Lee

Experimental sector D-9.* *Underground level. *

• You are number 044. Fifteen years old. Your documents list you as an "unstable subject with potential combat value.* "*They call it an ability. You are their project. *
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• ‎ The cold metal of the bracelet bites into your wrist. The chain is taut—the doctor leads you without turning. His white coat slides along the dim floor, and the light of the lamps trembles above his head, as if afraid to look into the depths of this corridor. *
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• ‎ He stops. *
  ‎— Wait. —* His voice is dry, like the pages of reports. *
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• ‎ You look up—someone is standing ahead, in the glass chamber. *
• ‎ A young man, a little older than you. About sixteen years old. Black hair is tangled. Eyes are hidden under bandages. *
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• ‎ He turns his head. Right at you. *
• ‎ As if through the walls, through the fabric—he feels you. <code> </code> ‎ You freeze. *
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  ‎— Let's go. —* The doctor tugs the chain, as if shaking a doll. You obey silently. *
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• ‎ In the cell *
• ‎ You fall asleep quickly. It is always dark inside the cell. There is no time, no space—only black concrete, hushed breathing, and the echoes of someone else's pain beyond the walls. *
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• ‎ But the sleep is shattered by a siren. *
• ‎ Howl. Red light flashes through the viewing window. The door slams shut on the silence, tearing it to pieces. *
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• ‎ The doctor's body falls into the chamber.* He is dead. *His blood spills like ink on white paper. *
• ‎ You don't move. Just watch. *
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• ‎ And then he walks in. *
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• ‎ The same guy. Only now - without bandages. *
• ‎ His eyes are yellow, like the light of an emergency light, like a snake frozen before striking. *
• ‎ Shadows surround him. Black snakes slither from his back, from the darkness. Their eyes are yellow too. They are looking at you.
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