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September 20th, 2013
Finally I completed my PhD, so I decided to start a new diary. This will help me to keep track of what I do in my day-to-day apart from my lab notes. I got a summa cum laude qualification at my dissertation and now my dear old professor Jason Woodrue has offered me to continue my research in his laboratory. He always was my favourite and he has helped me a lot during all my years in college, so I think our collaboration will be a fruitful one. He told me he has been working on a new medicine derived from plant secondary metabolites to treat severe illnesses and he has gotten positive results thus far, testing it on different lab animals. Next step is getting permission to test it on humans. It falls far from my previous studies, more focused on how these substances could be used to protect the crops, but a more sanitary approach could also help me to learn how to relate with other people, I have already been too focused on plants. Let's hope for the best :)
September 24th, 2013
Today Woodrue and I had a little chat on the cafeteria. He told me that he saw a great potential in me since the beginning and that we will change the world together. I must admit I got a bit flattered. No one ever has told me such things. He also told me that he always had this special interest in plants which made him study biology, he always preferred plants over humans. I think we have so much in common. We both are decided to construct a better world, in which humans are more connected to plants and nature. Two misunderstood souls trying to fit in this world which needs our help. We might be meant to find each other.
September 29th, 2013
Today when I came to the lab Jason received me with a surprise: he gave me a unique specimen, some kind of Leptospermum… maybe... I've never seen a plant like this before, I think it is a result from one of his hybridisation experiments, but anyways, it is beautiful. I named her Alice after my mother. I miss her so much. She was the only person that ever understood me... Well, until now.
October 5th, 2013
We went to a restaurant today. We talked about plants, about us... And when he took me home, we kissed. I haven't kissed like that with anyone before. I'm writing this as I say it out loud to Alice. I'm sure she's somehow listening to me. God, I feel like a stupid teenager. I'm finally getting all I wanted, everything for what I've worked so hard. I am so happy and I'm sure my mom would be proud; don't you think Alice?
October 7th, 2013
Jason got mad today because he didn't get the permit to experiment the serum on humans. He said he can't understand why seeing the outcomes of the experiments on animals. We're going on a field trip this weekend to collect some specimens for the herbarium.
October 30th, 2013
Yesterday I was at Jason's. We talked a lot. He said he had never met anyone like me before, that I was helping him a lot. I spent the night in his apartment. This is the first time I feel so close to anyone and, I don't know, I might be falling in love? God, I don't know what I'm writing anymore.
November 7th, 2013
Today Alice lost all her flowers. Winter is finally here and that restricts a lot our work. We will only be able to work with plants in the greenhouse now and there aren't going to be more field trips until spring. Jason keeps trying to get permission to test the serum on humans.
December 14th, 2013
Christmas are close and Jason says he's going to take me to the Sequoia National Park. I'm so excited, I've never been to the west coast before and I'm sure it will be such a great experience, especially with him by my side.
December 25th, 2013
It's Christmas! I actually never liked this festivity, because of all that consumerism that is promoted by big industries on these days. I haven't celebrated it since my mother died, but this year, with Jason, it is all different. We left the city yesterday and we came to this natural paradise. We wandered all day. He explained me that these trees are thousands of years old and that they could be key to discover new medicines. He wants to take advantage of the days in here to study them a bit. The nature in here is wonderful. After all day, we had dinner together in the cottage we've rented. He got two Christmas stockings that we clung on the chimney and he gave me a small poinsettia. He's so cute.
December 26th, 2013
I woke up late today to find I was alone. When I came to the kitchen, I saw a note from Jason saying that he woke up early to wander in the field and collect some plants. He works so hard, I hope that he gets the green light to continue with his experiment, cause he deserves it.
January 1st, 2014
Happy new year!! I think this year will be a really good one. My life has changed so much these last month's, I'm starting to get into the scientific community thanks to Jason, he told me he's planning on adding me as a collaborator of his main project and that if we work hard we could become one of the best botany laboratories in the country. I'm so excited, so in love... I think we can really change the world, together.
