The Experiment

Changmin was a klutz - the person that trips over his own legs. He was ridiculously tall, perfect height for playing in a basketball team, but his clumsiness was a barrier he couldn’t pass by. Luckily, instead of sports he preferred spending his time among books, studying and working with his mind. At the university he had found his niche. Chemistry was a fascinating world of infinite possibilities in making of new substances. Changmin’s dream was to create a unique substance just like they used to in novels with alchemists and potion masters. For some people it would have sounded childish, but in his opinion learning from even his ignored ancestors could bring the field of chemistry to the new level. No wonder he said yes when professor Park had asked him to become his assistant.

They called him “Professor Psy” because of his odd behaviour and mysterious experiments he supposedly worked on.

“ He locks himself in the laboratory  at night, all by himself, but no one knows what he's working on.”

“ This is why he looks so absent all the time…”

“ I’ve heard that his wife died and he couldn’t resign himself to that so he tries to find a way to resurrect her.”

“ Oh! He wants to become Frankenstein or what?”

“ What a psycho…”

And so the gossips floated about.

One day Changmin was walking down the university corridor. With an armful of books and his sight blocked by them he unexpectedly bumped onto professor Park.

“I am so s-sorry, professor!” he mumbled picking up the strewed around books. The professor only waved it off. He picked up a book and read the title out loud:

“Atoms and alchemy, eh? I wouldn’t have thought you are interested in such subjects.” The man smiled widely and Changmin’s face went a bit pale.

“ I…I…”

“It’s ok, it’s good to read various books.”

Changmin tried to smile in agreement but it looked too forced instead. He wanted to quickly end this conversation but they were just standing in uncomfortable silence.

“I have a favor to ask.” the professor finally said with a serious look on his face. “ I need assistance with my experiment, I’m sure you’ve heard about it.” The boy nodded hesitantly. Yeah, I’ve heard. No good things, though.

“I want to take you as an assistant.”

After the classes ended Changmin followed professor Psy to his laboratory. They were walking fast down the street; the professor was doing that almost mechanically, like a Pacman. They found themselves in a narrow side street.

“I’m running this experiment for 5 years now. The first attempt took about a year, but it did’t go well. This is the second one. Took me some time to complete all the ingredients - but here it is!”   

The professor pulled out a key and unlocked the door with a creak. They went down the stairs where he opened the next door.

The men entered the laboratory. It was quiet; stuffed with glass jars and test-tubes. The smell reminded Changmin of a hospital. Some of the tubes were connected to each other with rubber pipes and some were filled with unknown substances. On the desk stood something big, covered with a blue cloth. The professor lifted the cloth and revealed the cage with a rat inside.

“ This little guy helps me with the experiment. Could you please bring me the pipette and that jar next to it? Over there, the jar with the pink liquid.” Changmin did as asked and stood behind the professor’s back, observing the older man putting a drop of liquid on the rat’s nape. The animal wasn’t pleased but it didn’t struggle, must’ve been used to this.

“ At the beginning I was putting one drop every 24 hours, but I decided to increase the frequency step by step and so it became one drop per hour. I cannot do it by myself for obvious reasons. Work, you know. And this is where I need an assistant, that is – you. I want you to sit here and do this for a few hours every day and then we would change shifts. I would legitimize your absence from classes or even credit this as a part of a project.”

Changmin looked at the rat for a while and then at professor again. Driven by curiosity, considering every pro and contra.

“So my job is to maculate the rat every hour?”

“ Well, also feeding and cleaning the cage. And not the rat, but mouse, to be precise.”

“ A mouse?” Changmin looked at the large rodent again. “But it’s so big…”

“ Its size is to a certain extent the result of the experiment.”

 The young man pondered again. After a while he asked:

“Professor, what exactly is the subject of this experiment?”

He took a deep breath upon the professor’s answer:

“ To create an unlimited strength potion”

The young student didn’t know how to feel; relieved, since the professor wasn’t a lunatic science man who wanted to resurrect dead people, or disappointed, for maculating and observing an outgrown mouse was a horribly boring job. On the other hand he could at least fulfill his little, secret dream. Besides, even such clumsy person like him couldn’t fail at doing such a task.

