The visitor.

Luis closed his eyes and thought of the last day he felt human.

That day, he was taking some blood samples from two rats when the phone rang, it was his secretary:

-“Dr. Robles?”-

-“Yes Lucy, what’s up?”-

-“There's someone here looking for you, he says he has an appointment”-

Luis tightened his grasp on the phone and dropped the syringe he had on his other hand that shattered on the floor, he cursed and covered his face with his now free hand.

-“Lucy, I’m not on the speaker, am I?” -

-“No doctor, you’re not- she sighted- I ´ll tell him to wait a minute”-

Luis took a deep breath and cleaned the blood and broken glass from the floor.

-“Dr. Merino, can you take another blood sample please?”-

The middle aged woman looking in the microscope arranged her golden framed glasses.

-“Yes doctor”-

Luis came close to her and said:

-“Well Claudia, this is it, send me good vibes”-

Although wearing a surgical mask, a smile reflected on her eyes.

-You have done what is right, you did it!-

Luis took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his black shaggy hair.

He took off his surgical mask and went down, when the elevator doors opened, there he was; a tall, skinny man wearing a purple velvet suit.

The man stood up.

-“Dr. Robles, I asume”-

Luis stretched his hand.

-“Yes, Mr. Vasili right?”-

-“In deed”- his crooked smiled distorted his face.

A moldy smell filled the elevator air as the doors closed.

-“I have been told, you made such a discovery doctor”-

Vasili’s stale voice and breath added an extra to the elevator funky air.

-“Well, yes”- Luis coughed- “It is quite something”-

The elevator doors opened and Luis took a deep breath, took a face mask from his pocket and put it on, then offered one to Vasili, who put it on as slowly as he could.

-“I should have given him the face mask before getting in the elevator”- he thought as he took another deep breath and pressed the code to open the door to the lab.

Claudia stood up from the metal stool and gave a look at Vasili.

-“Dr. Merino, this is Mr. Vasili”-

Both Claudia and Vasili nodded.

Vasili walked through the lab with his hands in the back, looking at the Petri dishes and glass flasks.

-“Dr. Robles, I’m impressed that such a young person as yourself made a discovery of this magnitude… I mean, assuming, all the evidence is right”-

-“Well, actually I’m almost forty but… I must confess that this investigation was iniciated over twenty years ago by Dr. Merino and my father… may he rest in peace…”-

Vasili raised an eyebrow and stared at the rats climbing up and down the metal cage.

-“So, this rats…”-

-“Yes, a month without drinking water or any liquids whatsoever”-

Claudia gave Vasili a yellow folder with several papers inside, he opened and closed it without reading anything.

-“I asume you have a specimen I can take”-

-“ Yes, of course”- said Luis as Claudia went to a small room, coming back with a metal cage covered with a plastic mesh.

-“Someone will contact you in less than a week”-

Vasili walked towards the door, Luis opened it and when it was closed he rested his back on the wall.

-“Well, it’s done”-

Luis pat-dried his sweaty hands on his lab coat.

Claudia took off her glasses, pressed the base of her nose and fell onto a chair.

After a while, they both left to their houses, a celebration would have been in order, but a feeling of exhaustion and something else lingered, so they posponed the toast.

When Luis got to his house, he fell on his bed without taking his shoes off, he was falling asleep when a blunt noise startled him, some scratches followed, he had heard something like that before, but had not had the time to deal with the mice running in between the wooden walls, he tried to ignore the noise but it was getting louder.

He took a metal bar that was keeping the window open and used it to take out a wooden piece from the ceiling.

A piece of paper fell down to his feet, it was his father’s handwriting; he took out another piece of wood and a cardboard box almost fell on his head, when he opened it, there were hundreds of his father’s notes.

He spent all night reading them, when he finished, it was well past midnight, he was so aghast that he did’´t even feel the paper cuts all over his hands.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and took the phone with a shaky hand.

-“ Claudia? yes… I… could you come please? No, not to the lab, I am in my house… yes…”-

Luis dropped the phone and sat in a corner.

When Claudia got to Luis’ house, she knocked on the door several times, but there was no answer, the old door creaked when she pushed it.

-“I’m up here!”- Luis shouted from upstairs.

The tone in Luis’ voice let Claudia know something was off, she took a deep breath, close the door and went upstairs, Luis was sitting facing to the wall, his arms around his benden legs.

