Galatea 2 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7: EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

A sweet aroma of cherry blossoms permeated the campus air. Birds were singing, tulips of all colors were swaying in the breeze. Spring was in the air.

Vanessa wasn’t focused on any of that crap. The only sound she could hear was the furious pounding of her own heartbeat, an invisible soundtrack of madness. All she saw was the fire in her own eyes, reflecting back her second-rate body directly into her brain stem. All she could smell was her own desire for revenge.

How could Audrey do that to her? She had finally found another fling in Fritz only for her roommate to just strut in and ruin it. Her heavenly visage was the only thing on his mind for the rest of that night. Sure, she still managed to secure his number and passionate kiss, but she often found his eyes drifting over Audrey’s way, even when literally in the middle of talking to him! That confirmed it, Fritz was done for, as was any other man she dared hook up with.

Audrey lived with her! Even if she couldn’t be alone at a party, it was only a matter of time before Audrey and Vanessa’s latest crush crossed paths with one another. Then bye-bye boy of the week!

Why had love been so fruitless? First Patton being nothing like the movies, then Audrey stealing the heart of any man who so much as glanced at her.

Not anymore. Vanessa thought to herself determinedly. I’m done sitting idly by and letting everything that was rightfully mine get taken away from me!

Her flip-flops determinedly clapped, echoing off the pavement as trail markers for her furious stride. The lab was in her sights, her mind practically had it x-rayed as her eyes peered below the ground to where it lay hidden.

The entrance to the science wing as well as the subsequent elevator ride was all a blur to Vanessa as her focus was hyper-fixated on getting that virus by any means necessary. Upon entering the lab, she was immediately greeted to her first and only roadblock, but it was nonetheless insurmountable. Dr. Kevin Giles stood before her, massive muscles rippling with nigh-superhuman power. He wasn’t just a wall, he was that “immovable object” often cited in that one hypothetical atheistic argument against omnipotence.

Swallowing hard at the sight through a mix of intimidation and arousal, Vanessa quickly switched to plan b.

Literally dropping to her knees and taking his hand in both of her own, she began to beg.

“Oh please, please, please Dr. Giles, give me the virus! My life is dreadful without it!” She sniffled, tears welling up within her eyelids. “I’m incomplete without it! I-I’ll do anything for it! Anything! Name your price! I’ll give you my entire salary!”

Kevin’s smile twisted upwards. An opportunity this good didn’t just fall into one’s lap, yet here it was.

“I’ll do it…”

Her hopeful eyes grew into dinner plates.

“…On one condition.”

Her eyes remained cautiously optimistic.

“Be my Galatea.”

Her eyes weren’t sure what to feel anymore, a raised eyebrow expressing her confusion. “Your Gala-what-a?”

“Oh, do you not know the famous tragedy? Pssh, what are you even learning in college?”

“Uh, fashion! If you must know.”

“Of course! A borderline useless field!”

Giles proceeded to berate Vanessa’s ears with endless platitudes about the nature of that word, how it had consumed his life like a fetishistic thought. It seemed like his mind was more with the actual creation story behind the statue than the statue’s story itself, but Vanessa wasn’t about to point that out. After all, it was finally happening! She was about to become juiced up, just like Audrey had been!

After the doctor’s lecture naturally—eventually—concluded and Vanessa continued to feign interest about it, Kevin booted up the necessary machinery and got right to work.

“Luckily for you, this process should be even easier than last time. This dial right here saves the data of your body type ratios for easy modification later.” Kevin’s beefy finger pointed towards a small knob on a nearby panel. With a small twist consisting of just ten ticks, Vanessa’s hypothetical form was back to how she remembered three days ago…

…Except, it no longer felt like enough.

“Hmm, crank those numbers up.” Vanessa replied with a determined tone, pointing towards the screen.

“I’m… afraid that might be a bit too much?”

“Oh really, too much for your Galatoa?”

“Galatea.” He corrected flatly.

“Yeah, that, sure.” Vanessa replied dismissively. “Look, the point is, it seems like you’re just giving me the exact same stats that you gave Audrey!”

“Your problem with that being?” Kevin retorted. “ You’re already far prettier than she was when she first got the virus, by the end of all this, you will emerge as the superior blooming flower!”

“C’mon, Keviiiinn…” Vanessa replied sultrily, rubbing her hand atop his, which itself was on the dial of her desire. “Just a bit more juice. It’ll benefit me in the long ruuuun…”

“I… I shouldn’t…” the dubious doctor replied, his iron will faltering ever so slightly. “Going beyond a certain percentile range… the effects are completely untested!”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, my love.” Those words struck right through his heart, loosening his hand up on the dial, which Vanessa proceeded to increase a single notch before being met with resistance once more.

“That… that’s as far as I’ll allow.”

“Oh, I think you can allow more, Kevin…” Vanessa’s breathy voice softened him up once more. Another click of the dial. “A lot more.” Yet another click of the dial.

“Think about it, what is this virus if not merely modifying me based on the perceptions of western beauty standards? The only harm that would do is to the psyches of other women.”

Dr. Giles adopted a surprised look on his face. “Well… that was a surprisingly apt analysis.”

Vanessa winked, her thick lashes capturing his gaze. “You’ll be surprised what a degree in fashion could teach you, professor.” His intellect matched in an unexpected way, Kevin’s hand gave way to five more clicks of the dial, only stopping when Vanessa herself was satisfied with the image on screen

~

“So, uh, what now?” Vanessa said, feeling none of the effects except for a tightened arm muscle around the injection point.

“Now, you go home and rest. You’ll need it. Don’t worry about food, my love, I’ll be sure to provide you with as much sustenance as you could ever need!”

“Thank you, Dr. Giles,” Vanessa said cheekily. “Or should I say, Pygmalion?”

Vanessa left her benefactor to ruminate on that note, leaving him frozen on the spot like the marble that would eventually immortalize Pygmalion himself.