When the genes of humans stared to degenerate, mutating into worse and worse outcomes, some scientist took upon themselves the task of creating a new specimen. It was supposed to be the perfect creature.

Maybe they had future hopes about making a whole new species if they succeeded with this prototype. Flawless almost-humans that could be mated with humans, and stop the human evolution from continuing to sprial downwards.

The process was a complicated one, building a living being with a mix of genes. Some already existed and was needed to make the specimen compatible with humans, but only the least flawed human genes were used.

Some of the DNA had to be created from scratch, and a lot of the existing genetic material had to be developed to get the result they wanted. It was extremely difficult, and many years were spent trying and failing.

At last they reached a point where it seemed that it all had become flawless, exactly how they wanted it to be. Thus the scientist began the journey of growing a child, who was more a godlike creature than an actual human.

Oh, how it all seemed to go so well. 

When the eyes of a little boy of seemingly 4 years opened for the first time, everyone around him was overwhelmed by the pure and beautiful being standing before them. He couldn’t yet speak, but his eyes were sincere and filled with innocence.

The name they choose for him was Luhan, and when they told him that he smiled, once again overpowering every person in the room with his magnificent good looks. 

Everything about Luhan seemed perfect and right, just as they had intended. The champagne was popped and hands were shaken, his inventors congratulating themselves on the accomplishment.

Luhan melted even the coldest hearts at once, making them all want to love and protect him. When the boy unexpectedly started making dissatisfied noises and then started crying when no one could understand what he wanted, everyone tried their best at figuring out what was wrong.

Sometimes even the most intelligent people forgets the basics of a living creature, and it was just the noise of a little stomach growling that made them realize what was wrong.

Food were prepared and brought too him, but no matter what they brought the little boy didn’t seem to like it, and refused to eat. The scientists tried every method to make him eat, but no matter what they did Luhan just wept more and more.

In the end he cried himself to sleep, probably exhausted from hunger and crying. The scientists realized their only option was to feed Luhan intravenously like they had before his “birth”, until they could find any food he was willing to eat.

When Luhan’s body was like that of an 8 year old, they finally figured out why he didn’t like any of the food he was given.

What he craved was something they never would think of offering him.

Luhan was locked away from the world, but their original plan was to let him out in the real world in the future, so he was raised and educated by hired professionals. 

One day, one of his teachers was trying to teach him to draw. She was moving around some papers when she all of sudden yelled out a curse, having gotten a paper cut. “Oh, teacher, you’re hurt!” Luhan exclaimed, looking worried.

“Just relax, it’s just a little paper cut, see?” his teacher said, showing him the little cut on her hand.

She didn’t notice how his eyes glazed over and grew dark, how her normally chatty student for once went completely silent for a longer period of time. The day was almost over, the teacher was tired and looking forward to going home, not focusing like she normally would.

Suddenly a pair of small hands grabbed her wrist, and before she could comprehend what was happening a little tongue was peeking out too the blood off her finger. 

“Luhan, what are you doing?!” she shrieked, but her normally well-mannered student didn’t seem to take note of her, instead starting to vigorously on her finger. For a moment his teacher was stunned, before she came back to consciousness and abruptly tore her hand away.

“Y-you, you monster!” she shouted, before running away, leaving the unresponsive boy alone.

Finally the scientists knew what their creature wanted to eat.

Kim Minseok, just graduated from a well know university at the top of his class with a degree in animal care, was looking forward to a bright future. He had plenty of job offers within the field he was interested in, animal technologist; taking care of laboratory animals used for research and experiments.

It all changed with a mysterious phone call.             

“Hello, this is Minseok?”

“Am I speaking with Kim Minseok, the animal technologist?” a male stranger’s voice asked. He sounded grave, and Minseok suddenly became anxious that he had done something wrong.

“Um,” searching his mind quickly he couldn’t remember anything else than the library book he deliver a bit too late last month. “… yes, who is this?”

“My name is Dr. Lee. I have a job offer for you.” Minseok waited for the man to continue, to tell what kind of job it was, but the line was silent.

