The Experiment

I was aware, not awake. I was conscience but my eyes had yet to open. I was bound by my wrists, ankles, across my stomach and forehead with leather straps. I could feel the cold metal table on my skin that I was laying on. A bright, blaring light beamed down on me. My body ached, every joint, every muscle, every nerve was throbbing with pure, agonising pain. I heard the drip of a leaky pipe echoing around the room. My head was spinning, I felt groggy, like I was drugged. I didn’t remember much before waking up on that table. I lacked the clear understanding of why I was there, or how I had come to be there. This heavy feeling on my chest was weighing me down. My confusion was fading as I became progressively more alert, yet my body still could not move. I was paralysed but I could still feel everything. My eyes flickered open and that bright light blinded me. Blinking rapidly, I heard a low voice mumbling to himself. The deep crackled voice bounded off the walls. My eyes adjusted to the brightness, and I saw a figure. He was tall with broad shoulders. He was wearing a floor-length, white coat. He had a light blue surgical cap on with operation glasses with a light on the top. He made a loud sigh, then turned to face me and said, “Okay, I’m going to begin the experiment, God bless you.”

The words he spoke ricocheted through my hallow mind. I still couldn’t move, but my eyes could move around normally. I tried to look around and find an escape. However, all I could see was four walls, a roof, and floor and some sort of plumbing because there were metal, rusty pipes everywhere. There were no doors or windows, no natural light just the artificial one beaming down on my frail body. The room seemed dark, I could only imagine the horrors that took place in that very room. I heard a shuffling of paper and a groan coming from the man in the corner of the room. It looked like he was standing over a desk filed to the brim with papers. My breathing became erratic, I was panicking. What the fuck was he going to do to me? I kept asking myself, why me? A loud bang snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked over to the man, and he swiped all the papers off the table. He turned fully and took a step towards me. He took a mask out of his coat pocket. Placed it over his nose and mouth, then picked up a syringe with a purply pink liquid in it. “Let’s see what this formula does to you,” he cackled. My eyes go wide. I could feel the man tighten the leather straps around my left ankle. I felt the prick of the needle go into my ankle. Every bone in my foot broke simultaneously. My foot started to twist and distort. It stretched and shrunk. Once the pain concluded, I moved my eyes down to look at what has happened to my foot. What I saw was overwhelming, I didn’t know how to comprehend what I was looking at. My left foot had morphed into a hand. Where my foot should be was a human hand. My breathing became faster; my eyes were looking everywhere. I was in panic mode. My whole body was paralysed; I couldn’t do anything but let this mad scientist do his crazy experiment on me. I looked over to the crazy mad man in the corner, and he is taking note on his previous test on my foot. He nodded his head and smiled. He looked around on his messy, paper filled table for the next syringe.

He pulled out a syringe with a light blue bubbly liquid inside. “What does this one do?” he questioned, his lips pouted. He then moved over to my right ankle and tightened the leather strap around it and pinched my skin. I prepared myself for the needle prick. He put the needle into my skin and injected it into my bloodstream. The pain this time was worse than before. It felt like my right foot was getting sliced up with a razor. It felt like I was getting thousands of cuts all over my foot all at once. I looked down at my foot, and the cuts were real. My foot was spontaneously cutting itself. The crimson blood was dripping slowly onto the metal table. Then it stopped, but only for a moment. I felt a twitch; I couldn’t explain it. I looked down and saplings were growing out of the fresh cuts. My skin of my foot began to transform in a tree bark, and my foot started to grow. Small leaves sprouted from the frail branches from the now invisible cuts. As the tree was growing it felt like my skin, bones, and ligaments were being stretched beyond its limit. The tree where my foot should be never stopped growing. The crazy man took more notes again and mumbled, “I need to adjust that one a little bit, so it stops growing.” My foot was now a continual growing tree. Panic sunk in once again. How could I ever walk again, if I ever get out of here alive. As he was taking notes this time he was shaking his head in disappointment. I could only imagine what he was going to inject me with next.

He found then final syringe with a blood red with black specks liquid inside and placed it in his white coat pocket. He walked around me on the cold metal table and untied the leather strap that bound me. He then grabbed the needle from his pocket, walked over to where my head was laying. He prepared the needle to be injected into my neck. This would be it for me. Whatever he is putting into my neck was going to transform my entire body. I would be forever not like myself. I will be forever changed with no cure, no safety and nowhere to run or hide. I could be a monster. The prick of the needle took me out of my thoughts. As the fluids entered, my body began to tingle. Suddenly, all the bones in my body broke and snapped. Teal coloured scales began to appear all over my body. A long lizard-like tail was growing from my lower back. My bones were reforming and stretching into a new form. My fingers were twitching; I was getting movement back. Long indigo-coloured claws were developing on my fingers. My vision was enhancing and was becoming sharper. I finally had full control over my body again. Looking over to the scientist, I swung my new, strong arm with sharp claws and the scientist went crashing into the cement wall. The power of the swing created a massive hole in the wall. Even though I was still transforming, I jumped up and ran towards my escape. As I was running, I caught a glimpse of my reflection on the metal table. I was a monster. I escaped, but I could never stop running, ever again.