An Unpleasant Aftertaste

When it was in middle of December Feliciano Vargas had been frequently visiting Lovino Vargas. Every time during his visit, there was a lively chatter in the visiting area.

To the younger Vargas, he never had fully understood the gist of why his older brother had been admitted to the Behavioral Unit. However if it was for the sake of curing his older brother, he agreed to do whatever means it would be necessary.

However, once in a while he wondered whether he made the correct decision.

Dr. Oxenstierna had always reassured Feliciano that Lovino would get better in time.

"Rest assured Mr. Vargas, your older brother is receiving the best care we give. Especially that the new psychiatrist that is assigned to him had a similar case. He may be able to bridge back Lovino to reality." The doctor said.

What Feliciano was sure about was the reason Lovino was admitted. The tipping point was when the older brother had a violent attack and had almost killed the younger brother. The Social Services had then immediately taken intermediary measures.

Feliciano had put it past him. With a smile on his face, he went to the visiting area and there he saw his older brother with a scowl on his face. "What took you so long idiot?"

Feliciano laughed. His older brother had a peculiar way of saying, "I missed you."

"I'm sorry Fratello. I missed you a lot!"

The siblings were then engaged in a conversation for the entire duration of the visit which had amounted to two hours. Although the visiting hours had not been over, Feliciano had left earlier due to an appointment.

"Don't forget to visit idiot."

"I will not." Feliciano smiled and then hugged his older brother after giving a kiss on his cheeks.

There was not a day when Feliciano did not think about his older brother.

It was impossible not to do so because…

Feliciano was Lovino.

Lovino was Feliciano.

Arthur Kirkland sighed. It had been 48 hours since he had last slept. The profile that was written by Dr. Fernandez was riddled with too many footnotes. It took a long time to piece together the small writings into something coherent.

"As I had suspected, Lovino Vargas was the child from the abandoned experiment some decades ago. Before the laboratory had shut down, they released experiment "Romano" then renamed Lovino Vargas. However, when he had begun self-mutilation, he was brought to this Behavioral Unit. He claimed that he had a younger brother that he had almost killed."

The English doctor was shocked at his discovery. Arthur was not sure whether he should confront Dr. Oxenstierna about it. He had only been working here for six months and during his residency, he had only handled the case of Lovino Vargas.

'Maybe I should because I am handling his case after all.' Arthur thought.

During the psychiatrist's duty at the ward, his eyes were dropping occasionally. Caffeine did not even help him with his situation.

Instead of the usual one hour session with Lovino, it was cut short to 50 minutes. It was unprofessional but it was a better than being half-assed with his job.

"Guess you're getting tired of me already?" Lovino spoke with his gaze averted and Arthur was sure that there was hurt in the tone of his voice.

"I can still stay here but you would not want to speak to me." Arthur said calmly, trying to catch the gaze of the Italian.

The patient huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine, I will tell you who I really am. But you won't like it."

Arthur then returned back to his usual seat and listened intently to what Lovino was saying.

There was only stillness in the room. The smell of disinfectant prevailed inside while men and women wearing white coats with masks on their faces stood still. Today, it was the day when their research might come into fruition. Or breed another failure. Closely, everyone watched.

In this laboratory, it was like no other in the world. The experiments were beyond any form of morality set about by humans; there were no boundaries that chained what was going inside. Currently, what most of the scientists were experimenting at was the creation of a human being outside of a human's womb. A special incubator has been made with a gene pool that was also created by scientist. What they were aiming at was creating the "perfect human."

Right now, it was already the ninth month of the fetus. The vital signs were stable, the baby was expected to wake-up at the moment, make its first cry. However, none of what they were expecting was happening. The scientists held their breath as the chief of the team approached the little creature and checking out for any signs of abnormality that was not detected.

Seconds filled with tension covered the place. Then what they had waited for finally happened, the baby had then made its first cry. Everyone in the room was filled with happiness. There were mixed reasons for their happiness but they were overwhelmed with joy that it had worked.

Ten months later, the baby who was now a toddler, lived inside the mass cage of the laboratory. For the young toddler, he was contented with what interactions he had from the others. Each day, he was given puzzles to be solved. His food was strictly monitored. Even the amount and what people said to him were carefully calculated. All of this was for the sake of the creation of a "perfect human."

