From what I could tell Mr.Richards injected the serum into me again but unlike the other times it felt somehow stronger. It felt as if I was in a nightmare, my thoughts were clouded by the more primitive parts of me, the fight or flight response choking any logical thought.

Methodically the straps were unhooked from my body as the drug infested and buried deeper into my subconscious. I fell forward, Mr.Richards not bothering to catch me as I fell into a lump on the ground. Footsteps, then the clicking of the locks and the slamming of the door followed.

“Shit…” I mumbled to myself as I began to drag my self up to at least the upright position, my tendons popped and creaked until finally, I was up.

“A bit of electricity will do you good, builds character ya know,” someone said sarcastically.

Before I could register what he said searing pain erupted from my right thigh, the muscles clenching uncontrollably. If I saw the bolt I would’ve probably been temporarily blinded by the flash if I could see. I thought I was alone but I was actually stuck with this asshole again.

“Some may even say the results are shocking,” he said chuckling to himself at his own wit.

I saw pictures in the past of people getting struck by lightning, their body horrifically burned, people going into comas, death. I only hoped whatever this guy was wielding was nowhere as potent.

“As you can hopefully see I’m only here to help, but the first step to getting help is to get hurt a bit” I could hear some light footsteps approaching. “Well no reason to stall let’s get on with it, shall we?”

There was really no point in responding so I did what any responsible young adult in my position would do. With all the strength I could muster in my injury-riddled body I swung my fist in front of me in a wide arc, hoping by some blind draw of the cards I would at least inflict some damage onto my shock-inducing torturer. My fist whistled in the air hitting nothing but the remains of my dignity.

Well shit.

“Good try, now my turn”

His hands grasped my skull this time, for whatever reason he used both of them I didn’t really care. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists as I braced for what was to inevitably come. But this time It started softer, it was as if my brain was soup. Emotions began spiking in me in such a magnitude that I have never fathomed before. My body churned in response, muscles seized up and relaxed.

My eyes twitched uncontrollably, vertigo was seemingly induced as well. Just like on a roller coaster my body felt as I was being pushed and pulled in different directions. My stomach flipped and flopped but unfortunately without the sweet release of vomiting. Ancient memories began to flash before my eyes, which was weird since I couldn’t see. Old ones and new ones clashed together in a blast of sounds and sights that I have experienced before.

That’s how it went for a long time, after a while I couldn’t really feel his hands grasping my skull. He might’ve left, leaving me in a stunned state experiencing the lasting effects of whatever wujo he enacted up me. I cursed the shit out of him, if my mom was here she would wash my mouth with soap, and not bar soap. Liquid hand soap.

It could’ve been every hour, thirty minutes or ten but routinely I would get another injection of the serum. Each one felt stronger than the last but it might’ve just been my imagination.

The only time I felt even remotely this bad (out of the program) was when I had the bright idea as a child to play with a rabid squirrel. Back when I was five I didn’t know what foaming at the mouth was. I just thought he was thirsty or something, well after getting bitten multiple times, I was brought to the doctor to get multiple rabies shots among other shots for infections with stitches.

This was a whole different slice of the metaphorical pie though. It wasn’t so much physically arduous as it was emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually draining. I wasn’t that much invested in the “feelings” but right now it was definitely hitting me in the feels.

This went on many times until I started to fell it. Whatever it was. Like a bottle filling up to its brim, or a damn about to break. A pounding, every strike becoming more and more powerful as time went on. Again I heard the spinning of the axel and the door squeaking open as I have begun to fear.

“Maybe it’s time for me to up my game. I admit I have been a little rusty. But that is the problem with all the patients undergoing certain… problems.” He said slyly.

I couldn’t crawl away from him even if I wanted too I just lazily lied there. In a helpless lump of what was left of Chase Millers. The gruff hands grasped my skull once again, this time unlike the others It felt like I was being thrown into the icy cold lake instead of slowly wading into it.

Along with the psychological experiences, my senses began to erratically fluctuate. My hearing heightened to degrees higher than I have ever experienced. I even heard past the sound-proof walls (if that was even possible) to a worried man pleading with another “At least let him rest longer between he’s gonna-” than my hearing dimmed to where everything felt like a slight buzz.

