Pink clouds erupted all around him.
A sudden thought sparked in his mind screaming that this tower chamber was the loveliest place he’d ever been in.
His heart fluttered when he looked at the multicolored bioluminescent dots on the ceiling a hundred meters above. He hadn’t felt this right in years, hadn’t felt it so strongly maybe ever. He couldn’t explain what he was feeling—not even to himself, not with any words that he knew.
What?
...WHA...?
Warmth washed over him, tingling his skin and electrifying his tentacles. It made his throat itch so very pleasantly.
He didn’t like being touched after Mayday, but now it seemed like a silly little quirk that he could easily brush aside. If anything, he wanted to be touched. He wanted to be touched all over. The warmth made him feel like he was in a hug, inside a cocoon that could protect him from the spikes and thorns of the world. Everything that happened up to this moment was negligible, and all the suffering up to this point had been worth it.
What is this?
H...WHA... ISSS...
He tried to relate to this feeling, to remember the last time he’d felt anything remotely similar to it. His life had always been a bad one that he wasn’t pleased with, and the last eight years were all hell on earth. Even so, there was one moment that he could remember, one fragment where he got exactly what he wanted when he wanted it.
He’d felt exactly like this when it happened.
What is this feeling?
WHA...ISS..’IS...FEE-IN...
Arcen opened his eyes.
He was in a dull, small room with off-white walls. His purple-skinned hands came into view as he rubbed his eyes. It was like he woke up underwater. All sounds became muffled in his ears, and the world was all hazy around him.
His mind was screaming as soon as he recognized this place. This was the last place that he ever wanted to be in again.
This was the mutant quarantine camp.
There was no way to tell what time it was because time itself seemed to stay still in this camp, lives of its inhabitants frozen in a monotonous routine of tests, drugs and meals.
He had no clear memories day to day, everything had meshed together into a single gray blob that had consumed almost an entire year of his teenage life as a Ceph.
He didn’t really recognize the weight of that back then. It took him years to come to terms with it. He was fifteen years old when he was brought to the camp, and he felt like he skipped straight to sixteen by the time he started living again.
This memory was bizarre. He knew it happened, but he’d never really remembered it in this much detail. The only thing that he did remember was the fact that he didn’t want to remember anything that happened to him here.
Someone was banging on the iron door of his cell. He could hear muffled sounds, things falling, people screaming outside.
It took forever for him to lift his head off the mattress. He was too slow, even to notice how slow he was. This was on purpose. He was just fast enough to do what the people in lab coats told him to do. A docile octopus boy with his new body on autopilot.
He learned why and how much later. For the entire duration of his stay, he had been kept on a steady dose of sedatives.
Knowing that fact didn’t help him with the memory now, of course. He was only here to watch, and he only perceived the world exactly how he did back then.
The door of his cell flung wide open out of nowhere. Squinting his eyes, he saw the silhouette of a huge man standing in the doorway.
“Come friend. Join us!” the voice came, stretched across ten more seconds than it should’ve taken to speak them.
The words belonged to a bear-man, a full mammalian bear mutant with fur, claws and the weight to match. Just like Arcen’s tentacled head, this man had the head of a bear. A fellow full mutant.
Arcen tried to speak, but his words got stuck at the throat. By this point, he had not really spoken with anyone in months. His mouth no longer knew how to pronounce the words floating around in his head.
The bear-man ripped an iron bar out of the door as easily as bending a toothpick. “Take this friend!” he said, pushing it into Arcen’s hands. “Kill everyone you find!” he yelled, flashing a menacing grin with his sharp, metallic teeth.
It took Arcen a while to process information. By the time those words really started to make sense, the bear man that uttered them was gone.
Walking into the hallway, he almost tripped on a decapitated corpse of a doctor.
Further ahead, there was a reptilian man hunched over a young woman that he could vaguely remember. She was a nurse in the camp, one that brought food to his door every day.
He watched her legs flail lifelessly as he slowly walked past. The man hunched over her was a full reptile of some sort with a long snout. He pulled his blood soaked head out of her rib cage. They stared at each other for a full second.
“Want some of this?” The reptile man asked, pulling a piece of her lung out. Arcen nodded sideways.
He wasn’t hungry at all. He was actually never hungry enough to eat the woman who brought him food. He wasn’t even hungry enough to eat any food half the time. He kept on walking.
