Is my world real?

“Just please listen to me. I am not crazy.” 

A raggedly dressed man spoke. His wrists chained to the middle of the metallic table that sat in front of him.

“Maybe what I did in the past was the wrong course of action, but you must understand I was–” 

“You caused panic amongst many of your beloved listeners. Indoctrinating them of some sort of “Existence beyond ours”. Then you take it further and attempt to begin a riot in the streets of Iota. The city is still cleaning up the damage caused.”

The stern voice flowed from a speaker that hung in the corner of the perfectly white room. The man started to provide an explanation before the voice from the speaker cut him off once more.

“World renowned professor, scientist, biologist. Go to any country on the globe and there will be someone who knows of you. Are you somehow not aware of the influence you have on the public, Mr. Devan?”

He lowered his head and stared at the lacings of his shoes. There was a comfort in the simple design. Each string crossing over one another and leading into a neatly tied bow.

He wanted nothing more than to stare at that for the rest of his life. To forget all that he discovered and return to a time where nobody but his family and friends knew who he was.

“I am sorry for any trouble that I caused. It was not my intention.” 

 Devan forced himself to speak despite his desire not to.

“But I only wanted to let the public know. To let everyone know.”

“Know what, exactly?” 

“The truth.”

Devan lifted his head up and looked at the barren wall across the room. He had no idea where the man behind the voice was nor if the man could see him. There was no reflective mirror in the room. No signs of a camera on the walls. 

There was only the table, the speaker, a white door at one end, the chair he sat on and the chains that prevented most movement.

He could only assume that every action and word he says would be carefully watched.

“I know things. Things that were never meant to be known. Secrets far older than the stars in the night sky.”

“Would you kindly explain?”

Devan hesitated for a moment and tried his best to calm his shaking body. After a few deep breaths he prepared himself to talk.

“Okay…”

{One month prior}  

“Sir, I know this has been the priority of our research for years now, but are you sure we’re ready to attempt a Molding?”

A young voice spoke towards Devan. The words fell on deaf ears as he was too distracted by the folder he held in his hand. 

 His eyes darted back and forth across the inside of the folder. Quickly looking over multiple sketches of a cylindrical machine, each having groups of numbers written next to them. 

“Sir!”

“What?... Oh yes, Mitchell, you worry far too much. We’ve made tremendous progress and we’ve already proven that it’s perfectly safe when tested on animals. The only test left is for a human.”

Mitchell reluctantly nodded his head in agreement

“Good. Now come on, the others are most likely ready and scientific breakthroughs are not something you want to miss.” 

Devan patted his hand on the young man's back as they walked out of the office.

[Tests? Before your erratic change in behavior, the last experiments you made public were attempts at creating longer lasting fuel for rockets. Those aren’t the tests you’re speaking of, are they?]

[No… A small group of brilliant minds, Mitchell and I included, had a hidden project. One that we’d been working on in private for many years.]

[What was this “Project” of yours?]

[Molecular displacement and restructuring. We were trying to create a way to change the entirety of a biological lifeform. Redesigning its very existence, down to its brain structure, into something completely different.]

[Playing God.]

{Thirty minutes before the incident}

  Devan and Mitchell walked through a set of double doors into a wide open room. 

The place had multiple desks each holding a computer atop of it. Thick wires ran from the computers and across the floors converging into one machine in the middle of the room. Its capsule shape matched the designs Devan had been looking at earlier. Clear windows circled around it, enclosing it into its own little room. 

Five other people could be seen moving about the room with ease. Each one focused on a specific task, yet still greeting the two scientists who had just entered.

“Well you two finally decide to join the chaos.”

A woman spoke from behind a desk a few feet in front of the two.

“Didn’t want to leave you waiting, Lily. Patience isn’t your strong suit after all.”

Devan laughed at the woman as she shrugged off the comment with a slight smile. Quickly finishing final preparations on one of the computers, Lily followed behind them towards a table in front of the machine’s room.

The rest of the scientists had already gathered around and waited for Devan to speak.

He looked down at the top of the table. A small camera with a head strap sat upon it with a wireless heartbeat monitor beside it. Simple equipment, but vitally important for what was to come.

