Good lord that was a night to remember. We all danced that night, well me and Delia did, Hugo kind of just sat there tapping his foot. You can tell when it's a night to remember when you wake up in bed with a very attractive woman for the… ow… fine, sorry dear. I get it no need for details, but you get the point. After a very giggly wake up (we were both quite… I don't know if embarrassed would be the right word), we both got dressed and headed down for breakfast. After breakfast I decided to perform the final experiment and get it over with so I could spend some more time with my wife to be…
I had to get Hugo's help adjusting the prisms, and I really should have been more prudent about how far he was turning the dials. I was excitable about my work and just wanted to finally get back to being with my fiancé. I shouldn't have ignored it when I thought I heard a crack. My life changed in that moment, and it caused the deaths of so many innocent people. Then again despite me wishing that it had never happened, I know now that nothing could have been changed even if I wanted it to and that everything happens for a reason.
I placed the object I wanted to change in the machines chamber. We were using a lump of lead that we were going to change into gold, as we thought it might be funny to do what the old alchemists could never do. We set the parameters and It whirred into action. The electrodes on the ceiling funnelled electricity produced from a generator powered by natural gaseous activity into the machines input.
The gas was created from the buildup of the hundreds of corpses funnelled into Direbrack from the outside. These corpses would sink into the frosty mire and theoretically down into the long dead magma chamber beneath Direbrack and decompose over time causing gas buildup. This gas buildup would escape in the easiest possible way, straight up through the old volcanic fumaroles on the mountain.
The machine shot a beam directly into the chamber causing the lead to shine an blinding green colour. Thank goodness we were wearing our googles or else we would have all gone blind and what happened next would have killed us all or worse. The machine was working as intended, and then there was a cracking smashing sound. The machines casing began to warp and energy began to bleed through from the inside. I tried to fix it, I ran and switched the off button but the inside of the machine was now a self sustaining electromagnetic fire storm. One section of the machines casing began to melt and expand. The energy was about to be released in one direction. The direction it was about to go was directly at Delia. I didn't think about my own safety, I just moved quickly in front of the compromised part of the machine as it exploded, to protect Delia. I was hit with more energy than any other human ever has been or ever will be.
I was dead, or so I assumed. When I was hit with the energy from the machine there was a green flash followed by darkness. I had no idea how long I was in that darkness, but it felt like an eternity at the time. After a long while there was a tapping, followed by a cracking and then there was light, I was alive. As I looked around I saw two men in white, and a large silver cabinet with lots of cupboards. No it wasn't a cabinet, it was a set of freezers, I was in a morgue. Wrong again, I was in the dissection lab at Ludtown University. The two men in white coats were researchers and they looked absolutely terrified. One ran as quickly as he could from the lab screaming. The other tried to attack me with a chisel that must have been used to free me from my shell. I grabbed his neck without thinking, trying to defend myself. I only realised what a mistake I had made when the man's head lay on the floor. I looked at my hand, something was wrong with it. It was black and sharp with long clawed fingers. It looked like it had been chipped from obsidian. I quickly grabbed a kidney dish and looked at my reflection. I didn't look like myself at all, I was taller than I was before, and my face, oh gods my face. It like the rest of my body was sharp, black and skeletal. My bright green eyes had been replaced by two bright green lights flickering deep in my eye sockets. Deciding that I didn't want to bring harm to anyone else, I moved across the room to the first aid kit on the wall and sliced the latch open. I tried to pick up a set of bandages to bind myself so I didn't cut anyone else but just ended up slicing them in half.
I wished that the bandages were strong enough not to be cut by me. At this thought the bandages came alive and bound me without a single rip or tear. I tried picking up a lab coat and handled it without causing any damage. I then looked at myself again in the reflection of the first aid cabinet door. I looked like if the mummies of Kemet had a poster boy. I was surprisingly calm considering I had just killed a man, but in my mind (for whatever reason) he was inconsequential. Why was I thinking like that? I had no idea, all I knew was that I had to get back to Delia. I had to see mum and Frank. I had to redo the experiment. In order, these were the things I had to do. I left the lab knowing I couldn't be seen. I ended up peeking round corners and hiding in cupboards till I was nearly at the entrance. I was in a cupboard looking at the entrance, but I couldn't escape. The entrance was blocked by a group of students talking to the police. They must have found the body I left in the lab.
When I finally left, it was dark outside, no one was around. I had no idea how I was going to get home. So I just started to walk. I walked until morning I must have been moving at quite a fast pace because I was on a country road when the sun rose. I was heading north towards my hometown of Brummagem. Once I had seen my mother and Frank I would head east to Direbrack.
"Dude you look gnarly man…" a voice came from behind me.
When I turned to see who it was I saw a scruffy brightly dressed man with a long braided bearded poking his head out of a tie-dye coloured van "then again who am I to judge…" he smiled a toothy smile.
"Do you want something?" I said. It was the first thing I'd said since being broken out of that shell. My voice hadn't changed thankfully.
"Yeah, I want to offer you a ride" he said
"What makes you think I need…"
"I recognise a fellow traveler when I see one, now jump in…" the door of the van opened. Not seeing anything wrong with getting to Brummagem faster I climbed into the van only just about fitting.
The van smelled like skunk and patchouli and was just as brightly decorated as the man driving.
"So where you going?" The stranger asked.
"Just take me as far north as you are going but if you're going further than Brummagem just drop me there" I said.
"Dude, I'm asking because I'm looking for an adventure and someone to converse with man, I'll take you wherever you want…" he turned the key in the ignition but the machine made no sound.
"It seems like there's something wrong with your…" then the motor started to move and gain speed "how is the machine moving?" I asked "I hear no pistons or combustion"
"It's of my own design dude, it uses a perpetual motion engine I designed from this really awesome mushroom trip I had…" he said
"Perpetual motion isn't possible…" I replied.
"Not in this universe man, so I made a…"
"A self sustaining four dimensional quantum tesseract that has different laws of physics on the interior surface area than the exterior" I finished.
"Yes exactly" he replied.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm just a fellow traveler, nothing more…"