ODDS AND ENDS

It twitched. The tendons and muscles tightened in a rapid set of spasms. But it was held fast to its concrete moorings by hundreds of pounds of iron chains. Still, it shuddered, seized, and spat bleats of anger and pent-up fury. It slumped ever so slightly as it dangled, loose enough to prevent it from rending its limbs from their sockets, and let out a slow, guttural mewl. Suddenly, and with the brute force of ten elephants, it lurched forward, struggling mightily against the chains that had held it for so very long, and listened quite intently as rock grinded against rock at the base of its restraints.

The doctor remained stolid and nonplussed as he gathered his instruments on the wheeled cart before him. He unrolled his pouch, extracted a scalpel: razor sharp and fresh, and set it next to the other bits of medical and scientific odds and ends. As he unfurled his roll further, he slid free two different hypodermic needles and set them along side the other tools of his diabolical trade. From his pocket he produced two vials, each containing a slightly different shade of a jade liquid, and inserted each needle into its respective receptacle. Finally, as the instruments were finally all laid out before him, he eyed the one most brutal: an extractor built onto a cruel saw.

It gasped because it knew; it had memories, somehow, of each piece in the doctors demonic arsenal, and it coughed in fear. It panted, canine-like, and readied for another lunge. This would be the freeing moment, it had to be, for it knew that what lie mere moments ahead was to be its final and ultimate undoing. With an inhaled breath and a tightening of its sinuous musculature, it arced its back and flung itself forth against the maddening prison. In a cacophony of exploding cement and shattering rock the sunken bolts gave way. It was finally free, it was finally loose.

The doctor froze in a moment of complete panic. His man, his creation, was loosed! With little more than a second to react, he produced the first syringe and plunged it deep into the flank of the livid beast. But to no avail. Its adrenaline was coursing through it like minuscule rocket fire. As the doctor reached for the second shot of the far more potent liquid, he felt his entire head engulfed in one massive fist. A split second later, The doctor felt what was to be his last feeling: his face was brought down on his odds and ends table, right atop the wicked extractor. The deafening sound of blinded darkness overfilled his dying senses.