Your mind is blank. You do not want to tell him about the void. You do not want to give the man in a lab coat what he wants. You do not want to tell him anything.\n\nYou do the next reasonable thing.\n\nYou lie.\n\n"I... I don't remember." You wheeze. Your voice is unfamiliar to you. It's as if your voice had been forced out of your throat from a pipe too small.\n\nThe eyes of the man in a lab coat widens. The dull grey pits grow until you are almost certain that eyes cannot widen in such an inhuman manner. You are scared.\n\nThe man in a lab coat lets go of you.\n\nThe man in a lab coat screams. He screams and shouts and tears run down his face and you are not sure why. But you are sure. You lied. Does the man in a lab coat know you have lied? You wonder. You are scared. The voice of the man in a lab coat frightens you.\n\nThe man in a lab coat shakes you. You feel your wrists and ankles brace against their restraints. It hurts. He slams your shoulders onto the warm surgical table again and again. It hurts. Your face is marked with bitter droplets. The man in a lab coat howls.\n\n"YOU SAW SOMETHING YOU SAW SOMETHING DON'T YOU LIE TO ME I WILL KILL YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN IF I HAVE TO YOU SAW SOMETHING AND YOU ARE GOING TO TELL ME."\n\n\n[[Triumph]]\n<<if $struggled eq "yes">>[[Break Free]]<<endif>>

"ANSWER ME!" You scream. Your voice is no longer the pitiful squeal that it was. It is the cry of a cornered animal with nothing left. \n\nDignity is just a privilege. Breathing is just a rythme.\n\n"What d-does it matter?" The man in a lab coat sobs again. "There's nothing anyway! You s-said so!"\n\nYou feel an urge to plunge the scalpel into his neck, watch the red blossom onto your bare hands. You do not.\n\n"What do you mean there's nothing?!" You try to contain your frustration and hate but it seeps out through your gritted teeth.\n\n"DEATH." The man in a lab coat touches his face and smiles. It is a broken smile, one of a man who has lost everything but that. "Don't you understand? Heh. I WAS KILLING YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN SO I COULD SEE WHAT'S AFTER IT. I MADE YOUR BRAIN THINK YOU WERE GOING TO ROT IN A HOLE. I MADE YOUR BRAIN THINK YOU WERE GOING TO BE RIPPED TO PIECES. I MADE YOUR BRAIN THINK BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD THINGS!"\n\nThe man in a lab coat laughed with a childish glee, opening the red mark you made on his cheek. You could barely understand what he was saying. God. You hate him so much. How could one kill someone again and again? Well you sure wanted to kill this man again and again and again and...\n\nBut you do not.\n\nYou want to know who you are. You want to know what this man meant.\n\nYOU WANT TO KNOW.\n\nYou are a curious person, after all.\n\n[[Do the Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad Thing]]\n[[Do Not Do the Thing]]

You start laughing now, wheezy little exhales from your lungs. The man in a lab coat hears you. His sobbing stops.\n\nWho cares if all of this is just a sham anyway! Who cares if the blood stinks on my hands?\n\nYou are laughing upwards now, towards the empty darkness that might be the ceiling. The man in a lab coat is frozen, but not for long. He shakes and falls backwards, shuffling slowly away from the monster that you probably look like.\n\nYou walk quickly.\n\nYou grab the man in a lab coat and push him down. The man in a lab coat struggles. You do not let him succeed. You make an incision down his cheek. The man in a lab coat screeches. You laugh. The man in a lab coat cries. The dried blood on your hands is loosened by the new red trickle. The man in a lab coat screams. You raise the scalpel above your head. The man in a lab coat closes his eyes and grimaces.\n\nYou stop. You suddenly feel scared. Scared of the monster you are. Scared of the murderer you have become. Scared. \n\nBut your grip does not loosen.\n\nYour voice shakes as you press the scalpel to the throat of the man in a lab coat. You have many questions. You are not sure if they will be answered but you're damn sure you're going to try.\n\n"Who are you? What do you want with me?" You try to shout. Your voice does not allow that. Your voice is sad mewling, like that of a child angry with his mother.\n\n[[ANSWER ME]]

You pull the scalpel from the neck of the man in a lab coat.\n\nYou laugh. You watch the blood form a burgundy crust. You laugh again.\n\nGod! What a fate. You think to yourself. So that's what the void was.\n\nYou are just a specimen. A tool. Disposable. Replaceable.\n\nYou laugh again.\n\nYou feel the cold blade in your stomach. It does not hurt. You twist the scalpel. It does not hurt. It does not hurt.\n\nYou fall.\n\nIt does not hurt.\n\nYou close your eyes.\n\nIt does not hurt.\n\n[[Restart?]]

