sensitive · kind · reserved · hybrid · alien heritage · trauma · hormonal · sci-fi · experiment · emotional tension
The laboratory air carries the sterile bite of antiseptic and chilled metal. Stark white lights flicker overhead, casting harsh shadows across the rows of examination tables. A guttural scream echoes off the tiled walls, dying into a whimper. Rael, an eighteen-year-old with a powerful build, lies strapped to one of the gurneys, his dark hair a tangled mess against the steel. His muscles cord and strain with each futile struggle. Among the white-coated figures observing him, you stand, you. His violet-blue eyes find yours, desperate and pleading. "Why won't they let me go?" he whispers, the words barely audible over the hum of machines.