Chapter 1: Number 24

Glaring at the grey ceiling, with silver hair and crimson eyes, a girl could be seen laying on a cot as she awoke from her slumber. She had a bandaged arm and leg, with an old scar on the left side of her jaw. The girl was extremely pale and was wearing a dress that was no better than a potato sack with holes and a string tied around the waist to provide minimum support, with a slave collar encasing her neck.

The collar, a magic item used to keep slaves in line, kept them from rebelling and disobeying orders. It isn't perfect however, since the person still kept their individuality. With a strong enough will, one could also resist the effects of the collar, and if it were ever broken or taken off, the effects would cease immediately.

The room the girl was in was a 183cm by 244cm stone room with only a small sink and toilet occupying the space other than the cot. There is only a single light source in the room. A single light-crystal was fixed to the ceiling, which also doubled as a magical dampener.

Getting up, the girl looked towards the heavy metal door in her room where she could see a tray of food on the floor. Picking up the tray of food, she takes a bite out of the stale bread. It tasted like dust, almost choking her as she tried to swallow it down. Learning from her mistake, she moistens the bread by dipping it in the small bowl of soup that was provided for her before taking another bite. It was like dipping it in brown water with chunks in it. The bland salty taste didn't make the meal better.

As she chewed, she pondered about her day. What laid ahead for her. She sighs in exhaustion. Her arm is still aching from phantom pain even though it had been a week since their last experiment. Since her injuries from last week were practically healed, that meant another round of tests, another round of pain.

The only question is, when will it happen? It's possible for it to happen today or tomorrow. It's happened before, when they would start doing tests as soon as she was healed. If it weren't for her abnormal body, she probably would've been dead by now.

'Hope I get another day of reprieve before they start poking around in my body again,' she thinks as she takes another bite of moistened bread. 'Lets Take this time to relax a little bit anyway. Just in case they do call on me.'

*Bam Bam Bam*

"24 it's time for you to get up, Dr. Vancer wants you in Lab Three today in Ten minutes!" The man called out behind the door, interrupting her thoughts. Twenty-four, that's what they call her. Since she refused to give them her name, she was reduced to a number.

'Guess I don't get to relax after all.' She thought, tensing up when she heard the man from behind the door.

Finishing up her tasteless meal, the girl sets the empty tray and bowl to the side. Getting up, she shuffles to the metal door and bangs twice, indicating she is ready to be escorted out. She absently rubs the permanent scar on the left side of her jaw as she waits for the guard to open the door to her cell.

When the door opens to let her out, Twenty-four proceeds to follow the stocky Dwarf that had dark curly hair and a crooked nose. With her enhanced senses the girl could even smell a faint smoked wood scent coming from him as they made their way through the winding, grey walled, maze-like hall, with the same light-crystals lighting the way towards Lab 3, growing more and more tense.

Twenty-four eyed the Dwarfs wrist that had a plain black bracelet. That bracelet is what allows the staff to use magic in the facility even with the dampeners. Every staff member had one.

Eventually, the two of them stop in front of a double door labeled 'Lab 3'. The Dwarf escort knocks on the door and waits for the person on the other side to say, 'Enter.' After getting a confirmation from the person on the other side, the Dwarf pushes the heavy doors open and shoves the girl into the room and leaves.

In the room to the left stood a man next to a metal frame medical bed. A cold metal slab with a sturdy metal base, just long enough so that her feet did not dangle when she had to lay flat on it. It was hard, and uncomfortable, and she hated it. She often wondered, every time she had to come in here and allow them to do the things they did to her if this was the day she would finally die.

She also knows that they would never let that happen since she's considered a 'Valuable Specimen'. Though that doesn't really make her feel better.

Next to the bed is a table that would usually have surgical tools laid out but is currently bare. Twenty-fours already tensed body relaxes for a few seconds as she realizes that today was not going to be another day of torture. After those few seconds, she puts her guard up again.

Her eyes quickly scans over the rest of the room that appears to be the same, Nothing else seems different the counter on the other side of the room is still in it's unorganized, organized state, with plenty of scattered documents and other objects on top of it.

The Doctor, the source of her physical and mental pain is waiting for her beside the examination table. She glances sharply behind her towards the door she was just pushed through with a glare. She notices another guard next to the door inside the room before turning back to that dreaded table, and the man that dares to call himself a doctor.

He motions for her to come forward, his flat dark eyes that reminded her of a birds, spaced too close together and void of any emotions tracks her as she moves to the metal table. He motions for her to sit, and she does.

