Reconditioned

DISCLAIMER: Story is R-18 for dark tone of horror.

The glass panels of the facility clanked together as the wind blew against them, eerily silent in the dead forest. From the room, say a young man in a chair, an IV drips in his arm and looks out as the doctors come forward with another dose.

“You aren't listening too much today, did you get tired of the music?” the doctor asked as the young man. He turned his head, brown bangs covered his face, but a glassy look showed no sign of fear or happiness.

“I just wanted to hear the forest for once, I wonder why it's so quiet?” he asked the doctor, who unlatched the drip and held the young man’s arm dripping blood. He solemnly shrugged as he stared into space, the young man’s sleeve rolled down to show binary code “01101011 01100101 01110110.” the young man got up wearing his red long-sleeved shirt and tan pants, walked out the room without accepting anything from his treatment.

“The last candidate is showing signs of completion, his expression shown in the mirror. He mimicked a smile and shook his head turning away. “Still feels forced.” he thought to himself. The facility was a few stories, a few labs, and rooms for patients, but never the same faces for more than a few weeks, the young man went to his room greeted to a white and black striped cat on the bed, rubbing against him and purring loudly. The young man petted the feline smirking forcefully. He looked at the hall seeing a similar person being escorted by lab techs, wearing a plain white frowned mask as the young man averted his gaze and listened to the wind howling outside.

“It’s always quieter when you know what’s coming…” in a few minutes he heard gunshots and a roaring fire being made, and the smell of flesh coming from the crack in the window.

“About that time I guess, almost my time.” he pets the cat scratching his ears and remembering the doctors seeing him younger.

“Why won't you shoo it away?” the doctor asked, seeing the young man tilted his head, the cat mimicking him.

“This one is silly, and it didn't hurt anything, nor me. Why should it leave?” he asked, remotely younger as the doctor lifted his arm, showing the code.

“You can't remember anything about these numbers but you can be friends with a cat!?” the doctor called out as the young man looked at him blankly.

“Let go, there was no reason to kill the kitten, he's staying with me…” he responded back the small kitten resting on his shoulder and rubbing against him.

A nurse came over helping the young man back inside taking him by the hand. “What an adorable stray, what should his name be?” she asked him, the young man looked back at the doctor reading his tag, “hmmm, Finn, after the doctor over there,” he said quietly as the nurse chuckled.

“A little kitty names after Dr. Finn? That's silly,” she mentioned a few years showing Finn around knocking bottles around moving back to the young man, the doctor stared at him questioning the behavior.

“Your lessons should be completed.” he pointed out as the young man pointed at a stack of papers completed with answers. “Already done doctor, need I do more?” the young man asked back.

“You keep playing with that thing, why? And why name it after me?” he demanded to know, the young man looked back up carrying the cat out of the room staring blankly as he moved to the door. The doctor holding a glass of wine from his desk.

“Because you control everyone here, so i thought, why not control you.” he turned with a blank expression as he turned away out of the room. Sometime later he met a younger-looking man of few more years older than him, he had shabby black hair and a goatee, wearing a pair of goggles and a lab coat, offering the young man water.

“It's getting hotter every day, sorry about that kid.” he smiled warmly as the young man walked past him taking the drink.

“You know a lot about this place, you the new med assistant?” he asked with a glassy look in his eyes.

“Naw, incendiary unit, I take care of the…rejects…” he chuckled as he looked at the room of lobotomy patients glancing back at the young man, the cat in tow rubbing on his leg.

“He's a friendly fella, ain’t he?” he petted the cat who ran into the young man's arms, turning slightly. “He only shows affection for those I can trust, that's only a few…”

The goggled man nodded seeing the young man in the red shirt walked away. The steps echoing for years, his size growing as his emotion slowly left, the feeling of needles in his arms and teachings from old books kept crossing his memory as he opened his eyes, Finn next to him stretching his legs and meowing with a box in front of him.

“The judgment comes, they already know what they want.” he opened the box showing a mask of comedy, knowing what it was to represent.

“I was chosen, the sorrow mask leads to the fire, the comedy, welcomes life back in your eyes.” he looked at the mask evidently staring back at the window seeing the moon risen as he saw Finn running out the door. “He knows what's going on…”

A few minutes later, Kev walked out to see a fire burning around him, the goggled man he meets earlier in life walking through them dropping cans of gasoline through the halls. The young man walked carrying the mask, seeing the kitchen being burnt out by the grease and flames, he went in and grabbed a boning knife on the table and adorning the mask.

The fire spreading, he felt the heat of the building intensify as windows shattered from the condensed heat around him, his face covered and still walking. The doctor opened his office door to see the fire and went back to his desk breathing heavily to find a way out, seeing himself being poured with the wine as he noticed the cat atop a shelf and jumping from the shattered window down below.

“What the hell, is he responsible?” he asked himself hearing an “it wasn’t only me?” he turned seeing the boning knife cut across his neck, causing blood to spill out as he went onto the floor, the flames surrounding his wine-soaked body, he held his hand up as the young man rolled his sleep up as he asked. “How, you were never able to figure out your code…”

“I figured it out years ago, I just wanted to see this place burn before I left,” he responded as the doctor drew his last breath.

The young man walked out nearly unscathed as he met with the goggled man, throwing his goggles away and jacket revealing a dark white T-shirt and pants, the nurse he met as he was younger at a car on a dirt path looking at him. “You actually pulled it off, so what do we do now?” she asked him as he felt the cat coming towards him, picking Finn up and nuzzling him.

“Don't know about you, but I kinda wanna try a life, start small and travel a bit, nothing here for us.” the mask cracking from the heat and breaking showing a stoic eye, glistening with a bit of emotion as the nurse pointed down to get in. “well, I got nothing better to do, stay with me as long as you like.” the goggled man tapped the car getting in as they drove off the path onto the road, the young man looked out and back at his arm, the nurse looking at him from the rearview mirror. “So you said you figured it out years ago, what was the answer?” she asked watching him pet Finn next to him.

The young man took off the mask and lowered his gaze looking back up. “The question we always been asked was nothing but the teaching but “who are we?” he looked at her and the binary code again. “all I know is my name is Kev, as they imprinted when I arrived.”

The three continued down the road not knowing what would come next.