As he came into the window
Was a sound of a crescendo
He came into her apartment
He left the bloodstains on the carpet
She ran underneath the table
He could see she was unable
So she ran into the bedroom
She was struck down, it was her doom

Annie, are you okay?
So, Annie are you okay?
Are you okay, Annie?
Annie, are you okay?
So, Annie are you okay?
Are you okay, Annie?
Annie, are you okay?
So, Annie are you okay?
Are you okay, Annie?
Annie, are you okay?
So, Annie are you okay? Are you okay Annie?
~ Michael Jackson ( Smooth Criminal )

1

" Yeah I heard it" said the stout guard, he smirked at the others sitting beside him, all others looked at him and in that cackling fire place, his face looked like he had come to take away their souls. The frosty winter of 2000 was here. Huddled together in a small out-yard of an old used up air-plane base, they all sat in a circle around the fire; it's flame burning bright yellow-orange flames, they flames tried and tried to reach the sky. It swayed side-to-side, giving warmth to the unwanted hands who kept a safe distance from it, Maisie, Julie, Frank and Tom sat staring at each other, they had been given special orders to remain quarantined in base until further notice. It had given them a particular shock. Maisie, who was a Cafeteria worker had got a call from her sister that she would soon be getting married and that Maisie had to come to enjoy the last of their togetherness. It had been quite tough for her to make her sister understand that she could only attend the wedding and not come before that. She obviously had pleaded to the head a lot, made about 101 excuses to leave this place but even placing one toe out of the gate would mean immediate fired stamp.

Frank who had been a lonely person all his teenage life had no one outside, he did own a small house at the poorest section of Philadelphia and also had a beaten old VW. He a complicated decision on the matter at hand. On one hand, this would mean having people to talk with, spend time with and sleep with but on the other hand he could just see the picture of his angry house-owner, knocking and rapping the door with a grey unshaved beard and drunken eyes, he would stagger before climbing the steps down and shouting curses at the poor boy, then Frank could see on the 3rd week of Knocking and rapping, he would call his big-thug friends to smash the door down and check for the hiding kid. Then he could see the old study table flying off the and out of the door, smashing in bits, he could see the $500 glass set coming out and making deafening sound in the community, then he could see the owner coming out of the house with a paper in his hand and his big friends carrying the wooden wardrobe and throwing it into the corner along with his T.V and fridge and then He could finally make the picture on the owner putting the sign of ' For Sale' on the window Sill. Chances were not at all equal, but he had agreed nonetheless, after all he could finally go to the charity building to get himself a decent place there. So, he had stayed.

Most of the people had made up excuses about here and there, some people who had those eavesdropping ears had already heard the about the notice and had, in advance, taken leave. Nobody wanted to stay in this place where all sorts of dark and terrible secrets are spoken and made. One such member was Julie. She had heard the news from her friend who had mopping the floor while the authorities decided upon the matter, the news had come to all the maids very quickly. Most of them decided to just make a group and leave but Julie had stayed, She had a house and a family of 3 members, Her Ma, Her Pa and her Elder sister. When she heard the news, her lips tightened; because leaving the job meant going back to Lancaster. She gripped the handle of the mop, Because she did not want to go back, she had come so far away from home because of a reason and a very strong reason, It was Hurt. She did not want to go back to the hell-hole because then she would have to hear the shouting, she would get those black-blue bruises, Child abuse. The rich and the white-collared called it, she had known this. She had herself seen the wrath of her mother, hitting Julie's elder sister so hard the spectacle broke into pieces and then Julie had faced it herself. She had that blue-green mark on her face because her father had hit her with his baseball bat, no teeth's lost but Julie had certainly lost the love for her parents, her sister had been her only hope and when she heard that her sister was getting married and moving away, she was completely broken into pieces and had locked her sister and made her swear to never leave her alone. Her sister had then taken Julie with her one day and told her to run, run wild in the world and get herself far away from those devils in disguise. And so she had done. She had shook her head when her friend asked for the leave permission. And so she stayed.

Tom was one of the members of the security unit at a minor level, He had stayed because if he didn't it would cost his job and then his family would have to sleep in the roads, No. He liked it here, it was calm and quite here. And so he had stayed.

