“Alchemy?” I echoed. Approaching Adram’s workbench I observed a variety of glass flasks, burners, jars, triangles, pipet’s, a mortar and pestle and some other tools I couldn’t quite name.

“What did Vera’s dad say when you told him you were getting all this for alchemy and not chemistry?” I asked amused, predicting some awkward answer.

“He laughed and gave the ‘you’re cooking meth’ look.”

I raised my brows at that.

“How did you afford all this?” On closer inspection, these tools must have cost a fortune all together.

“Been saving up. Some of this stuff I’ve acquired over the years.” explained Adram.

“So what are you cooking?” I saw him look at me in my peripheral vision as I continued to explore his bench.

He took a moment to answer. Was he flustered? I didn’t want to be obvious that I noticed and look directly at him. I would act unaware and discreetly see if he was blushing over me. I was making my way around the bench and purposefully got really close to him. I leaned over and pointed to one piece in the center that was really two glass apparatuses connected by a tube, one was over a hot plate . “What’s this one called?”

“Uh, that is an alembic. It’s a purifier. One of the most important alchemical equipment.”

“You never answered my question, Adram. What are you cooking?” This time I looked at him head on, my face close to his.

Maybe he wasn’t flustered because he stepped in even closer and reached beyond me to grab something. I almost jumped back, surprised by the close proximity which I didn’t expect him to contribute to.

“I’m not cooking anything.” He held up a sealed box. “This may be gross.” Adram opened the box and inside was a dead rodent.

I tried to hide my disgust but the smell was awful.

He closed the lid. “My cat killed it. I’m going to use its body to create a homunculus.”

“What is a homun…culus?”

“A miniature human, or humanoid creature. They are created with alchemy. Normally clay is used for this process but I figured I wouldn’t let this rat go to waste since my cat killed it this morning.”

“Makes sense.” I recovered from my initial disgust. Adram was not some sick kid doing animal torture, he genuinely was tyying to revive the rat, I think. He seemed to feel bad that it was killed.

“What is the purpose of a homunculus?” I asked, allowing my curiosity to come rushing back in.

He put the box down and started to pour water into grooves in the table. I hadn’t noticed that these grooves actually formed a pattern and each instrument was placed in the opening between the impressions. It formed some sort of symbol or sigil. I guessed the entire workbench was built or modified for the purpose of alchemy since they were arranged so carefully.

The water filled the grooves of the table.

One question at a time I reminded myself.

“Ideally a homunculus will serve as an aide in the laboratory. Kind of like a familiar but instead of witchcraft and wizardry, it's alchemy.”

“Have you done this before?”

“Nope. First try.”

“And you’re doing it with a dead animal?” I asked skeptically.

He didn’t find any flaw in that logic so I guess I shouldn’t either.

“What can I do to help?” I wanted to be involved.

“You see that bowl of plant material? Dump that into the mortar and pestle and start to mix it.”

“Okay.” I did as instructed and gently tipped the contents of the bowl into the mortar. I took the pestle and began to grind the plant material down. There was a mix of purples, greens, yellows and some oranges. The mortar and pestle felt nice. I could tell it was a high quality set. The design of the stone is delicate and carved with a lot of passion from whoever made it.

“How long do I do this for?”

“Until it’s a blended paste.” Adram was busy pouring liquids into flasks and lighting matches for burners.

“Once things get going, step out of the room. In case of an explosion or toxic fumes.”

“Oh, what are the chances of that happening?” Now worried for a concern I didn’t know I should be.

“Low, but not impossible. I’ve gone through the experiment a hundred times in my head.”

“It’s done.” I announced after another minute. The paste was a beige green mush. I set the mortar down and watched as Adram took the bowl and scooped the paste I mixed into a decanter. He set the decanter over one of the fire plates.

“Okay get back now,” Adram urged.

I barely crossed the threshold of the room. I wanted to watch it up close. Adram looked up at me but then just returned to his work. With the paste heating up, Adram observed the flask with a boiling liquid turning into gas. The gas was trapped inside a closed flask, with the exception of a tiny tube that acted as an exhaust for the pressure to release just barely.

Adram took a pipette of water. “This is from the Blue Stein.” He squeezed several drops of water onto the decanter with the paste in it. The heat made the paste more runny and he removed it from the heat with a pair of tongs.

Gently pouring the liquid paste into yet another beaker, Adram skillfully tipped the flask with the tongs to allow it to go to the main alembic in the center of the workbench. He put the decanter down and grabbed the next flask, the one with the liquid boiling into gas.

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He removed that one even more carefully. I could see a bead of sweat trace down Adram’s cheek and chin. He disconnected the line of the tube that released the pressure and plugged it with a cork. This flask was actually composed of two parts. The top half could be separated from the bottom half. A metal trapdoor was anchored to seal the two halves of the flask. The gas was now isolated from the remaining liquid.

The gas he set aside in a larger glass beaker and sealed it shut. Probably the toxic fumes he was warning me about.

The liquid he poured down into the alembic with the other paste. Adram took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders.

The next step was placing the box with the rat onto an open portion of the workbench. I noticed it had a copper panel under it and was circled by the water grooves, making it seem important as the entire design of the grooves led to this one point. I could see that clearly now that he placed the dead rat there.

The fire under the alembic was lit. The paste and the liquid coagulated into a silvery susbtance that boiled and popped and oozed.

A powdery looking gas fed into the purifier piece of the alembic through the tube that connect them. The silvery stuff boiled high but not enough to seep into the connector tube. Only the gas passed through and once cooled, the gas returned to liquid form in the second flask. This process produced only a few drops but more were gathering as the gas condensed.

