Albert’s eyes glinted coldly behind his square glasses as he leaned forward, scrutinizing the machines with laser precision. The faint whir of monitors filled the room, an unfeeling soundtrack to the chaos erupting within me. His calm exterior stood in stark contrast to the firestorm he was building inside my body.
A new wave of heat surged through my veins—not the sharp sting of pain I’d grown used to, but something entirely different. It was electric, alive, spreading like wildfire from my core to every limb. My fingers twitched, then flexed, as if charged with a new and uncontainable energy. Beneath my skin, my veins illuminated, glowing with pulses of light that throbbed in time with my heartbeat. I saw the reflection of it in Albert’s lenses, his eyes widening with something almost feral.
“Remarkable,” he whispered, his voice a mix of awe and greed. His lips curled into a grin, sharp and hungry. “You’re evolving faster than I dared hope.”
My muscles strained against the straps pinning me to the steel table, every fiber of my being swelling with unnatural power. The icy grip of fear and exhaustion that had once claimed me was burned away, replaced by a growing, insatiable warmth. No—this wasn’t just warmth. It was power. Raw and untamed, it roared through me like a wildfire in a storm. It was rising in power with every passing second, as if it had a mind and goal of its own.
And then, with no warning, the surge peaked.
An explosion of energy ripped through me, so overwhelming it tore a scream from my throat. My back arched violently, the restraints digging into my skin until—crack. One by one, they snapped like brittle bones under pressure. My eyes shot open, but they weren’t mine anymore. A distant part of me realized I was no longer in control. I could feel it clawing its way forth.
Through the haze, I caught a glimpse of Albert. His clinical intrigue twisted into something closer to terror.
With a guttural roar, I tore free of the last straps binding my ankles and swung my legs off the table. My bare feet hit the cold floor, but I barely felt it. My entire body pulsed with strength I couldn’t fully comprehend, like I was both alive and aflame. The room tilted for a moment, but I steadied myself, each breath deep and controlled.
“I’m free!” I roared.
Albert staggered back, his hand fumbling across the desk for something—anything. His composure cracked, his voice rising. “Guards! Guards!”
He lunged for the radio, but I was faster. Before he could reach it, I was on him. My hand shot out, seizing his coat, and I slammed him against the wall with enough force to dent and rattle the metal panels. His glasses skewed, one lens reflecting his wide, terrified eyes. He was no longer the composed scientist; he was just a man, trembling, cornered by the monster he created.
Rage boiled deep within me. A seething, uncontrollable rage. I wasn’t in control of my body, but I didn’t dare defy it. Instead I encouraged it to do more. To inflict the same pain I had felt if not worse.
“Why?” I growled, my voice unrecognizable, low and laced with a venom that wasn’t entirely mine. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Albert’s lips quivered, but no sound came out at first. His hands shook as he raised them defensively. “Edwin, listen to me—this is for humanity! You’re the key, don’t you understand? You’re—”
“For humanity?” I slammed him against the wall again, cutting him off mid-sentence. His head snapped back, bouncing off the steel with a sickening clang. “You’ve been torturing me for years! And for what? Some cure?”
The word tumbled out of my mouth, foreign yet familiar. My thoughts blurred, pieces of truth scraping against one another like jagged glass.
Cure? Is that what this is about?
Albert’s fear deepened, his breath hitching. “You… you don’t understand,” he wheezed, his voice barely audible. “This—this is bigger than you. Bigger than all of us.”
“Exactly,” I snarled, the fire in my veins surging. “I’m bigger than all of you.” My grip on his collar tightened, lifting him slightly off the ground. “Now tell me—where is the serum?”
Before he could answer, the steel door hissed open, and two guards stormed in, rifles aimed.
“Let him go!” one barked.
I didn’t hesitate. Spinning on my heel, I hurled Albert to the floor like a discarded doll and turned to face the intruders. They opened fire, but the bullets slowed midair, shimmering as if caught in invisible molasses. I watched them hover, then stepped forward. Each movement was deliberate, almost casual, as I closed the distance.
The first guard tried to adjust his aim, but I swatted the rifle from his hands as though it were a toy. My hand shot out, grabbing his wrist. With a brutal twist, I heard the satisfying snap of bone, followed by his scream as he crumpled to the ground.
Crack!
The second guard fired again, desperation in his eyes. I was on him in seconds, grabbing his weapon and snapping it in two with my bare hands. My fist slammed into his chest with a force that sent him sprawling to the floor, gasping for air.
