REUNION
“Wake up,” she says. “Open your eyes.”
It is a dark room, lit only by a ceiling lamp that flickers.
“My god, you are waking up…” Her voice trembles.
“Can you hear me? Can you hear my voice?”
It is a woman. Blond, round glasses, white lab coat.
“My god, you can hear me can’t you? Can you understand what I’m saying?”
It thinks: Of course I understand but it doesn’t know how to -form words.
“Ah… aghhh!”
“Now, there, you’re trying to talk, aren’t you?” Her voice is not kind.
“What do you remember?”
Remember. Water. Black midnight water. Icy. Reflecting fire. A ship stands vertically against the night sky, sinking slow into inky depths. Bleak moon, black smoke, fire, naval alarms blaring. Plunging into cold water, kicking and choking. Stark and forlorn. Trying to keep floating but tiring… very tired.
“Do you remember the sinking? Is that the last thing you remember,” says the woman, “I read of it in the newspaper. ‘feared lost at sea’, or something like that.”
The woman takes a cigarette out of a case. It hears the click of a lighter, and flame and the flare of the cigarette in the darkness. It sees the outline of her face as she stands elegant, hand on a hip and blows smoke to the side.
“So you remember the sinking and you probably think you were somehow saved because you’re here now. Well, I’m afraid not, professor.”
It feels confused and then remembering itself piece by piece. Professor. Imperial College. Where-where-is he?
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The room looks like a science lab, not a medical facility. The apparatus. Looks like an insane asylum. There are surgical tools but the place is quite filthy.
“You can’t work it out, can you? You know when I read in the paper that your ship had gone down I was glad. I always thought that one day I would go and spit on your grave. Just a pointless gesture, you know, but that’s how I felt but this is so so much better.
“You see, they didn’t save you, professor. You drowned. They found your body floating in the cold Atlantic Ocean.”
The professor gets worked up, breathing hard, then chokes and whimpers.
“Oh don’t get yourself worked up. There’s no point. Here, why don’t you take a look at yourself?”
It sees a shaved head, deformed by thick ridges of stitch-work scars crossing, and a pit where the nose should be. It screams and sees the toothless gummy mouth screaming in the mirror.
“You were never much to look at, professor, not even as a younger man but I fear your appearance has grown markedly worse of late.”
The eyes that look back at him from the mirror are cloudy like those of a butcher shop pig. He looks like an insane criminal. He looks like a formaldehyde corpse.
“Now,” says the woman, “Let’s get down to why you’re here. Look at me, look at my face, do you remember who I am?”
He doesn’t want to look. There’s something spiteful about him looking.
“I said look at me, professor.” she is forceful, “If you do not I shall have to hurt you.”
He looks at her. Sees her face, her blond hair, her glasses, her white lab coat. His mind flashes. He sees a younger woman, one of many in a classroom. He remembers contempt. Her idiotic pride and confidence. He had crushed that pride. He remembers the laughter of her classmates. Her walking away and never returning. Stupid woman.
“You remember me now don’t you?”
It nods.
“Good. After you drove me out I almost gave up but instead I went into the scientific field. I got married. To a German funnily enough. But anyhow I wanted you to know what I have accomplished and that… well, that you failed. You couldn’t break me and here we are! Do you understand it now? I got you from the morgue, professor. No-one knows you’re here. No-one’s coming to rescue you. Your family thinks you are dead. And you are dead, professor but I brought you back! Isn’t that incredible? I thought it too cruel and unethical to apply my theories on a human subject, but you… let’s just say you’re an exception. You’re the perfect candidate. And I’m afraid you’re going to have quite a tough time ahead of you. There are many experiments to perform and they will be most unpleasant.”
The professor screams. The screams sounding demented and unhuman.
“Now now, professor.” says the woman, “There’s no point. No-one will hear you and we shan’t have any more of that or I shall clip your tongue out. Now what was I saying? Ah yes, after we have completed our experiments I shall dispose of the biological waste products in the incinerator and no-one will ever know.”
