Monsters rush by on both sides of me. Claws ache for my flesh, teeth yearn for my viscera.

“They can’t hurt me,” I mumble under my breath, “if I don’t acknowledge them.”

I chant the words like a protective cantrip as I weave between creatures of putrid hues. It’s a delicate dance but I know the steps. At least I do until one breaks the rhythm. It appears from the left. I juke, too slow, and bounce my right shoulder off its chest.

For a split second, I think of running, but the thought dies as quickly as it came. Flight would only bring the horde to bear on my head. No. I had to stay.

I force my breathing to stay steady as I bring my eyes up to meet those of the monster in my way.

“Sorry.” My voice quavers.

The monster’s bloodshot eyes narrow. I can see the cracks in its face grow, smell its fetid breath as it frowns.

It knows.

I move past and quicken my steps. With luck, I won’t alert more of the horde as I lose the monster in the crowd.

“Hey!”

Its voice thunders out, thick with the promise of horrors unseen. The words crash into me and my knees go weak, but I don’t slow. Can’t slow. Two more blocks and the monsters will be gone.

I tense in anticipation of tendrils and talons grasping me, pulling me down, blocking my escape, yet none come as the monster’s demand fades away.

Eyes to the ground, I count my steps. Deformed limbs strike the path. Clack, squelch, thud.

Crack.

The concrete pathway ahead of me splits in fractal ribbons. Blood oozes up as I hear the earth cry out. Bile rises in the back of my throat. I dodge the wounds, twisting to and fro as I continue to avoid the creatures surrounding me.

It’s too much, too obvious. I know that, yet still I move, a puppet on strings. The cries of monsters drown out the cries of Mother Earth. They touch me and fire alights on my skin. I yell, and they recoil. I’m close now. So close.

I run.

A clawed hand lashes out as I rush by, leaving black trails down my arm. I push harder, seek to match my exertion with the jackhammering of my heart. I can see the sign hovering over misshapen heads. Its brain in a jar motif lights up in the same sickly green as the shattered sky.

Something tackles me from behind. I slam onto the path; the pain dulled by the viscous feel of the earth’s blood. Screams rise from the cracks, not one, but legions. I shriek with them, bucking and rolling against the weight on top of me. It gives way and I find myself on my back, looking into innumerable glowing eyes and slavering orifices. The monsters close in on their prey. On me.

I thrash, I scream, punch and kick. For every one I knock away, two take its place.

That’s it, then.

My body goes limp. Tears run down my cheeks.

I’ve failed.

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I close my eyes and await the end.

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

The voice of my guardian angel breaks through, carrying with it a light so bright it leaves stars in my sight.

I open my eyes and stare in wonder as the horrors part. They clamor for their right to feed on me, but my angel doesn’t back down. He scoops me up. I cling to him. His warmth seeps into me, comforting in a way I’d nearly forgot. My saviour.

“It’s too quick this time. Too quick.”

His words chime as he carries me under the green sign and into a building.

The walls bulge, undulate. Hisses fill the air. I bury my face in my angel’s neck as he takes me down, deeper and deeper into the earth’s broken womb. The air grows cold, caustic. I know we’re near.

I don’t flinch as my angel places me on the throne of birth, death, and rebirth. The chill of restraining bands sooth the flames sinking into my core. The piercing of a needle calms the voices in my head. I drift back to the center of the creation as a machine whirs to life.

*****

A man in doctor’s clothing looks at me with pity. My parents sit on either side of me. My mother wraps her arm around me.

“The test came back,” the doctor says. He hesitates.

“Well?”

My dad’s not interested in waiting.

“Her scores are higher than last time. We’ve never had another test half as high.”

“Of course. She’s done calculus in her head since she was two.”

My mother’s voice pitches high. A sure sign she’s stressed.

My dad reaches over to pat my mother’s arm. “That’s why we’re here,” he adds. “This is the pre-eminent clinic for neuro-stabilizer tech, is it not?”

The doctor clears his throat. “Well, yes. But our top-end model was never tested on someone with such exponential intelligence growth.”

An enormous spider crawls across the clinic ceiling. I squeal, and my mother tightens her grip.

“It’s getting worse, doctor. She won’t sleep, screams for hours. Please.”

The doctor sighs. “I received Doctor Jameson’s advice. I have to say—”

“No!”

I jump at my dad’s outburst. Mother cries.

“We refuse to put our daughter down like a rabid animal!”

“Mister Troy.”

The doctor’s voice grows sinister as his neck elongates. I whimper.

“People like your daughter are our only hope for the future, but only if we keep them sane.”

“Then do your job!”

“Very well.” The long-necked doctor throws his hands up. “Just remember—”

*****

The counteracting medication shocks me awake as I emerge from the medical tube. The lack of horrors and voices tell me my latest surgery was a success. A new neuro-stabilizer busies itself smoothing out the flaws in my chemical balance.

Doctor Mark Mitchell, no longer gleaming in angelic light, pushes a button. The straps holding me in the operating chair snap back.

“That’s two in as many months. These things are supposed to last a lifetime.”

I shrug and stand up. I’m well aware of the intended lifespan, as well as the negative correlation it has with intelligence rank. “Then I guess I should get back to my research. I’m so close, Mark.” I wave my hands in excitement as my theorems and designs take their rightful place in my head. “No more failed stabilizers, no more potential lost in murder.”

“Sometimes euthanasia is a mercy.”

“Right. Keep telling yourself that.” I spit the words out, force truth into them. I ignore the niggling voice which wonders how much longer I can take it. How long before I snap and kill a third of a city like the last top rank? I think back to the memory which played during my surgery. The doctor’s warning had cut off, but I remember it clearly.

The smarter we get, the quicker we break.

A jolt shoots through my head as the walls shudder.