Thyssa crept through the mist, dragging her twisted body deeper and deeper into the valley. The deeper she went, the more thorns and roots stood in her way – were they trying to trap her, or warn her?

At the very bottom of the valley was an abandoned hospital. The stories said a doctor had taken up residence there. Stories of twisted experiments and cruel devices and feverish minds. They contradicted each other: Some stories were second-hand accounts of malforms who managed to escape, but others said nobody made it out alive. All of them agreed that this was a bad place, that no malform should tread here.

But one story of the experiments was tantalizing to Thyssa. Strange, forbidden, but exciting, full of hope. She couldn’t get it out of her head. The doctor probably couldn’t do that…but what if she could? The story kept in her head, slithered around her mind at night.

And so now her body slithered around, chasing nightmares into an overgrown valley. Growth everywhere, roots and branches exploding out in all directions…much like her own nerve cables. She had to tread gently, lest they get caught in the foliage. She hated when those things got caught in something. She could always pull them out, but they hurt even to brush against, so yanking them out was so painful she’d be writhing in the dirt, fighting the urge to vomit and weaken herself further.

She had to find this doctor. Even as the growth got thicker and thicker. Why was there so much plant life here in this valley, when just outside of it, green things struggled to grow? She thought through possible causes.

Sun? No, the sun shone everywhere – no reason these plants would get more of it.

Water. Either there was clean water here, or these plants were cultivated to thrive in poisonous water (“normal” water, as Thyssa and her pack called it).

Food. She’d heard of fertilizer before – humans used it to keep their lands bountiful. This was clearly very good fertilizer. A lot of decaying organic matter…

Thyssa froze. She asked herself why a hospital would be surrounded by decaying organic matter, and the question answered itself as soon as she asked it.

Corpses. Lots of them.

Dead patients, or, just as likely, dead research subjects. This was a very dangerous place. But it was her only chance of getting what she’d longed for her whole life.

She pressed on.

She could see the hospital now, a building of pastel pink and green. There was a sign on the front that might have had very useful information if Thyssa could read. Creepers climbed the walls, and the roof was crowned by bunches of flowers.

Thyssa approached the hospital, only to find she’d caught her leg in a vine. Careless. She tried wriggling it free, but it was tight around her.

Then vines whipped out and caught her other legs. The vines could move of their own accord! Some kind of botanical malform…? Whatever it was, it was an enemy, and one of them would die, and she didn’t want to die before she could get this doctor’s help.

The vines were tight, and they were agile. There was no outmaneuvering this thing. But she didn’t have to outmaneuver anything. She filled her mouth with acidic spittle and twisted her head, looking for the source of the vines.

Before she could aim, a vine grabbed her by the head and wrapped around, sealing her horizontal jaw. She could do nothing but squirm helplessly in the vines and screech.

The hospital’s glass doors opened. Out walked a statuesque woman whose face showed no passion, no pain, no flaw at all. Someone who didn’t have to struggle or suffer but could just exist, and exist beautifully.

A perfect human.

“It looks like someone’s wandered into my garden,” said the perfect woman. Her voice was beautiful and gentle. There was no kindness, but no malice, either. Just a cold curiosity, as if she were looking at some interesting insect.

The perfect woman stroked the vine. “Well done, pet.”

She gestured upwards, and the vines pulled Thyssa up, leaving her hanging upside-down – and her head pointed towards the ground, unable to aim.

“Just a precaution,” said the perfect woman. “You look like an acid malform, no? I’ll let you open your mouth, but I can’t have you spitting that stuff on me.”

She clenched her fist, then unclenched it, and the vine around her jaws released.

“Who are you?” asked the perfect woman.

Thyssa drained the acidic spittle from her mouth and tried to form human words.

“Th-Thyssa offf…Grendel Pack.”

Her voice was a terrible hiss, the words choppy and distorted. It sounded even worse after hearing such a beautiful voice.

