4:30 pm. Marlene was changing Adam’s IV bag and looking at the clock; ready to go at 5:00. Eve sees Marlene looking at the clock.

“You’re going home soon?” Eve asks her.

Marlene looks to Eve.

“Yes. Soon.” She replies. “Are you going to go home as well?”

“Our guardian won’t get me until tomorrow.”

“Guardian?”

“We’re orphans.”

Marlene felt saddened to hear fact that both Adam and Eve had no parents.

“What happened?” She asks.

“They were killed in an accident two years ago.” Adam replies weakly.

Marlene felt slightly devastated when Adam explained their parent’s demise. She could partially relate, because her mother went missing for years, and was left with an alcoholic father who was never a dad.

“Did you have to do everything by yourself with your sisters when you were little?” Eve asks.

“Yes… I did.” Marlene replies.

“You and all of your sisters?”

“Yes. But all eight of us managed the obstacles in our childhood and made it. I know you and your brother will do the same.”

“You think so, Nurse Rosa?”

“I know so, little lady.”

Now 5:00, another nurse comes in for her shift, meaning it was time for Marlene to leave. Marlene gave the nurse Adam’s chart.

“Are you leaving?” Adam askes weakly.

“Yes, little man. My shift is done.” Marlene replies.

“Will we see you again?” Eve askes.

Marlene smiled at them.

“You both will tomorrow. I promise.” She replies.

Marlene waves goodbye to the twins and the nurse and leaves out the hospital room. She goes into the locker room to her locker and takes her belongings. She leaves out the locker room and goes to an elevator that leads to the concourse. As she reached concourse, she finds her car, unlocks it, puts her purse and jacket in the backseat, and gets in the driver seat. She starts the car, drives out the concourse parking lot, and onto the road.

.   .   .   .   .

As Abel slept, he began to dream. In his dream, a visible image of Marlene comes into view, walking up to him slowly with a mesmerizing look in her eyes, wearing nothing but a silk sheet around her body. She starts touching his chest and smiling at him temptingly. Her hands go into his hair, her body close to his, her lips close to his ear, and she whispers to him softly:

“I want you, Abel. I want you to make love to me.”

Marlene slowly takes off the sheet around her body; Abel instantly holds on to her body with one of his hands grabbing her backside. He then kisses her soft lips and gets close to her ear.

“I promise. I’ll be gentle, my dear Marlene.”

Marlene decides to slowly take off Abel’s shirt and pushes him on to the bed. She gets on top of him, now slowly unbuttoning his pants. The moment Marlene was about to pull out his member, his phone’s alarm goes off; instantly waking him up from his dream. He looks around the hotel room and sees Erika who was getting dressed for the meeting with an angry look on her face.

“Time?” Abel asks.

“It’s 5:15. The limo will get us at 5:45.” Erika replies sharply.

Abel gets up from the bed, goes through his suitcase, and pulls out an all-black suit with a blue trim and a blue tie with all the accessories for the suit. He goes in the bathroom, puts on some cologne, combs his hair back, and proceeds to putting on his suit and the accessories with it. He comes out 10 minutes later, goes back to his suitcase, takes out some black dress socks and black dress shoes. He sits on the bed to put the socks on. Erika glares at him.

“So. Who’s Marlene?”

Abel looks at Erika for a moment with an expressionless look on his face, then looks back down at his shoes he was now putting on, ignoring Erika.

“Who is Marlene, Abel?! Don’t play dumb with me!” She yells. “Is that the cagna from yesterday? You’re thinking about fucking that little puttana? Answer me!”

As he was still putting on his shoes; ignoring her, Erika decides to walk up to him and grab his face. The instant her hand touched his face, Abel instantly pushes her hand away, grabs Erika by her throat, and pushes her to the wall; eyes glowing silver and glaring in her eyes.

“Now is not the time for you to argue with me and it’s not the time to have one of your little rants!” Abel seethes. “I do not have time for your bullshit; I told you that earlier. Your emotions are going to ruin this meeting, if you don’t get your act together. That woman is none of your concern. Never insult her in my presence again, or I will make you regret ever knowing me, I can promise you that. You are my business partner. Nothing else. Am I understood?”

Abel then lets her go, turning his back on her to get his briefcase; Erika was holding her neck in pain. Abel turns back to her,

“Now, my partner. We have some business to take care of. Let’s go.”

