I looked at the creature in front of me, a large, slimy, gross creature. It had roughly 17 eyes, with a reddish-purple color. I remembered how I had created it, a genetic experiment intended to produce a fish-like mammal, to portray what it might have looked like when fish first walked on land. It had failed evidently. The mass' tentacles wormed their way around the table. I wasn't sure how the genetic experiments I developed would produce a creature of this manner, I wondered what I'd done wrong. Maybe I'd accidentally told one of the genes to activate in an area it wasn't supposed to? Or maybe it became this way due to a mechanical malfunction? There were a million ways it could've happened. I looked over to my assistant and waved him over, and he slowly dragged himself in my direction. "Do you know what happened?" I asked, curious if somehow he knew. The creature made some weird croaking noises, they were unearthly sounds, and if you heard them you would never identify them as this monstrosity. They were soft, but audible. "No." My assistant said, clearly as confused as I. "We triple checked everything, right? This was supposed to be a quadrupedal amphibian with both gills and lungs. I guess it just goes to show nothing ever goes how you plan the first time." He chuckled. I, on the other hand, was much more stressed. My work had never gone wrong. I needed to figure out what was going on, and quickly. "Alan," I began. "I apologize for doubting you, even in the slightest, as you have been with me through every trial this experiment has thrown at us, but I must ask. Are you the one behind this?" My assistant jumped, stunned. "Of course not! Why would I do that!?" He looked back up at the creature. "This thing would not be something I created. It's too crude for my taste." The creature made some more noises, this time louder, more resonant, and angrier. "I think it thinks we're in it's territory. We should pull back and figure out how to kill it. Do you remember if we included some errors in the code that would kill it in a couple hours?" I said, suggesting some ideas. "No," my assistant responded. "Although I wanted to, you insisted that because we wanted to run some experiments on it, we needed a legitimate copy. I tried to explain to you that we could just create another, but you seemed so sure that this would work I didn't pressure you further. I'm sorry." The creature began to move it's tentacles in our direction. "We'll talk after we get out of here. Meet me in the bridge at the top." I ran. The bridge was a sort of control room in the top of the lab so that we could see what was going on while controlling the lab remotely. I opened the bridge door and walked inside. The creature was writhing it's tentacles in every direction like a mad bull with no target. I looked down, catching a glimpse of something horrifying. The creature had caught Alan, and was slowly pulling him towards it. Alan was too good an assistant to just let go though, so I had to go rescue him. I ran down the stairs and grabbed on to his arm, trying to pull him free. It was no use, the creature's serrated edge suction cups had too good a hold on him. "Go!" Alan said, trying to get me to leave him as a sacrifice. "I figure this is a respectable death. 'Sacrifices must be made,' isn't that what you said after divorcing your wife for your research? This is my sacrifice, friend. Go! Get out of here! Leave me and rescue the rest of your research!" The creature gurgled, rolling back on its shapeless body and exposing an enormous leech like mouth with a deep purple tongue writhing in every direction. "You don't understand Alan! My research will die with you! You've become my only friend, and my research isn't special enough to spend my only friend over!" I wasn't one to play the hero, but I wasn't doing this without Alan. Suddenly, one of the tentacles shot out at me, jabbing me in the shoulder and impaling me. It pulled out, and I saw a huge hole, gushing blood at a rate I'd never seen before. I'd bleed out within a minute. "Well, Alan, I'm afraid my fate is sealed now, I won't be able to hold up after that." I let go, the creature slowly dragged him. Alan smiled and waved. "I'll see you on the other side, man, don't forget that!" I gave a small wave in return and laid back, lying on the ground. There was nothing I could do now. My surroundings seemed distant, like a dream. Not a bad dream, though... It felt like a blanket, tucking me in and slowly pulling me in to a warm hug... I slowly closed my eyes, accepting the new sensation, and dove in to the abyss of darkness' warm embrace... "Goodbye..." I whispered... "Goodbye..."