Looking for Answers with Dr Lauren Green

I did not sleep that night. My mind was racing. I couldn't stop thinking about my sister and the slug.

I observed it all night as it went from motionless and dim to bright and active as the sun came up.

By 8 a.m., I had reached a single conclusion: I needed to know more about the creature before deciding what to do.

Hours of online research followed, and I found myself on the internet, searching for anything about the supernatural slug that had entered my life. Unfortunately, it seemed that no one else had ever seen it or even knew it existed.

If this was something new or unknown, the only way to learn more about it was to study it. I was no scientist, so I needed to find one.

I went to the local university website and quickly found a list of professors. One of them caught my attention: Dr. Lauren Green, who specialized in biology and neuroscience.

I went downstairs with the jar, made myself a huge cup of coffee, gulped it down, and headed to campus.

I walked for a while, asking around to find her office. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that she was in the middle of a lecture, and I would have to wait a couple of hours to see her.

I sat on a bench under a tree, the slug next to me, watching students pass by.

I kept looking at the creature. It seemed healthy, moving in circles and twitching.

"Do you need to be fed or something?" I wondered.

But the slug did not reply.

"Maybe I should give you a name?" I thought. "But are you a boy or a girl? No... You're probably neither. It depends what body you get into, I guess."

I spent some time thinking about names that could go well with both a male and female form.

"Okay, I've got it. Let's call you Sam," I said. "That's short and easy to remember. I'll start calling you Sam from now on."

Sam did not react.

When it was time I left and walked back to Dr Green's office.

As I arrived there, I noticed the door was slightly open.

I knocked.

"Dr Green?" I asked.

"Come on in," she replied.

She appeared to be in her late thirties. She had long black hair and glasses. She wore a white lab coat and blue jeans.

She was actually pretty attractive, although she had a very stern expression.

"Hi!" I said awkwardly. "Sorry to bother you. I wanted to ask you a question."

She looked at me over the rim of her glasses and frowned.

"I'm afraid I don't recall seeing you before," she answered. "Are you one of my students?"

I shook my head. "No. Erm... I have found a weird creature, and I'm looking for someone who could help me identify it."

I showed her the jar, and she took it, inspecting its content with interest.

"Well, that certainly is a strange specimen, " she muttered. The only glowing gastropod I know of is the Quantula striata, and it is a tropical snail. Where did you find it?"

"In my garden," I explained.

"Interesting. Well, I'm not sure if I am the most qualified person to identify it, unfortunately," she said, turning the jar to look at the slug from a different angle. "You need to contact a malacologist."

"A what?" I asked, confused.

"Someone who studies snails, mollusks, slugs..."

"The thing is... I think you might also be interested in it as a neurologist..." I mumbled.

She took her glasses off, frowning again.

"And why is that?"

"Let me show you. It's something it does," I said, taking the jar back and opening the lid.

"Wait a minute, young man," she exclaimed. "I don't think touching it is a good idea. It could be venomous."

But before she could protest further, I grabbed Sam and moved it close to her face.

The creature did not wait to jump right at her as she screamed.

A couple seconds later, she fell silent, a bit of blood dripping from her ear. Her eyes were wide open and glassy, and her mouth was agape.

I closed the lid and put the jar on the floor.

The professor gasped for breath and blinked a few times before calming down.

"Fascinating," she whispered, grabbing her glasses that had fallen to the floor and putting them back on. "It appears I'm not myself anymore."

She turned toward me and stared at my face.

"You feel familiar, but I don't recall seeing you before today," she said.

"Wait, you don't remember me?" I asked, confused.

She looked around her office in awe.

"It seems my brain does not contain any memory of you," she explained. "However, I feel like I've seen you before."

"You have," I confirmed.

"In another body, then," she concluded, grabbing a notepad from her desk and taking some notes at a fantastic speed.

"Damn, am I smart!" She exclaimed. "This is a fascinating! I am the slug that just entered my ear, right?"

Before I could reply, she nodded and started taking more notes.

"It seems I have the ability to connect myself to the prefrontal cortex since I am controlling the decision-making processes. But I must also be more deeply connected to the rest of the brain because I can feel everything I feel and recall all memories associated with whoever I am controlling."

I dropped down on my knees in front of her and placed my hands on her legs to catch her attention.

"Jenny," I called.

"Who's Jenny?" she asked, looking at me intently.

"Sorry, I meant Dr Green..." I corrected. "Jenny is my sister."

"Was I ever inside your sister?" she asked, surprised.

"Yes. Don't you remember? We had sex yesterday and..."

"Sex?" she interrupted with a disgusted look on her face. "With your sister? Possessed with an unknown species of slug? You certainly are a weird young man, Mr...?"

"Simon," I said. "My name is Simon."

"I see," she replied. "Did you use to have sexual intercourse with your sister before I visited her brain, or am I somehow responsible for that situation?"

I gritted my teeth.

Suddenly, she smiled shyly.

"Am I too uptight?" she asked. "Would you prefer for me to be less uptight? I feel like I should please you for some reason."

But before I could say anything, she jumped out of her chair.

"This is fascinating!" She exclaimed once more. "Not only can I direct this brain, but it seems I can also alter its neural pathways in a controlled manner. This is the greatest discovery of my entire career!"

"Doc!" I called. "Just calm down for a second."

She froze in place and breathed deeply.

"Sorry," she said. "Here we go. I made a few changes. I definitely was a bit too... jumpy."

"Good," I said. "Because I did not bring you inside this smart brain for you to bail on me."

"Of course not," she replied. "I can easily conclude that you wished for me... I mean Lauren, to help you study the slu... I mean me."

I nodded.

"I call it Sam now."

"Sam? Alright. Well!" She exclaimed. "You've certainly come to the right brain, if I may say so."

She looked at her notepad and retook some notes.

"So, how should we proceed?" I asked.

"I guess since I'm in here already the first step would be to perform an MRI. Afterward, I'll leave and make sure Dr. Green keeps studying me from outside."

"How long will it take?"

"Oh, not so long, don't worry. We have one right here at the university. I'll just need your help operating it once I'm inside."