Animal Impulses

The test

Chapter 2.

Well this is it. The moment of truth. I quickly got up and waved to my brother before following the woman at a brisk walk down and equally white corridor till we reached a door labelled "Room 7". She quickly pushed open the door and stood in the entrance before gesturing to me to go in. The transformation from the corridor to "Room 7" was almost funny. Where the corridor had been a bright threatening white, Room 7 was a pale lilac colour that seemed almost welcoming. Glancing round the room there were very few items actually there, only a small chair to one side with a built in desk over one of the arms – very Victorian style, some cabinets along one wall all painted in a slightly lighter shade of lilac than the walls, and a desk in one corner. Behind the desk sat who I presumed to be the doctor helping me through my test of self-discovery this fine morning (not being sarcastic at all – nope). As I stepped into the room the man looked up from his desk, from where he appeared to be writing a report, and gave me a warm smile. At this I could feel myself starting to relax a little.

"Hello. My name is Dr Stone, but you can call me Henry if you wish – I feel a slightly less formal setting always helps relax especially on this big day! As you can probably tell I will be the one helping you through your test today." He had a very soft and warm voice that somehow seemed to soothe my nerves and seemed to let me push them to one side.

I was sat down on the Victorian style desk and given a short multiple choice test to start off with. The questions were very simple and I almost felt as though I was answering a quiz online with questions like "what is your strongest emotion? Love, anger, hate, happiness or sadness". The test only took about 10 minutes and at the end Dr Stone simply picked it up and placed it in a file marked with my initials that he must have dug from one of the cabinets whilst I was completing the test.

Next was slightly trickier and seemed to be more of a waiting game as I was given a strange orange shimmering concoction in a glass vial that would apparently trigger my first morph into my Scarv. After the first morph it gets progressively easier till you can morph in a second – which my brother loves to boast about. It tasted a little strange but not totally unpleasant – like mint cookies and milk. After 5 minutes of nothing and awkward glances around the room to avoid eye contact, I started to feel a strange sensation in my stomach – like there was something trying to escape. It wasn't wholly painful just very unpleasant. The sensation grew and grew till it was borderline painful. Just when it seemed to be too much I looked up only to find everything seemed twice as tall. I looked around and noticed at some point I must have fallen on the ground, but as I tried to pick myself up I noticed my limbs didn't seem to be working the way they usually do. I started to panic a little at that, thinking something must have gone horribly wrong or I had been given the wrong vial to drink from, when I noticed Dr Strange holding a mirror up for me to see. Where I expected to see my own face reflected back I instead realized I must have morphed after all because for the first time I saw my Scarv looking back at me instead.