Chapter 12: Frankenstein
1623 Words
“Why do we have to do this?”
From a hidden chamber inside the Josen HighSchool of the Elites, Principal Copper was talking to a woman. This time, a non-robotic, non-wire tapped woman. A real woman. On his front, she sat in the dark shadows, on a swivel chair, legs are crossed, arms are laid in both of the arm rests, and exudes unfettered aura of a boss. A higher up.
She’s not a boss, however—or to say, not just the only boss.
“Me and my team let our imaginations run wild. That’s why we came up with this plan.”
“I actually disapprove of it.”
“Why?”
“Because that seems impossible.”
“You know that it was not.”
“You’re not Victor Frankenstein who created the monster, or the ogre, or ‘the Adam of your labours’ from a scientific principle that allows different body parts attached to each other to make a new body. A living being.”
“You know that I could.”
The woman stopped. “Do you? Have you discovered the secret behind it?”
Principal Copper smiled. “Mary Shelley’s a genius novelist. Her classic novel was actually not just a simple fiction. It can be proven with science.”
“Answer me directly, Copper, did you unlock another breakthrough scientific discovery?”
“I do.”
For a second, she sulked and quieted in the dark.
“Well, you have done a lot of monsters. That was not surprising.”
“I just need confirmation from the higher ups to commence this experiment. I just need your approval.”
“You know what I would be answering.”
“Ma’am…”
“I could not just set aside the fact that you’re about to do another experiment when we’re about to reach the next phase of Project Zero.”
“This is somehow related to Project Zero. What I would be using for her to function with a real consciousness is the corpus of digitized data that we’ve accumulated from the past and present batches of classroom zero. There wouldn’t be a waste from it. And … about the fund … I have saved enough amount for this experiment.”
“And you’re going to claim the feat—if this was successful—only in your name, because it was your own fund?”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“That is what you mean, Principal Copper. Don’t hide it from me.”
“What’s the sense of asking you about the project if I aim to claim it only in my name, and not in our school, or in our organization?”
“I don’t know. Don’t ask me.”
“Ma’am, this meant something to me. I need to do this project.”
The woman stood up. “Ask my father. After all, he’s had another voting power. How many of the higher ups you’ve asked?”
“You are the first.”
“Oh, really? That means you still have nine higher ups to ask for a yes. Go for them, for I say no. After all, what you need is just six yesses, right?”
“You are right.”
“Then that’s good. I’ll stick to my decision.”
“Are you going back?”
“Yes. I could not miss the thrill of your forest filled with monstrous plants. It excites me.”
“Take care then. I’ll make sure you’re safe all throughout the activity.”
“Sure. I appreciate that.” The woman started to walk. Midway, she stopped, and asked, “you’re not going to kill me inside, right?”
Principal Copper had lowly laughed. “I would not.”
“Good.” Without any hesitation, she opened the door, the secret passage back to the hill, towards the Classroom Zero.
Principal Copper sighed. He clenched his jaw, and gripped his palm.
“That brat.”
***
The horror that a dissolved woman brings, was too heavy a burden to handle for the students of Classroom Zero. Most especially to Tristan and Rain. Now that they are walking in the forest—only the two of them and not with their classmates, the traumatic scene that they have personally witnessed never wore off of their mind again.
Tristan was walking in the middle of the pathway with eyes alerted, looking and scanning the environment, but his mind travels unconsciously from one distant place to another. The slapping recalls of the scene that they have witnessed had been bothering him in quick fragmented clips inside his mind. From time to time, he had been seeing the horrible picture of how their classmate quickly died from a formidable pitcher plant.
It could happen to them too. Within any seconds, when they were not alert with the surroundings, they knew … they could be like that too.
“Have you seen them?” Rain asked Tristan. She was at his front, leading the path they were taking inside the forest.
“Haven’t.”
“I guess that was the way of the school to make this activity more exciting. It’s going to be difficult to find our classmates, knowing that the forest itself hides them. And us.”
“Then, we would set aside finding them.”
“We would,” answered Rain. “I think what we have to do is to find the plant that is being asked in this activity.”
“That Titan Arum?”
“Yes. After-all, that is the goal of this activity, right? We could not waste more time in finding them while we still have one main goal to do.”
Tristan looked on the ground, and started to think of their situation. “I guess that’s somehow reasonable. We could not find our classmates if the forest was the one hiding them from us.”
Tristan and Rain separated from the class when another turmoil had happened, after the throat-clenching scene of the pitcher plant. Standing with their disorientations, the soil of the forest started to move. Up and down. Up and down. As if it was breathing.
The soil rises up, then down, along with the roots from the strong and sturdy trees, along with the varying floral species around, and along the green moss that covers the place where ordinary—or not so ordinary—plants could not grow.
As if it was the breathing forest in Sacre-Coeur, in the region of Quebec, Canada.
Feeling the movement, the whole class started feeling the panic that had been erupting on their chest, no matter how many times they had tried to calm.
They ran, separating from each other. Tristan and Rain managed to hold each other’s arm to prevent them being dragged by the current of their classmates—which might cause them to be separated from each other. It was a simple tactic, but it had helped them not to get separated from each other.
That time, the students ran in varying directions as the floor continued to breathe. After every second that passes, the floor breaths in a more rapid pace, as if it was panting. Tired and out of breath.
Soon, as both Tristan and Rain run—while hands are chained with their fingers—they have just realized they were missing; they have separated from most of their classmates.
Now, going back into their senses, Tristan and Rain finally decided to move on, and find the Titan Arum that they need to find.
“Maybe we could find our classmates while finding that flower,” said Tristan.
Holding a thick stick on his hand, he was bravely shoving the tall grasses left and right to make a new trail. In the middle of this forest, pre-made trails could not be found anymore, rather they needed to do their own. He was just afraid that perhaps, some serpentine or poisonous reptilian would show off on his front and attack him. He could not deal with reptiles. Snakes especially.
“Maybe,” answered Rain.
Wandering into the forest while aiming to find the Titan Arum, they could not help but wonder how this place was constructed. In modern science, monstrous plants such as those that they saw were impossible to achieve. No one dares to. Or was it?
If Josen High School were able to do this, does this mean that some mad scientist focuses on this kind of specialization? Creating a monster inside the shell of a secret laboratory?
“Tristan,” Rain called.
Tristan fall back from his wandering thoughts, and joltingly looked at Rain who was then at his back. He saw her looking straightly, not at him, but at the things in front of them. Following the stare of his partner, Tristan quickly looked to their front.
A drop of jaw plastered on Tristan’s face.
On their front, Tristan saw that they were about to go to a place that doesn’t resemble the usual forest anymore. Instead, a welcoming forest of flowers was down the valley, waiting for them to come. A quick changing of the landscape.
“Was that a fantasy’s place?” Tristan asked.
“No. That place was real. I’m sure,” answered Rain. “Let’s go.”
Both Tristan and Rain started to walk down the valley.
“I never saw something as beautiful as that.”
“It’s real. There was a legit Valley of Flowers existing outside the world of this f****d up Josen High.”
“I can’t help but admire it. It’s beautiful,” Tristan said.
“Be wary Tristan. Sometimes, beauty is associated with danger. Sometimes death.”
- Writer