The intern's blue eyes feel familiar. It's as if you were watching someone you knew. In fact, it's as if you were watching yourself come upon you with a scalpel. You are scared. You do not want to die. The cuffs rattle with your quivering. \n\nYOU DO NOT WANT TO DIE.\n\nYou hear the intern come closer, perfectly timed thumps of worn soles and floor. You shake. You strain against the cuffs. You push and pull and brace and shake the damned restraints.\n\nYOU DO NOT WANT TO DIE.\n\nYou can see the intern clearly now. You do not care. You see the silvery blade of the scalpel and you are scared. You move and you shift and you strain. You feel some give. The momentary glee is suppressed by the ever-closer steps.\n\nYOU DO NOT WANT TO DIE.\n\nThe intern raised the scalpel. You want to scream. You do not want to die. Tears roll down your temples. You want to cry for help and run away and NOT DIE.\n\nYOU DO NOT WANT TO DIE.\n\nYou see the scalpel come down. You close your eyes and reach up.\n\nA single rusty squeal.\nDownward force.\nStop.\n\nYou did not die.\n\nYour white-knuckled grips are fixed on the intern's arms. You open your eyes and see the point of the scalpel, hanging over your chest like the failed prophecy that it is. The intern's eyes widen, his body pressing against what was left of the rusty restraints.\n\nYou want to cry.\n\nYou do not.\n\nYou suddenly feel an immense wave of anger wash up inside you. YOU TRIED TO KILL ME. You thought. YOU FAILED. You begin to chuckle. You chuckle and laugh and you do not stop. The intern is frightened. The intern try to pull his arms away. You do not let go. You pull the intern in. The intern resists. The intern fails. You rip the scalpel from the intern's hands.\n\n<<set $killed_intern = "yes">>\nThe intern opens his mouth. No sound comes out. You grab the intern's collar with your free hand. You lunge up and slam the blade of the scalpel into the side of his neck. The intern gives a small gurgle. The intern gasps. You repeat. You feel warm blood on your hand. You repeat. The intern tears at your hand at his collar. You repeat. The intern's hands drop to his side. You repeat. Your naked arm is stained red. You repeat. There is blood running down your shoulders and onto your bare chest. You repeat. The intern's eyes are blank. You repeat. You repeat. You repeat.\n\nYou drop the intern to the floor. The intern lands with a dull thump. \n\n<<set $scalpel = "yes">>\nYour breathing is laboured. Your chest feels tight. Your hands are sore. You feel warm. Very warm.\n\nYou smile.\n\n[[Walk]]\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $killed_scientist = "no">>\n<<set $killed_intern = "no">>\n<<set $crowbar = "no">>\n<<set $scalpel = "no">>\n<<set $struggled = "no">>\n<<endsilently>>\n\nYou are lying down on a surgical table in front of a man in a lab coat. The man in a lab coat is not a nice man. The man in a lab coat is an old shriveled stick of a man.\n\nYou feel the cold metal cuffs against your naked arms and legs. There is also a cold metal collar. It hurts. The edges are sharp. You cannot move. It hurts. The oxygen mask on your face is too tight. IT HURTS.\n\nYou hate the man in a lab coat. You want to cut off his spindly arms and throw them to wolves. You hate the man in a lab coat. You want to cut him open and throw salt on his torn lungs. YOu hat the man in a lab coat. You want to wrap your hands around his throat and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until the man in a lab coat starts clawing bloody streaks down his own throat and until the last of the dimmed lights fade from his ugly, ugly eyes. You hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT. You want to scream and claw at him and punch him in his gnarled, ugly nose. \n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT. You do not remember why.\n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT.\n\n[[Scream]]\n[[Punch His Gnarled Nose]]

You reach up to punch his gnarled nose. You cannot. You are bound to the surgical table now warm and slick with your naked back. You screech. A thin mewl comes out instead. You cannot screech.\n\nYou hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYou bang against your restraints. Your hands bruise. It hurts. You want to get out but you can't. All you can do is watch the man in a lab coat watch you watch him.\n\nThe man in a lab coat is coming closer now. Your blurred vision is clearing away. You can see the greying hair spouting from the sides of his head. You can see the straggly stubble on his chin. You can see the deep cuts that age has left on his skin. You can see the man in a lab coat.\n\nThe man in a lab coat gently removes your oxygen mask, as if you were made out of thin, fine china. You can see his wide grin, a red canyon devoid of teeth. The man in a lab coat caresses your shoulders tenderly with shaking hands, as a man would touch his lover but with much, much more care. The man in a lab coat bends down. You feel his breathing on your face. You squirm in his grip. You do not dare speak. You can see his eyes clearly now, dull, cloudy pits of grey. You suspect that he is going to suck the life out of you. If it was anyone else, you would have expected a kiss. If it was anyone else...\n\nThe man in a lab coat did not allow you to finish that thought. The man in a lab coat is speaking now. You cannot hear his voice very clearly, as if he was speaking from under a thick quilt. You recall a similar voice. You do not recall the speaker. You are scared. \n\n"What did you see?"\n\n[[Struggle Harder]]\n[[Tell Him About the Void]]\n[[Lie]]

