A/N: ! Heavy violence and some descriptions of gore right off the bat !
Green eyes flickered open slowly, cracked glasses resting loosely on the man's face that was pressed against a cool side of a slightly deflated pillow. One blanket — thin enough to let him feel the cold but not enough for him to freeze — covered his sore, numb body. The old iron bed frame creaked with every move he made, no matter how small it was. The walls surrounding him were a dull grey-blue, lifeless, quiet. There was a chair and a desk just below a window, where light was streaming into the room from. A single painting was hung against the wall opposite of his bed, lifeless flowers painted onto the canvas like the room around him.
His bones ached, his head throbbed, and his muscles cramped. He tried to lift his head, but his neck seized up and the few centimetres he managed to get off his pillow were lost as his head collided back with the deflated material. Everything was eerily quiet aside from the creaking of the bed frame, and a groan escaped his throat.
The room wasn't familiar to him, but then again, he realised, nothing was familiar. There was nothing but his current thoughts in his mind, the nagging feeling that there was something wrong, that anxiousness eating away at him, was proving worthless since there was nothing to be anxious about.
Had he existed before now? Did he used to know what was beyond the light blaring through his window, or the iron door that led into the room? Perhaps he was made just now, brought into the land of living through… Well, he didn't know how, exactly, but he didn't have a name, or at least one that he couldn't remember.
He simply was.
An existing creature, living and breathing, but no apparent purpose, no memories, just there and aching.
There was a moment of existential dread that loomed over his being, clouded his mind even more. His heart clenched, pained like his body, like he was supposed to besomewhere else, not here, not safe in this room, need to be running, need to go back… Back?
He flinched suddenly when a thunderous clang of something metal outside his door echoed, and the almost ear-splitting screeching of the giant iron contraption scraping against its hinges — as if it were a century old — followed. The sound of footsteps bounced off the walls, loud and heavy, like steel-toed boots, and two people — large, tall, imposing — strode into his space, slowly, menacingly.
Something within him jolted awake, a growl deep within his chest, the hairs standing up on the back of his neck. Claws were digging at him from the inside out, the feeling of another creature trying to escape, his arm burning with invisible fire. The growl boiling in his chest erupted when the two people continued to step closer and closer to him, long, fancy sticks drawn, and their stances defensive.
"Easy—" One of them muttered, their voice gruff and deep.
"Best we stun 'em down now," said the other, his tone louder and his voice laced with a heavy accent. "On my count. One—"
The growling steadily crescendoed.
"Two—"
His fists clenched, pulling at the sheets and his nerves and muscles twitching. He sensed the man raise the stick, his mouth ready to form the final number, and his mind snapped.
As if ignited, he bolted upright, his body and limbs shifting, breaking, growing into something more, something new, something not human. He roared — screeched, really — both in pain and to scare away the threat.
He tried to speak, but he only spat blood from the now too-big canine teeth in his mouth. His hand shifted to be a claw — no, a meaty, powerful paw — and it trashed and slashed at the wall, the bed, and the men yelling for backup.
More cloaked figures rushed in to find the scene of wounded others and a giant, violent beast with thick black fur and a horrible mix of a hellhound and what used to be a man. Its tail thrashed, knocking over the few items in the small room as well as the still increasing people.
He roared and howled in a blind rage, eyes alight like fire and blood dripping from its mouth. There was calamaration all around, with people screaming both inside and somewhere outside the room, a terrible crowd and a mess of those men and women surrounded by others' limbs.
A sharp, ear-splitting whistle cut through the clatter of objects and people being torn painfully, limb from limb, within the monster's jaws like a hot knife through butter. The sea of people split, parting the ocean for a large, bulky man to walk through, his hands in his pockets as if he were out on a casual walk.
The beast lunged, but he did not dodge. A snap of his fingers, and suddenly, the monster dropped to the floor, submissive and whimpering like a dog being punished. The flames in its eyes flickered and died, replaced with nothing but a lifeless, chained existence.
"Look at him," The man spoke, his voice rough like many others but oddly soft. "So perfect, isn't he? So violent, so powerful." A crooked, twisted smile distorted his features. "So obedient."
He turned to the men and women behind him, many of whom were groaning and crying in pain or helping the wounded from the floor. He threw a chain to a cloaked figure and snarled, "Take him to the training facility. Let Test 309 handle him."
The figure nodded and gestured to a few uninjured people to help him leash the dog, which growled lowly but stayed still on the ground with only its heavy breaths filling to quiet room for a moment.
"Haven't had one react this much in a while, eh?" The man spoke again, a dark chuckle rumbling in his chest, even though nobody else seemed to find it funny. He turned to a woman next to him and smirked. "Let the general know where we've put Test 673 at for now, and tell them I want Test 573 relocated."
The woman nodded and carefully stepped over the wounded and the dead, her boots clacking against the floor as she made her way through. He glanced at the bodies splattered on the floor and the living trying to help the others from bleeding out. His fangs glinted in the light still coming through the window in a wicked smile.
This was going to be fun.
A/N: Mysteries and cliffhangers.
This is really one of my first attempts at a story so layered and set on body horror / horror in general and the manipulation of good characters, so any feedback / criticism is welcome! Hopefully these 2 beginning chapters have been good and the next is coming soon.
Until then, have a fantisteristic week!
~ Eclipse 3