Late Night in the Lab
The sun has been down for over a hour and the science building is all but deserted when Ray first finds Jason, hard at work in his laboratory. It is a classroom laboratory with numerous tables, a blackboard, a long counter, and several large fans for ventilation. As a graduate assistant, Jason shares a tiny, windowless office that opens off from one end of the lab.
Jason looks like hell. His eyes are deep sleepless pits, his skin pallid and clammy. Unconsciously, the young man glances over his shoulder every few seconds as if suspecting some terrible thing to be lurking there. His hands shake with tremors and he smells like he has not bathed in several days. An almost visible wave of relief washes over him when he sees Ray; as irrational as it seems, he has pinned all of his hopes on him being able to help him.
Thank you for comming, he says. I just hope you're not too late. In a slow, halting voice he goes on to tell Ray about his research into a drug he calls pixie dust and how he found the mark on his arm.
Well uncle Raymond... I.. I.. I...... I'm not sure how, but I'm in convinced that th.. t.. the...the mark and the drug are somehow linked: be..b..b.because it wasn't until the morning after I perfected my pixie dust antidote that the mark showed up on m..mmm..mm...my arm. The mark, the mark.. thhee m.. mark, is a mark of death.
After that he shows you the newspaper clipping that filled him with dread when he discovered it last week.
Pixie dd..d..ust is..ii..sss a drug which makes you experience a senssse of euph..ph..phoria. You have hallucinationnns..ss.. about a strange land. Sometimes it's beautifull and other times it is horrifying and as time passes it just seems to grow ever more horrifyin...g...g.ngg. But to most the feeling of euphoria is like never experienced bb..efore and they cannot stop. Ee..every dd...ddday more and more people start using it. Mostly students.
Then he drops down and curls into a corner where he continues to sob and cry for a minute or two. After which he snaps back into reality and climbs back onto his feet while frantically looking around. He almost claws up to Ray as he clutches his jacket.
There! There!!!! I saw it again... that land... that.. that land. With that tower and the rocks.... things.. crawling everywhere beneath the mists... I hear them.. I feel them but always when I look they are gone. GONE! But they are there.. and always that tower... that big black tower... I always sense I'm being watched by it.. but it is so beautifulll but it watches.. it always watches....
He hurries to one of the windows and looks outside almost in a panic. Then he turns around to face Ray again and he pushes a bottle of purple fluid of the table as he does so. The bottle falls and as the sound of breaking glass echoes from the lab through the hallway outside he doesn't even seem to notice.
You must save me uncle Raymond, please! You must! Because if you don't I'll die, I just know it... I feel it comming. PLEASE HELP ME!!!
He suddenly calms down and he seems to pull himself back together again. You almost gain a sense of pity instead of horrow when you see your family this way. But then the young man looks up from the ground again.
And then there is this crazy woman... she has been stalking me ever since I started on this experiment. Every time I go outside and look around carefully I can see here, she is always near... somewhere. I can sense her when I go out. Always following me. Since last week she is stalking the hallways of the university as well. I just don't seem to get rid of her! What does SHE WANT FROM ME?!?!!
Then he suddenly rushes over to the office and reappears about a few seconds later. Ray followed him but before he could get to the office Jason was back in the classroom again.
Ray... I need a favor to ask from y..yo...y..you. Please... I n..n..n..nee..ed help. I'm losing .. every .. last bit of sense ... of reality and.. sanity. Please. There is not much more time left... I left my house for days ago, and I left my chemistry notebooks on my desk, including all my notes on the pixie dust antidote. Now I just don't dare to leave the Strothers building again...Now if you could just please go to the Omega Pi fraternity house where I live and retrieve my no.. noo.tes. Please... I cannot make more of the an.a..tidote without mm.m.mm..y notes. I only just had one d..doo..se. I used it on one of my fraternity brothers for..t..tt...esting. He ww..waas... mm..my test... subject. Now ppleassee.. go.
He almost seems to break down but he cracks a faint smile and sits himself down. As you leave and go back down to your friends you hear Jason behind you get up and do something in the lab again, ever restless.
]
)D!
