I looked around the room, twiddling my thumbs absentmindedly as I observed the quirky posters adorning the walls.

"Know your allergens," I read aloud, my voice echoing through the largely empty room. "Pollen." Yep, that was a biggie. Conveniently, it was only the pollen belonging to the plants that grew around my wooded home that bothered me. "Animal dander." I frowned, recalling the time I learned I was allergic to cats. I loved those cats, but my immune system didn't care. The allergy grew rapidly, quickly encompassing most common household pets. Cats, ferrets, rabbits, everything. Well, everything except dogs, the only animal I never had the opportunity to encounter. "Plastics." I considered myself lucky to have avoided allergies to synthetic materials thus far. "Anti-matter." A small smile spread across my face. Really? Didn't think you could be allergic to that. I shrugged. Well if the scientists say you can be allergic to anti-matter—

The door swung open, revealing a squat, balding man in a pristine lab coat. "Are you ready?" he asked in a nasal tone, producing a small notebook and pencil from his pocket.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

He barely seemed to notice my response as he scribbled a few notes to himself. He certainly looked the part, but the sudden knot in my stomach was inspiring more than a little doubt.

"Come with me." His idle tone wasn't helping, but I had come too far to back down now. I trailed obediently behind him.

At the end of the hall, he typed a code into the keypad on the door. It unlocked with a click, and the scientist disappeared inside.

5581, I noted silently. Wonder what it means…

"Please stay with me." He was waiting impatiently for me a good ways down the corridor, and I hurried to catch up, that is until I noticed the fascinating structures lining the walls.

"Lab equipment," he droned, following my gaze. "Please stay close to me so that you don't get lost. Don't touch, stare or stop, no matter how much you may be inclined to."

I smirked a little. It was almost as if he were a machine.

After a few minutes of winding halls and unenthusiastic warnings, we stopped in front of a scratched metal door labeled with a long, blocky number. He typed another passcode, and it slid back, revealing a sparse and dimly-lit room with only a wheeled cabinet, a cushioned table and a machine that I could only assume was a monitor of some sort.

"Please lie down," he requested, gesturing to the table. "And the preparations can begin."

I did as I was told, trying to clear my racing mind of any second thoughts that were resurfacing. This was no time to get cold feet.

He reached into some slits in the thin old padding and brought out some equally old and unpleasant-looking buckles, fastening them quickly around my wrists, ankles and waist. I panicked.

"Remain calm," he insisted. "It's all part of the protocol."

I stopped squirming, but my heart pounded more fiercely than ever as he connected the monitor's wires to my torso.

Be brave, I told myself. Remember what you're doing this for. A new life. A second chance. One without pain. Only knowledge…

He took a syringe from the rolling cabinet and injected it into my arm. "A sedative," he assured me as my vision started to blur. "To ensure that you—" That was the last time I ever heard him.

My next memory was looking up at the ceiling, a different ceiling. This one was a rusty brown, a stark contrast to the offwhite color that had covered the entirety of the other room. And were those vines growing between the tiles?

"Just look at you, love," purred a Bristolian man's voice overhead. "What a beautiful piece of work you are."

I tried to sit up, but I couldn't. My body was too stiff. "Could I have a hand here?" But the sounds I made only came out as an awful mechanical gurgle. Panicking, I tried to lift a hand to my face. What had once been my arm was now a thin, jointed metal bar that slightly resembled a tripod leg. I let out a loud clicking cry of terror only to be hushed by the voice.

All at once, I felt terribly cold and alone. This was my new life, the one I had dreamed of for so long. Only this was nothing like it should be. My attempt to give myself a second chance at life had completely backfired, driving me irreversibly into the bowels of hell. Again.