Imagination

The Great Murberec

*****Clarification*****

This was a short story written for a creative writing course in my second year and has ALREADY been graded by my professor. 

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Maverick motioned at his little sister to stay silent as they snuck along the hallways of the laboratory. His sister's fingers curled tightly around his hand as she stumbled along, barely able to keep up with her chubby legs.

"I don't want to do this. I'm scared." She whispered.

Her brother's heart clenched as he looked down at her. He didn't know what would happen on the other side of the door once they part, but he had to do it. He was going to help his beloved sister get rid of that insatiable demon inside of her. The one who kept feeding her nightmares and lies, the one that taught her to only befriend guilt and forget all about happiness. It has to go tonight.

"She'll be fine." He told himself as they entered the room. Lifting her onto the bed, he caught her hugging the diagram he drew of the brain. He was in his final year as a psychology major; and was studying the brain at that time. She had a tendency to keep whatever he drew, and always claimed them to be her 'treasure'. He remembered leaving his study desk for a short while, and when he came back, the words 'The Great Murberec' were scrawled on top of the illustration. The words were squiggly, and the letters overlapped each other so much the 'u' turned into an 'a'. Yet, Maverick's heart swelled with pride as he realized 'Murberec' was 'Cerebrum' spelt backwards. He didn't know how she managed to remember such a difficult word, but she had been around whenever he studied, hence it was most likely from seeing it in one of his Psychology textbooks.

His sister stared at him as he helped her settle. Her eyebrows creased and eyes welled up as he stepped back, eventually bawling as her brother gets farther and farther away from her.

"Don't go, please don't go! Don't leave me!" She cried as she reached for him. The drawing of the diagram crumpled against his forearm as she squeezed him tight, unwilling to let him leave.

"I'll see you on the other side of the door, okay? I'll see you very soon, little one."

As if right on cue, the scorching white lights came on above their heads.

"That is not supposed to happen." He whispered as he looked up at the light. Looking back down at his sister, all he saw were blinding red spots spreading out in front of him. A strong wave of vertigo washed over him as his little sister screamed. They both found the heat unbearable.

All was quiet a second later, Maverick had toppled over and lost consciousness. However, in the midst of doing so, his sister had clamped the drawing down hard on his arm. It burnt as the beam of light struck his arm, and that was all he could remember from there.

Little did he know it would be years before he sees his little sister again. And by then, they would've turned into complete strangers.

******

It was the dead of the night when they received the new victim. The monitoring hall had been dead silent, so quiet that the sound of a single pin dropping would have echoed through the hallway. The majority of people in the city were asleep by then. Except for the Healers. They were alert as they monitored the subjects behind the screens. As tired as they should have been, they did not fail to spring into action when the sirens blared. Two of them sprinted at full speed as they yanked the gurney towards the receiving station. It would have been usual practice for the staff, but an unusually high-pitched sound pierced their eardrums and made them weak at their knees. As much as they should have hurried down to the station, they couldn't. The sirens screamed as its red lights flooded and danced erratically in the corridor. Up and down, side to side, from left to right. And just like that, all the lights went off.