The stage was set. This was it. I had to decide.
I knew I couldn't die, but knowing what awaited me really had every muscle in my body twisting uncomfortably.
Still, I had a job to do. Decide my fourth death of the day.
Grumbling at the table on the little stage, I saw a single pill awaiting me. Beside it was a glass of water to take it with.
How kind.
"Jeez, I'm not looking forward to this" I sighed, scraping out the chair I sat on as I picked up the pill to see the red liquid inside bubble as it was tilted "and you said it was pharmaceuticals?"
The man beside me shrugged, humouring my distrust. His name was Barny. Out of all the ones who documented the effects of thier toys, this one was my favourite.
"It'll be all over soon" Barny gave a small crooked smile from the clipboard he held "then we can move onto the...." his finger traced down the paper before tapping on a spot "....muscle relaxants."
"I'll be shitting for a week."
He snorted and eyed the pill as I tossed it down with water and waited.
"At least it doesn't taste l...."
There was nothing after that. I didn't even feel my body hit the table or slide off the chair that clattered to the floor where I found myself in a pool of red vomit glued to the side of my cheek.
Groaning and swiping it off, I was hoisted to my legs that trembled when I put weight back on them.
"A side effect" Barny reassured me as he handed over a wipe to clean up my face "you'll have a nice bruise there."
His fingers lightly touched my forehead that stung on the contact. Pulling back, I sighed again at how much it was going to swell up later.
"Want to take a break?"
I glanced back to the vomit on the ground and nodded.
I needed some sort of air that wasn't in this damn white room.
"Take a twenty. I'll come with you."
I could still feel something fizzing in my gut that gurgled under my hand. It growled when I hunched out of the door and down the hall into another room that had a splash of blue on the walls.
Tables were spotted in the room for others to sit at. There was a communal fridge, along with a couch and television mounted near it.
A far cry from the white room and single table I had been boxed in for hours now.
"Guinea Pig!" a woman with wild hair rose her hand at us when we entered "Barny!"
I smiled back at Patricia. We spoke a few times on passing breaks. She mainly dealt with cosmetics and testing on the more animalistic creatures that passed through here. I remember having my lips swell shut for three days when I had to trial lipstick.
To them, I was an animal. Even in this fake human Skin, they saw what I really was. But, I was far too rare to be testing lipstick on. No; I was made for far greater things like gasses, guns, and pills.
Barny left me to make a beeline for the coffee maker, offering me a cup that I refused.
Caffine didn't react so well with things I tested in the past. I tried to steer clear of it now.
Leaning against the counter, I got myself a little styrofoam cup of cold water to wash down the heat burning in the back of my throat I rubbed.
"What have they got you doing now?" Patricia leant back on her chair while stirring her own cup.
"Uh...."
"BV68E" Barny piped up at the machine.
I jerked a thumb to him and went over to pull up a seat with Patricia.
"What he said" I smirked back "shit was strong."
"Looks like it knocked you around a bit" she eyed me before sipping from her cup "you're as pale as anything, Piggy."
She grinned at the nickname I elbowed her playfully for.
Who even knew what my real name was anymore? Years before finding myself as a test subject, I was forced into a darker life that stole my name from me and gave me a fake one.
Trauma.
It wasn't pretty, but pretty wasn't what kept you alive out there or in here. It was all I had, and I grew to like the twisted name I had made my own.
"I can't be here too long either, Barn" I spoke up when the seat beside me was dragged out "I've got late home last night. My wife will have my neck if I'm that late again."
My wife. I smiled at the sound of it as I drowned the acid in my throat. Barny and Patricia smirked and shook thier heads at my bliss.
My wife would have something to say about my face once it swelled up. She was always so worried about me when she should have been more worried about her own health.
"She had the baby yet?" Patricia asked.
"There's got to be more than just one" Barny noted and clapped me on the back "Trauma is an incredible creature."
I snorted and pulled his hand from me.
"I know I'm incredible, but no need to tell everyone. And no, she's not giving them up yet."
"Told you" Barny grinned to Patricia "more than one. Pay up."
Patricia grumbled, pulling out her wallet to slap down a ten and slide it across.
"Bets on how many?" she added eagerly.
Barny glanced to me and smiled when I shrugged it off.
"Three of them for a tenner" he leant back while holding up three fingers around his cup.
"Bring it up to another twenty for five of them" Patricia hunched forward "you had kids before, Piggy?"
I shook my head.
"It's five" she jabbed at Barny.
He accepted the deal and finished up his coffee so I was forced to guzzle down my water and hand the cup to him.
"If you have too many, I've always got room for perfume trials" Patricia jabbed cheekily when I rose to follow Barny for the door he waited at.
"You and me both know Zahli won't allow that!" I chuckled back before heading back down the hall with Barny.
I kept up my fake smile until the door closed behind us.
"So help me, I'll break her jaw if she comes near my family" I muttered to Barny who suddenly looked nervously at me when I stopped walking to leer over him instead "and you too. We may be friends in here, but out there, I'll hang you by your guts if you try anything like that."
"I'd never" he tried to smile "I don't even know where you live, T."
"And let's keep it that way" I grinned as I shook his shoulder to make him nervously smile and walk by my side again "what are we going to be testing now?"
"Uh.... Velur B2R."
The door to the little room was cracked open again and I saw my stage set with the single table and chair.
Awaiting me was another little pill and glass of water.
Taking a deep breath in, I smiled to Barny and walked over to take the seat so I could ready myself for my fifth death.
ns 18.68.41.148da2
