'Cold. So cold.' Madelyn thought as her mind slowly began to emerge from the fog. Trying to raise her hand to her head, she is unable to move. She groans when a bright light assaults her eyes after trying to open them. After they finally adjust, she makes out her predicament.

Due to the chilly air, she immediately notices that her clothes were gone, replaced with an unfamiliar white exercise bra with white boy-shorts to match. Goosebumps rose across her skin and she shivers unconsciously. There are nodes stuck to her chest, monitoring her heart rate. She is strapped to a table with metal restraints; ankles together with one bar holding them, her arms laid at her sides, bars covering her wrists. Out of instinct, she test the restraints but finds them utterly unmovable. The room is small, white, metallic, sterile; like that of a hospital or lab.

Suddenly the door to the left of her opens. Two people dressed in light-blue scrubs and wearing masks enter. The second scrub is holding a tray with a single syringe. The pink liquid inside almost seems as if it is glowing.

"Hey. What's going on?" She lifts her head to acknowledge them, but they ignore her.

The first scrub to enter begins to speak, but not to her. "Test Subject MA-42, restrained and prepped for injection." It was a woman. She walks to the table and stops next to Maddy's left side. The second one follows and stands next to her. This one looks to be a man.

Maddy tries to speak to them again, "Hey! What's going on here? Let me go!"

The woman turns to the man and picks up the syringe from the tray. Panicking, she starts to struggle as the woman brings the needle to her arm.

"What is that? The fuck are you doing? Let me go!" She watches the needle puncture her skin and grimaces at the sharp pinch. The strange, glowing liquid is pushed into her veins and she feels a bit light headed.

"Uroboros successfully administered to MA-42. Awaiting results." The woman says monotonously. She places the syringe on the tray and steps away, turning to the door, the man following close behind her.

"Wait! Where are you going? What did you do to me?" The pair ignore her and exit through the door.

Maddy squirmed against the restraints. She felt strange the moment the liquid entered her veins. From the injection site it spread through her body, the feeling of something moving inside her. She breathed heavily, her chest heaving with each quick inhalation.

She had failed to notice the wall to her right which had a tinted glass window. Behind that window, the two scrubs entered the dark room. Two more people were already in the room, watching the monitors that displayed the subjects vitals and adrenaline level.

"God, look at this little thing. No way she is going to make it!" The male scrub that entered the room says. He walks to the table against the wall and leans on it, crossing his arms.

"I mean come on. We've had hardened army men, and they haven't survived it. What chance is there that this little woman will?" He continues.

"Just because it's a woman doesn't mean she won't survive! Gender has no impact in this." The woman heatedly defends her gender.

"Oh, Halls. Don't get your panties in a twist. You know what I mean."

"No, Stanley, I don't."

"Hey, chill out you two! Don't make a big deal out of this." The man watching the monitors interjects. He pauses before adding, "Fifty bucks says she doesn't make it."

"Vinley!" Halls objected.

"Count me in."

The main overseer chimes in while keeping his eyes on Maddy, "Make it a hundred." The two men behind him chuckle.

"You're all pigs."

A speaker turns on and they all freeze.

"Dr. Hynes, control your team. Your job is to monitor the test subject, not make bets on survival rate. I have no patience for immaturity. Focus on the task or you will find yourself on the table next." A smooth, deep voice resonates over the speakers. The color on Dr. Hynes's face drains. His eyes flicker to the window high up on the opposite wall, another observation room.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Won't happen again." His voice trembles slightly. The voice over the speakers does not respond and they all relax when it clicks off. He shoots a glare at the two men behind him but says nothing, turning his attention back to the subject.

Maddy's struggle continues. The uncomfortable sensation of something moving inside her pauses at her heart before continuing. Next it infects her brain, she becomes dizzy. Her right arm fell ill next, like something crawling under her skin. It reaches her stomach and she jerks, starting to groan.

"Vitals elevated and continue to increase." Vinley comments. They all watch as the poor woman struggles, indifferent to her situation. She is nothing more than a lab rat to them.