Abel walks to the door, opens it, and goes out of the suite with Erika following him. A moment later, Vance and Autumn came out of their room all dressed up. The four reach the elevator together, going down to the first floor. As they walk outside, their chauffer was waiting for them with the limo running. The four get in the limo, their chauffer gets in as well and drives out of the hotel’s parking lot onto the road.

.   .   .

At 5:50 pm, their limo arrives at a facility in the outskirts of the city. The chauffer drives through a high fenced security gate the facility was surrounded with and parks in the parking lot.

“I’ll be waiting for you four right here. Have fun.” The chauffer informs.

The four get out of the limo, from Abel to Vance. They walk toward the building with Abel leading. At the door, there was an intercom with a screen attached to it; the screen turns on showing a man on camera.

“Who is it out there?” The man on the intercom asks.

Without answering, Abel looks in the camera’s view with his silver eyes glancing sharply.

“Oh! Mr. Abel Wilson. Right on time. You may enter.”

The door slowly opens revealing an all-white interior inside the building. Abel then puts on his sunglasses and was the first to walk in; along with the other three. As they walk in, a man comes around dressed in a blue suit to greet the four; he shakes Abel’s hand along with Erika’s.

“Greetings, Mr. Wilson, Ms. Gabisa, Ms. Wade, and Mr. Braxson. I was assigned to guide you to the underground facility so the meeting and experiment can commence. Follow me.”

As the man in blue starts walking, the four follows him to an elevator down the hall. As they all get in the elevator, the man presses the button leading to the underground facility. The elevator opens and the man leads them to a meeting room with seven men sitting around an oval shaped table. The man in blue sits down, so did Abel and Erika; Autumn and Vance decide to stand near the wall. As the moment passes, the head of the facility, an older gentleman holding a cane, comes in along with a woman wearing all black woven fabric covering her body, even concealing her face. As the man sits down, the woman stands beside him.

“Good evening, everyone.” The head of the facility greets. “This meeting is now in session. Which one of you seven would like to start off with Mr. Wilson?”

A man in a white suit across from Abel clears his throat, signaling he wants to speak.

“First of all, good evening to everyone.” The man in white greets. “I have a question for you, Abel. What is the creation that you made and what is it supposed to do?”

Since there was a projector attached to the ceiling, Abel takes out his laptop out of the briefcase, turns it on and hooks his drive in the laptop, and hooks the laptop to the projector’s cord. The projector turns on, projecting behind the elderly man on a board; the man moves over to the side. Abel gets up and moves over to the board with a laser pointer remote and Erika gets up along with him. They stand on opposite sides of the board; their presentation shows on the board.

“Well, our creation has many positive results for the human body.” Abel explains. “During our research, Ms. Gabisa and I were focusing on what would help the human body and whatever illness the body is afflicted with. It comes as a serum and can be administered via injection. We’re trying to get it into pill form, but that’s still in production.”

“Does this serum have a name?” A man in a brown suit asks.

“Not yet. It’s under a sample name labeled A.W./E.G./2.” Erika replies.

Abel clicks a button on the remote to go to the next slide.

“We have done trials with this serum; in which we will show you all this evening. The results have been… groundbreaking. After injection, there are positive side effects that happen to the body.  The brain becomes more alert than normal; the subject learns of its surroundings and becomes full of energy to do anything they want; moments after injection. Illnesses in the body begin to decrease over time in the course of 2 months or 3 weeks. For a fatal illness, it would take 1 year to 6 months. It’s safe for all blood types.”

All the people seated were surprised at the results, except for the man in charge.

“Are there negative sides to this serum of yours? I’m sure there is knowing you.” The man comments.

Erika looks to Abel as he glares at the elderly man, and then he continues.

“Unfortunately, yes it does. Any subject that has a chemical imbalance, that has abused illegal substances within a month, or has an impurity in the blood, or irrational brain function will suffer from a mutation that is irreversible. Let’s just hope that none of the prisoners you have given us have those problems. May we start with the experiments?”

The elderly man nods.

“You may.”

The elderly man looks to the woman in black, prompting her to walk to him. The man whispers something in her ear, the woman nods and walks out of the room waiting at the door. The elderly man looks to Abel.

