Dr. William McNamara was elated.
In fact, he was more than elated. He had transcended the boundaries of happiness or glee or thrill. He was in a state of being so complex that one was unable to find any word in the confines of human speech to describe it. The essence of this emotion had to be summed up using the closest available sensation: insanity.
No, he thought, surely I can't be insane. Insanity is the complete lack of control, and what I've just created requires the utter capacity of control possible in the human mind.
That was the brilliance of his creation. It needed not to be bound by the limits of the human mind. It did not compromise ability for sentience. It was boundaryless, it was that of a god.
The young scientist stared at his masterpiece. It sat on the table in front of him, obscured by the shadows cast by massive stacks of papers. The mess that was his laboratory, from the overflowing waste baskets to the desk covered in a mound of what looked like books and dirty dishware, was all collateral of the final product. He had been working towards this his entire life, only having attained the resources able to develop something like this near the end of last year. Thirteen tireless months, the doctor spent, locked in his laboratory, only leaving to restock on supplies and such. He was surprised it only took him that long, for this feat was something of a miracle.
"You," he said to the object "are the start of a new era. You are going to change the world."
He had always known this, but saying it out loud made it different somehow. More concrete. No longer was his dream a dream, it was his reality.
Realizing this, he was hit with a wave of nausea. This power scared him. He went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of whisky (after considering a glass, he figured he would just drink the whole thing) before sitting back down in the lab and snatching up the telephone.
The phone rang, and rang, before suddenly giving him the answering machine. Not to be swayed, McNamara seized the phone again, redialing the number.
On the third time he called, the phone suddenly picked up.
".....Hello?" said a groggy voice on the other line
"Ty, hey. It's me." said McNamara quickly, almost nervously.
"I know it's you, dumbass. I have caller ID."
"Oh, yeah. That's right. Ha." the doctor said, with an short, awkward laugh. He took a swig of his whiskey before continuing. "Listen, Ty, I have to talk to you about something."
A groan sounded from the other end of the line "Will, it's three in the fucking morning. Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
"No." William said immediately. "This is important."
Silence on the other end.
"How important?"
"Ty!" William said indignantly.
"Okay, okay." his friend said with a sigh. "I'm coming over. I'll be there in..." there was a pause. "10 minutes. 15 if there's traffic, but I doubt that'll be the case this late at night." The last part of that statement was said with a slightly disgruntled tone.
McNamara smiled "Thanks, Ty. I appreciate it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed." he said, smiling towards the object veiled by shadows barely inches from him.
"Yeah," Ty grumbled, "yeah, we'll see about that."
And with that, he hung up the phone.
William sat in the darkness and listened to the rain pounding down outside, sprinkled with the occasional crack of thunder or flash of lightning. He never minded the rain, it was relaxing. It soothed his nerves. And, well. That probably also had something to do with the empty bottle of Buchanan's he had clutched to his chest. Great, now Ty will think he just called him on a drunken whim. Oh, well. He's called him over worse things. And besides, his old roommate needed to see this. It was important that he got an opinion on his latest creation. Despite all his planning and dreams, he had never gotten so far as to thinking of after he was finished. The scientist had no clue what to do.
With a sigh, he got to his feet, stumbling a little before steadying himself, and walked back to the kitchen. Dropping the empty bottle in the recycling, he went to make himself coffee, something to make him focus after all the booze. All his scientific degrees told him that no amount of caffeine would counteract the alcohol until after it left his bloodstream, but William ignored this. For the first time in life, logical thinking was not his brain's first priority. He was drunk, not so much on whisky than of the knowledge that he'd done it. His life goal, everything he'd been working towards since he'd heard those two words as a child, he had accomplished it all. But William still couldn't believe it; the mere fact of his success refused to sink in.
He sat in silence as the warm brown liquid sloshed into his mug, hearing nothing but the rain and his own thoughts.
CRASH.
William froze and stared into the doorway to his lab, thoughts broken.
"...Ty?" he called tentatively.
Silence, except for the rain pounding on the roof. William jumped as the coffee machine gurgled to a stop, humming with electricity. He sighed, shaking his head. 'Just my nerves' he thought, picking up his cup. 'I'm still worked up. Adrenaline is making me jumpy'.
The lab door slammed. William almost threw the mug.
"Ty?" he called again, feeling stupid "Ty, that's not funny, asshole."
Out of the two of them, Ty had always been the prankster when they were in school, deliberately asking frustrating paradoxes of questions to annoy their professor, or rewriting the code of William's laptop so that every word he typed auto-corrected to 'penis'. William still hadn't forgiven him for that. He was brilliant, just like Will, but also a huge, unrelenting jackass. William thought he had finally outgrown it. Apparently he hadn't.
William set down his mug with a sigh, cursing all immature roommates and all their treacherous ways. He walked over to the lab door, having balanced himself so he only slightly tripped over his own feet. He grabbed the door handle and flung it open.
"Ty, seriously, cut it ou-"
He screamed, as something yanked him into the darkness, and shut the door.
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YOU ARE READING
The Creation
Horror"You," he said to the object "are the start of a new era. You are going to change the world." He had always known this, but saying it out loud made it different somehow. More concrete. No longer was his dream a dream, it was his reality. ...
