Vee was really not messing around when she said she had a suite, I was picturing a normal hotel room where there are two beds with about a foot of room between the two. I was so wrong. When I walk into the room I’m in awe, there is a huge lounge room with multiple couches and a tv, the main room branches off into 3 others, two bedrooms and a beautifully stocked kitchen. Vee shows me into the empty room which has an enormous widow beside the bed. Not only do I get my own room but it has a connected on-suite.

  “Holy shit Vee, this is amazing” I say gaping

  “You can thank your dad, he gets most of this comped” she says nonchalantly.

  “I have to get some work done but then we should go shopping or something?” I say hesitantly

  “Oh my god yes! I know so many great places around, i'll be in my room when you are done” she says bouncing off. I close the door behind her and pull out my laptop. I haven’t had the time I needed to comb through all of the LAB TECH order forms for the last few weeks. My best bet to find the rest of what I needed lied within the LAB TECH scientists. After about an hour of searching and compiling a list I know exactly who I need to approach. Lucky for me, Huxley is the first on my list. This is going to be more difficult than I thought. Why Huxley needed Hyaluronic Acid is a mystery to me since it is mainly used for cell migration and tissue healing. His research is on pancreatic cancer. I mentally smack myself for letting things get away with Huxley, I have to remember that there is something going on and I need to figure out what. As soon as we get back home to LAB TECH I am going to figure it out. Maybe I can get something out of him this weekend. All my thoughts immediately shoot back to my menting show and the green liquid in the broken vials and how cagey Liam was about it. My phone rings and I look at who is calling,

  “Hi Dr. Melvirn, what's wrong?” I say knowing he wouldn’t call me if something wasn't up

  “Realyn, I need your help.” He said frantically

  “You're scaring me a little, what's up?”

  “There has been another incident, like the subway one” He says whispering now

  “What?” is all I could get out

  “It happened sometime last night, actually a few blocks from the hotel you are staying at” I went pail

  “The crime scene investigators collected some of the same black goop they found from the first attack. I need you to pick it up and run some tests on it for me”

  “You want me to?” I said trying to make sure I heard him right

  “Yes, I got you access to one of the labs a few blocks away from the hotel, they will give you full access to anything you need. Raelyn, the young woman who was attacked died” Melvirn sighed

  “I’m worried about the sample's viability because before the last sample could get to us it dried out and essentially disintegrated. We couldn’t run any tests on it” he continues “I can’t get out there in time to run tests and you are still the only one that knows about this. Can you help?” he finally asks

  “Of course, send me the address and I will pick it up right now” I tell him

  “Thank you Raelyn, also do not get Huxley roped into this. Is confidential” He says and hangs up the phone. I cannot believe I get to do real work and have full access to an ENTIRE lab. I run out of my room and shout for Vee

  “Hey, do you have a car here?” I say hopefully

  “Yea why?” she asks confused as she makes her way out of her room

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  “It's a work emergency, can I borrow it?” I plead

  “Uh yea I guess” she says retracting back into her room and returning with he set of car keys

  “Please be careful with her!” she said threw the keys at me

  “I will I promise” I say almost running to the door

  “I guess this means we aren’t going shopping” Vee adds as she makes her way back into her room

  “Rain check I promise” I yell as I make my way out the door.

  I pick up the sample from the address Melvirn sent me and place it in the passenger seat. As I make my way to the lab and start to feel incredibly nauseous and sweaty, it happens so suddenly that I worry I might be dying or something else that borders the lines of complete insanity. I am too focused on the sick feeling to realise that the car in front of me had stopped and so I slam on the brakes. My hand shoots out to protect the sample from falling and that's when my heart drops. I feel the worst sort of pain shoot up my arm from where it connected to the sample. I jerk my hand away and take a deep breath to steady myself. I'm shocked back to reality when I hear the car behind me honking. By the grace of god I make it to the lab in one piece. There is absolutely no way I am touching that sample again so I take Liam’s sweatshirt off and wrap it around the hazmat container bag.

  This lab is beautiful, it's so much nicer than LAB TECH and is filled with all new equipment. I am met at the front by one of the lab assistants and she ushers me into one of the unoccupied lab spaces. Getting free rein to all this equipment is definitely top of my bucket list. I set myself up at the lab bench ensuring the sample is as far away from me as possible and pulled out my laptop. Melvirn sent me the list of tests he wants me to run on this substance and the best way to try and reverse engineer the components. I very carefully got the sample set up in the glove box, still wrapped in huxley's sweatshirt… whoops. I stick my hands in the thick rubber gloves and unwrap the sweater from the sample. Now I am face to face with the bright orange hazmat bag. I slowly unclasp the bag and tilt the opening to the glass so I can see the sample. I feel chills run up my spine. I have no idea what this thing is but it is giving me the creeps. Whatever this is seems to be infecting people and making them go insane. I tip the bag over and let the black sludge oooze out. It almost looks like it's breathing, I can see a slow rise and fall. I run the series of tests on the sludge which consist of its electricity conduction, some chemicals it could react to but I haven’t really found anything out of the ordinary with it. My tests weren’t any closer to helping me figure out what this is made of. I went against my better judgment and decided to poke it, I was curious how it would react. Immediately it envelops the tips of my fingers and expands down my fingers. I try not to panic knowing I have gloves on but that nauseous feeling comes back. I go still when I feel the slimy goop not on the glove but touching my bare hand. It seeped through the glove.

  “Fuck”

  Is all I can get out before my vision goes black.

  I’m shocked awake by the feeling of strong hands shaking my shoulders.

  “Liam?” I say trying to figure out how he knew I was here

  “Jesus Rae are you alright” rae? I'm so confused and feel like I have been hit by a bus

  “Uh yea?” I say slightly confused. I glance down at my hand where the black goop was a second ago and see nothing but my bare fingers. I stand up to look in the glove box and it has also disappeared from there.

  “Hey did you see-” I turn back to look at Liam and my eyes go wide. I am greeted with one of the most terrifying smiles and teeth that are covered in the black sludge. His eyes are no longer just a black colour but the whites of his eyes are completely consumed. This is no longer Liam. I slowly back away from him as I feel my heart slam in my chest.

  “Oh Raelyn, you shouldn’t have been messing with something you know nothing about” Liam says in a voice that's not quite his.

  “What do you mean” I ask still backing away

  “You just couldn't leave it alone could you?” he is now stalking towards me as he says

  “Well I guess you may as well join us” he says looking behind him. I go pale. Ten more people file into the lab behind him all with the same look on their faces and black sludge oozing out their mouths. My eye catches a younger woman in the back, she has blonde hair with a cute set of bangs and a Léman Prep School sweatshirt on. Although she has the same creepy grin on her face as Liam does, her eyes look tired and pained. As I am busy focusing on the girl in the back I feel a hand wrap around my wrist and the searing pain up my arm returns. Liam has taken hold of it and I look down to see black goop crawling up my arm from where his hand had grasped me. I refuse to stay still so I fight him back. I kick him in the shins until he falls to the ground. He still doesn’t let go of my arm though so I swing it around until he finally does. The second he let go of my arm I felt like I could breathe again.

  Then I woke up.