Prologue
“Are you sure that the process will work, doctor?” A young man with a cleanly shaven face asked as he faced a much older man with a white beard and a scar running down his right cheek.
“This will undoubtedly work, Lee. This is my life’s work, and I am confident in my ability.” The doctor answered, his gaze fixed on the looming darkness in the distance. Lee glanced at the doctor for a few minutes before shaking his head and continuing to stare into the darkness with him.
The doctor pulled out a cigarette and lit it with an ingeniously constructed lighter at the end. “My wife gave me this as a present.” The doctor spoke while he smoked a cigarette and glanced at the lighter in his pale and trembling palm.
“That’s fantastic, sir. I had no idea you had a wife.”
As he faced the ground, the doctor sighed. “That is correct, Lee. I don’t have one anymore.”
“Did she?”
“Yes, she died only a few days ago.”
Lee was taken aback by the doctor’s response. “I apologize, sir; I had no clue.”
“Hmm.” The doctor nodded and placed his cigarette on the table next to him. “It’s OK, Lee. If this experiment is successful, we may be able to bring her back to life.” The doctor smiled.
Lee was bothered by this, but he offered a charming grin in response. He moved over to a wall and yanked on a lever. The chamber immediately brightened up, displaying bottles of various chemicals, electrical equipment, and a massive slab of glass separating it from another room with white walls.
Inside the room with the white walls lay the corpse of a woman in her mid-forties if she had been alive.
“Lee, I’d want you to meet my wife.” As he glanced at the corpse, the doctor spoke.
Lee was perplexed as he stared at the doctor. “But, sir, we believed we’d be dealing with another body.”
“I’ll lose her if I fail here. So the fear of losing her will keep me from failing.” The doctor spoke up.
Lee shook his head after staring at the dead for a few moments. Her complexion was abnormally pale. “How long had it been since she died, doctor?”
“About five days.”
When Lee heard the words, he shook his head. “However, wasn’t the experiment planned for someone who died in less than two days?”
“Yes, Lee,” I said. The doctor replied, his tone becoming increasingly aggressive. “This is my experiment, and I’m very aware of what I’m doing.” So, youngster, shut up and get on with your task.”
The doctor’s abrupt outburst of rage caught Lee off guard. The doctor shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the ground for a few seconds. There were a few tears in his eyes when he smiled at Lee. “Please accept my apologies, Lee. But it’s something we have to do.”
Lee locked his gaze on the doctor for a while before nodding. He took a step nearer the electrical equipment, which was wired. The cables crossed across to the other chamber and were implanted into the corpse’s head. “Doctor, there’s no turning back,” Lee added as he turned to face him. The doctor gave a little nod.
As the power went through the cables and into the body of the corpse, Lee pressed a button and then a few more.
“Keep an eye on the activity of the alpha waves.” As he surveyed the sight, the doctor stated.
Lee said, “Already doing that, sir,” as he peered at a monitor beside him. “As of now, there is nothing.”
The monitor abruptly began to beep. The doctor hurried back and peered at the monitor in surprise while Lee glanced at it in awe. “It appears to be working.” The doctor spoke with delight. The doctor shifted his gaze to the body, which had begun to grow redder and more lifelike.
For a few seconds, the corpse’s eyebrow twitched, then its legs, and finally, the woman slowly opened her eyes and glanced at the doctor. “Michael.” The word came out of her mouth in a monotone tone.
“It’s a success.” The doctor continued as his voice trembled and tears welled up in his eyes. However, smoke began to billow from her body. As burn scars began to show on her blackening flesh, the woman began screaming. “Turn it off.” The doctor yelled furiously.
Lee turned off the equipment, but nothing transpired as her body continued to burn, and before anybody could intervene, her corpse blew up, leaving reddish-black fluid stains on the white walls.
“What the heck is going on?” Lee muttered to himself as the doctor collapsed to the ground.
Lee looked up to see whether there was any alpha wave activity on the monitor, but there wasn’t.
A tiny beep came from the monitor all of a sudden. As Lee stared at the monitor and glanced at the doctor, who was also gazing at the display in disbelief, the beep became louder.
“That shouldn’t be possible,” The doctor was terrified and perplexed as he spoke.
“It’s got to be a mistake, sir.”
There was a faint noise coming from the other room. “Michael.” The doctor cautiously raised his head and gazed forward, into the blood-streaked chamber. Through the glass, a faint human-like figure of light and electricity emerged. As she stood in front of the doctor, the air crackled around her.
Lee was terrified as he peered at the scene and attempted to flee as the figure flashed through his body, crumpling him to ash.
The doctor felt horrified as he looked at the figure.
“Don’t you know who I am, Michael?” As it crept closer to the doctor’s face, the creature inquired. “It’s me. Jenna.”
Sweat poured down the doctor’s beard as he shook his head. “The Jenna I know isn’t a bad person.” The doctor’s voice was trembling as he talked. “Who are you?”
The creature cackled as it grabbed the doctor’s throat, prompting the doctor to burst into flames, his cries filling the night sky.
