"So." I leaned on the counter in the preparation lab and folded my arms across my chest. "You're saying I can do other stuff besides shapeshifting and illusion-forming?"

After a few days the research facility deemed me safe and sane enough to walk about the building freely and socialize, so here I was talking to Carol Aldine about that special trick I wanted to make sure I could do. It would be the last step to completing my plans and actually putting it into action.

Dr. Aldine cleared her throat uncomfortably and gave me a sidelong glance. I smiled. I learned that she was the mousy one, the pushover. I mean, I wasn't trying to be a bully or anything, but I wanted to get my way and in order to do that, I needed someone who could give me answers.

I bet she was praying that her coworker would come waltzing in and save her. I don't know why she was scared of me. I was a normal woman, wasn't I? Aside from the fact that I was dead for weeks, according to their story.

As if on cue, Dr. Schwartz entered into the room, pulling off his reading glasses. He looked a little too happy.

"We've sent the videos and letters to the officials! Soon we're gonna be big! People nationwide will want to meet our- ahem, I mean Jane. We'll be shaking hands with famous scientists from Europe!"

Aldine jumped and I turned to Schwartz to give him my best soul-piercing glare.

"W-wait, what? Already? Paul..." she hissed.

Uurgh! Seriously!?

"You are such an unbelievably egoistic asshole, you know that?" I yelled after him when Aldine grabbed him by the shoulder and ushered him into her office.

There were other assistants and researchers who were working in the lab, craning their heads and peeking behind computers. I turned around to face them.

"What?" I retorted.

Not a hairline was in sight a second later.

I stalked out of the office and made my way around the halls to a nearby bathroom. I was pissed! Not only did he just want to just use me as a way to get into the news and T.V. shows, but he didn't even let anyone know about it until afterwards! I'm human, too! Well, kind of. I never liked Paul, anyways. Me and him always argued, but I guess my temper has gotten worst since that purple sludge they injected into me took effect.

My rage built until I reached the ladies' bathroom and slapped the doors open. Maybe I'll teach him a lesson by shapeshifting into a hot scientist, seducing him, and posting the video online so it can cause a scandal! Or maybe I'll just beat him up after Aldine gives... him... a good...

LECTURE?!

I stared at a reflection in the huge bathroom mirror. A woman with black hair, the whitest skin possible on a human, and soulless black sockets replacing her eyes tentatively tiptoed closer to the mirror as the door shut behind her. I raised my hand to touch my face; as did she.

I knew my hair changed colour. The scientists warned me about that and I didn't care. Dark hair looked good on me anyways. But they never let me have a mirror, and I saw why. I stared deep into my non-existent eyes.

I closed them, touched my eyelids. No... they were indeed there, just black all the way around. How was it that I had perfect 20/20 vision even when they were like this?!

I gawked at the mirror with my mouth open some more before I grew angrier and angrier.

I looked like a witch! I didn't care if my skin was smooth and my wavy hair was as glossy and dark as a raven's feather. I didn't care that I could run faster than Usain Bolt, or that I could smash slabs of concrete with my bare hands.

I was a freak!

Screaming, I smashed the mirror with a fist and hurried out of the bathroom with "vendetta" burning boldly into my freakish orb-like eyes.

They wanted a lab rat? Fine.

He pulled a chord...

They wanted to use me like a test dummy in a gym? Fine.

Wound it with another.

I stomped around a corner and burst into the lab.

Flames rose and he grinned.

"Paul!" I screamed. "Carol!" They both swiveled their heads towards me, their previous expressions still glued to their faces, until they saw me breathing fire.

"I look like a freak!"

Now, my dear Jane, let your temper feed the flames of progression. Let me pry your soul from your body so you don't slow down. Don't worry, he chuckled. You won't feel a thing. And neither will you remember it.

I don't know what I was doing, but I was doing it. Heavily armed bodies crashed into the lab, and chaos ensued. My hands were wrapped around Carol's neck, and the rest of the facility scurried away loudly, dodging shots as it rang out around me, penetrating my skin.

I was surprised at my own rage, and lack of self-control! But it wasn't me doing those things... I was watching a pale, raven-haired woman with black soulless eyes doing it. She looked like me, but it surely wasn't me? If so, then who was I?

I drifted somewhere above all the destruction while I watched that woman tear people apart limb from limb. She even threw acidic chemicals at passing researchers and freed all of the other test subjects when she managed to escape the preparation room. They got their revenge and freedom along with her, too. Sirens blared and lights flashed, but she was hungry for blood. Wielding an axe she got from a glass case on a wall, she proceeded to brutally hack at any living persons within her field of view, even the test subjects she freed earlier.

All the while, a deep rumbling voice, accompanied by numerous other voices reassured me that this "was necessary for progress". My head was foggy, and the corners of my vision was dark and clouded over. I was having an out-of-body experience, I bleakly concluded. But then who was talking to me? It sounded like he had seven voices, or more.

I was in a half-awake-half-asleep state before I finally blacked out, screaming and rumbling voices and blood still fresh in my mind.