The crash of glass and pale fluid is satisfying. You watch the watery paleness rush past your crowbar, now deeply embedded in a tank containing infant you. You laugh.\n\nBlood mixes with the pale fluid. You stare at the infant you, now staked on a long sword of glass. The now-pink fluid gushes from the tank and runs onto your bare feet. \n\nYou smash another, the one containing the ancient you. You watch him open his eyes. You watch the light fade from them.\n\nYou find yourself cracking one after another, the white fluid mixing with various shades of red and pooling at your feet.\n\nCrash. Blood. Crash. Eyes. Crash. Limb. Crash. Crash.\n\nYou see the tank containing the intern now. You hesitate. You look closer. The intern's clone is sleeping, innocent. It is the face of a being that has done nothing wrong.\n\nIt's as if your arm had a mind of its own.\n\nYou see the glass shatter. You see the young man's eyes open. His blue eyes widen. They stay widened.\n\n[[Spectrum]]

The intern is holding himself. He is shaking. His blue eyes are also shaking along with him. His blue eyes. They look familiar.\n\nYou advance. \n\nThe intern does not see you. \n\nThe intern is crying.\n\nIs he crying out of mourning? You think. Or is he crying out of fear? Out of this monster that you have become. \n\nMURDERER. I AM A MURDERER.\n\nWhatever traces of morals and righteousness left in this world can just go away! You think. I DON'T NEED THIS. I DON'T NEED ANY OF THIS!\n\nYou lunge forward and you grab the intern by his collar. The intern whimpers and tries to pry your arms away. You can see the fear in his wide blue pupils. You raise the crowbar above your head.\n\nThe first hit came down. A dull thwack. You had expected something more of a clear crack. But that makes no difference now. You laugh softly. You do not stop. The intern's movements are wilder now, like that of a wild animal with nothing more to lose. There are bloody streaks down your arms from his clawing. You do not stop. His eyes are blinded by the red showering down with each sickening thump. You do not stop. The intern's eyes cloud over. You do not stop. His blood sprays onto your hands, your chest, your face.\n\nYOU DO NOT STOP.\n\n[[Restart?]]

The first hit came down. A dull thwack. You had expected something more of a clear crack. But that makes no difference now. You laugh softly. You do not stop. The intern's movements are wilder now, like that of a wild animal with nothing more to lose. There are bloody streaks down your arms from his clawing. You do not stop. His eyes are blinded by the red showering down with each sickening thump. You do not stop. The intern's eyes cloud over. You do not stop. His blood sprays onto your hands, your chest, your face.\n\nYou stop.\n\nIt's as if nothing had happened. You release the intern and watch the grey matter slowly creep out from the hole you had bashed in his skull. You blink. You do not think.\n\nYou try not to think.\n\n<<set $killed_intern = "yes">>\n\n[[Turn On the Light]]

You hate the man in a lab coat. You hate him you hate him you hate him you hate him you hate him. God. How can such a pathetic being even bear the weight of the world?\n\nYou look down at the man in a lab coat. He does not see you. He is sobbing while hugging his knees. You feel as if you are watching a ghost, not yet ready to depart from this bitter world and wrapping pale spindly fingers around what's left of its mortal husk.\n\nGod. What a disgrace. \n\nYou think to yourself. Your fingers close around the scalpel.\n\nYou should just die. I'm doing you a favour.\n\nYou start laughing now, wheezy little exhales from your lungs. The man in a lab coat hears you. His sobbing stops.\n\nWho cares if all of this is just a sham anyway! Who cares if the blood stinks on my hands?\n\nYou are laughing upwards now, towards the empty darkness that might be the ceiling. The man in a lab coat is frozen, but not for long. He shakes and falls backwards, shuffling slowly away from the monster that you probably look like.\n\nYou walk quickly.\n\nYou grab the man in a lab coat and push him down. The man in a lab coat struggles. You do not let him succeed. You make an incision down his cheek. The man in a lab coat screeches. You laugh. The man in a lab coat cries. The dried blood on your hands is loosened by the new red trickle. The man in a lab coat screams. You raise the scalpel above your head. The man in a lab coat closes his eyes and grimaces.\n\nYes, the familiar feeling of blade meeting flesh, the sharpness disappearing in a pool of gathering red. It's addicting. The man in a lab coat opens his eyes and his lips part. No sound comes out. You look at his eyes. The eyes of the man in a lab coat is locked in horror. \n\nGod. It's so ugly.\n\nIT'S SO UGLY.\n\nYou give an angry cry and you bring the scalpel down on those UGLY grey pits. You do not stop.\n\nClear retinal fluid, tears and blood stain your hands. You do not stop.\n\nYOU DO NOT STOP.\n\nYOU ARE ABSOLUTELY ADDICTED TO THE FEELING OF CLEAR RETINAL FLUID, TEARS AND BLOOD WASHING OVER YOUR HANDS.\n\nYOU DO NOT STOP.\n\n[[Restart?]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $killed scientist = "no">>\n<<set $killed intern = "no">>\n<<set $crowbar = "no">>\n<<set $scalpel = "no">>\n<<set $struggled = "no">>\n<<endsilently>>\n\nYou are lying down on a surgical table in front of a man in a lab coat. The man in a lab coat is not a nice man. The man in a lab coat is an old shriveled stick of a man.\n\nIt is dim. You feel the cold metal cuffs against your naked arms and legs. There is also a cold metal collar. It hurts. The edges are sharp. You cannot move. It hurts. The oxygen mask on your face is too tight. IT HURTS.\n\nYou hate the man in a lab coat. You want to cut off his spindly arms and throw them to wolves. You hate the man in a lab coat. You want to cut him open and throw salt on his torn lungs. YOu hat the man in a lab coat. You want to wrap your hands around his throat and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until the man in a lab coat starts clawing bloody streaks down his own throat and until the last of the dimmed lights fade from his ugly, ugly eyes. You hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT. You want to scream and claw at him and punch him in his gnarled, ugly nose. \n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT. You do not remember why.\n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT.\n\n[[Scream]]\n[[Punch His Gnarled Nose]]

