Chapter 4: The Thing Beneath the Skin
The cold air slithered into the back alley, stinging Kaien's exposed arms. He staggered through the fog like a drunk, sweat-soaked and shaking.
His body still buzzed from the transformation. The black markings on his chest were gone—but he knew it was still there, lurking inside him. That voice, that thing that clawed out of his skin like it had always belonged. The scent of blood still clung to his lips.
He dropped to his knees, vomiting beside the dumpster.
"What... what the hell is happening to me?"
"Experiment Code 7-13… Subject: Kaien Yurei."
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in his skull—no, through the walls around him.
Kaien whipped around. The alley was empty. His breath steamed in the night.
Then, a shadow moved on the wall.
No footsteps. No sound. Just the sickening scrape of claws on concrete.
He backed up slowly. "If this is another hallucination—"
The shadow peeled itself from the wall like tar dripping upward, forming a silhouette with too many limbs. Its eyes glowed white-hot, no pupils, no soul. And then came the screaming—not from the creature, but inside Kaien's head.
> "You summoned me. Let me out again."
"No! I didn't mean to—I wasn't trying to—" Kaien's voice cracked. The thing took a step forward, and a second mouth opened in its chest, smiling with jagged, bone-white teeth.
"Containment breach confirmed."
This time, the voice came from an overhead drone, blinking red as it hovered silently.
From above, two black-clad soldiers in metal masks dropped down and landed without a sound. They raised rifles and aimed straight at Kaien.
"He's the source," one said. "Orders are to neutralize."
"No—wait!" Kaien raised his hands—but something inside him snapped.
> "Weak."
> "Let me do it."
The markings flared back onto his body—horns twisting from his skull, spine erupting with ridged bone. The monster he kept locked inside tore through the flesh once again.
Kaien didn't scream this time.
He laughed.
Blood hit the walls before the soldiers could fire a single shot.
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End of Chapter 4