Chapter Four: The Beast Beneath
"Some monsters are made. Others are just waiting for permission."
– Unknown graffiti inside the Pit
Dez woke up chained to a bloodstained floor.
His wrists burned. His back ached. The air stank of metal and sweat and something more—fear.
He was underground. Again.
But this wasn't Blackvale.
This was the Pit.
A rusted cage sunk into the belly of the Glass Wastes—hidden far from the Authority's eyes but somehow just as cruel. Dez's memories were blurred, stitched together by panic: the scouting run… ambush… a needle in his neck… and then, nothing.
Until now.
He raised his head, ears ringing.
Above him, crowds jeered from behind fences and barbed wire. Ex-soldiers, mercenaries, Authority deserters. All hungry for blood. His blood.
And in front of him, the gates hissed open.
Another prisoner stepped out. Tall. Shirtless. Tattoos like tally marks across his ribs. He smiled with cracked teeth.
"You're the beast, right?" the man grinned. "Let's see it."
Flashback: The First Time It Happened
He was twelve. Cold. Hungry. Alone in a lab cage with other kids who cried at night.
Then the lights went out.
The screaming started.
One of the boys snapped.
He had claws.
Dez never saw his own transformation.
Only the aftermath: blood on the walls, on the glass, on his hands.
He was the only one breathing.
The scientists called it Adaptive Mutation.
He called it the thing inside.
Present – Inside the Pit
The crowd roared. A buzzer screamed. The fight began.
Dez didn't move.
He didn't want to.
The man charged, fist raised.
Instinct flared. Dez ducked, rolled, twisted—then the chain snapped. His rage ignited. Something shifted.
His bones cracked.
His hands curled.
His skin rippled.
And then the growl.
Low. Inhuman.
His own.
He blacked out.
When Dez opened his eyes, the man was gone—no, not gone. Torn. Crowd silent. Chains melted. Everyone staring. Not at him.
At the monster he became.
Later – Escape
He ran. Through tunnels. Through mud. Through pain.
He didn't remember how long.
Just that eventually, the world became trees. Then fog. Then a girl's voice:
"You're bleeding."
Dez fell forward. Arms caught him.
Nyah.
At the Rebel Base – Days Later
He woke in the med wing. Scars stitched. Clothes clean. For once, not alone.
Kael stood watch nearby. Silent. Judging. Familiar.
"You scream in your sleep," Kael said.
Dez rolled his eyes. "You punch walls in yours."
Lira entered. Injected him with something. "Sedative. You shift again, I'll sedate you harder."
Sora entered last. "You're lucky Nyah doesn't fear monsters. Most people would've left you in the Wastes."
Dez looked away. "She shouldn't trust me."
Sora crouched by his bed, staring into his eyes.
"She doesn't," they said quietly. "She believes in you. That's worse."
That night, Dez stared at his reflection in a cracked mirror. The shadows behind him moved with a mind of their own. He reached toward the glass. His fingers… twitched. Shifted.
Then… stopped.
He whispered to the mirror:
"I'm not your weapon anymore."
But deep down, the voice inside him whispered back:
"Aren't you?"
END OF CHAPTER FOUR