Reminder: This passage contains words from an old language, though the grammar may not be 100% accurate.

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His disappointment towards his parents had reached a critical point. He kept wiping away his tears from his eyes while he was running down the corridor. Yet when he reached where he had wished at the beginning, he stopped and thought for a while in front of the door. ‘No, no, I’m not supposed to go back here. Instead, I should do something before more lives are sacrificed for them. The basement… yes, that’s right! There ought to be some useful information in it.’

With these words out of his mouth, he turned around and ran towards the direction of the living room once more.

The basement inside this building was kind of like a treasure house where you could find tons of data of most experiments carried out accumulated on shelves. But it seemed that Mr and Mrs Blake had never been there for looking up previous information. Ian, on the other hand, had already got to know the entire building when his parents were carrying out experiments on regular days. No exaggeration, Ian remembered every sort of data he could use for coping with his problems very clearly. Right after he entered the room through the unlocked iron door, he pulled down the yellowish light cord beside it and closed the door proficiently. All these actions were finished in a row. On a shelf covered with dust in the deepest spot, many sorts of reference books and documents in different thicknesses were tidily packed. He tried hard to read the words printed on the spines under a weak light source, ‘“Institute of Cerebrums”, “101 Questions About Anesthesiology”, “Potential Effects to Genetic Structures in Medical Products”, “Evolution of Life”… ah, there we go! “All About Consciousness Mutations and Mental Disorders”!’

Ian searched page by page, sitting on a rigid box made of wood after he found the book. Unfortunately, it was unexpected that he still couldn’t find any useful ideas a few moments later. ‘Humph, this is going to be tragic. I’ve tried so hard that I could only find this book which barely fits. And in all these abstract theories in the field, there is absolutely no practical method. It seems even the cutting-edge science documentaries I’ve watched secretly are not helping for now… tsk,’ he said to himself, sighed. At the moment he was considering other less probable solutions, a hoarse voice from certain man was heard without anyone noticing, ‘Turn around, young man.’

Due to the unfamiliar voice in such a quiet dimension, Ian was startled. The strength of Ian’s fingers was temporarily reduced, and his book was dropped on the floor. He did so and asked nervously, ‘Who are you then?’

The man in a dark blue cape with a white beard behind him took off his pointy hat and then opened his mouth, ‘Shh… do nat bother asking. Ich am here to just complete my mission.’ When the man had spread his palms, a book made of parchment and a branch appeared on them separately in a split second. The man continued, handing those to Ian, ‘Here, read thilke, and practice according to it.’ Ian scratched his head, not understanding what he meant. The man guided Ian as he knew Ian didn’t get it, ‘Alright, alright. Koude thee still remember tho beams which been emerged fro the evil spirit?’ ‘How do you know? Is it anything about me?’ Ian’s attention was caught immediately by this odd statement.

The corners of the man’s mouth curved up. He explained patiently, ‘Everich kan love and hatred can blindfold. What leads tho lost souls till brightness been rationality. Echo evil spirit is given born due to obsession. And for thee, thee han a kind of ability which purifies swich obsession since thee been born. And with thy constant naivete, thy soul stays pure and thee han a rational mind. Thee are really fortunate als thee been nat ideologically contaminated though thee been given born in swich an unethical family. Thee truly han thilke potential. It been thee, who released the power deep inside thee that had nat been awoken in swich an urgent condition. And therefore the blonde female evil spirit could immediately see the truth and realized that sche koude get what sche desired to by here own strength without hurting anyone. It perfectly proved that thy will can clear all tho emotions that might hinder rational thinking processes. If thee agrees to train thy will, thee can use it well whatever thee want to.’

Ian took away those items from him, said feeling excited, as it was unbelievable, ‘You mean… I can stop them with just my own power? Then what shall I do?’ The man replied with a smile on his face, ‘However, the time been nat come yet since thee still do nat konne control it. Now, all detailed steps han been listed inside the book, shaltow study it thy self. Ich han got some other business, and therefore ich han got to go. Ay believe thee han the ability to achieve whatever thee desire, just do nat betray thy self about what thee really desire in the bottom of thy heart.’ After the man had finished, he put on his pointy hat again, and was gradually fading away with several blinding white light beams until he was fully invisible in the dimension.

