by Eric Vall
Had the Duchess sent me a female prisoner by mistake? Could I go forward with the experiment knowing that the patient was female? This prisoner was the last one in the cells, and I wouldn’t receive any more for a few more days.
And I had a two-week deadline.
I stared into the sunken, dirt-streaked face of the prisoner as I questioned my moral code. I couldn’t harm a female, not in this society.
Or could I?
If it were found out I used a woman in an experiment, I’d be killed.
If anyone found out.
If I went forward with this, if I used this woman in the machine, I would effectively sign my own death warrant.
But I’d die if I didn’t produce results to the Duchess in the next few weeks, and I didn’t know how long it would take to get a new male prisoner.
“I think they must have sent her to me by mistake,” I said over my shoulder to A.B. “That’s the only logic that makes sense. They probably don’t know this is a woman, so I think I will be okay to experiment on her--”
“Uh, Charles,” A.B. murmured into my brain, but I didn’t hear him over my inner turmoil. “Hey! Charles! Be careful, she looks--”
As I held the prisoner away from my body, her eyes shot open, and a hellish scream erupted up her throat.
Chapter Two
“Charles!” A.B. screamed, but the yowling face of the female prisoner filled my eyes as she reached up to claw at me.
“Fuck!” I roared as I grabbed her by the filthy lapels and ripped her away from my body. “Shit!”
“Do something, Charles!” A.B. shrieked in my head.
“I’m trying!” I grunted through gritted teeth.
“Let go of me, you bastard!” the female patient shouted as her filthy nails swung past my face. “I’ll rip your eyes out, you goddamn male mongrel!”
I did the only thing I could think to do in this situation: I quickly charged forward with all of my weight and threw the female prisoner into open compartment B. She tumbled onto the metal, corrugated floor of the cell, and I slammed the door shut before she could scramble to her feet. Then I leaned against the closed door and listened as the prisoner clambered up and slammed her slight frame against the obstacle.
“Damn.” I moved away with wide eyes as my brain raced a mile a minute, and then I took a ragged breath as I stared through the glass of the compartment, and the female prisoner screamed spittle against the small window.
“Let me out, filthy Alchemist!” Her grime-streaked face split into a roar as she launched herself at the door and smashed her forehead against the small window. I watched in horror as at first, the glass stayed in place, but as she reared back and hit it again, it cracked once.
“How about no,” I cleared my throat and took a step back.
“Just wait until they find out what you’ve done to me!” the prisoner screamed, and her voice warbled with insanity. “You will hang! The Duchess’ guards will split open your belly and play jump rope with your entrails! Do you hear me, sicko? They’ll slaughter you for what you’ve done to a higher being such as me! I’m a woman! I’m a wooommmaaaannnnnn!”
“Shit, fuck,” I muttered as sweat broke out over my forehead, and I glanced over my shoulder at A.B. “What do I do? What have I done?”
“Don’t look at me!” the brain cried as he trembled in his jar. “I’m not the one who put her in the machine! I don’t even have arms!”
I pressed my lips together as my hands trembled. There was no coming back from this, I simply couldn’t let the prisoner go, not after what I’d already done to her. What she’d said was true, even though I was working hand in hand with the Duchess, if Edony found out I’d tested on a female subject, I’d be killed without even the chance to defend myself, there was no question about it.
“What are you going to do, Charles?” A.B. asked, but his voice was nothing more than a distant echo in my mind.
“I’m going to do the right thing,” I snatched up the crystal I’d retrieved from the cabinets, took three long strides, and tossed it into compartment A.
I snapped the much smaller glass case closed, stepped back and surveyed the scene. If there was a hell, which I wasn’t entirely sure there was, I would surely go to it for my crimes against the ‘higher beings’ of this world.
“Charles!” A.B. cried as he shook inside the green liquid of the jar. “If she keeps smashing her face against the damn window, we’re not going to have a patient to test on at all!”
“I can see, A.B!” I snarled as I moved from compartment A and toward compartment C.
