"She sinks her nails into her own eyes; the blood pours out in streams, turning into a disgusting, pale-red mixed with saliva, running through the gaps of her hands as she presses them to her face in agony. Helplessly watching her, I can't help but...
The dripping of water from a broken pipe echoed somewhere in the black room, only illuminated by a blinking light hanging in the middle which lit up a dirty metal table.
On top lay a rat, its fur matted and missing in some places. It had only one eye, and its tail was just a severed stump with dried crimson lacing the tiny body. A horrid smell of rotting flesh wavered away from the poor carcass, weaving itself into the nostrils of any person present in the room, of which there were two.
The first - a woman - tall, gracious and regal, with a white coat wrapped around her slim body and a mask on her face. Her black hair was tied back in a sleek bun, carefully, so not a strand was out of place. Dr Kyoko Masa was an abominable scientist, whose latest fascination became the prospect of reversing death. Her wild idea had not even moved past animal testing, a concept doomed to fail. Her faithful assistant, Dr Haruto Nori, stood beside her, his small eyes fixed intensely on the body on the table. He was dressed in similar attire, only balder and shorter. They waited in complete silence.
"Is it ready?" asked Nori, narrowing his eyes. They resembled the slits of a snake. A snake and his master, Satan, was what the two were comparable to. Working in a dirty and poor quality room on their murderous experiments.
"Wait," Masa commanded, in a voice that would make the strongest crumble in fear on their knees before her. She reached for the remote located in her pocket, fumbling with the buttons until she pressed one which turned on the other lights in the room. The area was bathed in a warm glow, alighting the other features of the place. Another table held a tank in which there were the carcasses of other miserable creatures, failed experiments left to rot. A table and desk were pressed up against the wall, littered with papers, pens and folders. A large white folder had a massive sticker, which spelled "KEEP OUT" in blood red letters.
"Try again."
Nori willingly followed Masa's command, taking the injection which lay on the table and filling it again with a viscous, bubbling blue liquid stored in the desk. Putting on his white gloves, he took the rat's tail, lifted it, plunged the needle deep inside its little body and stepped away again, wiping his hands on the front of his coat. Once again, Satan and his snake were silent as they watched the rat for a reaction.
There was none.
"We need a new substance," Masa said after a moment, jotting down notes on her clipboard. She turned away from the rat, strode over to her desk, and unclipped the paper from the board, taking the white folder before placing the paper inside. Behind her, Nori had taken the rat and thrown it in the tank. "Stupid thing."
She could hear Nori cleaning the table with a measly wipe, moving the needles and equipment into their desired locations. Masa took the folder and placed it in the draw, locking it with the key that hung around her neck. Suddenly, she felt something moving around her ankle, and before she had time to spin around and kick the object away she felt a soft nibble pulling at her skin. Masa lifted her leg, admiring the damage with a strange look on her face. There were two small spots in her flesh, bleeding and gaping. She pressed her gloved hand against it, feeling the fresh sting as her nerves violently reacted to the unwelcome touch.
"Haruto. The rat, where is it?" Masa hissed, limping towards her assistant. By now, her entire leg was aflame with pain and she grit her teeth to stop a weak whimper escaping her lips.
"In the tank," Nori replied, turning to the table, only to see the tank open and the rat nowhere in sight. His face paled as he turned to Masa, who glowered at him.
"Incompetent fool! Do you not realise what will happen?" she screamed, pointing at her foot. She tried to stop her head from spinning as her vision faded in and out of focus. Nori flinched as a speck of saliva hit his face. "A potential diseased rat is on the loose, that's why we took all of these precautions!"
The pair quickly scrambled to find the rat, searching high and low, under desks, on desks, in drawers and behind cupboards. In her desperation, Masa reached inside the rat tank, using the table to stabilise herself as she dug through the carcasses. Her skin felt so itchy and dry; she had to constantly blink her eyes as the black spots slowly overwhelmed her view.
"I can't find it," Nori muttered, gripping his bald head. Fat droplets of sweat rolled down it. "At least we know that the experiment worked?" He tried to make light of the situation, but Masa was having none of it. She stalked towards him - less intimidating than she'd liked since she had lost her footing several times - but before she had reached him they suddenly heard the heavy metal door creak open. As soon as it happened the door slammed shut once again, but not before Masa noticed a bloody tail slip out.
With a shriek, she raced towards the door but crashed into the ground as her legs refused to cooperate with her brain. Nori, who had seen the rat too, beat her to the door, trying to wrench it open, only to find it was permanently closed shut.
As he hopelessly tried to open it, Masa's vision turned black. Blinded, she crawled along the grimy floor. The only limbs she had any control over were her arms. Her head hung limply, banging across the floor and sending a thousand nerves into a nervous array of bright colours.
The final thing to go was her hearing. The last thing Dr Kyoko Masa heard before she slipped away was Nori screaming for help, and the echoing bangs on the metal door as he desperately tried to inch away from her still body.
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