Experiment X

CHAPTER
10

The white lights bore down on him, stark and clinical, casting harsh shadows that twisted the sterile room into a hollow, pitiless space. Specimen X lay bound, bare, on the cold table, his wrists and ankles restrained with heavy metal cuffs that could not have held him, had he truly wanted to be free. He stayed, nonetheless, allowing the scientists their sadistic pleasures, the needles and blades a small price he would pay now—only so he could exact the real price later.

His body was a map of shallow, fresh incisions, each one closing almost as soon as the blade had sliced through his skin. They enjoyed watching it, fascinated by how his healing ability responded instantaneously, how his flesh knitted itself together seamlessly. One of them, a wiry man with gray hair and a twisted smirk, jabbed a needle just a little too hard into his arm, twisting it with unnecessary force.

"Look at that, an automatic response," the scientist muttered, clearly more to himself than anyone else. "Extraordinary. His cells absorb damage like nothing we've ever seen."

They spoke as though he were an inanimate object, as though he couldn't hear every word, feel every slash of the blade, every prick of the needle. Their words, their voices, felt like another form of torture altogether—a stream of endless, casual cruelty that dripped venom into his bones.

Through it all, he held his silence, his expression a mask of indifference. He had long since mastered the art of concealing his pain, of drawing a curtain over his suffering and presenting only a calm, unyielding facade. They didn't deserve the satisfaction of his agony. He'd rather have burned than show a flicker of the pain he felt, his body alight with the sting of fresh wounds.

Another scientist leaned in, his eyes gleaming with that cold, academic interest. "Doesn't flinch, doesn't cry out," he remarked, almost admiringly, as though Specimen X were some masterpiece of biological engineering. "Almost as if he's numb to it."

"He's not," the lead scientist said with a sneer, his hand moving deftly as he traced a scalpel down Specimen X's chest. "This one feels everything. He just thinks he's strong enough to pretend he doesn't." There was a twisted satisfaction in the man's voice, a hint of malice that seemed to seep into the room, staining the air.

Specimen X's eyes narrowed, though he kept his expression impassive. Each word, each mocking comment, deepened the simmering rage that coiled tightly within him, a venomous snake waiting to strike. Someday, he told himself. Someday, every one of them would pay for this—this degradation, this mockery, this perversion of the dignity he should have been allowed as a sentient being. He had the power to tear through them, to rip these restraints apart as though they were no stronger than paper, but he held back, biding his time.

Even in the midst of his rage, another thought lingered at the edges of his mind, unbidden and unwelcome. Aria. The one person in this cold, sterile world who had looked at him with something other than scorn or scientific interest. She was different; he had sensed that from the moment she had entered his cell, her movements tentative yet resolute, her eyes wide behind those heavy glasses, as though she were seeing something more than a mere specimen.

He despised himself for thinking of her, for allowing even a sliver of his focus to stray from the anger that was his shield in this moment. But she had planted herself in his mind, a quiet, persistent presence that he could not shake, no matter how hard he tried. Her absence now felt like a strange ache, an emptiness he could not explain, and he cursed himself for it. She was still human, still one of them, and yet...

The thought trailed off, replaced by a renewed surge of anger as another needle plunged into his forearm. He suppressed a flinch, his jaw clenching as the burning liquid seeped into his veins, setting them alight with an agonizing heat that radiated outward, scorching his insides. But his face remained impassive, his eyes hard and unyielding, giving nothing away.