Young Writers Society

Note: This is a story I wrote for my school publication when I was still a member. To be honest, I was and still am rather pissed that this was canceled when what was 'agreed' was that I'd still work on this assignment. What pisses me more is that it was canceled without informing me. Ugh. Anyway, I did not edit this before posting it here. I only added a beginning sentence. Also, I edited this for already seven times.

- - - - - - -

There, we stood in the silence of the hallway, its walls painted with a darkening grey.

“No!” I growled as my father seized his dog from my arms and pushed me down to the floor. Zoey, dad’s trained brown-furred native dog, was dying. She had lost too much blood from a wound caused by an explosion in my dad’s laboratory.

I held my tears back as I glared at my father. The dog was motionless in his arms and it was difficult for me to see her dying. Even though dad technically owned Zoey, I was the one who acted as her loving master… She was my only friend.

“Let Zoey go!” I shouted. “You’re just going to do another experiment on her! Please… let her rest.”

“You want this useless dog to live. Am I right, Cliff?” said my dad with sarcasm, raising his voice. His eyes glared back at mine through his glasses.

His words pierced through my chest. I did want Zoey to live, but knowing how much of a mad scientist my father was, I knew it wasn’t really life that he’d give his dog. I didn’t want Zoey to suffer in this mad house anymore.

“Shut up. Just shut up!” I retorted, “To die is better than be experimented on again!”

“No, you shut up!” shouted my dad. “Clara, taser him!” he ordered my mom at his left. I could hear her sobbing.

“But-” mom uttered in reluctance.

“Taser him or you’ll be my subject!”

Mom walked towards me, taser in hand.

She knelt down to reach me and whispered, sobbing, “S-sorry, son…” Then she struck the taser on my shoulder.

I quickly fell down on the floor, trembling like I was an epileptic with seizures.

My mind went blank.

- - -

“Cliff. Cliff!” called my mom as she shook my shoulder. “Wake up!”

I sat up on my bed, catching my breath. My sleeveless shirt was drenched in sweat.

“God… it’s that nightmare again,” I said in a low voice.

“What?” asked mom.

“I,” I exhaled. “I keep dreaming of the time when dad took Zoey from me so that he could cryonicize her two years ago…” I said, frowning. The memory of the dog being frozen in liquid nitrogen for two years depressed me.

“Are you okay, Cliff?” asked my mom, worry was evident in her tone. She was sitting at the right side of my bed. The morning sunlight that glimmered through the blinds to the left shone on her long black hair. Her pink blouse hung unflatteringly on her thin, sickly body, her skirt covered her thighs.

“You know the answer to that,” I replied as I wiped the sweat off my skinny cheeks with my hand. “I’ll never be fine as long as I’m inside this house.”

“You know that we’re trapped here as long as we’re alive, right?” she asked, sadness was apparent in her face.

“Why don’t we escape?” I blurted out.

“Enough, Cliff. You almost ended up killed by your father when you tried to!” she exclaimed as she stood up from the bed. “Come.”

A second of silence… She turned away and slightly looked back. “Breakfast is ready.” And she turned her back to face the door.

I wondered why she paused, but pushed the thought away my mind.

“With your help,” I spoke in a low voice, “I can es— no – we can escape.”

I paused. “We can try.”

But without looking at me she went towards the open doorway and left. I sighed.

I followed her but stopped at the door. She turned to the left of the hallway towards the dining room. I looked at the other end where the metal main door of the house stood. It had a big keyhole. Zoey was at the foot of the door, looking at me. She wasn’t wagging her tail but she didn’t seem to be angry. She was only revived yesterday and I wondered if she could still remember me.

Zoey climbed up the stairs to the left of the main door. It led to the lab of my father. I followed the dog and found the door of the lab open.

“Hey!” I called to Zoey in a whisper when she entered the lab. “Come back here!”

I followed her into the lab. The sunlight that entered through the doorway was enough for me to see. The lab looked like an office, with desks and tables around the room. There were vials, flasks, tripods, Bunsen burners, and other chemistry equipment at the right. There was an aluminium container laid on a table to the left. There was a screen with buttons at its side.

I think I can fit in, I thought as I looked at it. I suspected it was where Zoey was cryonicized.

