Charles moved to another lab table where a notebook lay.
A quick scan told him it was filled with cruel methodologies, endless inhumane tortures subjected upon the test subject without letting him die.
The first page of the notebook read:
"The God says—
Kindness is the lock that seals power.
Anger and fear are the keys to unlock it."
Seemingly phrases rooted in theology and philosophy.
"Charles, come see this!"
Linda's shout from the other end of the room beckoned him. He walked over and saw what Linda was pointing at on the backside of the tank.
An electronic label:
"x-0008
Original body: Leopold (16 years old)
Adaptability: 98
Activity: High
Brainwave compatibility: 97
Mental cohesion: Excellent"
Leopold? That student expelled for a teenage love affair had been turned into this mass of chaotic nerves and blood vessels?
Linda felt her stomach churn, retched dryly a few times, and her face turned ashen.
"Intriguing. Leopold was used to create x-0008," Charles murmured, stroking his chin.
As he turned back, his eyes skimmed over a list of experiment participants, and he suddenly caught a few familiar names.
"Soren... Mufu... and Matthew?"
Just then, a chilling voice echoed from behind.
"I've found you!"
Charles and Linda whirled around to see Matthew, covered in blood and missing an arm, his face twisted in an unholy snarl.
He was brandishing an MP5. Astonishingly, there appeared to be a hidden tunnel under the table behind him.
"Bet you didn't expect this," he hissed."Against all odds, I made it in here!"
"My destiny is not to die, and for you two little miscreants... the game ends now!"
Matthew's eyes were bloodshot, somewhat hysterical, yet his trembling body signaled his terrible condition.
With the gun pointed at them, Linda instantly raised her hands, but Charles continued to amble casually.
"Stop! One more step and I'll shoot you!"
Matthew, in his weakened state, still managed to muster up a threat, but Charles simply shrugged.
"Go ahead, shoot! If you had bullets, you'd have fired them by now. I don't believe you can hold back."
Bang!
Matthew fired, hitting Linda in her left leg.
She let out a muffled groan, collapsed to the floor, clutching her leg and sobbed, "I didn't provoke you, why did you shoot me?"
"Ah, sorry!" Matthew stammered.
Once again, he aimed at Charles, his expression malevolent. But severe blood loss had started to affect his vision; he was seeing double.
Bang!
Linda's leg was hit again.
"My leg!" Linda screamed.
Matthew: "…"
Charles: "…"
.....
"Alright, you've tricked us once, and we've tricked you once. We're even now," Charles said, smiling gently. "So, what can you offer us?"
Matthew approached Charles, gun in hand.
"Since you're here, you must have a general idea of what's going on. Yes... we're responsible for all this, including the curse on this school. If you want to leave, you must find a way to break the curse."
Matthew moved toward anothercontainer. Its material was so specialized that not even armor-piercing bullets could leave a mark.
Just as he was about to manipulate the controls, Charles stopped him.
"If you shut down the machine, x-0008 will lose its energy supply. The ghosts in the mist outside will flood in. Do you think you can withstand their assault?"
Matthew's eyes were shadowy, his complexion ashen.
"As long as the life pod for x-0008 is shut down, causing the riotous ghosts to perish, the remaining mutants will pose little threat. The organization will send someone to lift the curse and clean everything up.
I've been part of this experiment and possess core data they don't have. The Blood Moon Tower won't abandon me easily."
Charles retorted, "You're deluding yourself. If you were truly valuable to them, they would have sent someone to rescue you by now.
You must be able to contact them, yet no one has come to help.
Trusting in Blood Moon Tower to save you is less reliable than trusting us. At least for now... we're all in the same boat."
Matthew's eyes bulged red with rage as he jammed the muzzle of the MP5 against Charles' forehead, teeth clenched, and spat out:
"Shut your mouth! Speak another word, and I'll blow your brains out!"
Charles' eyes remained unfazed. The corners of his mouth twitched into a grotesque, chilling grin.
"Being abandoned feels terrible, doesn't it? You've been loyal like a dog, and look where it's got you.
They promised you the moon when they needed you, and tossed you aside like trash when they didn't.
So, do you want to live or not? Right now, we're your only chance. Kill me, and you're essentially killing yourself."
Matthew's hand trembled on the grip of the gun; his breathing heavy and erratic.
Linda watched the tense standoff, terrified that a slip could result in Charles' head being blown off.
Eventually, Matthew closed his eyes in agony. He lowered the gun.
Exhausted, he slumped to the ground, his visage of savagery replaced by one of utter defeat. He fumbled a cigarette into his mouth and lit it, filling the air with smoke that momentarily dispelled the tension.
"I look pretty pathetic now, don't I?" Matthew let out a hollow laugh as he exhaled.
Linda, clutching her wounded leg, limped over. "You dare to call yourself pathetic? What about the students you've tortured, the families you've ruined, and these neural endings in the tank? Aren't they more pathetic than you?"
Matthew took a long sigh and leaned his head against a cabinet, his eyes vacant. He smoked another cigarette in quick succession, his face visibly aging within moments.
"My son is in their hands," he said.
"My wife died of cancer seven years ago. Her dying wish was for me to take care of our son. I've failed my wife. Now, I'll be failing my son too."
Matthew erupted into a maddened laughter. Linda thought of the letter to the daughter they'd found earlier on a severed hand outside.
She asked, "So, Blood Moon Tower controls the wives and children of all of you?"
Matthew closed his eyes, his breathing growing fainter, tossing the gun aside.
"What else could it be?"