I heard in the past that wolves could smell fear, I never really believed that until now. My sense of smell climaxed like someone flipped the switch for smelling a lot better than I usually could. Or maybe I was just being delusional. I could smell the ashy scent of the man in front of me, his sweat that poured over his body. I could even smell myself the unnatural tinge of whatever my body was releasing.

Even my sight, color flooded my mind as the colors sprung to life. The man in front of me had a mask covering his face but his hair draped over the top of it slightly. Different colors tinged with intensity. Everything would turn slight red or dark blue until again my eyesight seemed to dim out into nothingness.

The pounding inside me grew intense, pushing harder and harder. The pressure increasing inside me as my entire body shook. Wheather because of the guy shocking me or because I was melting into a puddle of patheticness it didn’t matter.

The intensity increased until I could no longer bear it. Finally, the pressure was released, something inside me broke. Like a glass of water splintering and cracking apart to let… something loose inside me. It was like I was underwater my whole life, having that feeling of suffocation until finally, I broke the surface to take a breath of fresh, juicy air.

My sight flickered in just in time for me to see all hell break loose. Black pillars shot outwards from me, each varying in size from the width of my arm to the width of a tree. Interlocking and expanding from me. Breaking into one another and splintering off into different directions. The pillars had the complexion of jet black obsidian and the texture of rock, smooth yet rough at the same time.

Behind me the wall cracked and crumbled under the constant pressure, pillars shot upwards and against the wall shattering it and pushing through it into whatever was above it. Loud booms and rubble began to pour around me. One particularly large pillar erupted from in front of me towards the obviously startled man, puncturing his stomach and slamming him into the opposite wall with a sickening thud releasing me from his grip.

It was pure ecstasy, being able to fight back after feeling so goddamned helpless and shitty. The smell of rotten eggs also began to arise, the acrid influx of smell seemed to infuse into my sinuses. The man let out an inhuman like yell, white-hot electricity sparked and radiated off of him into the surrounding pillars chipping away at some, obliterating others.

Each bolt of electricity than seemed to catch onto something in mid-air, exploding into a firey storm of lightning and fire. Out of the blue than came a glowing green barrier around myself, the very combustible man, and the walls around us. The pull in my chest that I hadn’t noticed before grew intense as more pillars rose from the ground like avenging angels into the green energy only to stop abruptly.

“Isn’t that… dddaaainddyyyyy” I slurred, slipping slowly towards unconsciousness.

Everything began to blur together, the metal door was thrown open and many people rushed in all cloaked in that weird green energy that seemed oddly familiar. The pillars dug into my sides, drawing blood. Some explosions were still going on some reached me before the energy appeared searing into the left side of my hip.

“Grab the kid and the guy they needs immediate attention! I don’t care how you’re feeling get your ass in there and grab him!” With every word, the man’s voice got higher and higher until it was like he was singing soprano.

As quick as a whip a man appeared in front of me and picked me up Shaggy and Scooby-doo style and in an instant, I was in on a stretcher of some sorts. Still wonky, maybe because of the pain, or the drugs, I looked up to an old man muttering to himself.

“Odd, why would the electricity explode like that? It doesn’t make sense combined with-”

I reached up almost to touch his face “heehee you have a lot of wrinkkkllleesss. Almost like a-a-an elephant. Or a rug. Can I feel your face rug man?” I cooed looking up dizzily at the old man with a crazy grin on my face.

“Take him to the infirmary and put him under the standard prescriptions but double the dosage.” The same man with the high voice said before.

“I know it isn’t protocol but if we don’t do something he’s gonna go into shock and die.”

I barely heard any of this but just as I got there I started to wheel quickly through the halls. What was even more of a blessing was that I wasn’t feeling anything anymore. No pain pulsed through me, maybe it was because my nerves were overloaded, or dulled to a point where I couldn’t feel it. Whatever broke inside me began to soften its edges, and even being on the brink of death I have never felt more alive.