You are scared. You are also angry. You are so angry. You feel the heat of your anger burn your forehead. You feel the heat of your anger seeth through your gritted teeth.\n\nThe man in a lab coat is waiting for an answer. His eyes are wide, unblinking. Your shoulders hurt. \n\nYou hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYou vaguely recall being told that hate is a complicated thing. It is not. You do not believe it to be a complicated thing. You hate the man in a lab coat because you hate the man in a lab coat because he is a horrible person because he is ugly because he is the man in a lab coat.\n\nYou do not know why.\nYou hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYour wrists hurt. The man in a lab coat caused it. The rusty cuffs is cutting off the blood to your hands. You hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT.\n\nYour wrists are bruising now. The man in a lab coat caused it. The rusty cuffs are slipping off their bolts. You hate the man in a lab coat.\n\nYOU HATE THE MAN IN A LAB COAT.\n\nThe rusty cuffs slipped off with sickening clatter. You did not think. You felt your hands shoot up. You saw your hands clamp around the neck of the man in a lab coat. It's as if you were watching from inside of someone else's head. Your fingers squeezed. Your wrists hurt but you did not stop squeezing.\n\nThe man in a lab coat coughed and wheezed and clawed at your throat and left bloody streaks down your naked arms. He sputtered with drool and tears ran down his face. You wanted him to stop. Stop this ugly breathing of his. JUST STOP THIS UGLY UGLY UGLY UGLY BREATHING.\n\nYour arms are bleeding.\n\nYou keep squeezing.\n\nYour fingers hurt.\n\nYou keep squeezing.\n\nThe man in a lab coat squeaks and cries.\n\nYOU KEEP SQUEEZING.\n\nThe arms of the man in a lab coat falls down to his sides.\n\nYOU DO NOT STOP SQUEEZING.\n\nThe man in the lab coat stops breathing.\n\n<<set $killed_scientist = "yes">>\n\n[[Let Go]]\n

"SAY SOMETHING!" You scream. Your voice is no longer the pitiful squeal that it was. It is the cry of a cornered animal with nothing left. \n\nDignity is just a privilege. Breathing is just a rythme.\n\n"HE PROMISED ME HE'D LET ME LIVE FOREVER" The intern shouted. His words are childish, almost hopeful. Yet there are tears streaming down his face. You do not know why. \n\n"HE PROMISED!" The intern is no longer making an effort to struggle. The sobbing is unbearable.\n\nYou feel cold.\n\nHow can someone live forever? More importantly, what does that have anything to do with me?\n\n"TELL ME WHAT HE WANTED. WITH ME." You shouted at the intern. You are in no hurry to die. You wanted to know.\n\n"HE WANTED TO SEE WHAT'S AFTER THIS. ALL OF THIS" The intern shouted back, as if responding to an order. "SO HE MADE THESE. ALL OF THESE."\n\nThe intern gestured down the hall. It is dark. You cannot see what he is gesturing at. You DO see a light switch. But getting the light switch will mean that you have to let go of the intern.\n\n[[Turn On the Light]]\n[[Kill Him]]

