The Company Recorder

Fiction Horror Thriller

This story contains sensitive content

Written in response to: "Start your story with the line: “Today is April 31.”" as part of From the Ashes with Michael McConnell.

NOTE !Content Warning!: Contains The Following- Body Gore, Blood, Organ Gore, Detached Narrator, Medical Term Usage; (that may make many uncomfortable as I was writing it), Mentions Of Fictional War, Mentions Of High Crimes, Mentions Of Fictional Propaganda, Mentions Of Radiation., Deteriorating Mental Health, Mentions Of An Incinerator.

"Today is April 31st

07:01:00

O-Seven O-One Hundred. The subject remains calm, after being injected with the concentration of R.F. No physical signs of mutation after sixty seconds post-injection. Subject is expected to give into the effects by half past o-seven-hundred.

07:30:36

O-Seven-Thirty, Subject is starting show noticeable effects of R.F with firsts signs of infection along the collarbone, moving towards the injection sight. Fatty Dermis of Left Shoulder. Quite fascinating. The fluid seems to raise and bubble above the surface of the dermis revealing its stark blue contrast.

07:45:23

O-Seven Forty-Five. Subject is starting to claim that the injection is affecting their mental clarity, quote in accordance to the infection trail, "It itches". End quote. Oh. Excuse me, I need to attend to the subjects behavior- they seem to have bypassed the effects of the anesthesia by taking off their required mask during this procedure.

07:59:04

In attempts to keep the experiment controlled, I- Doctor Amelia Thornton, have taken the liberty of removing their nail beds to prevent the unnatural spread of R.F. The nails beds have been cleaned, sanitized, and wrapped as per the subjects request. We have agreed to keep the mask off for the remainder of the procedure per their request in this stage of the R.F.'s effects.

08:17:04

Subject worries, quote, "They can see their scapula". End quote. After examining the dermis above the injection sight, it is easy to note the R.F. is successfully eating the flesh first as expected around the area. I am able to see each layer of the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis as it begins to branch through the subjects left arm. It is expected by the third hour, we will have to tie them to the examining table to prevent harm to themselves.

09:07:07

Subject has been constrained to the table after a momentary breach of contract. The cleaning crew has spent the past hour removing the bodies of Doctor James Thornton, and Doctor Boa Havani to the incinerator as depicted in the companies contract. The subject has been crouched against the steel leg, top of both knee caps pressing against their sternum. I suspect the subject is starting to feel the effects of R.F.'s manipulation of the brain. I theorize specifically the prefrontal cortex, the temporal gyri, and the sensory cortices.

09:45:39

Subject will not stop whispering to themselves.

10:16:??

The subject has allowed me to cuff both ends of the chain successfully, one to their ankle and the other to the examination table hook. I confirm my prior hypothesis from O-Nine O-Seven hundred as for the last hour and nine minutes, subject has stared at their reflection in the steel's reflection. Quote, "I don't like this version of myself that I became" end quote. When I asked the subject to further explore that concept, the request was ignored. I can confirm the R.F. has reached their spinal cord affecting their motor functions as well.

11:10:??

I currently bend with the subject, cleaning out the teeth that have started to eject from their sockets along the gingiva. Minimal blood spill from the chest cavity as the R.F. has began to eat at the flesh under their sternum. Two seventy-one centimeters by eighty-six centimeter soak pads prove to be affective at stopping the flow when the heart systoles.

The subject c-can't stop shaking, it is uncertain if it is hysteric and voluntary or non-voluntary. We will note this as something to follow-up on.

11:26:??

The subject requested, quote, "Not moving my legs, I'm afraid my intestines will fall", end quote. I honored this request against company policy.

13:18:??

Subject is down to their last organs, vocal chord system and the heart. The subject wonders if the person listening to these recordings understands. Have you ever seen a human heart in your lap? I never have. The subject seems to be staring at it, in complete disbelief- typical of the ones we bring in here. It's pathetic.

What did you say?

13:1?:??

Subject is feeling their heart race so rapidly, its so weird to watch it jolt inside my chest like this. I've never seen it on myself before. Those people. Those people I did that to. STOP IT.

13:1?:??

Amelia is not doing okay, certain my brain has been fully covered in the blisters by now. Want to touch it, need to know if its true. Don't touch it, you idiot.

I want-

YOU WANT NOTHING. You get nothing for being a monster. Remember all those people.

The company said I'd be paid well after they dropped the war machine.

You deserve to fall apart like this, skin, bone, all.

1?:!?:*!

Breach of the last few minutes, examining my veins drying draped across the brittle of my bones.

The company said that R.F. only killed monsters like this. It's way of keeping the company strong.

I remember that doubt, a singular moment when I read the ingredients the back of the box. Blank, hidden by black stickers over it.

Are you starting to get it now, listener?

The Reaper Fluid, is a weapon. It doesn't pick and choose who is good.

No Angel. NOT GOD.

Strips you to something inhumane. We used it on the wrong people.

I used it on the wrong people. "

Amelia Thornton's skeleton was frozen in time against the metal pole of the examining table, arm sealing her thighs hold on the shrunken heart in her lap. Watching as her ribcage was fizzling to dust. She was the last of the doctors that worked at The Company after the raid, the last person rightfully injected with fluid. The one it threatens to the ones who disrespect it.

Between each hallucination of her standing above her body; She remembered each and every individual face of the men and woman, she had killed on their orders.

Just how she watched all the others through that damn one-way window. Hearing their pleas to live, to get through to any of them that would listen. She should have listened, truly known what they were praying to god for. Now a mirror of the crimes she committed towards her friends, her family, what once was her community...

Using the last of her strength while the reaper finally stalks and pounces on her like prey

Click.

The recorder picks up her graveling, hallow voice, "Don't trust them, don't even think for a second you can. Signed Amelia Thornton. I'm so-". "

Posted Apr 05, 2026
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