He looked for a second longer until taking a deep breath.

“Today’s the day. Now I don’t want to get all sappy, but I do want to thank each and everyone of you. We’ve all come a long way from where we started. Facing failure after failure yet still preserving. Clinging to the hope that what we are doing here today; will change the entirety of the human race for the better. I know there have been struggles and very difficult moments. Moments where the best and only option seemed to be to just give up and walk away…”

[It was.]

“But that’s not who we are. We kept pushing and now our fight will finally bear fruit. So how about we don’t miss our chance and let's go mark our place in history.”

The room erupted with cheers and clapping. The fatigue on everyone's faces had been replaced by excitement. 

“Did you get that speech from a movie?” 

  One man joked from inside the group.

“Only half of it.”

Devan replied.

[You mentioned human testing earlier. Who was delegated as the subject?]

[Myself.]

[Why would you allow yourself to be the first human tested?]

[Because that group of men and women were under my watch. We didn’t detect any sort of danger, but I was not about to risk someone else’s life. Besides, we were just going to perform a small “mold”. Attempt to change the color of my hair and the fingerprints on my left hand.]

[It was supposed to be simple.]

{Ten minutes before the incident}

“Are you all set?”

Lily spoke from outside the bordered off room. Mitchell and the other scientists were each at their own desks glossing over the screens that sat in front of them.

Devan adjusted the camera strap that was on his head. Fear and nervousness began to creep up, but he did his best to calm himself. He took one final deep breath and signaled Lily with a thumbs up.

“Okay. Start up the side reactors.”

One of the scientists began typing orders into their computer. Within seconds the Capsule roared to life, causing a slight twitch from Devan. The small engines connected to the sides of the machine were nearing their full strength.

“Alright. Mitchell, you have the genetic change-points inputted correct?” 

Lily waited until she saw a nod of agreement from the young man.

“Then this is it. Turn on the Potter.”

[The potter?]

[The device responsible for all of this. Built from the ground up by us. It’s what allows the biology of a creature to be changed.]

{Five minutes before the incident}

A multitude of noises left the machine as a curved off device connected to the top of it was turned on.

A white smoke-like substance began to fill the inside of the capsule. It took little time for Lily and the others to lose sight of Devan within the capsule’s see-through door. Nobody on the outside was able to see what exactly was happening. They could only hope for the best.  

Devan experienced all of it.

The smoke clouded his sight and prevented him from seeing the room he was once in. 

He could feel his body changing. The hair on his head felt as if it was being burned off and his right fingers felt like a razor was scraping across them. 

His mind soon ignored the pain and became distracted by the noise that emerged. 

A loud clicking pounded into his body. Each bang from the sound felt like his very existence was being exposed. 

It was random.

A rapid fire of clicking would slam into his body. Followed by moments of stillness then followed again by a single click that would vibrate in his body for what felt like eternity.

He fought with what strength he had in an attempt to lift his hand. Every ounce of his body screamed for him to stop, but he had to see. He had to know what was happening.

After days. Or seconds. He no longer knew.

He managed to lift his hand in front of his eyes.

Fear, confusion and shock filled his mind. His hand was no longer there. In its place were words.

A sea of letters that formed the shape of his hand. 

He focused as best he could to make sense of what he was seeing. He began to notice a pattern within the letters. The word “palm” was spelled over and over again in the middle of his hand.

He forcefully moved his eyesight upwards towards the tips of his fingers and saw what looked like a battle raging.

The word “fingerprint” was written multiple times in the place where his fingerprints would be, but there was a difference. The layout of the words kept changing.

They would form in an overarching shape and would quickly vanish as if they were being deleted. Then they would reappear in a different layout and would vanish just as fast.

He was soon reminded of the clicking as he noticed that the appearance of the letters and the sound both occurred at the same time. Both happened in sync. He looked back up into the ocean of white.

His breathing sped up as he began to panic. He didn’t know why this was happening nor exactly what was happening. He only wanted it to stop.

He tried to call out to Lily, Mitchell, anyone that would listen.

But no sound would exit his body.

Over and over he tried to speak, but nothing happened. He tried to scream, but he couldn’t feel any vibration within his throat. As far as he knew, his throat had become a group of letters as well. 

