Pax's Plan

CHAPTER IV

Pax’s Plan

Pax quickly sat up his bed. Frightened by his horrifying memories. The alarm was ringing repeatedly on his phone, labeled as Wake up from the horrifying dreams please.

     He stood up, rubbing his eyes. He pressed the stop button from his phone and thought about getting ready. He switched the light of the room. And was blinded by it. Until, when he got used to it for a few seconds, he saw a rather unexpected visitor sitting at his chair. 

     He jumped of surprise and it made his back bang the wall. 

“W-what are you doing here? W-who are you?” he squinted his eyes, he’d forgotten to put on his glasses.

“Dude. You have a science lab- as a home?” The girl laughed, “But… those experiments though. Those liquids and elements, so freaking cool, bro!” 

The girl was quite…Simple. Wearing a black tank top, her black hair with a pony, just Pax’s age. Just like him almost. But opposite gender, and a thousand times quirky.

“Please. Do not expect me to be welcoming a stranger that I just found in my place when I woke up.” Pax said formally, “So. Let’s keep this simple, shall we? Get. Out.”

“Woah. It’s a no for me.” The girl said, “W-what’s your name again?”

Pax stared at the stranger.

“Oh, right. That’ll be…” the stranger looked up the ceiling, “Pax Lysander. Am I right?”

Pax glared at him confusingly, “How’d you know my name?”

“Dude. It’s almost on every mixture and invention you have. Property of Pax Lysander, Property of Pax Lysander, blah bleh bluh.” She uttered. She walked up to one of Pax’s inventions, “Woah. The sneaking snatcher? What’s that for? Stealing?”

“Get. Out.” Pax repeated.

“I just said. It’s. A. No. For. Me.” The stranger complained. 

“Fine. You know my name. I have the right to know yours.”

“It’s Layla. Layla Bergin.” She smiled, “I’m interested in your work sir. And I would like to work with you.”

“First of all. What? Why? Who are you to just break in here and work with me? How’d you break in my place?” Pax asked.

“Pax, the door’s unlocked you left it open. I was just wondering through the streets when I saw something I might want to see.” She said his name as if they were already close. “I’m just interested. Nothing evil about that, right?”

“Oh. I forgot, I was so tired yesterday.” He explained, holding his forehead as if he just had a headache, “Just… Can you please go out while I prepare for the day? I’m still wearing pajamas, you know. And I haven’t brushed my teeth, I haven’t shaved, I haven’t taken a shower, I haven’t- “

“Yeah, fine I’ll let you get ready.” She insisted, “Make it fast please.” She went out of Pax’s place. He stared at her with a confused glare saying, “you’re not my boss to tell me to make it fast. The heck you’re just a person who’s probably going to steal from me while I prepare what th-“

She went inside again and found Pax standing still. 

“So this is the part where you steal from me huh?” he said. “Do you think I was born yesterday?”

“uh… what? No!” Layla said, her voice gravelly. “I…I just want to get to know you and help you with these stuff b-because it’s…it’s…. cool!”

Pax stared at her. And finally gave in.

“Fine. Wait outside. And I’ll unlock the door if I’m ready.” He said honey-eyed. 

“Why lock the door? You probably won’t unlock it after and make me go away from waiting!”

“Oh, so you’re actually not going to trust me when you just entered my house. Without permission. And me being real polite with people, haven’t brought out my shotgun and made you leave. You’re welcome.” 

“oh. This attitude is what’ya call polite?” she paused staring at him from head-to-toe. “Boy, I’m starting to like you.”

“You know what? Just- leave for a moment and I’ll unlock it. Just trust me would’ya?” 

She left with her hands up indicating “fine, then” while Pax closed and locked his rusty metal door with his rusty huge padlock. 

Pax’s head popped up from the door, “You can come in now”. Layla entered once again, now Pax was wearing a formal shiny black suit. 

“You wear a tuxedo every day?” she asked sarcastically.

“I wear it to work, at least.” He replied.

“And what is your work exactly?” she folded her arms.

“I call myself, a scientist. Although it isn’t approved by the government, I’m still a scientist” he answered, “And why exactly do you want to work with me? I don’t need any assistants”

“First of all, I want to work with you, I don’t want to be your assistant. Second, I’m working with you, not work for you.”

“Sit down, will you?” Pax stared at her bossily. Layla, of course, sat down.

“So… if you want to work with me, meaning you don’t want to get paid?”

