dishes. Once she had finished washing and drying the dishes, she carefully packed everything away. She didn't have much else to do as her contact was still working on a laptop for her, so Ffion decided to do more research into the people from her visions. She found a pen, and a scrap piece of paper, and carefully wrote down any useful information she found.

After a while of drawing, Sam's head began to pound. His pencil dropped onto the sketchpad laying on the table while both hands raised to his head. He was gaining flashes of fire, the scent of blood. He hadn't had a vision in quite some time. Why now, all of a sudden?

Ffion noticed Samuel's situation, and quickly set her stuff aside before making her way over to his side. She gently rubbed his back, just trying to be a comforting presence for him. Samuel and seemed to have had nothing but pain since she arrived, and it made her want to leave simply so they could return to their version of normal. Even though leaving seemed to be the only thing that would help them, she had promised Roulette that she would stay. If Ffion wasn't so damn scared of the Order, she would have called them for assistance, but she had just escaped from them, and wanted nothing more to do with them. The Assassins were simply out of the question as she figured they would likely kill her after everything she had done. Instead, Ffion decided to focus on helping Samuel.
"Are you alright, Sam? What's wrong?"

"My head," he managed to say between breaths. Sam was trying to control his breathing so he wouldn't pass out, as is what happened every vision. "I can...see something..." His vision was becoming clearer now. There was a man, pistol in hand standing in front of someone. And a woman stood behind, shouting, begging...The man turned, faced blacked out, towards her, pistol still in hand. Sam saw his muscles relax once the woman began to sing and they both walked away...

"A man," he managed to say as the vision began to fade, leaving him with just a headache. "A man with a gun was about to kill someone, but a woman's voice stopped him and calmed him.." He turned to look at Ffion with slight fear in his eyes. "I haven't had a vision in years. Why all of a sudden are they surfacing?"

"Perhaps it is because of me" Ffion said with a sad sigh. Samuel had described the same thing Ffion had seen in her visions and dreams she had had since she met Samuel. The burning building, the young couple, the insanity... Ffion grabbed some paracetamol she had found whilst cleaning the kitchen, and handed it to Samuel along with a glass of water. "Have you seen them yet? The young man and his woman?" She was curious if he knew anything. Perhaps between the two of them, they could figure things out?

Sam took the medicine, drinking the water with a grateful gulp. "I only saw the gun," he admitted, flipping to a new page in his sketchbook. He began to draw with quick hands. Usually if he saw something in a vision, he had to draw it before he forgot what it was and half the time, he'd forget what he saw after it was drawn out. This one was the image that he'd seen. Someone leaning against a wall and a hand with the gun he'd seen in the foreground. He stopped only once it was complete. He'd color it later. Sam slid the drawing over to Ffion. "That's what I saw. And then this woman came onto the scene, yelling in fear and concern. Then she started singing and it calmed the man down."

Ffion studied the sketch for a moment, taking in the details. It was definitely the same man she had seen in her visions. She thought about how the woman in their visions managed to calm the man with her voice, exactly like Ffion's voice calmed Samuel.
"And that doesn't sound familiar to you at all?" There seemed to be a few similarities between them and the people from their visions.

"It does," Sam admitted with a nod before he motioned between himself and her. "Not only that, but...this might sound strange but...I felt as though it was me in that situation." He shook his head for a moment before he looked up at her. "Sorry, Ffion. Thank you.."

"It's alright, Sam" Ffion said with a smile. "While we're being honest, I've felt the same since the visions started." Ffion thought for a moment about it, thinking of who could help them, but the only people she could think of were the Assassins or the Templars. "Do you know anyone that could help us, becausethis is starting to drive me mad."

"The only ones I know who know of my predicament are the Assassins," Sam said honestly, shaking his head. "Henry could help. He's been sneaking me medicines when I can't afford them from the hospital. He works there and is a member of the Brotherhood." Then again, that couldn't work. Henry was probably working...shit. Sam rubbed his head in defeat and sighed. "And then there's Chris. He's not an Assassin, but he does know about past lives, links between people and all that. He could help."

"Chris, definitely Chris" Ffion said quickly. The last thing she wanted to do was get involved with Assassins. Perhaps she should tell Samuel about her allegiance? She was starting to like Samuel and Roulette, as in really them. To her, they were sweet, and probably the only people to ever care for her. Whatever the reason, she felt like they needed know. "Sam, I need to tell you something..." Ffion hung her head, and took a deep, shaky breath. "I-I'm a Templar. Not by choice. When they took me, they did things to my mind, robbed me of my memories. I grew up in the Order, it's all I knew. Believe me when I say I want out. I never wanted any of it..."