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        Perhaps I had wasted a moment too long sitting in the window frame. Though, halting my panic to simply enjoy the open breeze for the first time in what seemed like forever didn't seem to be hurting my luck.

        The seconds ticked by for what seemed like hours- time moving so pleasantly slow rather than agonizingly dragging on for centuries as it always seemed to do. It almost felt absurd- completely unreal in its own way- as if, maybe I was dreaming. I pinched myself to check..

        This calm moment of serenity had seemed so impossible- in my gut, I thought, surely he'd catch me, pull me back inside- I found myself waiting, almost, but the moment never came. Both to my shock, and my relief.

        Was this it? Was this finally the freedom I had been asking for?

        I almost didn't feel ready. As if, despite my struggles, it had been far too easy.

        Either way, I took the initiative to push on forward, slowly turning to my side to ease my foot out of the window and into this big, green, open film before me.

        Down, past the window frame- slowly, parallel to the wall- descending further and further ever lento to the greenery beneath.

        Eventually, the vegetation tickled the end of my toes- grass, far since overgrown, calling me down to it gently- stroking hands reaching for the heavens.

        I sighed gently, the feeling similar to lowering yourself into a jacuzzi- however, just as the ends of my toes grazed the forest floor, something seemed off.

        Suddenly, the expectingly soft and vegetated ground beneath me seemed cold and hard- unforgiving under my feet.I leaned over from the window to look, pressed my weight into the foreign ground-

        and from the vegetation, metal teeth snagged up through the overgrown grass and snapped down roughly above my ankle.

        On impulse, I shrieked out in pain, falling from my place in the windowsill to clutch desperately around my leg- accommodating to the pain and trying to come to. It was horribly painful, burning, almost- not only the snap of the metal, but the bone held so tightly between.

        At most, I had been thankful that the hinges had spared me 2 inches between the teeth- though, it had snapped its way right through the rest of my leg, keeping it from severing entirely, but surely it had broken the bone.

        I couldn't calm my screaming- my agonizing yells drowning into warbled sobs.

        He'd set a beartrap.

        He'd set a fucking bear trap and now I'm going to die.

        I bit my tongue and prayed to whatever deity might stand before me to allow me some mercy. At this point, though, it was looking bleak- and I'd long since discontinued my belief in some higher being playing in my favor. 

        I was beyond broken on the forest floor, trembling horribly into the metal fangs that held me in place. The blood was seeping out slow and steady from between the fierce prongs, the deep, crimson liquid oozing from the wound and over the rusted teeth- drooling into an expanding pool beneath me and muddying the dirt of the forest floor. Somehow, it seemed familiar.

        Eventually, I got to a point that I held my tongue and didn't allow a single sound to cross my lips. I merely choked out quiet sobs in an attempt to keep silent- though, somehow I felt that I would make it- blessed with the reassurance the doctor hadn't heard me yell. as long as I could escape the clutches of the bear trap, I might just make it out alive-

        A false reassurance, truly. For as soon as the thought had settled, hands wove their way around my torso, folded up under my arms, and pried me from my placement on the ground.

        My breath hitched and I gasped out desperately, lifting my head from where it had rested in my arms to look back up at the gruesome expression from the SCP. It shot more fear down my spine than the bear trap had- almost immediately making me loosen up to give in to his hold. The pain of the snare holding my ankle in its maw was horrendous- unbearable, if you will, no pun intended. I was drawn right up out of my near fatal position- right back up through the window which I'd fallen from.

        "D-Doctor, I-"

        "Damian! It's Damian!" he yelled out at me, the emotional turmoil in his voice causing his tone to waver in both extreme anger and disappointment. His words cut off not only my sentence but my thoughts- froze me solid down to my core- it was a tone I have never heard from him, such a contrast from the gentle voice he typically spoke to me in.

        It terrified me, made my blood run cold- if it hadn't already spilled out of me.

        "You foolish girl, lying to me like that, should you be so irresponsible? So untrustworthy?" he snapped, his stone cold voice making me flinch. It was sickening, almost- as if his words could elicit the same reaction the corpse in the fridge had first brought.

        He dragged me up through the window frame- crashed against the desk- and yanked me right out onto the floor, dropping me there all at once. He hadn't bothered in the slightest to ease me into it, so my body really slammed right into the floorboards.

        If it hadn't been painful enough, the trap around my ankle had caught in the window on the way through- resulting in a painful tug on all of the flesh it had knotted up against. I could feel it all the way up my leg to the socket in my hip- pulse out in a shocking wave up my spine- but one quick tug of my leg in the other direction set it free.

        I groaned lowly in agony as my hair was taken into the unloving fist of the doctor- dragging, now, back out of his room. I watched the fire in passing, screaming out in pain as the calmingly warm flames called out to me- the burning, licking tongues from the pit consoling me- it was almost as if it was trying to help, escape its cage to aid me- but no help was granted.

        "I'm sorry! Damian, please let me go! Let go, you're hurting me!!" I called out loudly, yelling desperately for him to stop- but there was no mercy as my plea fell on deaf ears.

        He just kept dragging me through the cabin with inexplainable strength- off into the kitchen, where the smell of cooked flesh had tainted the air.

        "You hurt me too, (y/n)," he spoke coldly, his tone a mere hiss between his teeth as he pulled me through the threshold of the kitchen. I searched for an answer- a way out- wincing as the trap around my leg grew increasingly painful- but eventually, I was met with a horribly dark idea. I knew what to do.

