To begin, I must start by finding test subjects. I’ve been told by my extended family it’s best to turn young boys, because they are easier to control. So I will start there.
My stomach flipped, and I fought to keep the contents down.
She stole children to turn into monsters. Tears pricked my eyes. That was what I came from?
Was the monster I was facing this Defect #3, Rot, that was mentioned in the last entry?
Then it hit me: there were fifteen years worth of entries.
She did these ‘experiments’ for a decade and a half. No one stopped her, not even her conscious.
I ran to the washbasin, unable to hold my stomach down that time. My foot went through the floor as my lunch evacuated.
Maybe it was for the best that no one came for me, if that was the stock I was born from. Was it too much to hope she was the black sheep of the family? Why did I have the feeling that she wasn’t? That she was the norm.
My stomach was raw and empty by the time I wiped my mouth. My reflection peered back to me, showing how pale my face was, and the circles around my eyes. My black hair was a mess at the top of my head, making me look like a drowned rat.
But the bright blue of my eyes pulled my attention away from that.
“Our eyes call evil to us, my sweet Talia. We must always remember that we are magnets meant to ensnare the worst men and monsters.”My mother’s voice echoed in my head.“It’s our punishment.”
Was this why?
My hands shook as I packed the book inside a waterproof bag in my backpack, against my better judgement. But I had too many questions that I would need answers for, and I was willing to bet there were details about how to deal with the monster in there. Scientists don’t create things without having an antidote for it.
My mind wandered to the symbols on the cabin as my eyes went to the vials in the cabinet. It was also very likely this woman didn’t follow scientific rules at all, but either way thiswas knowledge I couldn’t abandon simply because it made me uncomfortable .
Like what kind of ‘magic’ made the monster who would ruin me inside and out.
I opened the door to one of the side rooms and found a closet that reeked of shit and piss. I gagged from the smell that was somehow preserved in this wet, contained space. Snapping the door shut, I covered my nose, happy there was nothing left for me to puke.
Well, she’d been locked in right? I guess there was nowhere else for her to go if the outhouse was behind the cabin or something.
My hand hesitated on the doorknob for the next room, unsure if I really needed to go in there or not. Keeping my hand tight to my face, I opened the door.
The smell was worse in a way. The decay of flesh was pungent. The half decayed woman on the bed was an ugly reminder of what would happen to me if I stayed.
I tried to scrounge up some pity for the woman. I even tried being angry at the monster that did this to her. But I couldn’t.
She deserved this fate.
Maybe that thought made me evil too. I didn’t really care.
I did a cursory search of the room, but didn’t find anything useful. No surprise, I guess. If he wanted her to die, he couldn’t let her keep any tools to escape.
Well I wouldn’t lay down and die, hoping a way-ward monster would grow a conscious and save me. I also didn’t think his intent was to kill me. It was to cage me.
So he could attack the other members of the expedition without my interference.
They always wanted to contain me. Keep me in their box to take care of myself. Seen and not heard.
I was half tempted to eat a poisonous frog I saw hopping around, just to spite him.
But not today.
I wouldn’t slowly decay in this place.
I wouldn’t die like her.