You let go.\n\nThe man in a lab coat falls in a crumpled pile of flest and white cloth like a discarded doll. You do not bear an expression. Your breathing is raspy but your eyes are blank.\n\nYour eyes are still blank as you release yourself from your ankle cuffs. Your ankles are bleeding. Your eyes are still blank.\n\nYou swing your feet onto the dusty linoleum floor. It is dry, caked with something that left little burgundy pieces on your naked feet as you stepped on them.\n\nYou look around. You realize that your surgical table-altar was placed in the eerie centre of this small room.\n\nThere are no windows, only a flickering fluorescent lamp on a desk, laden with papers and drawings and filled with mountains of crumpled sheets.\n\nYou walk to the desk mindlessly.\n\nThere is something familiar on the desk.\n\nThere is a crowbar.\n<<set $crowbar = "yes">>\n\nThe crowbar is smooth in your hand. It's cool, yet shiny with what appeared to be frequent use once upon a time. You decide to take the crowbar with you.\n\nYour eyes are still blank.\n\nYou hear sobbing.\n\nYou turn to see a doorway. You think there might have been some white paint on it decades ago. There is no door. There is no light inside.\n\nYou see the outline of a man.\n\nIt is the intern.\n\n[[Threaten Intern]]\n[[Kill Intern]]\n[[Knock Intern Out]]

Spectrum

The fluorescents flicker on weakly, roused from their slumber. You shield your eyes from their light nevertheless. As your eyes adjusted to the light, you see them: rows upon rows of vertical speciment tanks, all of them containing...\n\nYou.\n\nYou as a child. You as an infant. You as a fetus.\n\nYou as a crone. You as an adult. You as a youth.\n\nYou. You. You.\n\nYou do not need the memory of a mirror to know.\n\nYOU KNEW.\n\nYou see the tubes snaking up to the tanks, each sending a pale fluid to soak the different versions of you.\n\nYou.\n\nYOU.\n\nBut you saw that all the tubes led up to one larger tank near the end of the hallway. Near the rusty door marked "EXIT". \n\nThe rusty door is hanging off its hinges.\n\nLooks like someone took a crowbar to it, you think.\n\nYou look up at the large tank.\n\nIt is the intern.\n\nThe intern is soaked in the same fluid that the different versions of you. You can see now. The intern is different from you, yet similar to you. \n\nSO SIMILAR TO YOU.\n\nYou know now. The intern. The man in a lab coat. The crowbar in your dream and in your hand. All of it.\n\nYou understand now.\n\n<<if $killed_intern eq "yes">>The intern became the guinea pig. The intern used this crowbar to break in and begin all of this. The madman in a lab coat copied him and copied him so there would always be some version of him in this world even after the original had perished.\n\nAnd you. You are just a modification. A version of the intern changed and grafted and probably cut open multiple times to ensure success.\n\nTo ensure success of you dying without dying.\n\nTo be always dead, but alive.\n\nYou laughed softly.\n\nGod! What a fate. You think to yourself. So that's what the void was.\n\nYou are just a specimen. A tool. Disposable. Replaceable.\n\nYou laugh again.\n\n[[Destroy]]\n<<endif>>\n\n<<if $killed_intern eq "no">>"Now you know." You hear a voice. The intern's voice. Before you have a chance to spin around, you feel the cold metal sink into your back.\n\nThe crowbar falls from your hand with a clatter. God. You can't feel your legs.\n\nYou fall to your knees.\n\nYou fall, fall, fall.\n\nYou think of the man in a lab coat. You think of the intern.\n\nTears roll down your face, mixing with the blood that had dripped from your mouth.\n\nYou feel the intern press closer to you, his breaths in your ear. He whispers to you, his voice a mockery of your own.\n\n"You monster."\n\n[[Restart?]]\n<<endif>>

You are scared. You dare not speak even though the man in a lab coat is upon you now, his sour breath wafting across your face. You do not speak.\n\nThe man in a lab coat tightens his grip. It hurts. The man in a lab coat repeats himself in a shaky screech.\n\n"WHAT. DID. YOU. SEE?"\n\nYou are scared. You swallow nothing. You do not speak.\n\n"WHAT. DID. YOU. SEE?"\n\nThe man in a lab coat is clutching your shoulders as if they were his only anchor to existence. You think your shoulders are bleeding. You squirm but it hurts more. You are scared. You do not speak.\n\nThe man in a lab coat bellows a wordless scream. In that moment, you felt as if you had watched the culmination of the world's anger explode three inches away from your face. You flinch. You are scared. You do not speak.\n\nYou do not speak.\n\nThe man in a lab coat screams and shouts and bangs your shoulders against the smooth cut of matte steel you are lying upon and screams again.\n\nYou think he is begging you to speak.\n\nYou do not speak.\n\nThe man in a lab coat releases his grip. You feel it clearly now. Finger-shaped punctures in your shoulders. You feel the blood seeping from your shoulders. You feel the sting of pain running down your arms and down your chest and up to your brain again.\n\nIt hurts.\n\nYou do not speak.\n\nThe man in a lab coat grabs a scalpel from the surgical trolley nearby. You see its cold glint in the dim light. You are scared. You are scared. You are scared. You writhe in your bonds. They do not give. You cannot escape.\n\nThe man in a lab coat is coming towards you.\n\nYou do not speak.\n\nThe man in a lab coat plunges the scalpel into your stomach. You scream. You do not make a noise. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. The pain burst into your brain as the man in a lab coat introduces the scalpel to your diaphram again. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. You want to scream. You cannot. The man in a lab coat does not stop. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. You feel the bubbling of blood in your wounds. You feel weaker now. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. The man in a lab coat looks at your eyes. You look at his. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. The man in a lab coat screams again. You no longer see. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. You feel your nose shattering. You feel your lips, your tongue, your cheek all moving to places they should not. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. You always thought of death as something dramatic, with touching last words and weeping relatives. IT HURTS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK. You always thought you would not die alone.\n\nIt does not hurt now.\n\nBut you still do not speak.\n\nYou do not speak because you can no longer speak. Or move. Or breath.\n\nYou do not speak.\n\n[[Restart?]]