“Well, what kind of job is it?” he finally asked when the silence was getting a tad too awkward.

“I can’t go into details, but it is in your field of work. You will of course get more information later, if you decide to say yes. We are talking about a large sum of money if you agree to do it.”

It sounded a bit too mysterious and secretive for Minseok’s taste, but he couldn’t help asking.

“How big an amount are we talking about here?” The answer made this an offer he just couldn’t refuse.

It felt like he was being abducted, with the dark cloth over his eyes that blocked out every sight. The only noise the low rumble of the car he was in, no idea about where he was going.

There was no conversation, so Minseok was left to his own thoughts. One thing that had made him skeptical to the position was that they wanted such an inexperienced guy to do an obviously important and well paid job.

However it had all made sense when he heard the conditions; not to tell anybody about his job or anything related to it, living in a house on a secret place as long as he worked there, a minimum of holidays or weekends off, everything being very hush-hush.

Hiring a young man without family, connections or many friends was absolutely logical after hearing that.

He still didn’t know what kind of animal he was going to be taking care of. The only information Minseok was given was that it was only one; he would get further instructions and info when they were at their destination.  

The voice of Dr. Lee brought a stop to his thoughts. “You can take the fabric over your eyes off now if you want to.”

Glad to finally get his sight back Minseok did so immediately. As soon as his eyes got used to the light again, he looked out of the window, curious about their surroundings.

They seemed to be in the middle of a big forest, driving along a small road. The trees were growing tickly at both sides of the road, making it impossible to see further than a few meters in every direction.

The road was swingy, and every time they took a turn Minseok expected to see something new. Every time it was just more trees and the never ending road.

Time seemed to go almost as slow as it had when he couldn’t see. Checking his watch he found out they had already been driving for 2 hours, but how fast or how far they had gone he had no idea of.  

Trees, rocks, bushes and more trees passed by outside his window. Nothing indicated they would soon be at their destination; nothing differenced what was around one swing from the next. For everything he knew they could be driving around in circles.

Minseok felt curious and inpatient but didn’t want to act like nosy child, so he tried to endure the long wait as best as he could. Finally they slowed down, and when turning in the next swing there was a suddenly a grey stone wall in front of them. There was a gate too, not that Minseok realized so before it opened up, almost unnoticeable because it was exactly as tall and massive as the rest of the wall.

The house inside the high wall was white, big and modernistic. The clean cut lawn was plain with no plants and decorations, a big contrast to the forest they had just been driving through. Maybe it was because he’d always lived in the city, maybe it was the too picture-perfect but cold atmosphere, but Minseok couldn’t imagine to ever feeling at home here.

Inside was pretty much the same. It was too bright and clean to feel like a home. The house seemed to be full of long hallways, Minseok observed while being lead somewhere by Dr. Lee. He was pretty sure he would end up lost if he’d been here alone.

“You will get a map over the entire building,” Dr. Lee said, as if sensing Minseok’s troubled thoughts. At the same time they seemed to finally have reached their next destination, as the doctor now led Minseok through a door.

They were now in what appeared to be a kitchen. A tall man was sitting by a table drinking coffee and reading a book, but looked up when he heard them come in.

“Ah, you must be the new caretaker,” he said. “Mr. Kim, this is my colleague Dr. Choi. Dr. Choi, Mr. Kim,” Dr. Lee explained.

Minseok was asked to sit down and offered coffee. When they finally were all seated, sipping their coffee, Dr. Lee started explaining the details he hadn’t got to know beforehand.

“Your job is to take care of the creature that lives in this building. Either I or Dr. Choi will come by at least once a week to check up on you, and if you ever need us on another time that you just give us a call. Twice a week there will be food and other necessaries delivered, and cleaners will come over to clean the house and cut the lawn. I will give you a map over the building and all the keys you need.” He paused, casting a glance over at Dr. Choi before continuing.

