Mcyt Oneshots

Experimental eyes

Grian winced as he opened his eyes to the harsh light of the lab. Had it worked? Did things seem brighter? Was anything different? Was he safe?

Well, he was alive at least. And he could still see. So far, going well.

"Doc?" His voice was croaky, as if he hadn't used it for days, and his throat felt like sand paper. There was a small crash, like papers sliding to the floor, and Doc's concerned face appeared in Grian's view,

"Grian? Can you see me?" He nodded, "Okay, that's a good sign. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uuuh, four," Doc visibly relaxed,

"Phew, good to see I haven't blinded you. Can you sit upright?"

It took him a few attempts, but eventually Grian managed to sit up without his vision going black. The lab hadn't changed much; it had just gotten a bit messier. Paper was scattered around a lone chair, empty coffee mugs sat on the desk, and a new lab assistant he didn't recognise was furiously scribbling notes in the corner.

"You feeling okay?" Doc himself needed a shower, "You've been out for a few days," And a nap, "I should probably get you some water!" He hurried out the door, nearly tripping on untied shoelaces.

The room dimmed, then swam back into focus and Grian thought he might throw up. The lab assistant didn't stop writing. He was tall, even hunched on the floor, and black hair was messily pushed out of his face. He wore an old, crumpled suit; it looked Victorian in style, something you would find a high classed gentleman in. He had a very fine moustache. His pen made no noise as it made it's way across a tattered, spiral bound notebook.

The door swung open and Doc appeared once more, holding a glass of water and some buttered toast. He thrust them towards his patient, and dragged the chair towards the bed,

"You should eat that too, don't want you to die from mal-nourishment do we?" He ended the sentence with a chuckle, badly concealing how worried he'd been. Grian decided to ignore it, and gratefully ate the overcooked toast. The water was cold and tasted slightly like iron; it always had tasted like iron in the lab, he didn't mind though.

Okay, that was a lie. Grian minded a lot and made a huge fuss about the quality of the water filter, but right now his mouth was so dry, he would have drunk anything.

He swallowed the toast and turned to Doc,

"So, what happened?"

"Well, the surgery went well, I think, but the anaesthetic was a bit too strong and instead of putting you under for 18 hours, you were out for 32." Well that would explain the headache, "I was a bit worried you weren't going to wake up for a sec! Are you feeling alright? Are you still thirsty?"

"I'm alright Doc," Grian took another sip of water. He gestured to the assistant in the corner, "Who's he?"

Doc turned, "Who's who?"

"The new guy. In the corner." He turned back to Grian confused,

"There isn't anyone in the corner..."

"But... Yes there is."

Doc frowned, and slowly got up from the chair, "Grian, you just stay there. I might have a hunch on what you're seeing." He exited the room, leaving Grian alone with the man in the corner.

The man in the corner who was staring at him, open-mouthed.

Not knowing what else to do, Grian raised his hand and cautiously waved. The man shut his mouth, and looked around, like he was expecting someone else to be receiving the wave. Once he realised there was no one else -that the wave was meant for him- he jumped up, waving back and mouthing something Grian couldn't hear. He rushed over to the bed, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, excitement flooding his face. Again he mouthed something and looked expectantly for a reply.

Grian just stared.

Slowly, the mans face fell and he pulled out the notebook he had been writing in. He scribbled quickly onto a page and flipped it round to face to other,

Can you see me?

Grian nodded.

Can you hear me?

He shook his head. The man deflated and scribbled something onto the page,

My name is Mumbo Jumbo. I've been here for a long time and I didn't expect this experiment to work, let alone come up with results like these!

"Well, it's nice to meet you Mumbo... What do you mean 'results like these'?"

You can see me. You're not really supposed to on the account of me being a bodiless spirit stuck on earth. I thought, that if the experiment had succeeded, you would see a few more colours, maybe I would make things a bit blurry if you looked directly at me, but no, you can actually see me!

Grian read and re-read the paragraph to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Nope. That said 'bodiless spirit' alright. So he could see ghosts? Was Mumbo a ghost? Ghosts don't exist. Was he actually seeing this man? Grian's head hurt.

Mumbo had turned the notebook around and had begun writing something else, when Doc came back into the room, carrying a small black box with a lot of flashing lights on its front and a long antennae sticking out of it. The box was making a high beeping noise that was getting more and more frequent, the closer he got to Mumbo.

Just a few steps more, and the antennae was inside Mumbo's torso causing the beeping to become an annoying, high pitched drone.

"Well that explains a lot." Doc turned a dial on the box,

"What explains a lot? What's going on?" Grian's head was really hurting and he was feeling quite light-headed actually, and he might just faint,

"We've got ghosts"

Grian gaped at Doc, who shrugged at him, then at Mumbo. Mumbo smiled awkwardly and scrawled another message onto his notebook,

I'm the ghost

Grian saw the ceiling rush away from him and everything went black.

~*~

I used a writing prompt for this one. Here's the prompt:

You are the test subject for an experimental surgery to see wavelengths of light that humans normally cannot see. As you adjust to your new vision, you see one person in the corner furiously taking notes. "Who is that?" you ask. "Who is what?" asks the doctor, looking at the empty corner