Bingfan Promptober - Day 9: Experiment
The machines whirr and sputter. Electric currents sprint along copper wires, traveling through circuits and systems. Power surges through inorganic substrata and nestles within the fleshly body suspended in pale, inert fluid. These laboratories are halcyons of investigation, discovery, and new-age revolutionary sciences—where data regarding demons is collected, catalogued, and analyzed. Thousands of files containing crucial information about humanity’s greatest threat are stored here.
Ming Fan is a junior researcher with moderately high clearance under Dr. Shen, a miraculously gifted scholar renowned throughout the country for his meticulous work with demonic lifeforms. Originally an intern, he had worked tirelessly to earn the professor’s scarce favor and the coveted position at the Qing Jing Research Facility, part of Cang Qiong’s illustrious institution. Through discipline and caffeine-fueled weeks, the role was his. Such a development was, to him, the fruit of cultivation for mind, body, and soul—an opportunity that he’d regret passing up for the rest of his life. It was only natural that he accepted, overflowing with enthusiasm and tear-stained gratitude.
The work at Qing Jing is absolutely grueling. Last week, an enticing specimen arrived from the riverbank of the glacial Luo, and the entire faculty’s been up for the past forty-two hours wrangling documentation, technology blackouts, and entire system collapses. Ming Fan, whose job is primarily concerned with analyses, proofreading, and delegating, spent the better part of those forty-some hours in the eye of the storm.
The demon refuses to comply with any order. The demon requires constant, persistent surveillance due to the high security class Dr. Shen had attributed to him. The demon is Ming Fan’s responsibility to curtail at every turn. If a breach in containment were to occur, the consequences would be near-apocalyptic, so said Dr. Shen. If their new capture somehow escaped, particularly under Ming Fan’s watch, not only would the life he’d constructed be destroyed, but everyone else at Cang Qiong will surely die. And it would be his fault.
The assignment was brutal, but humans needed to resort to caging and studying demons. Otherwise they would all be eradicated.
Ming Fan chokes down another dust-dry caffeine pill. Jiang Qing, his junior colleague, collapses into the seat next to his, equally exhausted by the look of him: his hair lays in unbridled mats, grease and sweat crusting over his skin, and he has flurries of untamed emotions in his dark eyes. Ming Fan offers him the bottle, but he refuses, “That thing’s gonna kill me.”
“That can’t be true,” he lies in response.
“How do you know? For all I’ve gone through fighting creatures like him, it’s never been this—this…” Jiang Qing rifles his fingers through his scalp, hands clenching tight. “Difficult.”
Jiang Qing flips out, “No!” Then, cooler. “No. Ming-xiong didn’t see him from up close. He’d eat you alive. No way.”
“Should I just be content to sit back and watch my juniors do all the dirty work while I bark orders tucked away in a safe room? Luo Binghe is my responsibility. I’ll take care of him.”
“You’re crazy if you think I’d just let you do this. You haven’t even seen him yet outside of a shitty pixelated monitor. He’s not the same as he is on camera. He may be extremely photogenic, I don’t know, but he’s terrible in real life.”
“I’ll be cautious. If we submit him to sedative gas, I can administer something to—”
“You don’t get it!” Jiang Qing shouts. “He’s deranged, violent, and vindictive! If you do anything to him, he’ll remember your face and hold a grudge against you forever. Ming-xiong, please don’t consider meeting him! He absolutely cannot be allowed to know that you’re in charge of him! He’d fucking rip you to pieces!”
Ming Fan steels himself. “As the researcher in charge of Luo Binghe, I’ll decide what to do with him. Dr. Shen entrusted me with this, so I need you to trust me too.”
Jiang Qing’s head falls into his lap. “You’re making a stupid mistake. Why not sleep on it first? I’m taking it that you haven’t had so much as a wink.”
The dark crescents under Ming Fan’s eyes are deep as eyeshadow. He must look like a panda. He gathers a stack of files: reports on the subject’s initial appearance by a small village, an interview with a washerwoman who claimed to have a close encounter with the demon, and notes from field agents who observed and collected intel about him. His own notes in flawless penmanship are organized within, taken during surveillance observation. Each was up to his own exceptional professional standards.
Against Jiang Qing’s better judgment, Ming Fan makes friends with Luo Binghe.
They get along splendidly, for a time.
Ming Fan is proclaimed dead twelve months later after having been subjected to gradual doses of Luo Binghe’s blood. His body was recovered by a close colleague at 02:47 on a Thursday, or the remains, rather. The first person to be contacted during such a state of emergency was the Site Director, Dr. Shen. He had even volunteered to personally perform the autopsy in lieu of Qian Cao’s Dr. Mu.
His conclusions were mournful.
An experiment in demonic nature was always doomed to death. Humans must persist, demons be damned. Sacrifice is necessary. Sacrifice is just. If few should suffer so more may prosper, Dr. Shen was willing to foot the cost.
Heavenly Demons are disgraceful creatures who cannot be allowed to persist, he wrote. Their blood is an unbelievably corrosive toxin. Its effects on the human body are horrific and beyond comprehension. Any polite demeanor or innocuous behavior is a manipulation, a lie meant to lure in its prey. Such a characteristic is prevalent in nature. How pertinent is this trait? As an unforeseen consequence, the subject’s main handler was made to ingest that poisonous blood, which resulted in gruesome internal injuries and damage to both major and minor organs, including the lungs, intestines, and liver…