The memory grew hazier as he walked. He could never remember all the mundane moments—only those few incidents that he put some effort into remembering as they were happening.
He kept his head down and walked. He didn’t know how far he walked or where he was walking. The ground texture changed now and then, from concrete to grass to mud and asphalt.
An undetermined amount of time later, he was walking along some road that began at the horizon behind him and extended towards the horizon before him.
He snapped awake from his hazy trance when a dusty car came to a screeching halt before him. It crashed into a utility pole, the front bumper bending in half. It was blocking his path. He kept staring at it blankly, unable to decide which direction to go from there.
He was still scratching his head when a girl burst out of that car. It took him a while to recognize his own sister. He hadn’t seen her for months. Actually, he had forgotten she even existed.
“Arcie?!” she screamed, running towards him. She moved too fast for his eyes to register. Before he knew it, he was squeezed into a tight hug.
“Let’s go, let’s just go,” she said, dragging him into the car.
She drove for what felt like hours, but in reality it was probably minutes. She kept checking on him now and then, asking loads of questions that he either didn’t want to answer or didn’t know the answers to.
“Arcie? Can you talk, please?” She asked pleadingly after a long one sided conversation.
He wanted to tell her something, but he couldn’t find the right words. It was all too much effort. He gave up and remained silent.
She parked the car by the side of the road and paced outside, kicking rocks, making calls and cursing loudly. When she came back to the car, she asked a question that he couldn’t ignore anymore.
“Are you mad at me? Arcie?” Her eyes were red and full of tears. “Is that why you’re not talking to me? I’m sorry I couldn’t find you...I really am. It’s my fault! I took you to the hospital. I should’ve never let them take you! I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault...” he whispered, gathering all of his neurons to fire off a carefully calculated string of words.
His response was completely delayed. She was starting the car again when the sound that came out of his mouth reached her. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him wide-eyed.
“Are you... now, wait a minute. You’re like—” She figured it out after fussing around him for a while. He gestured at his head trying to tell her he was slow like this now.
“Oh my God, Arcie!” she cried, pulling him into yet another uncomfortable hug. “What did they do to you?!”
Things went much better after Kysa stopped blaming herself for everything that happened.
“You need to sleep. I promise you’ll feel better when you wake up,” she whispered, dragging him to the backseat.
The night air was pleasantly cold. Kysa held him for hours, running her fingers through his soft, squishy head. Sleep never came easy for him since Mayday, but when he closed his eyes, he was at peace after what felt like a lifetime. Kysa felt much bigger than she was—as large as the car itself, large as his mother was when he was three.
“I’m never letting you go ever again! Never again!” her whispers reverberated into him through her skin.
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He listened as she planned their lives right then and there. He kept listening with the smallest grin on his face, cheek squished against the warmth of her neck.
He liked this feeling.
He really loved this feeling.
He wanted more of this feeling.
Somewhere in half-sleep, he felt the tickle at his throat rising. The sedatives had faded, and his mutant instincts were coming back. Kysa moved when he tensed up. No one had ever been this close to him since Mayday. Kysa was holding him close enough for him to see the pores of her skin, the bulge of the arteries on her neck.
He was a sledgehammer placed next to a wine glass. Even in a drug-fueled daze at sixteen years old, he knew full mutants had to be quarantined for a reason. He was in that camp partly because he wanted to be there. He didn’t want to end up being another news story of a mutant who killed his own family.
“Relax, Arcie. It’s alright,” she whispered, patting his head gently.
He couldn’t ever tell it to her in words that made any sense how he wanted to swallow the world with her in it.
He wanted to keep this exact slice of time where he felt good about being alive. He wanted to keep it forever. He wanted all the love that there was, sealed in a bottle inside him. The tickling at his throat was a command. A repeated chant that urged him to open his mouth wider and,
Swallow.
Swallow.
Swallow.
He couldn’t let it do what it wanted, of course. Hurting Kysa in any way was unimaginable.
Thousands of her images flashed through his mind like marbles scattering on the floor. He saw her across time, from a little girl to what she was now. He had loved her even when he hated her in some of those slices of time.
He tried to lift himself off her.
He wanted to hide in a corner until he could calm these infernal mutant instincts. All the white coats in the quarantine facility and their experiments on him, but they had done nothing to help him control his instincts.
