Callum and Michael

The dull grey clouds blocked out the sunlight as the small family of four walked towards the towering grey building that stood before them. The family consisted of a mother and father; Jeffery and Margaret, and their teenage sons; Callum and Michael. The parents were what you would expect from a family from 1985, the mother wearing a red dress and the father wearing a smart black suit, whilst Callum wore black jeans and a black hoodie and Michael wore white jeans and a white hoodie. They were in their early teens; Callum being 15 and Michael being 14. The boys had a great connection with each other. They would always be there for each other, no matter the situation. But there was always something inside the boys, a kindred spirit which at will could change into something else entirely. And on the 1st of January, 1985, that change would be made.

The family stopped and stared at the huge grey building, a dull lifeless building that was filled with extraordinary discoveries and experiments inside. Callum turned to his father. He had trusted him for his entire life until now. He didn’t feel safe here and one of the two people who he knew would keep him safe was his father.

“Dad, we are going to be okay, right? I mean I know you have known Doctor Smith for your entire life, but I’m sort of getting the feeling that something will go wrong…”

Jeffery patted his son on the head and chuckled.

“Don’t worry boys. I have witnessed all of his experiments and every single one went okay. After all he does have a PHD biology and science. You will be fine. I promise.”

The boys nodded and the family headed towards the sliding doors. They opened and the family were immediately greeted by a scientist who instructed them to follow him to the “Experiment room”. After a short walk through a long grey hallway, they were stopped and were instructed to wait outside the main laboratories whilst the scientist who led them there informed Doctor Smith of their arrival. When he left the room, Michael spoke:

“Mom, are you sure about this? No offence Dad, but I’m feeling worried. What if something goes wrong? What if we die? What if you die? What if-“

The child's mother hushed him and smiled at him, trying to comfort him.

“Sweetheart, you’re going to be fine. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

Michael shakily nodded. The doors in front of them opened and a man in a large white lab coat and glasses approached them. Doctor Smith welcomed them to the laboratories and the family followed him throughout the labs. He showed them around and talked to them as he did so:

“Most of our experiments that have gone well reside here. Others that we don’t want to show to the public have been hidden elsewhere. Don’t bother asking where they are…”

Jeffery gave a small laugh whilst the others smiled. The two boys looked at each other, rolling their eyes. They had already heard this kind of grown-up conversation before. All they wanted to do was to get the experiment over with and go home. This wasn’t exactly their comfort zone, but they would soon be out of there. Where they would go however, was a bit different from their idea at that point.

Eventually, the doctor turned their attention to a huge glass cylinder in the middle of the room. Surrounded by computers, strange machines and millions of snake like wires, the cylinder towered above everything in the room. An ominous green glow was coming from the floor of the tube. The boys stared at it, not sure whether to marvel at it or cower in fear. The doctor then turned to the boys and began to speak to them:

“Now this is where you come in. I can understand that you must be scared because you have no clue about what’s going to happen. Well I apologise for the long wait, but allow me to explain…”

The doctor quickly dashed off and quickly returned, holding a strange book. He opened it to a page with a book tag on it.

“Recently, one of our friends from an excavation site found this book. He also sent us some scripts and a page that he was able to translate to English. According to the translated page, if we read these words correctly, you will be granted immense power! Don’t you think that’s cool?”

The boys exchanged bewildered looks. This sounded like a childish lie to them and the looks on their faces further proved that. The doctor continued:

“Now I know that this may sound childish to you, but this is all true. Trust me, if you look at the book for yourselves, you’ll see why.”

The doctor handed the book to them and the boys inspected it. The cover felt rough, like an old library book that had been long forgotten. The pages were filled with some of the oddest writing they had seen. They were strange combinations of swirls, lines and shapes, all in different formations. Eventually the boys passed the book back to Doctor Smith. He nodded and instructed them to walk into the cylinder while he talked to their parents.

The boys stood inside of the cylinder, waiting for the doctor’s command. All the scientists in the room were either at computers or working on the machines. Eventually, the doctor spoke:

“Okay then, you must listen to me. Stay perfectly still and don’t speak. Just listen to the speech that you are about to hear.”

The two boys nodded in unison. Callum looked at Michael, seeing how scared he was. He honestly couldn’t blame him. But then something put their worries to rest. Two voices spoke to them:

“Callum, Michael, we love you son…”

The two boys instantly recognised the voices. Their mother and father’s soothing voices were the one thing that they would want to hear. They slowly began to calm down. Their minds were at ease. Then the speech began. It sounded like chanting. The words were strange and made them feel uncomfortable. The boys felt something in them. It was rising through them, a powerful force slowly flowing through them. Everything around them began to swirl as the speech got louder and faster. Then as the final word was shouted, a deafening loud bang sound rocketed through their ear drums and everything blacked out.

Callum woke up, coughing and spluttering. The smoke around him made it hard for him to adjust to the environment. He stood up, looking around him in a daze. The entire room looked like it had gone through a hurricane. Machinery, desks and chairs had been scattered around the room. The glass cylinder he was standing in had been smashed, with the remains lying on the floor. He turned around, looking at his surroundings when something caught his attention. In the remains of the glass cylinder, he saw his reflection. His reflection was different. He walked up to the glass and stared at the reflection. He then saw what had changed him.

