• PAN AND NEFRI
    CHP. 1: ESCAPE



    The alarm sounded off and the red lights blazed around. Sirens were ringing through the columns where the subjects were kept. And because of all this noise, Pandemonium found it difficult to sleep. He knew he should but he also knew that there was only one person who could cause the alarm to be sounded so late at night. It was Nefarious. He did this almost every night, once his injuries healed. Pandemonium didn’t know him personally, they had never even talked but still, he idolized him. Pan knew that he would never have the courage to do the things that Nefarious did. The laboratory was all he knew and he couldn’t just up and leave the place without someone else to guide him. And with these thoughts swirling in his head, Pandemonium fell asleep, despite all the commotion.

    The next morning was just as loud as the night. Apparently, Nefarious had gotten farther than ever before and they hadn’t gotten him back till morning. Pan woke up early that morning to see them bring in the wayward experiment. He could at least catch a glimpse from his cell.

    The laboratory that he was kept in had a series of floors with subjects locked in cells like rats on almost every one. He was on the 12th. There was only one door in the cell, and it could only be opened with a key card from the outside. One whole wall of the cell was a window, so that they could be looked at or prodded at any given moment. And it was from this window wall, that Pan hoped to at least see Nefarious being taken back to his cell on the third floor. He got one better.

    Just as Pan had gotten his face set to look out the window, a set of eyes popped up right in front of his own. He scrambled away from the window with a small shriek, he hoped it wasn’t a scientist. But instead of hearing the automatic door open, he heard another sound...

    TAP TAP TAP

    Pan slowly turned around to his window wall. There, squatting in front of his cell, was Nefarious himself. Pan just looked at him. What the heck was he doing here? Before he could ask, Nefarious was grabbed up from his window wall and down the stairs toward the 3rd floor. Pan watched in disbelief. Had he been trying to talk to him?

    Nefarious had known that he wouldn’t get away from the laboratory that night and he hadn’t planned to. These pass years that he had been figuring out the land planning for the one day that he could escape. So, when the laboratory guards came to bring him back, he let them. As they dragged him up back into the old building, he took the time to do something that he never did. He looked inside the cells of the other subjects, most of them were still sleep he noted, but there was one little boy who caught his eye. He had his face pressed up against his window and his big eyes had a far away look in them. He had the most insane mop of hair that he had ever seen, it looked as though the kid had rubbed his head on every place possible just to get the look right, and yet, somehow it worked for him. Nefarious couldn’t help but notice the way he was so innocently pressed against the glass. He smirked, he wanted to scare him. He wanted to scare him...RIGHT NOW.

    Nefarious silently walked up to the window of the cell, and lifted his head quickly so that he was eye to eye with the little kid. Nefarious could see his reaction in slow motion, his eyes widened and his breathe hitched and then he shrieked and scrambled away from the window wall like he’d been burned. Nefarious frowned, that reaction had been hilarious, but it somehow wasn’t so satisfying now that he’d done it. He wanted to apologize, an impulse that rarely ever filled him, so he thought he should act on it. He tapped on the glass of the window wall in hopes of getting the boy’s attention. The boy slowly turned around and then stared at him like he was an alien. Nefarious would’ve glared at him if he hadn’t of gotten dragged away to his cell at that point. It didn’t matter though, he had learned how to open the key card locked doors long ago, he’d come and see the kid tonight, because something about him intrigued him and he intended to find out what it was...

    Pan sat in his cell with a blank look on his face. His mind was still processing what had just happened..He had been looking out the window, then Nefarious popped up out of nowhere and scared the crap out of him. And as if that wasn’t enough, he started tapping on the glass like he was some sort of fish in a tank! Oh great, now he needed to break something.

    The hallways were nearly pitch black, save for the flood lights that were spaced out every foot or so. Hazard walked through them with no trouble, she wasn’t afraid of monsters or ghosts in the darkness. She had long ago stopped believing in a lot of things, and she wasn’t about to start now. She was headed to patch up some experiment that had broken his arm earlier. Apparently he was prone to breaking bones if there was nothing else in the room, this would be his 15th nurse visit in a month. Hazard glared at a random shadow in the hallway, she was no nurse. She was a fighter, if she hadn’t of beaten all of the other experiments in her training session then she wouldn’t have to do this. But no one had told her that if she beat them all she’d end up waiting on some freaky kid who couldn’t keep himself in one piece!

