I woke up that morning feeling a little better than yesterday.

I don't feel like I'm about to pass out, and the pain in my heart is pretty much gone. I guess that... symptom was an episode and not a permanent thing. However, it being an episode means it'll come back later... ugh. That's gonna suck.

Checking the clock, I see I woke up at a normal hour this time, 9 AM. I get up and go to walk over to the window to check on the flower again, not like I have much else to do. When I pass the night stand to the bed though, I see some food has been left for me. That's nice, and I guess it has been a while since I last ate. I pick up the plate of smoked fish and sat back down on the bed, reflecting on what's happening to me as I eat.

Yeah, I've thought about how the virus might actually kill me, but I never really got a moment to let it sink in completely. If me coughing up blood is just a symptom, what will the virus actually do to me once it gets bad enough? Would it paralyze me? Restrict my breathing? I wish we knew what this thing is capable of, both so we can cure it and so I can prepare myself for what's to come. I can't help but worry about what's going to happen to me...

I then hear a knock at my door.

"Hey." I answer.

The door opens, and the Professor walks in. He's holding a notebook again, probably about to take notes on my health again.

"Hello, Sabre." He says. "Any changes today?"

"Hey Professor." I reply. "I guess I feel a little better than yesterday? I don't really feel any pain anymore."

"That's good." The Professor says, writing something down in the notebook. "Since we got... interrupted last time, we have to run that observation test again today."

"Oh, great..." I groan.

"Yeah, this again. Come on, let's go."

The Professor leads me back to the room with the monitors, and M is already there waiting for us. I wave to him as the Assistant enters and takes me over to the table, while the Professor goes into the computer room with M. The Assistant sticks all the IVs back into my arms, and then follows the Professor into the other room. M looks worriedly at me every few minutes, which is understandable considering yesterday. I turn my attention to the Professor as he begins speaking, as he looks at the readings from the machines.

"So, the virus has still been spreading since yesterday... that's no good. Looks like it's only been a little bit though." He says. "I've been researching past ailments in hope of finding something similar to this one so we can figure out a cure, and so far there's been quite a few matches, but the again we only have a list of very few symptoms. In order to pinpoint a good idea of what exactly this is, we're going to have to wait for more symptoms to show up."

"You've gotta be kidding me." I say.

"Wait, we have to wait for more symptoms to show up?!" M says, shocked. "But- yesterday was bad enough!"

The Professor sighs, and types something on a computer in front of him.

"I know, I know." The Professor says. "Believe me, I don't want this to happen either. But it's too early to know what this could be based off the resources we have right now, and we can't just test random cures anymore. If we do, they either won't work or possibly might make it worse."

"Well... this sucks." I say, as I lean back a little, annoyed.

"Sorry pal, but it's gotta happen." The Professor shrugs.

The Professor then begins discussing my condition with M, basically ignoring me. I don't know why he wants to lower his voice in telling them about it, I'm the one being talked about here. I've noticed that since Professor Red figured out something was wrong with me, everyone's been acting different around me. I don't know what's up with them, but they've been being... nicer than usual. I'm pretty sure it's because I might be killed because of the virus, but in that kindness is almost a kind of regret. I can't tell from what, though, and it's just strange that everyone's been doing this. Even the Professor, he hasn't brought up experimenting on me since the first few hours of my stay in the lab, and usually he's thinking of all sorts of new theories and stuff. My thoughts are interrupted by the other three leaving the computer room, M looking worried about something.

"Alright, you can go back to your room now, Sabre." The Professor says. "It's over. Besides, I have another experiment to get to."

"Really? That's it?" I ask, the Assistant already getting to work on the IVs. "Huh. I expected something crazy to happen."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Professor asks, a look of offended suspicion on his face.

"...Professor, you've literally tried to dissect him." M says, taking an 'are you serious' expression.

The Professor looks at M, trying to figure out an answer, as I'm able to get down from the table and begin to walk to the door.

"...Shut up." Is all he comes up with.

I laugh a little at that, and M walks with me back to my room.

"So, what's the Professor in such a hurry to get to?" I ask.

"Oh, he discovered something he wanted to experiment on." M answers. "Apparently it's another 'unknown entity' he's found."

"Oh jeez. Hope he doesn't do anything too crazy with it."

"Hopefully..." M sighs.

I notice he still looks tense about something. As we stop in front of my door, I decide to ask.

"Hey M, you look worried about something. What's up?"

M looks at me, and looks nervous.

"Oh, apparently something tried to break into the lab last night." M answers. "He was able to get the Assistant to make it go away. I'm just... worried it'll come back."

"Oh, man. Well, at least it didn't actually get in, right?" I say.

"Yeah..." M says. He then turns to go further down the hall. "I gotta go, I'll see you later."

"Alright then. Seeya later, M."

"Seeya."

As M leaves, I open the door and walk back inside my room. I pick up one of the books I was given by my friends, and start reading it again, trying to relax a little. All this commotion of people worrying about my health is starting to stress me out...

—————————————————————————————————————

[M's POV]

I cannot believe the Professor is doing this.

As I run down the stairs, I am praying that Professor Red hasn't done anything yet. From what he described, this isn't a sentient being that he's captured, it's some kind of part of a hive mind. Almost like Darkness. The Professor said that the strange swirl-color being became unresponsive and entirely brain dead once it was locked in the test chamber, like whatever was controlling it disconnected. I don't even want to know what the Professor is planning to do with this thing, but he said that it tried to get to Sabre, so of course I'm pretty inclined to know what it was trying to do to him.

