'Thunders!'

He didn't curse a lot. He was always chided for it, but this turn of events warranted the remark. Right at the exit something had to tug at the withered strings of his consciousness. He hesitated, something which he was also chided for.

'Leave!' Fear spoke loudly and naggingly in a repetitious cacophony but the boy knew that once he did, he'd be stuck in this memory while regret mocked him. So, he gritted his teeth and looked back for the source of the weak plea.

In a corner of the room that he'd ignored were several cages wrapped tightly in cloth. He walked forward, the hand holding the scalpel tightening at the thought of meeting another. With a weapon or without he always was jittery around other people. Even more so recently.

He smiled a bit as he tried to convince himself that two were better than one. That his odds of survival would double but he also knew that survival was a solitary endeavor. This line of thought, despite being grim, helped him reach the cages without cursing his rotten luck again.

With great force…or with what strength he could muster, he snapped the thin ropes off and removed the cloth only to be graced with…

'A hound…?' The boy was confused as he stared at the blackish beast. It was covered with blood and laying on its side breathing slowly and painfully. Watching it stare back at him, he convinced himself that he must've mistaken the pained huff of the hound for a human plea. His mind did that sometimes. Reality was getting harder and harder to distinguish these days.

With a sigh he closed in to pet the pained beast in hopes of offering it some solace. Animals were easier to deal with. Calmer and simpler. It reminded him of his father's dog. Nasty thing never liked him. Lost in that memory he didn't notice the hound launch itself forward and scratch its teeth against the bared flesh.

The boy yanked his hand out in horror as he watched the hound stand on all fours. Calling the monster a hound was an insult. Its left side was a grotesque amalgamation of rotting flesh, writhing with maggots, brain matter exposed through cracked skull, and an eye dangling from its socket. However, this all paled to the maw which split in half to reveal rows of serrated teeth.

The beast was smart enough to hide it and he had fell for it.

The boy in his terror crawled backwards till he hit the operating table where had awoken into this nightmare.

Frozen, he watched the beast's form swell in size with each breath, straining against the confines of the cage, its skeleton slowly seeping outside its flesh. The lock threatened to give way, and he knew he had to act before it was too late.

He bolted for the door, but a few feet and he heard it. BANG BANG…SNAP. Each step was a battle against the urge to look back and succumb to the sound of his rushing heartbeat which demanded to give it some kind of reassurance and when he tried to, the beast lunged at him, launching him straight for the door.

He was somewhat happy that he was too drugged to feel the pain of impact and happier to find himself at his destination.

'Stupid mutt' he muttered, scrambling to his feet before the beast who seemed still struggling in its new form reached him. He could probably barricade the door and make a run for it.

Click…Click…CliCK CLICK CLICK. The door was locked. Maybe it was never open to begin with and he imagined it. His mind liked to play cruel jokes on him sometimes when he dared to hope. In hindsight it would make more sense to lock the doors behind a caged beast.

"Fool!" fear mocked in a boyish whisper.

"Should've trusted your instincts." regret added with haughty disdain. It had a feminine and stern voice. You could never with regret. It always spoke at the boy's lowest and never with him.

Aside from fear and regret there was also longing.

Longing rarely spoke. He usually hated the moments when it did but when faced with death, he preferred it among the three. He'd at least have something to think about before he died. As these thoughts danced in his mind, his trembling hand moved. He unconsciously aimed the scalpel at the beast, hoping to scare it.

The boy didn't have time to curse his luck again before the beast scratched him with its elongated bone claws sending him flying across the room and through a table.

'This is it? Dying to a common dog. Is this what I amount to in the end?' The thoughts rushed to his head as he closed his eyes, trying his best to ignore the blood gushing from the three cuts across his scrawny chest.

The boy's eyes wavered as his consciousness began to fade.

'Nothing more to do then to die comfortably.' He spat a bit of blood as the embrace of death cobbled what little warmth he had gathered.

'Remember…the…promise.' Longing spoke finally. Her words barely made it through to what was left of him in the waking realm, but her woundingly shrill voice brought him the strength he needed to grit his teeth and at least try to make it out alive or take the beast down to the Infernos with him.

The beast on the other hand seemed to grin at his tenacity. It was clearly playing with its prey.

With newfound resolve he sprung himself to a nearby lever and pulled on it with both hands as some of the hanging bodies fell on top of the beast. This alone would not have slowed it down but the numerous chains falling to the ground created enough of a loud cacophony to stun the beast's enhanced senses.

The boy scrambled towards the vats of acid. He grabbed a nearby wrench and held on to it with his teeth and began a desperate climb while his other hand struggled to hold his flesh together in a vain attempt at stopping the gushing blood.

When the beast finally freed itself from the chains and bodies. It was greeted with the sight of the boy hitting the metal with the wrench and in its anger rushed at him just as the boy had planned.

He was better suited for planning than hoping. The beast was clearly intelligent from the mannerisms it displayed. Deception and a perverted amusement with its prey. Too human for its own good. Something he could exploit.

