Of Monsters And Men | Discontinued |

Episode Five - Fire

She's alone. The weird, unsettling glass container with a throbbing mass of putrid, dark green slime within it that wriggles and pulsates every second. She tries to remember anything, anything that could possibly be that thing.

After what feels like hours, the container hisses and opens, the top splitting open and pieces clattering to the floor. She flinches, looking at those outside of the glass surrounding her. All that stare back are smiles and eager eyes. The mass stills for just a moment, reaching out tenderly like a dog lifting its nose before a hunt. It vaults itself out of the side, slapping against the ground. It throbs there, for a few short seconds, before rolling closer to her. Her mouth sets into a scared scowl. She feels like a mouse trapped in a tank with a python.

It flings itself at her. She scrambles to the side, shrieking. Her throat aches. Her heart is hammering against her ribs. The thing only flings itself ever closer, rolling across the metal floor. She doesn't know what it is. She doesn't know if she's supposed to remember what it is. There's a giant hole in her head, her memories- black and gaping, and her stomach is tied in knots at the mere thought of forgetting.

Then it lands on her, sticking to her skin. She hadn't jumped out of the way fast enough, twisting her ankle as she tried to pull herself from reach with a desperate cry. She tries to push it off, digging her nails into the fleshy mass of slime, falling onto her back, air leaving her lungs, the writhing mass covering her skin and clothes like a swarm of maggots. It squirms and wriggles, only moving more as she struggles. She gags as the feeling crawls into her skin and down her arms, desperately gripping it and attempting to rip it off of her. Instead, it sinks into her skin until there's nothing left. The people outside of the glass cage stare at her with wide eyes, as if expecting her to scream and cry. Instead, she lays still, paralyzed, unsure to scream or let her eyes roll into the back of her head. She can hardly draw in a breath. She can feel the thing inside of her, wriggling in her veins and skin like tapeworms seeking a home. Her throat constricts. She can feel everything inside of her, crawling up her neck and towards her head.

Her eyes water, yet her voice is still in her throat. Her body is her own enemy, from her empty memories to this thing that they put inside her. The feeling doesn't seem to pass for hours, the dark green slime floundering in her stomach and entire body, traveling through each of her veins and muscles. She falls into a haze, unsure whether or not it's from the thing inside of her, or her mind simply trying to save herself. Still, she stares at the light directly above her head even as her retinas burn and ache and her eyelids beg to close. She stares until the people watching her slowly filter away, until only two are left. One, in a tacky white lab coat, simply stares at her and occasionally scribbles notes on a clipboard. The other, a guard of some sort, according to the black armor covering their head and body, and the gun held in their hands, simply stands besides the assumed scientist as the man circles her glass cage.

Eventually, they leave, too, and the light above her flickers off. She's left on the metal floor, that eventually warmed beneath her skin, in pure darkness. She can feel sweat staining through her shirt and pooling beneath her. Her legs and arms shake, skin crawling with the need to move away from her bile and blood that stings her nose and sticks to her skin. She can hardly twitch her fingers. Her body is her prison in more ways than one, now. Unable to move, unable to remember. Unable to think, stuck in an odd daze, her vision cloudy, her mind separating itself from her body until she's nothing and everything.

Her throat twitches, and a retch wrenches passed her lips as she's tossed onto her side, like someone had pushed her over, though she's alone. Nothing falls from her mouth, and she lays her head on the cool metal, hair clinging to her face and forehead, sticking to her mouth and eyelashes. She screams when something clenches her intestines, from the inside, harshly. She's being ripped apart from the inside. Her eyes burn and her chin trembles.

The lights stay off, no matter how much she silently begs them to be turned back on, leaving her with her aches. Blood and bile soak through her thin jacket. Her eyes create monsters made of blackness reaching for her, digging their claws into her exhausted muscles, oozing through her intestines, grinding her bones. It hurts so badly all she can do is scream and thrash, clawing at her own stomach to try and ease the pain, nails digging into her skin and drawing her own blood. Her fingernails dig across her ribs and throat, drawing blood, as the thing travels inside of her until her eyes are rolled backwards and her screams shatter into silence.

The lights snap alight, drawing another weak, crackling scream from her, hands covering her eyes as she recoils, gagging on her own pain. Through her blurry, red vision, she can see that the scientists are scrambling for papers and cameras, guards all aiming for her. Her mind is running through mud, unable to form thoughts that make sense, even to her. Everything hurts, and her nose is stinging, the air in front of her face tinged acidic yellow, moving through the air like fog.

Her breath catches, and her eyes widen. Her hands fly from her stomach to her throat, covering her mouth and nose. She doesn't know what this is, yet her body is telling her to sink to the ground, covering herself, curling into a circle.The feeling in her intestines has stopped, but her eyes still ache, her throat and nose stinging all the way down to her aching, bruised lungs.

Yet, eventually, after holding her breath so long that she isn't sure what's up or down, she loses. Her eyes fall shut and her hands slip from her face, the yellow gas infiltrating her body all at once, leaving her completely to their mercy, hardly awake as they open the door with gas masks on, tugging her up by her hands and feet, and lugging her down a dark hallway, and then into nothing.