Written: mid-2010
She wasn’t conscious enough to fully grasp what was going on. Her mind was a jumble, unable to tie together the things she vaguely felt, unable to even form a thought, capable only of feeling impressions of what was going on. Light, and some kind of roof; a muttered ‘weird’ and something (a hand?) closing her eyes; being rolled over so that she faced down, lying flat on some kind of surface.
She felt that for a long time, and then a faintly cold feeling in the flesh just below her neck, on both sides of her spine. Every now and then she heard muttered comments “Let’s see”, “Crap!”, and some others, too faint to be intelligible, all in the same masculine voice.
After an even longer time, the voice ecstatically said “I – I’ve done it! Yes!... Hah. You get to survive, unlike my other test subjects. Lucky you. Maybe.” Then, nothing.
When her mind noticed that her eyes had opened, unfocused, onto a lit room, she woke up fast. The room snapped into focus, and she looked around, already panicking. It was a small room, white walls, some sort of door, yellowish light in the ceiling, she’d been lying on a fairly standard looking bed and –
Right when she saw them, a voice came from the speaker. “Can you move them? Can you feel them?”
Something had been slightly wrong when she was half asleep. She’d just felt like she was lying face down again, but… There was pressure on a limb that she didn’t – hadn’t – had. She tried to move the long, black, clawed tentacle instinctively, and when it flailed in front of her, she screamed; and fainted.
When she came to, she was bound tightly – those… things were bound against her, along with her arms. When she opened her eyes, she was looking at a man who appeared to be in his late thirties, with receding brown hair crowning his head. He was wearing a lab coat, and didn’t look threatening – his manner even seemed friendly.
“I’m going to tell you a few things that it won’t hurt to tell you; since there is no way for you to escape, and if we release you, we’ll need to tell you these things anyway,” he said, calmly and clearly.
His manner – so… wrong, for what he had done to her – infuriated her. She screamed at him, “Why?”
“I carry out the experiments because it is my life’s work, and what the company supports me for. You were taken because, from your application to a Meander Corporation position in the past, the ‘recruiters’ discerned that you had no local friends and family that would intensely investigate a disappearance,” he said, quickly.
“What- Why have you done this to me? What have you done to me?” she pleaded.
“My experience and skill lies in attaching necromantic parts together – the creation of abominations, monsters – and my research is an extension of this: discovering how to attach animated limbs to those who still live.”
“Thi- This makes no sense. This isn’t possible. It can’t…”
“I’ll-”
“GET RID OF THEM! GET RID AND LET ME G-,” as he closed the door between them, she sobbed in her throat, “go.”
She cried, and yelled angrily at the speakers. When she finally managed to free herself from her bonds, she tried to pull the tentacles from her neck, and when that failed, stabbed one’s metal spike into the other repeatedly. All that happened was the spread of some disgusting, black goop from the tentacle – she could still move it. And she was quickly adapting to them, to her horror. She’d managed to stab the speaker (mounted up on the roof) earlier, and the vandalism gave her the feeling of a little revenge.
After another hour of yelling and crying, she tore up the bed – mostly with her tentacles – and sat down in a mound of debris, sobbing. All she wanted at that moment was escape – to go back to a normal life, a life without insane experiments.
Even if she did get out though, somehow, she would not be able to go back to finding a job with tentacles sticking out of her back. And the Meander Corporation… If it was them who did this to her, she’d have to hide for the rest of her life.
They dimmed the lights, and after a couple of tirades, she went to sleep, tired and angry.
When she woke up the next morning, they opened the door. A red-haired man in a suit stood there, briefcase in hand. Behind him stood two armed guards, and the ‘scientist’ from earlier.
The red-haired man smirked as he looked around the room. “I hope you’ve calmed down now,” he said. “I’ve come to make you an offer.”
She gave him an incredulous look, and remained silent. “It’s the only offer you’re getting, Miranda. So listen carefully.”
They set her up as the secretary on one of the ‘special’ floors of the building. She got a nice car, a nice flat, a hefty ($190k!) paycheck, a ridiculous number of company benefits reserved for certain employees, a chunk of stock in the company, and let in on the whole plan.
After she had been stuck with them for a day, she didn’t hate the tentacles themselves – yes, they were monstrous, grotesque things; but she didn’t really mind that – she just knew she’d never, ever have a normal life again. So when they offered that to her (and so many of the things she’d wanted to gain in her life), and reasoned with her, she accepted the next day.
She’d only been missing for three days; and no-one noticed. There were a lot of longer, higher profile disappearances in Midwel around then.
And she knew why.
