{ THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW }

"They're here." a man whispered, loud enough for the woman by the dining table to hear. And she was alerted. He stood up and took a deep breath in his all-white outfit that almost blended with the small, white room.

Moments later, someone knocked on the metal door. The man looked at the woman one last time. She gave him a nod before he opened the door to the hallway, revealing a little girl, and a man in a lab coat behind her. "I'm home, dad." the girl said with a fragile smile.

The woman by the table stood up to greet her. "Welcome home, Hanabi-chan." with a warm smile, she crouched to hug the little girl.

"You've done a great job as always." the 'Dad' remarked.

"Mm-hm!" Hanabi chirped in joy.

The woman released her from the hug before saying, "Alright! Mom is going to prepare dinner, do you wanna help?"

Hanabi nodded with a smile.

After the man in the lab coat left, the family of three enjoyed a peaceful dinner. Hanabi was smiling all through the meal as she was showered with praise by her parents.

"We are so proud of you, Hanabi-chan." said the dad with a tender smile as he looked at her.

"Do your best again tomorrow, okay?" the mom gave her an encouraging smile.

The little girl was very happy hearing those words. And she did want to keep making her parents proud. But the thought of tomorrow brought a single drop of tear to her eye. Tomorrow. She was going to go through all of that again tomorrow, and every single day.

"I'll do my best." Hanabi replied.

The next day came. Hanabi woke up early to prepare with the help of her parents. Her breakfast was delicious and at the same time, tasteless. Her clothes were neat and clean. With teary eyes, she looked back at her parents. They only waved good-bye with wide smiles.

The man and Hanabi walked through the hallway. The floor, the walls, and even the ceiling were pure white. The static light from above illuminated their path as they wordlessly walked to their destination. The man ignored the quiet voice of a crying girl beside him as he took her to the lab once again.

"Subject 944, Test #503. Commencing."

Hanabi laid down on the metal bed, her hands and legs were tied up. The lights focused on her, almost blinding her from the brightness. Moments later, those dreaded footsteps resounded against the silence once again. Cold sweat trickled down her face as her breathing grew faster.

Hanabi's thoughts started to drift away from the lab. Dad had bought her a magazine not too long ago. It was about fireworks. Apparently, her name bore similar meaning. She had never seen a firework show before, but according to dad, it was so grand and beautiful. People gathered with their loved ones to watch big, colorful explosions in the sky. Since then, she dreamed of watching one. Dad had promised her that once the experiment was over, he would take her to the greatest firework show in the world.

Hanabi cried when the sharp drill went through her skull. Her screams, her instinctive struggle just to relieve the unthinkable pain for a bit were futile. She was forced to feel it all. As the sharp metal held her head open for the researchers to observe her immortal brain, all noise she made was ignored, even when she began crying blood. The grinders opened up her stomach. Hanabi closed her eyes to spare herself the sight of her own organs being cut out of her own body. She screamed from the pain. They used sharp saws to cut through her flesh to study her veins. What was it in her blood, in her DNA, that prevented her from dying? How did her body keep on regenerating no matter what they did? Until they had the answers that satisfied them, Hanabi's suffering would not end.

The day was finally over. It was time to go home. But the man who escorted her everyday had to wait until she was done crying.

"Dad, mom, I'm home."

The door opened up as her beloved parents welcomed her with their warm and loving smiles. After the man left, they had a peaceful dinner. And then the next day came.

"Subject 944, Test #504. Commencing."

The room had successfully hidden the girl's screams. Not a single noise escaped outside of the hell room. As they butchered her from limb to limb, forcefully dragged her veins from her flesh, and broke through her skull, the ones outside of the lab remained oblivious to her pain and agony.

"Subject 944, Test #505. Commencing."

"Subject 944, Test #506. Commencing."

"Subject 944, Test #507. Commencing."

"Subject 944, Test #508. Commencing."

...

"Test #515. Commencing."

"Test #524. Commencing."

"Test #577. Commencing."

...

..

"Test #1027. Commencing."

Hanabi never questioned her life, not even once. It was all she'd ever known. Once again, her parents waved her goodbye as she was taken by the faceless man.

From inside the white room, dad watched as Hanabi walked alongside the man, her eyes filled with darkness, until they disappeared into the corners of the dimly lit hallway. As he closed the door, he ran his fingers through his greying hair as he let out a deep breath.

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"She's losing more weight." he mumbled.

"She's growing taller after all. She's turning seven years old soon." mom replied.

With his head down, dad walked towards the dining table and let himself fall on the chair. "This is..." he muttered, burying his face to his palms. "I don't think I can continue like this."

Mom looked at him with a scowl. "What are you saying?" she scoffed, he looked at her. "You know we can't back out now."

Dad hung his head down, facing the plain white table. "Hanabi doesn't look cheerful lately. She's smiling less too." he remarked with shakey voice.

Clicking her tongue, mom replied. "You're right. Maybe we need to do something new to cheer her up."

Dad stared at her for a few seconds. His blank stare soon turned into anger. "Are you serious?" he questioned, "Did you lose your humanity too?" his voice gradually became louder each word. "She's — Do you have any idea what that girl is going through every day!? Can you even imagine how much pain she's been enduring!?"

Mom was not swayed. Her scornful eyes remained fixated on his. "Now you have a brass neck to say all of this when you were the one who put us in this situation in the first place." hearing that, dad's expression softened. "We are not her real parents, she is not your daughter. We are just some failed actors trying to make a living by deceiving a child so that she doesn't lose her will to live."

