Specimen

"We have to find a way out of here, NOW!"

"Shh, keep your voice down. We don't know what we're dealing with."

Grogginess clouds my confused mind as I urge Jeanie to stay calm and huddled together, cautiously moving forward. Neither of us know how we ended up in the bowels of a subterranean cave. Somehow, I know we are underwater. Maybe it's the echoing drips casting an eerie sound pattern throughout the long, porous and dimly lit tunnels. Or maybe it's the horrible scent of dead, decaying fish accosting my nose with each breath, coating the back of my throat in a salty slime. It's disgusting! I swear we are underwater, though. Similar to the vague memory I have involving Jeanie and I being abducted by an unseen assailant... or assailants. I don’t know.

But it's not just us...

Searching for a way out, we pass a large cavern with rows and rows of glass tubes. Each contains a naked body suspended in fluorescing, pink fluid; reminds me of dead fetal pigs in mason jars. The frozen looks on their faces rivals that of a zombie apocalypse. I think they’re all deceased and died with their eyes open. Did we escape being placed in one? I don't know. My memory feels apprehended.

"Kara? My clothes are on backwards." she whispers, her eyes reflecting concern.

Her realization alarms me to check my own. She's right! Not only are they on backwards, the front, which is the back of my shirt, is sopping wet... with blood!

Without a second thought, I pull the purple blouse over my head and off. Jeanie quickly unbuttons hers. The horrific sight of freshly sutured, horizontal scars on our abdomens, nearly seizes my heart. But the scars are painless.

Instinctively, I run my fingers across the length of the coarse trail of black threading. I panic further, wondering what might have been taken from our bodies. A concern that will have to wait...

Right before our eyes, the stitches undo themselves and reconfigure, quickly tightening as if a vengeful surgeon was at the helm. The skin begins to crease from the tension of stretching. We both muffle our screams, hearing them faintly echo off the cave walls. We felt pain that time.

"Kara! Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" I whisper back.

"Exactly! I don't hear anything. What happened to the dripping?"

Aiming my ears to find any sound, nothing can be heard. But I see an elongated shadow getting closer to one of the cave's intersections we are near.

"We have to hide!" I say, motioning with urgency.

In a hurry, I put my shirt back on and huddle down together in the darkness of the cave's misshapen walls. What we see coming out of the shadows is not human. Jeanie quickly buries her head in my shoulder and hyperventilates. I can't take my eyes off it. Its head is narrow. It doesn't have eyelids. Its teeth are exposed, pointed and slimy. Its dark, gray skin has deep pockmarks that look infected, making my own skin crawl with disgust.

I hate what I see!

This is unnatural! It's evil!

It knows we're here...

While dragging what looks like a dead man by his hair, it stops in its tracks and begins twitching its nose. I tighten my hold on Jeanie, hoping it continues where it's going.

It's eyes blaze with an intense white shine, brightening the area. Pivoting in our direction, it snarls while letting go of the victim. It's coming for us with increasing speed! In that moment, fear elevates to a level unknown, like floating above your body to watch an inescapable scene resulting in your brutal death.

Jeanie's scream happens automatically. She gets up to run but I'm frozen in fear. She shakes me senseless to snap me out of it.

"Kara, Kara... It's okay! It's Okay! You're safe. You're here with us, remember? This is a hypno-session with Doctor Contreras to find out what happened to you and your friend, but you've panicked beyond control. It's okay, it's over." a concerned, female doctor says.

Caught in bewilderment, I look around the large office at several more doctors and my mother in the corner in tears. I don't recall any of this. But where is Jeanie? The memory is still fresh. I panic again.

"Where's Jeanie? We have to find her! That thing...that horrible thing is going to kill her!

"We understand your concern, Kara! If you calm down, we can continue searching your mind for answers." Dr. Contreras says, in an unconvincing tone.

"I... I have to go back for her!"

"We believe she drowned in deep water. You were found unconscious on the beach a week ago holding her necklace, remember? Just please calm down."

I stare at each one of them suspiciously while easing myself off the leather futon, being careful not to make any sudden movements. They notice my fixation on the door and look at each other with hesitation. I have to get out of here. I don't trust them.

"You're lying! What is this place? My mother would never be caught alive wearing that awful dress! And this scar is still sopping wet!"

I raise my shirt for them to see the red-soaked stitches then dash for the door. I stop dead-front of my mother's impersonator. Dispalying an unnerving smile, she's blocking the door! All their eyes blaze with the same white shine I saw before, prompting my lungs to fuel a high-pitched scream. The visual mind trick dissolves downward in my vision, revealing the cave and their true form. Suddenly, I'm trapped! I pound on the glass tube from inside it as it fills with warm, pink liquid. Aliens are everywhere with those repulsive eyes watching it cover my head. I fight the urge to breathe with all my might until bubbles are madly ejected from my mouth in a final scream... that can’t be heard.

Consciousness fades…

(Word count 993)

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