Algophobia [ZIALL]

I

==One==

[Zayn’s POV]

It’s been one year since I started working here. One year exactly. It’s taken one year but I’ve finally memorized every bend, twist, and turn of this building of science. I’ve become part of this organization – I live and breath this organization. When I’m not here within the darkened corridors, I’m either stuffed away in some lab conducting experiments, or I’m sitting at my desk in my spacious office. Either way, I’ve made it.

However, today wasn’t just my one year anniversary for working with Dr. Tomlinson, oh no, it was much more than that. Today also marks the sixth month of me being panic free. I’ve grown as a man and as a human being. I’ve learned to cope with my anxiety and with my algophobia. However, I do have some scares that occur as I work, but they don’t escalate into a panic.

I was working at my desk, typing the day’s results on the Hybrids. Each creature seemed to be doing fine. They were growing well. They weren’t showing signs of danger. They were eating and drinking regularly. And most importantly, they weren’t showing signs or characteristics of the animal they were generated with. That is a huge success on it’s own. This meant that each experiment was that much closer to being safe enough to be let out into the real human world to disguise themselves as humans and live a ‘normal’ life. I was finishing my daily report when Dr. Tomlinson walked into my office,

“Malik, I’d like to congratulate you on one full year at this establishment. I’m very proud of you in many ways.” I examined the features of Dr. Tomlinson’s face. It’s been a year since I’ve met the man and he still looks the same as he did back then. His face still appeared as soft as ever, except for when he didn’t shave, then the facial hair he proudly grew, grew in a nice chestnut brown colour, when most men his age already suffered from gray hair. The man’s lips still held their pink colour and never were chapped. And his face was wrinkle free. The blue in his eyes still held onto their shine and weren’t giving it up anytime soon. Dr. Louis Tomlinson was still an overall beautiful man.

“Thank you, Sir.” I gave him my gratitude as he complimented me. “Take a seat if you’d like.” I added as I noticed him eyeing the chair on the other side of my desk. He happily sat down and we discussed today’s results for a bit. He seemed pleased with how the Hybrids were developing. I too was very pleased. A few months back there was one Hybrid who didn’t react well with the cross species generation and it was a nasty sucker. It kept harassing the other experiments, nearly killing them. We had to get rid of it or all the hard work we put in to creating the other Hybrids would’ve been wasted.

“So, Zayn,” Dr. Tomlinson began, “Since you’ve been working here for a year, I have another proposal I’d like to give you.” I tilted my head in curiosity, parting my lips as I watched Dr. Tomlinson intently. He didn’t speak as he simply awaited a response from me.

“And what may that be?” I questioned as I prompted my elbows onto my desk and clasped my hands tightly together, growing more eager for the new proposal he had for me. Dr. Tomlinson stood up and asked me to follow him. We locked my office and headed down the cool hallway, towards the chamber where we keep the successful projects. As we walked, we heard the echo of our footsteps as it was already 7:48PM and no one else except for Hybrids were in the building. Once we approached the chamber, Dr. Tomlinson tapped in the code and the door unlocked. The two of us walked in and I watched as the Hybrids, behind the thick walls of glass, stood up straight and stopped speaking to each other.