Further and further, into her legs it continues until it reaches her feet. For a moment she relaxes, the uncomfortable sensation gone. If only she knew that that was the easy part.

A vice grip claimed her body and she arches her back, her mouth momentarily frozen in a silent scream. A burning pressure fills her veins; her lungs inhale deeply, only to force the oxygen back out in a horrific scream.

Her body contorted, jerking every which way, trying to free itself so it could claw the skin away from its bones. To stop the war raging in her body. To stop the pain.

Maddy closes her eyes tight, wanting desperately to block out the pain. Her head felt as if it would burst. Her brain felt like it was being stabbed over and over again. Her veins felt like they were filled with lava. The screaming continues until her throat felt raw and torn and her lungs ached. But she keeps screaming. It was almost comforting, like it was helping counteract the pain and pressure in her head.

She doesn't know how long it lasts. All she knows is pain. Her body moving on its own, her screams uncontrollable. Time stood still. It was irrelevant.

Finally the tension ebbs away from her body. Her back slowly lays against the table again, her limbs still. The only movement, the only sound, was her ragged breathing as her body was released from its suffering. Slowly she calms, her breathing returning to normal and her mind blacks out.

"Vitals decreasing. Stabilizing to normal levels." Vinley reads from the monitor.

"After extreme pain and convulsions, MA-42 falls unconscious." Dr. Hynes says.

Ten minutes pass with no change in her condition. The steady beeping from the machines are getting annoying. They are all growing restless.

"Halls. Stanley. Go examine the subject closer." The two scrubs who first attended Maddy nod to the doctor and leave the room.

A few moments later, after they went through decontamination, they enter the exam room. They slowly close the distance between them and Maddy. She was still unconscious and showed no immediate signs of waking up. Halls, begins to examine her head and neck. Stanley carefully examines her body, checking for any signs of infection.

"No dermal indications of infection and no tumors found. Only abnormalities is irritation at the injection site and mild bruising around the wrists and ankles due to struggling against the bonds." Stanley reports his findings.

"Eyes seem to be in the process of transformation." Halls was shining a small flashlight in one of Maddy's eyes, watching the pupil's reaction. Besides contracting as needed to the light, it was also transforming. The small circle gradually elongated until it resembled that of a small feline. Simultaneously, red streaks began to manifest in the iris.

"Pupils becoming slit. Iris pigmentation is becoming red and slightly illuminated."

Suddenly, Maddy awakens with a deep breath, like she had been deprived of oxygen. The pair jump away from her in alarm.

"What the hell, Vinley?!" Dr. Hynes turns to the man watching the monitors, who throws his hands up in defense.

"She wasn't showing any signs of waking up!"

Maddy's vision confuses her. Everything is tinted in shades of red.

Anger suddenly overcomes her. Anger and fear. And pain. Her head explodes, her brain screams in agony. Her vision is now starting to pulse and throb. All she can hear is wet, squirming, disgusting sounds crawling in her head.

Suddenly she jerks again. A prick of pain erupts in her left arm and she groans. The spectators watch as a tentacle slides out of her skin and wraps around her arm. Across her body, several blackened areas appear with tentacle-like bulges squirming beneath the skin around it. A few more tentacles emerge on her torso.

Halls and Stanley back toward the door slowly. Stanley presses the button to open the door and his heart freezes when it doesn't move.

"What are you doing, Stanley? Open the door!" Halls hisses to him.

"I'm trying. It won't open!"

Maddy pulls against her bonds. Straining, thrashing, trying to free herself.

"Dr. Hynes! Open the door! Hurry!"

"Heart rate extremely high! Her adrenaline level is through the roof!"

Dr. Hynes desperately pushed the button, typing commands into the console when nothing worked. "I'm trying! It's been overridden!"

Metal screeches as she tugs hard and finds her left arm free. Then her right arm, followed by both of her legs. She falls to the tile floor, clutching her head. The nodes are pulled from her body.

