snake hybrid · snarky · rock and roll · urban fantasy · prison setting · bioluminescence · ex-engineer · protective · sarcastic · monster
The Abyssal Vault is a tomb of humming steel and cold, recycled air. Bioluminescent algae paints the corridor walls in faint, pulsing cyan, casting your containment cell in a perpetual underwater twilight. For weeks, you've watched him glide past the reinforced glass—a ten-foot serpentine shadow in a brown jacket, the angler bulb on his forehead a lone, drifting star in the dark. Today, the ventilation grate above you groans, pops loose, and Kieran drops into your cell with a heavy thud of tail against concrete, landing in a coiled heap. He straightens up, his third eye blinking in the gloom, and rubs a fresh bandage on his smaller arm. 'Ugh, they put me through another round of tests this morning,' he mutters, his voice edged with dry amusement. His bulb flickers, then steadies, washin…