At least I’m not going to this up. he thought.

After a week of assistance in professor’s Psy laboratory Changmin found himself getting along pretty well with him. The professor was in fact a very nice man and even the tools repeatedly dropping out of Changmin’s hands didn’t seem to drive him crazy. They shared a similar dream and were making a good working duo.

One evening Changmin was feeding the mouse and professor Psy was sitting near arranging some paperwork. The boy glimpsed at the photograph standing on the desk. It was showing a pretty woman, probably in her 30’s. Changmin guessed it was the professor’s wife.

“Yes…” the man said like he could read Changmin’s thoughts. “She was a wonderful woman, my Mirae. We were happy, we had a big house with a garden, as she wanted. Everything was always as she wanted. She would plant flowers in the garden and I would take a break from my work and look at how beautiful she was when doing what she liked. But then…” the professor paused “ Everything was over. My experiment failed, the mouse ran away. It was strong enough to escape and I couldn’t do anything. I had to start all over again. One day, Mirae called me. She was in panic, she said there was something in the house. I’ve never heard her being so afraid. I said I’ll be there in no time and I rushed. But when I got there… it was too late. The firemen were putting out the fire. I screamed that my wife was in the house but they told me… that she was not with us anymore.”

The silence remained. Changmin swallowed; the sound of it appeared too loud for him. He thought that the professor was about to cry after sharing his sad memory. But the man was sitting stiffly, nothing but emptiness painted on his face. He stood up and said it was getting late and he’d be off for now.

“I’ll be back in three hours.” He said and left the laboratory. Changmin sighed. He took out a book, sat on the professor’s chair and after glancing at the mouse again he submerged himself in reading. It was hard to focus on it, though.

A loud commotion woke him up. He looked around nervously.

“Oh shoot! I fell asleep!” he cursed himself for being so careless. Then he suddenly realized that the cage was lying on the floor, empty. But where did the mouse go?

 Changmin bent and started to look for the mouse under the desks.

“Little mousey…? Little my . “Where are you?”

He checked under the locker and then under another one. He moved some carton boxes and went under the table. The space was so little it was difficult to move his head around.

On his right he suddenly noticed the mouse's tail which disappeared quickly.

“Aha! Here you are!”

Changmin leaned forward and tried to feel for the animal, when a sudden wave of pain shot through his hand and made him scream. He withdrew from under the table, hitting his head at the top. He lurched, still in pain. On his hand one could see a bloody bite mark; the mouse had bitten him. He looked around again. Under no circumstances he could let the mouse escape the laboratory. What would professor Psy say if he found out his experiment had been spoiled for the second time? Holding his hurting hand he began to look for it again.

A strange inkling came to his mind. He turned around and saw the mouse sitting about three steps away from him. Not wanting to scare it, Changmin reached out his hand and calmly began to approach the animal.

“Good mouse, good mouse.” he murmured.

Only then the boy realized the mouse stared at him just like a hunter stares at his prey. He didn’t manage to think twice when the mouse lunged at him.

Changmin shielded his face with his arms. He tried to catch the mouse but it was really fast. The potion must’ve been working. The mouse was biting Changmin here and there, avoiding his hopelessly flapping hands.

It made its way to Changmin’s neck and gnawed into it. The man screamed, blood splattering around. He gripped the mouse and with exertion he managed to throw it away. Then he quickly jumped up and darted at the door.

All of a sudden he felt an enormous pain in his back. It went up the spine and then to his neck again. The mouse didn’t give up. Its bites became more violent and Changmin realized he was getting weaker and didn’t have the strength to fight back. He could see the blood stains on the door and floor before his vision slowly began to blur.

Who could’ve guessed I’d die being bitten by a outgrown mouse… he thought, losing his consciousness.

I'm back! :D I'm so happy i'm writing again.

Here it is: a sequel to my first story. What can you expect? A thrilling stories that will chase off the sleep from your eyes! >:)

Nah, I'm kidding, they're not that scary.    

But i hope you'll enjoy it.

Have a good day!

Meg