Deadly Experiments
© 2018 Lissette E. Manning
All Rights Reserved.
~*~
The scent of putrid flesh emanating from the basement turned my stomach. Jace hadn’t gotten rid of the zombie, it seemed.
I pushed the door open and made my way down the stairs, avoiding the dollops of mercury in each corner. My mind refused to fathom the reasons behind Jace’s using the deadly liquid element.
Heated curses echoed from the upper left corner of the room. Jace entered my line of sight.
“Yo.”
He glanced in my direction and waved. With deft fingers, he dropped a dollop of congealed blood into a tub of mercury. Jace shook the vessel several times.
“Don’t touch anything.”
“I’m not. Not even the mercury.”
“Before you ask, the mercury is just a precaution.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “You trying to poison the thing?”
“Trying to. It’s not working, though.”
“It’s a zombie. What do you expect?” I asked, eyeing the wooden replica of Majora’s Mask from The Legend Of Zelda game series Jace kept on the table.
“So?”
“You can kill us far quicker than you can try killing that thing. The stuff is deadly, man.”
Jace grabbed the filched tube of Debbie’s lipstick and dipped the tip in the small tub of mercury. He approached the cage and held it aloft.
The zombie snarled and swiped at his hand, drawing blood.
He yelped and dropped the tube of lipstick. It rolled across the floor and slid underneath the sink. Turning around, he ran over to the table. Jace grabbed a rag, accidentally knocking over the tub. He ignored it and wrapped the rag around his wrist.
“Jace?” I said, eyeing the liquid spreading across the floor.
He approached the sink and turned the tap. Jace removed the rag and shoved his wrist beneath the running water.
“Y—You’re not . . .”
He glanced at me, his face an unreadable mask. “You should go.”
“But—”
“Please.”
“Let me help you.”
“Do as I ask.”
Afraid, I nodded and ran up the stairs.