“This isn’t good for you,” he muttered when she frowned at him questioningly as he raised his head. His words came out vague and cryptic than what he wanted to say. He couldn’t speak in longer sentences just yet—it was still way too much effort.
She stared at him for a second, sighed and grabbed his head with both her hands like it was a soccer ball.
“I don’t give a shit about what’s good for me,” she said angrily and shoved his head back where it was. “I want you to go to sleep now. Please, Arcie.”
The tickle at his throat only got worse, but he didn’t swallow the world with her in it. He had way more control than he thought. Almost a year of his life had been wasted in a concrete room, when he could’ve learned this lesson by cuddling with his sister once.
He found himself gaining self-awareness inside the memory.
Huh?
Time had slipped from him again, and Kysa was fast asleep, still hugging his head against her chest like an oversized octopus plushie. It was late morning. They had slept in this car in the middle of nowhere for almost half a day.
Looking at Kysa with his sleepy eyes, he felt something he hadn’t genuinely felt towards her since he was a very little boy.
She’s really nice.
He put the blanket over her with his heart pounding in his ears. He never told her how grateful he was for what she did for him in this moment. He never found those words afterwards either—he was never built to speak them aloud.
In fact, he didn’t really learn the full lesson here, because in the next two years after this, he would attempt to kill himself eight times at the Lemmings Medical Institute.
Regrets mixing with memories, Arcen suddenly felt someone staring at him as he gently brushed stray hair strands off Kysa’s mouth. Something else was standing outside the car.
This never happened?!
A tar-black monkey man with bright red eyes stared at him with a curious expression on its face.
AE DU NUR?
The world flickered. The voice came from all directions, shaking the ground like an earthquake. Suddenly, he saw himself through the eyes of the monkey man—a brother taking care of his sister.
He was frozen in fear, with her hair strands on his right hand and the blanket in his left hand.
Now he knew what that feeling was.
LO..V EKIN!
He knew what it was called now.
LO..V EKIN!
He knew what he wanted most.
LO..V EKIN!
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ERROR 41 (4)
Command Failed!
Device Error 41:
Immersion Module 3/17 Data Corruption
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┌──═════════──???──═════════──┐
HELVITER INDUSTRIES
︾
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?Contract Activation Successful?
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Contract: Glimpses of the Past
Cost: $376,750
Remaining Daily Quota: $0
Budget Overflow: -$342,250
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Ah, Love, that’s what this is.
LO..VE...THA...WHA....HIS...ISS....
So, This must be love.
THIS...MUS BE... LOVE
He felt an infernal urge at the core of his being to never let go of this elusive feeling again. He needed it like he needed oxygen. A thin slice of a memory wasn’t good enough. He wanted it all to himself—all the love in the world, condensed to a ball where only he could keep it.
No one else deserved to feel this good. He had let it pass by him before. He needed to swallow it all this time.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
LOVE +4
[9]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
He blinked rapidly.
These gold veins were getting in the way. He didn’t care about these numbers or letters, he’d never cared about numbers or letters. Heart beating like a tractor engine, he raised himself off the ground. The helmet fell off his head as his hazmat suit tightened around his body.
He needed to find more of this love.
“Mr. Henwick?!” Jenna screamed out of nowhere. Jenna, the wonderful woman with nice hands. Surely, she’d have a lot of love.
“Jenna, hey,”
JENNA, HEY
The voice didn’t come out the way he expected. A side effect of the fourth session, perhaps. He caught a glimpse of Jenna’s wide-eyed face before she turned around, kicked her heels off and ran away.
Why did she run? Huh?
WHY... DID SHE... RUN? HA?
He looked behind him. She’d been spooked by something. He couldn’t see anything wrong with this dark cave he was in. It was safe and cozy. This was the most wonderful place in the world after all.
He started walking in the direction Jenna ran off to. He wanted to ask her if she had any love or if she knew where to find more.
His hazmat suit felt tighter around his legs. It was getting in the way of his quest for love. He ripped it off like a polythene bag.
The world was a merry-go-round, and he was at its center. He laughed, feeling even warmer inside.
“Mr. Henwick, calm down!” An old man yelled behind him.
He turned to face the lovely voice. It was Doctor Bourbon. The talented scientist who owned this laboratory. He was smaller than before, and he was out of his suit, bleeding from his forehead.
