Merrin was a ball of nerves. She sat in the sterile parlor upon Charles’s request. He suggested they spend some quality time together and she jumped at the opportunity.

Try as she might, she kept reminding herself that she didn’t deserve quality time with him after what she’d done. How could she lie like this to the love of her life?

No.

It was his fault, he had forced her to, but she still chose to do it. This was her only choice for the good of them together.

She wrung her hairy hands together while trying to relax in the chair that was far too big for her.

“It’s ready,” Charles stepped into the room with a tray of tea for both of them. He rarely did so, but it was one of Merring’s greatest joys in life when Charles made tea for her. He set it down and even poured a cup just for her.

The pangs of guilt struck even harder as he handed her the teacup and smiled in that breathtaking way.

Merrin sipped at the tea right away, using the burn of the scalding hot liquid on her lips as a silent punishment to herself. She hated that she was forced to keep this secret from him.

Thankfully, Charles interrupted her spiraling thoughts with his melodious voice, “So how are remaining subjects performing?” He said as he poured himself a cup of tea and set It down on his side table.

Merrin gladly fell into the comfortable rhythm of work talk. “No deviations from the typical groups other than CX11. She shows promise.”

”Oh? How so?” Charles said with a raised eyebrow.

“She was able to perform one more feeding cycle than the rest, making it to three within a two day span,” Merrin said in between sips of her tea.

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“Excellent,” Charles said, “At that rate, We’ll be able to replace one of the two missing Nameless’s sooner than expected.”

Merrin jumped slightly at the mention of the rogue Nameless’s. She could sense the anger pulsing behind his calm words when he mentioned them. It pained her to see him like this.

“More tea?” Charles said.

“What?” Merrin said, looking down at her cup, she had finished her whole cup before Charles even touched his own, “Oh, yes thank you.”

Charles poured another cup for her, “You were right about resting, you know. I feel much better.”

”Really?” Merrin said, accepting the tea and sipping at it. Charles’s anger pulsed harder as he spoke, but his voice never raised. Merrin strained to concentrate on it. For some reason, it was getting harder to detect his life pulse and emotions.

Charles sat back down and stirred his tea. His eyes never left Merrin, “Yes, in fact, it gave me the headspace to do some much needed inventory.”

“Yeah?” Meriin blinked slowly and forced her eyelids open. The room was spinning and she was finding it increasingly more difficult to pay attention.

Charles nodded, “In fact, I was surprised to find that the serum for the Bruns’s was heavily depleted. I tried to find the footage from around the time the supply dropped, but it was gone. It got me wondering about the two rogue Nameless’s and how they’ve managed to not return after longer than a day without their serum dosage.”

Merrin’s slowed thoughts caught up to what Charles was saying, her eyes went wide and she stared in horror at her tea as she realized why it was increasingly harder to think.

Merrin dropped the teacup and protested through slurred words, “No, please, you don’t understand.”

“You’re right!” Charles said, flipping the tea and coffee table into the wall, “I don’t understand! Why would you do something like this to me? After everything I gave you!”

“I love you,” Merrin said. As she lost connection with her hypnosite, the last sight she caught of Charles was him falling to the ground in a coughing fit.

….

Merrin woke up in her own paralyzed human body for the first time in forever. Painted in red on the ceiling was the word: TRAITOR.

“No!” Merrin screamed. Not even being able to move her head, she was stuck staring at that single word. That reminder of her failure, “No!”

This deep in the bowels of the facility nobody could hear her scream, but she howled anyway. “No! Please!”