Garden of Horrors

Playing God

After fifteen years of research and suffering I've finally done it. I'll finally be able to have them back. Twenty years ago my wife and kids were brutally killed in a plane crash, their bodies were unrecognizable. It took me five years to be a functioning human again, then ten years to perfect my research. But tonight I finally solved it. 

I started brewing another pot of coffee knowing that I would not be sleeping until my family was back. I was lucky enough to have all the supplies I needed in my lab and I started working on creating my cloning device. It took almost a week and dozens of pots of coffee but I had finally completed my cloning machine.

I reverently removed the lock of my wife's hair from the metal tin I kept it in and inserted it into the machine. With a flick of a switch the machine roared to life. I watched as the scanner danced over the blond hair. Slowly the skeletal system started forming in the chamber, followed by the muscular system. I watched in awe. How, from the chemicals in the air, my beloved wife was being reborn. I pressed my face against the glass panel I had put in for viewing my work. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she let out the most inhuman screech I had ever heard. I recoiled and stared in shock as Katie kept screaming in that inhuman pitch.

"Honey, Darling, it's okay, everything will be okay!" I shouted, hands clutched to my ears as I tried to dull the screeching. I must have said something wrong because at that moment Katie started punching the glass. "Hun, you need to stand still, please! The process isn't finished yet!" I shouted, panic starting to fill me as I watched the glass start to shatter under the force of her skinless hand. I backed further away, this wasn't supposed to be happening, we were supposed to have a happy reunion then start on our kids' clones. She finally broke the glass and reached her arm out, searching for the latch to open the door. After a few seconds her grotesque hand found the handle and wrenched the door open. I backed up until my back was against the wall.

 I spoke softly, trying to keep the panic out of my voice as I moved sideways, trying to find the door. "Katie, you need to stay in the chamber, it's not finished it's job yet." She didn't show any signs of understanding me, she just stared. Her uncovered muscle flexing and relaxing as if she was testing her strength. Then she rushed me. Her outstretched hands clasped my neck tightly and didn't let go. I struggled against her but I was far weaker than the monster I had created. My lungs were screaming and I felt like I was inhaling fire. She squeezed tighter and tighter. The world blackened around me as I struggled to breathe.

After a few moments the world came back in sepia tones and I was standing behind the monster who was now holding my recently deceased body. I watched as she dropped it, like a retriever after it brought back a dead duck. She then moved upstairs and into the tiny room I called home. I had no choice but to follow her, I was pulled along with her movements. I watched as she opened each drawer on the dresser, searching. Eventually she found clothing that fully covered her skinless body.

 She left and I was forced to follow. I followed her for years and watched as she destroyed anyone who looked like me, talked similar to me, walked similar, any correlation with me and she would end their lives.

I learnt my lesson on playing god. I just wish I could warn the poor sap who bought my old lab. I watched him with my monster, waiting in torture wondering when she was going to kill him too.