“The creature you are supposed to take care of is probably not what you expect it to be. He’s the first of his species, created not by nature but by humans.”  Minseok hadn’t really known what to expect, so he hadn’t thought too much about it. But a living creature, created by humans … that could mean anything.

He started fearing the worst. His thoughts went to the assortment of creatures in sci-fi movies. Was he hired to watch over some sort of tentacle monster?

Probably noticing his dreads, Dr. Lee smiled calmingly at him. “Don’t worry; he almost certainly isn’t at all whatever you’re picturing right now.”

“Maybe we could just take him to meet Luhan, instead of wasting so much time explaining what can easier be observed?” Dr. Choi asked Dr. Lee, sounding impatient. Now Dr. Lee directed his smile towards his co-worked, but Minseok noticed it looked a bit more strained. 

“I know you want to get back to your family as soon as possible, but do you really think we should rush this?” he said lowly. Dr. Choi made a grimace, before once more turning towards Minseok.

“He looks like a human, but he isn’t, and therefore we need you to watch over him,” Dr. Choi explained hastily. “W-who?” Minseok stuttered. He noticed that Dr. Lee casted an annoyed look at his colleague.

“The creature you’re here to watch over. As I said, let’s take him to meet Luhan; it’s easier to just show him.” Dr. Lee sighed but agreed, and Minseok was once again being led along a never ending hallway.

This time it was seemed to be a winter garden he was led into. The heaps of leaves and flowers, green, yellow and red was overwhelming, especially compared to the clinical looking house and the flat lawn on the outside.

As he was led deeper in between trees and bushes, he saw that one of the walls actually was made of glass. There was also someone sitting right in front of it on a bench, looking out of the window.

Minseok wondered about several things at once. Why would someone look out on the boring lawn when there were so many pretty flowers and plants here on the inside? What was this young man doing here? Was he even male, or really just a tomboyish female? Why did he have blond hair, but Asian facial features? How could someone look that flawless?

Then he remembered what he was told earlier. He looks like a human.

When they were about five meters away from the stranger, Dr. Choi stopped and held out his hand to stop Minseok as well. Dr. Lee continued forwards, softly laying a hand on the blonde’s shoulder. The other didn’t react, just kept staring towards the empty garden.

The doctor leaned down, quietly mumbling something to the young male who still didn’t show any reaction. Minseok still couldn’t quite believe this was who he was supposed to watch over. He seemed more like a disabled child than some sort of crazy experiment creature.

Minseok was trained in taking care of animals, not humans. He was about to open his mouth and say so, but then Dr. Lee was signaling for him to come closer and Dr. Choi’s arm was now pushing him forwards.

Nervously he walked closer to the two in front of him, stopping right in front of the bench.

“Look Luhan, it’s your new caretaker that I told you about,” Dr. Lee said with a voice sounding like he was talking to a child. Still there was no reaction.

“Would you like to introduce yourself Minseok?”

No, he didn’t really want to introduce himself, but he tried to remember that this was now his (very well-paid) job. “Hi, um, Luhan … my name is Minseok,” he said, even though he felt stupid for talking to someone who didn’t acknowledge him at all.

To his surprise Luhan actually reacted. Blinking cutely, he turned his head towards him and looked at Minseok.

After all that apathetic behavior he expected the blonde’s eyes to be dull and lifeless. Instead he was met with the most sparkling eyes he’d ever seen.

The rest of Luhan’s face was pretty, but flat and empty. However his eyes seemed to glow with life and emotions. There was still no answer, but at least there had been a reaction.

Someone coughed. Startled Minseok realized where he was and that he’d been looking into Luhan’s eyes far longer than what could be considered appropriate.              

“We shall stop disturbing you now Luhan,” said Dr. Lee, patting the young man’s head before moving his hand over to Minseok’s shoulder, guiding him away.

It was only when they’re back in the kitchen he’d fully recovered and managed to pull himself together. Dr. Lee, who Minseok was beginning to suspect was really good at reading emotions, patted him on the back. “Don’t worry about your little slip back there. Most people do get a little overwhelmed when they first meet him, even though it was worse when he was younger.”

