AN: The following disclaimer will only be posted once. I do not own any of the True Blood content here. That all belongs to it's respective owners. I only own my original characters.
The beaker explodes, spraying me with bright green liquid as I attempt and fail to protect my face by blocking it with my hands. Squinting, I can see that the liquid is all over the room and I can hear high pitched laughter originating from the small bat-like creature sitting on the desk behind me. I quickly turn toward the demon, reaching out for it. It smiles, waves at me, and knocks over a box of microscope slides, which I promptly trip over. I grab onto the nearest thing I can find, which happens to be the cable connecting my computer to the wall outlet. As I fall, my computer falls with me, knocking everything on the desk off with it, including the demon.
It shrieks as it lands in the rapidly cooling liquid, floundering in an attempt to swim in what it could easily stand in if it tried. Not wanting to miss this chance, I quickly crawl towards it on my hands and knees and grab it around the middle. It shrieks once more and gives me the middle finger while attempting to squirm out of the one-handed hold I have on it. I stand, bracing myself on the desk in order not to slip and make my way to the cage that it was originally in. I see that the cage has a fist-sized hole in it, with teeth marks all over the edges. Note to self, steel cages and level one demons do not go together.
I look around, trying to locate anything that could be used as a temporary holding cell. Not being able to find anything in the lab, I sigh resignedly and go over to my lunch bag. I pull out the container with my leftover lasagna in it and walk over to the counter at the side of the room. I get some paper towel from the dispenser and lay it down, hoping that maybe I can still eat the lasagna later. I awkwardly open the container and dump it's contents onto the paper towel. At this point, the demon seems to realize what's going to happen to it and starts shrieking and squirming once more. I don't bother to rinse the container- the demon will just eat whatever's left- and drop the creature inside. I go to put the lid on and feel a sharp stinging sensation on my palm. I realize that the demon bit me, so I shut the container, locking it on the sides with the clasps, and quickly go to the cabinet by the door. I reach in and grab a bottle filled with what I know is a mixture of holy water and some disinfectants of my creation. Going over to the sink, I unscrew the top and pour it over the wound, hissing at the pain. Healing a demon wound usually hurts more than getting one.
Once I feel satisfied that I won't start to rot from the bite and die, I put the mixture away and bandage the bite with bandaid. Of course, with my luck, the only kind I seem to have are Scooby Doo bandaids. I put one on anyway, and turn to look at the mess. The floor is covered in green and there are splatters of it on the walls. Where I tripped, there is a pile of lab and office supplies, including my computer which is now also green. I'm really not looking forward to cleaning this up.
I groan at the amount of work ahead of me and look down at my feet. As I see my shoes, covered in green, I remember that I got sprayed as well. I look in the mirror above the sink and cringe. The person staring back at me has splotches of green all over her body. Some of her dark brown hair has escaped the braid it previously was neatly in. My eyes widen at this, panicking. I turn on the sink, making sure only hot water is coming out, and stick my hands under the burning stream. I scrub fiercely and for a long time, horrified when the green doesn't come out.
"No no no no no," I chant to myself.
It has to come out. I can't go out like this. I suddenly hear footsteps coming down the stairs which stop outside the lab door.
"Hey hon! I got off work early and thought we could go get lunch," My mom says as she starts to open the door, "Do you wanna come upstairs to-"
She stops talking as she sees the state of the room and when her eyes make their way to me, they widen and the shock on her face looks comical. That is, until she opens her mouth.
"Josette Abigail Sydney. What the hell happened?" she questions in a quiet but scary tone. I cringe at the use of my full name. She knows I like to be called Jo, and the only time she uses my full name, I know she's really angry.
"The level one got out. I was trying to create a type of ink that can only be read with vampire eyes and he heated it up so much that it exploded. I caught him though," I said, pointing to the container with the demon in it who was once again giving me the middle finger.
She looks once more at me, then at the demon, and then her eyes start searching for something specific. They land on the cage.
"Did you bother to read the section in your manual about the appropriate holding cells for each type of creature?" she asks, looking at me pointedly like she already knows the answer.
"I'm sure I did at some point. I may have skipped over parts of it though," I let the sentence trail off, doing some sort of smile-cringe combination.
She sighs, rubbing a hand over her face, and I notice that she looks really tired. Her dark, curly hair, identical to mine, is falling out of her ponytail and she has dark circles under the blue eyes I wish I'd inherited. I see that she also hasn't changed out of her scrubs yet.
"Hey mom, it's okay. I'll clean all of this up and I'll re-read the manual to make sure nothing like this happens again. You go change into something comfortable and rest. We can go out another time," I tell her, guiding her towards the door.
She gives me a weary smile and a hug, reminding me to be careful around any chemicals I might use, and walks back up the stairs. I close the door behind her and turn towards the mess. This'll be fun.
After cleaning up the room as best I could, there were still green splotches on the walls and on some of the furniture. Turns out, it stains more than just skin. The concrete floor looks like nothing ever happened though. Most of the supplies from my desk were salvageable, but sadly, my computer has reached it's end. Overall, the place looks good so I go upstairs to go get cleaned up myself. As I enter the house, I listen for my mom. I don't hear anything, so I assume she's asleep. My assumption is proven right when I pass her bedroom on the way to my own and see her curled up on her side in bed.
Once in my room, I check the planner on my phone, hoping to God that I don't have anything scheduled until the green goes away. Of course, I do. I see an entry that I must have put there a while ago, because I don't remember it. It says:
Fangtasia
Shreveport, Louisiana
8:00 pm
Security system upgrade
Seeing as the time I have to be there is right after sunset and the name of the place is "Fangtasia", I realize that my client must be a vampire. Fantastic. You know how much a good impression means when dealing with vampires. There's no way they'll take you seriously looking like you were attempting to transform into a leprechaun and stopped half way.
I groan at the thought of leaving the house like this and sigh. I look through my drawers, picking out something casual to wear after my shower, seeing as the meeting isn't until much later. I walk into the bathroom down the hall and start a shower. I guess I'll just have to get off what green I can and hope for the best.