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Phobia (Pt. 3)

Trial Run

By Syzygy StoriesPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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Highvoltage Hub; Concept Art by Gottsnake

I entered the cold laboratory at 8:05 AM. I hate when I’m late for something. Just an idiosyncrasy I have. I was given a key to the lab yesterday. Not sure why. Only meet Dr. Hadley yesterday. Still unsure about the guy. Whatever, I am getting paid. I see Dr. Hadley sitting in his office. I’m pretty sure he slept in his clothes again. I knock on the open door to his office. Hoping not to startle him but it didn’t work.

“Good morning, Dr. Hadley. So sorry I was late,” I said hoping for forgiveness.

He looked at me perplexed at the apology. “No worries, I knew you would eventually show up,” he said sheepishly. “Let’s go ahead and get started,” he said as he stood up from his antique desk. Meandering our way back to the closet for our “top secret” meeting, he has me sit down in the middle of the room. It looks different from yesterday. There appears to be more space. As if he pushed out the walls. There’s also an apparatus in the middle of the room too. It’s dangling from the ceiling right above the chair. The top is perfectly round while containing multiple indentations indicating the complexity of the technology. Attached appears to be a handle to maneuver the apparatus into position. Dangling from the underside were four distinct tentacles like wiring. The whole contraption reminded me of an octopus or a squid. The tentacles were limp. They also appeared to have auxiliary connections at the ends of each one. As if they were meant to be plugged into something.

The professor motioned me to enter the space and sit in the chair. A wave of tenseness subjugated my body from moving forward. All I could think about was having that thing on top of my head and sucking my innards until I was empty. I was almost waiting for the Jigsaw doll to come around behind me on his tricycle and ask me if I am “ready to play a game.” The discomfort must’ve been visible on my face. The professor slowly walked me into the room and kept assuring me that this wasn’t some sort of alien experiment and that multiple people have connected to this machine. He also rests assure that no one has been damaged by this device. Mentally or physically. Well, that is real comforting. Unsure of how it happened but I am now sitting in the chair. My backpack has been placed in one of the far corners of the room. The professor then reenters the room with what looks like a crown of thorns. However, its composition is primarily made of wiring, input ports, and multiple switches which reminded me of those on an old Atari 2600. “This headband is how we can gather information from your mind. I have specially designed a program that can interpret your brain waves and cross compare with our genomic database. This is just a preliminary trial run to ensure everything works smoothly.” His demeanor was calculated and practiced. He anticipated questions to be asked at certain points in his directions, but I didn’t ask any. I just wanted it to be over and for him to give me my money.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

Dr. Hadley placed the electronic crown on my head. He then leaned over and grabbed the handle of the steampunk octopus and positioned the head of it over mine. He then grabbed each tentacle and literally started to plug me in. Each one I could feel the pressure all around my head. “Alright you are ready to go,” the professor said unenthusiastically. “So, first thing first is that you have to go to sleep. I will give you a series of FDA approved sedative to quicken the process and get this show on the road.” He showed me the sedatives and ask me a series of medical history questions. “Once you are ‘under’ I will hit you with a shot of cortisol to spark your biological stress mechanisms, hopefully inducing you into a nightmare state. Do we have any questions, concerns, or comments?” I stared at him for what seemed like a lifetime. Did he just say that he is going force a nightmare? I didn’t even know that was possible.

“How long will I be out?” I asked hoping the process would be quick.

“About five hours if all goes well.” Again, encouraging words from Dr. Hadley.

“Do I have your verbal consent to proceed with the experiment.”

Hesitant I say yes.

Hadley gets up from his chair and proceeds to go behind me. I didn’t want to turn around to observe what he was doing afraid that I might waken the creature attached to my head. I hear a series of clanks, bangs, and electronic sounds behind me. Then the tentacles straighten, and I can’t move my head. I gasp loudly. “Oh yeah, should’ve warned you it’ll do that. Don’t worry though it’s just getting ready.” I should really make a book with all the unsettling information Dr. Hadley has given me. My whole body is rigid. I start to panic. My breathing quickens and a bead of sweat forms on my eyebrow. I feel a sharp pain on my arm. Straining my eyes, I see the professor is starting to inject the sedatives. I start to slow my breathing, the sweat becomes cold, my limbs began to go sag. As fast as it all happened I was in a deep state of sleep. All is calm, quiet, peaceful.

A sudden blast of fretfulness asphyxiated my emotions like a spider spinning its prey. The professor must’ve injected the cortisol into my system. However, I was still sleeping. My relaxed state was quickly interrupted by a bulldozer of tension and trauma. I realized I was standing in a field. I could smell popcorn and candy swirling in the air. The same lights I had seen last night reappeared. This worried me. I knew how this was going to end. I slowly lower my eyes and there it is. The high-top. Ostracized to the middle of the field. Something’s different. The red portion is black, not red. My heartbeat quickens. My breathing starts to stagger again. I can feel something. Something watching me. I gradually turn around but before I turned the full 180 I was stopped. I saw the pool of pasty blood mixed with dirt right by my foot. Steam arose from the pile. A solid drop appeared. I followed the path of the drop until I saw it. The same weapon from my nightmare. Which could only mean one thing…

End of Part 3

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About the Creator

Syzygy Stories

Dark science fiction stories inspired by scientific discoveries.

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