Humanity had always enjoyed testing their limits, seeing how far they could go, where the barrier was between the mysterious “possible” and the even more mysterious “impossible”.
We live in an educated world. Well, most of us do. Not all of us get to enjoy an education, sometimes because they don’t care for it, but many do not have the chance to get one. But all in all, our western culture is “sane”, it doesn’t believe in “ghosts” or “paranormal” things.
And even though many scientist still follow the basic line, for what science is; taking something that happens and trying to explain it until they can explain it better later, most “real” scientist don’t believe in ghosts or demons. Mostly, because they have yet to witness or find a credible source of paranormal things happening, not because they are non-believers or want to take the fun out of peoples lives.
But even the most renowned scientist cannot deny that there are cultures, who seem to be deeply in touch with mysterious powers they can’t seem to touch, reproduce, get more than a single view of, if they are lucky.
No matter if those cultures, often considered “uneducated”, some even uneducated by choice, are in touch with what they call nature, the afterlife, the universe or demons, there always has been something ingrained into humans, into all of them, deep in their subconsciousness that stops most of us from stepping over the walls, overcoming the last limits, getting to deep into things we don’t “believe” in, but are still scared of, nonetheless.
As if we know, deep down, what all those cultures know since the birth of time:
Just because we choose not to believe in it, doesn’t mean it will get weak enough to not hurt us if given the chance.
Deep in our very educated, smart, sane minds, is something very old and wise, genetics maybe, given to us from our ancestors, as a last wall of defense, the only way to keep the young, the brave, the mindless, the rough ones, save even if words do not seem to go through their thick skulls.
Its the little things, that humans do, that we call “instinct”, belittling the true power of our subconscious mind, trying to bury the truth there; the little acts and feelings. All the “something just doesn’t feel right” s, the “i have a feeling in my stomach about this” s, all the little things and “funny”, weird habits we display, trying to explain them away.
It is often observed to those, who look at the most social beings of the animal kingdoms, the weak ones always seem to be the ones who feel the danger, long before it can truly be sensed. No question that animals knew nothing of mercy or ethic, but they weren’t dumb. Indeed, they know, even if its just another feeling, that the weakest in body, seem to be the strongest in mind. The ones most attuned to all those things we do not see, we can not hear or taste but are still, very much there.
“It’s like bacteria”, Doctor Sunderland tried to explain, “You know how the person, who realized that we got sick through bacteria and viruses was considered insane as what they basically claimed was: “There are little invisible things in the air and all around us that make us sick!”?”
Doctor Mason and his daughter, who hadn’t been on the little “vacation” he had, furrowed their brows, but didn’t say anything.
They too, believed that there are things in this world, we are just not able yet to measure, that there are occasions where the scale to gauge what exactly is happening, just has not been found yet.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t there, it just meant, to them, that humanity had not arrived there yet to make it happen. To Invent or find it.
But there was something strange about Doctor Sunderland, his two lab assistants Mary and Maria and the Man in command; Doctor Grady.
They were a team, renowned, but not well known scientist, working for money to do what state funded people couldn’t even dream to achieve.
Some people would say “big pharma” or some nonsense but truly, they were no secret cult. They were smart, smart enough to, after they got their degrees,to not believe in “saving the world” or some nonsense but to build their lives on something that they could already measure, the cold hard cash of rich people with too much time on their hands and too little control over themselves to actually change their lives, instead asking “smart” people to invent the change.
And so, this Team of 8 people, composed of Academics of all branches of science and their little Igors, had been given the task to do one thing, and one thing alone:
Making another life form.
At first, they all, knowing each other from this or that conference, had been confused.
It was truly not that hard to make something that was… Well, a “new” life form.
Mutations and cross breeding of bacteria and viruses where part of our educated world for quite some time now.
At first they all had thought it to be a joke, a gag, some big corporation they all had worked with at least once in their lives having a little fun, especially in those trying times.
But the incredible sum of money they all found on their bank accounts soon after, from the same corporation, with yet another letter given to them by their bank from said corporation spoke another language.
The language all money speaks: The cold, harsh truth.
So they all decided to investigate, only to find out that no, what they had thought was a company they all had worked for then and then, was not the one responsible for this offer.