-“My dad had already done it, did’t he?... What… what happened?”-

Claudia looked at all the papers on the floor, she opened her mouth but nothing came out, she took another paper and fell down on her knees.

-“He… he told me everything was destroyed… the work of a life time…”- her eyes teared up -“… I got a call… the police told me he was nowhere to be found and the laboratory had been burnt to the ground…”-

-“ I remember my mom was looking for him everywhere… until… they told us he had jumped in front of a train…”- said Luis, staring at the nothing.

Luis stood up and turned slowly towards Claudia, suddenly the sound of creaking wood from the stairs made them both turn to the door, at that moment Claudia's phone started ringing; a familiar voice getting close said:

-“Let it ring Dr. Merino”-

Vasili came through the door and Claudia instinctively put herself behind Luis.

The voice mail answered the call:

-“Dr. Merino, this is officer Meyers, we need to talk to you or Dr. Robles, there's been an incident on the lab, apparently a fire that started there has consumed the whole building, call me as son as…”

Vasili walked towards Luis.

-“Humans need to drink water Dr. Robles… they need to ingest liquids…”-

Vasili’s eyes were on fire, he looked at Luis, then Claudia.

-“Unfortunately your father found out how to stop humans from needing any liquid, the salvation for humanity, he said… he could not have been more wrong”-

From inside his coat he took a piece of rope and a syringe with a cloudy liquid inside.

- “You cannot see any changes in rats, because rats, well… their nature is to live and feed on abomination… -“ Vasili threw the piece of rope to the floor and looked at Luis

–“Tie her with the rope, her feet and the left hand, leave the right hand free.”-

Luis walked menacingly towards Vasili, but he draw a gun from his vest and pointed it at Claudia.

-“Do it”- said Vasili through his rotten teeth looking straight in Luis’ eye.

Tears ran down Claudia's face as Luis tied her feet and one hand.

When Luis stood up, he felt a sharp pain on his neck, he touched it and the needle of the syringe was still there, he took it out and vanished.

When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the sidewalk , his house was ablazed in fire.

-“Claudia!”-

A gunshot came from inside the house.

-“I gave the gun to Dr. Merino… It would have been horrible to let her die slowly like that… … I am not a monster Dr. Robles, You’ll see”-

Luis touched his neck.

-“I gave you your formula, you will see what your father saw, he tried it himself…”-

Luis stood up and heard the sirens approaching, he ran and hid in an abandoned building.

When he woke up the next day, he looked for places to hide: under bridges and abandoned places, he was sure they were going to blame him for the laboratory, his house… Claudia…”

After a few days, he saw how the sky started turning red, and he realized he hadn’t eaten or drank anything, he ate some leaves from a tree out of desperation, he felt a liquid forming in his mouth, he spitted it out; it was water.

He tried to ate a stale cookie he found and the same thing happened, even the smallest amount of liquid on the food was expelled from his body.

He hitchhiked from place to place and after ten days, he saw how some almost microscopic things were running on his skin and getting into his pores, are they bacterias? No, how could they be, how could he see them? He was starting to hallucinate.

Twenty days had passed, he was tired of hiding, those things he saw, kept getting into his pores, and now the sky had a bloody dark red hue.

He decided he was going to turn himself in, touched his neck and tought about how long will the effect of his formula last.

As he walked, he saw some human shaped figures walking towards him, as they approached, he realized they were about half his size and seethrough, like shadows, they cried and grunted reaching towards him, he ran and hid.

Two days later, there was nowhere to hide, the shadows kept coming towards him and some animal-like things were eating themselves they hid under the trees and ate their own limbs as they grunted and howled.

Luis ran to a high bridge and was about to throw himself down when he heard that voice again.

-“ This is reality Dr. Robles”-

Vasili walked towards him.

“- If I am not mistaken, the effect of your formula, will vanish tomorrow… you will be as thirsty as you have never been”-

Luis fell to his knees, his body contorted and he cried without tears.

-“Water will help you, it will prevent you from seeing reality…”- he put a bottle of water next to Luis –“… drink the water doctor…it will trick your mind and you will see the sky blue again, and maybe you will even be hopeful and happy someday, convince yourself that this was all a nightmare…”-

Vasili put one knee on the floor and whispered to Luis:

-“And this is in case you think you had enough”-

He put a gun with one bullet next to Luis, stood up, took a deep breath and walked away into the shadows.