Defeat started to set in as he realized his attempts were in vain.

One final word crossed his mind.

“Help.” 

 He whispered.

Suddenly three words left from his mouth and began to float into the snowy nothing in front of him. 

He watched them carefully and tried to make out what they said. 

“Help.” He whispered. 

That was the very word he had just said, but he never said those two words next to it. He tried once more to speak.

“What?”

The word left his mouth and began to float away, but this time Devan tried his best to reach for it.

He moved the collection of words that formed his hand and managed to make contact with the word.

A bright flash exploded from it and for a moment he could no longer see anything. 

Slowly, shapes began to take form.

A vast wall of words laid out in front of him. All of them were arranged in perfect order, like that of a book.

They carried on, what seemed like infinitely, to the left and right in front of him. A realization struck him.

The words were inverted. Each one facing away from him as if to make it easier for someone on the other side of the wall to read them. 

He moved closer to the wall. Even now, he was overtaken by curiosity. Completely ignoring the pain that was afflicting him earlier. 

He attempted to read the words backwards as that was the way they were facing him. It became easier to read the words, but more terrifying as he continued. 

They were detailing everything he was doing. Everything he had thought and said. His conversation with Mitchell and his jab at Lily. 

He moved further “back” into the words and saw that he had talked, or rather, would talk to some mysterious voice over a speaker.

He moved back towards the words that were being written. They rapidly appeared in front of him and lined up on the “wall”. He looked to the right and saw a shaded out version of the words. Like looking into the future. The words did not yet exist, but they were certain to.

He continued reading the words and trying in vain to understand their purpose.

“So did you?”

The voice over the speaker asked.

“Barely.”

Devan answered

“It seems like you and your group created a type of time travel. Respectfully, it seems like it didn’t work. Your hair still looks like the same color brown and the fingerprints we took from you earlier today; well they never changed.”

Devan let out a chuckle while a teardrop rolled down his face.

“No. We didn’t create anything. All I did was discover something far bigger than time travel.”

“What exactly would that be?”

“You said it earlier. An existence beyond our own. Beings that do not appreciate when their creation is tampered with. Even if their own creation is the one doing the tampering.”

A silence fell over the room. A frustrated sigh could be heard through the speaker.

“Let’s assume that what you’re saying is true. That you already knew you would speak with me. That you saw the past conversations with your colleagues. That still does not explain what happened to them.”

“I don’t know. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

More tears began to slowly fall down his face.

“What do you mean? Did the machine explode? Did they vanish? What happened after you left that place?”

“I ended up here. Talking with you.”

Devan could tell that the man’s frustration was growing heavier.

“You spent the last month causing panic amongst hundreds of people. Convincing those that listened to you of the things you saw. So now is not the time to joke.”

“You’re right. I remember doing all of that, but I didn’t actually do all of that. I’ve been given those memories, but they are not memories I lived through.”

“What are you getting at, Professor?”

This time it was Devan who let out a sigh of frustration. 

“I saw the words.”

{One minute before the incident}

“I read the start and end of this reality countless times.”

“What end are you talking about?”

The voice asked with the same curiosity Devan once had.   

“Nothing grand nor remarkable. Just a very simple end. One that we brought on ourselves. Maybe it could’ve been more. A far greater “story” of sorts, but we tried rewriting our existence and in doing so we disturbed the way our reality was supposed to be.”

{Thirty seconds before the incident}

“That doesn’t answer the question. Is the end happening soon? Can it be stopped?”

Devan shook his head and focused his eyes on his right hand. He never paid attention to his hand before the time in the capsule. Never truly paid attention to it, but now it dawned on him just how much of life he missed out on.

So determined to change life into what it could be; that he never valued what it already was.

 Simple and yet so beautifully complex.

{Fifteen Seconds Before The Incident}

“Devan, I would like some sort of answer.”

{Ten Seconds Before The Incident}

“How does it end?”

The voice yelled through the speaker.

{Five Seconds Before The Incident}

“It ends…”

Devan’s body froze from a mixture of sadness, fear and acceptance. He no longer wanted to speak, but forced himself to do so. 

“When the last word…”

{One Second Before The Incident}

“Is written.”