Then my hands froze on the open door as I prepared to close it.
My eyes connected with the gaze of the female prisoner through the cracked window as blood streamed from the gash on her forehead. The female bared her teeth at me and snarled like a wild animal. My heart raced in my chest, and the sound vibrated in my ears like a hammer against moist cloth. Fear filled every cell in my body as she threatened me from inside compartment B. Try as I might, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her as she reared back her head once again. The prisoner’s forehead connected with the glass window, and more blood streamed down her filthy face as she shrieked in anger.
No doubt about it, she was going to break free soon if I didn’t do something.
I set my jaw as my hands curled into fists. I’d started this, and I had to finish it, there was no going back now. The prisoner was already within the machine, and even if I did let her go, it meant the end of my life. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and if the Duchess found out I’d used a female prisoner… I’d be dead, and if I let the patient go, I’d be killed for keeping a higher being prisoner…
Either way, I’d end up dead.
All of this brought forward more questions, like what had this female done to be imprisoned by the Duchess? Not only that, but how had she gotten mixed up with the male prisoners? Now that I knew she was female, I couldn’t avoid seeing it in her face. Women were rarely imprisoned in our society, most of them were of the aristocratic class and didn’t need to commit crimes for money or food. A thief or a burglar maybe? Or had the Duchess’ guards simply made a mistake?
Blasts of blue flames engulfed the cracked glass window as the female prisoner used all of her elemental powers against the door. I couldn’t see her through the curling smoke and fire, but her screams rose in pitch as she pushed all of her strength forward.
“If this is how it ends,” I growled in the back of my throat as I forced my body to move. “Then, so be it.”
“Is this really the best idea?” A.B. questioned in a worried voice. “What will happen to you if you’re found out, Charles? Think about the consequences!”
“I have, A.B,” I breathed heavily as I lowered my eyes. “All of it will end the same, so why does it matter as long as I make some type of progress in the name of science? I can’t just give up now, we’re doing this.”
In one swift movement, I slammed closed the doors to compartment C with both hands, but the two doors pinched the flesh in between my pointer finger and thumb, and I hissed through my teeth in pain.
“Shit.” I gripped the broken flesh between two fingers as blood dripped into the seam of the compartment’s doors.
Nothing was going right today, not the party, and certainly not this. Blood dripped down my hand and soaked the fabric of my shirt, but I ignored the pain throbbing through my right hand as I reached the wall panel of buttons and switches.
“For science!” I smashed the blood-red ON button of the switchboard, and the massive wall of bulbs and lights illuminated with a low hum and bathed my face in an unearthly scarlet glow.
I turned as the female prisoner smashed against the window for the fourth time. Blood streaked her wild features and flowed into her wide, terrified eyes.
“They’ll kill you, Alchemist!” she shrieked as her flat palms slammed against the broken glass. “You warlock! They’ll kill you for what you’re doing to me, you goddamn vermin-trash!”
“Maybe so,” I sighed as I reached for the last lever above my head. “It is too late now. It was too late when they brought you to my jail cell.”
“Let me out!” the prisoner pleaded much softer this time as her hands beat bleakly at the copper door and tears dripped down her cheeks. “Please, sir, let me out!”
My eyes connected with the prisoner’s for the last time, and I pressed my lips together in a firm line. Electricity flowed through every inch of the motherboard, and I felt the crackle in the air as I prepared myself for what I was about to do. Either this would work, or it would end horribly, but no matter what, it needed to be done.
If it did work, and I suddenly had a female super soldier, how would I explain myself to the Duchess? How could I bring myself to ask her for female prisoners in the future if this came to fruition? The Duchess of Edenhart would have me slaughtered in the street without a second thought, there was no doubt about it.
“Charles!” A.B. whined in a worried tone, and I set my jaw as my hand tightened on the lever. “Do something, she’s going totally bat-shit crazy in there!”
“It’s done!” In one swift movement, I brought the lever down into its cradle.