“My lovely assistant will guide you to the testing area. If you two would please, follow her. We will be looking shortly.” The man informs pointing at the woman.

Abel and Erika nods and follow the woman in black to the research area below. Two men in lab coats were in the research area while the woman opens the door for Abel and Erika come in the room.

“Oh! Mr. Wilson.” One of the scientists speaks. “I would like to see the serum so I can make copies for the subjects so we can get started.”

Abel gives them his USB drive. One of the scientists inserts the drive in the desktop. On the side of the desktop was a machine that makes serums in vials. As the data of the serum was put on the computer, the ingredients of the serum were being made and put into two vials. Abel looks out to the testing area ahead and sees five prisoners lined up in a row and strapped down in chairs. Erika looks at the prisoners with Abel.

The two vials were completed, making the first scientist take them out of the machine.

“How many CCs should we administer to the subjects?” The second scientist asks Abel.

“25ccs. That’s the safest dosage.” He replies.

The two scientists fill five syringes with the serum at the right dosage and put them on a tray.

“Which area of the body should the serum be administered?” The first scientist asks.

“In the vein of the arm or the jugular of the neck. Your two choices.” Abel replies.

“Okay then. Now, I need you two to look over here on this monitor.”

Abel and Erika walk over to the monitor next to the computer.

“As you can see, these are their vitals. If anything happens, you’ll be able to see what’s going on. We’re going start the trial.”

As the two scientists leave out the room, Autumn and Vance come in with Abel and Erika to get a closer view. The higher ups were still in the meeting room able to see the testing area from their window. The woman in black came back into the meeting room standing beside the elderly man. The two scientists come into the test area from another door of the research area; one of them holds the tray of syringes.

“Just so everyone knows, the subjects are labeled 1 through 5.” Scientist 2 informs via intercom. “Mr. Wilson, you’ll be able to see that they’re labeled on the screen. Now, we’re going to get started.”

The scientists put on their breathing masks and latex gloves; the tray of syringes was on a table in the testing area. One by one, they inject the subjects in the order they were labeled. The scientists back away from the subjects and go into a safe room that is across from the research area.

“How long did you say the serum would take effect, Mr. Wilson?” Scientist 1 asks.

“Approximately 30 seconds. If not, two minutes.” Abel replies as he looks at the vital signs on the screen.

30 seconds pass, all the subjects begin groaning in pain. Moments later, Subject’s 1, 3, and 4 begin to calm down, but Subject’s 2 and 5 begin to scream in pain, frantically moving in their seats; Abel and Erika look at the screen.

“Their bodies aren’t reacting well with the serum.” Erika speaks.

“Then they aren’t compatible with it. Something within them won’t let it.” Abel replies.

“Wait! There’s something going on with the subject at the end!” Vance shouts.

As Erika looks along with Vance and Autumn, Abel sees on the monitor that Subject #5’s vitals were starting to stabilize.

‘Well, that’s a first.’ His inner self comments.

As Subject #5 calms down, Subject #2 was not lucky. As the subject screamed, his skin begins to boil like it was on fire. Moments later, the subject spontaneously combusted, the scientists came out immediately with fire extinguishers and put the flames out. Unfortunately, Subject #2 succumbs due to shock.

.   .   .

An hour later, everyone comes back to the meeting room. Everyone is seated around the oval table as the scientists come into the meeting room, showing everyone the results of all the subjects.

“Okay.” Scientist 1 starts. “Now as we’ve seen, Subject’s 1, 3, and 4 responded very well with the serum. It even improved everything in their bodies, even with Subject 5. Subject 1 was an alcoholic due to a syndrome in the brain. This serum re-corrected the brain’s function to now drink in moderation; even his liver looks like new. Subject 3 was a chain smoker and his lungs were black. He would cough throughout the day. The serum renewed the lungs so he can breathe very well now. Subject 4 was dealing with a fatal illness. At first, it was spreading, now we see a 5% decrease of the illness and still lowering. Subject 5 was a little tricky. She was dealing with a chemical imbalance and had sickle cell. Both were causing extreme pain for her during injection of the serum, but then it was able to adapt and take those factors out of her body. It looks like we’ve found a cure for something. All thanks to you, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Gabisa.”

The band of suits give a small round of applause to Abel and Erika; even Vance and Autumn applauded as well.