Chapter 1 — The Smiles That Lied
I used to think the world was big and strange. I never thought I'd miss my little house or the cold soup my father made when Mama was gone. But now, I'd give anything just to feel the cracked floor of my home.
It's been a month since I arrived in this place.
They told me the village was infected. That there was a plague. That they were here to help.
I was scared when they took me, but they smiled kindly — especially the woman with long black hair and white gloves. She told me, "You're safe now, Nian. You'll like it here." I believed her.
But there is no plague.
Only walls. Only needles. Only silence and whispers in the night.
They let us play, at first. That's when I met the others — kids like me, some older, some younger. We stayed in grey dorms with soft beds and cameras in the corners.
Chisa, with her sunflower hair and angry eyes, kicked a wall when she lost a game. Cuson liked drawing monsters that looked too real. Liliana used to hum at night to calm us down. Tiana always watched the corners. Melisa cried a lot, but I liked her smile. Prec was quiet. Luang loved to run. Lop made jokes even when no one laughed. Kurush cherished my tail always and I laughed.
And Akiro… he was different.
He warned me.
"They're not what they seem," he said, hiding behind the metal stair rail. "These scientists, they smile too much. You'll see."
I didn't believe him. Why would I? Jackson gave me a candy the day I arrived. Muras let me read a comic book in his office once. Dospesh even taught me how to whistle. Viviana braided Chisa's hair.
They looked so… normal.
But then Akiro vanished.
They told us he had to be "relocated for treatment." That he was too sick to stay. But one night, while wandering the empty wing of the lab during power cuts, I saw something I wasn't supposed to.
A glass jar. In the cold lab room. Floating inside — Akiro's head.
His eyes were open.
I couldn't scream. I couldn't breathe. I just ran. Back to bed. Pretended I had a nightmare. Pretended my stomach hurt.
I didn't tell anyone.
Not even when Lop went missing the next week.
Then Liliana. Then Prec. Then Melisa.
One by one.
Gone.
I tried to stay quiet. But inside, something screamed louder every day. I saw their beds remain untouched, their names removed from the whiteboard schedule. Their toothbrushes thrown away like they never existed.
That's when Sot Anor — the bravest of us all — called a meeting.
He stood in the laundry room, fists clenched. "Something's wrong. They're lying to us. I think they're killing us."
I couldn't stay silent anymore.
"I saw… Akiro…" I started to cry. "His head… They put it in a jar. Like… like an animal. I think they're doing something terrible."
Everyone went silent. Even Chisa. She didn't make fun of me for crying. Instead, she knelt and held me. "It's okay," she whispered. "You're not alone."
But we were not alone in that room either.
The metal door slammed open.
Viviana entered first. Her white coat fluttered like paper. Behind her, Muras. And guards — holding stun rods.
"Touching," she said coldly. "Very brave of you, Nian."
They dragged us out, one by one.
We were thrown onto cold metal floors. Stripped of our shoes. Our wrists chained. I tried to scream for help, but the rooms were soundproof.
That's when they brought us to Jackson and Dospesh.
"I knew that boy would be trouble," Jackson muttered.
Viviana said, "They know everything."
Dospesh didn't wait. He slapped me across the face so hard I hit the floor. Blood filled my mouth.
"Enough lies," he spat.
Jackson sighed. "Let them hear it, then. They're going to face it soon anyway."
And then came the truth.
This place wasn't built to treat disease.
It was built to create monsters.
Jackson stood beside a display — a digital file named "Seven Sins Initiative." He pressed play.
Footage played. Screaming children. Exploding bodies. Shattered glass and blood-soaked floors.
They were putting something inside us. Stones. Cursed things. "Sin Stones," they called them.
Pride. Envy. Wrath. Greed. Sloth. Lust. Gluttony.
"Most of the kids die," Muras said. "It's the only way to find the perfect vessel."
And then they showed us what failure looked like.
A tray was rolled in. On it, four jars.
Inside were Lop. Liliana. Prec. Melisa.
Their heads. Frozen. Lifeless. Dead.
My stomach gave out. I puked all over the floor.
Sot Anor shouted, "Who told you about our meeting?!"
That's when they brought him in.
Kurush.
Our friend. My friend.
He didn't smile. Didn't look at us.
"He's had the gluttony stone for two months," Viviana said. "Our inside man."
I screamed. Chisa shouted curses. Cuson tried to charge but the guards injected us.
The world dimmed again.
My last thought before the darkness swallowed me was a question.
Why?
Chapter 2 — The Blood That Binds
Pain.
That was the first thing I felt when I woke up.
It wasn't sharp, like a knife. It was deep — like something cold clawing through my bones. My arms trembled. My throat was dry. I tried to speak but only a croak came out.
I was strapped to a cold metal chair.
Across from me, I saw Chisa slumped against the floor. Her nose was bleeding. Her legs shaking. Tiana was in the corner, biting her lip until it bled. And Sot Anor… his eyes were open, but he wasn't looking at us. He was staring at the wall like he was somewhere else.
They did something to us.
Voices echoed beyond the glass.
"…the Cuson boy exploded mid-transfer. Stone rejection at 82%."
"…Luang's body desiccated. Bone exposed. Blood loss complete."
"They screamed until their throats split," Jackson muttered. "At least the data's consistent."
Dospesh's voice was closer. "So only these four survived, huh?"
The door hissed open. Muras walked in, arms behind his back. His gloves were red with something thick.
"Congratulations," he said without emotion. "You've survived what no other subjects could."
"Subjects," Tiana whispered, "not kids."
"Exactly," he said.