Experiment
She wasn’t conscious enough to fully grasp what was going on. Her mind was a jumble, unable to tie together the things she vaguely felt, unable to even form a thought, capable only of feeling impressions of what was going on. Light, and some kind of roof; a muttered ‘weird’ and something (a hand?) closing her eyes; being rolled over so that she faced down, lying flat on some kind of surface.
She felt that for a long time, and then a faintly cold feeling in the flesh just below her neck, on both sides of her spine. Every now and then she heard muttered comments “Let’s see”, “Crap!”, and some others, too faint to be intelligible, all in the same masculine voice.
After an even longer time, the voice ecstatically said “I – I’ve done it! Yes!... Hah. You get to survive, unlike my other test subjects. Lucky you. Maybe.” Then, nothing.
When her mind noticed that her eyes had opened, unfocused, onto a lit room, she woke up fast. The room snapped into focus, and she looked around, already panicking. It was a small room, white walls, some sort of door, yellowish light in the ceiling, she’d been lying on a fairly standard looking bed and –
Right when she saw them, a voice came from the speaker. “Can you move them? Can you feel them?”
Something had been slightly wrong when she was half asleep. She’d just felt like she was lying face down again, but… There was pressure on a limb that she didn’t – hadn’t – had. She tried to move the long, black, clawed tentacle instinctively, and when it flailed in front of her, she screamed; and fainted.
When she came to, she was bound tightly – those… things were bound against her, along with her arms. When she opened her eyes, she was looking at a man who appeared to be in his late thirties, with receding brown hair crowning his head. He was wearing a lab coat, and didn’t look threatening – his manner even seemed friendly.
“I’m going to tell you a few things that it won’t hurt to tell you; since there is no way for you to escape, and if we release you, we’ll need to tell you these things anyway,” he said, calmly and clearly.
His manner – so… wrong, for what he had done to her – infuriated her. She screamed at him, “Why?”
“I carry out the experiments because it is my life’s work, and what the company supports me for. You were taken because, from your application to a Meander Corporation position in the past, the ‘recruiters’ discerned that you had no local friends and family that would intensely investigate a disappearance,” he said, quickly.
“What- Why have you done this to me? What have you done to me?” she pleaded.
“My experience and skill lies in attaching necromantic parts together – the creation of abominations, monsters – and my research is an extension of this: discovering how to attach animated limbs to those who still live.”
“Thi- This makes no sense. This isn’t possible. It can’t…”
“I’ll-”
“GET RID OF THEM! GET RID AND LET ME G-,” as he closed the door between them, she sobbed in her throat, “go.”
She cried, and yelled angrily at the speakers. When she finally managed to free herself from her bonds, she tried to pull the tentacles from her neck, and when that failed, stabbed one’s metal spike into the other repeatedly. All that happened was the spread of some disgusting, black goop from the tentacle – she could still move it. And she was quickly adapting to them, to her horror. She’d managed to stab the speaker (mounted up on the roof) earlier, and the vandalism gave her the feeling of a little revenge.
After another hour of yelling and crying, she tore up the bed – mostly with her tentacles – and sat down in a mound of debris, sobbing. All she wanted at that moment was escape – to go back to a normal life, a life without insane experiments.
Even if she did get out though, somehow, she would not be able to go back to finding a job with tentacles sticking out of her back. And the Meander Corporation… If it was them who did this to her, she’d have to hide for the rest of her life.
They dimmed the lights, and after a couple of tirades, she went to sleep, tired and angry.
When she woke up the next morning, they opened the door. A red-haired man in a suit stood there, briefcase in hand. Behind him stood two armed guards, and the ‘scientist’ from earlier.
The red-haired man smirked as he looked around the room. “I hope you’ve calmed down now,” he said. “I’ve come to make you an offer.”
She gave him an incredulous look, and remained silent. “It’s the only offer you’re getting, Miranda. So listen carefully.”
They set her up as the secretary on one of the ‘special’ floors of the building. She got a nice car, a nice flat, a hefty ($190k!) paycheck, a ridiculous number of company benefits reserved for certain employees, a chunk of stock in the company, and let in on the whole plan.
After she had been stuck with them for a day, she didn’t hate the tentacles themselves – yes, they were monstrous, grotesque things; but she didn’t really mind that – she just knew she’d never, ever have a normal life again. So when they offered that to her (and so many of the things she’d wanted to gain in her life), and reasoned with her, she accepted the next day.
She’d only been missing for three days; and no-one noticed. There were a lot of longer, higher profile disappearances in Midwel around then.
And she knew why.
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