Gren9's footsteps echoed on the floor as she navigated the path. There was something about her that turned the air heavy. Her silence a curiosity which begged the question of what was going on in that pretty little head at first.
A few minutes into the journey she stopped, something stirred within her expression. Quite literally as something really bubbled under the surface of her skin.
She didn't move a muscle as her tight lips turned into frown. But the left side of her mouth bent down a little too far, stretching down like it was melting off. Her eyes began to stir and the other one grew unnaturally large, right on the brink of popping out of it's socket.
Not just her face, but her whole body had started to contort every which way. Some of her joints turned a 180 while others stretched down like melting wax. At some point her ears had reached the bottom of her neck and she somehow lost an elbow.
Her mouth opened in an attempt to speak or scream, nobody could ever tell as a muffled gurgle came out.
Her now lengthened finger reached into her throat, pushing against its walls as it contorted the outside of her neck into its shape.
Finally she pulled her hand out slowly, bringing with it a wet, dripping, small ball of pink that people could only hope was her tongue which had detached itself.
In that moment her eyes glittered, as if she was looking at the most delicious little morsel the world could offer, opening those lips which were now lined with teeth to swallow it.
Pat! A hand held her shoulder. When she turned she was back to normal as if none of that had ever really happened. "Gren9 what are you doing?" It was Gary who was currently dragging behind him a sack cloth of squirming bodies.
"Oh nothing... I just had a very nice idea, where did you say they kept the other one we caught again?"
———
Gary watched her move away, delighted by whatever was in her mind, for some reason a chill went down her spine at the sight of her peer in such a mood, it seemed too unnatural.
She continued towards a storage in which she threw the struggling bodies before closing the place up.
As she turned, another clone was watching. "Oh hey Gren8."
"Hey..." This Gren was created during a particularly gloomy moment in their master's stay here. "You found the master?"
"Yeah... about that, she'd escaped." Gren1 scratched the back of her head.
"Did you see the missus directly?"
"Yes."
"Did she looks any different?"
"Not really... why?" She questioned.
"We've deconstructed several of the triple digit Grens in addition to 3, 5 and 6, she should've somewhat started growing back into her original form and age." Gren8 explained. "Either something's wrong with the process... or someone's..." Gren8's brows knitted together as she came to a possibly horrific conclusion.
"Where is Gren9 now?" Gren8 spoke solemnly as she clutched Gary's shoulders.
"She's heading towards the area we kept the other captive." Gren1 blurted.
Without another moment's notice she turned and left.
"H.. hey!! What are you talking about?" A worry started to emerge in her as she watched the disappearing back of her companion.
———
A room similar to the one Zhao Wei had been kept in earlier that day was opened. Gren9 waited at the entrance not making a single move. Suddenly a knife had stuck itself into her chest where a humanoid heart would be.
"You still haven't learned have you?" She reached down and grasped a little in front of the handle, catching on to wrist which had suddenly materialized as if from thin air, followed by an arm, torso, head and finally a large tail that replaced the lower body of a very old man.
But he wasn't his usual clean energetic self. Really, his body was grotesque just to look at. One of his eyes was swollen shut and his perfectly aligned jaw hung from one side only, giving a glimpse into his mouth which was bloody and missing a few teeth.
Moving down, a bruise ran around his neck in the shape of palm prints and one of his ribs was angled weirdly and pushing against his skin, a purple welt had attached itself to his right fore-arm with a high chance of going a darker shade over time.
"Can't blame a guy for trying," Jeff said as he sucked up some phlegm and shot a spit of snot, saliva and blood onto Gren9's chest, earning himself a smack to the face.
"Anybody ever tell you to respect your elders?" Jeff cackled.