Hidden

"Professor?" Edric looked around the small private laboratory, looking for his oft-panicked mentor. "Dr. Tomarev is waiting downstairs. I believe the two of you had a date planned?"

"Edric, I can't go out there!" Edric traced the sound to one of the reagent cabinets, the professor's familiar histrionics coming from inside. "My experiments, my vision...I have crossed a line! Man was not meant to do what I've done to myself." Edric sighed, already anticipating the oncoming headache.

"Professor, please come out of hiding. Dr. Tomarev is an open-minded girl. Whatever you've managed to do to yourself, I'm sure she'll understand."

With a muffled sigh, the wardrobe opened from the inside. Edric gasped as he looked upon the professor's face...or rather the lack of it, an endless black expanse taking its place.

"Ah," said Edric, stepping back, his professional composure keeping him from running screaming out of the room...barely. "I see how that would cause difficulty vis-a-vis kissing. I had assumed you'd turned your hair green again."

"Can you believe my luck, Edric?" The professor's voice echoed from the yawning void. "Two years of trying to access the Phantom Dimension, and now it's my entire face. My beautiful lips, hidden! I can't go on a date like this!"

"...Sir, you've turned yourself into a portal to the hidden realms, a breakthrough that may make you the most famous scientist alive. I believe it's socially acceptable to reschedule."

"I mean. I guess. I am still handsome though, right Edric?"

"...Stunning, sir."