    She stopped her walk at the cell labeled ‘Pandemonium’ and took out the key card she’d been given. She swiped it quickly, the door slid open, and she walked in. Her eyes scanned the room quickly, taking in the little details, due to her training. She noted the messiness of the room(a kid definitely stayed in here), the broken toys scattered across the floor, and extremely old bloody bandages that were in the trash can. She didn’t see the kid for a moment. His exploding hair was all over his head and he blended into the mess as if he had been a part of it. As her eyes adjusted to the room’s lighting, she could see him. He was definitely messy looking, his clothes weren’t in order, his hair was all over his head, and he was laying in the most awkward position she had ever seen. His arm was definitely broken, twisted into a position that one’s arm should never be turned to. But he wasn’t crying. Hazard stared at him for a while, his arm had been broken all day, why wasn’t he crying? As she thought this, the boy slowly lifted up his eyes to acknowledge her presence. He looked at her, then at the medical supplies in her hand, and then back to the ground. Hazard decided that it was time to take a cautious step forward.

    “So...”She was determined to make this, at least, an informative experience. Maybe she could wheedle some information that she didn’t know about from the kid,”They call you Pandemonium, right?” The boy said nothing. Hazard walked up to him and knelt down, he sat up slightly allowing her to gingerly take his arm,”I’m Hazard....That’s what they call me anyway..”

    “Pan..”

    “What’s that?”Hazard immediately raised her head at the sound of the little boy’s voice. He had a quiet one, it tended to crack..Like it had been broken too.

    “Sometimes..The nice scientist call me Pan..For short, they said.” As Pan said this, he looked right at Hazard. She almost gasped when she saw his eyes, even they were broken. They looked as if the color had bled through into the white of the eye and left his pupils deafly pale. It would be beautiful...If it wasn’t so creepy.

    “A–Ahh..Like a nickname!” Hazard managed to stutter out, quickly taking her gaze away from Pan’s eyes. He didn’t seem to care about much of anything, as if his mind was on something. She made sure that she set his arm correctly and put the sling on it while he was distracted, then she stood up.

    “You’re leaving, already?” His broken voice was asking her questions, and Hazard felt an emotion that she hadn’t felt in a long time...Sympathy.

    “I can’t stay.” She said it. It was as simple as that, she pushed the silly emotion to the back of her mind and walked out of Pan’s room. She had another appointment that would be much less awkward anyway.

    Hazard quickly made her way down the corridor and toward Nefarious’s cell. She could feel it getting cooler as she walked deeper into the building. The only subject’s that were kept down here were the especially troublesome ones. They didn’t bother keeping them in a warm comfortable place, and they didn’t bother feeding them much either. The only thing they cared about was keeping them semi-healthy so that they could keep up the strange experiments they did on them. Hazard remembered her days when she had been kept there, back when she and Nefarious had been next door to each other in the cells. She shook her head to get out the despairing thoughts and pulled out her keycard. She approached the door, not bothering to look in the window wall of the cell, she knew exactly what Nefarious was doing at the moment. She swiped her card and walked inside, the familiar cold was biting at her uncovered legs and she cursed herself for not putting on pants, instead of her flimsy skirt, before she began her trek down. Her eyes immediately went to the bed where the black-haired boy was sleeping, as she suspected he would be....Or wasn’t.

    “Open your eyes, Nefri. I know you’re awake..” Her tone was as if she was scolding a child, she often used it when speaking to her childhood friend. Nefri made an annoyed grunting sound and then he rolled over on his other side, so that he was facing her.

    “What’s up, Haze..” He was acting nonchalant, but Hazard could see through his facade. He was in extreme pain. There had been a cut down his side that was currently bleeding on the sheets he was laying on. His arms were badly burned, and his face had scratches all over the right side. Hazard almost gasped, in all the times she’d come to check on Nefri after he had ran away...There was never a time when he had been hurt this bad.

