The Variable

The year 2030, April 08

Professor Ace stepped off the car from San Diego to downtown Los Angeles, while grabbing, and holding on to his newborn and rushed hurriedly into the “Neutrino Observatory.” His Rolex’s second hand synchronized with his pulsing heart, knowing the stranger was after the child. This stretch of the research facility is notoriously seedy, home to many of the groundbreaking innovations from the professor. No wands required to discover deep secrets of the observatory, but you will need the help of an incredible team of scientists, including the professor, to help bring light to specific regions of the particle collider. The officials considered it a “containment zone” for the latest confidential experiments of the professor on neutrinos.

The professor locked all the entry points to the observatory using top of the line iris-based bio-metric system and ran to the surveillance room.

“I am sorry, Miranda!” moaned the professor while feeling his hands over the fresh bloodstains of his wife on his clothing and monitored the entry points.

When the sun hit twilight, the killer flashed across the third screen of the surveillance system. To the professor’s horrific surprise, the killer phased right through the door.

“There is only one way left!” said the professor as he ran through the corridor half foxed while having a hand on the baby. Eventually, the professor got into the elevator. When the door was about to close, the armed killer, wearing a red hoodie with longer than usual sleeves, entered the corridor. His face was utterly bandaged up, only exposing his blue eyes, which were itching to kill, was enough to command the professor’s attention.

“Those Eyes!” the professor hissed

The professor pushed through the door connecting to the radiofrequency cavities, closing it carefully behind him while hinging the chair on the knob. The room was nearly empty and silent but for the tiny sounds of footsteps of the stranger that persisted and intensified as he ran through the staircase. Professor silently sobbed as he rocked in the corner of the empty black-walled room and placed his child inside the booster rings of the particle collider.

“Candice, What’s the estimated time period?”

“Estimated April 08, 1999 doctor!” came the response from Candice, the artificial intelligence that did the heavy lifting for the professor’s project.

“Fire up the systems!” said the professor

“I suppose the only way out is to kill the child. It’s too bad- you remind me of me, in a way.” The stranger gestured and shot the knob with his point 30 Carbine.

“It’s the child’s fault, Ace.” He said, breaking eye contact and pointing the gun at the child across the darkroom.

“You weren’t always like this, Ace. An outcast. You are sent away by your own family, your own flesh and blood. To be trapped in a godforsaken world full of pain and misery. There was nothing left for you. Nothing at first, you tried to ignore it, the name-calling. ‘Monster’, ‘freak’, ‘demon’’. It wasn’t your fault. You never asked for this, and you never want to be, to be this! It was a burden. You hated every second of the life you now live. You are trying to think, day in and day out. All those nights that passed you by. Desperately trying to think about where it all went wrong. You can end this, Ace! Join me and put an end to this by killing the child.” screamed the stranger with his blue eyes tearing down.

There were many inaccuracies and faults, and the test violated regulations combined with the flawed design of the rings, caused a sudden power surge. The professor could feel that something terrible was coming. Seconds later, an immense explosion detached the stream of neutrinos, covering the booster rings, and releasing radiation into the child. The child screamed and cried with its strange tongue as it tumbled into the professor’s experiment.

The professor couldn’t take his eyes off his slowing disintegrating child. The high-speed neutrinos hit the child’s body and ripped it apart. Catching the professor off guard, the killer pierced him by the hip while yanking him out of the ring and slamming his face onto the desk.

“It ends now, Ace!” said the stranger while releasing the trigger.

At that exact moment, the second explosion of even greater magnitude than the first blew the room apart, releasing the stranger off balance and changing the trajectory of the bullet to the child’s left hand. The explosion kicked the stranger and the professor off the room while exposing the child to astronomically high levels of radiation and practically vaporizing it.

From here, everything was dark and abysmal. The professor himself was the most abysmal of all, and he was one with the void. His eyes clenched shut and teeth grinding together as he continues to be in pain both physically and mentally.

The stranger got up from the tantrum, while the professor continues to lay down in pain.

“Dark Darker yet Darker!” chanted the killer while removing his plasters that enveloped his face. For every bit of the skin exposed, it took time for the professor to pick himself up with what was happening. The confused look of the professor lit up a smirk on the stranger’s face as he walked down to him. The stranger removed his red jacket, and as the coat touched the ground, chills were driven up the professor’s spine.

“How is this even possible? Why would you want to do this?” said the professor while recovering from the pain.

“You tried playing god, didn’t you, Ace? Being able to create a new life. You think you were the lucky one, huh? Being able to control such life through your selfish desire?” told the stranger as he pointed his point 30 at the professor.

The stranger then whispered down the professor’s ear.

“It can’t be, I can’t…” said the professor while the stranger pulled the trigger on him with agony and killing him.

Eventually, the stranger yelled out in anger while slamming his hands against the walls harshly. He grabbed a sharp shard from the debris and began to reach to his right eye. Using the shard, he pinned down his eyelids open. Breathing sharply in pain, he plunged out his right eye and knifed it. Falling to his knees as he sobs, he then slit open his left eye. He saw nothing but darkness and had gone completely blind. He then scraped his fingerprints on his hand and legs and sliced his face, knees, and ankles. The red blood that were to cover the floor instantly gushed out, leaking from every cut on his body, completely erasing his identity.

Eventually, he stopped screaming in agony and sat down peacefully with the wall supporting his back and whispered.

“Dark Darker yet Darker” before pulling the trigger on himself.