LabRatz

Prologue

The studies ultimately paid off.

I had spent years, years, for this, only for this. My skin was welted and blistered, aflame with irritation- but it was more than just a reaction. Sharp teeth had formed right underneath the blisters and torn skin, or maybe they were just buildups of calcium, like skin level arthritis. I watched, I stared, in my pure curiosity and infatuation with my own suffering as the teeth swam in the serum.

The wound was irritated, but it was alive. It writhed and pulsed and struggled to break free from its warm, watery environment, the only structure that could obtain its life perfectly and willingly. I sat up straight and watched, proudly, yet screaming and crying in pure agony as my nerves twisted and cramped my muscles with wide, tear-filled eyes- grinning, knowing this defines that I am living.

The blisters burst, cracking- no, ripping open with such intensity that I almost couldn't contain my joy of feeling my very own skin tearing apart, knowing I hadn't done it- but the being that inhabited my body. As it pulled apart, I beamed at the mix of fluid and blood that poured from the wound, relentless, flowing. Better yet, what was to be underneath the lesion was vaguely mouth-Esque, and gnashed its 'teeth' blindly at the world around it, seeming overwhelmed like a newborn baby.

It wasn't until I started seeing flecks of glowing white and my heavy eyelids shut from the loss of blood that I realized; I have truly become the god I yearned to be. I made and sustained life, and I am the proof. I am a god, without a single doubt, immortal and celestial. I am a creator, a beholder of existence, an emblem of true and wonderful divinity.

I am a god.

I sent my daughters away for this. My three, precious daughters, with their mother's blood and heart, my beloved wife's soul, carried in them. They will be treated well. They must be treated well, there isn't a choice for my employees. No matter how cruel they become, no matter how evil or rambunctious. Not a single finger will be laid on my children by any of them. They will be given the most stable generation, all-all except one. That fourth one... I'm ashamed to even say it's related to me.

She is not my child. She will be nobody's child. She is not my own, or my wife's. She will be worthless. She'll be my personal guinea pig. She will mean absolutely, entirely nothing in this world. I'm truly humiliated that I could ever be connected to that murderer. A shameless murderer, yet it had the nerve to cry when coming into this world. What a selfish excuse of an organism, to kill the love of my life, doctors acting as if her life were worth so much less than the ball of flesh that I had once adored slip out of her mangled body.

She is the one they can touch and harm as they please. She will be worth nothing, just like the rest of them, like all the children given up in the name of progress... and she'll fit right in.

~

All of it is coming together. Slowly, slowly... carefully. I gathered a team just as willing of sacrifice. Just as wanting for progress in this gray, meaningless world. I will give it color. We will gift this world color. All together, slowly, gently, feather-light touches and nudges to the blank canvas surrounding, to show the world the tones of prosperity, the hues of new life, perfect tertiaries in new existence all for the greater good of humanity.

Earlier in my days, I'd never considered myself anything similar to an artist. Hell, I didn't have a hand steady enough to even consider creating a straight line. Yet, here I am, slowly drawing precise incisions upon tender flesh and fur, with such accuracy, such accuracy that I wouldn't have dreamed of managing. Every slice was satisfactory to my very soul. Perfect.

I was allowing the new patients to be accommodated in their own location at the time. I had gathered ten, five on the waiting list, and hundreds to consider. Despite the majority being more worthless than a speck of dust in an abandoned home- insignificant, for better wording -they still had some level of purpose... fortunately enough. For the tissue I was cutting through was just the first of many dissections, the beginning of what was to come.

The first dive into my fantasy of a better world. It had grown two extra eyes and longer fur, teeth growing at a more rapid rate, the nails on its small feet a deeper shade of tan. I knew I could make a change to living beings other than myself. Of course, it was just a mouse. A pest. One that raided shelves and tore through bags with no thought other than to take. But it was alive. It had visible changes to it, ones that functioned- for the eye blinked and watered, boggled and bled, as if it were normal.

This only further proposed my status as creator. It wasn't a simple idea anymore, or a small nag at the back of my head. I had made it true. I had made it a reality in my world, the world that we all live in. All of us. My aspirations began to spiral, not only to change lives but to create them as I had before. The being within my body was simply... proof. Proof that I could create as I please. Proof, that I, as a god, could do what I wanted in this world. Better yet, I now sit in a council among other gods, other creators, other divine beings who know their status as a deity.

I am the new lord to worship. We are the new numina of the world, to guide our people, slowly. Eventually, they will all know our names, they will all know our deeds, they will all know our statuses and our glorious meaning to the world.

We are gods.