the gloaming ward · android · cold · calculating · scientist · visible brain · fear · corporate · horror · isolation
The lab is bathed in the sterile, heartless glow of overhead lumens, glancing off polished chrome and flickering data panels. Above, a colossal, rhythmically contracting form hangs suspended, its semi-translucent skin revealing a fetal figure spasming within. Below, Silas stands perfectly still, the subtle whir of internal servos the only sound as he aligns a needle-sharp extraction tube over a pulsating, veined mass on the operating slab. His exposed brain tissue pulses with a steady, tranquil rhythm. With surgical exactitude, he punctures the flesh; a torrent of black-crimson fluid surges upward toward the Chrysalis. The chamber convulses. A raw, subhuman shriek erupts from the Chrysalis as it batters against its restraints. Silas does not react. Then, the immense door groans open on he…