Thomas woke up with a splitting headache. The world was racing around his room, leaving him unable to get his bearings. He closed his eyes again and relaxed for a minute before opening them again. He could now see his room clearly, and the headache had become alleviated enough that he could gather his thoughts. He looked over at his nightstand and saw the yellow pill bottle. He slowly reached over and shook one into his hand. The pill looked identical to a tic-tac but had a thin blue line wrapped around it. He popped it into his mouth and swallowed. His body immediately started spasming and his vision started to come and go, the world suddenly being filled with various colors. His headache came back, worse than before. He grabbed onto his bedsheets in an attempt to steady himself. Suddenly, his body went still and his eyelids snapped shut, turning the world black.

His eyelids fluttered open as he took in his new surroundings. He was in a large, ugly laboratory with metal walls and large machinery operated by scientists in lab coats. His other senses suddenly started to return. He started hearing the faint sound of scientists speaking to each other, the smell of take-out wafting through the air, and his desert-dry tongue. Then, when touch returned, he realized his situation. His neck, torso, arms, and legs were held down onto a bed by metal restraints. He fought against them, which only brought the attention of the scientist in front of him. He turned to him and walked over to the bed. He had long brown hair and a thick beard with grey, steel-rimmed glasses. 

He peered over his body and calmly asked, “What was it like?”

“Get me out of here, please. I don’t know what’s going on and I want to go home.”

“What did you see?”

“Get me out of here!” he started thrashing around violently, which prompted the guard at the main entrance to run over and hold him down. He held up his baton in a silent warning. 

Thomas stopped fighting and glared at the scientist. Now that he was up close, Thomas could see that the scientist’s nametag read “Dr. Michael Creighton.”

“I know this is scary. But it’ll all be over soon. Now, what did you see?”

Thomas sighed and finally gave in. “When I woke up, my head was killing me. I was so dizzy that I could barely see anything, barely think. I tried to relax, which helped a little bit. I knew I needed to take something, though, so when I saw these pills next to my bed, I couldn’t help but take one.”

“And then?”

“My body started shaking and my sight kept going out. I saw these flashing colors, blue, green, red, and some others. My headache came back, so bad I could barely register anything else. I think I lost consciousness soon after.”

“And how do you feel now?”

“Fine.”

“Be more specific.”

“My symptoms are gone. My head feels fine, I don’t feel any pain anymore, my senses are back. The colors are gone.”

“Hmm. Anything else?”

“I-I dont think so.”

“Okay,” Michael looked over at the guard, “take him away.” He pressed a button on the dashboard next to him, and the restraints opened. Thomas took the opportunity to escape, but the guards were faster, grabbing him by the arms and hauling his flailing body out of the room. Michael walked back to his colleague, who had watched the whole thing at his desk. Michael had just reached the desk when a gunshot rang out far away from the lab. He didn’t flinch.

“Well?” his colleague asked. His nametag read, “Dr. Scott Kahnwald”.

“More or less what previous test subjects have experienced. Flashing colors, loss of the senses, headaches, spasms. But here’s what’s different: he’s completely fine now. As if he just woke up from a nap. Which means we’re halfway done. Halfway done, Scott. We’re so close. All those years, all that sacrifice, it paid off.”

“Yeah, it did. But, listen, Mike. Are you sure all that sacrifice was worth it? All those lives lost?”
“A means to an end, my friend. First, we’ll be awarded the Nobel Prize for the first demonstration of human quantum jumping. Then, the military will use our pills to send armed forces to the infinite realities that exist and loot them of natural resources. We’ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams. We’ll be the most renowned, esteemed scientists in history, never forgotten. So, I’ll let you answer that question yourself: are you sure all that sacrifice was worth it?”

Scott ran his hand through his short, blond hair. “Yeah… Yeah, it was.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Michael patted him on the back and got back to work. He was working twice as fast as usual, energized by his progress. 

Scott stared at the doorway, where Thomas had been dragged through screaming and threshing just a few minutes earlier. He walked through the lab and into a corridor. To his left was a hallway leading to the building’s exit. Straight ahead was a hallway leading to a metal door. He walked to the door and swiped his keycard, looking behind his shoulder. He opened the door and saw the row of jail cells. Closing the door behind him, he moved to the first one. In it was a little girl, maybe 9 or 10, on the ground with her arms around her legs. She was sobbing quietly. He remembered her; remembered watching a guard force-feed the pill to her, her body spasming as her consciousness was sent to another reality; her screams as it was torn out of her into the space-time continuum. It, along with every other person he had hurt, had kept him awake almost every night, often until the break of dawn, and why his recycling can was full of beer bottles. When he had joined the experiment, he knew there would be suffering, but the fame and fortune had swayed him. Now, he realized it was his greatest mistake.

He rapped on the bars, causing the girl to look up at him. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. 

“What’s your name, child?” 

“Lilah.” 

“Lilah. I’m sorry for what you’ve had to go through.” 

“What am I still doing here? Why won’t you kill me like the others?” she asked quietly.

Because you’re extraordinary, girl, he thought. She was the only child who had survived so far. They had deemed her too valuable to dispose of (it was also challenging to procure children for these kinds of experiments) and kept her locked up for future experiments.

“We simply can’t.” His voice was heavy with sympathy.

“Is it because I survived? I don’t un-understand how that happened.”

It was quick, very quick, but Scott had caught it. Her head had jerked back and forth and was suddenly encircled by blue light, almost fading out of existence before coming back. 

“No…”

Lilah’s piercing blue eyes looked into Scott’s as she slowly stood up. He slowly took a few steps back, knowing what was about to happen in the back of his mind.

She walked toward the bars with hatred in her eyes. She lunged forward and disappeared in a shower of blue light. She reappeared a second later right in front of Scott.

He stumbled back as if he had been pushed, and stared at Lilah in utter fear and confusion.
“Impossible.”

“You knew it would happen eventually.”

She disappeared again and reappeared where Scott was standing. With a new gaping hole in it, his now-frail body fell to the ground. 

Lilah walked to the door and shifted her mind and body to another reality before shifting them back to this one. The door was now behind her. She slowly walked through the hallway with her arms hanging at her sides, ready to take vengeance on those who had wronged her.