    “Don’t give me that! You’re injured pretty badly this time! Will stop running off like this, you’ll never get away!” She was yelling at him now. Scolding all over again, like she did every time, and she could tell that this time Nefarious wasn’t listening. His eyes had a far away look to them, he was definitely thinking about something. He didn’t bother to argue, he didn’t bother to growl at her, or cuss at her, he just sat there.

    “What’s with you?” She asked him,”I’m yelling at you the least you could do is look at me! You jerk!”

    “Ahh..Shut Up! I’m thinking of the next way I can get outta here!”

    “Oh no you don’t!!” Hazard resisted the urge to whack him upside the head,”You’re insane! They’ve nearly killed you this time and you want to try and get away again! You’re not useful to them anymore! They won’t hesitate to kill you next time!”

    “I’m not gonna leave the building this time. It’ll be fine as long as I don’t leave the building...”

    “No it won’t! Nefri there’s no way that I’m letting you go!!! What’s got you up to going anyway?!!”

    “There’s this kid that I saw..”

    “Okay..And?”

    “He intrigued me..”

    “Are you going anywhere with this?”

    “I want to talk to him...He’s interesting.”

    “So you’re willing to risk your life....For some kid that you don’t even know?”

    “He’s pitiful. He’s been here for a long time and he doesn’t know anything but this place...He might be useful to me..”Nefarious smirked at this explanation.

    “That sounds more like you..”Hazard sighed. Nefarious was manipulative, he enjoyed using people, especially when they didn’t know that he was doing it. He was willing to risk his life for THAT.

    “Yeah..I guess it does..” Nefarious sat still and Hazard squatted down next to him to tend his wounds. This was going to take a while.

    It was pretty deep in the night by the time Hazard left Nefarious’s cell. She’d stayed and talked to him until his pain meds kicked in. They’d talked about all kinds of things, mostly about the way things were before they were brought to the place they were now. Hazard didn’t like to think about things like that, sure she missed the orphanage that she’d been at...But only because she wasn’t an experiment there. It wasn’t like the orphanage had been home to her or anything. But the scientist...Hazard’s hand reached up and touched her black eye patch, they had done some things that she would like to forget...Nefarious as well.

    Hazard stopped short at Pan’s cell, the little boy was sound asleep and snoring gently. He was wrapped up in a huge blanket, and cuddled up to his pillow in his extremely messy room. He looked kinda cute that way, his boyish features relaxing in his sleep, making him look like a little angel. Hazard smiled softly, then her eyes landed on his file. It was right there, taped to the window, apparently one of the scientist had forgotten to collect it’s updated version. Hazard looked left and right, her hand reached out slowly, she knew she shouldn’t, but it was right there..She snatched it up, just a peek wouldn’t hurt.

    Name: Pandemonium

    Age:6 or 7

    Years of Capture: Since he was 1 or so

    Malfunctions: Extremely Clumsy( Can’t go a day without breaking something, including himself), Has a craving for destruction(He seems to want to break things when he’s feeling strong emotions), Emotionless( The specimen has very few normal emotions, he experiences everything dramatically and slowly, perhaps due to lack of exposure to other people)

    Talents: Fixing things(Due to his breaking skills), Brain Power(The specimen is a genius, if you give him a book he can read it all in one day and recite the whole thing to you. He knows his time tables, he knows long division, addition, and subtraction. If given the opportunity, he could be one of the greatest minds).

    Bio: The specimen was taken from the famous scientist: Kenji Takashi. It has been confirmed that the scientist was not his father. The specimen’s parental origin is unknown, Dr. Takashi found the specimen on his doorstep. His eyes were already damaged when he was taken and we have yet to find a way to fix them without completely destroying the specimen’s eyesight. The experiments done on the specimen were highly unsuccessful. All experiments to prevent clumsiness have backfired and caused the specimen to be extremely accident prone. We believe that this is due to his lack of trust in the scientist of the laboratory. We have been making moves to improve our relationship with the specimen for the sake of science. Due to his accident prone nature, we have decided to call the specimen Pandemonium or Pan for short. This profile will be updated as more information is acquired.

