The Experiment

I smelled it before I saw it; the warm, metallic, welcoming scent. Closing my eyes I breathe it in; so sweet, so promising. Exhaling slowly, I flutter my eyes open as if waking from a dream. My body quivers a bit in satisfaction; turning around toward the source just increases my long-awaited anticipation. The dark liquid makes a puddle on the floor, dancing and swaying with the floor’s vibrations.

                Dropping to my hands and knees I scurry frantically to the sight that entices me so. I’m careful to not touch it; I don’t want to break the perfect shape that was formed on its own. My hands rest on either side of the perimeter, my body is now flat to the ground. Using my arms I push my torso upwards, allowing myself to be as close to the substance as possible without submerging my face into it, not yet at least. God, this smell intoxicates me.

                I can no longer resist the temptation. My mouth starts to tremble and water with desire. My head sinks lower and lower, closer and closer to the pool below me. I can feel it on my lips now, slurping and absorbing with my tongue what I could gather. I rest there for a moment; the promising smell did not mislead me, which was exactly what I wanted. Lifting my head up, I lick my lips. The crimson stained my skin, tongue, and teeth. Leaving a reminder as to how desperate I was for this moment. How could I enjoy this? It’s barbaric. I look up and scream, my voice raspy and desperate, “What? No meat today?”

Regaining my strength and composure I stand up and walk towards the mirror I knew that they watched me from. My hair is wild and the beard that had started to form over years started to drip the blood it had just soaked up.  I take the lid off of the dry-erase marker that they let me have and marked “Day 2,191” indicating the start of my seventh year in this place. I don’t remember how I got here; I don’t really even remember the life I had before this. I just know that I am being watched. I can see their reflections sometimes when they stand by the mirror, observing me eat my daily meal. I don’t know what they’re doing, I don’t know who they are, but all I know is that for some reason I no longer crave the food I used to know, I thrive on my new source of nutrition; human flesh and blood. What am I? What have they done to me?