“Yeah, sure. Just as long as you don’t boss me around though.” She commanded.

“And what makes you think you can work with me? Any special skills I would like to know?”

“I’ll admit, I don’t have any science skills, okay?” she said, “But still, you can test your experiments on me. Just make sure it isn’t deadly.”

Pax nodded, “Hm, good point.”

Silence.

They were staring at each other for a few seconds. “So…?” Layla interrupted.

“You’re hired.” Pax stood up from his seat, leaving Layla staring at him in shock.

“That’s it?” she asked, “So, what next? Do you have any inventions for me to try? Potions for me to—”

“They’re mixtures, substances. Not potions.”

“Fine. Sure. The question is… What now?”

“Hm. I feel lazy today though. You can leave now. I’ll call you if I need help.”

“Wait…what?”

Pax grabbed something from his desk, an invention of his. It wasn’t that strange, yet it has many buttons and a small horizontal screen and a tiny microphone on the left.

“What is that a doorbell keychain?”

“No. It’s a device so I can call you.” He placed the somewhat keychain on her backpack. “It’ll vibrate if I need you. Only come here if it vibrates. Understand?”

“Wait a minute… You said no bossing around!” she pointed her finger at him.

“I am not bossing you around. I was giving you instructions! Now. Leave.”

She responded by rolling her eyes and walked away. As soon as she was gone, Pax thought. “I’ll never vibrate that anyway. At least I made her leave.”

A few months later. There was a knock on Pax’s door, he was sitting in his experiment table at the time, now he stood up from his chair to get the door.

It was not a surprise for him to see Layla. She has always been showing up in his lab ever since the keychain didn’t vibrate. Every week, sometimes she skips a week. “She probably had to do something in her life, finally.” Thought Pax. She would knock, and knock, and knock. Pax on the other hand, opens, sees a girl with a simple outift. “No.” Opens again, the girl with another simple outfit opens her mouth, “not today.” Opens the door again, 

“Would you stop that now?” she says quickly.  

“No. Leave.” And slams the door shut.

Now Pax, to Layla’s surprise, talked to her with at least 4 words.

“What do you want?” he said,

“Oh come on Pax. It’s been months and you haven’t made anything majestic with your inventions and potions!”

“For God’s sake it’s substances!” he corrected, “What? You want me to change the world with my experiments?” 

“I mean. At least make a difference. You can’t just make inventions for crimes!”

“Fine. I’ll admit. I steal. I’m a thief! Does that make you happy?”

“No! It does not, Pax!” she argued, “I want change in this boring stupid world! And I met a guy who can actually do that!”

Pax raised his eyebrows at her, he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out at first. But then-

“Sure. I’ll make a mixture that’ll somehow make a difference. But! It’s only for me, myself, and I.” he walked over to rest his hand at the table.

“Oh, uh…cool! Finally, something came out of your brain!”

He pulled out a blackboard out of nowhere and grabbed a chalk.

“Woah, so you’re gonna be a teacher now?”

“I’m going to teach you how to actually help, Layla. So shut it.”

He drew and wrote somewhat a crazy mathematical equation on the board, and after a few hours of Layla asking what he’s actually doing, Pax finally had the answer.

“So… I was thinking of a substance that can somehow, Make a person the most powerful and unique living on the planet.” He gestured on the blackboard, Layla stared at it for a moment and said,

“You’re out of your mind. I’m interested, keep going” She said putting her hands at her chin, acting like a super villain planning a super evil scheme on a movie.

“This substance has all the five elements that roams around the planet… The element of dreams, water, air, fire, and teleportation” he explained, “Although the element of fire splits into two. If mixed together, becomes the most powerful substance you could ever see.”

“And you can actually make this…substance?” asked Layla, who was now sitting in a couch near Pax’s bed.

“Yes. I can. Based on my equation, I can get the elements by mixing different elemental substances together. And when done, drink all of the elements, you become the most powerful human being.”

“So each element is separated by each other… unless you drink all of them, and they’ll eventually give you all that?”

Pax smiled and nodded, “I do need you on this plan because I need to see what it does to a person.”

“Wait—you’re telling me I get to drink an element?” she sat forward and grinned excitedly.

“Yes. But the rest is mine to have, and I am not sure about what’ll happen if a person drinks it.”

“Fine by me!” she now stood up and gestured Pax, “What’re we waiting for? Let’s start this thing!”