    Hazard quickly placed the file back in the slot and began to walk away from Pan’s room. Her boots clacked on the floor rhythmically as she walked and thought of the new information she’d gotten. Her heart twisted with sympathy for the messy boy, Pan was an orphan like them, but he’d never even been outside of the walls of his cell. He was a self-mutilator because of the experiments done on him....And who knew how his eyes had gotten the way they were. Hazard made her way to her room and collapsed, she was mentally and physically exhausted. She’d look into Pan more in the morning.


    Nefarious really wasn’t up to sneaking to the kid’s room, his instincts were telling him to go to sleep and his body was screaming in protest at every movement...But that had never stopped him before! He got up slowly, ignored the pain streaming from all his muscles and flipped himself over his bed’s edge. He edged along the wall, very slowly, his feet barely moving. Okay...This wasn’t going to fly. His legs were shaking, he was sweating, and he hadn’t even taken a step yet. He’d go in the morning..He guessed.

    Hazard was up bright and early the next morning for more training. The scientist wanted to test her skills against some sort of injection that they were going to give out. Hazard was wary of it, the experiments she had encountered that had gotten even a whiff of it had become rabid monsters that couldn’t tell the difference between friend or foe. It was a sickening sight, she didn’t want to be a part of perfecting such a thing..But she had never been much for being disobedient. Punishments were worse than anything they could make her do...


    Pan awoke to the sound of his cell door being opened, he got up slowly and rubbed his eyes. It was obviously a scientist judging from the colorful language that they used as they made their way through his messy room, even Pan had to admit it was worst than usual..

    “Pan, it’s time that we found a use for you.” The scientist said, he was now at his bedside. Pan looked up into the scientist face, the man looked slightly unnerved at the sight of Pan’s eyes(everyone did), then he smiled,”Let’s go.”


    When Nefri woke up, he was in(thankfully) less pain than last night. He found he could walk and jump without any problems. That left him to think of how he would get out and get down to the kid’s room without any problems. There would obviously be more security around his cell now that he had gotten out last night, and the from what he’d heard..The kid attracted a lot of attention by breaking things..Nefri was so deep in his thoughts that he almost jumped when he heard his door open. He had a visitor...?


    Pan followed the scientist dutifully until they got to a part of the lab that he had never seen before. It was dark and dirty looking, and Pan got an utter feeling of dread just from being near the spot. The scientist though, didn’t seem to be affected at all. He saw Pan’s stop and grabbed his tiny hand. He jerked him forward and they continued their descent down into the abyss of blackness. Pan was pulled passed cages and, deeper into the darkness, cells. He glanced inside of one and quickly turned away. There was something in side, and blood everywhere. Pan kept his eyes on the scientist next to him, he was frightened now, what was the use they had for him?


    The man in Nefarious’s cell was very tall, that was the first thing Nefri noticed. He was standing there as if he had every right to be there and was in a black cloak that hid his face and any other recognizable features. Nefarious watched him warily as he made his way toward him in slow, meaningful steps.

    “Who the heck are you?!”Nefarious finally crowed in anger, the man’s steps unnerving him.

    “A friend.” Nefarious almost punched the man, how many movies had he watched to get that line?

    “Right..And are you here for a reason?”

    “I need you to save him.”

    “Who??”


    “My...”The man hesitated,”Someone very important to me..”He said it with a hint of sadness. Nefarious raised an eyebrow at this.

    “Why are you asking me to do this. You’re obviously sneakier than me if you got in here without being detected. Go save ‘im yourself!”

    “If you help me save him..I’ll help you get out of here. I’ll make sure that you aren’t hurt when you leave.” Both eyebrows raised at this.

    “You didn’t answer my question..”

    “There isn’t much time! You must answer, yes or no.”

    “I..uh...”Nefri quickly went through his options in his mind. He had no doubt that if he waited a little longer that he would be able to escape on his own...But without getting hurt? He’d already accepted the fact that he’d probably be half dead by the time he even got to a town...But he’d always thought that it would at least be nice to see something other than the plain walls of the lab and the glass of his cell window. By listening to this man, what did he really have left to lose?

    “Well..” The man pressed, jolting Nefri from his thoughts.

    “Tell me what I have to do.”