Adram was watching the reaction with great care. He had a stopwatch he was referring to. Maybe only five minutes into the alembic running, Adram shut off the heat.

He gave the chemicals time to settle down. The silver stuff stopped boiling and the gas fully returned to liquid in the second flask.

Adram looked at me. “Hard part is done,” he said reassuringly.

I smiled in support.

The flask with the purified liquid was removed through a long pipette. He drained the entirety of the liquid and gently moved it to the top of the workbench. He placed a pewter ramp that fit into the workbench, it had grooves that aligned with the rest of the table.

Adram let the pipette drop water, one at a time, into the special piece. The water split on either side of the pewter, some flowing to the water on the left of it and some to the right.

When this special liquid touched the water in the grooves of the table, a reaction occurred.

The water turned bright and verdant, glowing like green fire. The entire table lit up from the pewter piece out, like a match igniting a trail of gunpowder.

The pattern of the table began glowing and at last it reached the final portion, circling around the copper plate where the dead rat lay.

I inhaled sharply. The rat twitched.

The copper plate started expressing static. Little sparks jumped and faded. Lightning bounced around the rat and the green water.

The lights in the house, or at least the basement, turned off. Our only light was the dancing blue of the lightning and the deep green of the alchemical table bench.

A white flame engulfed the rat but did not burn it up.

The rat breathed in the flame, absorbing the white fire until none was left in a breath that sounded as fulfilling as any first breath should.

The green water faded and the lightning stopped.

The rat stretched.

And stood on two bulky feet. It was distinguishable as a rat, but had some characteristic human features, though grotesque and malformed and miniature.

“What is your name?” Adram asked.

It hissed. “Azablan.” The voice was croaky and strained. Like some critter speaking on sore vocal cords.

“Azablan? That is no usual homunculus name.” Adram stated.

Its laugh was creepy and guttural. “I serve Zzololo.”

Adram’s eyes lit up. I could tell even though the back of his head was facing me. Don’t ask me how I knew, but I felt it.

The rat thing leapt off the table and straight for Adram, screeching all the while.

Adram dashed to the side, going to a shelf of tools. He grabbed a shovel.

It jumped to the ceiling of the wall and started after me. I sprinted to the side as it came pouncing down. Adram tried smashing it but the rat scurried out of the way.

I had grabbed a pair of shears, the first thing in arms reach I could find.

The rat looked at us both and then dashed for the basement exit.

“Get out of the way!” Adram warned as he tried to intercept the rat. I was closer to the rat but Adram told me to move.

I decided to trust him and I sidestepped out of the way.

Adram threw his shovel at the rat, several feet away. The rat just made contact with the basement door and tore through the mesh screen and glass window with no trouble. The shovel clanged loudly on the floor, having missed the rat by an inch.

The rat was gone, hurrying off into the dark.

“Damn.” Adram cursed.

“So rat was a bad idea?” I teased, hoping to bring some humor. It was for my benefit too. Adram warned me to move out of the way because of how easily that rat made a hole in the door.

“Thanks for the warning.” I added.

He nodded. “I didn’t know how strong it would be. Wanted to err on the side of caution.”

I laughed. He looked at me quizzically.

“Caution aside from using a rat corpse right?”

His humor returned when I pointed this out. “Yes,” he admitted with a smile.

Adram went to work patching the open hole in the door with some bags. “It was an agent of chaos. Even as a normal rat. I didn’t expect them to be sending rats. Insects are what they usually use.”

“Chaos? I don’t follow.”

“Zzololo is what the rat said. They are entropic beings. Entities of ruin and nothingness. They come from the void, it is believed. Zzololo is just one of many.”

“What will the rat do?”

Adram went to the couch in the other room and slumped down. “Probably return to the void. He’ll have information on me. It might increase the agents they send.”

I followed him and took a seat as well.

“So they just spy on you? For what?”

“Occult is all about information. The more you know the stronger you are and the better control over forces and entities you have. The chaos beings tend to dislike when we humans learn too much. They try to infect us with madness and sickness and corruption. Turn us into one of their cultists if they can, kill us if they can’t. If they get enough worshippers they can try to summon avatars of themselves in this world. That would be bad.”

I must have looked concerned, but probably I was just confused and trying to comprehend. Adram added, “things move much slower than it sounds. I’m not in any danger and I’ll make sure you aren’t either. You just encounter more insects in your day to day life. Let me know if that happens.”

“I look forward to it.” I said sarcastically.

“Well, thanks for coming. Sorry it turned out to be a bust and you almost got hurt.” he apologized, probably thinking I won’t ever come back.

“It was amazing! The green water and the white flame and the rat. You actually revived it!”

“Animated it, well allowed for an entity to occupy an animated body.”

I rolled my eyes. “I thought it was thrilling. What’s next?” That was my go to question I realized. I was always ready for more.

“I’ve got to clean this up so I don’t know yet. I’ll meet you in school tomorrow and tell you.”

I hopped up. “Very well, Adram. Should I let myself out?”

“Oh no I’ll walk you out.”

He led me back upstairs and straight out the door. I again didn’t have time to see anything specific.

“Oh, Jienne,”

“Yeah?” I turned.

“The rat was a bad idea.”

“I know.”

“I like your hat, what is it called?”

“It’s a cloche, they were popular in the 1920s.”

“It looks good on you.”

I gave a smile and waved. He gave a cursory wave back and closed the door.

I came to the sudden realization that I was now in the same plane as that rat monster. Needless to say I called my driver and hurried to the nearest source of light and people and went straight home.