At first, nothing happened, and I stood in shock as I stared at the illuminated lights of the motherboard. I reached forward with my injured hand, and then quickly drew it back as sparks exploded upward with a loud crackle. My first thought was that the controls had caught fire, but that wasn’t it. My eyes followed the movement of arcing electricity as it flowed from the board, through the thick, snake-like wires, and finally reached the machine.
“The cat, Charles!” A.B. screamed in my head, and I winced at the painful sound. “Clementine! Here, kitty kitty! Bad cat!”
My squinted eyes settled on compartment A as the crème colored cat hopped up onto the ledge, batted open the glass jar, and slipped inside. The feline meowed curiously and batted at the palm-sized crystal as if it were a toy, and it seemed to have no idea of the danger it was in.
There was no time, even if I tried to save A.B’s pet, I’d be burnt to a crisp along with it. I could do nothing but stand back and watch as the machine took two lives at once.
“Don’t look,” I commanded the brain as I hastily shielded him with my torso so he wouldn’t see his precious pet electrocuted.
Ten thousand volts of electricity reached the machine, and blinding white light flashed through all three of the compartments. A loud crash and then explosion reached my ears almost like a crescendo, and unbearable heat blasted forward from my machine. Breaking glass and more metal ripped itself apart from the sheer power of the electricity, so I tightened my grip on my ears, ducked down closer to the ground, and gritted my teeth.
Metal crunched and clanged, and I wondered if the machine had survived this experiment. If the machine was destroyed after this… I wasn’t sure what I would do. I’d spent so much time and effort creating the copper monstrosity that the thought of it being destroyed would probably kill me if the Duchess didn’t.
Just as suddenly as it started, the noise ended, but I still stayed crouched on the cold floor for a few passing seconds.
Silence slowly fell over the room, and I let my hands drop to the cold stones at my feet. I took a deep breath, and then immediately choked on a lungful of smoke. When I opened my eyes, they burned and watered instantly, but I ignored it as I stood and peered through the gray haze. The room was filled with a thick haze, and I wafted the smoke away from my face with the back of my hand so that I could make out the shape of my machine.
“Clementine!” A.B. wailed from his jar, and I stepped closer to him. “My pet! My only friend! Oh, cruel world! You’ve taken the only thing I’ve ever cared for!”
“Hey, I thought I was your friend,” I coughed out as a bit of smoke got into my lungs again.
“My second best friend!” A.B. bemoaned. “What a cruel world this is! Ohhhh, the horror! I barely knew you, but in the time we spent together, I came to love you as a sister.”
I pursed my lips and stifled a chuckle as I scooped a small piece of shattered debris from the liquid in A.B.’s container, and then stood next to the brain’s cart while I waited for the smoke to clear. In a way, sometimes I liked to think of the brain as my pet, but I’d never admit it aloud to A.B. since it was sure to offend him.
I was almost certain that the experiment had failed. I’d gotten so many of the variables wrong this time, and I’d have to wait for another shipment of prisoners to try again. Not only that, but I hadn’t even seen the damage to the machine yet, and that was probably the worst part of it all.
“My Clemmy-bear!” A.B. sobbed softly from within his container, and I laid a hand against the rim as a sign of comfort. “You were just a kitten! So young! So full of life!”
“She was a fully grown cat, A.B.” I murmured as I waved the smoke away from my face.
“But she was my cat,” he groaned. “I feel responsible.”
“It is not as if you could have stopped her. Cats are naturally inquisitive.” I breathed a shaky sigh as I let my hand drop from the rim of A.B.’s jar and took a tentative step forward.
I pressed my lips together as the smoke finally cleared from the room. Sparks rained down from a jagged hole in one of the machine’s copper panels and a low humming death-rattle emanated from the entire structure.
“Shit,” I whispered as I glanced back at the motherboard, but all the lights and bulbs on it were dark and dead.
I fanned the remaining haze away from my face as I peered in at compartment A, but there was nothing inside the glass bell-jar, not even a burnt husk of the feline.
