Monstrous

Prologue

May 19, 2019

There was a small house at the end of the lane. It was an old one, the outside a pale, crackly gray. The moon was full in the sky, peeking out amidst the thin veil of clouds that wrapped around it. The only sounds were the chirping of late summer crickets and the dull chatter of a television.

The man in the house was an older one, with thinning hair, rough stubble on his chin, and bits of food caught in his teeth. He grabbed the remote and flipped through channels until he got to the news. On screen, there was the image of many people standing, holding candles to illuminate their hands in the darkness. There were a few cameras in the background, and a few phones, of course, because no one could bear to be without one these days.

The man called to his wife."Honey! News is on!" He called, thenfocused his eyes on the screen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reported on screen, a fair woman with brown hair, looked into the camera."Today marks the third anniversary of the Redsworth Middle School Attack. As you can see here, many friends, family members, colleagues, and students of the victims have come here today in remembrance."

The camera cut to a group of mourners, gathered around portraits of three people. One was a young man with a bright smile, another was a girl with blond hair, streaks of green died in, and the last was of a red-haired boy. Near the girls portrait, a woman kneeled, sobbing, while a man behind her pat her back comfortingly. She had none of it, and broke away, walking off and still sobbing.

Even the reporter seemed emotional at the events."The, uh...The attacks were perpetrated by another student for unclear reasons, though the general consensus has been that he had an unstable mind as a result of controversial testing. For more on this, we go to Richard Dreyman. Richard?"

The scene cut to a black-haired man in a suit."Thank you Becka. I'm here today with Penelope Schröeder, a scientist who worked with the culprit." He turned to the black-haired woman."Now, can you explain exactly what happened?"

Penelope took a breath, then nodded."My colleague, Dr. Richards, as you may remember, was...a genius. Emphasis on 'was'. We were working on special gene therapies. They were supposed to do amazing things. Prolong the lives of people with muscular apathy, for one. We even had a project to allow pain to reduce naturally, and hopefully prevent people from becoming addicted to painkillers."

The reporter Dreyman nodded."I see...and what exactly went wrong?" he asked. "How did it go from medicine to...well, this tragedy?"

The researcher sighed."Dr. Richards was an impatient man. We would perform trials on volunteers, with little success. It would work at first, but the serums we used wouldn't bind with the blood, as we hoped, and instead only exited their body. It was only temporary."

Her eyes got dark."He injected the serum into a pregnant woman. As a result, the serum entered the embryo, and when the child was born, it started reproducing the serum naturally on its own. The mother lived only long enough to give him the name-"

Her next words were covered by an odd Beeeep noise, and a black bar appeared over the woman's mouth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The man frowned."The heck is this!?" he demanded, annoyed at the sudden high-pitched whine.

His wife, a short woman with olive skin and oval eyes, walked in, nodding."I have them all settled down. That bruise on Cas' hand was a bit rough, but should be fine. Now, what has you annoyed?" She spoke in a quiet voice, and seemed to drag out every last syllable, as though carefully considering the following word.

The man, who was named Jim, scoffed and gestured towards the television."They're making a big deal about those attacks, but they're not even giving us the guys name! What's the point then!?"