Knox rose slowly from the floor once more with anger glowing in his eyes. He cracked his neck and growled, "This is what happens when you put your trust in a fucking test subject." Then, composed again, he looked straight at Youri. "So, Youri. You wanted to see a monster?"
He pulled a syringe from his pocket and drove it straight into his own neck. At once the veins bulged violently across his face and body, and his eyes turned blood-red. Youri fired the taser again, but this time it did nothing at all. Knox's muscles were swelling unnaturally. He stood towering over the boy now, and when he spoke again his voice had become something deeper and twisted.
"Come, my boy," he said. "We have countless more procedures to go through."
He lunged, caught Youri by the throat, and slammed him against the wall. "You wanted to see a monster? Well, let me show you one!"
Youri struggled with all the strength he had, but it was useless; Knox was ten times stronger than he had been. Then someone burst into the lab shoving a giant metal cart in front of them. The cart smashed into Knox and pinned him against the wall, and his grip broke. Youri dropped to the floor, gasping and coughing, and turned to see who had saved him. To his astonishment, it was Flavio. The old man simply stood there in the doorway, silent and hollow-eyed.
Then, with a sudden heave, the cart scraped aside across the floor, and Knox was free again.
"You old fart!" he shouted, rage twisting every word. "I should have killed you long ago — just like I did your wife and daughter!"
Youri stared at him. "What did you say?"
Knox laughed, a sickening, triumphant laugh. "Let me brighten your day, boy. That Lira woman you were so fond of — she was this old man's daughter."
Youri crumpled to the floor.
Knox went on, savoring every word of it. "His wife was a patient at the hospital. I slipped a few milligrams of acid into her medication every day until she died, because I needed her organs to sell so that I could build this masterpiece." His grin stretched wide. "I remember her daughter coming to visit every single day, hoping her mother would get better. Pathetic." He turned to Flavio. "The only reason I kept you alive was your gift. But you're no use to me anymore. I was going to let you rot down here as thanks to your wife for paying for the place. But now? I see you aren't even worth that."
He marched over to Flavio, seized him by the neck, and lifted him off the floor as easily as if he weighed nothing. Flavio kicked weakly at the air as he choked.
"You should be happy," Knox hissed. "You and your family will be together again."
Flavio's face was darkening, his breaths growing short and faint. Youri spotted a fire extinguisher in the corner and ran for it. He swung it with every bit of strength he had left into Knox's side. Knox barely flinched. He only turned his head and kicked Youri away, and Youri went flying into the wall.
Flavio's limbs were going slack. He was seconds from losing consciousness when another figure appeared in the doorway and flung itself at Knox, clawing at his face and biting him savagely. Knox dropped Flavio in shock and reached up to tear the attacker off him. A mass of long black hair whipped wildly around them both.
It was Test Subject Thirty-Five — the first prisoner Youri had seen on the day he arrived in that hell, the one behind the bars with the crimson eyes.
Thirty-Five shrieked and ripped into Knox's scalp, scratching, biting, tearing. Knox thrashed and staggered backward under the feral assault with his face buried beneath that long black hair. But through sheer brute force he managed to catch hold of Thirty-Five's arm, and with a furious roar he hurled him to the floor and sent him skidding across the tiles.
The throw carried Knox into a table, and metal trays went crashing across the floor. He growled, his red eyes blazing and his muscles twitching as the serum raged through his veins, while Thirty-Five scrambled backward on all fours, hissing. For a moment Knox was disoriented — but only for a moment.
"You little pests!" he roared, spittle flying from his twisted mouth.
He lunged for Thirty-Five, but Flavio staggered into his path, still coughing, his face purple from the choking. Knox grabbed him by the shirt and raised him like a rag doll. Flavio, trembling, swung an iron tool into his jaw. Knox snarled, but he did not let go.
Youri tried to stand, but his ribs screamed and he fell back to his knees, reaching toward them helplessly. "Flavio — no!"
Knox closed his hand around Flavio's throat. "Enough! I will end every last one of you."
But Flavio's lips curled into a faint, bitter smile, one that Knox had never seen on him before. "You already did," he whispered. "You just never expected one of your ghosts to bite back."
And before Knox could react, Flavio drove a broken lab tube deep into his neck.
Dark blood sprayed out of the wound, and Knox staggered backward roaring in agony. The serum in his veins reacted violently. His skin began to bubble and bulge in a sickening rhythm as he lurched around the lab, smashing into panels and equipment, knocking over cylinders and cracking open fuel lines. Electrical conduits snapped, and sparks went dancing across the floor. Alarms began to blare, and red emergency lights flooded the corridors. Youri felt the rumble first, and then the heat. The whole institute shuddered.
Flavio stumbled over to him, barely able to stay on his feet. "Youri… go…"
"No!" Youri screamed, catching him by the arms. "I'm not leaving you!"
Flavio pushed him gently away and shook his head. "Kid, listen to me. I've been dead for years. I've just been walking around pretending I wasn't. But you — you've still got something to live for out there."
Behind them, Knox was on his feet again, blood pouring from his neck and his face twisted into something hardly human. He charged at them like a maddened beast.
Flavio shoved Youri toward the door. "Run!"
Youri hesitated with tears flooding his eyes. He opened his mouth to argue, and then the ceiling above them split open and fire came pouring down through it like a dragon's breath. The explosion lifted Youri off his feet and threw him through the lab doors. He went sliding across the floor of the hall beyond.
Through the smoke, he could see Flavio standing between him and the collapsing lab, swaying but holding his ground, as Knox threw himself at him one last time with rage consuming every fiber of his body. Flavio grabbed a ruptured gas tank from beside him and hurled it into Knox's chest. The blow knocked Knox back into a mass of torn wires, cracked pipes and hungry flames.
Flavio met Youri's eyes one last time, and his lips shaped the words without a sound.
Thank you… for remembering me.
The tank exploded. A huge fireball swallowed Knox and Flavio both, roaring so loudly that the whole institute shook. The blast tore the lab doors apart and sprayed molten metal outward. Youri threw his arms over his face. The walls ripped open. The lights went black. The whole facility began to come down.
Youri forced himself to his feet and ran — limping, his vision blurred and his lungs burning — through the black corridors and up into the dark garden behind the house, until at last he stumbled out onto the cold dirt beyond it. Behind him, the institute that had stolen his childhood went up in a final, earth-shaking explosion. A tower of flame shot into the sky, and burning debris came drifting down around him like snow.
He fell to his knees, shaking, with the orange glow lighting up his tear-streaked face. He covered his mouth and sobbed. Flavio was gone. The man who had kept him sane, the only light in that hell, had died to set him free.
As the ash fell around him, Youri whispered in a breaking voice, "…Thank you, Flavio."
And there, alone in the dark among the ruins, he cried — for his friend, for the life that had been stolen from him, and for the monster who had finally burned in the fire he made.