Blunt

Devoid

"Repeat, the brain is contaminated, all crews please stay away."

The room tensed. I blinked, hazy light intruding my eyes - what did it mean? The brain is contaminated? By what? How?

I'm... Right next to it, am I not?

I snatched away my hand, the one that has been holding the pulsing, slimy pink disc inside the test plate. But I had been controlling it. Figuring it. Surely, it couldn't have been contaminated when I was watching over it for 24/7?

A group of people in white clean suit marched in, shoving me back to the others. They stared, horrified, as the brain - the disc - was pulled out of its container, and thick substance oozed out of it, dripping slowly into the new container. The people in suit stared back at us, and nodded; then they walked out, with the brain and our hope for this mission.

●●○●●

"I can't... I CAN'T!"

"Come on, Miss, you can do it, just a little bit until it's out..."

"NO..!"

I stood still in fear and watched with my eyes wide open as Vellen gritted her teeth, sweat trickling down her face. We were in a hospital room, and it was because of one cause - the giant bump in her stomach was contracting, stretching her skin with pain.

"You can do it, Miss, it's there..."

Oh, it is there. Blood was everywhere and small threads - I don't want to find out what the hell is it - splayed out in full display from her vagina. A small part of the baby, covered in placenta, was visible - it made me shiver for no reason.

The nurse kept giving her motivational words, helping the baby comes out from its mother. A sickening splish echoed as it broke free from the placenta, and my breathe hitched.

Wagging its small tail, the baby whimpered - it was a bloody pup, not a human baby.

●●○●●

It's been almost two weeks since I witnessed Vellen giving birth to a pup even though she had claimed to never had had a sexual intercourse.

A month since the mission was cancelled.

A day since another part of the crew - Shannon - had her stomach mysteriously expanded, writhing from the same pain Vellen went through two weeks ago.

I waited outside the door, my fingers twitching from the suspense. How? Why? Will she produce another... another... another creature?

A loud screech broke out, and the door slammed open - the nurse panted, her expression terrified. "Come," she begged. "She gave birth to a kitten."

●●○●●

Since then, the institute was never the same.

I kept walking back and forth. Back and forth. My friends kept producing weird creatures, their sexual organ breaking over and over. Pained cry filled the air. And a hazy guess surfaced; the brain's infection might have played a big role.

I staggered. It's like someone had flipped the nightmare switch and forgot to turn it off. Another cry broke out, and before the nurse could spot me, I ran away.

Why?

Why am I the only one who wasn't infected yet?

I was the one who had a physical contact with the cursed brain.

Anger piled in me. That cursed brain!

The foul smell of blood invaded my nostrils, and a nurse's yell echoed, "It's a leopard!"

My feet couldn't halt. I skidded and crashed against the surface of a glass wall.

This is not happening. Is it?

I looked up at the glass, and a strangled cry escaped my lips.

A creature was looking back at me, its face void of anything - two black holes are embedded on it, and the ashen white skin looks unreal. It was as if the skin had been sanded, sculpted - and then washed with acid. The portruding bones gave way to small clumps of bloof vessels underneath the skin; I couldn't look anymore, so I stood up and ran.

I didn't realize it was a mirror.