Hidden Abnormality

1. Doctor of Hallway Z

Chapter One

The end project was sitting in front of me. It was a beautifully handcrafted metal brain puzzle. I had even crafted a hidden compartment to try and stump the girl in the white room.

She had skillfully completed every single one of my puzzles so far. I was beginning to run out of unique ways to craft the things. I was soon going to resort to mixing and matching existing puzzles.

I really didn't want to do that.

A knock sounded at my door. The metal door was pushed open without my consent and my receptionist poked his head in my office. "Mr. Opus said he was ready to give the girl the new puzzle. Said she was even asking about it."

I nodded. "Thank you."

He nodded his head and shut the door.

I sighed. It was time to see the puzzle be defeated once again. The girl was extremely smart. In the beginning, I figured she was some sort of genius prodigy. I soon realized something else was at play. She was no ordinary girl.

She was unique. An odd, unique genius. A genius that was hiding something.

I was incredibly interested to find out what made her this way. Was it her own brain processing or some peculiar scientific discovery in the making?

I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure about a lot of things that pertained to the girl locked in one of our rooms.

Standing from my cushioned seat, I picked up the puzzle and left my office. Walking down the pristine hallway felt like it usually did. As if even the hallway itself knew what was to come of my life's work.

I exited the hallway labeled with a bold A and walked into the hallway with its own bold label. This hallway seemed to mock me. Laughing at the puzzle warming in my hands. Any doctor who saw me walk this hallway knew I was going to be the one who ended up stumped.

I wished I could prove them wrong. Prove to them that I could overcome this small obstacle. That a mere girl couldn't be smarter than I.

I stopped in front of her door. The door with her name on it. With a name that wasn't a name. Continuing on, I entered the room beside her door. The observation room.

A man stood in front of the glass. His shoulders were hunched over as if he couldn't have had a heavier burden to bear.

I hated him.

I put on a false good-natured expression. "Good morning, doctor."

Doctor Opus straightened and looked at me. He grunted a reply. I really hated him. He was everything I loathed about the scientific doctors here. He was all about work.

All work and no play made Mr. Opus a very dull man.

He didn't see her as a girl. All he saw when he looked at her was a paycheck and an experiment. Something he could experiment with until he got the results he wanted. A patient that would give him a bigger paycheck if he found out something we didn't already know about her.

He didn't like me much either.

"Figure out something it can't beat this time, Mr. Mestiere?"

It. It was a she. I wanted to slap the man. Instead, I clenched my teeth. "I won't know until I see," I replied.

He gestured to the metal box to the side of the glass wall. It connected to her room. Where she could open the other side and retrieve what was given to her. Human interaction unnecessary.

Turning my back to the doctor, I rolled my eyes and placed the puzzle in the box. It suctioned shut before a green light beeped and 12z lifted her head. She hopped off her white cot and pulled at the metal handle. Her eyes shone with light when she saw the new puzzle.

She grabbed the metal puzzle and held it up to the wall. On her side, we were just a wall. You couldn't see the glass that we looked through. She couldn't see us. But she knew. She knew we were here.

Being here for sixteen years of your life would make you a crazy person. However, it made 12z thrive. She learned, adapted, grew.

Doctor Opus tapped a button in front of a microphone and spoke to her. "Figure it out," he said blandly.

The girl's lips pulled into an unusual emotion. It was most likely her version of a smile. It looked something between a grimace and a scowl. It was unnerving, to say the least.

She sat in front of the wall to give us a good view of the way she could take apart the puzzle. Take apart my life's work piece by piece.

The secret compartment I had created was quickly discovered after a diligent look over the puzzle. She looked at the wall with a new expression. One I had never seen her do before. Then she began to speak. "I... like this." She tapped the secret compartment.

I glanced at the doctor. His expression held a firm frown. He almost looked angry at her fondness of the piece. Shouldn't it be a good thing that she liked something new? Show a growing character or human traits?

A frown of my own tugged at my lips. I hated his pessimism. Out of all the doctors I had to be thrown with, it was this asshole.

In little time, 12z had the puzzle apart. She laid the pieces out for us to see. When no praise came, she began to rearrange the pieces. As if that would gain the approval of the grumpy man beside me.

"Excellent try, Mr. Mestiere. But it seems to have bested you once again."

I crossed my arms. "She is very intelligent. I just have to find a flaw that she seems to have trouble comprehending."

"I suggest you find it soon. Before we have to bring in someone smarter than even you." Doctor Opus turned to glare at me. It was a threat he was ecstatic to enforce.

I nodded solemnly and left the room. Before I clenched my fist and punched his stupid face. That I would be ecstatic to enforce.