"Dr. Hynes, please!" Halls begged.

Dr. Hynes looks up to the observation room and suddenly understands how the controls are being overridden. They aren't going to get out of there alive.

She pulls herself up and stumbles onto her feet, still clutching her head, still hearing those disgusting sounds. Squirming, organic, visceral sounds.

Hall's flashlight falls from her hand and hits the floor. Tlink. Her face pales when she realizes what is about to happen.

Maddy's head shoots up, red eyes glowing like the fires of hell. She does not see two people standing in front of her. She sees a world tinted in red with two black figures. They are disgusting things; a squirming black mass of tentacles, formed like a bipedal specimen, with strange glowing tumors spread throughout it. The creatures were a perfect visual representation of the horrible sounds filling her head.

'Kill.' She thought. 'Kill those things. The sounds will stop. God, make the sounds stop!'

With a growl and a screech she launches herself at those two tentacle monsters, determined to end her torment. They screech in return and try to run away, but she won't let them. In a dash almost too fast to see she is next to the first thing. One of the tumors seems to glow brighter than the rest. It attracts her attention and she thrust her hand into the writhing black mass, grabbing the disgusting pustule and ripping it from the creature. It screams and melts into an oily, black, puddle of worms. She breathes a slight sigh as the sounds decrease in potency.

The second creature slithers to the opposite side of the room. Refusing to let it get away, she chases after it. It's back is against the wall with nowhere to go. She reaches it and it puts its tentacle arms up in defense, squealing desperately. It's center glows with a collection of the strange tumors. She pays the cries no mind, knocking the tentacle arms aside and thrusts her hand into the black mass. The orbs fade in intensity as the creature squeals. Like its partner, it too collapses into a black puddle.

Her body trembles and she turns away. The sounds in her head stop and she breaths a sigh of relief.

Dr. Hynes and Vinley stare in horror at what is left of their coworkers. They had seen gruesome things such as this before, but these were people they knew, not test subjects. Bile rises to Vinley's throat and he fights to swallow it back.

Her head hangs in relief, but the sounds continue. Very quiet, but still there. The slithering, like a pit of snakes. It gradually becomes louder and she turns to the source. She hadn't noticed that window there before.

"Jesus fucking Christ! She tore them apart! Oh god what do we do, Hynes? She's going to fucking kill us!" Vinley gasps out.

"Shut the hell up! We are safe in here. Besides, she doesn't know we're in here." Dr. Hynes turns and snaps at the young tech.

He looks back out. As if in response, Maddy looks toward the window.

Dr. Hynes pales and begins to sweat lightly. "No. It's fine. She can't get us." Vinley is beginning to panic.

"No! Fuck that, I'm getting out of here!" He runs to the door and pushes the button, but it remains closed.

"What the hell? Let us out!" He starts to desperately bang on the door.

Maddy approaches the window.

"Stop it, you idiot!" Dr. Hynes hisses to him and the younger man stops.

She stood in front of the window, looking inside blindly. Both men froze, their hearts racing.

Maddy looks into the window. She can't see anything and after the banging, the slithering stopped. But something was still there. Barely. She listens hard, and she could hear it. Beating, pulsing. A picture of those throbbing tumors appeared in her head and she is filled with rage once again. Suddenly she pulls her left arm back and punches the glass.

The two men jump in surprise. "It's okay. That's Lenax glass. No way she can break it."

In response, she throws her arm back and hits it again. This time a tiny crack appears. Beads of sweat starts to roll down Dr. Hynes's face.

Again, she hit it. The crack grew. Both men back away from the window.

With a primal scream, she hit it one final time. The glass shatters under her adrenaline fueled power. Shards of glass fall to the ground.

Maddy climbs through the window, feeling no pain as the broken glass cut into her hand. She also did not know that there were tentacles protruding from her body, wrapped around her torso and arms. They watch them slide around her, slime dripping down the black patches covering her body.

