I felt the days slipping away as I lay in the sick bay of the facility.

Every hour brought me closer to the inevitable, every day marked another step towards the abyss.

Time was mocking me, letting me taste a brief respite before dragging me back to the torture chamber.

The only light in this darkness was Lana, the nurse who had saved my life and healed my wounds.

She looked at me with sadness and fear in her eyes, as if she could sense the doom that hung over me.

She was silent today, knowing that words were useless and hollow.

We shared a heavy silence, broken only by the beeping of the machines.

I wanted to say something, anything, to ease the tension and express my gratitude.

I turned to her and spoke:” Thank you for everything Lana, you took care of me diligently and gently. You even talked to me every day easing the pain of losing my family and being stuck here. No matter what happens from now on Lana, I want you to always stay the same and treat me the same. No matter what I become I want you to always look after me and be the anchor to my sanity. Are you capable of that, Lana?”

She smiled faintly and took my hand in hers. “You don’t have to worry about any of that since I will always be here for you. Come hell or highwaters I will always be your anchor. It’s not only you who is saved by my presence I am also saved by yours. I only want one thing from you Xeno and that is for you to fight till your last breath and survive.”

Lana hugged me tightly and after she let go, she then began to peel off the bandages that covered my skin.

I felt a surge of pain and relief as the air touched my flesh. I looked at myself and saw only a few scars left from the wounds that had almost killed me. The scars were a sign of my recovery, but also of my doom. It meant that I had outlived my usefulness in the sick bay and that I had to face the horror that awaited me in the facility.

I barely had time to say goodbye to Lana when three guards barged in and grabbed me by the arms. They pulled me away from her and dragged me towards the door. The door that I had always feared. The door that led to the drug production lab.

I didn't make a sound or struggle. I knew it was pointless. I let them take me to that place.

When permission was given the door opened and what I could see was a vivid nightmare.

The drug production lab was a nightmare of metal, wires, and tubes.

The lab was filled with machines that beeped, hissed, and whirred, monitoring the vital signs and brain activity of the human subjects. The subjects were strapped to metal tables, hooked to various devices that injected them with chemicals, stimulated their nerves, or altered their genes.

Some of them screamed in agony, some of them moaned in ecstasy, and some of them were silent and still.

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The lab was overseen by scientists in white coats and masks, who observed the results on screens and charts, taking notes and making adjustments. They ignored the cries and pleas of the subjects, treating them as nothing more than test subjects for their experiments.

As I stepped into the room, my eyes widened in horror at the sight before me.

However, before I could even process what was happening, a slimy voice cut through the air, piercing my soul.

It was the voice of the facility chief, the one responsible for all my misery, sporting a twisted smile that made my skin crawl.

He looked dignified in his lab coat, but his demeanor was anything but honorable.

“Look who the cat dragged in," he sneered.

"Why it's none other than Xeno! Nice to see you have recovered. I hope you had resigned yourself to what is coming!"

I tried to hide my panic-stricken face as I looked him straight in the eyes and replied in the most composed tone I could muster. "Oh, hello old man! Looks like you're still alive, too bad!"

He laughed, his eyes scanning my face. "Aren't you the least bit curious about what's going on here? Or at least curious about what I'm going to do to you?"

I feigned composure as I replied, "I think I do have an inkling of what's going on here. Let me take a shot at it and tell me if I'm correct or not, will you?"

He smirked, "Sure, go-ahead you brat, show me what you're made of!"

I took a deep breath and laid out my theory.

"This facility is a production and testing site for new drugs. It's an illegal and underground facility that aims to create superhumans that can fight against monsters. You also aim to create a way to mass-produce those humans so that you can create an army to achieve that goal."

The chief's eyes widened in surprise, but I wasn't done yet. "However, there's one thing that's still bothering me, and that I can't fit into this scenario, and that's the torture."

As I spoke those words, I could feel the tension in the room rise.

The chief's twisted smile faded as he spoke, revealing a sinister side that made my blood run cold.

"Smart, aren't you! You damn brat!" he sneered.

"Well, since you concluded this much all by yourself, I guess no harm will be done if I answer your question."

He leaned in closer, his eyes gleaming with a sick fascination. "Do you know, brat, what is the only thing that separates us from monsters? It's emotions!" he exclaimed.

"Even though some monsters do possess emotions, they don't usually rely on them as much as humans do. They rely more on their natural instincts."

He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in. "However, what do you think are the most powerful emotions that a human can feel? It's the negative emotions. Emotions such as pain, hate, murder, sadness, revenge, and confusion... Now, I'm not saying positive emotions are not powerful, however, they do not stick."

He paced around the room, his eyes never leaving mine. "You see, humans, in their nature, are people who forget all the positive emotions in their lives if only one negative emotion invades their mind. And to make it worse, those negative feelings keep haunting them all their lives."

He stopped in front of me, his face twisted in a sick grin. "A human can forget that he had an amazing day in a matter of minutes but can't forget the death of a loved one all their lives. And what do you think is the best way to bring out all those disgusting emotions at the same time? The answer is torture. Mental and physical torture."

My heart was pounding in my chest as I listened to his words. "You see, the combination of those negative emotions and the torture were discovered to be the key to human awakening. Even though we had some successful cases, no one survived because they were broken. That's why in this facility, we aim to torture the person to the brink of losing his sanity."

He let out a maniacal laugh, his eyes gleaming with a sick fascination. "Hahahahha, it's amazing! Humans are amazing! No matter how much I see them suffer, no matter how much I see them beg, it never gets old, and it never gets boring."

I felt sick to my stomach as he spoke, but I knew I had to keep my composure.

"Well, enough of all of this!" he exclaimed.

"Let's start with your first drug here in this facility. The first experiment to be done on you. Don't you dare die on me, brat! I have high hopes for youuuu."