Conduit

Prologue

An oxidised, metal door slowly opens revealing a small, cubic cell, the concrete walls covered in what seemed a black, misty residue. This cell only contained a concrete slab, where the occupant slept, a metallic sink and a small bowl with a hole in the centre of it where the occupant would excrete their bodily fluids. A man in a white coat entered the room to see that it was empty apart from the furniture that filled half of the floor space of the cell. Then, from the shadows of the dark room, a being flashed past the man, causing him to stumble to his backside. A scream broke the silence that filled the room as a male fell to his knees, coughing up blood at the doorway that separated the cell from the rest of the place.

"New technology we brought in, just for you," the man spoke to the injured person, who continued to cough blood up. The person stood up in an injured and defeated slouch, revealing more features of him. He looked young with medium-long platinum blonde hair that covered his left eye and left cheek. He had blood slowly sliding from his mouth, he grabbed his the waist of his grey polo and wiped the blood from his mouth and chin, revealing his athletically, slim torso.

"What, got nothing to say?" The man in the coat taunted with a smirk. In an instance, the other being that was in the room was found face to face with the man in the coat and immediately the smirk that was present on the face of the taunter was now transformed into a straight face as he stepped back cautiously. "I'm here to get you out of here, we need to examine something," the man in the coat said with a cautious tone.

The person in the polo turned to inspect the doorway to see if he could leave but then he was jabbed in the back of the shoulder. He began to stumble around the cell as he found it hard to stay conscious before the darkness consumed his vision and he couldn't move anymore.

"Patient Zero Six Three, aged eighteen years, seven months and eleven days," A voice broke the silence that the person wearing the polo had experienced after he was drugged.

"Ah, thank you, doctor," another voice was heard, this time with a weak Russian accent. "Good afternoon, codename: Erbus," the Russian accent said towards the polo wearing person, revealing the nickname that everyone called him. Erbus slowly opened his eyes to reveal what looked like a medical operating room, with all colours of residue splattered on the plain, tiled wall. Erbus went to move his arms but felt they were being held down by straps of some kind. He looked down to reveal he was laying on a bed in the middle of the room, restraints on his wrists and ankles. A slight black mist surrounded the restrained Erbus but then screaming could be heard coming from the bed. "What, you think we didn't predict you were going to try to escape? Please, we are not so stupid," smirked the Russian accented man. He walked over to a computer and pressed a key.

"Doctor Schertik; date is the eighth of November, two thousand and twelve; patient Zero Six Three, codename: Erbus. The Patient has the ability to manipulate the shadows surrounding him, which he uses for a teleporting effect, if you will. Procedure used will be the extraction of the core of the marking he has, which is his heart, may consequentially result in his death," the Russian accent spoke into a microphone connected to the computer. A slight electronic buzzing could be heard, above Erbus. Everyone in the room looked toward the source of the noise to find there was a camera, with a red light flashing to the side of the lens. Doctor Schertik gave a thumbs toward the view of the camera before fixing his eyes on the patient on the bed. Erbus began to struggle in his restraints as the Doctor started to approach him with a scalpel in hand. "Now hold still," he said before piercing Erbus' skin just outside of his ribs, allowing droplets of blood the colour of black slowly make it's way to the outside of Erbus' body. A loud scream of pain filled the room as the patient on the bed twitched and squirmed in pain. As the Doctor stepped back from the bed, the screams died down as Erbus examined what had happened to him. There was a hole that was roughly cut, bleeding with a steady, slow pulse. The hole revealed bloody covered bones and a pink, sponge like organ expanding with every shallow breath Erbus took in.

The Doctor returned with a small, mechanical saw in his hand. He turned it on and started to cut into the bone that was revealed. Erbus threw his head back, unable to scream but instead his eyelids started to drop as his breathing started to cease and his senses started to shut down but then a sharp pain in his neck could be felt as the Doctor extracted a empty syringe from the pain spot. Suddenly he felt more pain as the saw could be heard once again. Erbus had the energy to scream again, which drowned the sound of the saw. The sound of the saw stopped as the Doctor walked away from the bed to put it back with the rest of the medical tools and came back to his patient. He wrapped his fingers around the exposed ribs and yanked them out of Erbus' body causing Erbus to grunt and scream in pain. Blood still escaping the man made wound, the Doctor moved Erbus' soft, pink organ causing the patient to have scattered breathing. The Doctor retrieved a scalpel that he previously used and starting cutting at Erbus' core. On the right arm of Erbus, a marking illuminated black as the Doctor continued his objective. The Doctor then pulled out a black ball with bloodied tubes of all sizes leading into and out of the ball organ.

The patient fell limp in the bed, looking dead at the roof, not moving or breathing. No sign of life could be seen in the still patient. The Doctor walked back over to the microphone and computer, placing the heart in a container filled with a transparent liquid. He tapped a key on the keyboard and moved slightly closer to the microphone.

"The operation was a success at extracting the core of the marking, however, the patient seems to have died but his marking is still illuminating on his right arm. Will need to investigate the cause of this later, for now, I am to transport this package to the storage. Audio diary over," Doctor Schertik said in his Russian accent.

He turned to dismiss the camera, when he noticed that his patient has change dramatically in appearance. Instead of a pale skin tone as it was before, his skin tone was the colour of pure jet black, his marking was now white and glowing, his hair black covering the right eye and cheek, his eyes were black with white pupils. The Doctor cautiously approached what he thought was his dead patient. The eyes darted in the direction of the Doctor, making Schertik jump backwards. A smirk started to grow on the being on the bed before he yanked his limbs out of restraints and he appeared in front of the Doctor, immediately gripping his neck with only one hand, lifting the doctor off the ground.

Schertik tried to pry the clamp around his neck open to no success. The Doctor started to go red and make muffled choking sounds as the grip around his neck tightened, slowly. The Doctor's arm was grabbed by the free arm of what was his patient, now a demonic creature of nightmares, and in one motion, the arm was removed from the body pure strength. A gurgle was heard from the lifted Doctor as blood poured out of where the arm is missing. Suddenly, Schertik felt an extreme pain in the opposite side of his body as he realised he couldn't move or feel either arms. Blood pouring out of both sides of the Doctor, Schertik started to fall limp before his head was removed from the rest of his body.

Covered in the blood of the Doctor, the nightmarish being held the head of Schertik with both hands, cradling each cheek, visible for the camera. Suddenly men in armour and uniform entered the room with sub machine guns pointed at the being holding the Doctor's head. There were men inside the room and even more men outside the doorway with their weapons pointed at the entrance to the room.

"Erbus put the head down!" One of the front men exclaimed in a deep tone. A horrifying, demonic laughed was all that was heard from the being. This scared one of the men, shooting a few rounds in the direction of their threat. The bullets seem to have gone straight through, puncturing the wall behind the being. It grinned in a frightful manner before it disappeared and reappeared in front of the armoured men, killing every one of them, gruesomely. He looked behind himself to observe his doing before disappearing from the room, that was littered with limbs, organs and blood, for good.