Chapter Text
The room he sat in was quiet, soundless except for the rumbling of the ventilation systems above him. Eerily they whirled, deep and empty tones filling the space that he resided in. The lights had shut off, as well. He had been still for so long that the motion sensors in the room thought he had left, and now the room was left to it’s darkness.
He should be here by now, the man thought, his own voice filling his head as he stared at the papers in front of him. Though the room had gone dark, a small spot of sunlight streamed in through a window, lighting up the room just enough for him to read the loose papers he had pulled from a folder labeled 4418.
Yesterday’s report had nothing abnormal, but still something stirred in his stomach. For no reason in particular, none that he could pinpoint at least, he felt the beginnings of something bad in his gut, pulling itself up and filling his lungs.
This feeling may be the abnormality he had been sensing. Maybe something inside of him was changing. Old age may finally be catching up to me, he thought.
A soft knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts. At the sound, he took a deep breath in and pushed his chair away from the desk, swivelling around. The movement was enough to trigger the lights flickering back on.
“Come in.” He said, his voice relaxed but still controlled. The door squeaked as it opened, and as miniscule as a detail it was, the man still noticed it. Note to self: fix that damned door.
The man who walked in was not truly a man, for he still had the face of a boy. Though he had a man’s job and wore a man’s clothes, something inside of him never changed when he had turned eighteen and began to be regarded as an adult. He had a round and soft face like a baby’s, and hair that had not been cute it quite some time. It grew in it’s tawny shade to his shoulders, soft and feathered with a streak of bleach blonde. His pale skin grew rosy at his cheeks, and he seemed to be out of breath.
“Aaron, it’s been a while. You’re giving report tonight?” The man asked, his cobalt blue eyes taking in every detail of the boy before him. Aaron took in a shaky breath.
“Yes, sir. But, um, first I would-” He cut himself off, trying to tame his nervousness. This was a red flag to the man in his seat; he knew Aaron well, and this was extremely out of character for him.
“What is it? Did something go wrong?” The man immediately thought of 4418, concerned for the state of the experiment. This facility, and the experiments within it, were extremely dangerous. Even one mistake could be fatal to everyone involved.
“Yes. I mean, no, sir. I-” Aaron stuttered.
“Spit it out.” The man demanded, glaring at the boy standing by the doorway. He breathed in one last shaky breath before finally finding the words.
“Mr. Campbell, we had to grab 4401 from Outside today.”
There was a long beat of silence, Campbell’s eyes bearing into Aaron’s nervous brown hues. Something about the older man was more than just intimidating - in the right light, he could be downright terrifying.
Then, for no reason Aaron could pinpoint, Campbell let out a hearty, guttural laugh. The younger boy looked up at the man, stunned. “You should have seen your face!” Campbell roared. “You had me all worked up over nothing. Of course, you caught him before he got too far, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about. You are chief discipline officer now, it’s your job to dish out it’s punishment.”
As Campbell finished his sentence he stood up. The light of the white room bounced off of his sky blue eyes, glinting like snow in the sunlight. He was full bodied and muscular, but as if to wear his money, he wore a full velvet suit with a black tie tucked underneath his vest. Gray hair was neatly kempt, and in some places you could almost see where it would have been brown if he was just a bit younger.
His lips curled into a smile as he spoke. “I assure you, Aaron,” the boy looked up at his boss, unsure of what to believe as he heard the older man’s words. “Everything is going according to plan.”