A plot of land, only four acres, was situated in an inconspicuous slice of grassland. It was a hot and dry place only suitable for cattle farming – or so they say. However, the center of this quad-acreage was a veritable green oasis full of blooming flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables. All of the plants were out of season and definitely not suited for the climate, but they bloomed nevertheless.
In the exact center of the acreage, among the lush flora, was a serene little cottage. It was something one would imagine in a romance novel or as a retirement home for an elderly couple, but instead…
“You’re telling me he really lives in a place like this?” The disgusted look on the man’s face said everything. He wore a finely-tailored suit and an expensive watch that said I’m too important for this nonsense.
Half a dozen men rode in an armored limousine that was slowly moving up the winding road to the little cottage, the driver deftly avoiding the buffalo that strayed into the way. They had been on the move for three hours, and their frustration began to show.
“An odd place for an odd duck.” Another man replied, wearing black body armor with guns and knives strapped to his body. Three of the other men wore the same and laughed in bitter agreement.
“Matthew Evans holds a special place in the hierarchy.” The last occupant of the car, an older gentleman with glasses perched on his nose, replied coolly. “His eccentric tendencies are a boon to the Corps.”
The man in the suit pulled a sour face. “Director Tanabe, I understand he’s valuable, but to give him such leeway…”
“Captain Devas, do I need to remind you that we are being recorded?” The spectacled man – Director Tanabe – interrupted harshly. “Make sure whatever you say is worth it.”
The reminder was harsh but necessary. Timothy Devas sat up instinctively and nodded once. “Sorry, sir, it won’t happen again.” Director Tanabe was a rarity among the Rose Corps: over fifty years in the service, and he hadn’t faltered once in his career. It wasn’t just his scientific breakthroughs that kept him afloat. He knew when to shut up and not anger anyone up top.
Still… As the limousine pulled to a stop in front of the garden, Devas couldn’t help but scowl. The one that the group was here to talk to was, under no uncertain terms, a massive headache given life.
The director looked up at Devas. “Please take care of him. Take two guards with you inside; the other three will investigate outside. I have other business to attend to now, but the car will return within an hour.”
Devas pulled a long face but grunted in agreement.
“Hello! Nice to see you all on this fine day.” The words rang out as soon as Devas stepped out of the limousine, and he grimaced.
A man in his early twenties stood at the front door with a wicked grin. He had hair that was shorn close on each side of his head to create a fluffy black mohawk, but otherwise, he was absolutely unremarkable with plain features and dark eyes. He wore jeans and a t-shirt with boots, and a wireless BlueTooth piece was in his ear.
Devas resisted the urge to wring the brat’s neck. “Matthew Evans, do you understand why we’re here?”
“Because you want to ensure I haven’t been harboring a fugitive subject by the name of Grimsing?” Matthew’s smile widened. “Come on in, then. Are you bringing the soldiers with you? What am I saying? Of course you are. Hurry up, boys. I’m sure we all want to get this over with.” His voice was sing-songy and infuriating. Without waiting for a response, he turned and disappeared back into the house. The door slammed shut behind him.
Devas took a deep breath and turned to the armored man beside him. “If he does anything suspicious, shoot him.” Then he grabbed the doorknob and stepped into the lion’s den.
Inside the cottage was an ordinary little house – the juxtaposition between Devas’s imagination and reality was sharp. A basic living room, tidy kitchen, and a small bedroom with a smaller bathroom. No cages with monsters or haphazardly-strewn paperwork, no indication at all that Matthew was a high-ranking scientist within the Rose Corps organization.
Devas almost couldn’t believe it. He combed through the tiny house over and over again throughout the hour – nothing at all. What am I missing? Every door and cabinet was opened and rummaged through, every electronic scanned, and every room swept several times. Still, there was nothing.
Devas’s eyes landed on Matthew’s laptop, and he jerked it open, scoffing when it loaded without needing a pin number. Arrogant. This has to be it... Yet, there wasn’t any evidence in the computer either. Nothing but games and a few questionable downloads. What the hell? He stared at the screen for a while in disbelief. He must be communicating somehow or at least keeping tabs on the beast.
“Reality is often stranger than fiction,” a soft voice whispered in Devas’s ear. He flinched and jolted away from Matthew, who had somehow snuck up without Devas noticing. The smile on his face was both unnerving and annoying.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Devas spat, backing away as fast as possible.
