Mike

As I laid on the table I tried to keep calm. I'd never done anything this daring in my life. I was a pretty gutsy kid, but as I got older I started avoiding any kind of risk.

"so how long do you think is it going to take?"

"depends. are you asking how long it would take to die from this, or how long it would take to recover?"

"either." I said truthfully.

"I'm really not sure. It all depends on if you're really magic or not. If you are magic it could be instantaneous, if you're human it could take hours."

"Right." I laid my head back and stared at the ceiling as I took a deep breath, "let's just do it. I can't wait any longer."

Kim was assisting Jared with the experiment because she hadn't yet decided what fate she chose for herself. I guess she just wanted to see what happened to me before she decided.

I couldn't help but think how beautiful she was, even though she was nearly half my age. I'd never had any serious girlfriends in my life, but when I met her I was finally ready to take that risk. Too bad both of us were on the brink of dying now. Should have jumped at the chance months ago.

I came back to reality when she grabbed my hand. I looked over at her, even with a bulky gas mask on she was beautiful. "how are you feeling, Mike?"

I took another deep breath, I loved the way she said my name, "I'm feeling fine. how are you?"

She gave me a sideways grin, "I'm fine, thanks."

"So, Jar, when are you going to pump the air with cyanide?"

He gave me an odd look and then said, "it's been going for a few minutes now. Your vitals seems stable, nothing out of the. . .oh geez!"

The machine started going crazy as the cyanide started taking over my body. I started convulsing and Jared began to panic, "this was a bad idea! why did I let you talk me into this?"

He shut everything off, and quickly grabbed Daila from the other side of the room.

She raised her hands to blow wind at me but hesitated, I had stopped convulsing and was laying peacefully on the table.

"What's going on?" Kim asked.

"He's dead." Daila replied.

"No," Jared's voice suddenly got high as his pulse raced, "he's not dead! It worked!"

"then why is he just laying there?" the girls asked

"his body has to rest now, to take in all that just went on. Give him a few more hours and I bet he'll be back to normal. no, better than normal!"

"I wonder what he'll do when he wakes up." Kimberly inquired curiously.

"We're not out of the clear yet," Sterling seemed to have come out of no where, "he may not wake up. keep a close eye on him to make sure his vitals remain stable."