He nodded, when a thought struck him anew. “He … Luhan doesn’t seem like an animal. What do you need someone like me for?” There was an exchange of looks, where it seemed that the doctors silently had a conversation with their eyes, before Dr. Lee once again sighed and gave in.

“I guess it’s easier to just tell you the whole story,” Dr. Lee began. “As you can see, Luhan looks like a normal human, albeit one that can’t take care of himself. But as we told you earlier, he isn’t a normal being, but one created from scratch.” He continued telling the story with how Luhan was created, not going into details.  How it had somehow gone wrong and how helping with feeding Luhan intravenously was one of Minseok’s duties.

When they came to the part about how they discovered what Luhan really wanted to eat, Minseok couldn’t help that he felt queasy. It felt weird connecting something so vile with someone so innocent looking.

Yes, there were those who were nothing like how they looked. But wasn’t it a common saying that the eyes mirrored the soul? All he’d seen in Luhan eyes was a sinless child.

“And then almost nobody wanted to be closer to him. His mind was created to be intelligent, but he never got to develop it fully as his education was never finished. Some of his teachers stayed though … but then the second incident happened.”

“It was a couple of years later, when we still allowed staff to be in the same room as Luhan. A young gardener was cutting bushes in the winter garden, when he managed to cut himself deeply on a secateur, a garden scissor. Of course he knew that you shouldn’t bleed when around Luhan, but as far as he knew Luhan wasn’t in the room, so he wasn’t prepared of what was about to happen.”

Minseok felt dread creep up on him while the doctor told the story. Was his job to watch over a killer?

“To make a long story short; Luhan somehow ambushed him, knocked him out and drank a lot of his blood. If not another staff member had come upon it by a coincidence, and managed to drag Luhan off the gardener and call for help, he’d probably be dead.”

Relief flooded through him. Maybe it was illogical, but he preferred being around an almost murderer than an actual murderer. 

“After that we got security cameras over the entire building, and restricted who was around Luhan and where he was allowed to go more properly. We wouldn’t have minded the teachers staying, but they all quit after that. Do you now see how he is more an animal than an actual human?”

Minseok guessed he saw the doctor’s point, but there was still one thing he wanted to make completely clear. “So when Luhan attacks someone, it isn’t just because he wants their blood, it’s because his instincts tell him to do it when seeing or smelling that blood?”

Both doctors nodded, and Minseok noted that Dr. Choi still looked impatient. Dr. Lee must have noticed too, because he told Dr. Choi that he could do the rest himself and that he could go home. After Dr. Choi had said a quick goodbye and hasted away, Dr. Lee apologized on the behalf of his colleague.

“He’s not as impatient and easily annoyed usually, it’s just that he and his wife recently got their third child and he wants to spend as much time at home as possible. That’s one of the reasons hiring you was so important.”

Minseok answered that he it wasn’t anything to be sorry for and that he understood, before the doctor began to lead him around the house and gave him a full tour. The building was filled with long hallways and big rooms; scientific labs, storage rooms, offices and more. Dr. Lee explained that Minseok would get keys to every door, but that he wasn’t supposed to use most of them.

“All the doors leading to a hallway lock themselves automatically when closed, so you need to always have the keys with you.”

A room they stayed longer in than just for a quick peek was the surveillance room. It was next to Minseok’s bedroom, because he, the doctor explained, was supposed watch over Luhan most of the time.  

The room was filled with screens shoving every room in the building, the outside lawn and outside the port. The port was apparently very high tech, opening up only to cars with license numbers already registered to be welcome, so Minseok didn’t have to watch over that.

“The security system is always on, but I don’t expect you to always watch it, and if you prefer you also can watch Luhan in person. He doesn’t seem to care if someone is next to him or not anyhow. This screen shows his room and that one at its right shows his bathroom.”

After finishing the tour they went down to Dr. Lee’s car and got Minseok’s belongings moved to his bedroom. He didn’t own much, but as he was supposed to stay there for so long he’d brought almost all of his clothes with him, along with some books and a few personal belongings.

