It was deep into the night when the silence began to feel unnatural.
Inside the enormous, dim laboratory, an oil lamp remained lit placed on a singular desk. Its dull flame flickered weakly, casting long, warped shadows that stretched and recoiled across the cold walls like ghosts. The light of the lamp was yellow and feverish. It felt dirty and suffocating in the giant room. The room beyond the desk was swallowed in darkness.
A lone figure hovered beneath the light.
A girl—young, fragile-looking—buried in a tattered white lab coat too large for her small frame. The sleeves were rolled up and stained with chemical residue. The girl's face was pale, drawn tight with fatigue. Her eyes appeared glassy, like wet stones sunk beneath the surface of something immeasurable but were intensely focused and determined. She was busy mixing liquids in various flasks and tubes but everything felt vague. Her posture was unnatural and her limbs were rigid, as though she were being moved by invisible strings rather than conscious thought.
Time didn't seem to exist for her. She had been at the desk for hours now. Alternating between ancient folders sprawled across one side and the delicate glass apparatus on the other, she worked in silence but would occasionally stop and speak in low pitched murmur to herself.
Then, the heavy door at the back of the giant room creaked open.
A young man stepped inside. He looked hesitant as if intruding on something cursed. His blond hair was tousled from the wind, his eyes wide with uncertainty as they tried to adjust to the murky room. He stood still for a moment, staring at her.
"Dr. Mey..." he called out. "Doctor?"
"Yes, yes Ein—wait," she replied, her voice abrupt but strangely buoyant. She had not looked back to the source of the sound. "Just one moment. I can't believe this—it's working. About two more hours. I just need two more hours and it's done."
The man stepped closer. "I need to speak with you. It's important."
She didn't stop. Her hands moved faster instead. "Not now. I can't let the compound destabilize. It's delicate. Come and look, I'm so close."
"Mey!!" The man yelled suddenly. His voice was quite raspy and sharp.
The girl froze in place.
Her hands hovered in the air, then lowered with unnatural slowness. She turned, finally, and looked at him. In the glow of the lamp, her features seemed distorted—stretched by shadows, made uneven by flickering light. Her eyes just stared at him eerily. He could notice in them the obsession and something else... something twisted.
"Please put the glass down at least and then we will talk," he said softly.
She stared.
"What is it?" Her voice was calm, but her mouth curled in a way that didn't match the words.
"Look. First, everything is going to be fine. Ok. Somethings you just can't help it. And you have tried your best. Life is like that sometimes and….."
"Get to the point Ein. What is it?" The girl said coldly.
"Mey you already know, don't you? That, it would have been difficult to get past the night?" He said after a while, looking as if almost at the verge of crying.
"But I am almost done. Just a little more time and I.. " The girl said, turning around to the desk as if trying to convince him of something.
"Mey its too late."
"Don't you hear me!! I told you just two more hours and I'm done!! Look here, I even.." The girl said but he cut her off again.
"Mey! It's too late, he is gone already!" The man yelled. But he softened his voice again as if he was afraid of the girl's reaction. "I'm sorry."
Something cracked—audibly or invisibly, it was hard to tell. The girl didn't blink. Her arms dropped slowly to her sides. The test tube clinked softly against the table. She lowered herself into the chair and slumped down, cradling her head in both hands, fingers tangling into her hair.
"But... But I just needed two more hours," The girl whispered. "I was so close."
The man walked closer and knelt beside her. "It's not your fault. You did everything—"
"Don't soothe me. Just leave me be."
He paused.
"Mey, come now..."
"I said leave me!" she screamed, the sound violent and shrill in the stillness. Her voice bounced off the sterile walls. They both stayed glued in their place for a while. Eventually the girl spoke again but in a more controlled manner this time. "I won't see him. Not until I finish this. I'll show him that I had what it took to save him. I made the damn drug. It was him who chose to go to someone else when could have come to me. So go. I will meet you in a while but not before I'm done with this."
The man looked at the girl's face carefully. His expressions looked as he was pitying her but he eventually got up. He placed a hand on her shoulder briefly and gave her a sympathetic pat. She didn't react or look at him. He lingered a moment longer, and then turned back to the darkness.
The door closed behind him.
The girl remained perfectly still for a while, the ticking of a small wall clock growing louder in the quiet. She wiped her face with one sleeve. With her trembling hands she picked up a clean pipette, and resumed her work. Her expression had changed. There was rage and anger instead of expected sadness.
"So that's it," she muttered. "You left like that. No goodbye."
The flame of the lamp wavered as she poured a new mixture into a cracked vial, her eyes fixed on it with venomous intensity.
"I won't forgive you. And I'll never forgive myself."
She said clenching her teeth. She placed the vial into the holder with a clang.
"Life makes no miracles happen for people like us."