At first, no one spoke. There was just darkness. But then, someone did speak. However, there was no light, and no facial features were discernible because of that. His voice, however, could tell you a lot. A scratchy hoarseness, telling that he spoke a lot, he was sick, or he was old. There was no joy in his voice either, as if he had just watched a family member die.

“We need to start over. We’ve lost all of our research, and a good majority of our samples.”

There was a sigh, and then a second person spoke. Unlike the first person however, this person’s voice didn’t tell you anything. It didn’t tell you if it was a man or a woman speaking. It didn’t tell if they were happy or sad, angry or calm, overwhelmed or layed back. Nothing.

“They didn’t find the subjects however. We can just grab them, and pull the samples back out. We don’t have to start completely over this time.”

Person one sighed this time. “That would be ideal. Unfortunately, there is only one live subject left. None of the rest could handle the injections.”

“Well, we just need to find this subject then. You know where this person is, do you not?”

“Yes. This subject currently resides in an asylum. Her time being tested ruined her mind. It shouldn’t be too hard to get her back.”

“See? Not all hope is lost. We can recover.” For the first time in the conversation, person two’s voice held a trace of emotion. It was gone too quickly to determine what it was, however.

And in the darkness of that room, neither could see the other’s joy at the prospect of not having failed completely.

A little girl was walking home from school alone. It had always been considered a safe neighborhood, and she was never told to have someone nearby to watch out for her.

So when a van pulled up and stopped, it wasn’t questioned. When two people got out, nobody noticed. Nobody noticed when the van pulled away and there was nobody on the street anymore either.

Nobody noticed the small drops of blood next to a small backpack. Nobody knew what had happened. It was just a normal day in the neighborhood, after all.

The girl’s parents reported her missing a few hours later. Everybody searched for her, but all they found was an abandoned backpack. The police were frantically looking for any hint of a lead, but all they found were cut ropes.

Years passed, but the girl was never found. She drifted out of the memories of everyone. Eventually, they could only question whether she had ever actually existed. Birth records didn’t exist. No hospital records. No photos. No friends ever stepped forward to claim friendship.

A little boy was walking home from school alone. It had always been considered a safe neighborhood, and he was never told to have somebody nearby to watch out for him.

After all, nothing bad had ever happened in this neighborhood before. What should this boy fear? He happily hummed along to a song he had learned that day.

It was just a normal day in the neighborhood, after all.

Lune stood behind the counter at a gas station. It was a small town, and there weren’t ever many customers, but she couldn’t afford to quit the job. Closing time came, and Lune locked up. Without a car, she had to walk home. Thankfully, it was a small town.

Lune opened the front door to her apartment building. As she made her way to the third floor, she noticed some boxes in the hallway. She smiled. Guess I have a new neighbor, she thought to herself.

She reached her apartment, and entered. She heated a cup of instant ramen, and put on some music. After she finished her dinner, she showered, and got in bed. It took her awhile to fall asleep, but she still fell asleep before midnight.

The next few days went by like this. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, eat dinner, sleep. There wasn’t much to be said about this monotonous way of life. Wash, rinse repeat.

Lune met her new neighbor a few days later. There wasn’t anything special about that day. Lune had just been running late, and her neighbor had gotten up earlier than usual. As Lune was running down the stairs, her neighbor opened his door and stepped out. Before Lune could see him, she ran into him.

His reflexes could be described as very well trained. As soon as he lost his balance, his hand reached out and grabbed the railing, stopping himself before he could take a tumble down the stairs.

Lune, however, was not as lucky. Her momentum was too fast for her to completely stop, even if she tried, so she dove headfirst down the stairs.

She rolled multiple times, and split open many parts of her body. She mentally cursed the stairs. When she reached the bottom and stopped rolling, she had to suppress a shudder.

She did a quick once over of her body, and saw that all she had were small cuts and bruises. As she turned to look at her neighbor at the top of the stairs, she saw a little red slide down her nose. She reached a hand up to her forehead, and it came back covered in blood.

Suppressing another shudder, she slowly made her way back up the stairs to try and get to her apartment. As she reached the top of the stairs, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t see you there. I have some bandages in my apartment. If you don’t mind, I can try and patch up that cut.” Lune, who had never been in somebody else’s home, shrugged off the hand and turned around to face him.

“While I appreciate the gesture, I can do that perfectly fine at my own apartment.” There was a trace of accusation in her tone, causing the man to hesitate. But he wouldn’t quit so easily, oh no.

“Please. I insist. I was the one who caused you to fall, so I need to make up for my mistake. Please just let me treat that cut.”

Sensing that he wouldn’t give up, Lune sighed, internally flipped him off, and agreed. He led her into his apartment, and sat her down on his couch. He came back with a first-aid kit a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

“This might sting a little.” He then applied some of the rubbing alcohol on the cut. Lune shuddered violently this time, and inhaled sharply. The man apologized, and applied the bandage.

“There. All patched up, and good as new. Name’s Jake. Again, I’m sorry about earlier. I hope you don’t feel too bad.” Lune stared at him without saying a thing. Things slowly grew awkward and strained between the two of them.

In an effort to break the tension, Jake tried saying other things to her, but she just kept staring at him. After awhile, things grew quiet again.

“Well, I should probably get to work. I’m late as it is, and I can’t afford to get fired. I’ll see myself out.” Lune stood up, and walked towards the door.

“You have strange eyes,” Jake blurted. He didn’t know why he said it. He just wanted Lune to acknowledge him at least, but she hadn’t responded to anything before then.

