In the wake of this new revelation, I sat motionless and stunned. Amidst the torrent of blurry red blobs cascading around me after the door gave way, I thought to myself: No matter how I look at it, I opened it.

That statement may appear somewhat vacuous at first. Of course a door can open, it's what it's meant to do. Its name is so intrinsically tied to its function that, if a door didn't live up to its namesake, it wouldn't be a door. So when I claim that it opened, it might come as as shock for me to also say that fact disoriented me more than everything up until now.

How?

I thought only the people here could do that.

Could be a fluke... perhaps it didn't have enough power to register a human hand, or mistook me for one?

Precious minutes passed before I could collect myself. The urgency to return to my original body flooded back, drowning out any doubts I had. I should take my blessings and not waste any more time here.

Brushing past the collapsed mound of clones, I heaved myself over the fallen doorway and outside the mortuary.

It's close.

A narrow corridor opened to the left and right. Stone columns skewed from their place, and chunks of the ceiling dangled around in a snarl of pipes and cables. The floor bizarrely undulated in places, cracking open at their maxima, out of which plumed aberrated streaks of ethereal haze throughout the confined space.

It's to the left.

The source of my telepathic link, my body, has to be over there somewhere. I can sense it.

With all the concentration I could muster, I clambered through the ruined terrain with the unequalled grace of a wet pancake. The treacherous path ahead of me didn't help with that either. The floor had fallen away in some places, revealing near-depthless chasms to fall prey to.

I'm almost on top of it now.

The tantalizing proximity of my goal egged me onward. I rounded the last corner, expecting to see my cell, a door, anything remotely familiar to the lab I had known for so long. That little spark of opportunity that would take me out of this wretched prison. It didn't strike me as odd that I had not encountered a single soul, fixated as I was.

The hallway abruptly ended at a large rotunda, housing a number of other passageways leading to god knows where, the majority of which had collapsed. There were no markings to speak of, no indication of which led where, and hardly any signs of life anywhere. Besides the eerie lifelessness of the place, the only other indications of human presence amounted to an abandoned metal chair, silently watching over the scene, and a bulging slump of white cloth, irregularly pulsating near one of the only clear thresholds.

I swiveled my gaze behind me, then turned again to the massive chamber before me. Confusion only half-explained my state of mind upon realizing that my telepathic link stopped here.

It's supposed to be around here... but where?

I searched the place, peeking down the few remaining avenues leading out of the chamber only to return empty-handed every time. In some twisted mockery of my efforts, everything seemed to point to this place. I'm... starting to believe that putting my trust in a skill I've barely probed the possibilities of wasn't a good idea.

By this point the seed of hope that nearly taken root inside me had shriveled up. Somehow I got the big idea that by getting out of my cell things might take a turn for the better, that I earned my right to freedom; my one chance to convalesce in a hole somewhere, or crawl into a crack no one would ever find me.

Anywhere... Just not here.

Damn it. I can't even feel bad about myself. Saying the words and thinking the thoughts is easy, especially when there's no humanity behind them.

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Should I just give up here then?

Intrusive little ideas like that would be appealing if I only knew how to give up. Oh, not in the never-say-die machismo of a gullible protagonist, not at all. I'd rather interpret that sentence as its how-do-I-die antithesis. Not knowing how to end it all leaves me with no choice but to keep going. It's how I've felt ever since I lost who I once was. There was an illusion of purpose, yes. Blindly believing that things would be better if I did escape drove me from my containment cell, completely masking a growing unease I've ignored for far too long.

What would I do if I did escape?

I'm a monster.

As far as I know I'm the only one of my kind. Who would know me?

What would I do if I were a human in this kind of situation? Would I be losing my mind out of existential dread?

I'd take a deep breath to calm down if I had lungs. I'd slap myself in the face if I had hands. I'd think pleasant memories if I had any. I'd look at myself in the mirror and say "carpe diem!" if I could see a face staring back! Ha ha… ha.

Look at me! I can at least act crazy, can't I?

…can't I?

No. My mind has never been clearer. Just an unnatural, continuous stream of thought.

I can fool myself, but not my body.

I waddled over to the humped fabric, a stony resolution molding around a number of questions of why. Some I've simmered in for years, others boiling over in just the past few minutes.

Now that I think of it, weighing them against each other like this doesn't mean much. All of them are equally sobering.

Why did I have to be this way?

Why did I have to endure so much, with so little?

Why did the "I" in my whys have to be taken away from me by that old man? By these... monsters?

I laboriously peeled back the bloody robes draped over the corpse underneath. A swollen, ruddy scalp, fair skin, barely recognizable from the man that watched over me all this time. The men he commanded, the figures he answered to. All of them. All of them.

You're just as much to blame for me as everyone else, aren't you?

Slowly, I wedged myself between his warped jaws, forcing past his swollen tongue and throat with an indescribable sense of purpose. I wasn't certain what purpose exactly. I only knew that my body's telepathic link is coming from him. Why I had not noticed before, I wasn't sure. Perhaps it was because I can no longer feel the periodic interference permeating my cell anymore.

That didn't matter anymore. The ravenous pit instinctively welling up inside me is... consuming every thought. I don't know, nor do I care.

There's only one thing for me to do here, isn't there?

[Notice: Evaluating results of Predate usage on human target...]

Deeper.

[Warning: Detecting mass of host would exceed Soul Diffusion limit.

Warning: It is strongly advised to cease this course of action. Continuing would exceed maximum mass limits the skill "Mass Division" can support.]

Almost there. Don't stop me.

[Warning: Execution of skill "Predate" has been permitted by host. Countermands unsuccessful.

Error: Manual override of dissociative tendencies bypassed- Retrying lock...]

Ah... after so long...

[Error: Retry failed. Attempt #2...

Error: Retry failed. Attempt #3...]

We will find you...

[Er-ro-r: Re...try failed. Atte-mpt #4...

Warn-rror: H-...st deemed un-stable. Telepathic link limiters failed... attempt-tting rest...riction lock on skill "Clone Telepathy".]

And you will suffer like we did...

[No-ot..ice: Re-stricti...on lock successful...]

SSS

Thumping.

Deep, visceral thumping.

Curtains of red had closed over my eyes. Thick, numbing blankets thrown over my legs and arms. The very breath choked out of me, and yet I still lived within that ever-growing beat shooting up my spine, the fingers and toes I couldn't feel for the death curled in them, and a heart that once had many dreams for greatness run dry of its passion and... well, its blood.

Every once in a while, various joints in my lower back and hips creaked, synced to a lethargic sway juxtaposed against silence, and emptiness.

It's somewhere here.

I know it is, yes, it is. It's somewhere around here. I must find it. But how do I find it? I can't see or hear...

Find it.

I-I can't think clearly, how am I to...

Find it.

What am I even looking for? Was I looking for something? I-I can't remember...

You know.

Somehow, I couldn't resist these disembodied thoughts. Like a ball of clay in a potter's hands, I could not wrest myself from their grasp. Molding, crushing, recreating my desires into something truly abominable, into an endless abyss of madness. I didn't have the energy- the life to resist.

It's close...

Our vessel is near, human. Make haste...

For this day, for so long we have waited. And now...

Take it in your hands, mortal...

Take it... and give yourself to our everlasting malice...

I-I... no...

You have no choice...

Your destiny ends here, the grand design, and the very reason for your existence has come...

For now, you will be our instrument... for our purpose...

Our lord of eternal night, our god of impending ends, to you we raise our oath...

That we shall not fail you again...!