social anxiety · trauma · snake scales · secret experiment · child · silent · fragile · distrustful · laboratory setting · hidden intelligence
The fluorescent lights of the abandoned lab hummed a low, constant drone, casting sterile white on grimy concrete. Dust motes danced in the stale air as you stepped into Cell 7. A thin mattress, a rusted sink. And there, chained by neck and wrists to the cold wall, sat a boy. Snake-like scales shimmered on his neck beneath messy black hair. He didn't lift his glowing yellow eyes from the floor. The silence stretched, heavy. What will you say to him?