“Oh, it’s getting dark already,” Dr. Lee exclaimed when they walked outside. “I didn’t notice how much time had gone by. We better get Luhan into bed after we finish carrying your things inside.”

They were once again going to the winter garden. It was much darker in there this time, it didn’t seem like the bright light that filled the rest of the house was built-in here. In a way it was comfortable, the dim light that was there filled the room with a warmer glow than the bright lights did in the rest of the house.  

Minseok had never been especially afraid of the dark, but he couldn’t help notice how the plants made long shadows, some places growing so dense that they were impossible to see through even in the daylight. Who knew what could hide in darkness like that? It was impossible to forget that the being he watched over could be a bloodthirsty animal.

On the other hand Luhan didn’t remind him much of a monster when he saw him this time either. Sitting in the exact same place as before, not seeming to have moved an inch since they last encountered him. The moonlight shining through the window made him appear even paler than before, almost like he was shining, fitting better with the description of angelic rather than demonic.

This time they approached him together, but Minseok stepped back a bit and let Dr. Lee take charge. He did not look forward to doing all this alone tomorrow. But at least it seemed as an easier job than he’d feared, Luhan standing up and following Dr. Lee as soon as he was told it was bedtime.

It turned out that Luhan’s room was right next to the garden. The room was neither big nor small, filled with a bed with a feeding device next to it. There also were two chairs, a small table and a shelf with a small amount of books. On his left there was a closed door, which he assumed lead to Luhan’s bathroom.

Minseok could understand that Luhan preferred being in the winter garden rather than here. The room reminded him of a hospital room; sterile and with washed out pale colors. There were furthermore no windows, and when they closed the door it felt quite like being inside a box.

Luhan went inside the bathroom while Dr. Lee explained to Minseok how the feeding device worked, and how you connected it to someone. “It’s not difficult, and he manages to take it off himself, so you don’t have to worry about him in the mornings.”

Soon Luhan came back, having changed into his pajamas. Obediently he went to his bed; lying perfectly still while Dr. Lee and Minseok connected him to the IV drip. After they were done Dr. Lee tucked the duvet around him, and they were just about to leave when he spoke up.

“Where is … Isn’t Dr. Choi here today?” said Luhan, his voice soft and melodious. Minseok was surprised; he’d more or less assumed that Luhan didn’t speak at all. He found himself thinking he wouldn’t mind hearing more of that voice.

“Dr. Choi has already returned home,” was Dr. Lee’s answer. Luhan didn’t say anything more, just nodded. Minseok thought that he had a sad look in his eyes, but before he could look closer Luhan closed his eyes and Dr. Lee had already left.

After seeing off Dr. Lee Minseok returned to the surveillance room. He focused his attention on the screen shoving Luhan’s room, where Luhan now was sleeping peacefully. He observed him carefully, while he at the same time tried to sort through his thoughts. There was so much information to process, and his mind was messier than it had been in years.

Luhan looked even more vulnerable asleep, a skinny pale boy connected to a feeding device. The thin tube sticking out from under his covers, the IV drip slowly feeding him the nutrition he needed to survive. Minseok was overwhelmed with sudden sympathy of the being created to be strong and healthy, that ended up living like a sick hospital patient.

Someone else had created him, made the mistake that made him what he was. It had never been Luhan’s fault, and Minseok reached the conclusion that he wouldn’t judge Luhan for what he was, but do his best to look after him.

He sat in the chair and reflected over everything he knew and had learned that day, untill watching the slow rhythmic rise and fall of Luhan’s chest lulled him into sleep.

AN: This story began with me wanting to write horror after reading a lot of really good horror fanfics. However in the end it turned out more as science fiction romance. The first scene I wrote for this was quite gory though, but sadly it's cut from the story already. I might post it as a drabble later.

Oh and Xiuhan because they are really adorable and lovely so of course they need some gore and suffering in ther fictional life.

(Btw; I blame all my Luhan feels on you Anna >;C)