When I looked at the dog, she was looking at a drawer that had a rusty keyhole on it, wagging her tail. I went towards the drawer and tried to pull it open but it was locked like I guessed.

“Careful, Zoey!” I said as she went to the table at the right past the chemistry equipment. She looked at a pencil holder. I removed the pens and the pencils in the holder and found a slightly rusty key at the bottom.

I held it in my hand and looked at Zoey, realizing that the key was for the locked drawer. We went back to that drawer and I inserted the key.

It fit! I had goose bumps on my skin as I turned the key, thrilled of what I could find inside the drawer. I pulled the drawer open and found another key inside. It was rather big and silvery.

“What’s this, Zoey?” I complained as I took the key, disappointed. I thought there was something more interesting inside. “A mystery game?”

“Cliff!” I jumped at the sound of my father calling my name. “Cliff! Where are you!?”

Quickly, I closed the drawer and put the two keys inside the pocket of my shorts. I tiptoed as fast as I could outside the lab and down the stairs. Zoey stood by the main door again and barked at me. I realized that the big key was for the main door. Setting the thought aside in my mind, I dashed towards the dining room. I’m dead if dad finds out I went inside his lab.

Dad was standing at the other end of the dining table, his stern-looking face frowning. He folded the long sleeves of his polo and crossed his arms, his eyes glaring through his glasses like they did in the dream I had. Mom sat at his right and said nothing, but her eyes lowered down in gloom.

I bowed my head down in fear and didn’t look. I expected to be zapped with a taser again… well, for taking too long to come. But dad just sat down his chair and waited until I sat down on the remaining chair at the right.

“What took you so long?” he asked in an indifferent tone.

I kept silent, slightly panicking to articulate a reason in my mind.

“Z-Zoey missed me,” I stuttered. Silence fell into the room again.

I looked at the food on the center of the table – It was roast chicken swimming in thick gravy. I almost drooled at the sight of it. Smoke arose from the rice on the plate beside it.

The inviting smell had begun to fill my nostrils as my parents pierced their forks into the luscious flesh of the chicken and divided it with the serving spoon after they served their plates with rice. My appetite impelled me to take the serving spoon and serve my plate as soon as they were done.

“How are you, son?” asked my dad in an unexpectedly rather cheerful tone. I was about to begin serving my plate with the chicken.

“Don’t be afraid,” he encouraged. “You’re not trying to escape again, are you?”

He chuckled.

“Um, no! No,” I answered defensively and continued serving my plate.

Finally, I was done and began eating. I could feel the saliva flooding my mouth as the rich flavor swam through my tongue.

Why aren’t they touching their plates? I suspiciously thought as I looked at them.

“Anyway, I’m going to do another experiment today,” dad spoke. “It’s cryonics again.”

I stood up, swallowing the food inside my mouth. “No! Not Zoey again!”

“Well,” said my dad, standing up as he removed his glasses. “It’s not Zoey.”

“M-Mom?” I muttered, looking at her with worry. But I was already suspecting that it was me.

“No, son,” dad said. “It’s you.”

“What? Me!?” I exclaimed in fear.

“Don’t worry. You’ll live. See how Zoey survived?” he continued.

“I don’t care if that experiment was successful!” I yelled as I glared at my dad. “I won’t let you experiment on me this time. I’m going back to my room.”

I headed for my bedroom, but I suddenly fell down the floor.

What the- !? I can’t move! I thought, struggling to get up.

“What did you do to me!?” I turned my head and yelled at dad. “You’ve paralyzed me!?”

“Don’t be so stupid, son,” he replied, walking towards me. “Now, I’m taking you to my lab.”

He carried my limp body and headed for the lab.

“You put something in the food?” I asked mom with an angry tone.

“I- I…” she muttered in a low voice, her head down.

“Mom!” I called, my voice growling, but as dad moved to the hallway, the wall blocked my view.

Zoey was at the main door. She growled and barked at dad when she saw him. Dad ignored her as we went up the stairs to the left. Then we reached the laboratory. I was relieved that dad didn’t seem to be suspicious when we entered that I did something inside earlier. He laid me inside the aluminum container to the left.