        I prepped my leg up, listening to him speak in a sickening dark tone.

        "It's time for you to mend the heart you keep breaking," he nearly snarled, his anger distracting him just enough to fully dismiss the hands that fumbled around my leg- until, finally, I slipped the trap off successfully, the feeling of the snagging jaws finally coming unhinged both relieving and somehow all the more painful- blood rushing out much quicker.

        Despite this, just as I had pried it loose and snapped it down open on the floor- a feat that took all my strength- I practically dropped the snare as he snagged me up in his own two hands against the counter- looking me in the eyes, now, with this threatening glare.

        "You ungrateful brat!" he sneered, gritting his teeth as he watched me with full focus, "I save you from the labs, spare your life, take you in, feed you, take care of you- and this is the thanks I get??" he scowled, grabbing now the knife that had been left on the counter next to me.

        It was likely he had used it in cooking, as it was already slathered in blood- though it caught the light from the window whenever he lifted it up over my head in preparation to slash.

        I gasped, following the blade with my eyes as it went up in one quick swing, mouth agape in horror to what was about to unfold. Though, thinking as quickly as I could manage, I sent a hard kick to his gut- my final fight for life. Knowing him, he never moved an inch to the shoves that I garnered for him- despite this, he took a step back from the hit, grunting as his anger slipped out of him.

        There was really no time to spare, no time to sit and watch or contemplate what to do next- but my leg was ruined, and I didn't figure escape would be easy in my current condition matching his own.

        My eyes flashed to the beartrap, left open right behind the doctor's foot- his heel had to have been touching it.

        I staggered, jumping from my spot on the counter- shoving both meaningfully and accidentally with the full weight of my being into the SCP- thankfully, my attempt came successful, and he stumbled right into the trap- snagging his own leg between its metal jaws.

        He growled out in anger- but again, I had absolutely no time to sit stagnantly and watch him suffer.

        I quickly turned to look to the cupboard beneath the sink, reaching my hand in and pulling out the bottle of cooking oil and rushed to get back into the living room.

        It was an absolute hassle- leaning primarily into the wall after I had gotten onto my feet to spare my mutilated leg the pain- but with my slow pacing, the doctor had already ducked and pried the trap off of himself- chasing behind doubly as quick.

        Popping the cap on the oil, I spilled it all into the doorway of the kitchen- across the living room, passed the sofa- moving as quickly as my torn limb would allow me to. I poured the liquid over as much of the floorboards as I could- and by the time Damian had gotten through the kitchen doorway, he slipped right over the oil and onto his back.

        He came down with a loud thud, groaning again in anger and slight pain, sitting up to glare at me. His look was purely crazed with anger, but by this point, I was next to his doorframe- and dropping the lid of the bottle, I tossed it to the flame.

        There was almost no time to think- one second, everything was visible, the doctor down on the floor- oil soaked the floorboards- Damian looked ready to yell at me some more, but his eyes grew wide as I tossed the bottle. The very next second, the liquid along the floor ignited all at once- the reaction nearly explosive.

        I had freed the beast from its cage, its claws reaping up from the ground and spiraling out of control throughout the room- it devoured the couch, devoured the doctor- all at once.

        The force shoved me backward onto the ground again, the heat bristling against my face and radiating around my form. I gasped inward- the breath just knocked out of me from hitting the wall and landing into the floor- but I had no time to react.

        Looking forward, the fire was spreading fast, and Damian, licked up by the flames or not, still looked determined in catching me. His skin was riddled with blisters and burns at this point- his clothes shedding fire.

        He didn't even bat an eye- no screams of agony, no writhing in pain- just anger, as hot and broiling as the flames he stood in.

        I cleared my throat, turning swiftly and grabbing back onto the doorframe. I pulled myself onto my feet, the flames licking and tangling around my ankles. It burned horribly, and as the doctor stumbled forward, I heard him crash right back into the floor.

         "You can't leave me!" he yelled, his voice straining, "you'll never make it out there without me, (y/n)!"

        His voice wavered, pain and sorrow plaguing his hatred. But hell, there was only one true cure to a broken mind.

        Suddenly, I heard the horrid shriek of the gas tank that kept the house so cozy ring out- and I knew I didn't have a moment to spare.

        I gave the doctor one last look, then turned and hobbled through his room, desperately crawling onto the desk and leaning for the window-

        Though, as the gas filled the air, the fiery monster within reacted, and yet another destructive explosion threw me out the window.

        The glass shattered- the innards of the cabin fell demolished to the flames- and I found myself a couple of feet away on my side in the grass, my view fuzzy and blurred as I watched the cabin burst into flames, no sign of the doctor to be seen.

        I gasped gently, and sighed out lowly- my body hurting and aching from all over as I laid there- though, as blood seeped into the grass, the vegetation welcomed me, and the earth around me grew ever comforting.

        I blinked once- watching the air fill with smoke and turn a wispy gray- but as I stared, the world grew darker and darker, until finally, there was nothing at all.

        The pain grew faint and distant- replaced simply with the inky black abyss that took my form.

        The darkness took me into its embrace, once more encapsulating my small, desolate form.

        The ever familiar sound of crashing waves hitting the sandy shore coursed through my head.

        The gentle oceanic noises pulsed in my chest- tracing the surging waters that seeped out of every wound-

        Gradually, though,

        the waters resonating voice

        began to diminish.