" I know what those weirdos do there" said Tom, everyone looked towards him for an explanation and so he gave,

" Ol' buddy Rupert heard that Cooper bragging and explaining everything to that Silly girl Emma. He said that Cooper was saying something about it being ' Special' " he said with a tell-tale tone, everyone registered the story, then Julie said,

" I have heard that many times, they refer to something as Special, I don't know. Like, ' Hey, how's the Special 1 going?' somethin' like that" Others looked at it, It had been rumoured that the 4 scientists who shared the same laboratory had been given special status of top brilliant scientist by the authorities and by the authorities, Robert Ford and Richard Bachman.

" I don't know what those jerks find so amazing in discovering something" said Maisie, she had a particular hatred for scientists because her previous boyfriend had just gotten a new enrollment in a university and he had dumped her but Maisie always told others that She infact had did it.

" Same, I don't get it. Like you know about things. That is more than enough why do you need to exploit the nature to make something new" said Frank, Tom laughed,

" You Sonny boy, they are the one who will save us from problems like pollution and the hole forming in the Ozone layer" He said, Discovery channel has that effect when you watch it too long.

" Yeah but it wouldn't have happened on the first place if we did not cut trees" replied Frank, Maisie huddled towards the fire, it was biting cold now.

" I say, Why don't we take a sneak- peek in it?" said Tom, Everyone looked at him with disbelief, Nobody wanted to interfere in the matter of the intelligent.

" You're mad old man, we even open the door, your buddies will be on us with guns and grenades" said Frank, Julie did not even speak, she just wanted to work and take the money and live in her shelter that's all. She didn't want to join in any of these crazy adventures,

" Nah, Langdon has gone to sleep and the rest of the guard is just like us sitting and enjoying the warmth" said Tom giving a chuckle, Frank still did not agree. Maisie looked at the lab. It was circular, made of bricks and metal, there were a lot of panels to each section but they closed when the people didn't need sunlight, a strong metal door was standing. Guarding the entrance of the unknown secret.

" I'll come" said Maisie, Anyways she needed to get out of here as soon as possible, then be it by firing her, at least she will be out with her sister. Tom looked at her and sneered, they shook hands,

" Let's go." he said, They began to get up but Frank interrupted,

" Wait, it's not safe, they'll have all sorts o' security" he said, Tom smiled and removed a card from his pocket and bend towards Frank and said,

" This is the key" he said, getting up,

" Langdon gave it me, I say he has already went in and seen it, whatever they are creating in there" he said,

" What if there is something dangerous?" asked Julie, there a sudden frustration in her, Why do they want to interfere, just do you jobs. She thought,

" Well what could they put in there? A giant spider?" asked Tom sarcastically, He began moving towards the door with Maisie following behind,

" Wait!! I'll come" said Frank, Julie stared at him but said nothing. And the 3 of them walked towards the Dome of Mystery.

They walked close to the door, all the three of them stood infront of the door. Frank looked at Tom,

" Do it" he hissed quietly one could see his nervousness, his eye frowned and almost fear was pouring our of them, his breathing was shallow and he constantly retained saliva. Tom looked at him and then to Maisie, She didn't look back, she kept her focus on the door. Tom removed the magnetic strip card and with a fast and trembling swipe he did it. A short BLEEP! came from the device, everybody flinched. Maisie could feel the hairs on her back rise in alert. She could see it like waking a monster by giving it food, those red eyes and the scaly body. The black blood soaked fangs bearing in front of her,

" Maisie, C'mon" said Frank as the door began opening with a slow hiss, she gulped down her throat and went in.

It was very dark inside, an cold eerie wind was constantly blowing from a corridor, Maisie huddled her jacket together and rubbed her hands. Frank examined the inside, there was a huge hall-way which was filled with boards and doors, he could too feel the constant wind blowing like if someone was blowing from their mouth, a dark monster maybe.

CLACK!

Maisie and Frank immediately turned in surprise, but it was only Tom closing the door behind them. He moved ahead of both of them. There was total darkness, Frank began searching for switch but Tom held his arm and jerked his head into disapproval. He had a flashlight with him, he activated it, the dim circular light glowed in the dark. He moved the light to his right, the light went as far they could see but there was something beyond that too. He went towards one of the doors. It was locked and this time his key card would be of no use. He flashed the light on every other door all of them had the lock, Except one.