His face had turned into a pitch black shadow. His eyes had become glowing red jagged shapes. His mouth had turned into a long spiky red smile. These were the only things visible on his face. As Callum felt his new face, he noticed how it felt strangely similar to his old one. He could feel his nose, eyebrows and lips. They weren’t visible on his face, but they were still there. From the top of his skull to his collarbone, a dark grey mist covered his skin. The other parts of his skin hadn't changed, still covered in skin, but his face had changed dramatically.

Callum stood back in shock, unsure of how to react. He looked evil. He looked like some type of devil. But he wasn’t scared. He liked it. In his own opinion, he liked his new look. He noticed Michael had begun to wake up as well, and how his face was just like his. He helped him get up and immediately explained what was going on. Michael was obviously shocked at the sight of his brother and he was even more shocked to see that the same had happened to him, but soon adjusted. Then, something terrible happened.

They turned around to see that the scientists were just recovering. In the middle of the crowd, lay a pair of lifeless bodies, their Parents bodies. The boys stood there, horrified. Teary eyed, they whispered:

“Mom…Dad…No…”

Tears began to well up in their eyes. The boys had lost something that meant the world to them. They had known them since birth, had been with them every single day of their lives, and now their parents had died. A single tear dropped onto the ground. And then another. And then two blood red tears. A powerful rage had begun to brew inside of Michael. His anger was definitely visible on his face; his eyes locked onto the scientists and his mouth curved into an angry frown. And as he slowly walked out of the cylinder, that rage began to channel through Callum as well.

Callum picked up two shards of glass and held them in both hands. Michael reached underneath an upturned desk and pulled out two scalpels. The scientists just stood there, amazed at the results of the experiments. Doctor Smith eventually broke the silence:

“This is incredible! I am simply astounded! This will take a place in scientific history forever… boys? Are you okay?”

Michael continued to walk and set his sights on the only door to the room. He turned to his brother and signalled for him to speak. Callum nodded and began to speak:

“You are all pathetic, inhumane pigs. All you can care about is science, and you have let our mother and father die! But you have made a great mistake. A fatal mistake…”

A beep sound echoed across the room. The scientists turned around to see Michael pushing the emergency close switch. The room was completely locked down with no way out. Everyone in the room except for the boys slowly began to panic. Michael slowly raised the makeshift blades and pointed them at the scientists.

“We are stronger than all of you… you gave us this power… and now for revenge… we might as well put these powers to the test!”

Callum and Michael charged at the scientists, and the massacre began.

Minutes later, the bloodbath had ended. Many lives had been taken that day. All of the scientists had been brutally killed. They were killed with no remorse or regret. The once normal science laboratory had been turned into a wasteland of a room. Callum and Michael, holding the bloody glass shards, stood by the body of Doctor Smith, looking down pitifully at his body. Michael spoke:

“Well, we did a good job… it was all for mom and dad, right?”

Callum nodded in agreement. He looked away for a moment, wondering if he should say it or not, then turned and spoke:

“Listen man, this may sound strange to you, but I just want you to listen to me. When we were killing them, I couldn’t help but feel like this was fun. To tell you the truth, I like killing. Can you say the same?”

Michael looked at his brother, slightly shocked. He looked at the ground, thinking about his response. He hadn’t heard his brother say such a thing before. Eventually, he looked up and said to his brother:

“Yeah, I must admit, it was pretty cool. What are we going to do about the book?”

They both turned to the book. It lay amongst the broken computers, somehow having no damage. Callum walked up towards it, picked the book up and brought it over to Michael. He then turned the book to the marked page and looked at the words correctly. As they looked at the words, the strange symbols slowly moved around until they were formed into English words. This baffled them, but they continued to read the book. It read:

“These are the words which will grant the subject demonic power. Not only will the subject become a demon version of its creature form, but it will gain new powers as well.

The subject will be able to mask its face under a cowl or a hood, but the subject will be able to reveal and hide its face at will. Its knowledge will be increased by far as well as its strength. But its main ability is to be able to hide itself in shadows and teleport to other shadows when in a shadow.

The final ability is sending any object, such as a building, into the earth. This can be used to cover up murders, but the subject can pull the building back up from the earth in perfect condition. It will also be granted longer youth, aging a year every five years.

Whatever the subject may be, how it uses its power is up to the subject. The subject will have six abilities; using them three times will allow the subject to master the ability. Six abilities being used three times, adds up to the satanic number; six hundred and sixty six. Good or evil, these powers are for the subjects use only…”

A demented grin slowly stretched across the brothers faces.

That day on the 1st of January 1985, two demons exited the science laboratory. With them, they held two new weapons; spikes wired up to a battery box with the ability to conduct electricity generated from the source. Strapped to their hands, these weapons would soon be bloodied. The huge building was buried under the earth without a trace, along with the demons beloved parents. This site would become their parents’ grave, and the area which they would revisit many times. They continued to leave the area as they discussed their plan of actions.

“Hey Callum, I’ve always wanted to go to Universal Studios. We are close to Florida and we could use mom and dad’s car. What do you say?”

“Sounds like a plan. Looks like when we get there, Jaws won’t be the only one killing people…”

That day, on the 1st of January 1985, teenage devils began to walk the Earth…