Okay, maybe I’m not as smart as I like to think I am, but I didn’t notice anything weird at first.
I mean, sure, he’s a mad scientist, but he’s still my Dad, and I didn’t have any reason to think he’d any interest in me… you know, that way.
Scientifically.
They were supposed to be steroid shots, so I didn’t think it was too weird when my asthma backed off. And I was in my twenties and all. It wasn’t so weird that I might start going grey. Or white.
But that last morning in the lab, I could sense something was different as soon as I opened my eyes. I just couldn’t pin down what it was. I sat up on my cot while it was still dim in the room, with the sun just rising outside. I reached for my glasses, but they didn’t seem to be on the filing cabinet I was using as a bedside table. I must have knocked them off in the night; I’d been doing that a lot lately. I’d chalked it up to the discomfort of the cot and side-effects of the steroids.
I hung my head and chest over the side of the bed, looking for my glasses on the floor. I spotted them easily enough, next to the door, and swung off the bed to get them.
Just then, the door swung open and Professor Hojo stepped in. I winced as I heard glass snapping.
“Dad! My glasses!”
He smiled then and my skin crawled. There was something wrong about watching him smile, but I couldn’t place what it was. As if I could suddenly see him clearly where before I’d been looking at a softer, safer professor.
Or as if I could suddenly see anything more than two feet away without my glasses on.
“Good to see you’re progressing, Sephiroth. Come down after breakfast and we’ll take care of today’s treatment.” The door clicked shut and I stared at it as I picked up my shattered glasses. I don’t think I was waiting for him to come back. I don’t think I was waiting for anything, just letting my mind put the pieces together. I looked back across the room. There was a mirror on the cabinet door past my cot. I could see myself in it perfectly clearly, see every white hair among the black I’d always had until two weeks ago. See my eyes glowing in the half-light of dawn.
You know how those stupid after-school specials, the people on those are always “I never thought it could happen to me” and you laugh at them because they’re stupid and of course if everyone else gets addicted to heroin or crack or whatever, it’ll happen to you too.
Well, yeah, my dad’s a crazy mad scientist, but I never thought he’d experiment on me.
I pulled my jeans and a t-shirt on over my boxers, slipped on my sneakers, and moved quietly through the near-empty lab. No one looked twice at me as I climbed in the elevator. I waited until I was out of the building and in a cafe across the street before I pulled out my cell phone.
I couldn’t stop myself from playing with the broken glasses as it rang, folding and unfolding them.
Finally, the line connected. “Yo?”
“Reno? It’s Sephiroth. Promise you won’t kill me?”
