Vicious

In the engineering lab, Victor regains consciousness screaming and in terrible pain. Then, like the flipping of a switch, the pain stops, replaced by numbness. Victor wonders if it will come back, and the switch flips again. This time, the pain is “humming over his skin without touching it” (116). Beside him, Angie screams, and Victor realizes she is feeling the pain instead. He tries to help, but she crumples to the floor, dead.

In the hotel, Victor wakes to Sydney’s screams and Mitch holding him against the couch. He realizes his current is running, so he turns it off. Mitch and Sydney aren’t hurt, but Sydney looks shaken. Victor feels truly guilty for the first time since his imprisonment. He apologizes, tells Mitch to get Sydney to bed, and shuts himself in the bathroom.

At the engineering lab, Victor calls Eli and tells him about the experiment and Angie’s death. Eli is more interested in Victor’s success than Angie’s death, which gives Victor the feeling that “everything was real, but nothing mattered” (119). In the background of the call, Victor hears the distinct sound of the landline phone in their dorm and Eli calling 911. Victor wipes down the lab and leaves.