It had taken a name, to seem tame and small, but behind it stood a lot of financiers and investors, willing to make the scientist so rich that even their grandchildren never would have to work again, as long as they succeeded in doing what they were asked:
Making Fluffy Ponies.
This had been the second time the team had thought this to be an elaborate joke, maybe secret cameras would now jump out of hiding places with their relatives or colleagues and a bunch of moderators laughing at them.
But no such thing happened.
Doctor Grady, who had been hired first and filled in, had not even smirked, his lips firm and thin as he waited for the reaction of his colleagues, who stared at him with confusion and amusement.
“Aren’t those like… Made up toys? From that children show, with the colorful ponies?”
“Yeah”, nodded Doctor Pendleton, “Even my little son watches it, like crazy. You want us to breed miniature horses?”
“I”, explained Doctor Grady calm and unfazed by the others spite, “Do not want anything but to do what I have been asked. You all, Ladies and Gentlemen, have been known to be willing to test the limits and get what the clients asked of you. You reached far and beyond simple breeding and far and beyond any questions of how ridiculous a request seems. In this case, a highly financially backed offer to finally do, what has not been recorded before: Make the impossible, possible.”
They all had laughed and sneered and shaken their heads, all of them, except Sunderland and his Lab Assistants.
They seemed intrigued. Not really interested but at least decent enough to deepen their frowns and finally, Doctor Sunderland asked:
“What exactly do these… donors want?”
Grady looked at him, no thankfulness or happiness on his face, as he answered in a matter of fact tone:
“Miniature Horses with the ability to speak, think and act like a child. Maybe even a teenager. Human Intelligence, up to a certain point, in a small form, not made to survive in nature but in human care, able to reproduce and life, undisturbed to a certain age.”
“Should it be able to levitate out of sheer will power too, or do they think that could be a little unreasonable?”, asked Doctor Townshed, getting slightly aggravated.
He had been called from his holiday home to come here, he could have spend this time at home, maybe up in the woods or mountains and doing his favorite hobby, photography, instead he sad here with a lunatic, apparently paid by even more lunatics, to basically become god for a bunch of dollars.
Even if it was a lot of dollars, it was pennies for what was asked from them.
“You do not have to take the offer, but please be advised, that the Clients would like to keep this a secret. You are free to go, a part of the money will stay on your accounts, as, so the clients informed me, a little thank you for carving out time of the day for this.”
And at first, almost all of them had thought about just getting up and leaving and getting back into their old lives.
But then, finally, the realization set in.
“Will there be another payment if we succeed?”, Doctor Mason, the younger, asked.
Her Father looked at her with raised eyebrows but kept silent, instead turning his head to Doctor Grady, who now, finally, smiled.
“Of course. This was just a little forward payment, there is more to come and a Bonus; everyone on the team will get 5 percent of the profits of the Fluffys and the Fluffy Industry.”
Silence fell over all of them.
5 percent doesn’t sound like much, but the second one started to think about it, if it worked. If it truly worked and the company was able to sell, and they knew they would, it would be the equivalent of getting five percent of every dollar spend on dogs, be it what they needed to live, be it food, leashes, beds, training, and for every single puppy ever sold.
“Of course, the full project will be funded. There are no limits, here, fellow scientists. The only limit is our creativity and your the limit of your own courage to do what no one has been done before.”
And so, of course, they had done it.
There was just too much. Too much they could have, too much they could do, to say no to it.
They had been send on a little island, far away from legislatures and laws, with a bunch of helpers, security and whatever one needed to live a luxurious life only disturbed by the work of ones true hearts desire.
There was housing for all of them, and every other person on the island, there were cooks, cleaning staff, technicians, hell, even people who were responsible just in case the plumbing would go bad.
And all of these people were paid the right price, were just a little desperate enough to do the work and grateful for the luxury they too, had come to enjoy.
At first, the work was grandiose and well thought out but also creative and willing to go in every direction possible.
In the first year alone more money was spend on funding then there was in liquid money.
Old Bezos probably had some bets in this too, along with Musk and whoever else had money and considered themselves “Geniuses”.
But then, it rapidly came to a halt.
It was just not enough.
Not the money, oh no, those float gates were wide open and the place it came from was not about to dry up.
