Shades of White part 1

A/N: This is my first time ever publishing something on here, so I’m quite nervous… Here goes nothing! I’m looking for criticism, too. *EDIT* I think I've fixed the errors! Thanks for the reviewers pointing them out to me! 

Human beings are cruel. All they do is take.They steal everything, whether it be items, money, or even the lives of other humans.

Trust me. I have come to learn things in my short time here on Earth.

I learned that people were cruel, merciless creatures of greed when I was very young. Seven years old, to be exact.

It all started when it was “bring your parent to class” at school one day. As soon as I got home that evening, I bounded up to my beloved mother.

“Can you come to school tomorrow?” I asked her, my bright blue eyes shining with enthusiasm.

“Why?” she hissed back. She had placed her newspaper down and was glaring at me coldly.

“Tomorrow we show off our parents and they come in and talk about their job,” I beamed.

“I suppose so,” Mom said with a sigh. She began reading her daily paper again.

“Wait, where do you work, Mommy? I don’t know where you work. You’ve never told me.”

Mom placed her paper down onto the coffee table. I knew that she was about to get serious.

“Bjorn,” she addressed me, a certain seriousness in her voice, “You are much too young to even begin to comprehend… I bet you don’t even know what the word comprehend means, do you?

“Yeah I do. It means to understand,” I responded, my head held high with pride. In my youth, I spent my time with my nose in a book. Other boys my age spent their time playing with toy cars and planes. Thus, I prided myself with knowing many enhanced vocabulary words.

“Still,” my mom said, “you wouldn’t understand… And I don’t think a class of second graders would, either. If you really want me to come, I’ll have to dumb it down a little.”
“Please!” I exclaimed, tugging on her shirt. “Please tell me where you work! I’ve always wanted to know but I was too afraid to ask.”
My mother let out a frustrated sigh and rubbed her forehead with one of her hands. “Okay. I suppose that you are smart enough to understand now. My shift begins in an hour. Instead of taking you to the baby sitter, I’ll take you with me.”
“Thank you, Mommy!” I proclaimed as I embraced her, wrapping my arms around her waist. I was bursting with excitement. Finally I would get to learn where my mother worked and I didn’t have to go to the stupid baby sitter for once.

About an hour and a half later, Mom and I got out of the car in a very vacant parking garage. I could hear the sounds and see the lights of the bustling city in the distance. There was an elevator to the right. The clock outside of it read “9:30.” I was so stoked. That was way passed by bedtime!
“Stay close to me,” I heard mom whisper. I ran up to her and never strayed from her side as we approached the elevator.

After the elevator ride, we found ourselves in a darkened room. Mom went ahead of me while I glared up at the single light bulb in the room, watching it flicker. When I looked down, I lost my mother. 

“Mommy!” I yelled, frightened by her sudden disappearance. “Where are you!?”

“I’m right here, Bjorn. Don’t fret.”

I watched as my mom stepped out from around the corner, clad in white.

“You look like a doctor,” I stated, “but this doesn’t look like a doctor’s office."

Her eyes lit up as she flashed me a grin. She adjusted her white coat and responded, “I’m no doctor. I work with chemicals. Very dangerous things that could kill you if you abuse them.”

I swallowed hard as a shiver ran down my spine. Very dangerous things? Like what?

“But don’t worry yourself. I won’t take you around anything too harmful. I want to show you what my coworkers are up to. They do things that are not as dangerous.”

I ran up to Mom and grabbed her hand. She wrapped her large fingers around my smaller ones tightly. I didn’t feel safe here, but I felt safe by her side.

We went down a long, eerie hallway and came to a large door. She pushed it open and led me inside the room.

The entire room had that certain doctor smell. The same smell that floods my nostrils each time I go to the doctor. It was also dark and felt rather scary. The walls where white. Solid white. The neutral color that made me feel empty inside.

I looked around me. There was no color in the room. Just white and grey. It was like I was beginning to see in black and white. I glanced up at my mother’s red hair just to make sure I hadn’t gone completely colorblind.

“Michelle!" a very tall, grey haired man rasped as he approached. “You’re late.” The man then looked down at me, his silvery eyes melting into the depths of my soul. “And who is the little one, Michelle? A donation, perhaps?”

Donation!? I screamed inside myself. What does he mean?

“I’m afraid you won’t be using him as a subject, Gage,” Mom laughed. She reached down and ran a hand through my fluffy blonde hair. “I’d like you to meet Bjorn. He’s my son.”

“He appears to have superior genetics, Michelle,” Gage replied as he studied me. “I don’t think I could bring myself to use such a fine looking adolescent for testing.”

And with that the creepy man returned to his microscope.

“Don’t be frightened by old Gage,” Mom whispered into my ear. “He studies stem cells and has an odd fascination with collecting them from children."

I wanted to get out of here. It was very uncomfortable here, especially with that creep on the other side of the room.

“Stay here,” Mother told me, “I’m going to speak with Mr. Gage for a moment.”

I watched mom walk away, and I thought that that would be the perfect time to walk around and explore this scientific wonderland.

We had just begun learning about science in school, and it sparked my interest. Now that I knew Mom was a scientist, I started to believe that perhaps an interest in science “ran in the family.” (My father was a scientist, too. That’s all I ever knew about him.)

I turned my head and caught a glimpse of a beaker sitting on a table. A crystal clear solution was inside, bubbling and blowing a mysterious smoke. With curiosity beckoning me, I approached the beaker and immediately inhaled.

Suddenly, a sharp burning sensation started in my nose. Before I could even register what was happening, a steady stream of blood poured from my nostrils.

“Mommy!” I cried, tears now streaming down my face.

She rushed over to me with a look of horror on her face. “Bjorn! What are you doing?!”
I immediately embraced my mother once she had raced over to me. My nosebleed had ceased, but my nostrils still burned.

She looked into the beaker and let out a sigh of relief. “You’re safe, but you might have burned some nose hairs.”

“Children are destructive,” I heard Gage scowl. “Michelle, what even possessed you to bring him?”

“He wanted to know where I work,” Michelle responded, “and I thought that he was mature enough and intelligent enough to know now. Please forgive his reckless behavior.”

The older man slightly nodded and said, “I forgive you. At least he’s learned his lesson.”

I turned my gaze down to the white tiled flooring. I was a bit ashamed of myself.

Gage turned to me and rasped, “Next time you want to smell something, waft it. Do you understand?”

I nodded, even though I didn't have a clue as to what exactly a “waft” was.

Minutes passed. As Mother and her co-worker worked together, I sat in the floor. I was bored out of my mind. There was nothing to do in this place.

I looked up and something caught my attention. A door with a label that read “ENTER WITH CAUTION.” I wondered what could have been in there. A powerful chemical? The cure for cancer? A mutated dog with two heads and eight legs? Anything could have been through that door, and my young imagination tried to think of everything that could be in there.

“I’m bored,” I said out loud.

“I think I can fix that,” Gage replied. He stood up and said, “Follow me.”

“Where are you taking him?” I heard Mom ask.

Gage half smiled. “I’m just taking him in here. I’ll show him M188.”

“Oh, okay,” Mom stated plainly.

I arose to my feet and followed the older scientist. My heart sank as he held the door labeled “ENTER WITH CAUTION” open.

“You want me to go in there?” I shivered.

He nodded. “Yes. Don’t worry, there’s not a scary monster in there. In fact, I think you’ll be quite intrigued.”
I hesitantly stepped through the doorway, my heart beating out of my chest as I placed my gaze upon the creature beyond the door...