𝐄𝐤𝐤𝐨 | 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐬

30. The Experiment

The first drop slid down my tongue smooth and cool— silky, almost soothing. Sweet, like sugar water with a strange metallic hum beneath. Then the sweetness curled. The taste turned sharp, bitter, as though I'd swallowed rust and smoke, scraping down my throat.

I coughed, choking halfway through, and lowered the vial with a trembling hand.
Silco's voice came low and firm beside me.
"Drink it all."

A light push to my elbow. Just enough force to break my hesitation.
My throat closed in protest, but I obeyed. The last of the Shimmer burned as it slid down, heavy and molten. It settled in my stomach like liquid fire, scorching its way through every nerve it touched.

The air left my lungs in a sharp gasp.
I staggered, clutching my middle, as the burn spread outward— up through my ribs, into my chest, behind my eyes. A flash of blinding white tore through my vision.
For an instant, it was as if the world blinked out.
When it returned, I was breathing hard, fingers clawing weakly at my shirt.
"I— I can't do it again," I rasped.
"You must," Silco said.

Another surge hit— violent, merciless. My chest felt like it was collapsing inward, my heart splintering against my ribs, my lungs trying to escape. The vial slipped from my grasp, my hand spasming closed around it by instinct, to not let it go. It shattered easily, shards biting into my palm.
A startled sob escaped me. I looked down— the drawn blood shining darker in the Shimmer's faint residue— and the sight made my stomach twist. Tears blurred my eyes.

Silco's hand caught mine. He cradled it with a gentleness that felt wrong coming from him, his thumb brushing over my trembling fingers.
"Look at me," he ordered softly.
I listened, barely seeing him through the tears and the pulsing light behind my eyes.
"Don't fight it," he murmured. "You know it hurts worse if you fight it."

I shook my head weakly, breath catching on a cry as my skin began to sear from the inside. My blood felt like molten glass, my veins burning their way open. It was unbearable— too much— my body screaming in white heat and my mind slipping away into it.
One last blinding flash— pure, white— and everything inside me broke loose.
My knees buckled. The world tilted violently, the room spinning into fragments of colour and noise.
I felt my body fall, heavy and graceless— and then Silco's arms caught me before the floor could.
His voice cut through the chaos that unleashed within me, commanding.
"Call for the Doctor!"

And then there was nothing.

~

Light.

So.

Much.

Light.

It pulsed behind my eyelids in waves, throbbing white and violet until everything came into shape again— blurred, distorted.

A rasping breath escaped my chapped lips.
Instinct made me try to move, but leather cut into my wrists the second I pulled. Another strap crossed my chest, tight enough to crush my lungs, and two more bound my legs to cold metal.
"Wh—"
A gloved hand pressed against my forehead, forcing my head back down against the table when I tried raising it.

"Shhh... relax," came a low, measured voice.
The scent of chemicals filled my nose— sterile and wrong. I turned my eyes toward it, blinking through the blur until I saw him: the mask, the pale skin beneath the leather bands, the faintly shadowed eyes. Singed.

He wrapped another strap around my head, locking it into place. My breathing grew frantic, my chest heaving beneath the binds.
Everything spun— the ceiling, the lights, the shadows moving at every corner. I heard voices, distant at first, until one cut through.
"You said it was a lighter dose," Silco's tone was frosty, controlled, but the accusation slid beneath it like a blade.
"It is," Singed replied calmly, his voice carrying no fear, only certainty. "But the system takes time to absorb."