early mourning | the laboratory
she knows . knows where she is before even having to open her eyes . knows in just a fraction of a second she’d had her whole life stripped of her once again , claimed by the same monsters who’d deprived her of her freedom , subjected her to years’ worth of torture , denuded of her childhood and , even more detrimentally so , of what it means to be H U M A N . she’d suspected , somewhere in her suspended consciousness , that they’d decided to do the same thing again ; after the return of the lab rats , following the detonations , this was their goal all along : to reclaim the experiments who’d managed to weasel their way out of their tyrannic clutches. so instead , she would wait . maybe , just maybe , if she plays dead long enough they’d forget about her , dispose of her , worthless garbage . she’d never once suspect that they’d go so far as to take fresh meat , terrorize a whole new generation of the eternally condemned . or at least , not until she hears a muffling sort of sound .
from another world comes the echo of a familiar voice , concerned , beckoning , encouraging ; nyxxie wishes to reach out to it , to clasp it in her hands like a fragile , baby bird , wring its neck and hear the shuddering crunch of bone snapping beneath her fingertips . h o p e is a delicate thing , even in the perpetual limbo of unconsciousness , even in the sullen haze permeated by tranquilizers , and she wants nothing more , in that moment , than to stay there . asleep . forever , even . as long as it would take to get out of h e r e . but she isn’t so lucky , because even through clenched lids she recognizes the presence of matty muyskens . and that only further begs the realization that others were probably here , as well . others like spencer . oh , gods , what if they’d taken spencer . . .
she jolts awake with a gasp , wheezing , hyperventilating almost instantaneously , thrashing in the seat , against metal handcuffs , against lifeless chairs , throwing her body forward only to reel it back , sputtering , coughing , manic as she struggles against her confines to be F R E E D .
no . no this wasn’t happening .
there’s a howl of fear , a final , last - ditch cry of agony as she realizes she’s stuck , trapped , struggling against the cuffs so hard that her wrists begin to bleed , droplets of crimson burble to the surface of her fragile , quaking frame and the HORROR in her eyes is matched only by the tears now streaking down pallid cheeks . ❝ m-matty ? ❞ croaks she , voice hoarse , uncertain , as though she refuses to accept this was really happening . to her . to them . but through all her whimpers and sobs she manages to crane her neck towards the boy , attempting to anchor herself despite the painstaking realization that she’s now sober , sober and d o o m e d , panting from the efforts of thrashing herself raw to avoid the impending flashbacks , constantly threatening to claim the remaining fragments of her sanity.
❝ i-i’m scared . please , i’ve been ‘ere before . . .
we gotta get outta ere , ‘fore it’s too late . ❞
a brief flash of relief runs through his system when he sees nyxxie’s eyes fly open ( oh, thank god ), but it’s almost instantaneously snuffed out when she lets out a high, almost animalistic keen. it rattles his mind, amplifying his headache to the point where he feels as though something might rupture, a blood vessel or a nerve.
matty looks on, horrified, as his friend jerks against her restraints hard enough to draw blood. he’s only seen her like this after a nightmare. but then, this i s a nightmare, isn’t it?
❛ nyxxie, nyx, shhh… ❜ he tries to keep his tone as soothing as possible, which is a difficult feat when he himself is at his wit’s end, but the last thing they need is for those maniacs in the white coats to hear the commotion and come back. he’d love the opportunity to knock them out on their asses, would happily disembowel them all, but he’s not exactly in a position to do that right about now. ❛ yeah, it’s me. ❜
he’s shocked into silence when nyxxie makes her admission. ❛ you’ve… you’ve been here before? ❜ HOW? WHEN? he’s looking at the girl in a whole different light now. her usual bubbly persona makes absolutely no sense with this revelation… but the nightmares do. they make all the sense in the world.
it occurs to him, then, that if he’s here, and nyxxie’s here, then any number of the people he knows might also have been captured. RUBY. matty’s eyes widen in alarm and he immediately begins scanning the bodies around them, looking for a familiar shade of red - but he can only see what he’s facing, with the other half of the room to his back. he jolts a little as he sees people he does recognise: a little way off are spencer and juniper, who are currently wrapped up in their own panicked discussion, judging from their faces. matty’s fingernails are sinking into his palms deep enough to draw jagged lines of pink, as the magnitude of the situation sets in.
he lets out a nervous laugh, rough as only a chainsmoker’s can be. ❛ whaddaya mean… too late? what’s gonna happen? ❜ morbid curiosity drives him to ask, though he already has more than an inkling. the environment they’re in is a dead giveaway, as is the people who they’ve taken. they’re all mutants, and there’s not much question as to why a group of scientists would take them against their will.
and if he doesn’t already have enough to go on, there’s a whiteboard placed conveniently within his vision that reads:
07/4—gene work does not give an explanation as to why #1257 does not respond to stimulus drugs.
12/4—#1266 shows heightened cognitive abilities.
22/4—#1232 shows no sign of verbal communication, experiments run do not elicit even the smallest noise from them.
27/4—#1201 terminated. brain biopsy to try and understand how #1201 survived birth with their physical deformities.
he should have set fire to them all before they’d even stepped one foot out of the room.