“Ugh,” I sighed, since I didn’t have the heart to tell A.B. that his new pet had been broiled to a state of non-existence.
I kept my lips tightly pressed together as I crossed to compartment B, but this time, there were charred remains inside. The female prisoner’s corpse looked nothing like a body, it was just a curled remnant of grey ash that shifted and disintegrated as I swung the door wide.
I withdrew from compartment B as sparks rained down, and I lifted an arm to shield my face away from their unbearable heat. Then I retreated a few steps and took in more of the destroyed paneling and let out a low whistle. The damage wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it was, but it would take a few days to replace the destroyed paneling. I didn’t even want to peel away the copper sheets and look inside at the engines and electrical components, since they were probably fried and unusable.
“Goddamnit…” I muttered as my shoulders slumped.
Rage bubbled up in the pit of my stomach as my hands curled into fists. How many times did I have to rebuild the machine and make improvements only to have all the experiments fail in the end? It was an utter waste of time. No matter how much of a genius I was, the Duchess would never receive her super-soldiers, and I would end up dead just as Edony planned. I had no escape, or plan to make the machine work.
“Goddamn piece of shit, hunk of junk!” I roared as I let all of my anger flow through my body, and I kicked out at the shredded copper paneling nearest to me. “Fuck, shit, motherfucker!”
I slammed the heel of my boot against the side of the machine, and low thuds banged back to my ears, but no matter how hard I kicked my creation, it didn’t quell the disappointment in my heart. Part of me wanted to destroy the machine and allow the Duchess to do whatever she wanted to me, but the second part of me wanted to push on. Each time I failed, it added kindling to the fire that yearned for discovery. Despite my society’s hatred for men, I wanted to be a great scientist and have my discoveries known all around the globe. They all seemed like pipe-dreams, but they were what kept me going, at least.
“Goddamnit…” I croaked, formed my right hand into a fist, and banged it against the copper metal of compartment C.
“Hey!” A high-pitched yelp reached my ears, and I slowly raised my head with a crooked eyebrow, and turned to look over my shoulder.
“Did you say something?” I
asked, but A.B. floated in his neon green liquid on the table behind me, and there was no way he could have made the sound.
The left side of his bulbous brain wrinkled almost as if he were raising an eyebrow right back at me. The brain swiveled slowly in the viscous liquid and stared toward the window of compartment C.
“Charles…?” A.B. whispered into my head in an awestruck tone. “I think you’re going to want to see this…”
“What is it?” I stepped back from compartment C and looked at the window.
“Just…wait.” The brain whispered back.
I gulped and pressed my lips together as I glued my eyes to the small window. The fog only seemed to thicken on the glass but bright, pulsing light I hadn’t noticed before emanated from inside.
“What the hell is that?” My mouth dropped open, and my eyes widened in shock as a long, lithe shadow passed over the fogged glass.
I gasped loudly and took an instinctive step forward. A strange, eerie feeling fell over my shoulders as if, somehow, this was meant to happen. Had the experiment worked? Had I finally created the super soldier that the Duchess asked for? My heart hammered against my ribcage, and I peeked over at A.B. as sweat dripped down my neck.
“How am I supposed to know?” the brain cracked sarcastically. “So…are you going to go look, or are we just going to stand out here and wait for it to burst through the door and attack?”
“Why would you say such a thing?” I asked as I reached for a stray pipe and rested it against my shoulder.
“I’m just saying what we’re both thinking,” A.B. offered, and I rolled my eyes in response. “Do you know how nutritious brains are? In some parts of the world, we’re considered a delicacy.”
“That information isn’t really relevant right now,” I whispered under my breath as I took a step closer to the door.
“But your brain is probably fresher than me,” A.B. snorted. “All it’d have to do is crack open your skull, and there it is, a yummy snack. I’m not very fresh, I’ve been floating in whatever type of goo this is for… months… years? I’m probably not very tasty at this point.”