#authorcheese

[cheesy-sunny-days]

The Isolated and Disturbed

Prologue - Chapter 2

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TW FOR:

somewhat graphic descriptions of dead bodies

CHAPTER 1

Lux dragged the woman by her leg into the laboratory, humming “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” as he walked up the stairs into the director’s office as the body made thumping noises going up. He knocked hard on the door before happily exclaiming, “Ms. Liu! I have something for you!”

Something I think you’ll really like! Lux thought, pulling the dead body closer to him. Blood continued to drip from her head like crimson rain.

Usually, when someone’s neck is cracked, they don’t bleed unless you make a cut, so there shouldn’t be any mess, right?

…well there wouldn’t be, if Lux didn’t stop on her head multiple times. For good measure! So she was really dead and Ms. Liu would be proud of him!

Finally, a “come in,” was called out and Lux could jump in excitement. He pushed the door open, a little roughly, as he could tell by the director’s protest, and tossed the dead body in front of her.

“Lux, what- …oh my God…” Ms. said, her voice trailing off as she took a glance at the body.

This is it! Lux thought. She’s gonna be so proud of me!

There was a moment of complete silence.

…is she at a loss for words? he nervously thought, trying to cover up the idea that she’s not happy with what he did, even though she told him from the beginning: “If you see any trespassers, kill them.”

“…Lux,” she muttered.

Lux’s eyes lit up. “Yes?” he said.

“What is wrong with you!?” she screamed as the lightbulbs in his eyes flickered a little.

Ms. Liu put her long, black hair in a ponytail before rubbing her temples. “Why is she bleeding so much?! What did you do!”

“I- I killed her-“ Lux began before a shrill “I can see that!” interrupted him. “I didn’t want to risk anything, so I stomped on her head a… couple times,” he anxiously answered.

She sighed again, this time with a bit of fondness that sounded suspicious. “Such is my Lux, always doing more than he should…” she smiled… was that a real smile?

Lux decided it was, without dwelling on it.

“Did you carry her from the woods or here?” she asked. “The woods,” Lux answered matter-of-factly before Ms. Liu screamed again.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” she exclaimed angrily. She looked out the window and saw the trail of blood going not too far into the woods, thankfully, but she was too blinded by rage to notice. “I- didn’t think you’d care-“

“That’s bullshit, Lux!” she screamed. “You know that you’re supposed to leave no trace, are you stupid?! And then you give me that look and you make me feel like the bad guy!” she said, pointing at Lux’s scared eyes- can you really tell what’s going on behind two lightbulbs, though?

She sighed. “Whatever, I don’t want to talk about this right now. Bullshit… go back to your room, it’s past curfew. Go on, run off.”

“B-but what about the body-“

“I’ll dispose of it! God, just go. I’m the bad guy now, sorry for yelling.”

Lux walked back to his room, his legs shaking from anxiety.

~

“I heard you guys from down here,” Leo said as Lux entered the room and sat on his bed. “Either stop wandering around at night or be quieter when you and the director have a screaming match.”

Lux sighed. “I don’t understand… there’s nothing I can do to make her happy with me,” he said as Leo scoffed.

“I’m sick of you talking about her, day and night!” Leo exclaimed, a mix of frustration and concern in his voice. “Lux, listen to me. The moment you forget about her and satisfying her or whatever, is the moment we get one step closer to leaving this damned place.”

“I don’t know why you’re still so obsessed with leaving,” Lux said with a chuckle. “We’re much safer here. I mean, would you rather take your chances in the woods?”

“Much better than rotting here,” Leo said. “These doctors are monsters, Lux. Look at you, you’re barely human anymore!” he exclaimed before realizing what he said with widened eyes.

Silence.

“…Lux, I’m sorry- I was talking out of my-”

The latter interrupted him with a wave of his hand. “I know, I know, it’s fine.”

A cricket chirps in the distance.

Lux breaks the silence again. “And by the way, I’m not fully human, but I still have human parts. My neck, most of my torso, parts of my legs and arms-”

“Yeah- sorry.”

Lux and Leo have been friends since Leo came to the laboratory, screaming, afraid, and with wings sprouting from his back and head. He was terrified of the dark, and after meeting Lux with his bright, glowing eyes, he refused to go anywhere dark without him.

Of course, they had… very differing opinions about the lab. Lux was scared of leaving, after all, what dangers could be out there? Leo, however, wanted nothing but to escape.

“I’m… sorry, Lux,” Leo muttered solemnly before sitting down on the same bed. “I- I’m going insane here, really insane, lately. I cant shake this feeling off… like I’m a caged bird,” he said before his hand came up to feel the wing on his head. “Literally.”

