Tess Endacott-Isaeva - Aged 11

Medicine

“Breakfast!” Camille yelled with her strong Spanish accent. 5 minutes later the house was still silent, with only the sizzling sound of delectable corn tortillas, and soon enough Camille calling out for her children and husband again.

​

“Hurry, the Tostadas are burning and if I take them off your food is going to be cold!”

 

Before Camille could scream again to wake up her children, at the top of the stairs Jace and

Eliana stood half asleep, but eager to eat their favourite traditional breakfast.

 

“Good morning my angels’’, Camille warmly uttered, “how did you two sleep?”

 

The two replied will a simple good and briskly stuffed their faces with the tostadas the moment they got plated on the table, Camille turned around to grab the salsa but when she turned back- her kids had already finished their meals and began eating the other two on the plate, which were meant for their dad’s breakfast.

 

“What about your father, and why are you two in such a rush?”

 

“Oh that... was ...meant- one second,” Eliana gave up with her speech, swallowed down the food in her mouth and placed the rest of the tostada back on the plate. “Sorry I didn’t know it was for papa.” Eliana nudged her brother who was still scarfing down the tostada.

 

 “Eli, you made the beans fall out!” Jace complained.

 

“Mama didn’t even make that for you she made it for papa, you’re so greedy!” Eliana replied.

 

“OH, I’m sorry mama I’ll help you make more.”

 

“‘Ohhh’, sure you didn’t know after mama just confirmed it was for papa.” Eliana sarcastically mimicked her brother. Jace glared at Eliana and got out of his chair to help his mum prepare his dad’s breakfast.

 

“I wanted to ask you both if you wanted to come with me, I’m cleaning a pharmaceutical scientists laboratory, and I thought instead of wasting your weekend playing video games you could come and see if this is a job that interests you for the future.” Camille suggested while buttering the tortilla with Guacamole.

 

“I already know what I want to be for the future, but I’ll still come with you to spend some time with you my amazing mummy” Eliana replied with a smile smudged across her face like an upside-down rainbow. 

 

Camille chuckled and meaningfully kissed Eliana on her forehead.

 

“What is it that you want to be for the future?” Camille wondered.

 

“A journalist. And before you ask why, it’s because I want to travel the world.”

 

“That’s an interesting job, but it’s always better to explore other subjects too before you 100 percent decide on something, I really want the both of you to have a wide range of interests. The idea of life is to be open to learning new things and engaging in diverse experiences.”

 

“If you’re both going, I’ll come too, but I can’t sit here and act like I know what a pharma... pharma... I already forgot.” Jace stumbled over his words. 

 

“A pharmaceutical scientist creates medicine, now get ready I’ll wait for you in the car.”

 

*******

 

Jace was peering out the window with his head resting on his fist, he then mumbled the words I feel sick, when will we be there? But he got no response as his speech was not clear enough, although his answer shortly showed up when the car came to a turn and stopped.

 

Eliana on the other hand was dead asleep so she didn’t notice their arrival.

 

Suddenly Camille shifted to the view of her children and quietly whispered, “we’re here.”

Before Camille could say another word, Jace with his face all green from nauseousness hopped out of the car, slamming the door and waking up Eliana on the way.

 

“Doofus!” Eliana blurted out but rapidly shut her mouth tight so she wouldn’t get in trouble.

Not so long after, Camille’s children were out the car stretching their leg cramps away, meanwhile Camille was acquiring  her cleaning supplies she needed to clean the lab.

 

The creaking of the front door was like a wicked cackle. Camille looked around trying to find any visible signs of a light switch, but when she found it and clicked the button, the power seemed to be out, the clanking under their feet as they walked through the extensive building was like the tapping of fingernails against a table. The floor was an undecorated checkered black and white, and the walls were plaster with a blue wall trim. The ceiling was made up of medium sized square panels, the windows were tinted and most of the rooms seemed to be closed off. 

 

Something about the place gave off an eccentric atmosphere, which frightened Jace to his core, however like the usual Eliana felt completely different to Jace, as she was exploring the area pretending, she was in a Sherlock Holmes movie.

 

*******    

 

 Once they had approached the cafeteria Camille combined her cleaning mixtures together and began mopping the floor.

 

“Mama, can I go look around? I wanted to look inside of the rooms.” Eliana politely asked trying not to make a fuss about what she wanted.

 

“Yes, my lovely, but I’m sure they thought about locking the rooms since they knew I was coming today. They don’t want people to ruin their experiments.” Camille suggested

 

“Yeah, yeah, I just want to look around,” Eliana objected knowing her mother was implying that it would be better if she remained in the cafeteria.

 

“Just be mindful, and by that, I mean don’t touch anything.” Camille reminded Eliana, nodding firmly.

 

“Ok, Jace are you coming?”

 

“No, are you kidding? What if we get lost, and in literally every story you never go in the dark alone, at least here there are windows that let in some light.” Jace responded concerned about what could happen.

 

“You’re 16, get over it!”  Eliana scoffed then stormed out of the room.

 

*****

 

Curiously creeping around the humongous building, Eliana’s eyes scanned every inch of every wall, until they entangled into something that caught her full attention.

 

She was standing on a pile of boxes with the tip of her toes. Eyes squinting, mind focused, arms reaching up…

 

“YES!” Eliana succeeded in her attempt of grasping onto the vents on the ceiling. Now she just had to somehow move the vent out of the way.

 

Eliana, still hanging on with one arm, used her free hand to see if she had anything worth of use in her pockets. She fiddled, aiming to be quick, until she felt something blunt yet stiff in her pocket, and pulled it out. It was her credit card. Eliana felt the callous on the base of her fingers building up, and her hand began slipping off the vent, owing to the sweat continually drooping from her palms. The committed girl struggled, but eventually detached the screws by loosening them with her card.

 

Following that, Eliana slipped her fingers though the gap between the vent and the ceiling and pushed it to the side. She peered to her left and right to determine which direction she should head in. She had an intense gut feeling to go right, therefore Eli vigorously pulled herself up with the remaining strength she had, then dragged her body along the frigid metal. Just when she had reached the end, she faced a path to the right and noticed that it led to a dead end. Eliana realised that the “intense gut feeling” she had was probably because of the amount of salsa she had consumed that morning.

 

*****        

 

After turning back and changing directions Eliana eventually came across another vent that channelled into a room, this was exactly what Eli had hoped for, so without a second thought, she unscrewed the vent and carefully jumped down into the room. What she saw next left her speechless.

 

Her smile faded in an instant as she turned around. Her jaw dropped to her neck, her eyes were wide open like an owl staring down into your soul, tears instantly rose up in them. Eliana tried to control herself, yet her immense sorrow made her feel completely debilitated, and caused her breath to quiver.

 

She had never truly understood how brutal humans could be, “you, poor things,” her words filled with despair for the red-eyed animals shivering in torture.

​

She glanced around the room, looking for any sort of blanket or towel to stop the bleeding of the animals, but the only things in sight were bottles written caution or poison on them. Eliana took off her puffer jacket, approached the animals, who were too stunned to growl or bite her, took them out of their cages one by one and wrapped them up for warmth.

 

 ******             

 

The doors flung open, “Mama we need to leave!” Eliana howled at the top of her lungs.

 

***** 

 

“Good evening, my name is Claudia Delshoft, and today, presenting on UNN, young Eliana Sanchez uncovered an illegal animal testing operation revealing shocking cruelty and exploitation!”