Glass flies everywhere, and we’re all blasted backwards. Miraculously, no glass hits me and I quickly yell out, “Is everyone okay?” After looking around, I see Joy’s blonde hair in tangled mess, off to my right.
“I’m fine.” calls Joy. “Nothing hit me.”
“Everett! Where are you?” I hear thumping sound coming from my left and look in that direction. As the smoke clears away, I see him. He’s curled up on the ground, hugging his right arm into his chest, from which blood slowly trickles down into a maroon pool on the floor. His eyes meet mine, and he stops thumping his foot. “Everett!” I cry, leaping towards him. “Is the glass still in your arm?” I lift him to his feet, and he shakes his head.
Then he does something that surprises me. He points to some glass shards and shakes his head. His brown eyes have a worried look. “It wasn’t the glass?” He nods his head in a distressed sort of way. “Then what did it?” Shakily, he raises his uninjured arm, and points towards the smoking machine. Except, there’s no smoke, and I realise, to my horror, that the fog is out of the container, and spreading rapidly.
I am about to yell RUN, but then I see something that causes me to freeze. The dog is standing in the middle of the purple vapor, looking in our direction. Well, really it’s a shadow, a silhouette, but it is greatly disfigured, like it’s a totally different animal. But that’s not what causes me to stop. It’s the eyes. They stand out among the fog like a light in darkness. The eyes are bright purple, no other color. There is no visible pupils, and as its eyes meet mine, all time seems to stop. All I see, all there is, all that is, is that stare.
It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul. I hear a tapping noise at that window, and walk up to it. Outside I see a youthful creature, crippled, and yearning for help. I realize that this creature is like a parentless child, seeking guidance.
And I feel myself turning my back on it, ignoring it. Why would I want to help a creature like that? “I can’t help you.” I say coldly. It sobs.
Suddenly, the trance is broken as my vision is moved away from the stare. Everett is shaking me and pointing to the fog. It’s spreading quickly. “RUN!” I yell, starting towards the exit. I take one last look behind me before I leave the room. The eyes are still there, and I don’t know how, but I they seem to ask one question: Why? I hear the question in my head, as if I am speaking it, but I don’t ponder it, as I quickly run out the door, trying to avoid the fog.
Down the white-walled hallways we run, for what seems like hours, but is most likely two minutes. I emerge into the sunlight of the Atlantic Ocean. A few moments later, Joy and Everett appear, both panting and out of breath. I’ve always been an excellent athlete, specifically as a runner. I turn to Joy. “You still have your phone on you?” She nods. “Get the police.”

It’s been a full five months since the dog, or what was a dog, broke through the glass on our artificial island. It’s a good thing we had it built not to far away from the beach of southern Florida. I’m sitting in the living room with Joy and Everett. We’ve been discussing the incident. Most of the substance was captured before it reached the outside. It’s being contained now, but unfortunately, the most important thing of all is not currently contained. The dog. I haven’t told the others about when I saw it, but at night, I see it in my sleep. And unfortunately, sleep is what I have to get to. It’s eleven o’clock.
“Well, night guys.” I say yawning. Everett gives a single wave, and Joy continues sleeping on the light-brown couch. The three of us have a few things in common: we’re all orphans, we’re all child prodigies, and we’re all friends. Well, we were actually adopted by Professor Aakil, which makes us a family, which actually sounds more fitting than just friends, since we’re really close. The professor is also really nice, but we don’t see much of him, as he is usually working. I hear his loud snoring as I reach my door; his room is next to mine. I enter the room and close the door behind me. Wearily, I collapse on the bed and pull the sheets up to my neck. Though I’m rather nervous about meeting the dog tonight, I eventually drift off to sleep.
---------------
Looming over me is the pitch black shadow of the dog. Its purple eyes open. My heart beats faster, and faster, and faster. After a long while, I hear it. “Turn back.” Something inside me grows angry by this. It’s saying I’ve done something wrong. I stare right back up at it and boldly say “From what? I have nothing to hide. I haven’t done anything wrong! I’m a great person, just look at what I’ve achieved! I’m much better than most people, and you can’t tell me otherwise!” It just sits there. Then, after a while I hear the words “Very well.” and the creature closes its eyes.
---------------

