I stumble forward, my body still shaking from the battle. The remnants of the beast's power course through me, but exhaustion weighs heavily on my limbs. The fight is over, but the emptiness that follows victory is like a void in my chest. It's hard to say what drives me forward now—perhaps it's curiosity, or maybe I'm just running on instinct, moving because it's the only thing I know how to do anymore.
The metal doors in front of me slide open with a hiss, revealing a starkly different scene from the blood-soaked chambers I've fought through. I step into a brightly lit room filled with flashing screens and rows of computers. It's a control room. The lights are harsh and sterile, blinding after the dimly lit floors below. But the real shock is the people.
Humans.
Their eyes widen in terror the moment I step inside. There are about a dozen of them, all in lab coats, their faces pale as they look at me. They know what I am—what I've become. I can see it in their eyes, the fear, the realization that the nightmare they created has come to life and is standing right in front of them.
For a moment, I just stand there, breathing heavily, covered in blood—mine, the beast's, and the blood of every creature I've fought and killed to get here. My heart pounds in my chest, but my mind feels strangely calm. The hunger, the all-consuming need to devour, is gone, but there's still a drive deep inside me. A need for answers. A need to finish this.
I take a step forward, and that's when the panic starts.
One of the lab workers screams, dropping the tablet he's holding and scrambling toward the nearest exit. Others follow suit, their chairs clattering to the floor as they rush to get away from me. They trip over each other, some slamming into the walls, others trying to activate some sort of escape hatch or lockdown mechanism. Their hands fumble with the controls, their movements frantic, uncoordinated.
But it's too late.
I don't even need to try.
In an instant, I'm at the door. With a swipe of my bloodied hand, I slam the lockdown button, sealing the room with a metallic *clunk*. The doors hiss shut, trapping them inside with me. They realize what I've done, and their eyes dart around the room in desperation, like caged animals looking for a way out. But there's no escape.
One of them—a man with thinning hair and glasses—makes a last, feeble attempt to reason with me. He stumbles forward, his hands shaking as he raises them in a placating gesture.
"W-we didn't know... we didn't know what would happen!" he stammers. "Please! Let us go! We were just following orders!"
Orders. The word hangs in the air, hollow and meaningless. It doesn't matter. None of this matters.
The hunger may be gone, but the *anger* remains.
I move without thinking. My claws extend, slick with blood, and the next thing I know, his body is crumpling to the floor, his neck a mess of torn flesh. The others scream, trying to flee, but I'm faster. Much faster.
The control room becomes a slaughterhouse.
Blood splashes across the screens and walls, painting the sterile white of the room with deep crimson. The workers are nothing more than fragile, breakable things—no different from the monsters I fought on the floors below. I tear through them with ease, each one barely registering as they fall before me. Their screams die in their throats as my claws rip through their flesh, their bodies collapsing like broken dolls.
I don't feel the same hunger, but there's something satisfying about the simplicity of it. They're helpless. Powerless. They trapped me here, turned me into this… and now, they're paying for it.
A man tries to crawl under one of the desks, but I drag him out, his legs flailing as I lift him off the ground and tear him in half with a single motion. Another, a woman with wide, terrified eyes, makes it to the far wall, pounding on the metal in a vain attempt to escape. I'm on her in a second, her bones snapping like twigs beneath my hands.
It's over in minutes. The bodies lie scattered across the floor, their blood seeping into the cracks of the cold, metallic ground. The sound of their heartbeats has stopped. The room is eerily silent once more.
I stand in the center of the carnage, breathing heavily, my chest rising and falling with each ragged breath. The control room is bathed in red—from the blood, from the flashing lights of the emergency alarms that blare uselessly now.
And then I see it.
One of the monitors flickers, catching my attention. It's a screen I hadn't noticed before, tucked away in the far corner of the room. As I step toward it, the static clears, and words flash across the screen in stark white letters against a black background.
*SUBJECT 345: FOUND IN ALLEY, HEADLESS*
I freeze, my heart hammering in my chest as I read the words again. My mind struggles to process what I'm seeing, what it means. I read the next line.
*STATUS: DEAD ON ARRIVAL*
I stare at the screen, my thoughts a jumbled mess. Dead? No… I'm not dead. I'm here. I'm alive. I *survived* everything they threw at me. I killed the monsters. I escaped the incinerator. I fought my way through this nightmare.
But the words on the screen don't lie. They continue flashing, stark and emotionless.
*PROCEDURE ATTEMPTED: REVIVAL FAILED*
There's more.
I take a step closer, my eyes scanning the text as the details begin to unfold.
They found me in some alley, headless. A corpse. I was already gone by the time they brought me to this lab, but they tried anyway. They experimented on me. Injected me with things. Strength. Power. None of it worked.
They threw me in the incinerator because I was useless. Just another failed experiment.
And then… *I grew a head*.
I blink at the screen, trying to comprehend the words. *They didn't do this to me.* Whatever happened, whatever I am now, it wasn't part of their plan. It wasn't the result of their experiments.
*I just… came back.*
The screen flickers again, the last few lines of the report flashing before my eyes.
*SUBJECT DEMONSTRATED UNEXPLAINED REGENERATION*
*FUSION ATTEMPTS: 0*
They didn't merge me with a monster. They didn't *make* me into this.
I made *myself*.
A strange, hollow feeling settles in my chest as I stare at the screen. My memories are still a blur, fragmented pieces of a life I can't fully remember. But this… this is something I didn't expect. I wasn't their creation. They didn't build me. They found me, dead and headless, and whatever I am now… I *became* this on my own.
The experiments, the injections… none of it was responsible for what I've become.
I glance down at my hands, still slick with blood, the claws glinting in the dim light. The weight of the realization is staggering, but it also leaves me… curious. If they didn't turn me into this, then what *did*? What am I?
I turn away from the screen, my mind still reeling from what I've learned, but there's no time to dwell on it now. Not yet.
There's one last door in the control room—a final exit. I step over the bodies, the blood-slick floor squelching beneath my boots, and approach the door. It's massive, larger than any I've seen before, and it hums with energy. This is it. The final barrier between me and whatever lies beyond.
I press my hand against the scanner, and with a low, mechanical whirr, the door slides open.
For the first time since I woke up in that hellish lab, I see the sky.
It stretches out before me, a vast expanse of gray clouds tinged with the faintest hint of red. The air is cool against my skin, the scent of earth and something unfamiliar filling my lungs. The world outside is quiet—too quiet. But I don't care.
I step through the door, leaving the nightmare of the lab behind. The bodies, the blood, the monsters—it's all over.
But as I stand on the edge of the unknown, staring out at the horizon, I know that this is just the beginning.
There are still questions. Still mysteries.
And somewhere out there, the answers are waiting for me.