The Infection

Chapter 8~Sage

"Ahem."

I slowly added drops of water to each of my solutions, careful not to add too much and dilute them beyond effectiveness.

"Ahem."

I stopped mid drop and took a deep breath, willing myself to remain composed.

"What," I asked, not bothering to mask the annoyance that had boiled into pure loathing from my voice. I looked up from my solutions and did a double take.

My incompetent substitute assistant had been replaced by a grey-eyed, pudgy little toddler with curly brown hair. She was standing on a chair, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Oh! You answered, okay, um... well, I was just wondering why you're adding water to your sedatives," she told me boldly.

For the first time in a very long time, I was at a loss for words.

"Why... Why is there a child in my lab?" I asked loudly, praying a Guard or Nurse would come take it away from me. "Where did Cece go?"

The toddler rolled its eyes. "Claire left the lab hours ago to help the patient next to me," the toddler started, sounding very un-childlike and condescending. "I snuck out of my hospital bed when she wasn't looking and came to see what you were doing up here."

"You're sick?" I said, and panic crept up inside me in the subtle way it often does when I know something could go horribly wrong. "You could contaminate everything! You could ruin... Just get out. Leave now, tiny human, before I have to call the Guards."

"I'm not very sick anymore. I had a chest cough when I first got here a few weeks ago and they're keeping me in the hospital because it just isn't going away," the girl said in one long breath, shrugging her shoulders and looking perfectly healthy. My eyes narrowed.

"What?" she asked sweetly, glowing with innocence. "It's a stubborn cough." As if to prove her point, she doubled over in a coughing fit that was so well timed there was no way it was genuine.

"Alright, kid, let's-"

"My name is Ivy."

"Alright, Ivy, let's be honest here," I said. "I hate children. They're messy and sticky and clumsy. You not an adult-"

"Neither are you," Ivy said, placing her hands onto her hips.

I opened my mouth, then closed it. "Yes, but I'm a genius," I said.

Ivy smirked and took a deep breath before screaming at the top of her lungs, "HYDROGEN, HELIUM, LITHIUM, BERYLLIUM, BORON, CARBON-"

"Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, et cetera, et cetera, very impressive," I said dismissively. "I've known those since I was three. Now get your fake cough out of my lab."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Ye- You know what? I'm not doing this with you."

"No, I'm not doing this with you. Now back to my original question: I was wondering why you're adding water to your sedatives," Ivy said forcefully.

I blinked at her. "Do you have a question, or did you just want to tell my what you're wondering?"

"No, I just expected you to..." She took a deep breath, clearly exasperated, which was almost amusing coming from such a small person. "Fine, we'll do this your way. Why are you adding water to your sedatives?"

I smiled politely, hoping that she'd become disinterested and leave. "Because I want to put the prisoners to sleep, not kill them," I explained.

"And without the water in it, even small doses would be too much?" she guessed. I nodded curtly and proceeded to work as the little pest clambered off the chair and walked right up to my counter, standing on her tiptoes to get a better look.