“And what is Thyssa of Grendel Pack doing so far from home?”

“Isset…Is it true you make monsters into girls?”

“I have not conducted any such treatment.”

Thyssa was seized by bitterness. “Then it…it was liyuze…lies. All lies.”

“No. I’ve not tested it, but I am currently researching the transformation of malform into human.”

“Poz…possible?”

“That’s what I hope to find out. Theoretically, it’s viable. But, as you see, I am alone here. I haven’t been able to find a proper test subject.”

“I could be…tessst sssubjeck…test subject.”

The doctor looked Thyssa over, her beautiful face contorting with disgust. “You? Your enthusiasm for science is admirable, but…I was looking for a subject a little more…humanoid.”

Thyssa was filled with shame and frustration. She wanted this because she wasn’t humanoid!

“Test me aneeah. Anyway.”

“I thank you for the offer, but…” The doctor sighed. “Even a malform with very humanlike anatomy, this would be a long shot. For, well, for something like you, the chances of success…” She shook her head.

“Don’t care…hownlikely…how many times it takes.”

“You don’t understand. According to my hypotheses, a failed treatment would kill you. Slowly.”

“Neeud…need to try.”

The perfect woman’s eyes widened. “You…you’d accept the risk of agonizing death, just for a chance at humanity?”

Her throat strained from attempts at speech, Thyssa nodded, as far as she could in the vine’s embrace. The gesture caused her nerve cables to painfully shake, as if her body itself agreed.

The perfect woman looked at her, her wonderful eyes wet with pity. “Is it really so bad, being you?”

Another nod. More jiggling nerve cables. More pain.

The perfect woman stared off into space. “One who would risk their life for science. For humanity. Maybe you could work.” She looked back at Thyssa. “Do you promise to behave? No biting, no spitting?”

Thyssa nodded again.

The perfect woman thought to herself. “Alright.” She snapped her fingers, and the vines lowered Thyssa to the ground.

“Follow me.”

The perfect woman walked to the hospital, with Thyssa by her side. Once they were inside, the perfect woman made a gesture and the door slammed shut behind them. This place was filled with machines beyond Thyssa’s knowledge. She was afraid, but she pressed on.

The two walked down a narrow hallway with glaring lights. It was cold. Thyssa was used to searing heat; the Muckpool she came from had spat her out into the Lake of Acid. Light and cold were alien to her.

The perfect woman turned around, confirming that the door behind them was shut, and then approached a door that looked much stronger than the others they passed. She put her hand on the door and held it there. The door lifted up, and she walked inside, gesturing for Thyssa to follow.

This room was small and tight, even colder and brighter than the rest of the hospital. Once more, as Thyssa walked inside, the perfect woman gestured and the door sealed behind her. Thyssa squirmed in pain and unease. The walls looked sturdier, like the door. Whatever was in this room, someone wanted to protect it more than anything else.

The perfect woman walked to the centre of the room, where there were two pedestals. The one on the left was empty, but the one on the right there was a soft but bright glow, sealed behind a dome made of some kind of glass. The perfect woman placed her hand on the glass, and it lifted up. With reverence, she picked up the glowing object on the pedestal.

As the doctor approached, Thyssa got a better look at this treasure. It was a strange bright stone, clinging by magnetism to a silver cord. The stone was shaped like a serene woman, caressing her own exposed heart. An image of perfection through violence.

“This is the Benevolent Heart. It is the greatest invention of humanity. It made us humans into something better. But no one’s ever used it on a malform.” Her voice was almost a whisper, amazed at the power she held in her hand. “Until now.”

Thyssa approached.

“You will be my first test subject,” said the perfect woman. “You will show the world whether you have what it takes to become human. You will either be reborn or die a martyr to science. Let us see which.”

And, with that, the doctor wrapped the cord around Thyssa’s neck. The brightness, the warmth, flowed into Thyssa’s body, lighting up all her senses.

Everything was bright, and then everything was dark.