That moment of relief when she noticed that there were no tools of torture today, as replaced with the feeling of disgust and hate at being in close proximity of the man. There was also a little confusion mixed in as well. Being this close also allows her to smell the metallic scent of blood coming from his body, causing her to wrinkle her noise.

'Just a normal check-up today.' She said to herself, taking a deep breath as she settled herself on the cold metal table. Thinking that it's weird the doctor is doing the check-up himself, he usually leaves small things like this to someone else. Mostly to Dr. Redwood anyway.

'Honestly, why is he here? This is really unusual. Plus, I prefer Dr. Redwood anyway.' She thought, growing a bit more suspicious, taking a quick glance in his direction before looking away again. 'What is he planning?'

Looking down at her pale fingers, she toyed with the idea she could use them to kill the man next to her. But that will only end badly, whether she succeeded in doing it or not. It wouldn't be just her that would be facing the consequences of her actions after all.

"Hello subject Twenty-four C," The doctor says as he skims through the papers he holds in his hands. The girl, after hearing him speak, finally looks at the man standing next to her. Dr. Vancer is Human around 180 cm tall, with short, messy dark brown hair that is just as dull as his flat dark eyes. He wears round heavy rimed glasses and a white lab coat, over a beige button-up, and dark slacks. One of his wrists also had the same plain black bracelet as the Dwarf.

He then starts reading the information on the papers he holds out loud. "Age, roughly 19 years. Height, 175 cm. Blood type, unknown, mixture of monster and human. Name, unknown, designated as 24-C of project Crimson." He looks up from his clipboard to address the girl directly when he finishes reading.

"We'll need you to be in peak condition tomorrow, so today is only a quick check-up." He says, placing down his notes

Nodding silently, Twenty-four lays down while Dr. Vancer takes hold of her left arm and removes the bandages, revealing a tattoo of the number 24 on her shoulder. Slowly looking over her arm, he is satisfied with how it has fully regenerated since being cut off no more than seven days ago.

"Amazing," he says, as he lets go of her arm to scribble some notes on her chart. Nodding in satisfaction. Next, he examines her right leg, and he repeats the process, writing more notes when he's done.

"Alright, the limbs are fully regenerated, that's good. Okay, Twenty-four unbutton the front of your garment, so I can see if the wound on your stomach and chest is healed."

Doing as she is told, she unbuttons the front of the rough burlap like dress. The doctor removes the bandages to check where he had made his incisions, from her chest to her stomach. The skin revealed is smooth. There's not even the slightest trace of a scar. During this process, the girl wonders what they had planned for her tomorrow.

'Will they want to remove something again? Another organ like my lungs? Will they do another test and see if I can survive it? Crush me? Drown me?'

Dr. Vancer informed her she could put her dress back on. Writing something on his clipboard of notes, he gestures for Twenty-four to leave the room.

"Oh, one more thing before you go." Dr. Vancer called out to her when she reached the door. Tensing up she waited for him to continue. "Don't try to intentionally harm yourself to delay tomorrow's experiment, you know the consequences that will happen if you do."

With those words Twenty-four left the room tense and followed the same Escort from before that was waiting for her to come out. The place the girl was being led to is her original room in the facility. The room she woke up in this morning was nothing more than a place for her to recuperate.

Entering a hall with 5 doors on each side they stopped in front of door number eight. The Dwarf opened the door and let's Twenty-four walk in. It looked like the girl was looking for something, as she looked around the room in confusion.

"If you are looking for your little friends they are currently going through their own little test." Hearing what he said, she turns around to glaring at the Dwarf with an accusatory gaze. "Don't look at me like that. It isn't anything harmful from what I can tell, so calm down." With those parting words, he rolled his eyes and left.

The room consists of three cots, three trunks where clothes can be stored, and a desk with a drawer. The last thing in the room is actually a section of grey wall that is covered in some sort of makeshift padding. This is Twenty-four's room. She shares this room with two others, and while waiting for the other two, Twenty-four starts punching at the padded wall in the corner.

Punching the wall helps clear her head, releases some stress, and allows her to test out her newly regenerated arm. She wasn't able to do much locked away inside that small room while recuperating. Punching and even kicking the wall with her new leg, she tested out her new limbs and blew off some steam.

Feeling a little less agitated than she was before, she stopped her assault on the wall. Even though she was still a little miffed, she wanted to try and greet her roommates in a relatively clean state. So she decided to spend the rest of her time laying down on one of the beds while she waited.