‘Oh my, it turns out that there are still people who finish their sentences with both old language and modern language words. Um… so what exactly is going on? Those human beings (… really?) are not likely to be normal… And more importantly, how have they stayed here for this long? Suppose there are force fields all around. Humph, let’s just not think about it first. Now I have to take time studying these.’ Ian departed slowly from the basement back to his room with unsolved questions inside his head.

Oh my… there are not such ignorant people as you, silly kid. You know everything, except the obvious fact that your pathetic family is already twisted around somebody else’s fingers.

About six months after that incident, the young Blake couple gave birth to their daughter. She was temporarily fostered at the Blake’s Headquarter Laboratory. On the other hand, Ian has practiced his austerities of his pure soul till two levels higher than his basis referring to that book. In the perspective of his progress, he made advances so quickly that he had managed how to control his power and release it in certain amounts within just less than half a year. It was predicted that he could have reached the required ability for solving his problem by himself by next year, according to this tendency.

However, his case finally ended up having no differences from most of the huge thoughts that came up in people’s minds—the best-laid plans.

At half-past six in the evening that day, Ian practiced hard locking up himself in his bedroom as he usually did. It seemed like he was about to finish the fourth milestone in his book; thus, he rushed to reach this goal before dinner. Unfortunately, his mother knocked on the door of his room and said, ‘Ian, dinner’s ready!’ He shouted as a reflective response, ‘Coming!’ But he didn’t mean to act at all.

A few minutes later, she had less patience for waiting outside his room, so she reminded him again, ‘Ian! Are you alright? Your food is going to be packed in ice if you don’t come out now.’ As there was still no response from the inside, she took out a key from her pocket and inserted it into the lock on the door’s handle.

‘Ian, you…’ When Diana turned the doorknob and focused her sight right on the book Ian was carrying, she shouted, turning pale with fright, ‘Stop! Put these down! Immediately!’ Ian heard her, but he grabbed his branch (which was polished by his hands as he practiced it) and that thick book even tighter and raised the branch towards Diana for self-defence, warning, ‘Stay away from me!’

‘Ha, witchcraft… don’t treat me as a fool, Ian. I know exactly all those intentions filling up your filthy brain, and the reason you’re hiding away from us every day in your room. Clearly, you would like to clear our minds, so that we can’t carry out experiments anymore. And no experiments mean no happiness for us. Instead, you can live however you want to without us. That’s the case, right? Well, I’m afraid you unfaithful child can no longer consider that again, cuz I won’t let you!’ Such a scene had urged Diana’s unstable emotions to a fully uncontrollable state. At the moment, her peripheral sight just perfectly spotted a dagger lying in the corner of Ian’s room. She picked it up and pointed it straight towards Ian.

Ian didn’t choose to put his branch down. However, he spoke to Diana, sounding like he was beseeching for peace, ‘No, it’s not like what you’re thinking of, Mom. Not at all. A blonde woman told me all about it. That contract is such a big joke. Though yes, I admit that there really is magic in this world, it doesn’t make any sense that you can get happiness merely through a single agreement-like document, right? What’s more, it has always been you and dad who take away other innocent individuals’ rights of living as humans,’ he walked closer to Diana gradually, and then continued, ‘don’t be afraid, I don’t mean to hurt you two, and I never will. Instead, I’ve found a true way to bring us all happiness, you see. I will let you know how an eternal good life feels like.’ Ian didn’t understand that presenting good old philosophy to her was totally a disappointing miss right then. Diana didn’t wait until he finished his sentences. She stepped back slowly as he was trying to get to her, glared at him mumbling ‘no’ constantly while she held the dagger more and more tightly.

David, who was sitting in the living room all along waiting, heard his wife talking in a sharp voice. He went to them in order to know what was happening since he couldn’t help being curious about her voice. ‘Ian, don’t insult your mother anymore…’ Unexpectedly, his reaction was even more exaggerated than Diana’s that he showed absolutely no difference from some kind of insane murderer when he saw Ian.

