The Burning

They told me I was crazy, and I agreed. I was crazy, but I knew it would work.

"Dr. Thomas, there's nothing here in your research that makes me think you can alter human DNA to do whatever you want."

"Please- first call me Daryl- and second, my research is not yet complete. I simply have to find the right genes from other animals and splice them into the right places on a human."

"No woman is going to allow you to put a baby inside of them when you tell them it might come out looking like a spider or moth or chameleon."

"Come now, Dr. Freeman- don't forget I'm looking at other ideas as well. Super human strength like ants, producing electricity like eels. I've even done enough research to probably implement the right combination to alter the DNA to breath fire."

"What mother wouldn't want their child breathing fire?"

"I must be off though, I have a date tonight. Claire and me are celebrating two years."

"Congratulations Daryl. A good woman is hard to come by in this field."

"That's why we met at school in a cafeteria. She teaches a few courses in English at Western University."

I remembered the first time I had met her. I was teaching a few classes for a semester, and a professor had invited me to sit with their colleagues. She stood out among them. Maybe it was her beautiful green eyes, or the strikingly red hair that went with it. Maybe it was the way she spoke, so elegantly and easy going. So understanding, despite our differences in education. She understood my research more than anyone else. And for two years, I had been the happiest man alive. I had a woman by my side, and a job that was finally going somewhere.

"Well, wherever you met her- it's a good thing. Men can get lonely in this field and try to do crazy things. Like splice DNA."

"So you can't have just come down here to look at my research, Dr. Freeman. Tell me there's another reason you came here."

"There is, Daryl. I want to show you something. Would you mind following me?"

We walked out of the room and up a few flight of stairs, into a wide, open room. On the far side sat what looked like a giant chamber of metal- a door on the side for easy entry and metal tubes flowing into it from numerous directions.

"What is this?"

"This is hopefully where you can start implementing your research. And where my research is now over."

"What is that contraption in the corner?"

"That is where I used a mixture of radioactive materials to try to implement change in humans. We call it the chamber of souls, because no one that went in ever came back out."

"Might I ask, what your research was on?"

"Cancer, Daryl. Trying to find a cure in the strangest of places. The material worked, it just wound up killing the person as well."

"Why stop now?"

"No one wants to back someone who keeps killing subjects. Terminally ill cancer patients are no longer willing, as they feel as though they might suffer more if they try. And their families will suffer even more."

"I understand."

"So this is yours now. Do with it what you will. I'm sure you can come up with some actual ways to use the chamber of souls here in order to splice some DNA."

"It's not really splicing, it's altering more than splicing."

"Well, either way. And have fun tonight with Claire. Two years is a wonderful achievement." Dr. Freeman walked out, leaving me alone in my new lab. I looked around for a few minutes at the gadgets- only to realize I was running late for dinner.

Running out, I turned the lights off, ran back down the stairs, and grabbed my coat- leaving my research out in the open on my desk.

We arrived at the restaurant just a bit over the time of our reservation, luckily finding they hadn't given up our table yet. It was par for the course, us joking and laughing and talking like usual. Dinner tasted wonderful, and the wine was more than enough to make the evening wonderful. I gave her a diamond bracelet, engraved her favorite line from her favorite book- Fahrenheit 451. It simply read "It was a pleasure to burn."

"Listen, Daryl. I have to tell you something, and it's hard for me to say this."

"Say what, my dear?"

"I was offered a job at a different university last week. One that would require me to move. Back to where I was before."

"Out of state."

"Yes."

"And you told them no?"

"I told them I would think about it. And I've gone over everything, and with you and your lab- you couldn't just come with me."

"So you told them no?"

"And my family is there already. My parents would love to have me home again. Celebrate holidays like we used to."

"What did you tell them?"

"I'm taking the job, Daryl. It pays better than here, my family is closer."

"Then what about us? With my research long distance is going to be hard to-"

I could see a tear falling from her eye. I knew what was going to happen.

"It's over, Daryl. I'm sorry."

I sat there in disbelief. I had loved her. I had told myself this was the girl I was going to marry. Two years, down the drain. I panicked.

"No, we can make this work."

"No. We can't. And you know that."

I stood up, holding back tears. I couldn't look at her. I couldn't feel anything but pain.

"We can still talk, can't we Daryl? I don't want you out of my life, but-"

"Yeah, sure." It took everything in me to not let a tear fall. I quickly got the check, and took her to a friend's apartment- since we lived together. She had already brought her clothes there before.

"Can I hug you?" she asked as I pulled up to the address. I couldn't say anything. I just shook my head no. "Well, I'll talk to you later." She got out of my car, and I finally let the tears fall. Two years. It felt like so much longer.

I had been so wrapped up in work when we had started talking two years ago.

"So you're a man of science?"

"Yes, I'm doing some interesting research right now on the human genome. Experimental hypotheses, but hopefully it can help cure diseases in the long run."

"Wow, I'm just teaching a class how to interpret Shakespeare and you're curing the world of diseases."

"You might be astonished at my work, but I'm astonished you can understand Shakespeare."

We laughed. That was the beginning. When I realized she was getting too close, I asked her what was going on. I had work to do. I had to focus. She understood, said she was looking to get her doctorates degree and school would be taking up a lot of focus. But we had so much fun together. I was so happy, I asked her out and the next thing I knew we were dating anyways.

