Prologue #2
The roots climb up the walls, covering the windows, and I use as much force as I can. A few roots slither their way between the wall and glass, slipping inside to where the scientists are.
I stand, roaring, the roots and leaves flying from me. I tilt my chin to my chest, paw the ground with my foot, and charge, ramming my head into the wall of roots. The small sound of glass cracking has a smirk stretching across my lips.
I wonder if the scientists knew they would never be safe from me. They left me in this cage like some poor animal at the zoo. They thought they could control me, use me, and violate me without repercussions?
No one ever fucks with me and lives to talk about it.
I back away, watching the roots grow and thicken, cutting through the ground like angry waves during a storm. Small black berries and leaves grow from the roots, the flowers blooming one by one.
Growling, I focus on my fury and how I want them to relive their worst dreams before I kill every single last one of them. A black cloud emits from my chest, a force field that surrounds me. Darkness succumbs my soul, tugging me deeper into the depths of Hell.
And I love it. I’ve never felt more at home.
The darkness has always beckoned me, and now I can relish in the sin of what it brings.
I catch another tranquilizer, a long root wrapping around the dart until it snaps in half.
“Enough!” The lead scientist orders me.
I forgot his name. I never cared enough to learn it. Not once have they ever gotten me to beg or cry for my life. I’ve never been a beggar, and I don’t plan to start now.
“Enough,” I mock him in a deep, haunting voice. “Only I get to say when it is enough.” I inhale, lifting my arms in the air as the roots swirl around me.
They wait for my command.
I aim my hands towards the windows, the roots slicing the air, and I charge again. With added pressure from my horn and the roots against the windows, the glass shatters at my feet, and I’m left staring at the man in charge.
The man who tried to take my humanity from me.
Not knowing that I never had any to begin with.
“Not another step or you will get a bullet between your eyes,” he warns.
He’s wearing wrinkled slacks with a shirt that’s half-tucked in. There’s a mustard stain on the left side, proving how disgusting these people are. They never leave this facility.
Whatever this facility is. I’ve never seen it from the outside, and I’ve never seen what the rest of the inside looks like. I’ve been kept in here the entire time, chained for the longest time, until I convinced them I was no threat.
I’ve been preparing for this day from the moment I felt the rage of the nightmare within me.
I step forward, despite his little orders he just gave, and the shards of glass don’t even penetrate my rhino hide.
He licks his lips, taking a staggering step back.
His fellow coworkers flee to the exit, and we can’t have any of them escaping before they get what they deserve.
I block both doors with roots, then one by one, hold each scientist by their throat, the vise grip on their necks tight enough to leave them gasping for air as their feet dangle off the ground.
The only one left is the man who chained me down, pumped me full of hormones to get my cock hard, and cut the light of my angler fish off over and over again to see if it would regrow.
All in the name of science.
The black cloud surrounding me drifts inside, and the berries begin to bloom. I grin, knowing each and every person in here is about to get poisoned and lose their ability to move.
One by one, their gasps become silent, and their bodies fall limp in the grasp of the roots.
The eerie black smoke enters their bodies through every orifice. Mouth, nostrils, and ears. I’m able to see what they are all afraid of. What their worst fears are.
It finally hits me that the evil fog that escaped me is the nightmare DNA. My worst traits finally have a form, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
Right now, their worst fear, the one way they don’t want to die, all leads back to me.
“Scream.” The nightmare inside me claws at my voice, deepening it to lull them to a sleep-like state.
One by one, each man screams at the top of their lungs when I implant a scene of me hunting them in their heads. A few of the men piss themselves, their legs begging to move, but they can’t.
They will never be able to escape me.
Just like they thought I would never be able to escape them.
I look up at my creator and flash a fang. He is frozen in place. The whites of his eyes shine like the moon with how wide and round they are. Jumping up into the room where they watched me, I land in front of him, smelling the beautiful scent of fear.
I lean in, inhaling the bitterness of the sweat clinging to his skin. He is trembling. His badge hangs from his breast pocket, and I rip it free, reading the name of the man who has pushed me into my greatest form.
“Doctor William Travis.” I’m unimpressed. I crush his card in my fist, the paranormal strength allowing me to turn the plastic into a small ball.
