A lonely figure stood amongst a floor of blood and guts, standing upright; this figure started to clean his bloody hands with his tongue, savoring every drop.
***
"Adam seems to be enjoying himself," Chris said with folded hands.
"I still can't get used to this," Nick said with folded arms.
"Don't worry; those feelings will fade before you know it. Our precious Adam is now perfectly ready for another dosage of divine, huh, if only Eve could keep up, well, I guess this is to be expected. She couldn't handle the first dosage like Adam, and we're short on time, so we have to make do with what we can." Sighing in disappointment, Chris fixed his gaze once more on his perfect specimen; filled with pride, he smiled.
"Well, on to the next," Chris said in excitement.
***
Finally finished, Cinder returned to his room, taking a shower to wash off the rest of the blood; settling on his bed, Cinder's lifeless eyes rested on the front door waiting for dinner. Five minutes later, Jess came walking in with a bottle full of white and grey pills; this was Cinder's diet now; a few months ago, Cinder threw up every dish without exception; he could no longer ingest regular food anymore.
Handing the bottle over, Jess quickly backed away before exiting with haste; she no longer conversed with Cinder anymore. Ever since Cinder's personalities agreed to become stronger, he became a different person; he spoke less and less as the days went by. The atmosphere around Cinder also changed, giving way to a deep coldness to any and all around him, not like Cinder bothered to notice these changes.
After swallowing every pill, Cinder went to sleep.
***
The following day, finishing his morning routine and breakfast, Cinder followed Nick to another new room with a transparent tank of grey liquid the same size as a fully grown human.
"Today will be your second dosage, I'm sure you noticed, but this time there's no syringe, all you have to do is climb in, and we'll do the rest," Nick said with flashes of excitement in his eyes.
Nodding, Cinder submerged himself within the unknown liquid.
"You might feel some slight discomfort," Nick said before closing the hatch.
Now all alone, Cinder began to feel bouts of excruciating pain like never before. With so much unbearable pain, any ordinary or non-normal being with pain receptors still functioning would scream in despair. Still, Cinder's expression never once change with the same dead look in his open eyes.
***
"66%, 67%, 68%, 6-." With utter excitement, Chris spoke out loud to himself as the numbers on the monitor kept rising faster and faster until.
"100%! YES! I knew it; I knew he wouldn't let us down; with this, Adam is one step closer."
Chris and Nick were both excited about this success, but what of Cinder?
***
Leaving the now empty tank, Cinder struggled to stand upright. After stabilizing, Cinder took deep breathes, trying to figure out what's changed, but he couldn't; he felt the same as before, so why did they make him do this? He couldn't understand.
Before delving deeper into the matter, the doors opened to reveal Nick.
"Congratulations, Adam, you pulled through."
"What did this accomplish?"
Even though Cinder didn't really care because he was still getting stronger from battling and killing other test subjects, Cinder couldn't help but wonder.
"Hmm, I guess I can enlighten you just a little. With this second dosage of divine in your system, we further unlocked your potential, but that's not all." Nick said while alluding to more but refusing to reveal any more.
"Fine, keep being cryptic." Cinder said in annoyance.
Getting all the answers, they were willing to share; Cinder followed Nick out. Finally back in his room with a fresh bottle of white, grey, and black pills?
'That's new.' Cinder thought while examining the black pills before ingesting them all.
***
Back in Chris's office, Chris and Nick were discussing the other projects, but it didn't look like all was going to plan with the looks on their faces.
"Project Heaven was a massive failure," Chris said in disappointment.
"Well, at least Project Purgatory has had some success," Nick said with some hope still within his eyes.
"Don't patronize me; some success isn't a true success, their Lilith is at best comparable to our Eve but nothing compared to Adam, and their Lucifer doesn't even match up to Lilith or Eve." Saying his peace, Chris returned his eyes to the monitor with Lilith's and Lucifer's data; with a deep sigh, Chris continued. "Their Lucifer has gone down the mutation path instead of the evolution path; he has more in common with the failures instead of Adam our one actual achievement. Lucifer's intelligence is further decaying as the days go by; huh, what a disappointment. We can only hope Adam can survive the nest dosage of divine if not;" with a cloudy look in his eyes, Chris spoke," We will all die."
"But, sir, what if Adam turns against us? Haven't you read up on his files? He doesn't exactly have a picture-perfect childhood; if anything, he will turn against us." Nick wanted to know how this tragic boy would become humanity's savior; with worry in his eyes, he couldn't help but ask.
"Simple really, we have the ultimate trump card, or should I say Achilles heel? If we have Adam's brother, all will be fine." Chris said with a dark and sinister expression.
With this revelation, Nick couldn't help but wonder, will we be humanity's undoing? By blackmailing it's savior.
***
Unknownbest to Cinder, who thought his little brother Leylin was getting the best treatment money could buy, why did he believe this? Simple really, with all the 'real' footage of Leylin going to school, going home, playing with friends, and enjoying his life, what naive young boy wouldn't believe them?
Maybe one day, when they released him or finally broke out, Cinder wouldn't be so naive as he once was. After taking a shower and brushing his teeth, Cinder went to sleep only to be haunted by hellish nightmares of his brother being tortured and experimented on by sadistic doctors and scientists to no end.
*****
Bonus Chapters
25 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
50 power stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
100 power stones = 4 Bonus Chapters
Hope you enjoyed it.
From your author RogueErebus.