Someone laid on their car's horn, slamming on their brakes to stop. I snapped out of my sulking to notice it was raining. I drove away, only to notice as I passed light posts a glimmering in the seat next to me. She had left her bracelet.

I broke down again.

I couldn't sleep when I got home. I couldn't do any good at work. I sat for hours wondering how she could leave something that made her so happy. Wondering how she could just give that up. Wondering if it wasn't the job- and if she truly cared. She would never have left if she truly cared.

I wanted to run to her. Every second I got I just wanted to run to her. I felt so alone in my lab, big as it was now that I had moved upstairs. No students to help out, no people to interact with. Alone at work late into the night. It's like I wanted to go home, she wasn't there.

After the first night she left her keys sitting on the counter. I broke down again. All of her things were gone. She was gone. My things from her car sat on the counter, piled into a bunch. She was done with me. She didn't care.

She was gone the next day, already moved back. We spoke online a few times, as I was OK with being friends. But she started to change her attitude towards me. I didn't know what it was, I didn't know what I had done. I was friendly. I wanted her back more than anything, but she pushed me away even harder.

And then the next thing I knew, she was already dating again. 2 weeks later, already with some new guy. She tried to hide it, but I wasn't dumb. I was a fucking scientist, I said. I was going to change the world, I told myself.

I dove into my research. I pushed and pulled and for days poured sweat into everything. I began building a reactor to test on mice. But it was too powerful even on the low setting. The mice were killed.

I sat there alone in my lab, thinking. I needed a human subject. I needed to use a human. I called Dr. Freeman in, asking him for help.

"So what exactly do you need me to do?"

"Push a button. That's all."

"Daryl, are you OK?"

"To be honest, no. I'm not."

"I've heard people say that you've been in here for awhile. You spend all your time here now. You don't go home."

"I don't need to go home. I need to do this research. I need to finish this. I need to show the world I can change it. I can change everything."

"What exactly are these plans?"

"It's nothing major. Just changing eye and hair color by morphing my own genome."

"You're getting in that machine?"

"I need a human test subject."

"Daryl, I know I'm not really a good friend but you're talking insanity. You're going to kill yourself."

"Good. What do I have to live for any more?"

"Is this about Claire?"

I paused. "No. This is about changing the world. Claire doesn't matter. I want to change the world."

I put on goggles and a suit I had made, specifically for the experiment. It felt like rubber, and looked like rubber- but was more complex than rubber.

"Just push this button then?"

"Yeah. I can't hear you when I get in the chamber. I can't see anything either. So just push the button and hope I'm not radioactive when you open the door."

"I'd also hope you're still alive."

"You're the only one in this room."

I walked in and watched as Dr. Freeman shut the heavy metal door. I stood there. This was it. I would either die here or change the world forever. I closed my eyes thinking of Claire. Thinking of her with another man. My stomach dropped, and I felt like vomiting.

I could hear the machine churning. The air slowly felt different as if I could feel the atoms hitting me and changing me. As the machine churned on, louder and louder, the feeling got stronger. Then the churning stopped. I felt nothing moving any more. The door opened.

"Good to see you're alive."

"I'm not."

I took a step out of the machine to feel my body burning in the air. It felt as though I was on fire, the amount of heat radiating from my body. I fell to the floor.

"Daryl, what's wrong?"

I couldn't speak. My throat was dry. I managed to get up, stumbling to a nearby faucet and running the water as cold as possible before half-jumping into the sink. Dr. Freeman caught on, quickly pouring water on top of me- only to watch it evaporate into steam.

"Come here, we must get you to a hospital." His hand touched me, only to see himself burnt and electrocuted to the touch. "What are you? What have you done?"

"Nothing can stop me. I am but a monster now among you men." I grabbed him by his shirt, to watch his clothes burn like paper. "My research is not just complete, but just now beginning. When the atoms finish with me, I will be a powerful mess to deal with."

"What did you do?"

"Fuse my genome with elements. High temperature body, creating the ability to burn everything. Given the ability to produce electricity like eels. Hearing like dogs. And if the atoms do what they're meant to, I'll be fused with diamond. The hardest substance in the world. Add a bit of super ant strength, and you have yourself someone no one wants to fuck with."

"But why? Why would you do something like this?"

"The world is a cruel place, Dr. Freeman. And you made me. No body ever likes what they've made."

"But I've not done anything to you."

"Haven't you? You've left me alone here, wallowing in my own sadness. You never came to say hello or ask how I was doing. No one cares about me, why should I care about their precious lives? What makes anyone lives special to me? Nothing. Everyone left me. Claire left me, you left me. No one cares about my life. You hit the fucking button that could've killed me. You could have killed me, but you still hit that button. My life meant nothing to you. Goodbye Dr. Freeman."

I held my hands to his throat, watching it burn through his skin. I felt his blood hit me, as I made my way to his artery. Death. I let go and he fell to the floor, slowly dying as a pool of blood grouped. The blood on me dried quickly and cracked away.

I turned around and looked at my work one last time. The machine that changed the world. And there, a part of it glimmered. The diamond bracelet. I had used it to help fuse myself.

I could see the engraving still. I put my hand down on a table, and set it on fire.

"It is a pleasure to burn." I said out loud while leaving the lab. The world would soon learn that.