Two years later, the toddler was able to grasp what his surroundings were. He was not anymore contented by being locked inside the big cage; he talked to the people, at first pleading to walk outside. Then he demanded to be released. This turn of events shocked those who were in-charge of the boy. They recorded down every detail of development that was happening to the little boy.

It was also around this time that the scientists had decided to give the boy a younger brother. The younger brother will be subjected to the exact same conditions, in other words a perfect replication.

The little boy, who was already three years-old, was confused why everyone around him was excitable. His "grandpa," the head of the research team, had told him that he would be having a younger brother.

"What's that?"

"No Romano, you do not say 'what' but you say 'who' when you describe another human."

"I'm sorry grandpa."

The first test subject was named Romano, in honor of the head scientist, Romulus Vargas, who had devised the entirety of the experiment. The initial experiments were from simpler life-forms like rats. At that time, it had met several dead-end and several revisions were made. When it had succeeded, the research team had then made a proposition to the board of directors that they would try the experiment with human genetics.

Five years had passed by since then. Around that time, Romano had met his younger brother who was three years old and he was eight. It was only fleeting encounter, both children were introduced to one another and then were returned back to their respective areas. After then, they had never chance upon one another.

When Romano was fifteen, he had then wondered about his younger brother and his grandfather. During one of his routine check-ups, Romano asked about the two individuals.

"He was taking a vacation with Feliciano…"

"Feliciano, what's that?"

"It's not what but who Romano. Didn't y our grandfather tell you that when you-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

The entire team was thankful that Romano succeeded the initial phase of the experiment. The succeeding years were spent on testing his cognitive and motor skills side by side. The intelligence tests had proven that for Romano's age bracket, he was superior. However, his motor coordination was compromised. A regimen had then been made to alleviate the compromised system. In so far, the direction of the progress was as expected.

However, there was a problem with the other subject. The replication, Feliciano, had not met the standards that Lovino had attained despite the exact genetic match. In all the fields that the small child was tested, he was average and for the research team, average was not good. The only worthwhile thing about the second subject was that it had proved to a certain degree that human creation through genetic manipulation was possible.

"We are not God after all. Romano might just have been sheer luck or maybe I can say a miracle." Romulus said as he had written down his personal notes about the entire research process. "They are planning on disposing Feliciano; I had objected about the disposal because I think that the potential of Feliciano has not yet been tapped. The genetic expression might have been different than Romano's but it does not change the fact that this boy is a human being. He too deserves to live his life."

That was the last entry of the personal journal of the scientist.

The following day, Romulus had filed a resignation letter and left the entire facility. Since then, there had been no news about what had happened to the old man. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air.

One week later, the laboratory had shut down its operations. The disposal of Feliciano and Romano was a difficult decision. They were haphazardly thrown into societal streets and both had to fend for themselves.

What they did not know was that only one of them had been physically thrown out into the streets and that was Feliciano's body. Romano's consciousness had been infused with Feliciano who was technically average and this meant that there were no problems with his motor skills which Romano had possessed.

"That's the whole fucking story. Or as Antonio had told me." Lovino had his gaze cast to the floor as he said the last parts of his sentence heavily.

"Antonio? Do you mean Dr. Fernandez?" The doctor made his voice even but the curiosity within him was trying to get the better. Questions began to surface into his consciousness and the words were at the tip of his tongue.

"Yeah, that sick bastard. He was feeding me stories that Feliciano was not real. The hell he isn't. He comes to visit me as often as he could. That sci-fi story of his is even full of more bullshit. He must be more nuts than me and that's why I think he was moved away." Lovino then looked into the eyes of Arthur.

Arthur murmured a reply, "I see…"

"No you don't." The hazel eyes of the patient were challenging the doctor's statement.

The Englishman was about to give a retort but there was a knock came on the door and an orderly came in. It was Gilbert Beilschmidt.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but time's up Kirkland. Your session ended up thirty minutes ago. The boss wants to see you." The orderly said. After his report, he stayed rooted on his spot and it was a message to Arthur that he had to go now.

"Well then Lovino, I'll be going. See you again tomorrow." Arthur said with professionalism and exited the room.

The moment Arthur had walked out of the door Gilbert had also walked away from the room.