Matthew just continued to smile and said nothing, but his eyes were sharp.
After a tense moment of silence, one of the armored soldiers stepped into the bedroom. “All clear. No sign of the target.”
“Well, I could have told all of you that,” Matthew responded cheekily. “You could’ve just asked. Now, are you done prancing through my house and going through my things? I’d like some time to relax during my vacation.”
“You’re on suspension, not vacation.” Devas corrected sharply. “Need I remind you how many people died because of your experiment?”
“It’s all the same to me.” Matthew shrugged nonchalantly. “Get out now.”
Devas clenched his fists and glanced at the laptop once more before storming out of the room, shouldering Matthew out of the way as he did. He heard the bastard laugh as he did so.
“Let’s go, boys.” Devas announced. “There’s nothing here.” The result clearly disappointed the soldiers, who gave Matthew icy glares that he returned with a wave.
As they all trudged out, Devas turned to look at Matthew one more time. The sunlight cutting through the window illuminated half his face and cast the other half in eerie shadow. With a shiver, Devas hurried the rest of the men out of the little cottage.
“I’m surprised they went this far,” Matthew said as the intruders finally left his sanctum.
“It was necessary.” Director Daniel Tanabe replied, stepping through the backdoor. “Many affiliates of Black Rose aren’t pleased with our branch keeping you safe despite the… circumstances.”
“I appreciate the worry, Director.” Matthew’s unnerving smile never left his face. “I assume this is the part where I have to show you my lab?”
The director nodded once, feeling apprehensive. He was aware there was indeed a lab – his mission briefing, separate from Captain Devas’s, had said as much – but the soldiers had failed to find it.
Matthew laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound – it was like a child who had bullied their way to a prize. “It’s right here.” He knocked on one of the wooden panels on his walls, and there was a click. The panel swung open to reveal what appeared to be an elevator.
The director said nothing. He knew Matthew was waiting for a chance to talk about whatever ingenious thought had led him to such a design, and he didn’t particularly want to listen to the boy ramble for hours. Stepping into the elevator, he eyed Matthew as his smile faltered for a moment. It was just a moment, however; an instant later, it was back, and the elevator was moving downwards.
“It’s about two miles deep so that scanners can’t pick up any signal,” Matthew began, and the director inwardly groaned at the impending speech. The entire two miles down – which took about twenty minutes – was spent with Matthew rambling about security protocols.
When the pair finally reached their destination, the director gave a silent cry of joy and stepped out of the elevator…
And into hell.
Floor-to-ceiling test tubes filled with viscous fluid suspended various creatures that had the tale-tell signs of morphosis infections – exposed bone, warped and knotted skin, vacant eyes, distended or rotting limbs. About twenty lined the massive room’s wall, and each was filled with a different subject. Locked in glass cases on the opposite wall were carefully preserved specimens in various stages of mutation and dissected organs pulled apart to show the visceral lining. Cages were suspended by an intricate pulley system that would bring each subject down if their button was pressed on the control panel next to a massive table. Scalpels, forceps, needles, probes, and all manner of surgery items were neatly arranged on the table’s head, just above a ghastly pair of manacles.
It was undoubtedly hell, to some extent, but the director was more than familiar with such sights. At least Matthew cleaned up the blood after his experiments – he was never so tidy at the Corps’s research facilities. “This is everything?”
“Almost. My favorite subjects are this way.” Matthew pressed his hand to a seemingly random place on the wall. There was a light beep sound, and his hand was briefly outlined in white. Then, a section of the wall soundlessly slid to the ground and revealed a long hallway. The director tensed as he entered, following close behind Matthew.
The hallway was, in short, a zoo. Glass walls revealed large enclosures about twenty by twenty feet across, each with a different interior design. One of the creatures – a slobbering beast with half its body rotted away to reveal bone and sinew – was in a miniature forest. It ripped through the half-eaten carcass of a deer and threw chunks of bloody meat at the window, bellowing its rage. The next enclosure was a simple bedroom with a human man sitting inside. Just as the director paused to ask Matthew about it, the captured man looked up and smiled. Half his face was consumed by morphosis, with warped skin across his cheek and a blinded eye.
“There are sixteen subjects in these eighteen rooms, and none of them are dear Grimsing.” Matthew chirped. “I do have a new friend, though, and nothing set up for him.” He practically skipped down the hall as the director inspected each enclosure. Just as Matthew had said, there was no sign of the Rose Corps’ escaped specimen.
