It was cold. That was the first thing he registered. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw a faint red glow emanating further inside. It all started when he had begun to feel too cooped up after playing video games for hours on end. He realized he needed to get outside when he found himself pacing consistently around his room for half an hour. He needed to live his own adventure, as much as any twelve-year-old wanted to. Especially Travis Wright. So he silently slid outside and started his hike through the forest near his home.
It was early December and as he trekked through the woods his mind wandered further and further. Soon he found himself in front of a building slightly smaller than the size of his house, bleaker than the gray winter sky. Travis hadn’t realized how long he had been walking for, but now that he was here, something compelled him to get inside. Even though he wouldn’t mention this to anyone, he was a little scared of what was in this building in the middle of the forest and was slightly comforted with the hope that if he didn’t make it out someone would at least know that he had gone out exploring by his twitter posts.
It had been a long day and Mark Hudson needed to get home. Guarding the structure of a building he had made into his laboratory all day was terribly boring and he felt exhausted from the dragged out length of the day. Normally, he double locked and then bolted the metal door closed but all he could think about was getting home and sinking into sleep, forgetting to lock it up. He only managed to slide the bolt home and then left feeling unprepared for the long way he had to go to get back home.
Travis looked at the door and saw that there was a bolt slid and a couple locks. His heart sank when he saw this but decided to slide out the bolt and try to see if it was possibly unlocked. To his great surprise the door opened without protest. This is when he had stumbled in and saw the red glow and felt the warmth inside. Once he was further inside he saw rows upon rows of glass cases. He frowned as he tried to figure out what on earth they could be. They were heart-shaped and coloured red like one, but something felt off about it all. He stood there puzzling over the entrapped hearts for a few minutes before he slowly began to feel more and more drawn to them. Suddenly, he lunged for one before he could fully comprehend what he was doing and lifted the glass casing, sinking his fingers into the soft warmth of the heart. A shuddering “No!” thundered out into the closed air of the building. Travis was too overwhelmed with the feeling he had from the power he felt. As soon as he had touched the heart it had disappeared and now he felt better than ever.
Dr. Hudson was astonished. He had remembered that he had forgotten to completely lock up his laboratory and headed back grumbling to himself while heading back the way he came. He knew something was wrong when he saw the door slightly ajar and rushed inside just in time to see the young boy grab one of the lives. He screamed “No!” though he knew it was too late. The boy had absorbed the life that had been in the form of the heart. He rushed towards the boy and gently but firmly grabbed a hold of him as to prevent him from touching another one. As he quickly assessed what was going on, he sighed in obvious relief when he saw that all the other hearts were still well preserved in their cases.
“Wh-who are you?” the boy quietly and shakily inquired. He had slowly disentangled himself from the professor and now looked at him with a hint of fear showing in his small brown eyes.
“I think since this is my lab, the better question would be who are you and who do you think you are for touching things that aren’t yours and breaking and entering into places?” Dr. Hudson ranted on. Normally he wouldn’t have quite gone on like that at such a young child but his exhaustion was showing and he was on edge with what this boy might do now that he had the power the heart would bring him. He turned it over in his mind, trying to process it. He decided it would be best to tell the boy would he had done and the consequences it would result in.
The man looked gravely at the boy and guessed he was only about twelve or thirteen at oldest. “How do you feel after touching that heart?” he gently asked.
“I-I feel good?” the boy risked saying. He felt it wasn’t such a good answer considering this man found him in his lab but found that it was still the truth. He remembered how his mom always said that honesty was the best policy and hoped it still applied in this situation.
“That feeling is because of the heart you touched. Specifically, that heart was a life. Not someone else’s, but an extra life that I created. You see I created these hearts hoping to save humanity. Hopefully win a Nobel peace prize. I soon realized this this could have too many drawbacks.” Mark reminisced. “People would become greedy and fight for them. Kill for them. The complete opposite of what they were created for. I decided it would be best for humanity to keep them secret and to stop their production. I know now that it is best to let nature run its course when bad things happen. It was wrong of me to try to offset this delicate balance.” He hadn’t broken eye contact with the boy till now, glancing down at his feet waiting for the boy to comprehend what he was saying.
“…What do I do now?” the boy questioned. He wasn’t sure what he could do now. Would he just have to go about like normal and hope he didn’t die suddenly so no one questioned why he was still alive?
Travis perked up when he noticed the hopeful expression stretched across the scientist’s face. “Luckily for you, I have created a machine that will suck out the extra heart. It’s foolproof! It will only suck out the extra life, but never the original life that a person was granted.”
Mark had almost forgotten about the contraption and felt joy at the thought of the child not having this burden upon his young shoulders.
Mark had almost forgotten about the contraption and felt joy at the thought of the child not having this burden upon his young shoulders.
Dr. Hudson had uncurled his hands that he had kept clenched from the stress of the situation and rushed off to find his invention while Travis waited expectantly, holding his breath while his own heart pounded wildly in his chest. Mark came back holding a small tube with blinking lights and a glass ball part at one end opening up into the tube. “Think of it like a vacuum.” He explained. “Just put it in your mouth and I’ll push this button right here,” he said pointing to a small remote held in his hand, “and you’ll feel a slight pulling sensation, but I promise all will be fine and you can be on your way.”
Only a few minutes later and the professor was explaining to Travis that no one could ever know about the hearts, or of the lab that Dr. Hudson guarded. Travis immediately agreed and said he understood. He didn’t want these lives falling into the wrong hands and being misused either. Travis left with a quick apology and thanks and headed back home. He knew for sure that he would never find video games quite as exciting again.
On twitter:
@traviswright675
@markhudson617
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