The Experiments of a Lifetime

Preparation

I followed Markus' orders and met him at his door. He had a stack of cash in his hand and ushered me out and into a car that was always parked in their garage. "Mom gave it to me for my 16th birthday," he said sticking keys into the ignition. The car started up and he glanced over to me. "We have to be prepared don't we?"

"What if they track us by the store?" I asked flipping the mirror down. I looked too similar to myself. "Well I brought two hooded jackets and scarves. Since it's winter they'll understand." I nodded pressing my nails into the bruises on my knuckles. Did I really want this blood as much I thought I did?

We stopped at a hardware store and I climbed out of the car. We walked in with the scarves on and I nodded at the cashier in a friendly way. We went over to axes and hatchets and threw an arrangement into the basket Markus picked up. We walked farther into the store and I spotted knives. The kind you would use for carving, some pocket knives, a hooked blade that seemed to be calling my name and many others. I dumped them into the basket. Markus picked up blocks of wood and we went to the cashier.

"Looks like you're going to whittle your way through winter huh?" He asked giving us a smile. "Yeah, it's going to be a toughie, all time lows." Markus handed him the money and we walked out of the store.

"There's this place. It's my dad's old farm and moving knows anything about it. I've been prepping it for years now." I couldn't help but feel the excitement rise in my stomach. It was wrong, I knew it was, but it was so right. All the years of having to watch him be basically tortured, we might be able to gain it all back.

It took a while, with soft sounds coming from the radio until we approached a hill. As we were driving up it I saw the farmland, perfectly concealed. It took everything for me to not jump out of the car and go running to see everything inside. He parked the car far away and grabbed the bag full of knives. I followed him carefully, watching for anyone around us. "Private property. Nobody really knows that this exists," he said taking notice of my anxiousness.

He took keys and unlocked the three locks on the door. The doors swung open tauntingly slow. What was revealed made my eyes widen. I could see some of the contraptions, stations, workplaces. The experimentalists dreams laid right here. It was all very clean, yet rustic due to the barn exterior.

He looked at me and nodded, letting me know I could go farther into the barn. It was large, about the size of a two story house. There was a small trapdoor in a corner and I unhooked the latch, seeing that there was a whole other space under the monstrous barn. Below was almost a medical looking room. There were drawers filled with needles, substances, things I didn't know you could even have the chance at stealing. I climbed back out to see Markus sorting the weapons we bought.

"How did you do all of this?" I asked selecting the curved blade from the pile and playing with it in my hands. "Magic," he said and shoved the blades into a drawer. He led me to a workspace where there were notebooks, sketch pads, everything. "I have plans already drawn and written out so all we need to do is figure out when to start," he said to me.

I felt my hands start to move toward the plans. "When do you think it's a good time to start?" I asked pulling a piece of my hair and tucking it behind my ear. "Winter break is coming up. We think about truly starting then."

He led me out of the barn, and back into the car. I didn't want the leave the gorgeous play place, but I knew there was only a week left until it was mine. The car ride home was silent, and we escaped into our houses the second the car engine turned off, never once saying a goodbye.