Alfred died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can't be too sure. To be honest, I don't give a crap when or where he died. No, wait, I do know where, and I'm literally sitting on his death bed right now, or should I say death plate? That's not important. The only important thing I'm sure of is that the prick is dead, and he won't be bothering me or anyone else anymore. I really don't want to say he deserved it because, you know, no one deserves to die. Maybe except serial killers and the other guys who do bad things, but the guy really deserved to die.

Ha….. I genuinely don't need to be saying this, at least not at this time. Not while they are about to do to me the same thing they did to him that I think made him die. The universe might make me suffer the same fate as he did. Wait…. Why does that sound more like a memory than a random thought? Oh yeah, I think I heard it from someone…. I don't remember who that person was or is, but I remember something like this. "It's an interdiction to bad mouth the dead, no matter how evil the person was when he was alive. After he's dead, just let it go, else the universe will get revenge on you."

"Revenge?" Wait, did he say revenge?

Why the hell would the universe get revenge on me for bad-mouthing someone who was evil when he was alive? That makes no sense at all, and I don't think that "belief" is true.

I don't!

But…

Hmm…. Since I'm about to go through the same process as Alfred, let me just apologize, not to him, but to the universe.

"Dear Universe…. I'm sorry for what I said about that prick earlier…. Or shit, I just called him prick again; or crap, I just said "Shit" in a prayer."

Hmm….. Sigh….. This isn't going to work. I don't know what to say. The guy was a literal asshole, and I'm happy he's dead. There you have it universe, kill me if you want. I don't give a damn. We're all going to die in this facility anyways, and it's only a matter of when.

I look at Doctor Harley at the far end of the room as she lines up the tools to be used on me. I hear them clatter each other, and the sound of it almost makes my heart stop. I just said I didn't give a damn if I died, but, hell no, I do give a damn. I don't want to die; not at the mercy of some scientific tools.

What are they planning to insert into me this time, or what are they planning to take out of me. Those questions are dancing in my head, and their uncertainty makes me particularly uneasy and frightened.

Doctor Harley is signaled when the bald security guard successfully wraps the shackles around my wrists and ankles and sets my back flat on the metal plate. She stands up from her chair and walks to me with a light smile on her face – and that almost reduces the fear in my heart, but then I see her eyes, and immediately, the fear takes charge of my heart and then pumps more fear throughout my body.

Her eyes and face sang different songs, and I could hear and understand the rhythm of both pieces at the same time. Her face sang the "Oh – hey there, How are you doing. This is going to be a quick In and Out procedure; not need to be worried." But her eyes were so apologetic and filled with pity as if she knew the certainty of the outcome, which was not going to go my way, but then still had to do it.

Ah-shit; I'm dead.

She stands at my side and looks straight into my eyes, and then without blinking, she sends her eyes straight to the security camera behind me.

"Begin…." The voice came from the camera and echoed throughout the room.

My heart hits harder as it knows my life is nearing its end.

"Doctor Harley…. Please don't leave any tool while you are in there." I joked out of nervousness.

She smiled… genuinely this time.

"I'm not getting in there…. Those tools aren't yours. Only this".

She raises her right hand and reveals the little monster to me.

I'm not scared of needles; I could take several injections without any problem, but for some reason, I was on edge the moment I saw that one needle in her hand. No, the long needle didn't scare me; I told you earlier that needles don't scare me. It was the black liquid in the barrel that scared me. I don't know what it was, but it felt harmful. Without any second thought, I just knew that the black liquid will be the death of me.

"What is that… "I ask Doctor Harley, still looking steadily and intently at it.

She sniffles.

"Try and relax, okay?" She says.

I turn my gaze to the ceiling right after she speaks, and thoughts immediately flood my head. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die, and I knew I was about to die for sure when my mind started replaying all of my memories from my childhood me.

I remember one Halloween night when Dad wanted us to scare mom… He made Micah and I dress like the Annabelle and Chucky dolls, respectively and sent us upstairs to frighten mom while he stayed downstairs waiting for the scream. Micah rushed to him, almost weeping, and told him what happened to mom as we tried to scare her. She told him we jumped onto her, and suddenly, she fell down and mistakenly hit her head on the floor and now she wouldn't wake up. Dad, upon hearing that rushed upstairs. As he got to the room, he found mom lying in a pool of blood and me kneeling beside her, crying my eyes out.

"Oh, Mary…. Mary." He dashed and slid to her immediately and started checking her pulse. That's when Mom jumped on him and grasped him roughly but jokingly. What followed was a little embarrassing on his part but extremely funny on ours.

Dad screamed like a seven-year-old girl, and I'm not even kidding. We really did a number on him that night, and that's when I understood life and how to live. "Never trust anyone, not even your own children." Micah and I were only twelve by then, but we quickly betrayed Dad like it was nothing when Mom offered us cookies in exchange for our loyalty, and neither of us thought twice about it. Mom orchestrated the whole act, and Micah and I were the Oscar award-winning actors in the show. But that night was amazing though, Dad's little-girl scream made it so.

I still remember how it sounded and how loud it was, like it all happened yesterday.