When working with made up money, there was no limit and by now, most people believed more in the numbers on their computers than in their wallets, so there was no problem on that end.
The problem was that the scientists, all creative, educated, smart and courageous, had exhausted the ocean of their own ideas.
There were none left.
Everything they had tried, had ultimately failed.
Some results had been good, but no cigar and this product had to be beyond top shelf.
The animals they bred at first were never smart enough, they weren’t able to fit the desired organs and organism in such a tiny body and when they started to look deeper into it, they failed at the very basic question of what life, truly, is.
And how it was made.
They were not able to manipulate the genetics, the very atoms of the being to their wishes, they just were not advanced enough, Humanity itself, was not advanced enough to take the dirt of the earth and turn it into a being.
Townshed had been the one, who had suggested it.
When he said it, he wasn’t even aware he had suggested it at all, he had just vented his frustrations to his colleagues:
“Nobody will ever make those damn things. We would have to ask the damn devil himself to drag his ass out of hell and get back to his old work place to make this damn things and even then they wouldn’t make it.”
And Sunderland had stared at him in Silence, Mary and Maria putting down the Petri dishes and Shepherd stopping to throw his stress ball against the walls, something he had grown accustomed to do instead of acting as if he was working on a failed project.
“What?”, Townshed had asked the two, “You think I am wrong?”
“No”, Mary said before anyone else, her and the other assistant just as brilliant as their boss, “I think you are quite right.”
Sunderland and Maria nodded with a strange, absent minded looks on their faces, while Shepherd sat upright, as if he was about to start fresh with renewed vigor.
“The Devil himself”, he muttered and Sunderland finished his thought, “Has to be dragged out of hell.”
Of course, if one is so inclined to believe in something like this, the master of hell was not able to be dragged out of hell by 8 scientists over something as useless to him as money and senseless as Pet Miniature Horses.
Of course, humanity, over the course of its long existence, has many different interpretations and ideas what exactly the lord of hell does, or doesn’t do, enjoy or doesn’t enjoy and what this being would be willing to do for some souls.
But Sunderland, Maria, Mary and Shepherd were willing to find out if this entity, in what form or in what way it may take, was able.
If, should it really exist, there was a power in this universe, that they had not thought of.
In their desperation, they had decided to investigate.
The two masons, Townshed and Pendleton had stayed behind, still trying to find other ways, ways that they could publish one day, even just fragments of it, to proof they indeed had done what their profession held in such high esteem: Done the impossible in the scientific way.
But Grady went with the others, willing to find a solution.
He had shown himself to be the most diligent and fanatic in their search of the Fluffy Pony Genes and by now they weren’t sure if he wouldn’t be the one to crawl all the way down to hell just to face Satan personally and triple dog dare him.
They had started with the usual suspects in their long “vacation”, the loud and proud followers of Satan in all their forms and secession, they tried cults and sects but none of them came even close to what they had hoped for.
They saw a lot of hocuspocus, a lot of Smoke and strategically placed Shadows, even some things they couldn’t explain but nothing strong enough to give them the ability they had hoped for.
So they went on, went to those countries that were close enough to be considered “educated” but still had a firm grip on their religious believes and superstitions. They saw things they wouldn’t be able to forget, scary and confusing stuff, really, clear proof to them that indeed, there was a hidden, invisible wall they had, in their highly educated minds, had not seen, so clearly in front of them.
But still, it wasn’t enough and finally, they had been given the one little piece of advice they had needed:
“If our magic is not enough, you have to go to our ancestors.”
And that, they did.
They traveled to the place where humanity was born, where industrial evolution had not taken a root no matter how hard it had tried and were the bonds to those things unknown and unseen are strong and fresh.
They had listened, has asked many questions and had to pass many rites to proof their worth and finally, they had been given answers.
And so they went back to their little Island and when Townshed, the two Masons and Pendleton were unwilling to do, what was necessary, Grady ordered the guards to keep them in their living quarters.
They informed their clients, who were more than interested to help them out a bit and finally, after all their efforts and the time and energy, blood, sweat and tears they had wasted, they had hit the final stage.
Truly, it was not easy and they would never be able to get the recognition for their work, could never tell another soul about how they reached their goal, but it all had become void and meaningless.