He looked at Frank, he nodded and the went forth towards the door, it was a steel door with no lock only a latch, Frank pulled out a paper clip pin and rummaged it inside the lock. The others waited, after about 2 minutes a small noise came and the latch broke open. They went inside, to belly of the monster. It was a normal room with very little furniture, tables lay spread and upon them lay the scientific waste and maybe some scientific discovery. They divided and searched for something, but what was it that they were searching?. They were searching for something shiny, or something that attracted the ordinary mind of people.

Maisie ventured towards a table, it was so awful cold in here but corner looked kind of cosy, she went towards it, there was a table and piles of books and papers and files stacked together. She touched the table and squinted her eyes because of the absence of darkness. She leaned closer towards the table and was holding a paper; there was a picture of a man, he was holding his head on his palms and sitting down and in the next picture the same man was practically screaming his head off looking toward the camera with a horrific grin and those dead eye, Maisie recoiled in horror. She saw the timestamps on each picture, one said 12/7/1995 and the next one said, 13/7/1995

'one day difference' she thought, She placed the picture back as it was and then,

" Maisie!" hissed Frank, She jerked towards his direction and a sudden

CLANK!

A sudden sound came from behind her, she looked back again. There was nothing changed, she bend down to the height of the table and all she could see was a Blueberry Muffin resting neatly between the piles of files and some kind of science equipment. She could smell the strange alcohol based medicinal smell, she wrinkled her nose and then began moving towards Frank,

" There's nothing here, we shoulda though, they keep all their secrets locked inside those damned room we can't enter" said Tom, Frank placed his hand on his shoulder,

" At least we tried" he said, Maisie just looked at them, the picture had already alluded from her mind, she was now more concerned about the fact that she couldn't see her sister again. They all came out of the room and the sudden bone chilling wind blew on them, all of them paused as if to let ' his royalty wind' pass, after it did they began moving towards the door, opening the door, Tom felt a kind of relief, suddenly he could feel certain kind of suffocation had gripped him inside the dome, after everybody came out he locked the door, Maisie could imagine it to be like sewing the mouth of a hunger monster shut. She blinked and stared at the door and them all of them walked away in silence.

2

It was a sunny day today, bright sun gleamed above in sky, after a month of cold blowing month they finally received some sunlight, and the Holster family had been more than happy to see it, Janine had woken up and see saw that the other side of the bed had been unslept, it was usual of Sam to not arrive home. She had taken it as a shock because Samuel had suddenly been very over joyed these days, to be correct he had been happy form the last month, he would take day off's during seasons and also agreed to take Ryan on tours around the state which hardly the usual thing for Samuel because Janine had kept a keen observation on his behaviour, She had an account of his behaviour fixed inside her head. She would often try to link those emotions to figure out the true meaning behind them but her motherly heart had always kept a trust on him and more over she was his wife, it was very ungrateful of her to suspect her husband, but she just couldn't help it. There were two main reason for it, first, that the job which he had acquainted in the past 15 years had been very suspicious, She could see Samuel working day and night, he seemed to be in stress, she feared if he would succumb to anxiety or drinking. He had seem to be too happy about anything, Janine could see the sight of him on Ryan's 10th birthday, He had been stressed, the visible frown lines and the tired eyes, weak body and constant desire to spend time alone, all the signs of stress. She had called upon Emma, Sam's colleague to ask about his behaviour at office Emma had responded that it seemed to fine by her and it was just the amount of work he had been doing might be having a little effect on him. Hearing this Janine had immediately pleaded Sam to take sometime off but he had bluntly refused her.

Past 5 years had been the same, the daily routine of Samuel was to work, work and work. Suddenly he had also stopped acting like a free person, he wouldn't spend time with Ryan, he wouldn't take him to park much when Ryan was 6 and he would excuse up to not be able to go to movies with him. She feared if Ryan would grow up to hate his father but he hadn't he would always greet his father every time he arrived home. Ryan had been a bright boy himself, he had acquired the trait of reading from his mother. She could see him reading books, piles of them lay in his cupboard, they had to buy a separate wardrobe just to store his books. She liked it very much, because of the absence of his father, Janine had stayed up with Ryan and told him about en-number of stories all night, now Ryan had turned 15 and still he was her little boy.