I knew it! This is where he did cryonics on Zoey!

“Let me go!” I shouted at dad, glaring.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said as he headed back the doorway. “I’ll be back.”

“Hey! Let me go!” I kept on shouting but he was already gone.

Minutes passed and there was nothing for me to do but to stare at the white ceiling. I could no longer move my head. But then I heard footsteps coming.

“L-Let me go, you crazy scientist!” I murmured. I could barely open my mouth anymore. But I was glad I could still speak somehow, whatever the substance was put in the food.

“It’s me, son,” replied my mother as she walked towards me.

“What are you doing here!?” I roared at her. “You- you, traitor!”

“He threatened to kill me if I wouldn’t do it,” she whispered in a sad tone. “Please forgive me, Cliff.”

I exhaled as I looked away. Suddenly, I remembered about the keys in my pocket.

“I’ll forgive you… if only you’d take the big key in my pocket and leave this place,” I said in a low voice, seriously looking in her eyes.

“Where did you get it!?” she breathed in surprise, her eyes widened.

“It’s not important,” I whispered. “Take it!”

“But… What about you?” she whispered back. “I can’t leave you!”

“I’d rather know that you’re someplace safe than find out how many experiments he’s done on you when I get revived,” I said with a gravely serious tone.

“But—”

“Please! Take it and go!” I told her, locking my eyes on hers.

Slowly, she took the key in my pocket. I could feel her fear and worry seeing her trembling hand. She held it near her with both hands.

Then we heard footsteps.

“What are you doing here, Clara!?” my dad shouted.

“I- I just wanted to say ‘goodbye’,” mom replied without looking at him. I saw her secretly slip the key inside the pocket of her skirt.

“Then do it!” my dad told her.

“Goodbye, son,” she said as she bent over, her voice trembled in sadness. A teardrop fell from her eyes as she closed them.

“I will come back for you,” she whispered as she suddenly hugged me and began to sob.

“Hurry up, Clara,” said my dad, putting something down on the floor. It clinked and I thought it was metal.

“Hey,” I called in a low voice when she was about to go. She turned back and slightly leaned her head over me.

“Promise me you’ll leave, okay?” I continued. “And bring Zoey.”

“I will,” she replied, whispering. “I promise…”

Don’t stay, mom… I thought as she left, the sound of her footsteps fading.

Dad started to move towards me. He was already wearing a lab gown. I kept silent as he unclothed me.

“Now, I’ll set the temperature to -200°F,” he spoke to himself as he finished taking my clothes off and put them on the table that I believed was beside ‘my’ container.

White smoke began to fill the container and I expected to shiver in the coldness, but no, I was already numb.

Dad then injected some liquid into my unfeeling arm.

“What is it?” I asked with a weak voice.

“Cryoprotectant,” he answered. “That will keep ice from forming inside your body. Freezing can damage your cells.”

He kept on explaining as he performed the cryonics experiment. “You know, it is only legal to cryonicize a person that is legally dead, that is, when his heart stops beating.”

“You’re gonna kill me…?” I asked, coughing because of the smoke. I could still see through.

“Dimwit,” he said to me. “Why do you think I’m letting you get suffocated now?”

I kept on coughing and wasn’t able to reply.

“Don’t worry though,” he said in a sarcastic tone. “The brain won’t ‘die’ as soon as the heart stops. That’s how cryonics works – The survival of the brain is what gives the chance of revival.”

Then he moved away and picked something up. It was the metal object he put down on the floor. When he went back to my container, I saw him carrying a tall cylindrical container, bearing its weight over his shoulder.

“You know what this liquid is,” he said as he poured liquid into my container.

“L—” I coughed. “Liquid nitrogen?”

“Correct,” he replied.

“You’re going to drown me too!?” I spoke with the last of my voice. I had already begun hyperventilating. I could no longer breathe…

“Your heart has probably stopped before you even drown or before the liquid freezes,” I heard him say before my head was completely sunk.

I closed my eyes and expected death, pushing the thoughts of dad’s experiment away from my mind. I wanted to think of mom before I fall out of consciousness. She ought not to break her promise. She ought to leave.

I’ll see you again… when I wake up.