Just so you know, I know nothing about the experiment, chemicals, or the Russian language. Please enjoy, and if you have any ideas, let me know.

He was innocent. He was innocent. These words swirled through his mind faster than the Siberian wind stinging his face. They were taking him up to the site. The place where the experiment was to take place.

He blinked ice crystals out of his eyes. They had kidnapped him for this. He had to help them do the impossible, or else they would kill him. It was crazy, really. Cheating death? Truly impossible. He had to fake helping his abductors. They would hardly know the difference; he was a genius for fourteen and nobody he knew was more intelligent. This actually was the reason they had taken him, he knew.

The leader pointed wordlessly at a line drawn crudely in the snow with red paint. "Work."

The boy knew he meant him. He was pushed down on the ground by the others. Staring at the line, he asked in a small voice, "So you want me to make you immortal?"

The leader laughed without humor. "Of course. Now work your magic and we won't make you disappear from the rest of the world."

The boy gulped audibly. He thought for a moment. "Go in the – what's it called – a loop? And then… I'll do it." They had briefed him before, but only enough so he could work.

They didn't have to know what exactly he would do. In fact, he was completely lying through his chattering teeth. This way, he might have a chance at escaping.

The leader crossed the line first, apparently entering the loop. The rest followed. One stayed behind to watch him.

He messed around here and there, working with the chemicals they had given him. Turning so the guarding man couldn't see what he was doing, he switched out the bromine vial for chlorine. He didn't see what either of the chemicals could do to create immortality, but it didn't matter. In the highly unlikely chance that the experiment would work, the swap of chemicals would create some sort of change in the test, stopping it and leaving him free to escape.

He made a point of spreading the chlorine around the red line painted in the snow. He then proceeded with the more complicated parts of the experiment, knowing that very few people could ever comprehend what they were.

After nearly a half hour of working, with the rest of his captors somewhere invisible behind the line (for there was no other reason for their disappearance, right?), he stood up and massaged the cold from his fingers. "Done," he said to his guard.

The guard didn't bother to grunt anything more than "Do it then."

The boy, holding his breath and knowing that they were watching and waiting from somewhere unseen, lit the fuse.

"Three, two, one…"

The flame traveled down the rope and hit one thing, then another, until the chlorine pretending to be bromine made contact.

It was unlike anything he had ever seen; the line burst upward with black fire, spiraling into the sky and spreading into the far reaches of his vision; he couldn't hold back a gasp. The boy stumbled, feeling the fire covering everything, realizing that the chlorine switch had bigger aftereffects than he had imagined. How was it possible? It wasn't; science told him that there was no way this could happen. But here it was.

There's one last part. The coils.

The coils were equipment designed to discharge a hundred volts of electricity on the flame's command. They had placed them under the snow six inches for about a mile in each direction with the two ends sticking out. He had no idea what they would do now.

Five. Four. Three. Two.

BOOM.

But he was innocent….

His POV

Agony. That's the first thing I remembered.

And hunger. Hunger that overtook every other instinct.

I was hungry. Hungry things eat.

I crawled out of the crater. There was smoke in the cold air. I ignored my surroundings. I did not question how I had arrived there. And I was hungry. Naturally I followed the bigger ones to Food.

Food was small, skinny, pale things a bit away, hiding in buildings and screaming. Food was scared.

I liked the smell of scared.

Did I? Did I like scared?

I shook my head to clear it. Yes. I loved scared.

Food was scared. I followed the smell of fear to a campsite. Food was inside. The others of my group had not reached it yet. Maybe if I ate I wouldn't be in pain anymore. I poked my head inside. I was hungry for Food.

Innocent….

What? What was innocent? That was enough to make me pause. Slowed my tentacles shooting out. Kept me from eating. Relieving my pain.

I shot out again, but the lingering spark in an otherwise cloudy mind made me slow enough to lose my upper hand on my Food. It came out from behind the furniture with a hand-carved, wooden baseball bat, looking fearfully at a space next to me. I wondered if it could see. It swung the bat at that space, and I could see a shadow – my shadow – right where the target was.

The next instant, the baseball bat kept swinging on, and I was hit hard in the head. Any doubts were washed from my mind.

I had to eat. Needed to eat. Depended on the fact that I would be in endless suffering as long as I didn't get my fill.

I came at Food again, lashing out my tongues at it. The shadow on the wall moved in time with me.

"Hollowgast! Gospodi, pomogi mne!" it screamed.

Hollowgast. Hollow soul. I knew that meant me. Just then, the bigger ones of us arrived. They tore up the Food before I could lay a hand on it. I watched as they fought for it, splattering blood everywhere.

Why did you take Food from me? I snarled. They did not pay attention. I was smaller and they were busy. Now I had no meal. The torture grew stronger.

Even so, I found myself looking away as they gutted the once-Food. Why?

Inno…cence…

I shook my head violently again. Something stirred in my mind. Siberia. An experiment. Nothing made sense.

Ignoring it, I ran out of the house in search of more Food.