I drop it on the ground, taking one more step closer to the doctor who made me into what I am.
A tear drips down his cheek just as one of my roots wraps around his throat.
“You thought your actions wouldn’t have consequences?” I ask, forcing him to turn around to watch his fellow coworkers die. His knees buckle from the paralysis, and I hold him up, pointing at the man I’m going to kill. “What did he do for you?”
His men are all screaming. Scratches appear on their arms and torso as they try to escape me in their wicked dreams. I’ve been playing catch and release with them.
I am loving the hope they feel when I have them escape me—only to kill it when I get them in my hands again.
“What did he do?” I roar into his ear so loud, his eardrum begins to bleed.
“He is the one who pumped you full of nightshade, extrapolating the DNA sequences needed from the poisonous plant to see what it would do to your body.”
I tilt my head, dragging my new friend until he is standing in front of his fellow scientist.
“What do you think of the nightshade now?” I growl low, watching as more flowers bloom from the black berries bursting over the roots. “Breathe in, Doctor,” I snarl. “Let me show you the monster you’ve created.”
The whites of his eyes turn into inky pools of black as the nightmare rages and possesses his soul. An oil-like substance drips from his eyes and nose, staining his trembling lips.
“He is caught in a spider’s web,” I whisper to my mad doctor. “Spiders, along with me, are his worst fear. There’s nowhere for him to go now. He’s stuck. What do you want me to do? Let him go? Or let him live?”
“Let him go! Oh god, let him go. He doesn’t deserve this. He was just doing his job. He has a family.”
Another scream rips through the air from his friend. Bite marks begin to appear on his throat and arms, the web wrapping around his body as if his nightmare is a reality.
He gasps once, twice, until there isn’t the faintest sound of his heartbeat.
The black of his eyes dissipates to white as the nightmare flees his system. I snap his neck for good measure, releasing the grip of the root from his neck, and he drops to the floor in a webbed cocoon.
“I had a life too. I had a family,” I snarl.
“You didn’t have blood relatives. You didn’t have anyone who would miss you. We thought your psychopathic tendencies would create the perfect weapon. We have yet to perfect the perfect soldier. No creation has listened to us yet.”
“You’ve done this to others?”
“If I tell you the truth, will you let me live?” His teeth chatter from fear.
“That’s fair,” I reply.
“There are facilities all over the country. So many experiments are going on that no one knows about. We have endless funding. A few facilities have gone under, but when one fails, a few more facilities take its place. You’ll never find them all.”
“Who said I want to find them all?” I sling him to the nearest wall, his body vulnerable with how exposed it is. “The only facility I care about is this one. How many people are here?”
“A few dozen,” he answers without hesitation.
“And you think you have the power to change these people’s lives? Unlike me, were some of them good people?”
William’s lip trembles as he nods.
“See. I have a problem with that. I have a code. You only kill the bad ones, Doctor.” The roots swirl around his arms and legs, spreading his body out like a star.
“I didn’t. I was conducting an experiment. I didn’t…I didn’t mean to…” A root rips his shirt open. “Oh, god,” he cries. “You said you wouldn’t kill me. You said—”
I silence him with a mouthful of nightshade.
“I lied. Killing you brings me happiness. Killing you is what I’ve dreamed about doing for months.
Killing you, doing to you what you did to me…
” I hum in delight, my cock jerking with arousal at the thought of his blood drenching me.
“It brings me happiness. Why would you take the word of a monster, Doctor? Especially one that you created to suit your image.”
“That’s right. I’m your creator. You should respect me.”
The root slithers up his body, snaking between his lips to push the nightshade into his stomach. This amount will kill him. The toxin I release from my body is only enough to paralyze when inhaled, but ingested…
I’ll need to hurry.
One of the roots wraps around his waist, and I peek to my right to see the other scientists doing their best not to look.
I can’t have that.
“Step right up and enjoy the show.” I wave my hand, forcing the roots to pull the men closer to me. Straightening their heads, the sinful smoke morphs into fingers, peeling their eyelids back.
“Please. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything I did.”
“Apology not accepted.” Controlling one of the main roots, I go to plunge it into his gut when I pause right before impaling him.
He has made my life absolute Hell.
It’s only fair that I return the favor.