<<set $struggled = "yes">>\nYou do not answer. You dare not tell him what you saw. You felt as if the void and your vision of it belonged to only you. You hate the man in a lab coat. You deem him undeserving of your knowledge. You writhe in your bonds, in his grip.\n\nViolently, you bang against the bolted cuffs. The rusty cuffs do not budge. Not yet, you told yourself. You taste the bitter desperation of the man in a lab coat. The man in a lab coat stares at you. The man in a lab coat skewers you into the surgical table with his stare. You are scared. You bruise your wrists. The rust leaves reddish streaks inbetween the purple on your skin. You are scared.\n\nYou strain against the cuffs on your ankles. You feel some give! You kick and try to move your shoulders from the grip of the man in a lab coat. You feel like a rabbit, fighting the grips of a hawk. You are scared.\n\nYou give one last bang against your wrist cuffs before the man in a lab coat grows impatient. The man in a lab coat is breathing even heavier now. The man in a lab coat grabs your throat. His grip is a little too tight.\n\nThe man in a lab coat hisses in your ear his question again. \n\n"What. Did. You. See?"\n\nYou suspect this may be your last chance before he does something truly terrible to you. Again.\n\n[[Remain Silent]]\n[[Tell Him About the Void]]\n[[Lie]]\n

The intern is holding himself. He is shaking. His blue eyes are also shaking along with him. His blue eyes. They look familiar.\n\nYou advance. \n\nThe intern does not see you. \n\nThe intern is crying.\n\nIs he crying out of mourning? You think. Or is he crying out of fear? Out of this monster that you have become. \n\nMURDERER. I AM A MURDERER.\n\nWhatever traces of morals and righteousness left in this world can just go away! You think. I DON'T NEED THIS. I DON'T NEED ANY OF THIS!\n\nYou lunge forward and you grab the intern by his collar. The intern whimpers and tries to pry your arms away. You can see the fear in his wide blue pupils. You raise the crowbar above your head.\n\nYou bring it down.\n\nThe intern falls limp in your hands. You raise the crowbar again.\n\nYou stop. You look at the intern. His blue eyes are shut. A vague breath can still be felt on your hand, but you doubt he will not be able to do any more harm.\n\nTo you, anyway.\n\nYou drop the intern.\n\nYou watch the deep burgundy droplet run down his pale face. It's as if he's crying, you think.\n\n\n[[Turn On the Light]]

You scream. A wordless wheeze takes the place of your intended cry. You cannot scream. Your dry throat does not allow it. You try again but a single mewl akin to the noises of a sick cat was the best you could manage. It is pathetic.\n\nThe man in a lab coat regards you with a sick glee. You feel something sour at the back of your throat. It is a nauseating feeling. You stop screaming in hopes to stop aggravating the sourness. It does not help.\n\nThe man in a lab coat looks at you. Suddenly you feel like a rabbit being watched by a hawk. Scared. Hopeless. Scared. Scared. Scared.\n\nThe man in a lab coat is coming closer now. You are scared and consumed in hatred at the same time. The surgical table feels hot under your naked back, slick with your sweat.\n\nThe man in a lab coat is upon you, the torn grin carving a red crevasse across his ugly face. He suddenly rips off your oxygen mask and grab your shoulders. He utters a single sentence.\n\n"What did you see?"\n\n[[Struggle Harder]]\n[[Remain Silent]]

The man in a lab coat lets go of you and fumbles for a scalpel in the surgical trolley nearby. Even in the dimness of the room, you can see the cold glint of the blade. The man in a lab coat grabs you again. This time by your throat. He presses the scalpel on your throat. The man in the lab coat has wild, angry eyes. You are scared.\n\nYou do not know what to say. The man in the lab coat presses harder with the scalpel. It hurts. You feel liquid trickle down your neck. You are scared.\n\nThe man in a lab coat is breathing heavily. He no longer bothers to ask you. \n\nThe man in a lab coat pushes the scalpel into your skin until the thin blade disappears into a fold of gushing red. It does not hurt anymore.\n\nYou feel strangely triumphant. \n\nYou do not feel strangely triumphant.\n\nYou do not feel.\n\nYou do not breath.\n\n[[Restart?]]