‘AHHHH—’ While he was producing a scream that was dreadful enough to cut off one’s heartbeat, he took away the dagger in Diana’s hand and slashed at Ian without a doubt. In a certain tense moment, Ian dropped his book immediately and found himself a way to the living room ingeniously through a narrow space he had spotted beside David. Diana was running after David, who was chasing after Ian, ordering him to stop.

They tangled around the coffee table for a long while. When Ian finally realized he could increase the probability of a successful escape by going outside the house, he asked his parents a question rhetorically, ‘Don’t you even have guilt with yourself?’ David and Diana stopped for a short while after they heard the word ‘guilt’, though they understood what Ian meant to do very soon. That’s a new word to them after all. Making use of these few precious seconds, Ian rushed towards the front door, which is not too far away from him.

He went out from the door, dashing towards a single direction. Nonetheless, being in such a chaotic situation, he forgot the fact that a tough wall was always keeping the building separated from the outer world. He didn’t reach the gate, unfortunately. And he saw his parents, who were chasing him relentlessly, encircling him in their arms and staring at him with their two pairs of hollow, trembling eyes which visible blood capillaries scattered around. As in a moment of desperation being unable to escape, Ian lifted his branch towards his parents. A hardly understandable sentence was blurted out by him.

Just as he finished speaking, two beams of white light emitted from the bodies of David and Diana. Then they both fell to the ground. Scarlet liquids gradually seeped out from the exposed abdomen, dyeing the surrounding grassland red. Grey substances in the shape of flakes were bursting out from the large ‘cracks’ on their bellies, flying away along with the wind.

Ian suddenly felt his legs losing energy seeing the two corpses after he could react normally again. ‘This is… I used the wrong incantation… what have I done…’ The short, skinny him kneeled down on the ground, trembling with his hands grabbing his head.

Ian, who had been keeping his naivete all along, saw the sins committed by himself. After hearing and seeing such incidents that challenged his moral baseline throughout the process of saving his parents by himself, he realised that he had turned himself from the saviour of this tragedy into the biggest criminal in the very end. He started to doubt the value of his existence.

While he was in remorse, a young white-haired lady in a proper black suit appeared behind him. She said to him, reaching out and putting her hand on his shoulder, ‘How tragic, Ian. Do you know that? Your parents weren’t evil beings, and of course, their work doesn’t do any harm to anyone’s rights. As for those voluntary sacrificers, they were all greats who bore agony and pain, contributing themselves to science. How do you think they could be dissected easily, otherwise? You also know that your parents couldn’t fight against them even if the sacrificers meant to hurt them, just because they were intellectuals, right? But you, you interrupted the development of humankind, and you even killed your parents who nurtured you with your own hands. You have already become… a sinner.’ Scared by her, Ian fell down on the ground. His eyes opened wide, glaring at her, revealing the restlessness and hesitation within him.

The lady put on a smile on her face, looking harmless. She lent her hand towards Ian and said, ‘Well, you don’t have to be hopeless either. It would be alright if you are willing to hand me the full control of your little sister’s life and you do whatever I order you to. Oh, and that small embryo in your mom’s tummy, I’ll take care of it. There is the only way I can revert the situation as nothing has happened before, which can also help you relieve all your sins. In fact, biotechnology can…’

Ian got up slowly, took her hand with half ignorance and walked to the laboratory inside the building with her step by step.

The Blake family is forever defeated by their over-flowing desires. The never-ending cycle of this experiment quickly started again, and gene-modification was absolutely a fatal weapon perishing an entire family. Why did you all just listen to her? Sigh for these born geniuses. No one could ever save them from the evil

 

The word ‘evil’ in the last sentence was originally incomplete. From the conditions of the handwriting being the same and the font colours being in two different kinds, it can be hypothesized that the writer would like to separate the things he knew, his thoughts and the main incident in the original document. In this record, I used two pens with different tip diameters to show the difference. To stop the Blakes’ matters from remaining uncertain, I think I must head to the rural laboratory at least once for investigation.

recorded by 16-year-old Emma Goodwitt