Hayden burst into the observation room in a rage. Tearing through anything and everything in the room, papers, laptops, and clipboards cluttered the air and the floor marking his path across the room until he found himself at the window to Lili’s cell.

Inside the cell, two doctors were bent over her body, checking her vital signs, and keeping an eye on her constantly to look for improvement. Hayden fumed behind the glass, once again feeling his life’s work slipping through his fingers as he watched this girl screw up everything he had worked so hard to achieve once again.

Hayden called in his resident genetic specialist and demanded Lili go back into the surgical room and get her reset to how she was at the beginning of the experiment. The genetic specialist patiently explained to Hayden that she was in no way ready to be operated on again and that he wasn’t sure if resetting was possible once the treatment had been given once.

“Just inject more of that serum and bring her back!” Hayden screamed into the specialist’s face. “I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way, and you know it,” was the short retort of the specialist as he stood up and promptly exited the room without another word. Hayden watched the door through which he had left for several minutes, furious thoughts racing through his mind until he finally turned back to see Lili resting peacefully, a slight smile turning up her lips.

Lili jumped up to the sound of her metal door banging into the cage at full force. The two doctors in the room with her started mumbling warnings to Hayden who stood panting on the other side of the bars, staring with all his being into Lili’s eyes. “Leave!” Hayden snapped at the lab coats, and without a glance back, they left the room, while Hayden prowled forward like an animal going in for the kill.

Lili scooted as far back into the corner as she could as Hayden approached, her heart on the monitor beating faster and faster. Hayden pushed away the medical equipment without once breaking his gaze from Lili. He reached down and grabbed her arm with the IV and ripped it out at a vertical angle, causing Lili to howl in pain. “This is only the beginning of what you deserve for destroying my experiment!” Hayden spat into her face. Lili was in so much shock from having her IV torn out that she began to blanch and the room spun.

Lili’s gaze moved from Hayden to her lap as she tried to remain conscious, and Hayden snapped at this opportunity. Within a second he had pulled Lili from her cot and thrown her body roughly to the floor. “Not feeling well?” Hayden taunted, “me neither!” he yelled as he flung Lili against the wall, a gasp escaping her crumpled body.

“You’ve ruined everything!” he roared as he moved closer and began to kick Lili’s face, his shoe coming back with droplets of blood. Moving to her ribs, Hayden began to kick harder, his fury blinding him from seeing the drop of blood from the floor and his shoe gathering to become a crystallized dagger that Lili stabbed into Hayden’s thigh, and dragged the knife down his leg until he fell, screaming with pain.

Lili took this opportunity to get up, her head spinning and her body wanting nothing more to collapse to the floor, and hobble from the room, clutching her ribs, blood streaming down her nose into her mouth. Lili walked this way and that, unable to make sense of the white world she found herself stranded in as she tried to get as far away from Hayden as fast as she possibly could.

Suddenly, a siren’s wail filled the halls, echoing off every surface, thus causing Lili to crash to the floor holding her ears. The sound of footsteps running down a hallway nearby woke Lili from her stupor, and she began stumbling down another hallway, losing herself even more in the white washed labyrinth.