The nurse, shrouded in glow-in-the-dark uniform, dimly lights the lab. Her vaguely luminous silhouette contrasts with the doctor at work, who’s only an abyss of something darker than darkness itself. He doesn’t care that he can barely see his wares, elixirs, and highly toxic chemicals. And she’s under too much pressure to worry about the blunt and sharp tools they so haphazardly wave and gesture at each other. They’re here to make a mess. And she is just another tool for him to use, violate, and break down in the process.

After the last drop of Red 40, the specimen began to emerge from its test tube. It looked the nurse in the eyes. She felt attached. This whole operation was a mistake. The doctor gave that thing a dead, soulless stare. He found it hideous. He couldn't look at the thing any longer, so he grabbed a box, some packing tape, and made some breathing holes for…whatever that was. The nurse cried and tried to pry it from his hands, but she was suddenly chained to the wall, unable to take it from him. The doctor shipped the package away to be carelessly thrown at someone’s doorstep. And he left the nurse in chains to suffer by the wall for a year until he needed her for his next vile experiment.

Danny McGrath is a queer writer aiming to bridge space and time with body and mind, connecting with and reflecting on experiences of life, love, good, evil, hate, hope, and sometimes the extreme lack of all thereof. Find them @dannydoessuff on Instagram!