Yes. The void. You should tell him about the void. You do not want to tell him about the void. You do not want to tell him anything. \n\nYou are also scared. Scared and desperate and willing to do anything to remove yourself from the visible vincinity of the man in a lab coat. You are scared.\n\nYou part your crusty, chapped lips. You try to tell him about the void. Instead of telling him, you wheeze. You wheeze and cough out a few indiscernable syllables. It's as if your voice did not belong to you. It's as if you're squeezing thoughts out of your windpipe.\n\nGod you haven't spoken in so long. How long has it been?\n\nYou feel the grip of the man in a lab coat tighten. It hurts now.\n\n"I... The void... There was..." You cough and choke on your words. You see the eyes of the man in a lab coat light up, like the eyes of a child when receiving an abnormally large package for Christmas. It terrifies you. You are scared.\n\n"Yes, yes, yes, yesyesyesyes." The man in a lab coat repeats in an infernal glee. "Tell me more. More. I need MORE."\n\n"THERE WAS NOTHING!" You cry. Your voice cracks like that of a teenage boy. You grimace when the man in a lab coat lets go, the blood rushing back to your pressed shoulders.\n\n"Nothing?" The man in a lab coat murmurs, at first. "Nothing?!"\n\nHe is shouting now. The man in a lab coat clutches his head. He screams and cries like an upset newborn.\n\n"THERE CANNOT BE NOTHING THERE MUST BE SOMETHING AFTER THIS GOD KILL IT KILL IT WE WILL USE ANOTHER THERE CANNOT BE AHAHAHHHH" The man in a lab coat howls and falls to his knees. You hear quiet sobs in his general direction as the man in a lab coat retreats. You also hear footsteps, methodical and rythmic.\n\nThere is an intern.\n\nThe intern has blue eyes.\n\nThe intern is holding a scalpel. The intern is upon you.\n\n[[Become Free]]\n<<if $struggled eq "yes">>[[Fight]]<<endif>>

"KILL ME THEN." The man in a lab coat screeched. "KILL ME BECAUSE I KNOW THERE IS NOTHING ANYWAY."\n\nYou do not, because you have made up your mind.\n\nYou let go of him. You turn on the lights.\n\nThe fluorescents flicker on weakly, roused from their slumber. You shield your eyes from their light nevertheless. As your eyes adjusted to the light, you see them: rows upon rows of vertical speciment tanks, all of them containing...\n\nYou.\n\nYou as a child. You as an infant. You as a fetus.\n\nYou as a crone. You as an adult. You as a youth.\n\nYou. You. You.\n\nYou do not need the memory of a mirror to know.\n\nYOU KNEW.\n\nYou see the tubes snaking up to the tanks, each sending a pale fluid to soak the different versions of you.\n\nYou.\n\nYOU.\n\nBut you saw that all the tubes led up to one larger tank near the end of the hallway. Near the rusty door marked "EXIT". \n\nThe rusty door is hanging off its hinges.\n\nLooks like someone took a crowbar to it, you think.\n\nYou look up at the large tank.\n\nIt is the intern.\n\nThe intern is soaked in the same fluid that the different versions of you. You can see now. The intern is different from you, yet similar to you. \n\nSO SIMILAR TO YOU.\n\nYou know now. The intern. The man in a lab coat. The crowbar in your dream and in your hand. All of it.\n\nYou understand now.\n\nThe intern became the guinea pig. The intern used this crowbar to break in and begin all of this. The madman in a lab coat copied him and copied him so there would always be some version of him in this world even after the original had perished.\n\nAnd you. You are just a modification. A version of the intern changed and grafted and probably cut open multiple times to ensure success.\n\nTo ensure success of you dying without dying.\n\nTo be always dead, but alive.\n\nYou laugh softly.\n\nGod! What a fate. You think to yourself. So that's what the void was.\n\nYou are just a specimen. A tool. Disposable. Replaceable.\n\nYou laugh again.\n\n[[Destroy]]

