She breathes in.
And out.
Then in again.
And out.
391 repeats the action over and over like a mantra, eyes closed, holding her hands out in front of her, trying to recreate how it felt when her powers came to life.
The burning...
Flames.
Power.
The rush.
Holding her breath, she attempts to force the feeling.
A second passes...
Peeking an eye open, she hopes for the best and finds...her hands remaining the same.
Pink skin. Creases on her palm...no flames.
Slumping, she leans back against her pillows and sighs.
It had been two weeks since she accidentally killed Doctor Archelm.
Not a moment passes where she didn't feel like a monster...but only because she no longer felt guilty about it. His cries and moans of pained haunted her, sure, but the fact that she'd taken his life away didn't.
He'd hurt her.
He'd hurt 254 for years.
He deserved it.
What did that say about her? To feel so coldly towards killing a man?
254 tried to assure her it was normal but she could see the concern in his eyes.
She hadn't been punished for it either, surprisingly. When she had woken up she half expected herself to be hanging from the ceiling like 254 had been but instead, they were both in their room.
254 told her it's because Doctor Pencil Neck – or Frank Arkson as she knew him by – wasn't as harsh as Archelm. Had it been the other way around and Frank died instead...254 hadn't finished his thought on the matter.
Speaking of 254, she glances over at his empty bed.
He wasn't in the room, having been taken for his weekly check up.
"Why do they still test you?" she'd asked him once.
He'd shrugged. "My guess it's to find out why I survived when others haven't. And to see if my abilities are changing."
"Oh." She hadn't known how to respond, but she had wondered if they'd had a breakthrough with their research and that's why she'd survived it.
And not only had she survived it, she'd also become like him.
Superhuman.
Staring at her hands, she lets out a shaky breath.
It was almost unreal.
Both amazing and terrifying.
She could do this extraordinary thing...
But she couldn't control it.
The door unlocking makes her jump and hide her hands in her lap like a child caught doing something they shouldn't.
254 steps in, gives her a quirk of his lips before heading over to his bed.
"391, your turn," Frank's heavy accent meets her ears.
KAMU SEDANG MEMBACA
Lab Rat(18+)
Romansa. Three years. It had been three years since he'd been taken, experimented on, had his DNA altered and became a freak of nature. He knew because he'd managed to peek at the computer when they dragged him into that dreaded room; the one the...
