The Scientist

The scientist approached the huge vat of bubbling liquid slowly. In one trembling hand was a test tube; in the other, a notepad and pen.

He looked down into the depths of the giant container. Inside, the liquid was a very dark blue, with flecks of white dotted like stars all over the surface. Bubbles would occasionally rise up to the surface, but pop quickly.

A strong smell arose from the liquid, nauseatingly sweet. Just standing over it was enough to make one feel dizzy and light-headed.

However, the scientist was used to the sickly odour now. He had been working on this project for a long time. His motivation was strange.

Long ago, when the scientist was nothing but a small child, he had no problems at school whatsoever. He was never bullied, or scolded, or attacked. Nobody paid any attention to him. And though it was not a problem, it hurt the scientist-to-be.

He tried to be good, and succeeded. In his time at school, he won many awards. But although the other people clapped, he was soon forgotten. Nobody came up to him and congratulated him. Nobody was jealous of him.

Sometimes he tried to be bad, and also succeeded. In the corner of the classroom he would make faces at the teachers, throw paper aeroplanes, attack other children, but to no avail. Even when the teacher got cross, their anger was always directed at another innocent child.

When the scientist was a teenager, he fell in love. He slipped a valentine in a girl's locker once. His heart beating, he hid close by to watch her open the card. Her eyes scanned the carefully handwritten poetry the scientist had composed.

I wish you were my valentine,

So sweet, I wish you were mine,

If only I could be with you,

I would be happy, through and through.

Then the girl threw the card in the bin. The scientist gasped. The girl walked away, to meet another boy, who she kissed on the lips before heading home.

For a long time the scientist was broken-hearted. Eventually, his heart healed, but he never fell in love again.

Now, the scientist was still wanting to be known and loved. He had painstakingly worked out an ideal concoction for creating... something. He was still unsure what it was going to turn out like, but he knew that if it worked, he would be famous.

The scientist poured the contents of the test tube into the liquid below, and immediately took a step back.

The liquid began to bubble more violently. Bubbles broke the surface more and more often, until the whole surface was a single bubbling mass. Panicked, the scientist hastily scribbled down everything he saw in the notepad.

The liquid slowly changed colour, darker and darker until it was pitch black. Then suddenly, the bubbles ceased.

Curious, the scientist peered closer. He was quickly knocked back by something shooting out of the container. The thing landed next to him with a barely audible squelch.

It was pitch black, and made of oozing goo. The shape of it was vaguely humanoid, but drops off goo periodically fell from parts of the figure. It did not take long for a black puddle to form around its 'feet'.

"Greetings, Master," said the figure, in a voice that was utterly inhuman and two-toned. "What is your wish?"

The awed scientist couldn't believe it. However, he soon regained his composure and decided to test this being he had made.

"I wish for a cat," he said, and a blob of goo fell off the figure and changed its shape to that of a cat. The creature's arm soon grew back. The goo quivered, changed colour to brown, and solidified. It meowed, and approached the astonished scientist, purring and rubbing itself against his ankles. It was identical to a real cat in every way.

"Anything else, Master?" asked the creature the scientist had created.

"A lover," said the scientist, and another blob of goo fell off the creature and formed itself into the shape of an attractive female human. The features took shape, and changed colour. Once the procedure was complete, the goo solidified. It squeezed the scientist's hand gently, and the scientist smiled. For the first time in his mouth he felt loved.

And so the scientist lived his life, content. If he needed anything, he simply asked the creature. But over time, the goo shrank.

One day, the scientist asked the creature for some food.

"I am too small. I must recharge," said the creature.

"How?" asked the scientist, and the creature showed him.

The goo stretched, and stretched, until it was paper-thin and as large as the scientist. Then it wrapped itself around him.

"Sto-" began the scientist, but the goo covered his mouth before he could continue.

"It'll all be over soon," comforted the scientist's creation, and squeezed tight around the body of the scientist. After a minute or two, the goo arranged itself into a humanoid shape again. The scientist was gone, and the creature was larger than before.

The creature located a drainpipe. Then it left.

Nowadays, it still lurks down in the sewers, but every so often, it comes up to 'recharge'. It takes people at random. Nobody knows who it will take next.