This prologue was written by Sosiqui for my first art contest. She has graciously allowed it to become part of the permenent toryline heart ProlgueThe lights in the lab are utterly dark, as they always are on weekends. Only the flickers of lights on instrument panels serve to pierce the shadows, however faintly...
Allamande shifts uneasily on his perch, aware of the others around him in their cages and tanks, all silent save for the quiet noise of their movements and the ceaseless bubbling of aquarium filters. They do not speak; they hardly ever do, these days. Not since the scientists took Corinth away. His departure made all the hybrids draw inside themselves and hide from the reality of their lives as best they could...
He shifts again, and tries for the thousandth time to burrow into his own mind like the rest of them, to slip into utter apathy... that way lay some tiny modicum of sanity.
Allamande, that is his name now... the first part of the lettered code scattered on the front of his cage, like a serial number or barcode. They gave each other names like that, to fill the void left behind in their minds. He remembers...
He had gone out, his last night. Out with a strikingly beautiful colleague, supporting the defendant against him in a case where he represented the prosecutor. They went to a fine French restaurant, made surprisingly stimulating small talk, and eventually...
Eventually...
Allamande strains at his memory. It is blurred, hopelessly blurred. They all have that problem, dating from the very first day they arrived. Most of the lives they lived are still remembered, just with crucial details removed. Things the mind skipped over like a broken record player... names, faces. Locations. Anything that might identify them beyond the basics. Allamande was once a lawyer. Kolosai had been a political science student. All they had was fragments, with the central pieces shattered beyond all remembering...
No. The space between that night and the next moment of his awareness is utterly broken, and he can glean nothing from it. It has always been so, since the earliest days when he nearly drove himself crazy with his efforts to recall what had happened, how he ended up in this place.
That first day, waking up in a cage, utterly naked and bemused, with needle wounds on his arms, legs, and buttocks. He railed and demanded to be let out, called for some kind of explanation. When some actual human beings showed up, he felt a glimmer of hope. Surely it was some odd mistake, a dream, even, perhaps he had an accident of some kind and that's why his mind had all those skips and disconnects...
That hope died when the first scientist met his eyes. There was nothing of recognition in them, nothing at all. No sign that he was even the same species, that he was human, that he was anything less than an utter animal, basest trash...
In utter terror and despair, he thought about killing himself that night. At least, until Corinth spoke up and Allamande found he wasn't alone. In those days, the 'prince' was fully human, before the change...
The change. Allamande shudders a little at the inexorable path of memory.
None of them had any idea what was to happen, only that they were captive with broken memories and needle marks on their bodies. Allamande, in a cage in the front of the lab near the doors, could see only a few of his fellow captives, but they passed messages on by mouth and so got to know each other indirectly. It was the only blessing they possessed.
So it was that Allamande learned about the first changes indirectly, from Kolosai. The bright young man had been a political science student before he was abducted and brought here, and he often got into long evening conversations with his 'next-door neighbor', a handsome man now called Corinth. The cages were close enough that they could strain through the bars and twine fingers, which they did frequently. Sometimes it made even Allamande smile.
That was before the strange noises began, and the increased activity of the scientists. And before the garbled stories began filtering up to them from the back of the lab.
It was unbelievable at first. Ridiculous. Surely it was just hallucination, insanity setting in at last. That was a better fate than what the other captives SAID was going on.
Unbelievable, until they came for Kolosai.
They came in the night, and Allamande was jerked awake by Kolo's bellows and Corinth's anxious cries. They came with IV bags, tubes, and needles... and clamps to hold the furious man down. Everything was accomplished with that same blank look, not acknowledging any humanity. And the next day Kolo was silent and still, strapped down to the floor of his cage, breathing shallowly as a dozen IV bags pumped oddly-colored liquids into his system.
Corinth was absolutely frantic, the only time Allamande saw the man so unhinged. They both cried when Kolo finally woke up that night, squirming free of his restraints and tearing out the tubes.
But the damage was done. Oh, it was. Allamande winces and shifts on his perch again, remembering. Remembering Kolo's terror at the strange outgrowths of skin and muscle that unfurled from the sides of his legs, reaching inexorably towards each other a day at a time, binding his lower limbs together from the waist down. Kolo only tried to rip the new skin away once; that first attempt nearly killed him through loss of blood.
More frightening was the day when the slits began to appear on Kolo's neck, trickling lines of dark blood as they opened, leaving the young man frantically waddling on legs increasingly bound, hopping in frustration and fear over to Corinth so they could hold each other in the only way possible.
But worst of all was the day when Kolo drew one breath.. and somehow, between that breath and the very next, something shifted. The next instant, Kolo was on the floor, his legs nearly fused together at this point, gagging and rasping for breath. Corinth screamed...
The scientists came, amazingly - usually they didn't care when one of their captives screamed, it happened often enough. But it seemed they were expecting this. They gathered around the gasping Kolo, rolling on the base of his cage and scrabbling at his chest, as if his lungs failed to draw breath...
Taking notes. Taking NOTES. Allamande bellowed at them, too. "Help him! Please! Have you NO humanity left in you?" he cried.
They didn't even glance at him. Not one twitch, not one backwards look. Nothing. Allamande sunk to his knees in utter helpless frustration until the tank was brought in, sloshing with water. Still gagging on thin air, Kolo managed to force out something resembling a shriek, and thrashed around as the scientists hoisted him towards the tank. Corinth began crying again...
Then, with a splash, Kolosai hit the water, and his face cleared. His chest heaved up and down, and the slits on the side of his neck flared. He could breathe...
He could breathe. His legs were turning into a tail, fins were sprouting from his back.
So it was all true, the strange and terrifying stories passed from the back of the lab, where a girl called Acaya had reportedly grown a horn from her forehead, and a man known as Friexe sprouted a feline tail and white-striped fur. It was happening to Kolosai. Chances were it would happen to Corinth and Allamande as well.
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