“ Hm, where am I?” Gillean woke up and looked around anxiously.
“ You’re in your room in the lab”, Gwen said gently and drowsily .
“ Gwen? How did you get here?” his face looked flabbergasted.
“ Oh, dear, it’s really complicated . I have a special gadget- a special VR helmet that helps to get in someone’s dream –“
“ So that’s why I could see you?” he looked even more shocked.
“ Yeah, absolutely. But don’t interrupt me please. So, where was I? Ah, I remember. Recently I wanted to catch up with you again . The catch was that I couldn’t fall asleep . I had a sleep paralysis. There was an apparition – Cyberious. Although he’s not exactly an apparition , he’s half-ghost and half-human. Something of a robot was also present in him . I saw him and suddenly Marcus Bell appeared and saved me. He said that you’d disappeared and you were trapped in Cyberious’s lair . Together we developed a plan how to save you and managed to. I retold it in a pretty succinct way, but still. I don’t want to overload your head .”
“ Jesus Christ! My head hurts already.” He frowned and closed his eyes.
Gwen got up from her chair and went into the corridor. When she came back, Marcus and Asteria came in after her and brought some medicine. They gave the pill to Gillean and sat down.
“ Good morning, Gillean” Asteria greeted him and hugged.
“ Likewise, guys.” Gillean responded listlessly.
“ Still lousy? “ Marcus asked.
“ Yeah, bud. Not remembering even a single thing I had been told also adds insult to injury.”
“ Don’t fret, it’s gonna be OK. You took one memory-returning pill, the recollections are supposed to come back within a couple of hours. “
“ Do you have everything the world could ever invent in your lab?” Gillean exclaimed and his cheeks started blushing.
“ Sort of.” Marcus shrugged his shoulders.
Gillean got up and went to the window. He even forgot how the premises of the place where he lived looked. The headache started intensifying, growing into something excruciating . He felt lost, as though he was not where he’s supposed to be.
“ What are our tasks for today?” Asteria asked.
“ You’ll help me arrange everything for tonight’s new project demo and we’re presenting it to Gwen and Gillean. We need to discuss our new course of actions. Meanwhile, Gillean and Gwen are resting and doing whatever they want until eight pm. “ Marcus said and stopped for a moment. He was thinking about what to say. “ Gillean, I need to ask you something.”
“ Ok, go ahead” Gillean said and gave a light friendly smile.
“ While you walk around with Gwen and breathe some fresh air, try to recapture something really meaningful and even sort of painful to you. We need it for our new experiment.”
“ Okey-dokey , Marcus.”
Marcus and Asteria went out and Gillean stood still. Gwen was looking at him, her facial expression was baffled.
“ So, where are we gonna go?” she asked.
“ Let’s go to the stream. By the way, is there any food? I’m hungry as hell.”
“ Ok. I’ll go to take some food for us.”
Finally, Gillean was left alone. He zoomed out, staring at a plain white wall. Suddenly, an image of him jumping in the stream and passing out in there appeared in front of him. Then, Marcus and Asteria saved him and the next recollection is laying in an empty room on the stale floor. He saw a foul figure, as he guessed, it was Cyberious. Then the memories cut off, and he wakes up in his bed. “ I regained my memory!” he thought happily. He was pondering what has happened lately and then Gwen patted him on his shoulder. He jerked up as he didn’t expect this.
“ Let’s go ? Do you need anything else?”
“ No, thanks. Let’s go.” Gillean said kindly and took Gwen by her hand. Her hand was shaking. Gillean eventually noticed how frazzled she looked.
“ Are you all right?” he asked.
“ I’m uneasy about you. I didn’t sleep this night because I was watching you. I was afraid and still am of anything going wrong. Your health is my priority now.”
“ Darling, there’s no need to worry about me. I’m a grown-up man after all. I’m able to protect myself and it’s me who should help you and our colleagues, but not vice versa.
“ We’re a team so we should always help each other.” Gwen hugged him and started crying in his arms.
“ Hush, hush, honey, it’s OK.”
Gillean noticed something approaching them when he was patting Gwen’s shoulder. It was something massive and undefined. “ We gotta run, Gwen!” he yelled. They started running holding each other’s hands. They tried hard to maneuver from the weird flying thing. Suddenly, it flew towards them and stopped right in front of the guys. It cracked like an egg and they saw a scrawny creature inside.
