My Last Letter

HEART Labs is the large building in my rural and wooded town. This place was nestled away from everything, alone. People would talk about it a lot. However, I liked to go a step further than them and look at HEART Labs. What no one would talk about, however, was what inhumanities happened in that hellhole.

I am writing this last letter to tell you, whoever is reading this, that I hopefully have done what I needed to do. My father worked at HEART as a chemist a month ago. He experimented with chemicals that HEART had produced. It sounded like a good job. At least, I thought that in my 14-year-old head.

Eventually, I found a hobby that I enjoyed- making videos. I had soon made so many videos that all of the video files had filled our computer’s storage. Because of this, my father punished me by deleting all of my videos.

Along the way, I had found some cool stuff: an old picture of my mom from when she was in college puking, a demo tape from my oldest brother’s band, but nothing really that interesting.

That is, until I stumbled across a document.

A .txt file, entitled, “HEART Lab Experiment #42”.

I opened the file, expecting an experiment entailing a potato being injected with battery acid or something along those lines.

This is what I read:

"Experiment #42: Entrophium and its Effect on Recessive Genes

Date: 3-14-14

Objective: The objective is to find and destroy recessive genes and empower dominant genes in a human via Entrophium.

Timeline:

21:03: Subject injected with Entrophium.

21:12: Subject turns a jade-ish color.

21:34: Subject’s arm implodes into body.

21:42: Subjects bloats.

21:44: Subject grows approximately one-foot.

21:53: Subject’s life support stops.

Conclusion: Entrophium is not a contributing factor to the perfect human.”

The computer then shut down.

HEART Labs’s goal was to make the perfect human. At this point in time, I decided to do more research on HEART.

I found old pictures of the high powers of the building. The CEO was young, blonde, and had the look of a modern-day Eros. Somehow, HEART Labs found out that I had read it.

I was sleeping at a friend’s house for the night. When I got home the following morning, I found a note on my front door:

“Dear Ian,

Got your parents!

This is the punishment for the curious cat. You will follow our orders. You do not speak of this, nor Experiment 42. You come to HEART Labs, we keep you quiet.

This will be good for all of us.

Sincerely,

HEART.”

They wanted me to go to HEART.

So I would.

I had grabbed a bottle of lighter fluid and a lighter and stashed them in my pockets. So tonight, I walked.

I had walked silently, staying to the side of the road. I would come. HEART Labs would be mine soon. I walked to the gate, with tears still covering my face.

The gate opened, and the guards at the sides of the gate seized me in their hands. They dragged me to a dark room and threw me upon the hard, concrete floor. The light turned on.

What sat in the chair in front of me was the CEO, but old and wrinkled.

“I suppose you know who I am.”

“Yes. I do.”

“So, you know what I will do to you?”

“No, sir.”

“You do not understand us. You look at us like we’re evil. We’re doing the world a favor! Look at our town, boy! Our streets are filled with cripples and defects! We are here to fix this.”

“You are not meant to fix these people!” I suddenly screamed. I startled myself with what I had said.

“Look at me! I need to be fixed. You need to be as well.”

The CEO lurched at me with a needle in his hand.

“This will help you.”

I grabbed the lighter fluid out of my pocket. I squeezed the life out of the bottle. The fluid hit his face and went into his eyes. The CEO shrieked with pain. I grabbed the lighter out of my pocket and lit it.

“You won’t. You can’t. I am merely here to help.”

I brought the match to his face.

His head was now on fire, with his bleach-blonde hair... melting. It was melting. He began to melt. The CEO thrashed around the room, throwing himself upon his desk. The papers upon it had set on fire, while the CEO himself began to drip on the desk. I could now see his skull. I ran towards the same door I was dragged through and tried to open it.

Locked.

So now I sit, in a burning room. Soon, the burning will spread. I hope my family is alright.

I knew HEART Labs would be mine to take.

My HEART is on fire.