“He thought it was their date, she knew it was their anniversary” Silvia chuckled.She was discussing the Lovett’s business with her next door neighbour Diana Elliot who liked to keep a close eye on things going on in their street.John and Sue Lovett was an odd couple happy to keep to themselves but Silvia had overheard the raised voices. Ever since John had agreed to take part in the experiment his memory had got worse. It had all started after a strange looking man had knocked on their door asking for trial volunteers to test a new drug. The amount of money on offer for taking part was staggering making it hard to turn down. The trial consisted of a series of injections taking place at a building in town simply called the Institute.Agreeing to take part he made his way to the mysterious looking building where he was greeted by a lanky scientist called Arnold, he never gave his surname as it wasn’t the policy of the company. Rolling up his shirt sleeve John allowed the man to fill the needle with a strange coloured liquid substance which he pushed into his arm. It was painful at first but after a couple of minutes the stinging stopped. All that John was thinking about was the wad of cash at the end of the trial so he was happy to endure a slight tingle of pain.He continued to visit the laboratory every week and soon felt certain changes happening to his mind, at first the couple dismissed it as a coincidence that his memory started to fade, it was too late to pull out of the experiment as more side effects started to kick in.John had constantly questioned the mysterious Arnold who had been the only person he met in the building although he was aware of bodies shuffling past the door whilst he was being injected. He was always reminded that a healthy cash boost would be deposited into his account once the experiment was complete; John grew tired of this promise on one occasion and demanded that half of the amount should be put into his account now. Reluctantly the scientist agreed and asked his boss to oblige.As the bank balance swelled the young couple found that they could afford luxuries which had been out of their reach.“You should be able to stop going soon” Sue urged her husband one day.“I can’t pull out of the trial now as the money is too tempting” he replied.As time went by John’s appearance started to change and his mood swings were hard to control, he found himself getting angry at the simplest little thing and staring at his reflection in the mirror he could see a pair of blood shot eyes looking back.“What is in this injection?” he asked Arnold one day.“It’s a company secret” the scientist replied.“I feel angry a lot of the time and seem to be having more arguments with my wife and my memory seems to be getting worse”Arnold gave him a smirk. “That shows that the drug is working so try not to worry”He didn’t sound sincere and even seemed to take a strange pleasure in seeing his patient’s distress; John decided not to argue and agreed to continue with his secret visits to the clinic.His memory and behaviour continued to deteriorate as he struggled to remember the most important events in his life. Anger started to well up inside him at the slightest little thing as he struggled keeping his temper in check. Forgetting their anniversary was simply the tip of the iceberg. All of the time his wife’s words of caution were ringing in his ears as she was urging him to end his visits as his health was suffering.It all came to a head however over Christmas Eve when he arrived home with his hands covered in blood, Sue looked horrified with this trying to guess what her husband had done.“It’s Christmas Eve John have you been involved in a fight?”He gave her a blank stare and ran his hands through his hair trying to remember what had happened.“I just can’t remember” he cried with tears in his eyes.It was the truth as the last thing he could remember was visiting the clinic but everything else was blank.“Never mind let’s get you cleaned up”Sue led her husband up to the bathroom and bathed his trembling hands she now wished that he had never began the trial regardless of the money as all she wanted was her old husband back.Wind rattled on the window as Arnold’s body lay in a crumpled heap on the floor; the drug which he had been injecting John with was supposed to supress anger and known in certain circles as the zombie drug. John Lovett had been his best patient but a mix up with a batch of drugs had the opposite effect increasing anger. It was the end of the trial and sent John into a fit of rage taking his frustration and anger out on the scientist. Leaving the body on the floor John instantly forgot about what had happened.The shadowy men behind the clinic decided not to contact the police after finding the body deciding to secretly incinerate it on the premises.Over a period of time John found his memory slowly returning after the injections stopped and even managed to keep his temper under control. He was oblivious to that night and put the incident out of his mind. Every time a sales person came to the door offering to sell him something he would close the door in their face before they could spin him a yarn.The following year he made sure that they celebrated their wedding anniversary by going out to one of the best restaurants in the area and celebrated with a bottle of champagne after returning home all paid for by the mysterious clinic which had agreed to pay the rest of the money owed.

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The Experiment

neale

Neale Holden

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THE EXPERIMENT

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Neale Holden

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