The Daylighter Apprentice

Chapter 5 - Another History Lesson? It's Beginning To Remind Me Of School

"How was your evening?" Matthew asks before I'm even through the main door of the lab. His back is turned to me and he's hunched over something on a worktop. I hang up my jacket and pull on my lab coat.

"It was good. I rang my mum and caught up with her. I told her I had a job but don't worry, I created you a whole new identity." Matthew turns his head slightly and looks straight at me, smiling a little smile that makes me laugh. It's a little, knowing smile that congratulates me on my initiative.

"You smart cookie. You're the blonde that goes against the grain." Matthew chuckles, returning to his work. I scoff good naturedly and walk to over to see what he's doing.

I pull up a lab stool and peer over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" I ask, watching as he spreads a liquid in a zigzag along a petri dish.

"I am cultivating a new bacteria to see if it's suitable to use for the elixir. If it is, then when it reacts with the pollution in the air, it will form a gas which can then be breathed out normally. This will mean that any pollution will come back out the way it came in."

"Is that scientifically possible?" I ask, trying to comprehend how this would work.

"I don't know. That's what I'm about to find out." Matthew says, putting the petri dish down and grabbing a test tube from the rack.

"How are you going to test for the bacteria?"

"Well, the bacteria will hopefully produce carbon dioxide so we'll test for that using lime water." He says, pouring clear liquid into the test tube from an old fashioned medicine bottle. It's labelled Lime Water in Matthew's beautiful, cursive handwriting and the label is only slightly peeled and yellowed.

"This is going to sound dorky but nice bottle." I say and Matthew smiles.

"Thanks. I've had it since my first job and it's a miracle it's still intact but I look after it. It's the only thing I have left from my human life and I intend to keep it for a long time yet." He puts a bung connected to a delivery tube into the test tube and stands it all up in a test tube rack.

"Wow, that's pretty impressive." I raise an eyebrow in slight awe.

"Yep. So don't break it." Matthew chuckles, standing up and walking over to the sink.

"I'll try." I reply, chuckling too.

"So, how are we going to test if this works?" I ask, watching as Matthew returns with a petri dish lid.

"Well, I have taken some blood from a vampire and we'll drop that onto the petri dish with the bacteria on."

"I thought vampire's blood didn't flow though?"

"No, but this means that the pollution can't be dispersed around the body so lies stagnant, only to build up and cause us damage."

"Ah, that makes sense now." I lean forward on my elbows. Matthew gets up again but this time goes to a large fridge in the corner.

"I dread to think what's in there." I laugh nervously and Matthew cackles.

"A little tip, don't go in there on a full stomach." He smiles serenely and closes the door, a small vial of blood in his hand. It looks exactly the same as human blood if not slightly lighter. Matthew swills it around the vial before grabbing a pipette and sitting back down.

"Right, so I'm going to put about 5 drops onto this and then put on the lid. I made this lid so that can connect the delivery tube and collect any carbon dioxide in the lime water." Matthew explains. I mull this over.