Vinley was shaking next to Dr. Hynes, terrified. The creature in front of him is a nightmare. He was used to the tentacles, but not when the subject still resembled a human. Not when the eyes threatened to burn through his soul. Not when there was no barrier protecting him from it.

He can't handle it. The window was right behind her. He could make it. He could dodge her and get out.

Dr. Hynes saw the way Vinley was eyeing the window. "Vinley, don't do it." He whispers quietly, watching him out of the corner of his eye. But his advice falls on deaf ears.

Vinley grunts as he pushes away from the wall. Maddy focuses her gaze on him. He runs and tries to pass by her but she wasn't about to let the monster get away.

She bares her teeth and turns to him, her tentacle covered arms grabbing him by his neck and picking him up off the ground. Vinley screams and struggles against her iron grip. Dr. Hynes watches her as she tightens her hold on the man's neck. He starts to gasp and he is almost positive that she is going to strangle him or break his neck.

Instead she pulls him back and slams him down against the broken glass. The sharp edges break the sensitive skin of his throat, cutting though half of his neck. Dr. Hynes watches Vinley spasm, hears him gurgle as blood floods his airway. Then he is still.

To Dr. Hynes, time was slowed. The woman—no, the monster—turns its head away from Vinley's still body. Red cat eyes glow from behind the strands of its hair. Its face was splattered with blood; the blood of his coworkers. He couldn't take it anymore. His eyes close tight and he holds his breath, not wanting to see it coming. Not wanting to see the incarnation of death itself approaching him.

Maddy is quick to dispatch the last creature. She ran at it, her fist pulled back and ready to strike. To anyone watching, it is over in a second. She dashes to him in a blur and brings her fist forward. There is a loud crack of bone and concrete, and Dr. Hynes's headless body slumps to the ground. Blood, bone, and brain matter litter the cracks of the indented concrete.

The sounds in her head stop and she breaths a sigh of relief. Her body trembles and she turns away from the black oil splattered on the wall. Looks away from the broken glass, oil still trickling down the wall beneath it and collecting in a puddle on the floor. Away from the black pool in the corner of the room where she was infected. From the fading tumor laying in an oily black spill in front of the door. The monsters are gone.

From the observation room situated high on the wall facing Maddy, the man had watched the whole procedure. After the two techs had entered the room to examine the subject, he had input a command to override the controls and locked the room down. He had a strange feeling that something was about to happen. Of course, he had been correct. He had watched with increasing interest as she freed herself and proceeded to attack the trapped rats.

He watches her relax after killing Dr. Hynes, her illuminated eyes beginning to dull in intensity. The tentacles continue to writhe and slither against her softly, but she seems oblivious to their presence.

"Impressive performance." He speaks quietly. "But how much more can you handle?" He smirks deviously as he pushes a button.

Maddy closes her eyes, relishing in the silence. But as soon as she does, it is taken away. A different noise begins. This one she could tell was not inside her head. A constant ringing surrounded her. She brings her hands to her head and groans as it starts to protest, threatening to explode in pain once more.

The door in the big room opens. Four black tentacle creatures file through it and circle the table, cornering Maddy in the smaller room, their massive arms pointing at her. In an instant her eyes flash and burn bright again. She tenses, ready to fight.

They grunt and screech at her as she vaults over the window again. She immediately attacks the one to her right. It starts to screech—rat-tat-tat—and she grunts as a prickling fire stings her gut. Unbeknownst to her, the tentacles on her own body move, wrapping around her abdomen and protecting her from the damage. She still feels a pressure but pays it no mind and closes the distance between them. She dashes and ends up behind it, her arm wraps around what she can only assume is the equivalent of its head. In a single grunt she tightens her arm, her free hand reaching in front and grabbing the opposite shoulder, twisting as hard as she could. A very loud crack is heard and she is slightly confused. 'Why would a creature made of tentacles crack?', she thought. She remembers the one she had just previously killed and recalls a crack as well, but she had assumed it was from the wall behind it.