Silence fell over the room, broken only by Albert’s ragged breathing behind me.
And then it hit me. A wave of nausea slammed into my gut like a wrecking ball, and the fire inside me flickered, unstable. I stumbled forward, clutching my head as a searing pain tore through my skull. My vision blurred, and my legs gave out beneath me as my consciousness began to return to my body.
“No… not yet,” I gasped, collapsing to the floor. My body convulsed, drenched in sweat, trembling uncontrollably.
Through the haze, I saw Albert dragging himself to his desk, his every step a struggle. He reached for the radio with shaking fingers, his voice trembling but resolute.
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“I need a cleanup crew in the lab. James, Robert, Sanchez—report to the lab immediately. And send someone to escort me to the Third Level.”
As soon as he released the button, his legs gave out, and he crumpled to the floor.
Minutes later, the door slid open again, and a cleanup crew rushed in, flanked by fresh guards. Their eyes widened at the carnage—the shattered restraints, the broken bodies, the faint glow still fading beneath my skin.
Albert pointed weakly toward me. “Secure the subject,” he rasped. “Now.”
But as they moved toward me, I couldn’t fight anymore. My body gave in, dragging me into unconsciousness.
And as the darkness closed in, one thought echoed in my mind.
What have they turned me into?
A faint voice broke the tension, raspy and commanding despite its weakness. “Help me up.”
Sanchez and Robert hurried to the source, finding Albert slumped behind the desk, barely clinging to consciousness. They each took an arm, lifting him to his feet. His weight dragged heavily between them, but his voice, though strained, carried the unmistakable edge of authority.
“Take those two to the med floor,” he rasped, nodding toward the unconscious guards. “James, return Edwin to his cell. No food for him—no lunch, no dinner, no breakfast. The boy’s got more energy than he deserves.”
I couldn’t make sense of their words. The voices felt distant, muffled. Everything hurt—my body, my head, my very existence.
James snapped to attention, saluting briskly. “Right away, sir. I’ll handle it.”
As Sanchez and Robert half-dragged Albert out of the room, one of the cleanup crew muttered, his voice thick with disbelief. “What the hell happened here?”
“Check out the restraints,” another chimed in. “Bent steel… It's like something out of those old monster movies. This’ll take hours to fix.”
“Someone grab a replacement panel for the wall,” a third added. “That dent’s massive.”
James ignored their chatter, his expression tight as he took in the wreckage. Seemingly unaffected by it all, he walked over to where I was, collapsed and still convulsing.
If they truly understood what Edwin was capable of, they’d be thanking whatever gods they prayed to that Albert had survived at all.
Shaking his head, he stepped over the chaos and knelt by my limp form. He sighed heavily, muttering, “Come on, kid. You’ve caused enough trouble already.”
With little effort, he grabbed me by the arms and hauled me up. My body hung like dead weight as he dragged me out the lab and through the labyrinth of sterile, fluorescent-lit corridors. The chill of the floor seeped through my thin clothing, but I barely registered it. My mind was a foggy haze of pain and disjointed thoughts.
I am a subject. There’s a cure. I’m a monster. Who am I?
When we reached the cell, James flung the door open and unceremoniously dumped me inside. My body hit the cold floor with a dull thud, and he stood in the doorway, his silhouette framed by the harsh light of the hallway.
“Damn kid,” he muttered. “Snapped again… just like last time.”
He lingered for a moment, his eyes distant, haunted by the memory of my previous rampage. The destruction, the chaos—it had been burned into his mind like a brand. He clenched a hand to his chest, fighting the dread that gripped him, then exhaled sharply and slammed the cell door shut. The sound echoed in the empty hallway as he turned on his heel and strode away.
In the suffocating darkness of the cell, my mind drifted, unmoored from the world. My body felt weightless, my consciousness untethered. The pain dissolved into nothingness, and for the second time today, I found myself floating—floating through an endless expanse of stars, galaxies, and shimmering comets.
The vast beauty of the universe unfolded before me, a symphony of light and motion that seemed to exist solely to soothe my fractured mind. For a fleeting moment, I felt at peace.
This… this isn’t real, I thought, my voice echoing in the void briefly. But it feels better than the truth.
The stars pulsed brighter, their glow intensifying as if reacting to my thoughts.
“I’ve been trapped here for years,” I murmured, my words both distant and close. “Tortured in the name of finding a cure.”
The memories surfaced like jagged shards of glass, slicing through the calm. “My name is Edwin. The guard is James McCain. That’s all I know… but it’s not enough.”