She got up and changed from her night dress to something warm to wear, it was still cold, she opened the curtains to their house. They had bought a new house on Dale City, not far from where Samuel used to work, it had costed a lot but now they could buy it, they could afford the best education for Ryan, the best food could be cooked at festivals and the best life was lived by Holsters. But all this was merely an outcome of money, what mattered more was Samuel. She let herself get warm in the sun and then opened her door and came out of room. Ryan had been asleep in his room, many things had changed since 1985 the had a brand new T.V and a quality brand sofa, real woollen carpets and wonderful paintings on the walls in hall, She made her way to the bathroom.

Soon after brushing teeth and taking the milk bottle and newspaper from the doorstep. She began making tea. Putting the kettle on the gas stove, she sat down on the chair,

' How late will he return?' she thought, She began thinking about the sudden change in his behaviour, as if he had achieved something but he wouldn't tell her,

' He promised me, to tell everything' she thought, looking at Ryan's bedroom she got up, her thoughts still on Samuel. She began advancing towards Ryan's room but something struck her and she stopped,

' I can search his room' she thought, but immediately she felt a revolt and disgust at herself, she couldn't do that, it would mean spying but

'It is spying for good!, I care for him and I could break one promise if he breaks one, Tit for Tat' she thought, and without any further ado she went for it,

It was a small room with only one window facing west, initially it had be Ryans' but when his things couldn't fit in they had decided to move his room to the visitor's room and now all their rooms were full, if any visitor came to stay then they had to lay down the camp-beds and all of Sam's things had to be placed aside. There was a table and a chair, of course but also their was a shelf of books, these were books which contained books for Janine and Samuel later Janine also found her wedding album tucked away inside it, the shelf was panned with glass and had two drawers and below them was a cabinet, this shelf had been hand-made and the glass part contained all the important files and books. She walked inside it, the light was dim here, so she switched on the tube light, there were several books lay upturned on the desk, a coffee mug and a note. She picked up the note and sat on the chair, it didn't say much, only ' Toxin's', she flipped the note nothing. She looked at the upturned book, it was Whittaker's guide to Animal Classification. She flipped through it, there were lot of underlined markings mostly were done on Rodents section and some were seen on Primata Section. She looked at other books, her spying sense were slowly waking up, all these years she had stopped them from searching but now, when she had the opportunity she would make the best out of it.

She found notes on another book which specified the analogy of Primates, ' Emma' it said on one and on another book which was the chemical study of hormones and thoughts, ' Henry', she also found note saying Robert on the Psychological study of trigger senses. She was going through the pages when she noticed a paper sticking out of the back of the table as if seeing her, she got down and picked up the paper, it was huge. So she spread it around the floor and began making sense of what it said, it was a proper diagram of a human body, Male on one side and Female on the other, she looked at it, there were various markings on the specific parts of body, some were alike and some were not; Arms, Head, Hands and stomach were alike to each body type. She was getting confused,

'Is he studying acupressure?' she thought, she sat down on the ground trying to make sense of this, when suddenly she looked at the shelf, she got hurriedly and opened the glass panel, she picked up one file, it was thick and a tied with a rope, she opened the rope and began going through the file. It said a lot about bio-chemical researches and developments,

'He is really doing his job' she thought and closed the file up, she checked other files too, but with no luck, it was same. It said about the economical saving of medicines and all the stuff, Janine was really not interested in such stuffs, she placed her fourth file in shelf when her eyes went to a red coloured file, it wasn't bound, it was open and it had been read very times unlike the others which were read few times, she could tell this by the orderly manner in which each file was stored and there weren't many creases upon the pages of them but this file had everything to justify that it had been read almost everyday.

She took out the file and opened it, a lot of paper spilled out of it, she cursed and bend down to pick them up, she picked up a page, it was a photocopy of a picture, it was black and white and showed a woman sitting with her hands around her legs, the next image showed her walking in the room, there was a glass panel between the woman and the camera because Janine could see glint of light on the glass infront of the camera. The next image showed the woman sleeping on her belly but her fingernails were digging into the ground, she was in pain, the next image showed her directly infront of the camera with a wide devilish grin and blood coming out of her mouth, her greenish eyes wide as if they would come out anytime, and she was staring right at the camera, Janine almost dropped the paper because it seemed that she was staring right at Janine. This got Janine really guessing, she began going through the file..

