The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Sentient
by Naching T. Kassa 

“Jack, come here!”

I looked up from the petri dish and hurried over to my colleague’s workstation. Harris glanced up at me, his eyes wide beneath his shaggy, brown hair, a smile on his face.

“Look at this!”

I glanced down at the mold sample he had been studying and shook my head. “Very funny, Harris.”

“What?”

“What did you use? A sugar solution?”

“I didn’t do this.”

I grinned. “Oh really? You didn’t write my name with sugar and grow the mold…what the…”

Before my eyes, the mold within the dish shifted. What had been my name but a second ago, became another. The name “Cindy.”

“It’s been doing this for the last five minutes,” Harris said in a hushed voice.

I stared at the mold as it once again changed to my name. My heart thudded in my chest.

“That is really odd.”

“Odd? It’s downright weird,” Harris said. “Look at this.”

Using a swab, he picked up a small section of mold and smeared it into a clean dish. A few seconds later, the mold grew thick and green. It formed the letter “J”.

I took a step back and shook my head. “It’s sentient.”

“Yes,” Harris cried. “Jack, do you know what this means?”

“We were right,” I said.

Harris nodded. “We were right. And we’ve beaten the machines! We’ve created honest-to-God organic intelligence!” He pointed a finger at me. “You know what I’m going to call it? I’m going to call it Charlotte.”

“Charlotte?”

“After the book by E.B. White. Charlotte’s Web. It fits, doesn’t it?”

I didn’t answer. My stomach churned as the green horror continued to spell my name.

“This is a moment for celebration!” Harris continued.

“Champagne?” I suggested.

“Only the best.”

“They have some at Sung’s, around the corner.”

Harris grinned. “Be right back.”

He hurried from the room.

I stared down at the two petri dishes. The two had synchronized, and I watched as my name and that of “Cindy” vanished and reappeared over and over.

I glanced at the clock. If Harris had gone to the mom-and-pop around the corner, it would take him twenty minutes or more to get back.

I picked up both dishes and returned to my workstation where the Bunsen Burner waited. I held the first dish over the flame.

“Can you believe I forgot my wallet?” Harris said as he entered the room. When he saw me, he halted, his eyes wide. “What the hell are you doing?”

I turned the dish, hoping I could burn the mold up before he reached me, but he caught my wrist and wrested it from my hand before shoving me away.

“Why, Jack!” he cried. “Don’t you understand what we have here? It’s alive. Aware. Why would you want to destroy this?”

The message in the petri dish had changed. The mold spelled a new word.

Harris’ eyes widened.

I picked up the second petri dish and smashed him over the head.

When I pulled my hand away, I realized a shard of glass had lodged in his eye. He fell to the floor like a stone.

I took the first dish from Harris’ hand. The word “Murder” had taken the place of “Jack” and “Cindy”.

I glanced toward the corner of the room, the corner nearest the door. The corner I had scrubbed and bleached the night before. The corner where Cindy had died.

A green shadow covered the floor and the wall. It had taken the shape of a woman.

The petri dish fell from my hand and shattered on the floor. I snatched up the Bunsen Burner and hurled it across the room.

It did not burn with the flames.

But I did.

Fiction © Copyright Naching T. Kassa
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Naching T. Kassa:

Arterial Bloom

Lush. Brutal.

Beautiful. Visceral.

Crystal Lake Publishing proudly presents Arterial Bloom, an artful juxtaposition of the magnificence and macabre that exist within mankind. Each tale in this collection is resplendent with beauty, teeth, and heart.

Edited by the Bram Stoker Award-winning writer Mercedes M. Yardley, Arterial Bloom is a literary experience featuring sixteen stories from some of the most compelling dark authors writing today.

With a foreword by HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Linda D. Addison, you are invited to step inside and let the grim flowers wind themselves comfortably around your bones.

Available on Amazon!