One More Time

He wasn’t a god or a demon, or an angel, or anything like that. He never explained anything, so he wasn’t even a teacher, really. He was just a watcher. An observer. He ran the experiment, and he recorded what happened. That was all. He’d been doing that since the fall.

The Great Laboratory was even cleaner and whiter than the heaven he’d fallen from. Air-conditioned. Sterile. Every variable rigidly controlled by him, or by someone just like him.

He stood in front of the tank with a clipboard and pen, and if the subjects could see him at all, the refraction of the glass ensured they’d only see a vague green glow on their horizon.

They were not doing well.

He checked his watch. Half past the millennium and counting. The experiment was like watching plastic grass grow for a living.

All those identical planets turning slowly in their void-filled plexiglass tanks. The identical creatures on those identical planets bred and evolved, and trudged unwillingly toward self-awareness.

The process was long, even for someone who had existed since the dawn of creation, and tedious. He had done the experiment a hundred thousand times since then. Each iteration was a tiny corner of eternity that seemed like an eternity unto itself.

In tank number 6,783,924,806, the planet had already shifted from blue and green to gray and brown. The subjects were at odds. The animals he’d spent so much time building had begun to disappear, and new animals–strange and distorted animals raised on chemicals and want–had twisted unapologetically into existence.

The planet smoked a little, as its atmosphere escaped.

It was over. The little, bald, tailless creatures who truly believed they were made in God’s image had destroyed themselves again. Their planet was left barren. He noted the time and manner of death for the record.

So, it was another failure. He’d expected that. Anticlimactic, really. He always hoped they would do better, but they always destroyed themselves. It was just a question of how. He wasn’t sure they were capable of any other outcome. Fire. Ice. Floods. Sometimes, there were explosions.

He salvaged what he could from the tank, and dumped the rest in the bin.

He sighed, and set up the tank again. The day was only half over. He’d have to run the experiment one more time.

Thanks for reading! Be sure you visit the other writers in the Storytime Blog Hop:

1. Trail Of Carnage by Jemma Weir
2. A Phoenix In Hell by Sabrina Rosen
3. Friends Of The Deep by G. Craddock
4. Collateral Damage by Nic Steven
5. A Ghost’s Life by Barbara Lund
6. A Startling Revelation by Bill Bush
7. A Hiding Place by Gina Fabio
8. A Family Reunion by Katharina Gerlach
9. Better Off Alone by V. S. Stark
10. A Day In The Life by James Husum
11. Nothing To Show by Elizabeth McCleary
12. Super Grammy (Radioactive Breakfast Cereal) by Vanessa Wells
13. Bone Killer by Juneta Key
14. One More Time by Karen Lynn <–You are Here