Upon hearing those words, Lune stiffened. But only for a moment, before she continued out of his apartment. She knew that her eyes were weird. She had something called heterochromia. One of her eyes was green, and the other blue. She always received attention because of them.

But she didn’t have time to get angry. She had to get to work. So she pushed that moment out of her mind, and made her way to the gas station.

However, when she arrived, she saw her boss standing in front of the sliding doors, waiting for her. When he saw her, he straightened up, and slowly walked towards her.

“Alright. What’s your excuse this time?” This wasn’t the first time he had to ask her this, but he always hoped that it would be the last.

“I fell down the stairs, and had to get patched up.” For Lune, this wasn’t the first time she had this response ready. It was probably this reason that caused what happened next.

Her boss sighed, and rubbed his temple. “Well, that makes the eleventh time this month. I can’t keep doing this for you. You’re fired. I’ve already given you so many second chances; I can’t give you any more.”

These words were a direct blow to Lune’s heart. She knew that this would happen, but she never thought that it would happen so soon. She nodded, and turned around to head back to her apartment. Now, maybe she would be able to--

Before she could finish that thought, the gas station exploded. Now, anybody watching would wonder why Lune did not spare a glance at her old workplace, out of curiosity, fear, or joy. Lune, meanwhile, only had one thought running through her head.

Cool guys don’t look at explosions. Or girls. It’s a new age, after all.

Her boss was frantic. In his panic, he forgot that Lune, the person who he had just fired, was walking away. He only fretted about the loss of business he would now experience.

Lune had a nice, quiet walk back to her apartment alone. She was now free from the worries of having a job. She didn’t bother thinking about how she would have to find a new one, or about how she wouldn’t be able to afford rent that month. No. She was just happy that her ex-boss had gotten what he deserved.

As she made her way back to her apartment, she didn’t seem to notice the shards of glass on the ground. She didn’t seem to notice the smell of burning flesh. She just climbed the stairs with a smile on her face.

When she reached her apartment, she pushed her door open. It had been broken open, and didn’t require any effort on her part to open it. As soon as she entered, she ducked to the side, and sent a knife into the spot she had just been standing in. A dull grunt could be heard, before a thud came from just outside the apartment.

She strut back out the doorway, and crouched down next to the person laying on the ground. She slid the surgical mask down from her face, and spoke to the man on the ground.

“Now, I don’t know for sure why you’re here, but I have a good guess. You can tell whoever’s listening to this to go fuck themselves. I’m never going back.” With that out of the way, she rolled him onto his back.

She pulled the knife out from his side, and plunged it into the man’s chest. He screamed, at the same time a spurt of blood erupted from the wound on his side. Lune shuddered in ecstasy. It had been so long since she had felt like this.

Suppressing the urges that were demanding to be let out, she slid the knife down his entire chest, causing blood to gush out and cover her hands. Her breaths started to come out in short little bursts.

It was at this moment that she was interrupted. Not by any person, mind you. Instead, it was by the shoddy framework of the building she was in. The ground fell out from underneath her, bringing her and the mortally wounded man to the floor below them.

Lune landed on her back and saw stars for a few seconds. The man, meanwhile, was either very lucky or unlucky, depending on your perspective. The knife, which had been in Lune’s hands a few moments ago, had been pulled free, before landing in the middle of his forehead point-first.

Before Lune could regain her bearings, she saw a familiar face above her, and felt a prick in her neck. Her world started to go fuzzy, and she fell asleep to the apologetic face of Jake staring down at her.

The girl was scared. She had woken up in an empty room, chained to the center of it. She didn’t know why she had been kidnapped. She just wanted to go home. She didn’t want to be here anymore.

She curled into a ball. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to stay here. She didn’t want to die. She started to cry.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but eventually, someone entered the room she was in. She looked up at the man who had entered, and tried to wipe her eyes dry.

The man was wearing a wolf mask, concealing his face completely. He had no distinguishing features whatsoever. All the girl knew was that she was in trouble.

The man approached her, knelt down, and looked her in the eyes. He gently reached out a hand and wiped the tears away. The girl started to like him. He was nice.

As she had this thought, she didn’t see his other hand pull a syringe out of his coat. She didn’t see as it crept closer to her. She didn’t realize anything was wrong until she felt the prick.

The man closed the door behind him. He wasn’t happy with how the experiment had gone. He had expected more.

He was also glad that the architects had decided to sound-proof some of the rooms. At least now, the screaming could barely be heard.

Lune woke up in a small interrogation room. She wasn’t chained down, or tied to the chair. She was given free roam of the room. As she looked around, she noticed an IV leading from her arm to a small plastic bag.

This made her quite angry. Before she could think about it, she pulled out the IV, popped open the bag, and chugged the blood inside of it. Nobody would get her blood. Nobody would get anything from her.

Now with a slightly fuller stomach, she leaned back in the chair. Thankfully, they hadn’t removed her mask. They would’ve died if they had, but they were smart. Now Lune was sad. Why couldn’t people just give her a reason?

As she was thinking this, the door opened, and in walked a man with a wolf mask. She calmly looked at him, and smiled.

“Hello Jake. Fancy seeing you again.”

“Lune. When did you figure it out?” Jake removed the mask, and smiled. He wasn’t put off at all by the fact that Lune knew who he was.

Lune thought about it for a moment, before saying, “Probably as soon as I bumped into you. Nobody normal ever carries around that many syringes under their coat.”

Jake chuckled and shook his head. He pulled out a chair, and took a seat.