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Gregor walked into Seth's “lab” once more. He immediately noticed the trash scattered everywhere and the smell. That God awful odor that lingered in the air no matter what.
“This place has become a dump”, he muttered to himself. “Where is Seth anyhow? He asks me to show up and he is not even here?”
He just about wrapped up his thoughts when he heard a thump come from the ceiling. He looked up and froze. That wasn't his brother. What was that?
“Gregor!” Seth shouted from the ceiling. His face had multiple bumps on it, his hair was wispy and falling out, and his clothes stuck to his body with some kind of gooey secretion. He looked hideous, unrecognizable… monstrous even.
“Seth! What on God's green earth happened to you? You look-”
“Look, I know it doesn't seem the best, but watch! Watch what I can do!” Seth slowly crawled down from the ceiling, Gregor watching in wide-eyed horror. When he reached the wall, Seth jumped down and landed on the floor. He smiled like a giddy child after showing his parents a good test score with a few teeth missing. “And that's not the only thing I can do now. Oh I have so much to tell you!”
“S-Seth!” Gregor managed to stammer out as he took a step back towards the door. “How can you be okay with this? Are you in pain? What happened to your face- your hair- everything!”
“Well there was an… accident with the telepods. A house fly got into the pod while I was inside and in the teleportation sequence, the machine got confused and fused our atoms together.” He twitched as he spoke.
“How did you not notice! Flies are not the most noticeable, but you can hear them very well and I doubt there was much noise in this place!”
Seth grimaced as best as he could “I may or may not have been drunk…”
“Seth Samsa-”
“Brundle.”
Gregor sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was still so adamant about being separated from the Samsa name “Seth Brundle. You can be so brash sometimes. What is going to happen now? You can not go out like this!”
“Well, I would work on a way to reverse this and revise the telepods so that-”
“No!” Gregor exclaimed. “Do not even try to fix them. Those things are what got you into this mess in the first place! You need to get rid of them immediately.”
Seth paused and his expression turned sour. He twitched again before replying, “I will not be throwing all of my work out of the window because of some setbacks. I can fix this, I'm sure of it.”
“I will not let you ruin yourself chasing a harmful dream!” Gregor retaliated. He never liked raising his voice, but with his family being so stubborn, sometimes it was necessary. Seth scowled.
“You're jealous, aren't you. You're jealous I was able to leave and start my dream while you stayed with our mom and pop.”
“I can assure you that I am in no way shape or form jealous of you at this moment.”
“Then get out. Leave! I don't need you here!”
“It seems like you do. Seth, you are not thinking clearly-”
“Get out!” Seth yelled. “Out of my lab! I'm not throwing away my life's work because of you and your anxiety!”
Gregor took a step back. This new shift in behavior felt like an unexpected slap to the face. He thought to himself, “what the hell did those telepods do to my brother.” With a sigh, he slowly approached the heavy, sliding door to Seth's lab.
“Fine. I'll leave you be for now. Just- just get help. Please.”
Approaching his car, Gregor was filled with an overwhelming sense of dread and sorrow. What was he to do if his brother was beyond saving? Who could he ask for help? Mother and Father couldn't help, they would probably just cut whatever connections are left with Seth. Grete couldn't find out her brother and role model had turned into a monstrosity, she would never be able to think of him the same!
He sat in the driver's seat, contemplating what to do. Gregor looked back up at the lifeless, looming building Seth called a lab. He started the car and drove off, not looking back.