Hmm….

Dad…. Mom…. Wow, I can't believe how much I've missed you guys. I can't believe how much time has passed since I saw your smiley faces or even heard your voices.

It's been quite a long while, but not anymore. I'm sure we'll meet soon.

Doctor Harley rubs some wet cotton at the back of my hand and then slightly smacks it. My vein had decided not to show up for the injection, but in the end, it did because there was nowhere to hide. Doctor Harley pierces my skin with the needle and then pumps the entire black juice in me.

"Dad, Mom…. Whatever death is, wherever you are, please wait for me at the gate so that I wouldn't have to look for you guys long.

For the first few minutes, everything was okay, and the memory of Dad and Mom kept roaming in my head – and it was so peaceful that I wasn't really scared anymore.

Then I felt a sensation…. A burning one to be exact.

It was as if I'd been locked in a cremator, and that's where the sensation started from. Straight to the point, straight to the pain. The screams followed as I couldn't cope with them. I felt like my body was being burnt from the inside, and I could literally see traces of smoke coming from my skin, and that isn't an exaggeration. I was literally as surprised about my body emitting smoke, but that wasn't my most significant concern at the time. My body jiggled as angrily as I screamed in agony, but the shackles made sure I remained on the plate.

After some moments, the pain became even worse, and it was throughout my entire body. And then, all of a sudden, the pain stopped, my vision darkened, and my body felt paralyzed – I couldn't move an inch, but I could hear them talk.

"Report…!" The voice from the camera echoed in the room again.

I felt cold fingers around my wrist, which I could tell was Doctor Harley's. She placed a stethoscope on my chest and tried to listen to my heartbeat.

She exhaled angrily. "He's dead!"

"That's disappointing…. Get some rest! We continue tomorrow, Doctor." Said the person behind the camera.

"No, no, no…." cried Doctor Harley. "We will not continue tomorrow. I will not kill any more of the children!" She added.

The voice remained silent after Doctor Harley spoke, so she continued talking. "I told you "PROJECT NOIRE" wasn’t ready, yet you made me go ahead with it. We need more time!"

"Doctor Harley…. I am The Director; this is my facility; this is my project – I call the shots around here. Don't let me remind you why you are here, because you know how much I hate doing that. Get some rest, Doctor, tomorrow. We continue. And get the failed experiment into the pool!"

Huh…? Wait, did she just say pool? Oh – God, not the pool…. Not the pool….

"Doctor Harley…. Just pinch me a little harder, and you will see, I'll wake up. I promise I'm not dead.

I'm not de…."

Or am I?

Maybe this is what it means to be dead? As a matter of fact, they say the dead can hear the living but cannot move an inch of its body; that's basically me right now. Maybe that's what it means to be dead after all.

And if this is what it means to be dead, then death isn't as scary as I thought it was. I mean, there's literally nothing out there – I don't know if my eyes are closed or opened because I see the same thing when I do either of them; nothing. I'm aware of my physical surroundings, and I have my everyday thoughts….. Basically, I'm still me – and funny enough, I can still…. Feel….

Oh Crap! That means… I'm not dead, right?

I can still feel everything. Earlier, I felt Doctor Harley's cold fingers when she held my wrists to check my pulse. And at this moment, I'm feeling both hot and cold at the same time. The cold is a result of the Air Conditioning in the room; I wish Doctor Harley would put help put my shirt on, but at the same time, I don't want the shirt because I feel like I'm boiling on the inside; I'm pretty confident it's because of the black juice they pumped into me.

Oh, I need to wake up, and I need to wake up right now! I don't want to be thrown in the pool. I've seen and heard how people screamed when they were thrown into the pool; I don't want to feel that kind of pain. No! Acid is no friend of mine.

"Help! Help! I'm not dead. Or just wait a few minutes; I'll wake up for sure. Please!" I kept yelling even though I knew no one could hear because it was all in my head; the screams.

Then I heard the voice, in the same head of mine. And yeah, it sounded like me, but I can assure you it wasn't me.

"Shut Up, you idiot!" That's what he said…. In my head.

"Who is that?" I asked

He sighed frustratingly. "I'm you, obviously…."

"Oh really?" I laughed slightly. "No, Sir, I think you have some kind of delusional grandeur. Listen here and repeat after me; you are you, and I'm me."

"You are…. Dead."

My heart jumped as his statement reminded me of what was about to happen to me.

"They are going to throw you into the acid pool. That's going to hurt like hell. Who knows, you might wake up in the air after you've been disposed of."

"I get it…. Alright? I'm dead…."

He laughed.

"You don't have to be, though."

"Wait, what are you talking about….?"

"What do you think the "PROJECT NOIRE" is all about? What do you think these experiments are all about?"

"Um…. I… I don't know. They never really tell us anything, and yeah, we can't ask them because we are scared…." I answered.

"I see…. The thing is… That black thing you saw in the injection was my DNA, and you, the host, is supposed to bond with me, so you and I become one. That's basically what "PROJECT NOIRE" is all about." He mouthed.

"What…?" I queried, as I was as confused as ever.

"Open your eyes!" he ordered.