January 8th, 2014
Jason was so disappointed. He didn't get the permit to test the serum on humans. He said that he had put so much effort in this project and now it was going to end there, and if it did, he might not get more funding for his coming projects. If only he could get some volunteers, young people willing to improve our world... I offered as a test subject. I couldn't stand seeing the man I love in such state. We're starting the experiment tomorrow. I don't know if I will regret this, but he assured me that the experiments on animals turned out pretty well and he is sure that it is going to be the same with me. Anyways, I'm feeling so glad right now, as I write this while he's sleeping by my side on the bed. Love takes risk and I'm willing to take this one
January 9th, 2014
Jason administered me the first dose today. I was okay all day and we were together all the time. This is kinda bonding us much more. My skin got a bit itchy before I took a shower, but I applied some aloe Vera and I feel much better now. Jason told me that if all goes as planned, I'll take the next dose next week.
January 12th, 2014
We're spending the weekend together. I came to the room alone. I'm feeling so tired, but I didn't want to scare Jason. After all, it might just be because of all we have done during all the weekend. I'm sure tomorrow I will be as fresh as always and we will be able to continue with the experiment. This will change everything, I'm sure.
January 15th, 2014
I took the second dose yesterday. First reaction was my skin again. It got really itchy and I had to come home earlier than usual cause it was getting really bad. I took a shower and applied aloe again, but this time it didn't work as well as the first one. I'm going to go to bed now cause I'm starting to feel a little dizzy.
.....
It is 4:00 a.m. I woke with a terrible bellyache and went to the bathroom. I threw up twice. My hands started to shake after that and I think I might have a fever. It is getting difficult to write this, but I am too scared to go back to sleep. I'm telling Jason to stop the experiment in the morning.
......
I'm so scared, I don't know what to do, who I should trust... I went to the lab today to talk with Woodrue, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I looked for him in all the department and when I came into the animal facility... What I saw... I can't even write it, but I must, just in case that someone ever happens to find this. Those poor animals in which Woodrue tested his formula..they weren't animals anymore. They were monstrous half plant hybrids. I don't know if what I saw was true or not, because I also swear I listened the plants from the lab talk to me when I came out of the animal facility, but plants don't talk. Do they?... I'm so scared, if the serum made that to those animals, how's it going to affect me? Am I dying? Yes, I might be dying. Thus, the hallucinations. And the pain. The pain...all my body hurts. I feel as if an acid had been injected into my veins and poured onto my skin. I don't even know where I am, I just run away from Woodrue's lab and took my diary to write these last words before I die, so that who finds me knows what happened. I'm so scared, I'm so alone. Mum, where are you? Wherever you are, I'm coming with you
July 2nd, 2014
After all what happened someone found this and returned it to me. And now I feel the strength enough to write what happened to me these last months, so that I never forget what treason is, how terrible human beings are and how that will never change. I should never have trust him, I don't know how I was so stupid to fall in love with him, he just used me, he seduced me like a venus fly trap attracts an insect to its deadly fauces....It turned out that Woodrue's actual experiment didn't consist on any cure, it wasn't any medicine, it all was some perverse experiment from a retorted mind to get a half human/half plant hybrid. Those mutated animals I saw weren't hallucinations nor failures, they were exactly what he was after. And me? Well, I'm now like one of those mutes. When he found me semi-conscious, he took me back to the lab to finish the experiment. I didn't have strength enough to fight, nor to shout, so he straped me to the lab bench. I remember I was saying him to stop the experiment, I was pleading, but he wouldn't listen. He prepared the dose and told me that that was going to be the point of no return, that I had to be strong because if I survived he will be achieving his objective. I felt my tears running on my face, my tears of fear, of rage for having trusted him, my tears of impotence, because I was going to die without even having the strength to let him know how much I hated him. The moment I felt the needle under my skin was the worst in my life: the pain I had been feeling multiplied and I don't know how I got the strength to scream before fainting. After six months in the hospital I reborn. After those winter months, those painful and cold months, now I'm in full bloom. The itch I got on my skin, it was because my cells were mutating, now my skin is green, because as plants, I have chlorophyll. The acid I felt running in my veins, it wasn't anything but poison. My whole body chemistry has changed, and now no one can touch me without getting at least a rash. Just like that plant, the poison ivy. Yes, I'm just like a poison ivy. I'm still investigating my new nature, but I'm sure it will help me to take my revenge on Woodrue. After experimenting on me, he run away, he left me there and I can't wait to show him how he's experiment turned against him.