Test and Sacrifices

Cereberus

She’s just 12 years old and he’s barely 14. Panic filled his mind causing everything to become fuzzy. Confusion, fear, and frustration filled his head and he felt just like a sickening poison. He quivered and began to breathe sharply.

“ It’s okay we will escape and even if we don’t at least we won’t die alone.” Julia said as she placed her hand on his arm. He could hear the shiver in her voice and became aware of two things. She was also terrified but they would either escape or die together. Either way was better than being alone.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a loud buzzer going off, followed by a voice saying time’s up. Then they heard the sound of a metal door opening and after that they heard a combination of snarling and footsteps. “Stay still.” Owen instructed.

Chapter 4

He knew that there was nowhere to run and that fighting would be fruitless. All they could do was hold each other close as the beast approached. It got closer and closer and soon they saw its heads. It had three heads.

Each was huge and had a mouth filled with monstrous teeth. Saliva dripped from the tongue on one of the heads. The three sets of eyes were a bright orange color and were the shape of a dog’s eyes. The creature really did look like a big dark furred, three headed dog, cause that is basically what it was. It was covered in muscle mass throughout its body.

It slowly approached the terrified duo as they huddled against each other. It snarled and bared its teeth. Julia buried her face in Owen’s chest. His white shirt soon became drenched in her tears and he tried to calm her. For some reason holding her in his arms created a sense of dark nostalgia, as if he lived a moment like this before.

Their demise was right in front of them as it snarled. It felt almost as if they were being teased by death. A beast powerful enough to take their lives within seconds right there, but it still hasn’t attacked. Why hasn’t it killed them yet? Is it going to spare them or is it just waiting for the perfect moment. No matter what the answer was, the beast still looked menacing and that was enough to paralyze almost anyone in fear.

It growled again and now it was way louder than before. It was so loud that the floor vibrated and it made Julia’s and Owen’s ears ring. This made them quiver in fear even more, but the question still remained when would it attack. Death was teasing them at this point. At any moment in this place something could happen and they’d die. Now facing a beast beyond their strength it almost seemed as if the grim reaper was already there.

A strange and crazy idea then began to form in Julia's head. She began to gather her courage and swallow her fear. Afterwards she held out her hand letting Cerberus smell her. She remembered once seeing someone do this with a dog and hoped it would work. Cerberus brought its nose up to her hand. It tilted its head to the side as if it was curious. It sat down and continued to stare at them. Maybe the beast didn’t even know whether or not it wanted to attack.

Tension hung in the air like Pandora’s box waiting to be opened to reveal what Owen was sure would be a grim fate. Julia then said “ Hey doggie, are you a good boy?” She kept her voice soft and gentle. The Cerberus looked at them and lowered its body till it was laying down. It was still intently staring at them with its fiery bright orange eyes.

“Julia” Owen whispered “Are you crazy? Stop talking to that thing.” It then turned towards Owen and growled. Thus caused Owen to flinch back and momentarily close his eyes in fear. They were stuck. One wrong move could anger the beast, so every word and every movement mattered.

Julia avoided eye contact with it. She wanted to make it clear that her and Owen weren’t a threat. Owen had been brave in the rooms before and now it was her who must be the one to lead in courage. Both of them are strong and brave in their own ways. Julia’s strength and bravery was now showing more than before.

Although she was small compared to the beast , she didn’t feel as feeble and scared as she did before. Her heart was still pounding in her chest and fear still plagued her mind, but she was pushing it back and harvesting her courage.

Owen felt lost. He didn’t know what to do and the girl he was protecting was now the one leading. What bothered him wasn’t that he thought she wasn’t strong enough to lead. He knew that in her own way she was just as strong as him and he respected that. What bothered him was the feeling of hopelessness he felt.

This bothered him because he wanted to stand by her side and protect her despite her strength because he cared for her. Not being able to do anything stung like the sting of a tarantula wasp. It wasn’t a physical sting but it was a mental sting. A sting that jabbed at his stability and sense of security with in himself.

His posture was one of insecurity and fear laced with confusion. His body slouched making him appear smaller as his head hung low. His weary glaze shifted between being focused on the ground or the scene in front of him. His eyes burned with involuntary tears that he tried to choke back.

The Cerberus growled again and that’s when Julia noticed that the majority of the growling just came from the middle head. The right head was looking down and the left head was tilted in curiosity. Each head had a different personality and that’s why it hadn’t attacked. The heads haven’t yet agreed on what to do to her and Owen. No Hades or souls of the dead exist here and this wasn’t the actual underworld of Greek mythology, nor was this the actual Cerberus.

This meant that its job and loyalty was unconfirmed. It was a creation of whoever created this place. Julia and Owen did not know Greek mythology so they didn’t know why the Cerberus was confused and had no master here. All they knew at this point was that it was a scary, and huge beast with three heads that each had a personality. That meant that at least two of the heads had to agree to attack. If they could convince the majority to stand down then they were safe.

Now with that realization Julia began to form a plan. She had to gain the trust of at least two heads. She had a dog growing up and when the lab became unethical there were beast-like dogs there.

She knew how to interact with them but the difference between those ones and Cerberus is that those dogs knew her well. She extended her hand towards Cerberus slowly while talking to it in a soft voice. She let it smell her and tried to show it that she wanted to bond with it rather than fight. Owen just stood there absolutely stunned by how well she was handling this and how Cerberus was responding. The left and right head calmed down but the middle head still had a look of malice in its eyes. It glared and bared its teeth. It wasn’t backing down at all. Owen began to fear that it was going to attack them. He tried to think of a way to help but had nothing cross his mind.

Then he spotted the pomegranate and thought “Would Cerberus play with it?” He felt that it was worth a shot. So without a second thought her pick up the pomegranate showed it to Cerberus and then threw it across the room. To Owens’s relief Cerberus ran after the pomegranate as if it was a ball. Julia turned and smiled at him.

“Good job” she said as she hugged him tightly. Her embrace was warm and soft. It was the kind of embrace that reminded people of beautiful innocence. Which was odd because Julia wasn't all that innocent in certain areas of her mind.

They then scanned the room for an exit but couldn't see one. The puzzle still wasn't solved. Calming the beast was smart but it did not open any doors. They both looked at the tiles with despair as they realized once again that they had no knowledge on the topic of the puzzle. Owen then spoke “ OK let's think. It most likely wants us to spell a name.” “Yeah but what name?” Julia responded back.

"I don't know." Owen said with defeat. "I hate these puzzles." " Well we'll figure it….." Julia spoke but was interrupted by heavy footsteps and Cerberus approached them again. This time it seemed kinder than before. It no longer felt threatened by them. Cerberus nodded its head toward the door it came out of and they noticed there was an opening at the back of it.

They carefully crawled towards it. They were afraid that Cereberus would feel challenged if they stood up. Once they reached the back they waved goodbye to Cerberus as they were filled with relief to be out. In the area it came from they found Cerberus's explanation form.

It read:

Test subject #

Experiment type : DNA replication

Name : Cerberus

Age at start of experiment : Has none

Found : was created in the lab

Test methods : Mixed DNA of several creature

Many parts were torn and the room form, was completely shredded. Despite this both Julia and Owen had a guess of who he was sold to,X. Whoever X and the scientist of the are, are monsters.

Poor Cerberus was created just to be a pawn and what happened to the two in the previous room was horrific. How could someone harm a baby like that? The bitter truth is that everyone here was turned into a “monster” when they were innocent and/or vulnerable . This includes Owen.