The stars around me flared, their light growing too intense to bear. I clenched my eyes shut, but the brightness seeped through. My thoughts spiraled deeper.
“Who was it?” I whispered into the void. “Who took over my body?”
The realization struck like a thunderclap, bitter and cold. This body—my body—had been hijacked, commandeered by something far more sinister than I could understand. I felt like a stranger, not just in the sterile lab but in my own skin.
"Who was it that took over my body?"
The stars exploded into a blinding white, and my consciousness plunged into silence once more.
———///////———
Pain greeted me before consciousness fully returned. I groaned, my body feeling as though it had been shattered and clumsily reassembled. The icy floor beneath me seemed to mock my frailty, each breath sending a jolt of discomfort through my chest. My throat was a wasteland, raw and cracked, and hunger gnawed at me with relentless cruelty, like a beast that refused to be silenced.
I shifted onto my side, curling up in a futile attempt to escape the agony. It didn’t help. Nothing ever did.
How long has it been since I’ve eaten?
Grrrr—
The growl of my stomach echoed in the stillness, a cruel reminder of how little time mattered here. Days, weeks, maybe even months could’ve passed, and I wouldn’t know the difference. Time was a phantom, slipping through my fingers before I could grasp it.
Through the haze of hunger and pain, a fleeting thought broke through. Forcing myself to move, I shoved aside the threadbare rug that served as my excuse for a bed. Beneath it, scratched into the floor, was a date: 5 AA, Month 8, Day 7.
It’s something, I thought, staring at the crude inscription. But the glimmer of hope was quickly drowned by doubt.
Was that the day I was brought here? Or does it mean something else?
Frustrated, I covered the marking again and collapsed back onto the rug. The thin fabric barely offered a barrier between me and the unyielding floor, but I couldn’t summon the energy to care. My head throbbed as my mind spiraled, fixating on the cryptic date.
AA… what does that stand for? My thoughts raced, desperate for answers. Albert’s Agenda? I laughed bitterly, the sound hollow in the empty cell.
“What the hell does it mean?” I whispered to no one.
Suddenly, the echo of approaching footsteps snapped me out of my thoughts. They were faster this time, more urgent. I scrambled to the door, pressing my ear against it. Voices filtered through the thick metal—one male, one female. The woman sounded angry, her words sharp and clipped.
Then, silence.
My heart pounded as the footsteps grew louder. I stumbled backward, panic rising like bile in my throat. The door slammed open with a metallic clang, revealing James, his face twisted in a scowl.
“I hope I don’t have to see her again anytime soon,” he muttered under his breath, his tone dripping with disdain. His cold gaze settled on me, and his voice turned harsh. “Alright, kid. Same as every day. Let’s get you ready for your next set of tests.”
Fear washed over me, smothering the hunger that had consumed me moments ago. My stomach twisted into knots, and my voice came out hoarse and trembling. “I can’t,” I said, barely above a whisper. “I feel sick. There’s a hole in my stomach, my heart’s racing, and my head feels like it’s going to explode. I… I can’t go.”
James raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “You don’t have a choice. Councilor Albert’s orders.”
That was it. Something inside me snapped. “I’m not going back to that lab!” I shouted, the words ripping from my throat. “It’s not a test—it’s torture!”
James shrugged, his indifference cutting deeper than any scalpel. “Why should that matter to me?”
My breath caught. He didn’t care. None of them did. To them, I wasn’t a person—I was an experiment, a subject. I looked around the tiny cell, its bare walls and cold floor the only reality I’d ever known. For all I could remember, I might’ve been born here, raised in this prison of pain and hopelessness.
It felt suffocating.
My voice dropped, hollow and broken. “Is there any chance you’d just kill me?”
James smirked, a twisted, humorless thing. “There’s always a chance. Is that what you want?”
I hesitated, my mind clouded with fragments of memories—or perhaps the lack of them. “I don’t even remember anything from before yesterday,” I admitted. “I don’t remember faces… I don’t remember me.”
James tilted his head, his tone flat and detached. “Not surprising. We’re not allowed to get close to you. Councilor Albert doesn’t want any… incidents.” His lips curled into a smug grin. “Besides, I like my job. It’s easy: keep an eye on you, and take you to him when he needs you. After that, you’re his problem, not mine.”
His words were a slap, sharp and final.
“C’mon now, we’re wasting time.” Without warning, James grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. Pain shot through my body as he dragged me out into the corridor. My legs barely supported me, and I stumbled, but he didn’t slow down.