Work Text
THUMP… THUMP… THUMP…
The clumsy thuds of desperate arms pulled forth what remained of its distorting figure, leaving behind trails of darkening blood from the bandaged stumps giving way from melted legs. Its lower limbs had dissolved little by little, day after day, festering pus with exposed flesh and bone, already well into burning away the knees it would no longer require. What remained was destined to become one, forced to hoist itself forward with agony through its nerves, the closest it could get to walking again before such movement would be made obsolete; forever replaced by a form unlike any other. Patches of teal scales paved over much of itself, remnants of darkened skin peering through the cracks, fading away with the slow passage of time, the arched protrusion pushing out from its head with fins at its sides. The room they gave it was big; spacious. Yet it remained unsure as to whether this gift of a home within the facility made for some sick inside joke it had no way of proving, having to drag itself across the vast metal floor to get from one end all the way to the other, the giant wall of glass at the front its view of the world beyond its enclosure. Maybe they were just trying to prepare for how big it would get, if they ever knew the results of what they were trying to do to it in the first place. To play God with science and let the results grow beyond control… or worse. Its right arm shakily reached forward as it laid against the ground, teal claws resting onto it before heaving forward with whatever amount of strength lingered in its changing body. Its breath wavered, sweat soaking its long black hair, wincing as it reached forward its left arm, feeling the beginnings of another arm shifting forward with the limb above, emerging from the flesh below. Its will derived from feeding time, an unseen voice calling out to it, a practice now routine. It hungered ferociously, a mutating mind weighed with the ravenous urge for nothing but meat. Fresh, raw, primal. It was all that drove it forward, through the pain and mutations that would never cease to be. There it crawled: The only experiment that made it. Malformed into a monstrous fusion with hardly any humanity shining through, the light of an anglerfish growing from its head solidifying its dire circumstances. Yet in time, it hauled itself before a spot on the floor a few feet before the glass, dried blood splatters indicating its purpose. From above, a hatch opened, the darkness obscuring it as though the space was boundless. Through it dropped a sizeable carcass, splattering right before where it laid, the immediate scent of rank blood causing it to skitter forward and tear into the flesh, devouring every last morsel save for the bone at its center. It failed to recall the passage of time from when it lunged into its latest meal. But as it ate the carcass, rationality akin to a human long gone restored itself into its head, breath easing, salivation ceasing. Only now did it realize the consequences of its actions upon looking down at its meal’s blood, soon glancing back at the lengthy, unbroken trails of blood that continued to ooze from its stumps. With temporary fullness in its stomach, it pushed upward with its hands planted to the floor. It stared directly into itself before the glass reflection, partly-teal eyes watering. It could hardly recognize itself any longer, the amalgamation of slipping humanity and several fishes rewriting its body, mind, and frayed soul. Blood dripped down its chin and onto an orange facility shirt that reminded it of its unwilling imprisonment. There, it could only gaze at its reflection, trying to look past the monstrous features overtaking what it once was, to see what it was before everything changed for good. “Still the same old you.” It assured itself, scales invading most of its face, a third eye above its left staring at what human traces remained. “Just hungrier…” Memories of a former life fading in and out. Memories of a new life here to stay.