Go back inside and try to get answers

With the immediate moment of panic out of the way, you realize you acted too hastily by just dashing out of there. There was clearly a mistake — you just need help to make sure you aren’t going to grow a tail or turn purple or something.

Turning around, you see the door to the building swinging shut after Dr. Burbank. Still holding the file in your hands, you run and catch the door and follow him inside.

You keep telling yourself that you should just go directly to Dr. Burbank and tell him what happened — surely, that would be the best, but you feel increasingly suspicious. Without being able to put your finger on anything specific, it really feels like this has all been a big set up. Your professor who first mentioned the opportunity, Amy, Jeff, Dr. Burbank... they were trying to make this happen, weren’t they? As you think about it, even your roommate Zack has been acting suspicious lately....

You shake your head and mentally kick yourself. “That’s crazy talk, McIntyre!” you tell yourself. “Stop being paranoid. It was just an accident.” Besides, what did Zack do today that was any different from any other day? He’s been spending all his time lately working on a device that hacked a popular online matchmaking app, so it would select “interested” on every female and automatically send a message to each one saying how hot she was, would she want to meet up with him, and then send an assortment of dick pics. His work was promising, except for the glitch that hacked the wrong app and sent the messaging and pictures out to an organization that finds pen pals for convicted felons.

Perverted, sick, and semi-sociopathic? For sure. Out of character or suspicious? No.... not for Zack.

“Get a grip, McIntyre,” you say to yourself again. Still, you keep a discreet distance from Burbank. He has entered the laboratory, and you follow him in. No one is in the entry area, but the door to the monitoring station, where you last left Jeff and Amy is wide open. You hear Burbank’s voice and step near the doorway, peeking in.

“Done already?” asks Burbank of the two graduate students, who are still relaxing, as if nothing at all unusual has taken place.

“There was nothing to do,” responds Jeff, motioning toward the room where you received the injections. “The last appointment didn’t show. I rushed over here and got everything prepped for nothing.”

Burbank follows his gesture to the other room and frowns. “Then why is it a mess in there? I see a gown on the floor, a prep tray, an empty bottle of serum....”

Jeff and Amy look confused, like they are trying to remember something. “I’m sure it was all clean and ready,” she says. “I did it myself.”

Burbank is looking at the monitors. “According to this, you’re still in the middle of an session. Look at this: you have EEG, EKG, pulse/ox and alpha/delta/zeta wave readings for a subject named Justin McIntyre. You were doing something, and then just disconnected him without shutting things down. Look... even the visual stimulation slides are still rotating.”

The two students are on their feet looking around as if it is the first time they have seen this. “That can’t be right,” said Jeff. “We’ve been here the whole time.”

Burbank steps to another bank of monitors and pushes some buttons. You see a black and white image of the exam room appear on screen. Burbank presses a button, and the time stamp on the screen begins to move backward. Soon, you see yourself, moving in reverse, rapidly. Burbank takes the recording back to the beginning and replays it. You see everything now as it happened, and it is more evident than ever that the two graduate students were more interested in each other than in getting the procedure right.

No... that’s not right. That’s what they wanted it to look like, but you are sure it was their plan all along to single you out so you could be their guinea pig!

What the heck? You shake your head and refocus. You are starting to talk crazy!

It is then that the recording shows the students looking all over for you, totally oblivious to your presence. You remember you had thought the words, “Don’t even see me,” and that’s when it happened. You did that because you were self-conscious about your boner, which, despite all of the stress and distractions of the past half hour or so, has not subsided in the least. If anything, you are more turned on now than you ever remember.

The recording continues and shows Jeff and Amy abruptly giving up their search, and you see yourself hastily getting dressed. You note with chagrin that the camera perfectly captures you gingerly tucking your erect penis in your jeans, adjusting it so you can zip up and walk. You hear Amy stifle a laugh and say to Jeff, “Seems the two of you have the same problem with getting dressed in the morning.”

“Be quiet,” commands Burbank. “This is serious. I’m looking at these readouts. Look at this spike in zeta waves immediately after the second injection, and again once you started the magnetic resonance. They are easily double the normal level. Now look at what happens here and here.” He points to a monitor. “See those spikes? Those are practically off the chart. Those coincide with the moments where you lost sight of him, even though he was clearly right there on the table, and again when you just stopped looking for him and seemed to forget he was ever here.”

“What do zeta waves have to do with this,” asks Jeff?

“That’s what we need to find out. Zeta waves are the least understood aspect of the brain’s physiology. High Z wave levels are usually present in those who exhibit paranormal abilities, but we’ve never seen anything approaching these levels. We’ve got to find this Justin McIntyre and find out what has happened to him.”

“I still can’t remember any of this,” says Amy, but now that I see his face, it’s as if I should know him.”

“I feel the same way,” said Jeff. “It’s like trying to remember a dream. He’s in here,” he says, pointing to his head, “but I can’t pin him down.”

“Yes,” said Burbank. “I know what you mean. I wonder if I encountered him as well. In fact, for all we know, he could be in this room right now, and we might not know it. We’ve just seen proof of that ourselves,” he said, pointing to the monitor.

Jeff and Amy nervously look around. “Ok, that’s creepy,” says Amy. “Jeff, please go close that door. It’s bad enough knowing some invisible teenager might be watching me take a shower tonight. We can at least keep the door closed to make it harder for him to get in here.”

Jeff gets up to close the door, but the sudden suggestion of being able to watch, unobserved, as Amy undresses and showers fills your mind. You can’t help but picture the soapy water gently flowing down over her naked curves. You are so wrapped up in the thought that you do not step away from the door.

Jeff arrives at the door and looks, seeing you. It takes a moment for comprehension to soak in.