Prologue Part Two: Regret

The shot rang out, cutting through the silent air. The bullet clanged off a wall, and the beast remained as it was, staring Markus down in the dark. Evelyn gasped and fired again, once again the shot whizzing through the beast’s smoky form.

“Run!” Markus shouted, his sudden noise moving the beast to action, its claws narrowly missing Markus as he ducked.

The gun clattered to the floor, signifying Evelyn’s retreat. But between Markus and the door stood the beast. The lights flicked on, and Markus saw the light cure everything in the room of darkness, except for the creature. Its ethereal body of night remained, and its eyes glowed with no less malice than they did in the dark. Suddenly, the shadow rushed forward, cleaving at Markus. The attack took a chunk from Markus’ arm and sent him reeling into the hallway. Evelyn slammed the door shut as he tumbled out, grabbing his uninjured arm and hauling him down the hallway.

The door flew from its hinges, embedding itself deep within the wall across.

“That, Markus, is a shade.” the director's voice said, crackling through the speaker, “That’s what remains of the world outside of our cities. It is said they are what once were other living creatures, turned to a blight. Terrifying what the calamity did to our Earth? That is what you must be, Markus, for all of us.”

Markus swallowed a wrath forming in his mind, trying to stay focused. The shade began to move down the hallway, it’s vaguely wolf-man like form gliding through the air faster than something non-physical should’ve been able to. Despite its form, it was gaining quickly.

“Evelyn, go.” Markus asked, turning around.

“Markus!” Evelyn shrieked, nearly falling over to turn back with him.

“Go, please.” he whispered.

Evelyn nodded, tears welling in her eyes as the shade bore down on them. Markus returned his gaze to the approaching shadow and held out his hand. With strained effort, he tried to force his body to augment like the Director wished.

His vision went black as the shade engulfed him; his lungs filling with the shadow. His limbs felt like jelly as he coughed into the floor. Evelyn’s screams pierced his failing consciousness while he struggled in vain to stand. The shade didn't halt its pace, tearing forward towards Evelyn.

“She will die.” a voice said in his mind.

“I can’t move-”

“You know what you can do.”

“I can’t, it feels like I'm drowning.” he begged.

Markus blinked through the haze in his eyes, seeing a wispy form of himself approach.

“Who are you?” Markus asked weakly.

“She’s going to die.”

“Are you me?” Markus asked, slipping into unconsciousness.

The mirror image knelt down, “Get up.”

Markus pushed with all his might but couldn’t even get his arms under him.

“Give in.”

Markus tried again, and he felt his back split; four dark gray tentacles protruded from his spine and lifted him off the ground. As he rose, the wispy form of himself faded, and he could see once again. The world came back to him and the shade stopped its attack on Evelyn, black smoke billowing around her. The shade growled, its hollow eyes revealing no indication of emotion. Markus charged the shade, poising the tentacles in front of himself like a shield. He went straight through the smoky body of the creature and grabbed Evelyn off of the floor. Markus then, with great effort, sunk the tentacles into the walls and ceiling, folding the metal into a barrier in front of them. The shade howled and rushed the wall, sinking smoky claws into the cracks. Markus forced the metal down on top of the shade’s claws, the shadow that still stuck through evaporating into the air. Evelyn weakly clung to Markus’ neck and buried her face into his shoulder.

“Markus? What is- how- your arm- those things?” she asked in a flurry of words.

“The experiments. Guess they were a good thing.” he said, straining to maintain the extra limbs.

“No. I don’t think so.” she said, holding his cheek with her good hand, “Your eyes are darker.”

His gaze softened slightly at the words and his shoulders relaxed. The smoke lazily floated from her mouth, the connection between it and the shade severed.

“Come on, let’s go find another room, and something to bandage your wounds.”

“I see you’ve found your own method of arm-fixing.” she noted, feeling Markus’ once injured arm.

The extra limbs turned to ash and Markus limped off, carrying the injured Evelyn. The director viewed the scene unfold on a screen, watching Markus attack the shade over and over on loop.

“Remarkable.” he said with childlike wonder.

“Sir, the shade is still in the halls.” a scientist warned, watching the shade butcher two other people on a nearby monitor.

“Contain it. Then start the next phase, and pair those two together. Time to see how ruthless he can be.”

Markus carefully wrapped Evelyn's arm with torn fabric from his shirt. She winced in pain but stayed still as he tightened the knot.

“That should stop the bleeding.”

“Thank you, Markus.”

Markus paused, watching her eyes, “What’s the matter?”

Evelyn thought for a moment. “Whatever they did to you, whatever that weird power you found is, I don’t think you should use it.”

“Saved our lives, didn’t it?” he said, nervously studying his arm.

“There are worse things than death.” she said softly.

He sat down next to her and rested his head on her shoulder.

“I saw myself, back there, when the shade attacked me. I heard a voice.”

“What did it say?”

Markus stayed silent, hesitant to answer.

“It told you to do that, didn't it?”

“The voice was me — but I didn’t recognize it.”

Evelyn put her arm around Markus and held him tightly. The two sat in the embrace until the lights shut back off.

Markus opened his eyes, groggily adjusting to the light around him. His head pounded and the blue he was used to was gone.

“Where?” he thought, still addled by sleep.

He woke up and saw his surroundings more clearly, a well-lit room, with one door on the wall opposite of him. He looked over at the empty air where Evelyn had been and shot up.

“Evelyn?” he called.

No response.

He felt the walls and tiles of the floor. Both were smooth metal with no perforations or indents anywhere, nothing to indicate another adjacent room or any sign of struggle. He tried the door next. Locked. He rammed into it with his shoulder, which only served to hurt himself. He paced the room, feeling himself begin to get thirsty. He tried the door again, this time with a running start. He bounced off and cried out in pain, his shoulder clearly dislocated. With a tender touch he tried to fix the injury, but only made himself wince harder.

With grim determination, he closed his eyes and forced his will onto his shoulder and heard a satisfying pop, the pain dissipating. He gave a glance back at the door and held out his arm. From his palm emerged a spiked length of flesh. It undulated in the air, surprisingly light and easy to maneuver. He swung it down onto the door. The attack left a faint mark in the metal, and he tried again. Over and over, he pounded the door until it creaked and folded slightly. After the dozens of attacks, the door had a small gash through its center. He formed new tendrils through the cracks, the augmented flesh curling around the opening. With a quick tug, the door ripped from its hinges.

“Markus.” the director said from outside the room, “that was quick.”

“What is this?” Markus demanded, retracting the growths.

“All of your training will soon come to a close. As someone who has helped so much with this research, I found it prudent to give you a reward; an advantage to help in this final test.”

The director pulled a chrome pistol from his waistband, the same one Markus had left at the room with the shade.

“How’d you get this?” Markus asked, taking hold of the weapon.

The director's rapier twirled in the air, miming a slash.

“Good luck in this final endeavor of yours, I look forward to our continued scientific progress. If you succeed, you’ll be on the next step in your path to healing this world from the calamity's scars.”

With that, the director walked out of the arena area and through a door that sealed shut behind him. Markus paced the floor of the arena, studying the new room. The walls were smooth except for two other doors, the same style as his own. A hiss came from a door across from him, and through the silver frame, came Evelyn.