Dospesh entered behind him, flipping a clipboard. "Let's see. Pride stone went into Nian — stabilizing fast. Envy synced with Chisa… not bad. Wrath's reaction with Sot Anor is nearly violent. Greed in Tiana is… twitchy but functional."
Chisa tried to crawl to me, but her limbs wouldn't move right. "What… did you do to us?"
Viviana's voice came from behind glass. "We're building something greater. You children will change the world. Or you'll die trying."
A name was mentioned.
Master Luvon.
I still hadn't seen him. But when Viviana said that name, the others lowered their heads — even Muras. Dospesh just clenched his jaw.
Then everything faded again.
When I woke up next, I was in a locked room with the others. No chains, no guards.
But the door was locked from the outside. The walls were metal. The ceiling buzzed. And we were left to shake in our own sweat.
Sot Anor was pacing. His fists were bleeding. "I won't let them win. I won't be their toy."
Tiana sat cross-legged. "I… think I can call something."
"What do you mean?" Chisa asked
"I am a snake human , so, it's in my blood but I never succeed to call snakes," Tiana said, "but since they put this thing inside me… I can feel something and i know this time I won't fail."
We stared at her.
"I hear them under the floors. In the pipes. If I sing, maybe…"
She began humming. A low, haunting tune. Like a lullaby sung at a grave.
From the floor cracks, I heard them.
Hissing. Writhing. Skittering.
Dozens.
Then Chisa screamed and kicked the steel door — and it cracked open with a shriek of torn metal.
We didn't wait.
We ran.
Down the hallway. Past red warning lights. Past the memory of our dead friends.
Alarms blared.
Guards shouted.
But the snakes were faster.
They slithered around us, guiding our steps like rivers made of muscle and scale.
Then Muras and Dospesh stood before us in the long corridor. Dospesh was holding a taser.
"You think you can run?" Dospesh growled.
Tiana didn't stop humming. One massive black snake lunged from a vent — and sank its fangs into Muras' face. He screamed as venom bloated his eye into a pulsing red bubble. He collapsed.
Sot Anor roared. Not yelled — roared.
His fist slammed into Dospesh's chest. Bones cracked. He howled.
Another punch — to the knee. The sound of a leg snapping.
Another — the neck. Dospesh fell like a broken puppet.
Muras, half-blind, whispered one final command: "Shoot… them…"
And they obeyed.
Gunfire erupted.
Tiana gasped. Blood sprayed.
She staggered. Two bullets — one to the chest. One to the side of her head.
She dropped.
"No!" I screamed.
But even in her final breath, she smiled at me. Her snakes hissed once — and lunged at the guards, tearing their throats in a frenzied storm.
Tiana's body slumped over — her song silenced.
But the snakes remained.
They didn't leave us.
They circled us.
Protecting us.
We ran again.
The halls twisted. Red lights bathed everything in a bloody glow.
Then Sot Anor stopped at a crumbling section of wall.
He turned to us. Smiling through his bleeding lips.
"This is where I stop."
"No—" Chisa grabbed his hand.
He pushed us gently. "You two… have to get out. Take this story to the world. Take our pain and make it matter."
He tore a pipe from the wall and smashed through a support beam. The ceiling began to fall.
He shoved us forward, and we heard the crash behind us.
He was gone.
Buried behind steel and smoke.
We ran.
And ran.
Until a door opened — into forest. Into night. Into something that wasn't metal.
We stepped out, holding each other.
Crying.
We fell into the dirt and screamed.
Somewhere in the dark, an owl called.
Somewhere far away… we saw lights.
A town.
Hope.
Chapter 3: Stone of Sins
We reached the town just as the sun began to rise.
The forest was behind us. The facility. The screams. The dead.
Gone.
But I couldn't feel relief. Only emptiness.
Chisa's hand trembled in mine. Her cheeks were wet. I think mine were too.
We walked. Ran. Fell. Got up again.
People stared at us. But I didn't hear them. We just kept moving. Together.
Back at the facility, in some cold, sealed room, they gathered.
Viviana stood beside Jackson. Both looked bruised. Burned.
The door opened with a hiss.
A man in black entered. Face covered with a long hood.
I never saw him. But I heard about him.
Master Luvon.
"Good job," he said, voice soft. "There were damages... but it was worth it."
He turned to a screen. Two dots blinked.
Nian. Chisa.
"Those two… Their stones reacted. They survived. The Pride and Envy stones live. Let them be."
Viviana bowed. "Understood."
"Monitor them. Let the stones grow stronger. One day… we'll extract them. When they're ready."
Jackson asked, "What about Sot Anor?"
Luvon smiled.
"The Wrath stone is too dangerous. Put the boy in the Deserted Dungeon. Maximum security. Traps. Chains. Everything."
Viviana added, "And Greed is lost…"
"Don't worry. I've chosen another child for that — Coasalt. He's… promising."
He began walking away, slowly.
"The Lust and Sloth stones are already placed. We just need to activate them… later."
He paused at the door.
"Kurush did well. A shame the others couldn't see the brilliance in betrayal."
A month later…
Viviana walked the empty corridor, clipboard in hand.
Lights flickered.
She turned a corner and gasped.
Blood. On the walls.
Kurush stood before her. Silent.
STAB!
The knife pierced her gut.
She looked into his eyes.
He didn't blink.
He let her fall. No words. No mercy.
Then… he vanished.
No one ever found him again.
And me?
I'm still running.
Even now, with Chisa beside me.
Even now, far from that lab.
Because I know they're still watching.
I feel the stone inside me.
It hums when I cry.
I don't know what I'll become.
But I know this...
The world thinks I'm safe now.
They're wrong.
I am Nian.
The boy who survived.
But I left part of me back in that hell.
And sometimes, when I look in the mirror…
I see something else staring back.
A sin!