At the end of the hall, one of the empty rooms held a simple birdcage. It was an old-fashioned birdcage largely out of style due to the cruel design, but the director knew Matthew didn’t care for such details. Besides, inside the cage, there was quite the little monster.
At first, the thing seemed shapeless, like it was a black sludge with gray splotches, but upon closer inspection, the director could make out a skeletal system. Moreover, it was on the outside, despite appearing like mammalian bone. The creature was barely the size of a cat and had a strange crocodilian face made of pure bone, and the rest of its body was scrawny and unlike any animal the director had ever seen. It was twitching and making strange burbling sounds.
What an odd thing. It has an exoskeleton, but it doesn’t seem to be an arthropod. And what sound is it making? The director turned to Matthew and waited silently for an explanation. As expected, the boy immediately began rambling.
“One of my suppliers found him while looking for some new samples,” Matthew explained as he pulled something wrapped in a paper towel from his pocket. “And he’s fascinating. Absolutely feral, so keep your fingers to yourself. Watch closely.”
Matthew revealed a bone that had been wrapped in the paper towel and stuck it between the bars of the cage. Instantly, the creature lunged for it and crushed the thick bone into hundreds of shards. It choked the shards down without pause, even though the sharp edges should have ripped the throat open. Then, the exoskeleton began to move. It shifted around, and the devoured bone shards appeared through the skin.
The director was absolutely speechless.
“See?” Matthew said gleefully. “Isn’t it amazing? I call it Anklebiter because when the suppliers caught him, he took a chunk of their ankle! Hahahaha!” His laughter was genuine, which made it all the more terrible to the director.
“I… see. Well, if there’s nothing further…” The director turned and found Matthew’s eyes on him. His blood ran cold.
“You know what’s kind of funny?” Matthew was outside of the enclosure, leaving the director alone inside with the creature. “You had different orders than those Black Rose boys, right?”
“Yes.” The director’s skin began to crawl, and he took a step closer. However, the glass slid shut before he could make it out. He banged his fists against the glass and shouted, “What is this, Matthew?!”
The boy’s smile never faded. “I was just telling you, wasn’t I? You had different orders, and so do I. Scapegoats are necessary for this line of work, you know.”
The director gritted his teeth and felt overwhelming despair. A hissing sound and a pale white mist filtered into the room. One sniff left the director light-headed, so he pinched his nose and tried not to breathe. An anesthetic?! Just as his lungs began to burn, there was a click from behind. He whirled around to see the birdcage’s door creak open and Anklebiter stick its skull-like head out. Backing up against the glass as far as he could, the director watched in terror as the strange creature leaped to the ground. The thought of the man missing chunks of his leg due to this beast flickered through the director’s mind. He went as still as possible, hoping it could only see movement-
The hope was short-lived. Matthew knocked on the glass window to create a loud bang, and Anklebiter burst into a run toward the director. Tears welling up in his eyes, the director let go of his nose and breathed the anesthetic in deeply. He was in his seventies and unable to fight off even this tiny monster with the sleep-inducing drug filling the air. It was better to feel nothing.
Just as the creature bit into his numbed calf, the director fell to the ground and looked up at the glass to see Matthew’s smiling face. It was the last thing he saw before Anklebiter’s teeth sank into his eye. “Anklebiter. What… an awful name.” He mumbled out before succumbing to his final sleep.
Matthew Evans pressed a hand to the glass as he watched his little friend devour the former director. Hopefully, eating a human brain would enhance Anklebiter’s intelligence. He pressed on the BlueTooth clipped to his ear. “Did you see all of that? Yeah, it went smoothly. No, no issues. I’ll send data on Anklebiter after his meal to see if it improves cognitive function. Would you like the video too?… Haha, of course, you wouldn’t.”
The call, which had lasted since the moment Captain Devas had stepped foot into the house, finally ended. The various cameras set up by the Corps also went dead, and Matthew’s smile faded at last. “What a headache. Grimsing, I didn’t know they were this interested in you.”
Beside Matthew, the false wall slid down to reveal the massive workroom hidden from the now-dead cameras. It was three parts laboratory, one part bedroom, and a complete mess. A white-masked individual was sitting at Matthew’s desk, idly using the black ink-like substance dripping from his finger to draw shapes on parchment paper.
“… I am an interesting person.”