Green, Goo, and Dangerous | Teen Ink

Green, Goo, and Dangerous

July 4, 2011
By Anonymous

I could feel my hair sliding gently out of my scalp, my eyes wide with fear and my head pounding with every noise, sound, creak, or light it happen to make it into my room. My heart race to protect myself, the very molecules of my body where being ripped in every direction at once. My breath came in short ragged gasps I let go a shrill scream of agony my hands were at my side digging into the mattress as if searching for a way to end the pain and they were ghostly white and ice cold even though I was dripping in sweat I can feel every muscle, vein, artery, nerve, and molecule tighten more and more as I thrashed about as I got closer and closer to the end of my pain. But for some odd reason I was glad of the pain at least I could feel something it was better than nothing. Wish I knew with soon come to rescue me whether I wanted to go or not. 
A few months later...
The crowd was roaring, the sun beating down on my face, the smell of popcorn and salted peanuts in the breezy air. My husband-to-be sitting next to me his warm tan hand in mine, I smiled gently at him. He squeezed my hand teasing grinning from ear to ear his eyes sparkling in excitement, before he turned back to watch the World Series. I sighed content, lost in my thoughts until I was severed from them by two words 
"Ms. Lane."
 I looked up to see who could have possibly been important enough to take me from my thoughts. I was astonished to see a man in a light brown suit holding out what appeared to be and invitation to me, I gingerly took the envelope as he told me it said that I had won a contest to go see and exciting new discovery called new  nuclear reactivity I smiled and dismissed him. He quickly withdrew into the cover of the tunnel leaving me along with the envelope I opened it suspiciously. It read 'Congratulations Elisabeth Lane, you have won a chance to see a new discovery in Professor Loe's lab this new exciting discovery is nuclear power call radioactivity come see this new discovery April 1at." I smiled brightly I have always loved science, to get a chance to interact and see a discovery of this magnitude it would be wonderful. I smiled again and settled back into my seat and watched the game. 
April 1st...
I walked deliberately into Professor Loe's lab anxious to see this new discovery for myself. I was greeted outside by the same man that had given me the invitation; he grinned at me as I approached, but I noticed that the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but before I could dwell on the thought I was ushered inside. The man closed the door behind us but not before looking out as if to make sure we weren't being followed. But I considered the very idea of that was absurd, so I pushed the thought aside. I was standing in a cramped dimly lit room that was overflowing with tables, beakers, test tubes, and a bunch of other scientific looking stuff. In the corner of the room sat a small man hunched over a table; he wore a white coat and solid black pants. The man that had lead me in coughed slightly, making the other turn in surprise. Seeing us standing in the doorway he hopped off his stool and shuffled toward us.
"Ah, Elisabeth Lane I presume." the old man mused, I curtsied slightly and greeted him with a friendly 'how do you do?'
"Fine, fine, fine." he answered hastily "I'm Professor Loe. Now before we begin I wish to tell you that I did not discover this, one of my colleges did. I'm just doing extensive research on how this chemical reacts with certain organisms."
My eyes widened with interest. I was completely immersed with fascination.
"Now my lady have you heard of the new laws of genetics established by the Australian monk?"
"I'm afraid not." I replied wondering what this had to do with radioactivity. 
"ah, well no matter, no matter. I think that a person with the correct genetics has certain abilities over this stuff. Now I know it sounds crazy but it might just be possible. Elisabeth Lane you are that human that posses these genetics. Will you do the scientific world a favor and please attempt to maybe hold it with your bare hands?"
I stepped back confused, I didn't think how I would be able to have 'special abilities' over it, it was madness to think that it would be possible, my conscience said, but a small tempting voice told me what it was possible; after all anything is. I debated what to do, I struggled not to follow the little voice, but eventually it gain control and I surrendered to the thought that it wasn't that outlandish. I smiled at the Professor who had been waiting patiently as I decided. Finally I accepted the request, but my voice cracked and he hesitated, but continued with the preparations anyway. 
"Since we don't know how this stuff will react with humans we need to take extra precautions." he retold me as he stuffed some heavy duty gloves onto his short stubby hands. He then scurried to the far end of the room, his back to me. 
I shifted position to see over his shoulder to get a look at the mysterious substance. As the Professor turned to returned to me his wrinkly face had a shadow of green covering giving it a skull like appearance. He carried it shakily in an escenmyer flask filled to the halfway point with a cork at the top. I could see a greenish gas swirling around inside of the bottle and the shimmering green gunk at the bottom bubbling and clumping together. 'this is crazy!' my conscience stirred again, 'I don't care!' argued the little voice. 'I want to do something no one has done.' 'or wants to do.' it countered. The voices bickered back and forth but I silenced my conscience before it could change my mind. 
"Now my dear would you please hold out your hand?" instructed the Professor.
I did as I was told but kept my hand far away from myself in case something went wrong. Professor Loe shakily removed the stopper; once the flask was opened the substance in the bottom flared brightly now fueled by the open air. He turned the bottle on its side so some of the gunk would spill out on to my palm. 
The goo felt warm and squishy. As I held it, it started to fizz away into the very pores of my skin. My eyes widened as it just disappeared into my hand, maybe the professors idea of me being able to control it wasn't so ridiculous. I stood peering at my hand for a few moments then doubled over in pain, fire traveled through my body; it spread rapidly raping itself onto anything that wasn't already consumed by it. My body started to shake uncontrollably as it spread; I let out a spine tingling scream. Sweat started to pour out of my head and my throat went dry. Loe put down the flask on one of the many tables in the room, and rushed over to me just as my vision started to blur, more and more. Finally I collapsed on the ground unconscious crushing the small withered man beneath me. 
Now...
I had awakened several times since I touched the radioactive-what ever it is. Each time I was told I would be fine, but each time I would make out the faint trace of doubt in their voices. Once I even saw my husband-to-be, he told me I was in my house back in San Francisco and that Professor Loe was bringing over a cure in a few days time. I nodded, then slumped back into unconsciousness again. 
As the days rolled by I became more and more in pain; now that I was conscious again I could I could feel my hair sliding gently out of my scalp my eyes wide with fear and my head pounding with every noise, sound, creak, or light it happen to make it into my room. My heart raced to protect myself, the very molecules of my body being ripped in every direction at once. My breath came in short ragged gasps I let go a shrill scream of agony, my hands were at my side digging into the mattress as if searching for a way to end the pain and they were ghostly white and ice cold even though I was dripping in sweat. I could feel every muscle, vein, artery, nerve, and molecule tighten more and more as I thrash about as I got closer and closer to be in at my pain but for some odd reason I was glad of the pain. I let out one last screech of sheer pain before it finally ended.
Elisabeth Lane lost her life at the age of 19 from a nuclear substance poisoning called radioactivity. She died April 19th, 1906 in her bed in San Francisco just hours before the Great San Francisco earthquake shook the city. Her Fiancé, William Everhard, died a week later, losing the will to live after her passing. Elisabeth Lane's house was completely destroyed during the earthquake; her body was never recovered.


The author's comments:
I wrote this piece as part if a class project, we had to chose a time period and incorporate thing of that time period into the story.

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