It said a lot about experiments conducted on rats and then on monkeys and chimpanzees, she feverishly went through the pages her anger rising in every page, below on every page there was a signature, a signature of Samuel, it meant that he had conducted and viewed the tests.

'I told him!! I told him not be selfish!! I warned him that they would lure him into all this!!' she thought, anger fuming at Samuel, the kettle had boiled.

" Ma, the kettles boiled" came a sound, it was Ryan. She looked at him and said,

" Yes, and after breakfast we are going to see your father" she said, Ryan smiled and left the room. Janine picked up the files and took it with her, closing the shelf, she saw the picture of her and Samuel,

' I warned you' she thought, She closed the file and read the name on it:-

'Ridiculus scriptor morbus'

3

" My discovery will be ground breaking" said Emma to herself, she picked up her coat and closed the door, she was inside her office, it was a big room. It had a convertible-like window on the top, a T.V screen on the side of wall through which she monitored her subjects, opposite to the T.V was a huge board with pictures of rodents, birds and apes. She was studying about the learning process of the brain, it is found mostly in the forebrain and she had successfully discovered the trigger hormone which allowed organisms to think or in simple terms boost their curiosity. Only thing was left was it's use on humans, if that proved to be positive. Then she would be all the way to fame. She began working on the project and it had been on from last month,

" Patrick! Do we have our subject ready?" she said through the Dictaphone,

" Yes." came a reply,

" Send them in" she said, as she observed the person coming and she saw Patrick make her sit on the chair, The woman looked at camera and smiled, she was just as age of Emma's mother,

" Inject it" she said, and the lady rolled up her sleeves and Patrick injected the syringe containing the solution equivalent to that given to female chimpanzees, she had to try with average age of the world, meaning the age of most of the people in the world.

" Please begin with the test" she said, and Patrick exited the room. The woman started doing the test, it was a test specifically designed to test the knowledge of the person, the questions were not computer generated but hand written, Emma had gathered around a group of teachers and professors and asked them to give questions related to common topics but they would be difficult to solve. After about a month of collection of data, she was now conducting the test, however this was not the first subject, she had tried it with others but most of them had grown frustrated and some them had shown anger. The lady kept on writing on the paper, not thinking. It meant that she was doing good. Emma crossed her fingers in hope.

Soon after 30 minutes of test, the lady stopped. She stopped writing, and Emma observed, the woman looked at the paper again and then began writing but stopped almost immediately and crossed out the writing, she wrote again and scratched it out. Then she began looking towards the door and then towards the camera, a concentration break. She looked over the question set and then took a sigh, she placed the paper on the table and began to stretch her hands and neck, mind was relaxing and refraining from over-use. She picked up the pen again but nothing occurred, she began going through the answer sheet. She was sweating and scratching her forehead.

Emma zoomed the camera, her eyes were weary and tired, that's what she had to inhibit. Tiring of human brain was only when a slight break of concentration occurs due a relation of a specific word or a sentence with a powerful memory. This woman had done the exact, now she was holding her head in her palms.

" Okay stop" said Emma, she knew what would happen if she forced her to do it, forcing someone to do a task wouldn't develop the new hope but it would trigger anger and frustration.

Patrick came in and took the woman out of the room, she was getting angry at herself. Emma sighed and began working on her computer.

4

Henry Cooper was overwhelmed by his latest news, the human test had proved successful, soon he'd be giving speeches as he sat in his room thinking. His task had been to see if outer surroundings have an effect on the past memories of a human being. But, Henry had gone as far as to make an injection which could make you redo your memories, you could turn bad memories into good and good memories bad. He had told this new breakthrough only to Emma, he wished to impress her and hadn't gotten over her. How could he? She had been around her all day.

Henry sat on his chair enjoying the view of the sky. It hadn't been an easy job, because to mis-use one's brain can cause serious effect and they did,

Sometimes Henry would take the plans with him and would conduct researches outside the premises, that's how he had gotten ahead of the others. He was a very rich person and had paid people to tampered with. But for henry what mattered was the delightful smile on Emma's face and maybe she would hug him and then she would say yes? Chances seemed to be high for Henry. As he sat thinking about how Robert and Samuel would shake his hand and smile even thought they knew that they lost. But one could look at Henry and say that he is jealous, un-faithful and Greedy but for Henry the whole world was upside down, he would see himself as a competitive spirit person.