Somewhere, along the journey they had taken to reach into the abyss, to get closer and closer to the devil and thus also, the gods, they had left behind all earthly wishes.
It wasn’t about the money.
It wasn’t about bragging rights and a well off life, about money or houses anymore.
All this had become meaningless in their search and all that fueled them now was the wish.
The wish to see, to know, to be in the known.
They had set the date, a night in October, four years after starting this lunatic project born out of corporate greed, Doctor Shepherd, Doctor Grady, Doctor Sunderland, Mary and Maria had come together in the lab they had vastly redecorated.
They had drawn their sigils and seals, had set up the shrines and brought in what all the deities, be it dark or light, asked for:
A proportional sacrifice.
It hadn’t been easy dragging their colleagues here, they were no monsters, but they had to do it. Had to try it.
No matter what it took.
Townshed, the two Masons and Pendleton had been bound and gagged, together with the other team members, sitting in the middle of a big seal, not even strong enough to cry anymore.
They had seen the glimmer in the eyes of the mad men and women who were willing to kill them for some made up ghosts in hopes of succeeding with a project that was doomed from the beginning.
Grady had them be gagged as he couldn’t concentrate on his part if they plead for they lives and he was, frankly, tired of it.
They spoke the words they had so diligently learned and when they slit the throats of their sacrifices, it happened.
All the lights had gone out, only one shining light in the middle of the seal appeared in front of them and a hoarse, dark voice asked:
“So, you did it.”
“Yes”, answered all of them in unison.
The light took form, a grotesque being, beyond humans understanding appeared in front of them, many forms, merged into one, towering over them with something that could only be described as a satisfied smile.
“We may not come into your world as often as the feeble minded might think, but We have our Informants. Our Spies and those, that are more than willing to tell us about your world whenever we wish for information.
We have heard about your wish, and we have received the sacrifice. But even We are not able to make something out of nothing. Call in your Guards, We wish to speak to them.”
And Grady did, calling in the highest ranking officers of security, and when they appeared, they were to scared to flee, instead coming into the seal that the room had become.
“Stay on this Island. When spring comes, We will show our power and grant the wish. Bring our Gift to those, that truly asked us for it. We shall not harm you, do you follow our Order and make sure great presents shall come to you all for the rest of your lives.”
And then, it took Sunderland, Maria and Mary, before they could even react, devoured them whole, before breaking the seal and following Shepherd and Grady, who in their fear and human panic of death, had run.
The guards had stood there, alone, in the room, hearing the ungodly screams of their bosses and that being, that they would never be able to forget and that would ultimately bring them to the choice of killing themselves came spring.
Just one, one unlucky person, had to wait, too scared of what would happen to them, if they killed themselves before they fulfilled the order.
All the other personal worked normally, as if there never had been any actual scientists on this island, as if they just had to clean houses that nobody inhabited and cook meals for themselves and when the first day of spring arrived, on animal on the island birthed their young.
It was a strange animal, that nobody but that single guard seemed to ever truly aware of, a big, four legged being, with what they only could explain with “having just a little bit too many eyes”, the form and agility of a cat and when it opened its mouth, it sounded like a creature of the sea.
They had no other way to describe it and deep down they knew, they shouldn’t try to, neither.
And so it birthed 15 little, colorful beings, who peeped and chirped and when the Guard knelt down, just a few moments after the mother had left the brood to feast or frolic, they did not know, they found them to be fluffy and in the form of very tiny horses but their voices clearly in an early stage of development.
The guard did not know what they were, but they decided to take them and nurse them, informing their higher ups, that they had 15 little beings here, fluffy and not unlike small horses.
What followed was a flurry of Events for them:
They were taken of the Island, brought before their higher ups with the little life forms they had never seen before but had strange and strong feelings for to keep them save and alive, no matter what.
They had been giving a contract to sign, to never tell anyone what had happened, and then received the entire payment, plus the bonus, that had been promised to someone else, but they found, that they couldn’t even remember who it had been.
All they knew were that they had 15 little beings, children almost, which they knew, would breed uncontrollably, open up new ways to higher and better beings, and change the world in a way humanity could only ever wish to achieve.
They would break down the walls and get passed the limits, born under a lucky star of a powerful entity, who would ensure their survival no matter what and it was up to them, to ensure it would happen.