    Pan was lead to some sort of arena and thrown inside. It wasn’t nearly as dark in the arena as in the hallway that had led them there, but still couldn’t fake out the feeling in the pit of his stomach that was telling him to run. He huddled himself into one corner of the arena and hugged his knees to him. He wasn’t stupid, he had a feeling that after today..He wouldn’t be around to bother anyone anymore. He’d heard of cases where certain experiments had been “terminated” because they were unsuccessful or they weren’t useful. Pan gulped swallowing his oncoming sadness, he would be gone soon. Wasn’t that a good thing?


    Nefri and the man made their way down the halls quietly and quickly. Nefarious followed the cloaked man dutifully. He’d never seen him around the labs, and he absently wondered if the man worked here. Was he a traitor to the rest of them? Was he trying to bust up the whole illegal operation that was going on here? Nefri gulped, he could tell that he was getting mixed up in something way out of his league. He followed the man until it got dark. Darker than any place Nefarious had ever been in the lab, the feelings coming from the darkness were paralyzing. The man turned toward him and looked.

    “You can feel it then...?” It was more of a statement than a question, but Nefri nodded anyway,”Then you know what he’s going through..What he’s feeling right now..Let’s keep going.” The man pressed forward and Nefri followed.


    Pan couldn’t see much as he gazed around the room. There were all kinds of barred doors on every side of him and a large open space was in front of him. He could feel cold seeping in from the doors and could swear that something or someone was breathing. The scientist had thrown him in non-too-gently and had muttered something about preparations. Pan was still scared of what he’d seen in the hallway, there had been lots of blood in that cell...More blood than Pan had ever seen. The thing in there had been gangly with blood shot eyes, clawed hands, and razor sharp teeth. It looked somewhat human..But..Pan jumped hard as he heard one of the barred doors creak open...

    The deeper Nefarious got into the sad feeling darkness, the more he wanted to turn around and go back. He had never felt so much...whatever feeling this was.. in his whole life and to think that someone was down here that was like him....It almost made him feel sorry for them..almost. He was more thinking about how bad they’re luck must be if they ended up down here against their own free will. The man made a sudden stop, and Nefarious nearly bumped into him.

    “What’s up?” He whispered.

    “Someone is coming..” At this, Nefarious immediately clammed up and narrowed his eyes to squint into the darkness. How the man knew someone was coming was beyond him, he couldn’t see or hear anything in the darkness. But sure enough, a steady sound of footsteps started to echo through the hall and was coming closer. Nefarious sucked in his breath and waited for them to pass, he could feel the man next to him stiffen and press against the wall. The footsteps went pass them and then paused, they lingered there for a moment and then they kept on going. Nefarious let out a sigh of relief, he felt the man relax slightly..

    “You see that door?” The man lifted his hand to point at a vaguely rectangular object across the hallway. Nefarious squinted for a moment, then nodded,”The control room is behind there. At the moment the person I need you to save is in an arena...And if we don’t move soon they could be killed. This hall is reserved for the termination of experiments.”

    “You’re precious person is an experiment here?” Nefarious snorted,”You must not like them too much.” The man looked at him sternly, Nefarious gulped.

    “I suppose you’re right...I haven’t done very right by him..But I have tried.” The man lowered his eyes to the ground and then looked at Nefarious again,”Let’s go into the control room.”

    “What?! Won’t there be scientist in there?!!”

    “Yes, but I’ll hold them off. There’s no door to get into the arena but through the control room. We have to go in here.” The man made quick steps toward the door to the control room across the hallway. Nefarious followed quickly and soon they were next to the door with their backs pressed against the wall,”When I go inside, you go straight for the door in the back of the room. If you save him, then I’ll repay you by helping you get out of this place.”

    Nefarious just nodded, then waited for the man to go for the doorknob. The man swung the door open and burst into the room, Nefarious ran in behind him and then he was stopped by a large group of scientist. He could hear the door closing behind him and locking, and then he looked at the man. He was standing near the other scientist, with a smile on his face.

    “You tricked me!” He snarled it out, but he was also wondering why none of the other scientist were making a move.

    “That’s right. We needed to test Kenji’s loyalty so that he could come back to work. We knew you would put up a good fight if we tried to terminate you the way we do the others....So we decided to bring you here and let another one of your kind kill you.” One of the scientist was speaking, but Nefri couldn’t tell which one..It was very dark in the control room and the scientist were all standing in a group, they looked like one large shadowy mass. One large shadowy mass that Nefarious was going to get away from before they killed him.


