Drip. Drip. Drip.
Blood pooled on the cold, steel floor beneath him, each droplet echoing in the sterile silence. Kai dangled from his restraints, arms stretched painfully above his head, his strength bled dry. His head slumped forward, and his blood painted the floor below.
Squinting against the light, he forced his heavy head to lift and caught a faint reflection on a nearby monitor. Dark hollow eyes stared back at him, framed by gaunt cheekbones and skin stretched too thin.
'Is that... really me?'
'And how long have I been in this hellhole?!' His head throbbed just thinking about it.
A soft, mocking chuckle cut through the silence. Kai's gaze drifted to Dr Nyx, who stood beyond the circle of flickering fluorescent light. His eyes, glinting behind thin-rimmed glasses, held a twisted fascination.
"You are something else." Nyx's voice carried an amused calm. "I've injected you with enough serum to kill you a thousand times over. Yet here you are, alive and kicking."
His pen scratched against his notebook, jotting down more observations. "Fascinating."
Kai's muscles tensed, anger simmering under his skin. 'Someday,' he promised himself, his thoughts sharp as a blade. 'Someday, I'll pay this psycho bastard back for this.'
Nyx's lips curled, as if reading his thoughts. "Ah, that fire in your eyes… That's why you're my favourite." He leaned in, voice dripping with amusement. "So full of defiance, even now. It's delightful."
Kai forced his head up, glaring with what little strength he had left, a dark promise in his stare. He spat weakly, the saliva falling short, but Nyx's chuckle only deepened.
"Time for your next dose." Nyx held up a syringe that gleamed menacingly under the lights. Within it was a viscous green substance that sparked and crackled like acid. With steady hands, he plunged the needle into Kai's neck. The familiar burn spread from the injection site, but Kai didn't flinch - he'd long stopped reacting to the pain.
Nyx watched, his face alight with scientific rapture as he monitored Kai's vitals on his screens. When the syringe was empty, he stepped back, admiring his work. "You never cease to amaze me," he murmured, almost fondly.
Losing himself in his experiments, Nyx jotted notes with rapid strokes as Kai's resistance to the serum defied every calculation. 'Why isn't he reacting like the others, even after all my refinements?' Nyx's fingers ruffled through his messy white hair, searching for answers.
'The gene should multiply and spread throughout his body - either harmonising with his body or causing immediate adverse effects. Yet even after enough serum to produce an army, his body is still... disgustingly mundane.'
It was both frustrating and exhilarating - the enigma that Kai presented.
The possibilities teased Nyx's mind, filling him with anticipation. If he could isolate Kai's unique resilience to neutralise the serum's side effects, he'd have a blueprint for true evolution - no more failed creations. The thought electrified him, his chest swelling with a strange, almost feverish elation.
A deranged laugh escaped him, reverberating through the sterile room.
Kai narrowed his eyes at the sight. 'This fucker definitely has a few screws loose.'
But before he could process anything further, Nyx turned, driving another needle into him.
"See you next time," Nyx muttered as darkness swallowed Kai whole.
The next thing Kai knew, guards were hauling him through a dark hall. They had unhooked him from his restraints with quick, skittish movements, their eyes darting away from his bruised form. Desperate to escape Nyx's presence, they hurriedly dragged Kai away and through the facility before flinging him into his cell. The door slammed shut with a metallic clang, and the lock clicked into place, sealing him in.
Kai hit the stone wall hard, his body sliding down to the floor, limbs sluggish from sedation.
'Back here again,' he groaned internally, struggling to remain conscious.
'If I ever get the chance-'
His thoughts cut off as pain flared in his chest, sharp and sudden. It slithered through his veins, setting his nerves alight, a fire blazing inside him.
'Is this it?' The thought drifted through his mind, surreal. 'After all this, am I finally dying?'
A bitter laugh almost escaped him. 'Survived this long, only to die like a dog in a cage?'
The pain intensified, consuming him whole. Darkness crowded his vision, his heartbeat a faint, fading drum. 'Nothing to live for... but scared of dying? How pathetic.'
His body convulsed, trembling violently as the agony spread to every inch of his body.
Then everything stopped, including his heartbeat...
-
Meanwhile, Dr Nyx's eyes were fixed on a monitor in his control room bathed in a dim, pale glow. His usual detached curiosity twisted into something darker as he watched Kai collapse, his body shaking wildly.
"No!" he bellowed, smashing down on his desk as he leant to look closer at the monitor.
Such an outburst was very out of character for the unnervingly calm maniac.
But this wasn't supposed to happen. Not with his favourite subject...
"Is he… breaking?"
The thought grated against his sense of control as he began chewing on his bottom lip. Kai was supposed to be different, the outlier in his sea of failed experiments. Nyx watched with bated breath, calculating the setback if his prized subject truly expired here and now.
Aside from all the serum, resources, and time that had gone into him, he was invaluable. Everything else could be reproduced or recovered, but finding another with such unique resistance was virtually impossible.
He had experimented on more people than he could count, and few warranted his attachment, with Kai at the very top of that list.
"No. Not yet. I will-" he sprung up, unwilling to let Kai out of his grip, but...
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A sudden blaring alarm ripped through the entire facility, shattering the silence.
Nyx froze, his mind racing. 'Intruders?'
For a fleeting moment, he glanced back at the screen, Kai's body lying still, lifeless. He couldn't afford such a large setback, with many of his hopes and plans revolving around Kai as a test subject.
Despite that, a guttural, deranged laugh escaped him, reverberating off the walls.
"Of course, they choose now to show up," he sneered, gaze flitting toward the flashing red lights. The chaos outside the room echoed down the halls, filling the previously silent facility with the din of footsteps and panicked voices.
Nyx's lips curled into a twisted smile. "Fine, then," he muttered, his tone laced with icy anticipation. "Let's deal with our guests. I'll use them as additional subjects, and I guess I'll just have to make do with his corpse."
"You," Nyx turned to one of the figures standing by the door. "Bring me Subject 357's body. Leave the others. They are replaceable and will be disposed of along with the rest of this facility once we move to the next."
Nodding his head, he left to do so without hesitation, as a series of Nyx's senior subordinates rushed into the control room. They waited silently, observing as Nyx chuckled to himself. He was as calm and twisted as always, the crack in his composure quickly being sealed.
'They found this place sooner than expected, but everything is still under control... My control!' His laughter depended, but his subordinates didn't react in the slightest. They had long grown used to Nyx's deranged side and began acting on the decisive orders that he barked at them.
'They'll handle the evacuation as I've planned and trained them to. In the meantime, I'll get to reunite with that pesky mutant and have some fun.'
As he turned to leave, he cast one last glance at the monitor, where Kai's still form remained motionless. "It's a shame I didn't get to break him, but oh well. On to the next, hahaha!"