The Almost Great Escape

I froze, standing there with my mouth open, my eyes wide. My mind was spinning, piecing all of the facts together. It all made sense now: the lack of results and then the spike in the action with the actual chemicals; the overabundance of unique chemical combinations being readily available.

The former Chemical Director stared at me in shock and then the Headmaster’s head peeked around him, wondering why he was still standing there. His eyes went wide as he saw me standing there, basically mimicking their expressions. His face quickly shifted from surprise to anger and he let out a curse. He sighed and pressed his lips together, his hand motioning me in.

“Thomas, get out of my sight!” He yelled to the former Chemical Director as he swivelled back around in his chair, leaning on his desk and putting his head in his hands. He massaged his temples as I sat in front of him and I placed my laptop on my legs and waited for him to speak. I had recovered some of my composure and my face had settled into what I hoped was a relatively calm position. 

“So, I’m guessing you heard most of that, right?” The Headmaster said, looking up at me with a slightly sheepish expression. I nodded and he sighed.

“Look, Genevieve, I’m sorry you had to find out this way, I can assure you we were, well are, going to break the news gently, we just wanted to let the experiment take its course.” I nodded again, and suddenly my thoughts jumped to Charlie.

“I understand, honestly I do, but I was wondering what’s going to happen to Charlie now that my bit of the experiment had failed?” I asked, my face betraying none of the desperate hope inside of me. The Headmaster sighed again and pressed his lips together.

“Ah. Charlie. Yes. Uh, well, you see, we didn’t actually buy his freedom from the American police, we just sort of borrowed him. So now that he’s obsolete…. Well, I’ve already made the call. They should be here within four days to pick him up.” He said, folding his hands together in front of him. I nodded, my eyes downcast.

“I see. Should I go tell him?” I asked, thinking that was going to be a tough conversation for me.

“No, no. Don’t tell him, that might make him try something dangerous. I think we’ll stick to your regular schedule, which means that you’ll have to inject him with the placebo shots still, but as you now know it won’t do anything.” I nod again, knowing that I couldn’t lie to Charlie about the shots. I was going to have to tell him, whether or not that would make him hate me. The Headmaster sighed as he looked at the clock, telling both of us it was 11:00 pm and we needed to be getting to bed. I stood up, tucking my laptop back under my arm.

“Goodnight, Headmaster. I’ll make sure everything stays as usual tomorrow.” I say, smiling tightly at him. He nodded once at me to show his thanks and then he walked over to the window and closed the blinds, the sun having gone down hours ago. The Headmaster dismisses me and I walk back down the hallway to the lift.

As I walk back to my room, I run through ll my possible options. I eventually came to one concussion; I had to get Charlie away from here and to somewhere safe. My mind was spinning, trying to come up with a good escape plan.

I dropped my laptop off on my desk, and headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. I was still thinking about how to get Charlie off the campus undetected when I accidentally squirted the toothpaste into the skiing instead of onto my toothbrush. I cleaned it up quickly, as an idea started to form in my head.

As I ruminated on said idea, I washed my face and got changed into my PJs, wiggling into bed and still planning how I was going to execute said idea. While I lay there, I ran through every possible outcome, good and bad, and adjusted my plan accordingly. I slowly fell asleep, still thinking about all the different ways my plan could fail.

🧪🧪🧪

When I woke up, my plan had fully formed overnight and I considered it from every angle I could. I came away satisfied, getting up with a secret smile on my face and going about my morning routine. When I got down to the lab, I opened it with my key card and jumped back. Charlie was RIGHT there.

“Genevive! I thought you wouldn’t come.” He said, his voice a bit weird. Suddenly I remembered that shot I had given him yesterday and the effects I saw on my laptop. I groaned, hoping my plan would still work with him in this state. I pushed him inside the lab, closing the door firmly behind me. He was still standing really close to me and shuffled away from him a bit.

“Charlie, look. That shot I gave you last night obviously worked, ok? So…. whatever you’re thinking or feeling…. It’s just the shot. You need to try and behave normally, ok?” I said, looking into his eyes intensely. He just shook his head. I frowned and opened my mouth to speak again but he jumped in.

“Genevive, ever since you first opened that door wearing that low-cut shirt I knew you were cute. When I started to get to know you, even through our limited, lab-related conversations, I really started to like you. But I didn’t want to say anything, thinking maybe all this talk about the injections not working was possibly not true. But I knew deep down that I really did like you; you’re just like a little fireball of determination and focus and I love that about you. And you’re super smart, but you don’t need me to tell you that. I know whatever you gave me yesterday has made all those feelings even more intense, but I want you to know that I really do like you, even without this latest shot.” He ran his hands through his hair, looking down at his feet after his confession. He glanced up at me to gauge my reaction. I looked steadily back at him, my thoughts conflicted. I sighed deeply, wondering how I was going to break the news to him. I went for the straightforward approach.

“Charlie, they’re going to send you back to America. I wasn’t supposed to get access to the chemicals that I used in the last couple of shots. This was supposed to be a placebo experiment, to see if the human mind is potent enough to create emotions and different characters within a person. I’ve heard of experiments like it. When you’re with that person you’ve been paired with, you’ll act and think like a completely different person than when you’re away from them. That was the point of the whole thing and I was kept in the dark about it. I’m not supposed to be telling you this, but I have to. The Americans are coming for you within three or four days, so I need to get you out of here. I have a plan, but I don’t know how well it’ll work with you like this. I will need you to remember some very specific facts about certain things and I don’t think you can focus very well at the moment based on your brain activity.” I stop for breath, still looking at Charlie. He blinked at me a few times and then inhaled deeply. He didn’t let it out but he kept staring at me. He eventually releases the breath, his whole body sinking slightly.

“Please tell me this plan of yours is going to work. I really don’t want to go back.” He said with a sigh, “What do I have to do to get this darn shot out of my system?”