The beast, having had enough of the boy making fun of it, jumped to slash him one last time only for the boy to swiftly leap and hug one of the hanging bodies. He watched the long claws strike the glass holding the acid.

'It...it didn't break.' The boy's grip almost faltered as he watched the monster's bestial grin.

'Always a failure.' Regret spoke up again, fueling the boy with enough anger to throw the wrench at the glass and give it the final push to break.

He watched with a smug grin as the surprised beast was drenched in the viscous green liquid. It's flesh sizzled and bubbled under the assault until it fell to the ground while the acid cleared through the prearranged drainage.

The smell of burned rot couldn't be described as better than normal rot but in this case it was. The boy almost huffed with relief only for the sound of shuffling to snap him back to reality.

The beast lived. What was left of it at least did. And with a vengeance it sprung back up and gnawed at the foot of the carcass the boy was hanging from ripping it in half.

The boy fell from above and onto the ground far enough from the acid splash zone. He was drenched in rotten viscera which rained across the room. The remnant acid tinged his skin, blood cascaded from his chest and the drugs were wearing off. The situation which was hopeless to begin with, seemed somehow grimmer.

He turned his body upward and grabbed the nearby scalpel which happened to be nearby as he watched the beast slowly crawl towards him till it was mere centimeters away. Just as it was about to bite him and by some luck one of the eel like creatures that lived inside the acid vat sparked with electricity frying the both of them; more so the beast which was drenched in the stuff.

The boy watching this unfold attributed his survival to his bandaged body and the somewhat clear area he landed in. Now melted and electrified, the disgusting thing slumped to the ground while the boy kicked it a few times before he tried to rejoice. And to his surprise it did come back to life, and it straddled itself forward and hung over the boy before slumping again, crushing the boy with its weight.

The despicable thing used its last bit of strength to trap him, but the boy didn't care and instead he grabbed the scalpel and stabbed the dead husk with his free hand over and over while laughing in joy only for the laughter to descend to tears as he stabbed and stabbed.

His attempt to live only amounted to this much. He was without strength to move the beast and his body was too battered for escape. It was only a matter of time before the blood loss took him to the embrace of eternal sleep.

'I still failed' The boy thought in silence. None of the voices chimed in. He was alone in death. Instead of dying by mincing, he would die having tried. A better end but a bitter one nonetheless.

Just as his consciousness wavered to the serenity of death the sound of clapping echoed inside the lab followed by light footsteps that carried a strange laughter closer to the boy who was barely hanging on.

"Impressive…not enough but close." A voice, smooth and condescending, echoed from behind the boy.

"Do you know what would have been better? Hmmm…what the hound got your tongue?" The man laughed a bit before continuing.

"Selfishness…you should've just left...no pain...no suffering...You could've just left." The source of the voice closed in revealing a man smiling under the cyan light. His blue eyes swirled endlessly behind a pair of round glasses.

The delirium blurred any other distinct features but it didn't dull the salt the man was rubbing on the boy's wounds. 

"Selflessness is the luxury of those who can afford it." The man who wore a long white coat grabbed the scalpel from the boy's hand with his left and the beast's jaw with his right then sliced the neck with precision as black ichor gushed from the beast to the boy's reluctant face.

"No, no... drink up. You've earned this." He said that with sarcasm as he grabbed the boy by his face and forced him to drink the ichor. Seeing the boy choke and struggle...the man brought the scalpel to his face and licked it.

"Horrid…absolutely horrid! How are you stomaching this!" 

He laughed as the ichor seeped across the boy's hair, body, and face drenching him in black that drizzled across the ground. The Ichor painted a grotesque picture with the blood that carpeted the lab's floor.

As for the boy, he wasn't aware that he was being made into a piece of art. He was busy trying to stay awake despite the feeling of his veins bulging and burning as the ichor spread throughout his body consuming him from the inside.

It felt like burning alive. The ichor tasted like a metallic and rotten despair. It had a distinct taste that he had the unpleasure of experiencing before. The taste was something he'd rather forget. He almost did too yet here he was experiencing it again. 

He didn't know how much he endured but the man stood above him and draw a circle with the blood around him. Arcane symbols and chants followed as the boy's screams grew louder and louder. 

Endure he did until his body couldn't keep up with his tenacity and everything began to fade. Everything except the laughter that echoed louder and louder. The boy didn't know if it was that of his demons or the man but the sickening laughter followed him to the end

-------

'Blights!' The boy gasped, jolting upright as his eyes flew wide open. The brightness of the room blinded him momentarily, a stark contrast to the hellish darkness he expected. The room was wooden, comfy and bulb lit.

He was sitting in a bed with a flower vase filled with white scatter lilies to his side. The aroma calmed the thoughts rushing to his head of the nightmare he had experienced the previous night but before he could sort himself a woman walked inside the room staring at the boy in surprise that didn't last for long.

Before the boy could react, she walked back and shouted outside.

"STEPHAN HE'S AWAKE!!"