The deafening silence filled the room as dad failed to respond. His heart ached, but he knew there was nothing he could do. "This is too cruel.." he whispered to himself.

Mom stood up and walked up behind him. "We signed the contract. We can't just say 'I don't want to do this anymore' and then walk away." she stated, dad replied with silence. "Her ability makes her an immortal. These crazy scientists want to make use of that so they need to study how it works by doing all these cruel experiments. But she only regenerates if she wills it. The moment she gives up on life, the moment she decides that she doesn't wanna live anymore, her ability will not activate. And it's our job to prevent that from happening." she put a hand on his shoulder and began to caress it gently. "You know what they'll do to us if we fail, right?"

Without saying anything, dad gave her a slow nod.

———————

———————

Subject 944, Test #1036. Commencing."

As the spinning blades drew closer to her chest, Hanabi closed her eyes and clenched her jaws. With baited breath, she anticipated the pain as she laid down on the metal surface.. She couldn't see anything, but heard the growing noise of the machine that was about to cut her open.

But suddenly, it stopped. Almost choking on her own breath, she gasped out the pent up air in her lungs as tears bursted from her eyes. This had never happened before. The lights also turned off as well as all of the machines and the computer systems.

"What the.." one of the scientists blurted out, his tired voice echoing through the dark room. "We lost power?"

"There's a problem." another one replied. "Our power source was damaged."

"What a pain."

"They sent a notice."

"What happened?"

"Subject 715. His ability went on a rampage."

"What the hell are those guys doing? They were supposed to... ugh.."

"Can't we just use the generators?"

"The lines themselves were damaged. It's gonna take 14 hours to fix."

"This really is a pain in the ass."

"Let's just continue tomorrow."

One by one, the scientists left the room after unlocking Hanabi's hands and legs.

With a flashlight in hand, the escort man guided her out of the lab. He had never spoken to her. On her first day, Hanabi asked him all sorts of questions. It was three years ago. She was but a small child then. Even when she begged him for answers to what she was suffering for, he didn't utter one word. Hanabi also had never seen his face. As time went by, she eventually stopped asking questions.

Hanabi's legs wobbled as she stepped onto the cold floor. For the first time, she wasn't bathing in her own blood when she got off the metal bed.

The hallway was dark, they couldn't see the corners that led to her house without the flashlight. The man began walking ahead, expecting Hanabi to follow him. She'd always been so eager to go home after the experiments to be welcomed by her sweet parents. But today, he didn't hear her footsteps following behind.

He looked back and saw the girl standing still. He pointed the light to her face out of curiosity and it almost blinded her.

Using her thin arms, she shielded her eyes from the light and then asked, "Are we going home?" Behind his colorless mask, the man's eyes widened. It had been years since she spoke to him.

For the first time in a long time, Hanabi heard his voice. "Yes." he replied quietly.

"Can I go outside with my parents?" she muttered, he lowered the light from her face. "It's been a while since I saw the sky."

There was no one else around them amidst the darkness and cold. The higher-ups said all operations became limited because of the power outage too. Would he be punished if he made a choice for her right now? How severe would that be? Would he be put to death? Tortured?

Would it be even slightly close to what she had been enduring all these years?

He didn't know the answers to any of that. And he wasn't brave enough to find out. He walked towards her to grab her arm. It used to be like this back then too. Everytime she refused to do as she was told, he dragged her by the arm and let the higher-ups decide what to do. He was just an escort after all. He gripped her wrist tightly and started pulling her with him.

But this time, she pulled back. His eyes widened when her wrist slipped out of his grip. She started running in the opposite direction into the dark, to the place that she'd never been to before. He was too late to react. Hanabi had already turned to a dark corner his light couldn't have reached.

"Shit." he mumbled.

———————

Hanabi wandered in the dark, passing by many doors along the hallway. As she ran, she asked herself: Why did she run away like that? Where was she planning to go? It was a sensation that she'd never felt before. She didn't feel it when she came home to her parents, or when they showered her with praises, not even when the escort accompanied them outside the facility to see the sky. It was brand new. Tears fell down her cheeks as she ran faster. Who knew that doing what she liked regardless of what anyone would say or think felt this good?

She ran nonstop, not knowing nor caring about where her feet will take her. Her heart pounded with a new kind of joy, one that didn't depend on another human. What lied ahead, something that she'd never seen before?

Amidst the dark, one steel door had beams of light faintly escaping through the glass pane. It was shining a bright, golden yellow. It made her stop her tracks. For someone who hasn't seen any color of light apart from white, this was enough to pique her interest.

"Fix this immediately." a muffled voice of a man commanded behind the door.

"Y-Yes sir." another one replied.

When Hanabi heard footsteps coming from inside the room, she immediately hid herself behind the dark corner not too far ahead. The door slid open and then the two men left and went the other way. When she confirmed they were gone, she tried to walk as quietly as possible towards the door before it automatically closed. The bright light still lingered, though it was slowly vanishing. She didn't know where she wanted to go, but she found the desire to see where the light was coming from.

Inside the room, she found a boy around her age. She felt a shiver run down her spine as their eyes met.

His eyes glowed a bright yellow, his head was shaved bald. Around him were weird glowing objects that floated and changed into random shapes constantly.

There was only silence between them. The weird objects revolved around the boy as he stared at her with his lifeless eyes. Before she knew it, the door had already closed behind her, locking her up with him.

Hanabi didn't know what to say to him. In a way that she couldn't explain, it felt like asking any type of question would be inappropriate. Much less starting a conversation.

"Um..." she muttered, he remained motionless.

[ END OF CHAPTER ]