Red

A couple of researchers in my group showed me around their lab. They told me their goal is to recreate the Red Zone under laboratory conditions. They claim they can magnify the strength of the mal using material recovered from a pocket of Red. They subject their sample to a barrage of electromagnetic radiation in a gas chamber full of organic compounds. I want to know everything I can about how they're controlling the mal, so I asked them to show me.

They switched on the machine, and told me to look through a pinhole viewing device. Through that, I'd be able to see their simulation of the Red Zone. I pressed my eye to the viewer. I wish I hadn't.

I saw a kind of grey mist, rising and falling in brightness. It was impossible to tell if it was right in front of my eyes or a hundred miles away. My estimations would flip without warning, as I realised that a wisp of black in the distance that I'd been trying to focus on was actually almost in my eye. There was something wrong with the way the mist moved, too, as if straight lines were no longer the most direct route between two points. I'm familiar with non-Euclidean geometry, but I couldn't make sense of what I saw.

I stared at it for a couple of minutes, until my head started to pound. It's still throbbing now, a piercing pain right between my eyes. I'm going back tomorrow to quiz them about it. If my head feels any better.