Author Note: Thank you guys for the comments, and sorry it took so long to push out chapter three! I just had surgery so I've taken time away from my usual hobby of...well, shameless monster smut writing and reading. Hopefully you all enjoy this next chapter, and updates should become more frequent as I heal from my operation. I'll be making some artwork for this story as well! <3
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We sat there for a while in the small space of each other's company. There were so many things I wanted to say, to ask, to do. All of them were just as dangerous as the last, and even what we had just finished from was enough to get me erased from government records. All of the information I had on Michael was everything released to my clearance level, which was pretty high at a three, but definitely not enough to gain access to the details I wanted to know.
As Michael rested, I read through more of his files.
Note: Specimen tranquilized for testing. Lab team secured hair, oral swab, blood, and flesh puncture from thigh (right, anterior) before S.E-006 began to move. Team returned to lab with no altercations. Awaiting results of biopsy.
04. 28.▇▇ Dr. J. Edwards.
Note: See attached picture from microscope. Cell structure of S.E-006 completely foreign, further testing needed and awaiting approval. Blood tests returned. Host Michael ▇▇▇▇ known as type A blood now presents with unrecognizable cell structure. Flesh biopsy gave inconclusive results. Lab team is struggling to determine whether or not the host and symbiote are still two separate organisms or somehow a merged final product of parasitic life cycle.
04. 29. ▇▇▇▇ Dr. Stephen Heisenberg.
Note: Testing on conscious S.E-006 began with expected results; subject was aggressive, combative. Lab team sedated subject with ▇▇▇▇ and was successful in restraining host to modified exam table. Physical exam revealed that the symbiote appears to be integrated completely with the host body's central nervous system, but the symbiote's exact location in the body is still undetermined. Host body has two smaller arms beneath the primary forelegs which appear to be the "true" arms of Michael ▇▇▇▇ and when the subject opened it's maw three rows of teeth were recorded. A 'seam' runs down the subject's underbelly. Attempts to inspect and open seam resulted in severe agitation from the subject. Dr. T. Logan received a fatal blow with the subject's stinger. Necropsy scheduled and results should reveal new details about the neurotoxin the symbiote creates.
04.31.▇▇▇▇ Dr. Lisa Kellerman.
Note: Neurotoxin results received. Toxin appears to act similarly to venom of bungaris fasciatus, or the Banded Krait of southeast Asia. Initial effects recorded were intense pain, muscle atrophy, and eventual paralysis. Antivenom was delivered to Dr. Logan with no results. Necrosis at the sight of injection (between third and fourth ribs, anterior) collapsed his lung and blackened the flesh from his groin to his chin in less than an hour. Dr. Logan was sedated as the lab team recorded the toxin's progression. Shortly after necrosis set in, Dr. Logan's organs began to fail. The decision was made to euthanize him and have his body sent for necropsy. Results pending.
04.31.▇▇▇▇ Dr. J. Edwards.
Note: Lab team attempted to dissect the subject by cutting open the seam of it's underbelly. Upon opening it was revealed to be an extension of it's maw, lined with thick ridges of muscles and housing an alien digestive system. Dr. Kellerman intervened before samples could be collected. Dr. Edwards was immediately terminated from the project. No clearance given for this examination. The board has suspended any and all tests on S.E-006 until internal review can be completed.
05.03.▇▇▇▇ Dr. Stephen Heisenberg.
I couldn't help but gasp, and Michael grunted. How was he still alive? Dissected? As in, cut open? There was no way. The term had to be misused in this context, right? The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth and I felt my jaw grow heavy. I was gonna throw up. How could they do that to him, to a living creature of any kind?
"What's wrong?" Michael's voice came through and I clenched my jaw tightly, the sound of my teeth grinding against themselves making an odd creaking in my ears. "Charlotte?" He asked, his sleepy voice overcome with sudden concern.
"N-nothing. Just saw a spider." I lied. Instant regret hit me like a brick.
"Why are you lying to me?" He demanded. Even without eyebrows, or a face at all, I could see how even such a small, harmless white lie affected him. What had happened to him in his life that he harbored such mistrust over any absence of the truth?
Setting the folder down, I sighed. "I was reading your files, again. Really reading them." I admitted. "I didn't want to bring back any painful memories for you, but...May third." Two words with so much weight to them. As soon as I spoke them aloud the air pressure in the room changed drastically.
"May third." He repeated, maw parting in a hideous scowl. "The day they determined just how 'human' I really was." There was blatant bitterness in his tone and I tried to think of a way to change the subject. Then, a thought hit me; would I appreciate someone actively ignoring a traumatic event of mine that they had brought up? No, I'd feel pretty neglected, isolated.
"I'm so sorry, Michael. They never should have done that to you. Any of it. All of it. This folder is filled with horrible, awful things that they'd never do to an animal, let alone a person." Even though the words sounded hollow to me, I hoped that they held reassurance for him. "I can't imagine how awful that must have been for you." I said softly, placing my hand on the screen where his face was displayed in it's usual grainy low-saturation. As if he could feel it, Michael rested his head against the wall and nuzzled against the cold metal on the other side when it should have been the caress I so badly wanted to give to him.
"It was the worst day of my life." He told me. With a shaky sigh he seemed to hesitate before speaking again. "I killed someone."
Confused, I tried to figure out what he meant. He'd been eating people, and other animals, before coming here. To date, his kill count was unknown but estimated to be quite high. "What do you mean?" I finally asked.
"I killed that scientist. The alien inside of me was still knocked out from whatever they shot me up with that day. When I came to, and saw them just digging around...inside of me, I was scared. Petrified. When the alien decides to eat, it's like I've spaced out and I'm watching on a five second delay. When I attacked that man, killed him...that was me." Michael explained, shame and regret evident in how he trembled, his body shaking on my screen. "I'd never hurt anyone before." He gasped, a haggard breath interrupting him. "They let him die, Charlotte. I could hear him begging for mercy, and they just watched." As his maw parted, the creases retracting to expose his teeth as they formed several clenched mouths, I realized he was sobbing. Without eyes, or tear ducts, it simply looked different.
"You did what you had to do, Michael." I assured him. "They would have kept going if you had just laid there." My hands were cold and I felt goosebumps rise on my arms. There were so many things I sucked at and consoling someone was definitely one of them.
"I could have broken free from the table, scared them all off." He said.
"They might have killed you in fear of their lives." I pointed out, knowing full well that people were capable of doing terrible things when their life depended on it, and especially when you were essential personnel in a government funded research project. "We do what we have to, to survive." I told him slowly.