Lux simply nodded in agreement, but he didn’t really know why. He understood—kind of? Leo wanted to leave because of the experiments and the pain it was inflicting on him and others, but he didn’t know why he wanted Lux to leave alongside him.

Leo has a family to come back to, but Lux’s family—the director—was right there at the lab. So why would he ever need to leave?

It was a mix of conflicting emotions. He wanted to stay with his best friend, but he didn’t want to leave his, essentially, mom, but sometimes she didn’t seem like a mom? He doesn’t know anymore…

“I’m sure if we sleep it off everything will be alright,” Lux replied, taking Leo’s hand away from his wings and squeezing it instead.

“You always say that,” the latter said with a weak, but nonetheless fond, smile. He then yawned and went back to his own bed, muttering a ‘good night, Lux’ before finally drifting off into dreamland.

Lux followed shortly after.

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I’m super sorry for the late release! I’m going to post chapter 2 either this Sunday or next Sunday… either way I’ll be back to a normal schedule soon!

[cheesy-sunny-days]

The Isolated and Disturbed

He doesn’t remember anything from before he was 13… and he doesn’t want to either. Lux is perfectly happy where he is right now as a tall, streetlamp, robot-like being at Broadmore Institue for the Isolated and Disturbed, a laboratory disguised as a mental institute. He knows of his half human nature, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to connect with his fellow peers! If only there weren’t any locked doors (literally and metaphorically) in the lab that the human part of Lux wanted to open… badly.

Chapter 1

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TW FOR:

murder

somewhat graphic descriptions of violence

PROLOGUE

A young woman walked through the dense forest with a camera in her hands and a bag along her body. She glanced around, sighing in exasperation—she was lost.

Maybe I should just give up and go home, she thought, looking back. It must have been midnight by now, but she turned on her camera to check—yes, it was 12:33am. Not to mention it was cold, and so dark you couldn’t even see the sky.

“No way I’m walking back at this rate…” the woman muttered to herself, zipping up her grey hoodie. “Might as well call for help- shit.”

Dead battery, she noticed. Stupid me, of course I didn’t charge my phone..!

She continued walking forward, seeing as waiting for help wasn’t an option in the cold, dark woods. Just as all hope seemed to be lost, she found it:

“Broadmore Mental Institute for the Isolated and Disturbed!” she exclaimed in shock before slapping her mouth shut. Crouching behind a bush and putting her hood up, she, a journalist, set up her camera, determined to get to the bottom of this case and expose this “Mental Institute” for what it really was—a torture chamber.

“This is Amanda Hall speaking,” she spoke in a hushed whisper after turning on the camera. “ And for a few years now, the children of Broadmore Valley have been going missing—at least, the children who were diagnosed mentally ill. They were admitted to a mental hospital, you guessed it, Broadmore Institute for the Isolated and Disturbed.”

Crack!

Amanda looked back.

…nothing there.

She looked to her camera again, nervous.

“…perfectly normal children have been admitted here for no reason other than their irresponsible parents and adults who claim to want the best for our children, but they subject them to-!… nevermind… the point is, I finally have footage of this horrible place, and I’m going to expose it for what it really is: a laboratory that experiments on young adults and kids-”

CRASH!

Amanda turned around, frustrated and tired. “Who the hell is there!?” she exclaimed, looking at the trees as her camera continued to record. Again, dead silence, as though the sounds were a mere hallucination.

It was really dark.

Clank!

"Wh-who's there?" Amanda whispered, her voice trembling this time. She took a hesitant step towards the source of the eerie sounds, her camera clutched tightly against her chest. The darkness seemed to close in around her, and she could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. Every rustle of leaves and snap of twigs made her flinch, imagining unspeakable horrors lurking just beyond her vision.

As her hands shook and her eyes widened, Amanda realized that again, there was nothing there. Maybe it really was her imagination, maybe she should just go home for Christ’s sake-

A light.

Amanda looked up to see two bright lights shining on her, and at first she was relieved—just a streetlight, right? Until she took a closer look at the source… she learned an enormous robot-like being was towering over her, with limbs of metal and flesh, hair on its head, human but not quite, and it grabbed her shoulders.

“Wait, please-” she started, her life flashing before her eyes as her hood came off. She was completely exposed, with nobody to help her. It was over.

And as the robotic being twisted her head off her shoulders, following with multiple stomps to the face, and as she screamed and writhed in agony, and as the blood splattered all over the ground… the job was done. He dragged the trespasser’s body back to the institute, slamming the doors shut once he got in.

And that has been his reality for the past five years.

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Updates are likely to be every other week! I hope you come to enjoy this story :)