“ Look how cute it is!” Gwen exclaimed and moving her hand to pick the creature up.
“ Don’t touch it. Let’s just look at it and call Marcus to show it to him.”
“ Ok. Get him here ASAP.”
Gillean rushed to find Marcus while Gwen stood looking after it. The critter was asleep, laying crouched as an embryo. It resembled something of a dog, but was robotic. It’s body was dainty and grey, it wasn’t like fur. A total robot. There was something disconcerting in this beast even when it was sleeping, though Gwen liked it a lot.
Gillean and Marcus came back and Marcus started scrutinizing the entity. Strangely, it didn’t even react on the noise all around. After some time in a stony silence, Marcus eventually picked the being and turned around .
“ The only thing I can say ‘bout it is that it’s a robot but you’ve already noticed this. It’s visually like a dog and I know that mechanical dogs have an extremely keen smell and no one can get away. My compatriot had the misfortune to encounter it and it’s been 5 years since his death after severe bites and deathly traumas.”
“ But how to ditch it?” Gwen asked, trembling.
“ I’ll keep it in my lab for some time and try to observe. Maybe I’ll find something peculiar enough in its manner, behavior or anything else. We need to record every single detail regarding this dog.”
“ I haven’t even recuperated after the lair!” Gillean exclaimed.
“ We’re doomed, bro.” Marcus said and shrugged his shoulders.
Marcus took the robot carefully and they went in the direction of the lab. Gillean had a foreboding of something approaching them. “ Why am I taking part in all of it?” he thought . The dog was still moveless , as if deeply asleep.
They entered the building and went into the corridor Gillean hasn’t been to before. It was dingy and the dust could be sensed in the air, meaning that the place is rather not frequently used. Gwen grasped his hand and whispered: “ It’s so odd. There’s bound to be something wrong about this doggy .”
“ Don’t fret, we’ll be fine.” he said gently and stroke her hair.
He couldn’t help but wonder about the lengths of the corridor. Gillean felt as if he was being watched , which added even more heaviness to the already tense ambience. Passing the last turn, they came to a tough metal door. As Marcus was opening the door, Gillean’s anxiety started to intensify . The sterile environment seemed to amplify the tension in the air ,and the presence of the robotic dog added the sense of surrealism permeated the room.
Marcus enclosed the dog in a transparent box, similar to a plain terrarium, and adjusted some buttons and rods for the perfect light, temperature and the quality of videorecords showing the bizarre being. Despite everything being set up, there was a bit of uncertainty surrounding the dog , something that needed some time and effort to decipher.
As Marcus was dismantling and examining something, Gillean, Asteria and Gwen were watching him and thinking that they were on the brink of something larger than they could have ever imagined. Just then, a loud noise echoed through the lab, causing everyone to jump in alarm. Gillean’s heart raced as he instinctively reached for Gwen’s hand , seeking comfort in her presence.
“ What was that?” Gwen whispered , her voice barely above a murmur.
Before anyone could respond , the lights flickered ominously , casting eerie shadows across the room. Gillean’s breath caught in his throat as he realized that the dog had woken up. It’s eyes casted red light reflecting on the walls, and it started barking, showing the ominous jaws full of sharp metal teeth. Marcus pulled the handle and closed the dog in the glass cage.
“ Let’s leave it alone for a time being.” Marcus said and sighed uneasily.
They left the room hastily and looked at each other.
“ Asteria, you’re surprisingly quiet today.” Gillean noticed.
“ Guys, don’t laugh at me please. I feel as though we’re being watched. Someone might have sent the dog on purpose to sneak on us. It can’t be a mere coincidence.” Her eyes were sunken ,the dark circles engulfing all her face in an exhausted look.
“ I have the same suspicion as you do.” Gillean concurred ,and they both looked right in Marcus’s eyes.
“ Dudes, don’t stare at me this way.” Marcus said disapprovingly and turned to leave the corridor. Others rushed after him, and yelled in unison: “Will we eventually discuss what we’re supposed to do with this weirdo trapped in there?”
