Inhuman Chapter 5

Dennel and her Sleepwalker

At the end of the passage, the maid and her prisoner reached a stone staircase. After climbing to the next part of the tunnel, the maid stopped at a gate and used her key to gain access. She led the prisoner to a closed door, which Eostre opened. Lights inside the room greeted them as she pushed the boy through the door. Shelves of books and parchments covered the walls with a small desk sitting in one corner.

In the middle of the room sat two patient tables. The boy’s attention immediately went to the naked young man strapped down on the closest table. The prisoner recognized him as a fellow prisoner who stayed with the boy and girl in their cell until recently. He remembered the young man’s name was Silar.

As Eostre pushed the prisoner to the next table, he noticed the strapped down man’s open eyes didn’t bother to look over at him. Instead, Silar’s mouth slowly opened and closed to the tick-tock sound coming from a large clock hanging on the wall. Then, the young prisoner noticed Silar’s eyes remained fixated on a pendulum swinging beneath a large clock hanging on the wall.

“Get on the table,” the maid ordered.

When he failed to move quickly, Eostre slapped her prisoner in the back of the head. After the boy crawled on the stained wood, the maid strapped his arms and legs down.

Her icy stare mixed with his fear condemned the child to silence despite the deadly atmosphere filling the room. The acid smell coming from a nearby table caused him to cough. When he looked over at the source, the child noticed several flasks with colorful liquids simmering under small burners. An enormous book opened on the table revealed strange, colorful symbols which he could not understand.

The door opened, and the boy turned his head to see a pretty woman step into the room. Her blond hair and pale blue eyes captivated him. Oddly dressed in a man’s white shirt with the rest of her covered by a leather butcher’s apron, she came to the table.

“Fill a syringe from the second batch of refined blood from the other table. I’ve already mixed aether from yesterday’s experiment,” Dennel told her maid.

“Wh—what are you doing?” The boy finally got the question out as his body shivered with fear.

The mistress glanced over at him, then stabbed the strapped down prisoner on the other table with a hypodermic needle. Silar remained in a trance-like state as she filled the hollow glass tube of the syringe.

“Disgusting! A mere peasant asks me such a question,” Dennel finally spit out as she worked. “You should be on your knees worshipping me for giving you a reason for existing. At least you’ll be of some use in this world.”

The woman took Silar’s blood vial to the table with the burners, where she poured more liquid into a vial given by her maid. After swirling the mixture together, Dennel warmed the concoction over one burner until the red color turned to a dark brown.

The boy watched her work as his stomach growled for food. However, he also carried growing nausea from the apprehension building inside of him. He whispered to Silar, but the young man remained fixated upon the clock.

“Save your breath, boy. His mind is already gone. Step one is to turn them into passive nothings who will follow their orders without question. I’ve told him to watch the clock pendulum. He’ll do that until he dies.”

After filling another syringe with the liquid, the woman went over to the boy and inserted the needle into his other arm.

“You can start the notes. Keep an eye on the time, as this is becoming critical for our report on each phase of the experiment. I’ll review your work tomorrow before we meet with the Holbult family,” Dennel stated as she nodded to a leather book on the table. Eostre picked it up while taking a seat at the table that held the flasks. She looked up at the clock, then began writing.

The boy felt a warmth slowly fill his body, stopping his shivering. Then, his eyes widened as his brain sensed the danger swirling inside him. He barely heard the maid call out the time while writing in a notebook when his limbs began to quake and struggle against the straps. A moment later, the child’s teeth ground from the pain filling his organs. His screams filled the room as his veins and arteries burned from the toxic mix of monster blood, chemicals and enchanted aether.

Dennel watched with impatient relish as the frail body writhed back and forth, unable to break from the straps while bones snapped along his ribcage. With a final horrifying scream, the youngster fell unconscious and Eostre’s monotone voice called out the time.

“Five minutes and twenty seconds to completion,” she stated while writing in the leather-bound journal.

The mistress leaned over the boy and pulled open an eyelid. She placed her finger on his neck for a pulse.

“He’s in a catatonic state with dilated pupils and a slow heart rate. We should see transformation in a few minutes. Please note the time when this occurs as well. We must give our benefactors detailed notes on our investigations.”

Nearly three minutes later, the boy’s eyes opened. Dennel waved her hand in front of his face, but there was little reaction. Only the eyes followed her movement.

“At this time, I achieved sleepwalker state. Note it down along so we can reference past experiments.” She checked his pulse. “No pulse, but definite eye movement.”

“Aright, let’s see the next phase.”

The mistress picked up a scalpel, then she placed it close to his eyeball. The boy did not react, and she smiled at the sight. Then she pushed the scalpel blade into his eyelid and carved a line down his cheek. The boy’s blood slowly oozed out, now giving off a noxious smell. He remained impassive.

“Test number four successful,” Dennel stated. “I see no reaction to pain. Also, no fear of immediate danger. It appears my husband’s work finally came to fruition. I’m sure he’s disappointed in my progression.”

“You’re a much better scientist than he could ever hope to become,” her maid smiled. “As you told him, a mage can’t possibly understand the mindset of scientific discovery.”

“Yes, he was too timid to take the next steps.” The woman agreed as he unhooked the strap holding the boy’s one arm.

She placed the scalpel in the boy’s hand.

“Take this knife and cut into your belly,” she told him.

A wintry smile filled her face when the boy followed her instructions without hesitation. Blood spilled down the side of his body as she removed the scalpel from his hand. The impassive face of the undead creature she created stared ahead with no sign of a reaction. Death, hate, love, fear, along with so many other emotions no longer matter to the thing lying in front of her.

I wonder what this creature thinks. Does it even know reality?

“I’ve confirmed the final stage of a Sleepwalker. Brain function continues despite apparent death. Now, I’ll dissect this creature and we’ll see how long he survives without his internal organs.”

“My, this will be a long night,” the maid sighed. “I’ll get a bucket.”

Dennel paid no attention as she took the bloody scalpel and quickly cut into the body of the undead boy on the table.