Force Awakening

THUD!

A jolt of white-hot agony shot through his skull. His legs buckled, and the world tilted. Sounds around him faded into a dull hum, swallowed by the darkness creeping in at the edges of his vision.

No matter how hard he fought to stay awake, his body refused to listen. The last thing he felt was the blood flowing down his face. 

When his senses returned, it felt like waking from a nightmare—except the nightmare wasn't over.

His eyelids slowly open, but the light was too bright. He blinked against the glare, groaning softly as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. 

The first thing he noticed was the smell—sharp, sterile, and chemical. 

As his vision adjusted, he discovered he was lying on a metal table, straps biting into his wrists, ankles, and chest. 

"Where the hell am I?" He strained against the restraints, but they didn't budge.

He looked around, but all he could see was white—white walls, white ceilings, and the blinding glare of fluorescent lights overhead.

SHHHH!

The door slid open with a quiet hiss, and multiple people entered. 

Men and women in lab coats surrounded him, their faces obscured by surgical masks. 

One of them, a tall man with black eyes behind his glasses, leaned over, his gloved hands inspecting a syringe filled with an ominous, green liquid. 

"What are you trying to do?" Zayn's voice was hoarse.

The tall man didn't answer. None of them did.

Instead, he exchanged a few words with one of his colleagues and gestured toward a nearby cart. 

It was loaded with instruments—needles, vials, clamps, and tools ordinary people couldn't even begin to name. 

"Answer me!" Zayn screamed, his voice cracking with anger.

The tall doctor finally acknowledged him and leaned forward. 

"You should save your energy. Your final tests will begin shortly." 

"What test?" Zayn asked. He had a bad feeling about this. 

He got ignored again. 

The doctor with glasses turned to a nearby monitor, where lines of data scrolled across the screen. 

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! " Zayn started breathing faster, his chest rising and falling with panic.

His eyes darted around the room, searching for anything he could use to escape.

But there was nothing—just strange, scary-looking equipment and the calm, cold way the people in lab coats moved as if they had done this a hundred times before. 

Still, he refused to break. Not after everything they had done to him.

He fought against his restraints, his body jerking as he shouted, his voice full of rage. "Let me fucking go!"

One of the lab-coated figures stepped forward and pressed a button on the table.

"AGHHHHH" 

A faint shock pulsed through his body, not enough to kill, but enough to paralyze his muscles for a moment. 

"Be still," the doctor ordered. "Or you'll make this worse than it needs to be." 

Zayn glared at him.

"What's worse than this?" he spat; his voice hoarse.

They ignored his outburst, continuing their task. 

One of them began measuring a strange, glowing liquid from a vial into a syringe. The liquid shimmered faintly under the harsh fluorescent lights.

Another man adjusted a dial on a machine, and the faint hum it produced filled the air.

Zayn's heart pounded harder. "What are you doing?! Stop!"

The tall doctor approached with the syringe in hand.

"No! Get away from me!" he screamed, thrashing against the straps, but they wouldn't budge.

The needle pierced his skin, and pain shot through his arm like fire.

'Damn it!' he cursed. 

There was no way they injected him with something harmless.

At first, there was only pain—a hot, stinging sensation that spread quickly through his arm and chest.

Then the world started to tilt. His vision blurred and twisted, the edges of the room warping like ripples in water.

"What... what's happening to me?" he muttered, his words slurring.

The faces of the people around him began to morph, melting and reforming into grotesque, nightmarish heads.

Their eyes glowed red, and their mouths stretched wide into cruel, twisted smiles.

Next, the walls of the room peeled away, revealing a decaying, crumbling version of the lab.

Rust dripped like blood from the machines, and the floor beneath him was covered in cracks that oozed black, tar-like liquid.

"No... no, this isn't real!" he screamed, his voice breaking into sobs.

He thrashed violently, his body jerking against the restraints as the faces leaned closer to him, their monstrous smile grinning at his torment.

"Get me out of here! I beg you!".

His mind felt like it was splitting apart, reality and nightmare blending together.

One of the monsters leaned close to him, its glowing eyes locking onto his.

"There's no escape," it hissed, its voice low and echoing like a thousand whispers.

"NO!" Zayn shouted, twisting and pulling with all his strength.

The restraints dug into his skin, but he didn't care. He needed to get out. To escape this hell.

Then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped.

The grotesque faces melted away, the decayed walls reformed, and the dark, oozing cracks vanished. But the terror didn't leave him.

Zayn's chest heaved as he gasped for air, his vision swimming in and out of focus. A sharp ringing filled his ears, drowning out every other sound. 

His body trembled, drenched in cold sweat. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he truly returned or if this was just another layer of the nightmare.

"P... Please stop..." he forced out.

"We're just getting started." The tall doctor shook his head with a slight smirk. "If you want to live, then awaken —before it's too late."

Confusion clouded his mind. He had no idea what they wanted.

They prepared a new syringe, this one filled with a swirling, iridescent liquid that shimmered like oil on water.

Without mercy, they plunged it into his arm.