The crescent moon hung cold in the sky, the night nketing the sinister Genesis Lab like an imprable shroud.


    Hans and Julian walked into Elsie''s hospital room, one after the other.


    Inside the dim, dreary room, Elsiey motionless on the bed. She was practically skin and bones. Draped in a loose, white hospital gown, she looked as fragile as a piece of paper, ready to be blown away by the slightest breeze.


    Her hollow, unfocused eyes tracked Hans as he approached. She didn''t even have the strength to speak anymore. A single tear slipped quietly from the corner of her reddened eye.


    Studying her, Hans realized her condition was critical. She was running on fumes. If they didn''t get her out of here for emergency medical treatment soon, she wouldn''t evenst another month.


    "Hans..." Julian whispered nervously beside him.


    Hans kept his expression perfectly neutral as he nced up at the blinking green light of the security camera in the corner. "Administer the injection," he ordered tly.


    "Right away."


    Julian picked up the syringe and stepped toward the bed.


    Elsie''s eyes widened in sheer terror. Like a frightened bird, she mustered herst shred of strength to thrash against her restraints, the metal shackles on the bed nking loudly.


    Julian cast a quick, covert nce at the camera and put on a ruthless front. "Hold still! You think struggling is going to do anything? Keep fighting, and I''ll pump you full of extra doses just to show you what this stuff can really do!"


    "Kill me... if you have the guts... just kill me!" Elsie rasped, her voice broken and utterly exhausted.


    Hans immediately stepped forward and mped his hands down hard on her shoulders. Leaning in close to her ear, he murmured softly, "Don''t be afraid. I swapped the drugs. It''s just standard nutrients."


    Elsie''s dull eyes snapped into focus, locking onto his intense, clear gaze.


    Her chapped lips parted. Tears spilled freely down her cheeks. Fighting past the suffocating lump in her throat, she managed to force out a single syble: "El..."


    Though the sound was as faint as a breath, it mmed into Hans''s chest, threatening to pierce his very heart.


    "Don''t speak. Save your strength," Hans murmured, taking the syringe from Julian and administering the IV of nutrients into her bruised arm. His eyes were rimmed with red, looking as though he had been crying. "Save it so you can make it out of here... and see the man you love."


    Elvis...


    Elsie''s tear-soakedshes fluttered as a sharp ache squeezed her chest. During her grueling confinementè here, the relentless experiments had ravaged her body to the point where it no longer felt like her own. Her consciousness drifted in and out, her mind mostly clouded by an unshakable, heavy fog.


    Just a few days ago, she hadin alone in the dark, desperately trying to picture his face. But all she could conjure was a blurry silhouette and vague features, like a fading figure in a dream.


    She had cried silently for the rest of the day, her heart breaking all over again. She never imagined the terrifying drugs would actually strip away her memories, erasing the face of the man she loved s?deeply For someone in love, forgetting was a fate far worse than death. If Chad''s drugs could make even Thaddeus Abernathy forget his feelings for Evadne, why wouldn''t she eventually forget Elvis?


    "Leave everything to me. I swear I''ll get you out of here," Hans promised again, giving her frail hand a reassuring squeeze out of sight from the camera.


    "Hans, we need to leave before someone gets suspicious," Julian urged, panicking.


    He had hitched his wagon to Hans, and there was no turning back now. He was fullymitted to getting this poor woman out alive!


    Hans nodded. He was just about to turn away when Elsie weakly hooked her fingers around his.


    "If something goes wrong... leave me behind," she whispered, her words trembling.


    Hans furrowed his brow.


    Elsie looked at him with fearless resolve, her expression fragile yet determined. "It doesn''t matter... if I die. But you... you have to survive. Everyone... is waiting for you... toe home."


    Waiting for you toe home.


    Hans jolted as if a sniper''s bullet, fired from a light-year away, had just struck him dead center between the eyes.


    Stepping out of the room, Hans and Julian split up to avoid suspicion. Julian went to prep a decoy corpse and a medical cart to smuggle Elsie out, while Hans headed up to the facility''s roof, lighting a cigarette. He putted out his phone and dialed a number he had saved a long time ago but had never dared to call.


    It rang a few times before someone picked up.


    "Who is this?"


    The voice that came through the receiver was deep, steady, and darker than the


    night itself. It was Thaddeus Abernathy.