"The melody..." a blonde woman wearing a lab coat muttered as she stood in a bathroom, facing a mirror.

"I can hear it..." she whispered, wiping a thin trail of blood leaking from the side of her mouth.

"So, so close..." she closed her eyes with a tired expression, opening them again after several seconds with a determined expression.

The woman's name is Briar forest, a brilliant bioengineer, and she's currently working for the old world republic to study an alien artifact capable of changing the properties of any organic substance.

Her colleagues and superiors hoped that studying the artifact and unveiling its secrets would lead to creating an inexhaustible food source by genetically engineering live stocks and giving them regenerative properties, among other things.

However, Briar did not care for any of that, and the only reason she continues to work on the subject is her personal obsession with the artifact itself.

She had other plans for the artifact, selfish ones, in fact.

Briar was terminally ill, with no hope of recovery until she laid eyes on the artifact. That was when things changed, as she heard the melody for the first time.

The artifact, it sang to her, and she wasn't able to get the melody out of her mind, no matter how hard she tried.

No matter what she was doing, at every time of the day, the melody was in the back of her mind, slowly growing at it, fracturing it as it slowly drove her insane.

For everyone else, she was the same Briar forest, a genius in the field of bioengineering, dedicated to advancing her vocation any way she could. And she was, in fact, just that, but deep in the unseen recesses of her mind, the melody was ever-present, growing louder with each passing day.

The artifact was her salvation, and the melody it produced would be her guide.

"The time has finally come..." Briar muttered, her determined expression turning into a distorted one as she smiled strangely at the mirror.

She shook her head, reverting to a neutral expression as she adjusted her lab coat and exited the bathroom. She put on a causal smiling face as she began walking the hallway towards the lab containing the artifact, amiably nodding in greeting as she passed by some of her colleagues.

Briar finally reached her destination and sweetly smiled as she spotted a handsome young man, seemingly her age, wearing a lab coat, standing near the lab's entrance.

"Are you waiting for me, dr. Andreas?" Briar asked with a smile as she stopped in front of the young man.

"You know it," the young man, Andreas, nodded with a smile. "You know I can't stand the old geezers in there, so I waited for you since you're the only one I can get along with," he added with a shrug.

"Oh, you," Briar said, charmingly rolling her eyes at the young man. "You know they're all seniors who can teach us many, many things, so you shouldn't disrespect them like that," she playfully reprimanded in a mock-serious tone.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Briar," Andreas said with a roll of his eyes as well. "Let's hurry up and go inside, or the old farts won't let us hear the end of it if we're late," he added while gesturing towards the lab's entrance.

"You really are hopeless," Briar said with a smile, slowly shaking her head. "But before we go in..." she added, trailing at the end of her sentence as her expression turned to a severe one.

"Is it about that...?" Andreas asked in a hesitant tone, earning a nod from Briar. "Are you sure you're not overthinking it?" he asked again, awkwardly scratching his head.

"I get that the OWR's higher-ups aren't the best of people, but I don't think even they will stoop so low..." he added with a sigh, trailing at the end of his sentence.

"I really wish that was the case, but you and I both know what's at stake here," Briar remarked as she closed her eyes, seemingly hesitant about something.

"This research can change the lives of many people for the better, so we can't allow anything to go wrong," she added as she opened her eyes. "Even if we have to take matters into our own hands," she concluded in a resolute tone, her expression severe.

"I understand..." Andreas said in a defeated tone. "I've already done as you asked, but this still feels wrong..." he added, pausing as he looked at Briar's eyes, seemingly expecting her to assure him somehow.

"Don't worry," Briar said with a smile, understanding Andreas' expectations. "It will be all worth it when it's all said and done," she concluded as she turned to the lab's entrance.

"I sure hope so," Andreas said with a shake of his head while Briar produced her ID card, inserting it into the lab's security lock. "For both of our sakes..." he concluded as the lab's door opened, giving entry to Briar.

...

"Dr. Forest, Dr. Andreas, it's of you two to finally show up," said an elderly man wearing a white lab coat while gesturing towards his wristwatch.

"Sorry for the delay, Dr. Gregor," Briar said with an apologetic smile without bothering to explain the reason for her delayed arrival.

"Keep your socks on, old man," Andreas said in an annoyed tone. "We're less than a minute late, so there's no need to make a fuss about it," he added in a dismissive voice.

"Bioengineering is a precise science, young man, and we as bioengineers need to be as precise in our day-to-day lives as well," Dr. Gregor reprimanded in a stern tone.

"However, now is not the time to talk about this," Dr. Gregor added with a sigh. "We have work to do, but make no mistakes. We will continue this conversation later," he concluded as he turned around and walked away.

"On the bright side, I won't have to listen to the old fart's lectures after this is over," Andreas muttered, shaking his head with a complicated expression as he too began walking away towards a computer.

...

"Energy readings?" Dr. Gregor remarked in a calm tone as he stood behind a wall of reinforced glass, observing a fleshy sphere with several black tentacles wreathing in the air as they protruded out of it.

"All within calculations," replied another scientist from the side while looking at a computer screen in front of her. "Commence the experiment?" she asked as she turned to look at Dr. Gregor.

"Commence at once," Dr. Gregor said in a solemn tone, nodding at the scientist.

Briar heard his words and turned to look at Andreas, who was already looking in her direction and gave him a nod. Andreas seemed hesitant for a second, but he sighed as he took out a cylindrical object out of his pocket.

He used his lab coat to wipe the cylindrical object, removing a strange slimy substance covering it, and threw the device on the ground after clicking a button on its surface.

The device sparked in blue electrical lights before exploding in a shock wave that engulfed the entirety of the lab, temporarily disabling all electronic devices, including surveillance tools and security locks, except for the entrance.

"What is the meaning of this, Dr. Andreas?" Dr. Gregor asked in an outraged tone, his expression a mixture of shock and horror.

"Just doing what I think is right," Andreas said in a hesitant tone. "I'm sorry..." he added while shaking his head.

"I don't know what you're planning bu-" Dr. Gregor objected in a sharp tone, but he stopped mid-sentence as he suddenly froze, falling to the ground after a second.

"Briar... what have you done?" Andreas said with a shocked expression filled with horror that everyone in the lab shared as they looked at Brar standing behind Dr. Gregor's unmoving body with a ceramic gun coated with the same slimy substance Andreas used to hide his device from detection.

"You..., you said no one will get hurt!" Andreas exclaimed, snapping out of his daze as he glared at the blonde. "This isn't part of the plan!" he added as he began walking towards her.

"The melody..." Briar absentmindedly muttered as she looked at the spheric, fleshy artifact with a dazed expression. "It's so close I could, almost..." she added as she began walking towards the door leading to the sealed room containing the artifact.

"I can almost dance to it..." she added with a strange smile as she finally reached the entrance, pausing as Andreas stood in her way.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Andreas exclaimed, finally getting Briar's attention as she turned to look at him with empty, soulless eyes.

"The melody, it's calling to me..." she monotonously said as she resumed walking, making Andreas hold her shoulders, trying to shake her out of her daze.

"Snap out of it!" he said, suddenly freezing as Briar raised her gun, aiming at his head. "What are you...?" And that was all he could say before collapsing on the ground, dead as a bullet buried itself in his forehead.

"The far ones, they're singing for me..." Briar said with her head tilted to the side as she stepped over Andreas' body.

"AND I MUST DANCE!"

To be continued...