Riddle me Murder

An experiment

Professor W. pulled me into his classroom after class today. At first, I thought I'd done something wrong, but then I looked around and realized that I wasn't the only student in there. Professor W. was well known for his psychology experiments conducted in his students, but this was only the second time I had been pulled into his classroom for something like this.

On the far side of the room, I spotted the same man who had deduced the issue at the mall the other day. Was he a psych major too? I wondered if I had any classes with him. I was about to go talk to him, when Professor W. clapped his hands for attention.

"Hey, students. Over here! These headsets will take your brainwaves and project them onto a monitor. Then, we're gonna put y'all in a surprise scenario, okay? It might be a bit unnerving for the newer subjects, but you'll be fine. Who's first?" Asked Professor W.

A girl at the front of the crowd of twenty stepped forward. The professor put a small headset onto her face, and flipped a switch on the monitor. A whole bunch of waves appeared onscreen. Then, Professor W. warned all of us. "I'm going to project this image into your mind. Then, then around and tell me what you see."

The monitor cut to an abandoned, lifeless forest, totally misty, totally quiet. A snapping sound came from a speaker behind her. She whirled around, but the monitor only showed a deer. Nothing to be afraid of. She lifted up the headset and returned to her spot.

The line of people waiting diminished, subjects seeing a range from a bear, to the opposite gender, to a ghost, to just nothing. All of the answers had those in common. Finally, it was my turn, and I put on the headset.

At first, all I saw was darkness while he read my brainwaves. Then, an eerie light switched on and I was in a cold, overwhelming nest of trees. Behind me, a crunch of a branch breaking startled me, but when I turned around, I didn't see anything.

"Next," Professor W. called, taking off my headset. The man walked to where I had been standing a moment before, and put on the headset.

A moment of silence while his brainwaves are read. The forest is projected onscreen. He hears the snap. A glare hits the screen in my direction as the professor moves it a little. Darn! What does he see?

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I move slightly out of place and lean forward so I can see. Onscreen appears a dog- a golden retriever, smiling it's big goofy grin. That's a new one. I wonder what it means for his results.

I consider talking to him afterwards, but as everyone filters out of the room, the professor calls him back, saying they had to talk. Whatever.