“ Let’s leave the place first, it’s a confidential conversation. If the dog is truly ruled by someone , the person must not overhear what we are talking about.” Marcus quickened the pace, intending to leave the place rapidly.
They went upstairs, in a secluded pantry smelling like grandma’s jam and apple pie. It was nothing other than a place for keeping food and groceries, nothing special. That’s why they went there, to have a normal private conversation , without an odd pair of ears.
***
“ So guys, sit down.” Marcus gestured towards the armchairs .
They did what he asked and Marcus took a deep breath.
“ I’d like to start with our plan of actions. So, every morning I am to come to the lab and check in on the captivated creature. Gwen and Asteria are to have night shifts and look after the dog. “ he stopped for a moment.
"You'll have a special duty." Marcus said and pointed to Gillean.
“ Nice.” Gillean thought to himself.
“ So. Your task is to manage the dogs behavior.”
“ Sorry? I didn’t quite catch that.”
“ A couple of weeks ago I accidentally came up with one thingamajig . It’s a collar with some chips inside. You’ll be given a stun gun with different types of sting and levels. You need to choose one of them and try it out on the robotic dog , and see how it reacts.”
“ Maybe we’ll just burn it down this way.” Gillean smiled and laughed slightly.
“ It’s likely with our experiments.” Asteria chuckled nervously.
“ It’s almost 9 pm. Who’s on duty today?” Gwen asked.
“ I can be the pioneer in this.” Asteria said.
“ Ok. You can call me in case the help is needed.”
“ Thanks, darling.” Asteria said and they hugged each other in a friendly way.
“ When my tests are supposed to start?”
“ Try to do it tomorrow. This night you need to rest well and prepare yourself physically and mentally.”
“ Goodnight then ,guys.” Gillean said and stretched his arms.
“ Goodnight!”
***
Gillean dozed off as soon as he touched the pillow. He started seeing a weird dream. He was sitting on the bed in his bedroom at his mom’s house in South Carolina. Someone knocked on the door.
“ Who?” he asked.
“ Gilly, it’s Sian!” his younger sister yelled.
“ Come in.” he said and lied down.
The girl ran into the room hurriedly. Her face was sweating, pupils widening and arms shaking.
“ What’s wrong, sweetie?” he asked and gestured for her to sit down. “ Where’s Sunna? What were you up to again?” Gillean started behaving like a strict older brother.
“ No, no, no ,we didn’t do anything bad.”
“ Why are you so out of sorts then?”
“ We found something kooky on our porch. Sunna is examining it now.”
“ What do you mean by ‘ kooky’? What did you find?”
“ Gilly, let’s go and I’ll show it to you.”
“ Of course, my dear.”
They went to the porch and Gillean lowered his gaze to look at the object. It was the exact same mechanical dog they found with Gwen near the stream. “ But how?” he thought, trying not to give away that he was afraid.
“ Do you know what this is?” another sister Sunna asked.
“ Yes, girls. It’s a mechanical dog. It’s not harmful at all. You should go in now and I’ll come up with how to get rid of it. But in no case you should leave the house. You get it?”
The twin girls nodded and looked at each other, suspecting something queer going on. They closed the door and went up the stairs.
“ OK. Now they are safe at least for the time being.” he thought and picked the dog up. It had a message on it’s collar: “ Even if you try to ditch me, I’ll immediately come after you.” He ran to an abandoned stadium and took out a lighter from his pocket. He started the fire and threw the dog right there. The flame started getting blue. “ What the fuck?” Gillean started gradually walking backwards. A huge figure emerged from the fire. It was the same dog, but in an increased size. “ Aaaah!” he yelled and fell from the bed. “ Ouch.”
***
“ Oh, it’s fabulous!” said one peculiar man out loud. He was sitting in a red-lit room and holding a computer mouse in his hand. On his computer was the dog’s database and the Google Maps app opened. He was the dog’s owner. He was the one who had sent the dog to Gillean. The trick is going successfully.
He pressed one button, trying to release the dog from the captivity. On the other side, it woke up and tried breaking the glass box it was in. The man got up from his chair and started dancing happily. Everything was going smoothly, the way he wanted to.
***
Asteria barely managed to keep herself awake, and she had eventually fallen asleep with her head on the table. A weird noise woke her up: the dog was trying to break free.
