I Want to Tell You (A Beatles Fanfic)

Chapter 1 - What You're Doing 🕒Friday, November 1st, 2019🕞

I turned the corner and walked all the way down to the end of the hallway. Sure enough, this was room 304. I nervously cleared my throat and knocked on the door.

"Mr. Spinetti?" I asked. A middle-aged man with black and grey hair opened the door and smiled at me.

"Come in, come in! We have no time to lose." He ushered me into a small lab room and seated me by the table, disappearing around the corner. I sat there for a moment, contemplating the meaning of all this and why my presence was so vital. I glanced down nervously as I waited for him to return.

A moment later, I heard him talking to a man in hushed tones and made out short phrases such as "not ready" and "need more time." Then, Victor said, "Nonsense! With a machine like that, I could...dare I say it...rule the world!" I frowned, drumming my fingers absent mindedly on the table. Whatever this was, it was quite the ordeal. Maybe I should explain why I was there in the first place. It had been last Tuesday. I was sitting in my general education physics class, daydreaming about anything but science, when Mr. Spinetti had approached me at the end of the hour.

"May I have a word with you, Parker?" he asked, as class was dismissed. I shrugged and nodded. He pulled me aside and cleared his throat.

"Would you be willing to participate in an experiment?" he asked. I licked my lips curiously.

"It depends. What kind of experiment?"

"It has to do with your major." he said. "If it works, it may be the greatest discovery man has ever known." I squinted my face.

"What is it?"

Mr. Spinetti looked down like he didn't know what to tell me.

"It's a federal project...very er-confidential."

I sighed impatiently.

"So...in other words, you're not going to tell me."

Spinetti squirmed uncomfortably.

"I'm afraid not."

"Then I'm not interested." I said, turning to go. "I'm sorry, Mr. Spinetti, but I have better things to do than be a guinea pig in one of your experiments."

He frantically grabbed my arm.

"Wait! Please consider this!" His eyes lit in intrigue. "You would be well-compensated in scholarship money."

I stopped in my tracks.

"How much?" I asked, eyeing him with wonder. Money was never an object to a college student, especially if you were greatly in debt. Like me.

"Quite a bit." he said, grinning. I sighed.

"I don't know...this sounds awful sketchy, sir."

He sighed and handed me a stack of papers.

"Well, go home and think it over. If you decide that you want to do it, sign these papers and meet me in room 304 next Friday at 10:00 AM."

He leaned forward and pursed his lips.

"Please consider this." he said.

I should probably also mention that looking back, in hindsight, I realize now the red lights of the situation, the legal implications and the immorality, not to mention the fact that I had been targeted from the get-go. At only seventeen, not only was I legally a minor, but I was an honor's student on track to graduate early, finishing high school with AP credits in only three years and now, a blushing college freshman who lacked the necessary life experience of the upper-classmen, it was very apparent why I had been chosen, as the youngest student in the undergraduate history program, let alone probably the whole student body. The thing was, I was born older and had always managed to carry myself above and beyond my peers. Unfortunately, this also meant that I was often taken advantage of.

And so there I sat, awaiting whatever it was I had just signed my life away on. With the promise of $45,000...nearly a year's tuition at my fingertips.

Spinetti returned a moment later with a short pudgy man in a white lab coat, who stuck his hand out to me.

"I'm Algernon. You must be Miss Parker." he said, shaking my hand. "I am so delighted you have taken Victor up on this; it really is the opportunity of a lifetime!"

"Especially for a historian." Spinetti added, smiling. "You won't regret this."

I forced a smile and nervously stood to face them.

"May we see the papers?" Algernon asked. I nodded and handed him the daunting stack of doom I had filled out with so much reluctance. But I would go through with it for $45,000. I just had to. Algernon flipped through them quickly.

"Now. Let's not waste any more time, we have a busy day ahead of us." he said, satisfied once he came to my signature. "Victor, go ahead and get things set up." Victor disappeared around the corner again and I was left alone with Algernon. He handed me a pen and another paper.

"What's this?" I asked, slight annoyance creeping into my voice. I had just signed off my life in a stack of paperwork bigger than Texas and there was more.

"Just one more thing." he said, suspiciously. "It merely states that if anything goes wrong with the experiment, you can't sue." I glared up at him.

"What do you mean 'if anything goes wrong'?"

"Well dear, nothing's indestructible."

I sighed, and I will admit, almost walked right out of that room. But the five-digit number kept me standing there. I picked up the pen and without another thought, signed the bloody paper. Then, we were ready to go.

Algernon took me back to a small room with a massive amount of technology. There were chords everywhere, and in the middle of it all, stood a large machine with panels coming out from at every angle. I had absolutely no idea what I had gotten myself into.

"Step forward onto the far-right panel." Spinetti ordered, as he stood from where he was on the other side of the room. I did as he said, and Algernon moved toward me with an IV. I froze in horror and stiffened my body. He must have noticed because he laughed at me and shook his head.

"Don't worry. You won't feel a thing."

He proceeded to give me a shot, and I relaxed my muscles.

"What was that for?" I asked, thinking I at least had the right to know one thing. Algernon looked back at Victor for help. Victor shrugged. I rolled my eyes.

"Unless of course it's classified."

Algernon chuckled and nodded. "It's just too slow you down a bit."

"What?!" I asked, irately. "You drugged me?"

Algernon ignored my question and instead, began to attach cords to my body, mainly my limbs and the top of my head. I huffed in frustration and closed my eyes. Algernon handed me a cup of water. I looked at it suspiciously until he said, "It's just water, I promise." I sighed in defeat and took a swig.

Shortly after, I began to feel very dizzy. Everything began to slow down significantly as I watched Algernon walk across to join Victor at the panel. They exchanged glances and shrugged. Victor nodded, saying something about micro electrodes and the space time continuum. Space time what? He went to work, pressing the buttons on the dial. The room began to hum with a low buzzing sound and the panel lit up a deep indigo blue. The noises got louder and louder as the blue glow began to creep up to the chords. Algernon said something from across the room about me being in for a surprise, but the words just weren't registering. And then...just like that...everything went black.