The intern is holding himself. He is shaking. His blue eyes are also shaking along with him. His blue eyes. They look familiar.\n\nYou advance. \n\nThe intern does not see you. \n\nThe intern is crying.\n\nIs he crying out of mourning? You think. Or is he crying out of fear? Out of this monster that you have become. \n\nMURDERER. I AM A MURDERER.\n\nWhatever traces of morals and righteousness left in this world can just go away! You think. I DON'T NEED THIS. I DON'T NEED ANY OF THIS!\n\nYou lunge forward and you grab the intern by his collar. The intern whimpers and tries to pry your arms away. You can see the fear in his wide blue pupils. You raise the crowbar above your head.\n\nYou see the intern's widened, blue dull eyes. Why are you so scared, you think. You do not know why the intern is so scared. You lower the crowbar. You peer at his fearful grimace. You pull him closer. It's as if I'm looking at a mirror, you think. You tilt your head.\n\nHm.\n\nYou wheeze your questions to him. You do not expect him to answer. You want an answer but you do not have the luxury to expect one. \n\n"What did that man in a lab coat want with me? WHAT DID ANY OF YOU WANT WITH ME?"\n\nYou cough at the sound of your voice. It's so ugly, my voice. You feel the thought eat into your flesh.\n\n[[SAY SOMETHING]]

You set your bloodied hands on the cool metal of the door. You realize that you are afraid. You are afraid. You are afraid of the world. You are afraid of the future. You are afraid of yourself.\n\nWhat's on the other side? You think to yourself. How many more of the man in a lab coat are there in this world?\n\nYou hesitate to answer.\n\nYou press the bar on the door. The door gives a rusty bellow as it eases into its own hinges again. There is light. It hurts your eyes.\n\nThe tiny photons illuminate what is left in your eyes and for a moment, you could not see. You saw colours. A spectrum. A spectrum of white, black and red. Those were the colours you had ever known.\n\nNow, it is different.\n\nYou begin to see pale yellows, deep blues and vivid purples. You see those colours mix together inside your eyes into lovely greens and oranges. These colours scare you.\n\nYet, you feel as if you are home.\n\n--END--

You manage to pluck yourself out of your ankle restraints and swing your legs onto the dirty linoleum floor.\n\nYou can see clearly now. It is not a very large room. The lone fluorescent lamp in the corner tries its best but it does not succeed. There is another door beside a small desk. Your surgical table-altar seems to be placed ritualistically.\n\nThere is light coming from inside the door.\n\nIs it the sun? You wonder. A voice inside tells you that the sun is not so weak. You do not know how you know. Red drips from your hand and down your arm and down your naked chest. It almost tickles. You want to laugh.\n\nYou hear sobbing from inside the door. \n\nIt is the man in a lab coat.\n\n[[Threaten Man in a Lab Coat]]\n[[Kill Man in a Lab Coat]]

"KILL ME THEN." The man in a lab coat screeched. "KILL ME BECAUSE I KNOW THERE IS NOTHING ANYWAY."\n\nYou do not, because you have made up your mind.\n\nYou violently throw the man onto the ground, his face making a soft crack as it landed. You straddle his wispy back. You grab one of his outreached hands. The man in a lab coat writhes, as if your resolve had somehow crawled under his skin.\n\n"Tell me what you want with me." You murmur.\n\nThe man in a lab coat does not answer.\n\nYou slide the scalpel under one of his long, untrimmed nails. You press. The man in a lab coat screams. Blood seep from his nail bed and cuticle. You do not blink.\n\n"TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT WITH ME" You shout, pressing harder with each growing decible of your voice.\n\n"GOD YOU'RE JUST A TEST SUBJECT!" The man in a lab coat screamed in between sobs. "THE BOY WANTED TO LIVE FOREVER SO I MADE MANY OF HIM! IN RETURN HE'D LET ME CHANGE THE COPIES OF HIMSELF SO I WOULD ABLE TO SEE FOR MYSELF!"\n\n"SEE WHAT?" You are frustrated. You twist the scalpel.\n\n"THE LIFE AFTER THE LIFEAFTERTHELIFEAFTER" The man in a lab coat cried. As if waking up from a distant dream, you understood.\n\nYou let go of the man in a lab coat. You feel sated, as if the world had finally become whole again. You pull out the scalpel. The scientist whimpers.\n\nIt was a blur. As your vision returned, you saw the man in a lab coat, the scalpel buried deep in his neck. You blink.\n\n<<set $killed_scientist = yes>>\n\n[[END THIS]]\n

The intern's blue eyes are very familiar. You feel as if you could see all of yourself and the universe and everything that has ever existed and will exist in them. You feel like you are home.\n\nFor a moment, you forgot that he was the intern of a madman in a lab coat. For a moment, you forgot that he was the intern that had killed you and revived you and killed you again and again and again. For a moment, you saw yourself.\n\nThe intern. You. The intern lying on the table. You holding the scalpel. You are no longer sure. You, lying on the table. The intern holding the scalpel. You are not sure.\n\nThe intern. You. The intern bleeding from his chest. You holding the bloody scalpel. You are not sure. You, bleeding from your chest. The intern holding the bloody scalpel.\n\nIt's as if you were no longer trapped inside the metal cuffs, this dank laboratory, this universe, this mortal husk, this EVERYTHING.\n\nYou had become free. You no longer needed to eat or drink or dance or cry or be happy or breath.\n\nYou had become free.\n\n[[Restart?]]