The fluorescent lights above flickered with a sickly hum, buzzing like flies around rotting meat. Sebastian’s throat was raw, torn from hours of screaming that still clawed its way through the air, each sound a plea that went unanswered. His wrists and ankles bled against the restraints, skin rubbed raw, bone pressing through. The stench of disinfectant mixed with copper, acrid smoke rising from cauterized flesh as cold steel forced its way into him. His chest split open like a book, ribs pried apart while trembling hands grafted alien tissue where his own humanity had already been stripped away. Fish gills, grotesque and writhing, were stitched into his sides, twitching like they didn’t belong but would soon learn to. He begged for death, God, anyone, anything,but the only answer he got was more knives, more pressure, more silence from the masked faces that loomed above him.

His vision blurred, tears stinging as blood loss numbed his limbs, but still they did not stop. They carved into him as if he were nothing more than a blueprint, a failed prototype to be reassembled until he broke right. He felt every movement, scissors snipping nerves, fingers shoving organs aside, the wet, sickening crack of bone shifting where it shouldn’t. His body convulsed against the table, choked gasps echoing until they curdled into hoarse sobs. He couldn’t take it anymore. And yet, in the shadows of the sterile room, the science team stood with their clipboards and pens, noting his every reaction with detached precision. Among them, one pair of eyes lingered longer, colder. They weren’t just observing, they were part of this hell, and Sebastian’s shattered heart knew it. The worst had just begun.