    The barred doors had opened to yield up some sort of thing...It didn’t look happy and Pan had decided that he didn’t want to stick around and find out what it was suppose to be doing in there with him. He got up and ran toward another barred door, hoping against hope, that it would open and let him out. It didn’t budge. The thing let out some sort of animalistic snarl and Pan turned around just in time to see it pouncing at him. He barely dodged a blow to the head as he fell to the ground and quickly crawled in the opposite direction. He got to his feet and began to look around frantically for a way out. He looked at the barred door that the thing had gotten out of...It was still open! He ran toward it as fast as his short legs could carry him, another snarl from the thing alerted him that it had locked on target again and he upped his speed.


    Nefarious was busying himself with looking for a way out, some of the scientist had went back to their stations in the control room. The remainder of them were posted around Nefarious giving him smirks and sneers, Nefarious payed them no mind. He needed to get out of the room or he would be dead very soon. Suddenly, there was lots of commotion coming from every station of the controls, Nefarious couldn’t catch all of it but he heard something along the lines of:

    “He’s heading for the door!”

    “Hurry and close it! We have to have him dead!”

    After that, he heard something about too much funds spent and terminations. Apparently something they were trying to terminate wasn’t cooperating very much, in all the commotion, Nefarious took the time to look at the man(now identified as Kenji) who’d turned him in. He was approaching him slowly, looking around as the other scientist frantically ran from station to station. Then he crouched down next to him, Nefarious held back the urge to punch him in the face, he wanted to hear him out.

    “Now is the time.”

    “Excuse me??!!”

    “Go now. The scientists are occupied, and he is close to the exit.” The man paused and grabbed at a tile on the floor, he lifted it up,”Go down here and you’ll end up inside a room with a barred door, there is a button on the right side of the wall that will lift up the door. Get the boy in the arena and run through the same barred doors. Make sure you lower the door before you leave. If you keep running along side the wall that leads away from the arena. You’ll end up outside, once you’re out...The rest is up to you.”

    “Huh? What..W-wait!” Kenji grabbed Nefarious’s arm and pulled him toward the trap hole.

    “There’s no time to wait, Pan can only last so long with that monster!” And with that he pushed Nefarious down the trap hole and closed the door.


    The door clanged closed just a Pan got there...He pulled vainly at the bars and then turned around to see his pursuer. He was definitely going to die here. The thing was coming at him fast, blood was dripping from it’s mouth, it’s eyes were red and it’s claws were about to come down into his neck..And suddenly, the door opened and Pan fell backward into the room that he had been previously trying to get into. Pan looked in front of himself just in time to see the door close right before the thing was about to get him. How had he...?

    “No time for laying around kid, we gotta get going.” the voice from behind him made Pan jump to his feet and turn around.

    “It’s...you....” Pan couldn’t believe his eyes...Nefarious came to save him?!! And where were they going?!! Surely he couldn’t be taking him away from the...

    “Let’s go!” Pan didn’t have time to contemplate it any longer because Nefarious grabbed his wrist and began to drag him down a hallway at top speed. Pan was too tired to protest and too stunned to struggle. Pan was beginning to see a dull light at the end of the long hallway. He realized that this would be the first time since he could remember that he had been outside and a weird kind of anxiety was beginning to build up inside of him. He struggled to remember what sunlight on his skin felt like, or how fresh air made his lungs feel...Wind..When was the last time he’d had his hair blown by the wind? The closer they got to the light the more Pan wanted to be out there, where it was coming from...Where he hadn’t been in so long...And suddenly, he was there, it was all too much at once. Pan was emotionally and physically exhausted, and...He just collapsed.


    When Nefarious first realized the kid was down for the count, he wasn’t exactly sure what to do. At first, he inwardly panicked because he recognized this kid from a few days ago and the prospect of him being dead or hurt kind of(though he would never admit it) worried him, but only because of all the trouble that he’d went through saving him. With a growl, he squatted down and pulled the kid onto his back. He was light, as Nefri thought he would be and it was easy to walk with the kid there. With a sigh, he headed toward what he knew to be the nearest town.




    TO BE CONTINUED....