"The stars are so pretty, don't you agree, big brother?"

"Yes, they are really pretty, Lilly. They remind me of home..." A saddened sigh escapes my lips, turning to vapor in the freezing air.

"What was home like?"

I look over to Lilly, just a small child. Only a few years old, yet having to deal with so much hardship. She was born in the concentration camp, and our mother died during her childbirth, and our father shortly after to the doctor of this camp. Lilly's beautiful brunette hair and green eyes are immediately contradicted by her face and rest of her body, so skinny she's practically a skeleton. Her cheeks are sunken in and you can even see her ribs through her worn-out shirt.

"It was... nothing like this. I've never told you about home, have I? There was green grass, clean air, and animals. We used to live on a small ranch just outside of town. The paint on the barn was such a beautiful shade of red, father built it to be specifically like the steriotypical barns you'd see in old kids shows." I have a slight chuckle, garnering the rare but adorable smile from Lilly. "Dad was always so enthusiastic... He was always working on the ranch. Tending to animals, harvesting crops, fixing the fence... Up until the day the Ruby Regime pulled up on our doorstep... We had no choice but to go with them... Sorry, I got sidetracked." Lilly's face looks a bit down, enhancing the skinny physique of her face even more. "About home..."

"James Brineer and Lilly Brineer, I presume?"

I wince in fear as I notice the red uniform of a soldier of the Ruby Regime. "Yes, officer?"

"Doctor Crowell wishes to see you." The officer would force Lilly and me by our feet, Lilly attempts to fight but gets slapped by the soldier and pulled even harder, almost being dragged along.

Once we near the doctor's "death chamber" as we call it, since anyone that goes in never comes out, the doctor steps out with a sinister grin. He's an older man, with a massive receding hairline. He wears a somewhat loose red labcoat with gold linings and black boots, the standard uniform of a Ruby Regime doctor.

"Bring them here." He says in a sadistic tone. The soldier grabs us by our necks, forcing us down to his somewhat short height so he can get a better look at us. "Beautiful... Gorgeous! They are perfect for reconstruction!

Reconstruction?

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"Do you happen to know the date, little boy?" The doctor asks me. I shake my head, and he laughs in an odd but horrifying wheeze, "It's December 25, 2148! You're about to have a wonderful Christmas!" The doctor motions to the soldier and another one guarding the door to his lab. The original soldier takes a firm grab of Lilly, and the other one grabs me.

They lead us into the lab, and inside there's two metal tables with leather belts to hold us down onto it, along with several complicated-looking machinery nearby, but they don't look at all inviting. One's filled with an odd blue liquid, and multiple syringes hanging off, attached to the machine with small rubber tubes. Another has a hacksaw combined with some sort of flamethrower-esque thing. The look of these machines fill me with instant dread, and I try to stop paying attention to them.

The soldiers put us onto the metal tables, and tightly bind Lilly and I to our respective tables. I look over at the frantic Lilly, then look at the doctor who's watching in glee. I know we're about to die, but Lilly doesn't know that. She doesn't know anything that's happening, she's just a simple child.

"Now little girl..." the doctor starts after the soldiers leave, "which do you like more, cats or dogs?"

Needless to say, Lilly keeps struggling, ignoring his question.

"Cats it is, then!" the doctor says as he pulls over the machine with the previously aforementioned hacksaw. He starts it up, the saw slowly coming down through Lilly's arm as she screams. I look in horror at what's happening, but look in even more horror at the doctor's glee and what he's really doing. The doctor pulls out an enlarged cat's leg, then begins some ungodly procedure to combine their arms, all the while Lilly cries in pain. This goes on with all of her limbs, until she's hardly even Lilly anymore. Once he's done with her, Lilly looks to me, tears rolling down her face as a giant cat paw attempts to reach towards me but can't.

"Big brother... Stop this..." She's too young to even understand the concept of death, unable to even ask for it before she falls limp, and the doctor gets angry.

"Another damn failure!" The doctor practically throws a tantrum, hitting the ground with his foot and waving his arms like a child.

What sort of deranged man is this?

The doctor then stops and looks to me. "That's it, if the little girl couldn't handle it, then the brother can!"

A chill runs up my spine, and I attempt with all of my might to escape, but I can't.

The doctor begins turning on the hacksaw, "How about a mouse this time?!"

I can feel heat leaving my body as pain enters my mind, flooding it as my warm blood leaves my now cut-off arm. I scream in pain, but the doctor keeps continuing. Once he stops, I look down at a body that's not mine. An abomination. Half human, half enlarged mouse. Darkness fills my vision as my consciousness slips away from me.

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Light begins filling my eyes, particularly the color green. I find myself in a forest, except everything is gigantic! I attempt to scream to for help, but the only sounds I can make are squeaks... I look down at my body, to find the legs of a small mouse...