Never Ending

Experimentation Fascination

Kostas opened his eyes groggily; his vision swam and remained unfocused. As his consciousness slowly returned, he began to feel a weird tingling feeling covering his body. Blinking, he tried to will away the haze in his mind and force his eyes to focus. However, the more he woke up the more the innocent tingles turned increasingly painful. By the time Kostas was fully awake, his entire body felt as though it had been engulfed in flames.

Unable to bear the pain, he screamed and writhed only to find his movements were restricted. Kostas lifted his head to see that he was strapped to an operation table, but that was not what caused him to panic. With horror, he saw what was causing this indescribable pain. Most of his body was missing skin with other parts barely holding onto chunks that looked ready to fall off at any moment. Nausea swept over him as he quickly laid his head back down on the table; he was already feeling faint from the blood loss when he noticed a figure standing over him.

"I see you're awake." The cat hellion said joyfully. "Did you know that apparently rain makes human skin melt?" It looked down at Kostas who was breathing shallowly and spending all of his concentration on not dying. Unfazed, it continued. "Well, I didn't. Luckily for you, it was only sprinkling part of the way as I was carrying you to my laboratory. We're both lucky that your suffering didn't attract anyone else; I want to be able to experiment on you freely." It looked down to see that Kostas was now passed out and on the verge of death. It frowned, "Unfortunately, I think I'll have to wait a bit longer; your suffering is making me feel full. If you die now, I'll fall asleep." Just then Kostas breathed his last breath and the oversized cat slumped to the floor--fast asleep. 

When Kostas finally came to, his body still burned but not quite as bad as it was before. Hesitantly, he looked at his body. His skin had already begun to heal itself and his blood was once again being contained within his body. Kostas dropped his head down in a mix of relief and dismay. On the bright side of this situation, his body was healing itself, but on the not-so-bright side, he would most likely be alive and aware for the rest of the healing. 

Though a bit painful, he found the whole healing process pretty easy. With amazing speed, his skin was back--the only thing out of place were the chunks of skin that had not fallen off still dangling. Kostas fought against the straps but, to his dismay, they held tight. Kostas released an annoyed sigh as he laid his head back down and waited for the hellion to wake up. 

As he laid there, Kostas became aware of a constant dripping. Curious, he looked around in an attempt to find the source. He was in some sort of building that had walls lined with glass jars containing different body parts; he also noticed the sharp instruments on the tray next to his table. "Please tell me you're not going to take my organs and stuff them in jars." He said, knowing his complaint would go unheard. "I'm stuck in my body; whether it's rotting or not. Surely, you hellions know this. Why can't you just kill me in a simple way? What happened to the good old fashioned stabbing? Do all of you have to come up with elaborate plans to end my life?" He let out a sigh, "What am I doing? Critiquing them on their killing techniques? I really am losing my sanity down here."

Only after his conversation with himself did he realize that the dripping still persisted. "What is that?" He questioned, slightly annoyed. He scanned the room until his eyes finally landed on the table he was strapped to. "Oh. It's just my blood dripping off the table." He glared at the liquid. "That is going to drive me crazy." He once again tugged at the restraints to no avail. Giving up, he laid down his head and closed his eyes.

After some time, Kostas noticed the dripping had stopped; however, a terrible stench had taken its place. Fighting back nausea, he lifted his head to see what was causing the odor. First, he noticed the skin chunks had began blacken. Quickly shifting his eyes away from his body, he saw that his blood had congealed and was likely the main cause of the smell. Now that his curiosity had been satisfied and he wanted to be sick, he relaxed his head once again.

"How long do you hellions sleep?" Kostas asked as he laid strapped to the table, frustration clear in his voice. Though he did enjoy not dying, the stench that permeated the room and his vulnerability to anything that happen to come through left him anxious. "Maybe my suffering is prolonging it." He frowned at the thought. "Alright. I just need to stop suffering." He said resolutely. Just as the words were out of his mouth, his nose began to itch. "You have got to be kidding me." He groaned as he tried to get it to stop without being able to actually scratch it.

"Hey, are you back yet?" A shrill voice called out making Kostas freeze. "I keep getting this weird sensation every time I pass your laboratory."

Kostas held his breath as he heard the squeal of the door. He recognized the owner of the voice as being the hellion who had accompanied the cat during their search in the cave. 'Please, don't see me. Please, don't see me.' He thought as he heard the footsteps approaching him. Not being able to see the creature, he squeezed his eyes shut and hoped it was blind.

"Whoa. The feeling got stronger when I came in here." It said thoughtfully. It walked over to where the cat hellion lay. "Why are you asleep?" It asked while poking the creature. When no response came, it simply shrugged and began to look around the room. As it moved around leisurely, Kostas could feel his heart thundering in his chest. The hellion stopped. "The feeling gets especially strong the more I move towards you." It once again stood beside the cat hellion. "What is this sensation?" It questioned. "I know. I'll just wait here for you to wake up." Pleased with its idea, it sat down to patiently wait.

Kostas's heart sank. He was already breathing shallowly so as to make as little sound as possible and his entire body was tense. He was glad that the hellion had not found him, but now he knew he would be stuck there for much longer than he had hoped. The creature's presence only heightened his suffering which, in turn, caused the cat to sleep longer. Fear creeped into him as he realized the vicious cycle he had been thrust into. Unwillingly, he waited to be released from the suffering, but whether it would be through escaping or dying, he was not sure.