Phantoms 99th Percentile Round 2: Writers Debate

Chapter 2: HomeDarkness consumes me. All I can feel is the rapid drumming of my heart. All I can hear is the fading echoes of a demon's battle cry and my own shaky breathing. Curse this test! Curse this damn voice in my head! I want to scream in protest of my cruel predicament, but why risk it?It knows where you are whether you curse me or not. It is a fine specimen of a creature. One of my greatest creations… until recently, of course. Even now it draws closer, though you cannot hear it. Make your choice.Lights, I think. I need lights. The voice laughs.Not this time.Knowing that speed won't help me in utter darkness, I decide to take the red pill. I begin to follow through with my decision before realizing that I have no idea which pill is red. I squeeze them and roll them around in my hand, but there is no discernible difference. Then it occurs to me, I'll take both.I wouldn't do that if I were you. These pills provide temporary human gene modification of the most delicate nature. The results of consuming both pills is… shall we say… unpredictable. Time is running short, subject 319.I hear the panting beast approach. Fear begins to grip me, and I begin to hyperventilate. My heart rages within my chest as though trying to escape. My mind tells me to just take a pill, any pill, but my body is now paralyzed with fear. Is this it? Have I been awoken only to die an hour later?Hot breath touches my cheek. The animal is inches from my face. I have lost, and I have nothing to blame but my own cowardice. Well, that and the stupid voice with its stupid human gene therapy pills. Wait… HUMAN gene therapy.No, that's cheating.Fear flees thanks to my newfound enlightenment, and I regain control of my body. Without hesitation, I cram the pills into the beast's mouth. It snaps its jowls in response, but I manage to keep all five fingers. I scramble away from the animal as it slurps down my little surprise. It emits a dangerous growl, and begins to approach me. I begin to wonder if just created a super demon when its growl morphs into a whimper. I am scared out of my wits when the whimper instantly turns into a howling screech, amplified by the acoustics of this narrow corridor. Pounding sounds come from the direction of the animal, and I conclude that it is convulsing so wildly that it is pounding against the wall. After few moments of this, the animal's cries cease, as does its movements.The lights turn on, blinding me. My eyes gradually dilate, revealing the unrecognizable remains of the demon. It scarcely resembles a cat anymore but is now just heap of flesh oozing with all manner of blood and fluid. Clearly, human gene therapy didn't sit well with this thing.Clearly. You think you're clever, do you?"No," I say with perfect enunciation, which I assume can be attributed to the magic anti-atrophy pill I took earlier. "I don't think I'm clever. I just want out of here. I just want to go home."Home?"Yes, home," I plead, "I don't want to do these tests. I can't do them. You saw how afraid I was. I'm not what you're looking for. Just, please, send me home." There is silence in my head, and I imagine the voice mulling over my request.I tell you what. I will send you home."Thank you!" I cry. "Thank you!"All you have to do is tell me where that is.I am defeated. Somehow, I feel like it's on the tip of my tongue, but the reality is that I have no idea. I don't know what home is. I don't even know my own name. I don't even know what I look like. "I don't know," I repeat out loud.Well, "if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland"What?" I ask puzzled.Ancient fictional literature is a sort of specialty of mine, but I imagine you wouldn't know anything about that. It is a story about a girl that finds herself in a strange world filled with amazing and terrifying creatures. Sound familiar?"Very," I say, though the patronization in the voice is not lost on me.There is another ancient tale that I love, also about a girl that goes to a strange land. Like you, she just wants to go home, but only a magical wizard can grant her wish. To find him, she follows a yellow brick road to his city of emerald.Instantly, yellow lights appear in the floor and ceiling and travel down the corridor ahead of me until they turn right and out of sight. I look behind me, but the lights start at my location. Eager to get as far away from the emerging stench of the flesh-pile, I follow the lights. I turn right when the lights turn right. Another long corridor. I follow the lights. Left. More lights. Left again. Finally, the lights stop at a door. I don't bother asking the voice what I'm supposed to do. I open the door and step inside.The room feels expansive, but it's darkened except for a spotlight shining in the center. I walk towards the light, where a single table sits. There is nothing useful about this room, as though someone staged this table just for me. When I reach the table there is one single object on it: a thin glass tube, ten centimeters long and open on only one end. It is empty. "I don't get it," I say.With a loud click that echoes throughout the chambers, a light shines in the corner of the room. As I approach the corner, I gasp at what I see. It is a giant tank filled with a pale pink liquid. In it floats a man with tubes connected all over his body. He appears peaceful, sleeping. I can't help but notice that he is roughly the same height as me, maybe even the same weight. His hair is dark, thick, and long as it floats serenely in the liquid. His sharp thin nose extends over a bushy mustache and beard.Another light turns on a few yards to my right. I walk toward it, a twinge of panic beginning to set in as I gaze upon another tank. Another man. Same dark hair. Same pointy nose.Another light turns on, another tank. Now, I am beginning to breathe heavily as my subconscious tries to make my conscious mind understand what it already knows. Another light. Then another. Every time it is the same tank and the same man. By now I am running around the large room, tank after tank, unable to handle the reality of the situation. I reach the location of the last light just as it clicks on. This time, it is not a tank, but there is the man. His hair is dark, just like the others, but cut short and neat. The beard is missing, but there is no mistaking that nose. He looks at me from the other side of the mirror with a heavy expression."What is this place?" I ask, dreading the answer.Home."And the glass tube?"Mother."And you?"Father.The man in the mirror falls to his knees. "So, what is my purpose?" The voice responds with a mix of glee and madness.Greatness!I am resigned. It's not that I don't remember my past or my name, it's that no such things exist for me. I am empty. There is nothing left for me except this insipid voice and his twisted tests. "So now what?"We find out whether or not you deserve the greatness I have in store for you.The tank to my left comes to life with mechanical sounds. I step away as the liquid drains from the tank and the man within twitches to life. He vomits pink liquid and sucks in air for the first time as the numerous tubes detach from his body and retract into the walls. The tank swings open and the man stumbles out of the tank onto his hands and knees. After a few seconds of coughing and choking in air, his body settles into itself and he stands up, looking around the room in bewilderment. Eventually, he looks at me in total confusion.With icy venom, the voice bids me…Kill him.PROBLEM: What the protagonist does next will shape his character and alter his relationship with the voice.