5

Janine drove towards Virginia beach, where the used up airplane base was, Ryan had holiday and had nothing to do so he had joined in with her. As they reached the base, Ryan and Janine both saw that it was heavily guarded by all sorts of army guards. They had those German Shepherds with them, Janine drove upto the entrance,

" May I have you I.D please" said the guard in a stern voice, absolutely commanding her to show her I.D or get out of sight. Janine took out her citizenship card showed him,

" Sorry entry not authorised, I need your I.D for this base, it's a sensitive base and nobody except those who have verified I.D are allowed" he said,

" I know all that, my husband works here" she said and showed him Sam's citizen card and then spoke
" Now you know that I am not fraud, so please open the gates and let me in."

The guard looked hard, " I am not commanded to let enter any un-authorised vehicle or people" he said,

" Then call him for Christ's sake!" she said, Ryan watched her mother act as if everything was under control but he knew and could she her hands shaking beneath,

" I can't I don't have orders" said the guard,

" Oh god, Look I know Robert Ford too, I know that he was a spy earlier and now he is working with Richard Bachman and a team of members are conducting research of Bio-chemical technology, now maybe there are more than one research going on but I need to speak to my husband, NOW" said Janine.

" I can't now please move your vehicle" he said, Janine stayed at spot and called Samuel,

" Hey, Sam I am your base. Yeah, we need to talk" she said, " YES NO YOU IDOT" she said,

" There you go, he is coming" she said to the guard,

Soon Samuel came on the gate and they were allowed to enter, She parked her car.

" You swore to me to never conduct research!!" said Janine as soon as she met with Samuel,

Sam looked shock,

" How do you..." he started, but Janine showed him the file,

" I have trusted you for 15 years and you come up with this!! You sneaky little bastard!! I told you to not get involved and to tell me but NO! YOU WANT TO BE THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SCIENTIST AND SHOW OFF BUT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BEING YOU ARE BEING A SILLY PRICK!!" she screamed at him, Samuel felt silent but them spoke,

" Let's talk inside" he said, and they both went towards Richards cabin,

Ryan stood near the car, waiting. He knew this would take very log time to finish, however. He had never seen her mother and father so angry at each other. He hoped they would soon sort this out and they'd be on their way to home.

Two hours had passed but their was no sign of them, Ryan grew tired of this, he spied upon the buildings, they were big dome shaped and circular. He decided to take a look at them, so he went towards the laboratory of his fathers. They had names written out infront, the door was open and so he got in.

It was a huge dome, it was brightly lit one, He paced across the door. People were rushing past him in a hurry. He followed decided to follow them, reaching the spot. He was amazed by the sight.

A huge cafeteria!, With all sorts of edible stuff filled, almost overflowing with the food. The were people handing out steak, pork, pasta and much more. The delicious smell of the freshly cooked meat almost made Ryan's stomach roar. However, he noticed that there was another door open at the side, a metal door. He went upto it, it read ' Testing Site ' and below in small golden letters it was his father's name. He went inside, it was not at all furnished. There were scratched on the wall and on the ground. Bird feathers lay on ground and their was a table and upon it, a Blueberry Muffin. He looked side -to -side, nobody. The whole room had an obnoxious alcohol medicine smell. He wrinkled his nose. He looked behind and then up, there was a camera, watching him.

' This is not fun. Let's move out, this place is stinking' he thought.

He began moving towards the door and went out of it. Then again came inside and quickly grabbed the muffin and closed the door. He advanced towards the cafeteria, taking the bite from the muffin. Little did he know what lay ahead of him. Utter Chaos.

Hello readers, This one might be a big one but believe me, I know this is good. Story takes one step ahead to towards it's end. I felt necessary to describe the tension in which the family and friends are set into because of greediness of both Samuel and Ryan, and of course Henry. But what will happen to Emma? Will Janine take a good decision? What will happen to 15 years of research? It's all coming very very soon!!
Stay tuned and vote the story if liked.
Stay safe, stay happy.

Your writer,
Sherlock Holmes.