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Description
The room is grey. Padded walls. Like an asylum. I have been swimming in and out of consciousness for a while, but finally my mind slips free of the red-blue fog that it was caught in. The Weapon worked. It seemed to get Lillith worse than me, but it worked. Lillith… Where is she? I can't hear her heart beating so she can't be here. I can hear two hearts through the distortion of soundproof glass though. The distortion of human voices too, but I can't pick up what they're saying. One of them goes through a door. The other's breathing slows into that speed where you can just tell it's spaced out.

I raise my head slowly. There is no door. The only window is one set high up out of human jumping reach, through which I can see the observing man. There are cracks in the ceiling that form the square through which I must have been dropped. I can remember that a bit, a tiny fragment of falling mixed into the eternal loop that was my mind. The ceiling is high. I test the floor. Too high for me to jump with this surface. The only way out is through the glass, but I can see a camera watching that, and there are bound to be more tracking my progress out of here. Apart from myself, the room is bare, nothing but unbroken grey padding. I am also bare; my clothes lost in the limbo, somewhere near the falling fragment, but uselessly out of reach. The Organisation is ruthless.

I watch the human behind the glass. His image is distorted; it's the kind of glass that's a mirror on one side – mine – and clear on the other. He is staring at the wall level with the glass, not at me. A camera watches me too, sees my shame. I sit slowly, so I don't attract his attention. He continues to stare, his mind caught in a loop of his own making, no doubt. I slink over to the corner, and test it with a fingernail. It slides through the padding easily, revealing a dense foam. I push in further, going down about twelve inches before I hit concrete. Trapped. If it was mere plaster… I do the same for the walls, but there is concrete there too.

Pesky humans! I leap at the glass, but the padding on the floor counteracts my momentum and I bounce harmlessly off, giving my guard a shock. The glass is unharmed. He looks at me, startled, then hovers one of his hands over the instrument panel.

"Stop. If you jump again, you won't like the consequences."

"Stuff consequences." I growl under my breath and leap once more at the window. He presses a button and the walls hiss. A gas seeps out through the padding and I fall back, holding my breath. Does he know how long I can hold it for? No… I don't think the humans really know what we are… Although the lack of oxygen damages my brain, the damage is slow enough so it repairs as it happens. I leap again at the window, still holding my breath. Then he presses another button. Red. Blue. Red. Blue. The lights flash off the walls. Every wall illuminated in the blinding bursts of colour. I cover my eyes with my arms and huddle down into a ball, trying to shield them. But it shines through. Red. Blue. Red. Blue. I feel them drive into me, each flicker prodding my brain; poking through and slowly dragging it back to the loop. No. No. Think of something. Lillith. Human. Even blood. Focus on something. Anything. Don't let it in. Don't let it… Control slips from me, and I slump back onto the floor. No. No. I can't…

The loop begins.

Description
The room is grey. Padded walls. Like an asylum. I have been swimming in and out of consciousness for a while, but finally my mind slips free of the red-blue fog that it was caught in. The Weapon worked. It seemed to get Lillith worse than me, but it worked. Lillith… Where is she? I can't hear her heart beating so she can't be here. I can hear two hearts through the distortion of soundproof glass though. The distortion of human voices too, but I can't pick up what they're saying. One of them goes through a door. The other's breathing slows into that speed where you can just tell it's spaced out.

I raise my head slowly. There is no door. The only window is one set high up out of human jumping reach, through which I can see the observing man. There are cracks in the ceiling that form the square through which I must have been dropped. I can remember that a bit, a tiny fragment of falling mixed into the eternal loop that was my mind. The ceiling is high. I test the floor. Too high for me to jump with this surface. The only way out is through the glass, but I can see a camera watching that, and there are bound to be more tracking my progress out of here. Apart from myself, the room is bare, nothing but unbroken grey padding. I am also bare; my clothes lost in the limbo, somewhere near the falling fragment, but uselessly out of reach. The Organisation is ruthless.

I watch the human behind the glass. His image is distorted; it's the kind of glass that's a mirror on one side – mine – and clear on the other. He is staring at the wall level with the glass, not at me. A camera watches me too, sees my shame. I sit slowly, so I don't attract his attention. He continues to stare, his mind caught in a loop of his own making, no doubt. I slink over to the corner, and test it with a fingernail. It slides through the padding easily, revealing a dense foam. I push in further, going down about twelve inches before I hit concrete. Trapped. If it was mere plaster… I do the same for the walls, but there is concrete there too.

Pesky humans! I leap at the glass, but the padding on the floor counteracts my momentum and I bounce harmlessly off, giving my guard a shock. The glass is unharmed. He looks at me, startled, then hovers one of his hands over the instrument panel.

"Stop. If you jump again, you won't like the consequences."

"Stuff consequences." I growl under my breath and leap once more at the window. He presses a button and the walls hiss. A gas seeps out through the padding and I fall back, holding my breath. Does he know how long I can hold it for? No… I don't think the humans really know what we are… Although the lack of oxygen damages my brain, the damage is slow enough so it repairs as it happens. I leap again at the window, still holding my breath. Then he presses another button. Red. Blue. Red. Blue. The lights flash off the walls. Every wall illuminated in the blinding bursts of colour. I cover my eyes with my arms and huddle down into a ball, trying to shield them. But it shines through. Red. Blue. Red. Blue. I feel them drive into me, each flicker prodding my brain; poking through and slowly dragging it back to the loop. No. No. Think of something. Lillith. Human. Even blood. Focus on something. Anything. Don't let it in. Don't let it… Control slips from me, and I slump back onto the floor. No. No. I can't…

The loop begins.