I knock on the door of the test chamber, and the Assistant opens it and lets me in. I see the Professor standing in front of a glass wall, the strange black-and-white swirled creature just standing in the middle of the room, however it's been chained to floor as a safety precaution.

"So, any idea what this thing was doing in the lab?" I ask.

"Ah, hello M." The Professor says, turning to me. "To be honest, I don't really know. Apparently it was sent by the person that caused Sabre's condition."

"How do you know that?"

The Professor sighs and answers, "Hypno."

What? Hypno? The guy is crazier than the Professor himself, and he hates literally everybody. Why did he give information to the Professor?

"Are you serious?" I say. "Hypno knew what that thing was doing?"

"Apparently." The Professor says. "However, in his usual fashion, he knows who our culprit is yet didn't want to tell me because 'it wasn't relevant'. What a-"

"Anyway." I interrupt him. "What do you think this creature was sent to do, then?"

"Right." The Professor says. "The Assistant was able to capture this... I'm just going to call it an intruder, just as it started trying to open the door to Sabre's room as he was asleep. My guess is that since Hypno said it was sent by our culprit, it was supposed to find a way to either make Sabre worse or just outright kill him. I'm leaning more towards the first theory."

"Yeah, that would make more sense, because it seems like whoever's causing all this drama wants to kill Sabre slowly... I wonder why this person hates him so much." I wonder out loud.

"He's probably jealous, I'm calling it now." The Professor says.

We're both interrupted by the Assistant.

"The intruder is deteriorating." He says, looking towards the strange creature.

"Deteriorating- OH WHAT THE-" Professor Red yells, turning back towards the test chamber.

I look as well, and sure enough, the strange intruder is seemingly melting. The clear swirl around its entire body is melding together, blending more into a grey mess little by little. It has a puddle of its own... I would say 'flesh', but there is none of the sort seemingly there, forming around its feet as it sinks into the small puddle. It's like watching a candle be used up... and also extremely horrifying. Now I'm kind of glad it's not made of flesh and bone like a normal creature.

"Well..." The Professor says, clearly also horrified at what's happening in front of us. "At least now we know it's not a biological being. It seems to be formed of some kind of substance... I'll just..."

The Professor begins to step toward the door to the test chamber, holding a vial, however I grab his arm and stop him.

"Don't go in there, what on earth are you doing?!" I scold. "It could be just taking another form, what if it can absorb you?!"

"...Ugh. You're right." The Professor says, stepping back as I let go of his arm. He then hands the vial to the Assistant. "Assistant, go and collect a sample of the substance it's melting into. Make sure the vial's sealed once you do."

"Yes, Professor." The Assistant says, as he takes the vial and goes into the test chamber.

The Assistant then goes up to the disintegrating creature, which is now half-melted onto the floor, its legs completely gone and its torso being turned to liquid next. The Assistant scoops up a little bit of the puddle on the floor, closes off the vial, then returns to the Professor. The robot hands the vial of the black, white, and grey substance to Professor Red, then goes back to standing next to chamber door. The Professor observes the substance filling the vial, mystified by how it's behaving. Now that I have a closer look at the stuff, it's still moving  around a little bit inside the vial.

"Interesting..." The Professor mumbles. "It's like it can act like a living thing on its own..."

"Don't use that on anybody." I say.

The Professor shoots me a glare, the turns to a scanner on the table in front of him, placing the vial inside. He starts up the machine, and the nearby computer shows a loading screen showing the progress on the analysis of the strange liquid.

"So, what do we do with... that?" I say, gesturing back to the now mostly grey mess of a melting creature in the test chamber.

"Jeez, all that's left is a head already..." Professor Red says. "This stuff is fast. Anyway, I'll probably just leave it in there. It's too dangerous to try and move it right now."

"That's understandable." I say. "Make sure you take some extra measures to keep it in there... it might try to go under the door."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." The Professor says.

I then leave the room, and make my way back up the stairs. Knowing the Professor, he's going to do something crazy with that stuff, but I have too many other things to worry about right now. Speaking of which...

As I reach the hallway Sabre's room is in, I hear him coughing again. It doesn't sound as bad as yesterday, but I still rush over to check that he's alright. As I open the door, I see that he's holding his hands over his mouth like last time, keeping the blood he's coughing out from getting anywhere else. I quickly grab some tissues from the box on the nightstand next to him, as I walk over to Sabre to attempt to help him during this. I hand him the tissues, and he's able to stop coughing long enough to grab them so he doesn't get any more blood on his hands.

It takes a while, but the episode eventually subsides, and Sabre turns to me as he wipes all the blood away.

"Thanks, M." He says, a weak smile on his face.

"It's no problem." I reply, also returning the smile. "You alright now?"

"Yeah, wasn't nearly as bad as last time." Sabre answers. "Still hurt like heck, though."

I talk to him for a while, trying to take his mind off the pain he's probably in. As I do, he slowly looks less and less distracted by what just happened. That's good. When Sabre looks like he's not in pain anymore, I get up to go back to what I needed to do, and Sabre says one last thing to me before I do.

"Hey M?" He asks.

"Yes?"

"Thanks... for everything."

I smile at him, trying not to let my worry show.

"You're welcome, Sabre."

I then leave the room and close the door, trying to keep myself from worrying about something I noticed that seems trivial. I know it's stupid, and it's most likely nothing. I'm probably just letting myself be too paranoid about this, after seeing that melting creature and dealing with what's been going on the past few days. However, I can't help but wonder since I noticed it...

Is it just me, or is Sabre getting paler than normal?