I wake up with a start. It was all a dream. I look at the clock, and see that it’s 6:02. I heave a sigh of relief and and relax back onto the bed. Everything’s fine. My homework (from Professor Aakil) lies on my desk, birds sing outside, sunlight streams through the narrow crack of my door, and everything is quiet.
Suddenly, my heart seems to stop as I realise there’s two things wrong with what I just thought to myself. For one thing, the professor is almost always still snoring away right now, but most importantly: I closed my door shut last night. I close my eyes, to afraid to move. What could it mean? Could that dream last night have been... real? I lie there a few minutes until I hear the voice of Joy talking to Everett in the hallway. It gives me enough courage to get out of bed and robotically walk to the door. At the sight of their faces I relax almost fully. “‘Morning Joy, ‘morning Ev!” I say. They both smile and greet me back. I then continue, “Did any of you guys by any chance open my door last night?”
“No.” replies Joy, and Everett shakes his head. Fear fills me, but I hold onto one more hope. “It must’ve been Professor Aakil then.” I say. He must have woken up, which is why he’s not snoring. I head towards the bathroom, and as I pass the professor’s room, I knock on the door. “Professor Aakil?” I ask, slowly opening the door. “Sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering: did you open my door last n--” Professor Aakil isn't there. Instead, I see some sort of scarlet writing on the wall which reads a single word: Why?
All in one moment, all my memories of the day the dog broke out flood back to me, and it slowly dawns on me that the writing on the wall is... blood.
“Hey Justin? You  oka-” Joy and Everett walk up behind me, and they both see what’s on the wall. I’m about to speak when I see something that makes me freeze. A single drop of blood rolls down from the letter y. Which means that the blood still hasn’t dried... Which means that it was written with recently... Which means the killer may not be far off. “Guys?” I say slowly, stepping backwards, “We should get out of here...”
Then I see it out of the corner of my eye. One of the shadows moved. “RUN!” I start off first, towards the stairs, and I hear Joy and Everett take pursuit. As I reach the first set of stairs (the mansion is three stories tall, and my bedroom is on the third), I trip and fall all the way to the bottom. Normally, I would be in a lot of pain, but adrenaline keeps me going. I head toward one of the professor’s closets and see the door is open. I leap in, and the others follow. With a tangle of hands, we slam the door shut. We are covered in the pitch black darkness as we all catch our breaths. I grope around, and after a few seconds, whisper, “I found the light!” and flip on the switch. What I see almost makes me scream.
Everett isn’t there. But why didn’t he yell out? Why... that’s right. Everett’s a mute.

Joy and I just stare at each other for a long while. “We have to get back out.” I whisper.
“What?”
“Everett is still out there, and we’re going to have to get out of here eventually. If we can just get outside, and in public sight, we should be fine.”
“...All right.” she agrees. I turn off the light and slowly open the door. All is still and quiet. And on the wall In front of us are three more bloody words. Just give up. My mind goes back to the dream conversation. It still thinks I have fault. I won’t give up. I won’t give in. I deserve to live. I give up being cautious and rather loudly whisper, “Come on! To the outside!” And take off at full speed towards the next flight of stairs. Right in the middle of them, I hear Joy give a muffled cry behind me, and her golden hair disappears from my peripheral vision, so I quickly yank open a bathroom door at the bottom, and jump in.
Now I’m alone.
After what seems like hours and hours, I slowly open the door a crack. On the wall in front is yet more crimson writing, which this time says Do You Even Care?
I make up my mind to make a beeline for the door. If the creature is there, then I’ll just have to try my best to get around it. I leap out the door, and sprint as fast as I possibly can towards the doorway to the outside.
And there, in front of the door, is the dog, looking down, and not fully showing its eyes. But that’s not what makes me stop dead in my tracks. It’s the sight of Professor Aakil, Joy, and Everett, all with blood pouring from their necks, lying behind it. Tears pour from my eyes.
They were my only family.

“Why?” I ask, no longer caring about fear.
The dog stands up. When I say stand up, I mean that it stands on its back legs, but it keeps its back curved, and lets it’s arms droop towards the ground. And now, I see that it hardly looks like a dog at all. It still has fur, and pointy ears, but it has changed a lot. The grey fur is replaced with short, brown, and bloodstained fur. Its snout has shrunk, Its legs and arms have become somewhat human like. It’s just a little smaller than me.
“Why, you ask,” It says with the same low, scratchy moaning as when I tested on it. “When that is the same question I’ve been dying to ask you.” Still keeping it’s head down, it begins walking towards me, and I walk backwards. “That day when you tested on me, was the scariest day of my life. When our eyes met, you saw what I was. I was like a child. I needed your help. But you turned your back on me. Instead of helping me, you ran. And now I ask you: why? Why did you not even stop, and think about me? You left me in this cruel, unfamiliar world, being hunted by policemen.”
My back hits the wall. I’m trapped. The dog keeps walking until its face is two feet away from mine.
“I had to swim all the way to the beach, even when I barely knew how. I was always hiding. Having a heart problem didn’t help either. As a pup I never dared to make a sound because any nearby glass would shatter, and it seemed like ages before I learned to control it, and could at least talk to myself. Whatever substance you exposed me to, caused my body and my mind to grow more rapidly than any other living thing. I grew and adapted until I became as aware as a human. But that still can’t help me. Throughout my whole life, I have dreamed of getting my revenge on you. But even before that, I gave you a chance to repent, apologize, turn back last night. And you still wouldn’t listen... Now... It’s over.”
The dog looks up at me, and our eyes meet. It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul. My window is shattered, and my soul is now being invaded and destroyed. The purple gaze fills my vision, and soon my mind. I don’t try to resist. All there is, is that unending purple abyss which traps me, my soul, forever. But through that unending void, I see my life flashing in front of me, or, more accurately, my character, changing as I age. At first, I am innocent, and like any other person. Farther on, I stay this way. Then I notice that something is invading me. Pride.
I see that being a prodigy changed me. I was filled with pride, and became corrupt.
The last thing I realise is: this is it. All my achievements, all I gained in life, all my potential as the 13-year-old-prodigy is for nothing.
It is also said that pride comes before the fall. I now know this is true. And I hope that you never become what I became.
Pride brings corruption.