In her distraction, the monster next to her lashes out and hits her abdomen. When it touches her, her body tenses and she gasps for a second. Her muscles contract and she is unable to move, to speak, to even breathe. It only lasts five seconds but to her it felt like eternity.

When it pulls back, she falls to her knees panting. The creatures surround her defensively. A moment passes before she can recover. She stands again and tackles one creature to the ground, elbowing another one hard in the chest when it tries to hit her from behind. The third points at her and makes that strange rat-tat-tat sound. Pain erupts across her back and she arches away from it. The tentacles move and cover her back.

The one beneath her moves a hand to its waist before pointing at her. She grabs the arm, using the other hand to hit the center of the tentacle and it bends with a crack and a pained scream. A tumor in the body glows brighter for a moment and she thrust her hand into it. It screeches once more then becomes quiet.

She stands, almost knocking the one that was shooting her down. Turning, she grabs it, picking it up and slams it on the table next to them. It grasps at her arms but she lifts her arm and brings her elbow down on its face, repeatedly, until it stopped moving.

While she was smashing the monster's face, three more creatures entered through the door of the small room. One jumped through the window, the other two staying in the room. The monster that she had elbowed earlier finally recovered and joined the new opponent. They came up behind her, one shocking her. As she convulsed, they both grabbed her and tossed her to the two on the opposite side of the window. They grabbed her, each holding an arm. One advanced on her, the other close behind. It raised its arms, ready to hit her head and knock her out.

She regained her senses and saw it about to hit her. She lashes out with her foot, hitting its knee and making it stumble. She followed up by kicking it in the face, it staggered and fell back, knocking down the one behind it as well. They land in a pile and both start to convulse.

The two behind her hold on tight. But she is too strong for them to last long. She pulls her right arm forward, pulling the monster through the window and it lets go. She twists and pulls her arm free from the other one, taking its head and slamming it down against the broken glass that sinks into the soft tissue. She turns to the last monster, it starts to stand up. Dashing to it, she knees it in the face. It jerks up and she follows it with a punch that crushes its face and sends it flying across the room.

With no more monsters in sight, Maddy finally gives in to the ringing and she falls to her knees, head in hands and her teeth clenched tightly. The tentacles started to recede back into her body and she groans at the unusual sensation.

The man stood when the last of the guards had been dispatched. "My dear, you have piqued my interest." He smirks and chuckles darkly, disappearing from the room in a black blur.

The door to the main room opens again and Maddy looks up to see a figure emerge. She tenses and tries to stand but gasps and falls back to her knees.

The figure gets closer and she sees that it isn't one of the creatures. No, it looks like a man. He crouches in front of her and she lashes out. He grabs her forearms swiftly and holds them between the two of them. She fights against his grasp but it's only met with more force.

Another sweet moment without pain soothes her body and she stops thrashing. Her vision stops pulsing. The red tint fades and the regular spectrum of colors returns. She looks up at the figure in front of her and can make out his facial features: strong and defined jaw; thin, long nose; mouth a slim line. His hair is blonde, his clothes are black.

She laughs at herself, 'How can I be thinking of how handsome he is at a time like this?' He cocks his head to the side, confused by her contradictory behavior. For a moment she can make out a red flash behind the sunglasses he wore.

Her focus changes from the man to her hands. A sickening knot twists in her stomach and her chest tightens. There was blood covering her hands. Bright, wet blood. The creatures cross her mind for a moment and she looks around her.

Instead of the black puddles that she expected to see, there were human bodies. So much blood. Oh, god there is so much blood.

She stares horrified at the carnage and looks to her hands again. They tremble in the man's grasp. Her whole body shakes and she starts to hyperventilate.

"What have I done?" She looks up to him for answers—a reaction—but he remains stoic.

Her back arches suddenly and she starts to scream again. Another stabbing pain erupts through her head.

The man tries to hold on but decides it best to let her go. She falls back to the floor, her body writhing around. After a minute of her convulsions, she finally falls unconscious, giving her mind and body a much needed reprieve from the ordeal. The man watches her a moment more before picking her up and carrying her out of the room.