Subject 0427 : The Experiment

Screaming. All I can hear is screaming. My screaming to be exact. The echo's of my voice were bouncing around my head like a pinball in a blender. My lungs burned, and my throat ached as I scratched at the terror rising through my oesophagus from my stomach. Sweat poured out of every pore covering my skin, and yet my body shivered. I didn’t know what was happening, all I knew was that the weighted chains on my ankles were holding me in place.

Panic quickly crept up my throat like an uncontrollable fire that destroyed everything in its path, swallowing all that it could. I could feel the next scream coming, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t stop it. All i could do was endure the pain of my own decisions. I grabbed my head, and covered my ears, curling into myself to try and stop the fatal blow.

But with every scream the fire inside would just burn stronger and brighter, but this flame was not one of pure light. No, this flame burned the very soul of my being. It was a slow, torturous burning that swallowed every inch of me from the inside out. My screams continued to echo into the darkness surrounding me, and I could feel the walls radiating heat onto my shivering body as I cowered away from the danger. As I cowered away from myself.

I was foolish to think that I could win, that I would survive this. Everyone knew it, they all warned me. But I wouldn’t listen, I didn’t want to listen. No, I wanted to prove them all wrong. I wanted to show them that I was capable of escaping Room 101. The fate I had made for myself. No one knew the terrors that Room 101 provided. But they did know that those who unfortunately survived Room 101 were never the same again.

No one would willing participate in the lunatic’s game. That is, until I came along. I thought I had something to prove. I thought I could win. But with scream after scream racking my body in flames, I knew I was wrong. I had, unknowingly, signed my own death certificate, and willingly put my body in the furnace for cremation.

By now, I could no longer distinguish what was real and what was of my own creation. But one thing’s for sure, the moment that needle pierced my arm and the serum seeped into my bloodstream, everything grew still. The screaming stopped, my vision cleared, and my breathing slowed. I could feel the sweat sticking what minimal clothing I had left to my body. But I knew it wasn’t over yet. The flames continued to lick my skin, crawling their way around my body. The final blow was near. That much was true.

A slow thumping caused my body to shake, as I crumpled to the floor. Cradling my head in my hands, I could feel the heat tracing its way up my spine, towards my chest, up my aching throat. Everything rattled as the final scream erupted from my mouth. Anything and everything had shattered. My body was littered in cuts and scars. But I didn’t care. Instead I just begged for the aching to stop as I grabbed at my head. The screams still tumbling out of my tired body.

Eventually, everything grew quiet as I felt the sweat evaporate of my skin and my hair fly away from my neck. All my pain ceased to exist as adrenaline pumped through my veins. And yet all I felt was my own panic eating away at me, as my vision became blinded by the red and orange hues of light emitting from my own skin.

But I could feel the fire slowly dissipating. The adrenaline was wearing off as my body now resided on the floor, having dropped in exhaustion. The panic no longer clutched at my chest and the fire no longer burned. Everything was peaceful, the walls no longer radiated heat but instead the cool surface soothed my aching body. But the pain had been too much and my eyes had closed, the fate of my decision finally taking its toll.