Does he have love?
DOES... HE... ‘AVE... LOVE?
Arcen reached for the doctor, wanting to check if the doctor had any love. The pink clouds were losing their color. He needed more love to keep them pink.
The doctor jumped away as loud sounds echoed on the rocky cave walls.
Doctor Bourbon started shooting fireworks at him.
Arcen covered his ears and ducked, his ears ringing.
Give me all the love.
GIVE... ME... ALL... THE... LOVE
The old man grew even smaller as more and more sparks bounced off Arcen’s skin. This was a strange way to show love, but Arcen didn’t mind. He bent down faster than he thought he could, and his face was inches away from Bourbon’s old face.
His gray beard looked like clouds attached to a mannequin. Arcen couldn’t see love anywhere on him. He had a little gun—one that he was shooting fireworks out of. For some reason, the doctor was trying to shoot more at him.
Arcen slapped it away from his hands like the gun was a mosquito. The man tilted his head back and howled.
Ah, sorry. Doctor.
SORR...Y... DOC...TOR...
More people were firing fireworks at him now, and it was hard to concentrate on one person. As he turned, one of the fireworks bounced off him and hit the doctor on the stomach. Blood spurt from the hole like red wine.
Maybe he has love inside?
MAYBE... ‘AS... LOVE... IN-SIDE!
Arcen grabbed the doctor. He was screaming with joy, his beard flying in the wind. There was only one way to know if he had any love.
Swallow.
Arcen opened his mouth and shoved the doctor in like a dumpling. He gulped the man down and spat out his dirty boots.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
DEATH + 1
[7]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
The mess of gold veins cleared from his eyes as he blinked. Swallowing the doctor hadn’t changed the fading pink clouds of the world.
He walked over and grabbed another man wearing a hazmat suit. His suit looked like yellow packaging for a chocolate. He unwrapped the man like a candy bar and shoved him into his mouth.
The world flickered pink, or so he imagined. Two others like that and he wasn’t sure anymore. The colors were turning dull each passing second, and he felt the love slipping away from his grasp.
This couldn’t be allowed to happen.
People were yelling all around him. At least one of them had to have some love, and he needed to collect it as soon as possible. He found a woman dressed in a blue uniform hiding behind a rock.
She tried to run away, and he grabbed her fast with one hand. When he brought her up to his face, her limbs were bent like a swatted insect, and she was screaming in joy.
He swallowed her whole. The blue uniform made her taste funky. There was no love in her either.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
DEATH + 1
[8]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Someone’s hiding it for sure!
SOME... ONE... ‘IDE-ING... IT! FO SHOR!
Lots of fireworks bounced off him, tickling his skin. Everyone was getting involved in this wild party. They were all helping him to locate them faster—only too eager to give him all the love they had, which wasn’t much, to be honest, but every little drop mattered.
He found a group of four hiding playfully under a tent and managed to fit them all into a single gulp.
A loud sound interrupted his quest for love. A big disco light sprang into existence out of nowhere. It threw bright bolts of lightning at him, and he felt the electricity dance across his skin like feathers.
A loud metallic ding made him swivel his head. A black vehicle crashed through the Gamma-17 research station’s main gate. Little people poured out of it, firing even more fireworks at him.
He tilted himself in that direction and immediately found himself crushing the vehicle under his foot like an empty beer can. It didn’t make sense—his foot was nowhere near large enough to crush a vehicle, but in this wonderful pink world of love, that didn’t matter.
The metal folded around his foot, crumpling as easily as tinfoil.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTES INCREASED ╰︶
????
DESTRUCTION + 4
[6]
????
CHAOS + 3
[9]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Something hit him hard across the face.
What the heck?
WHAT THE HECK?
He touched his cheekbone where he felt the blow. There was a deep gash on his cheekbone that hurt really badly. He touched the rest of his body and started feeling dents and holes everywhere. Some of them hurt a lot.
What’s... happening to me?
WHAT...HAPPENING...TO...ME?
Another blow landed on his neck, and he heard his bones crunching on impact. The pink, colorful world had slowly turned white and gray while he was swallowing people looking for love.
All that love had faded just as fast as it came.
This wasn’t the most wonderful place in the world anymore. He was in a cold, dark cave, surrounded by all sorts of people trying to punch holes through his body.
Oh, no!
OH...NO...
