Vincent opened his eyes lazily and scanned the room around him with a yawn. Around him was a trio of men whose bodies were bruised and beaten into unconsciousness with more than half their bones broken or crushed, especially the small phalanges. He took in a deep breath and enjoyed the scent of blood and fear surrounding the small room. There was only a bookshelf, the recliner he sat in and a carpet where the three men were laid out. He wiped his fingers on his white undershirt before patting his jeans as he stood up. He had come into this new world fully aware of what it was and what the good doctor wanted from every subject. He was informed so he could be considered the control person within their group, a role that heavily suited his unique tastes.
In the outside world, Vincent was always labeled as a bully. He did not have a particular mental condition that enforced malicious behavior like a psychopath’s tells or a sociopath’s inability to experience emotions. He also wasn’t abused as a boy, if anything, he was given far too much freedom by his parents. No, if there was a point of reference for his bullying and acts of violence towards others, then it would be his inability to feel pain. It started when he was a toddler, well before memories could be formed, that an incident occurred and his parietal lobe was damaged by an infection. After that, he never felt pain again and his parents were too busy with his older brothers and sisters to mind him, so he entertained himself with his own unbridled fantasies.
Vincent stepped forward towards the prone men and began moving his fingers while muttering a childhood chant used when picking randomly. Grinning widely after selecting a target, he moved his left foot and stomped hard on the left most man’s neck with his bare foot. He felt extremely satisfied as he felt the man’s neck bones break and the bones slice up his own foot. This was it, the feeling of pain that he lost before he could even identify the feeling of loss and grieve over it. This world allowed him to experience pain and the touch of other people and objects once more. Excluding pressure, he never felt anything when being hugged by family though he understood the emotion of love and happiness. He licked his lips and closed his eyes while feeling the blood seeping from his bare foot. He stood there in this fashion for a good half hour before opening his eyes once more and wiping his foot on the man’s corpse. Then he returned his attention to the other two men that were faking unconsciousness after smelling the scent of death lingering in the room. One man had a small yellow puddle surrounding his thighs and a foul smell leaked from the corpse’s bottom half. Vincent wrinkled his nose in disgust as he recalled that animals would defecate after death.
“Ahh, such a wonderful feeling ruined by the extreme realism of this world. I suppose I should move on and find new toys.”
Vincent settled back into the recliner and began to slowly put back on his socks and shoes as he muttered to himself. The remaining two men’s wounds were deeper than the simple external bruises and misshapen limbs. He was positive that their internal organs were long past the point of no return so he didn’t bother himself with them. They could play dead until they actually died for all that he cared now.
Stepping out of the study, he scanned the entry to the apartment where his new life in this world began. This apartment was a four-bedroom, two bathrooms with a shared balcony that the roommates used for smoking. The ashtray on the outdoor wooden table was overflowing with butts. Vincent smiled when he saw the tray and took out a pack of cigarettes with an anthropomorphic camel dressed in a motorcycle outfit wearing sunglasses. He slapped a cigarette out of the pack, stuck it in his mouth and walked out to the balcony. Pulling out a metal lighter, he lights up and takes a deep drag, holding it in for a few seconds before breathing out.
“This feeling, I will never get over this feeling. The texture of a cigarette between my fingers, the throbbing pain from my foot and the sting of bruised knuckles. I never realized how much of the world I was missing before now.”
Vincent cackled aloud as he took in the city laid out before him. Somewhere out there, at least five little mice were experiencing a nightmare born from hundreds of phobias and centuries of horror stories while he was living a paradise. Taking in one more deep drag of his cigarette, he flicked it out into the world below and turned back into the apartment. He stopped in the kitchen, grabbed an apple and tossed it in his left hand while walking out of the apartment’s front door. Glancing behind him once more, he noted the apartment number as 1303, marking the thirteenth floor and third apartment.
Biting into his apple, Vincent headed towards the elevator while planning out his next moves. He would search for other humans first within the city as he was fairly sure there were previous groups of volunteers. There were also simple AI simulacrums of random people found on the street outside Morpheus Labs. Thinking of the simulacrums, Vincent felt slightly disappointed that none of the men or women in this world had the ability to become sexually stimulated, even the necessary parts were only present to simulate hygienic issues. This also meant that it did not matter whether it was a man or woman, his sense of touch would never produce a physiological symptom in this body. There were even subtle laws written into the code to prevent any physical sexual exploitation. This left some loopholes, but Vincent lacked the interest to abuse them.
Stepping into the elevator, he grinned as he considered all of the possibilities. His eyes flashed as he saw three humanoid figures walk out of the apartment, their fuzzy figures almost glowing against the dimly lit corridor of the building’s floor. He took another bite of his apple and his eyes curved into a smile when he met the gaze of the three figures. They were mere shadows of their former selves, quite literally, and the discovery made him even more excited. Did they turn into these ghastly shadows because of him or is it a characteristic of this apartment building? He felt his blood boiling at the thought of finding out.
