A couple of nights ago, Robotic Animals

I was a detective. There was a mole in our department. Our offices had grey walls, grey carpet. We were in an interrogation room. It was me, my partner DCI Garret, and our chief. DCI Garret gave me the look and I knew what I had to do. I pulled the phone call records from the previous night, and circled one call in particular. The chief looked at the record, the neon green highlighted number, and he panicked. He reached out of his suite for a remote control and a secret door emerged from the wall and he was gone.

It didn't take too long to follow the rat. He was running towards an old abandoned building on the university's campus. It was scheduled to be demolished. As we approached the building, the door flew open and a strange light began to pour out. We drew our guns and approached with caution.

Garret and I stepped into what appeared to be a entryway and behind the glass doors was a beautifully decorated entrance room. It was like a museum from the 19th century, hard wood floors and red curtains and salon style hangings. We looked at each other with surprise. As we headed down the first large hallway, we had no idea what we were in for.

In each room there appeared to be a large dioramas of habitats filled with taxidermy animals. The dioramas were enclosed with wall to ceiling glass windows. The animals though...there was something horribly wrong with the animals.

Instead of standing still with glass eyes, the animals eyes were alive. They were moving as if they had been slowed down by an editing software. Their necks and paws were at times bent in the wrong direction. Giraffes, hyenas, wolves, tigers, horses, peacocks, pandas...the hallway lead to other hallways which lead to more rooms. The animals faces grimaced in confused pain. As we continued to explore, the animals grew larger and more distorted. Heads were too narrow, necks seemed broken, bodies too large and skinny, ribs cages showed through sleek fur. We found a large white dog with bent legs dragging its tail. The dog's face was elongated. Its fur glimmered under the track lighting, his whiskers twitching. The dog's one left paw was in a glass of unusual looking liquid. It was then that I noticed a glint of metal below the dogs chest. There were moving parts inside, like a clock, running smooth and silent. The dogs mouth was crooked, its yellow eyes began to water.

We cornered the Chief. He had the same unusual looking liquid in a vile. It was a bluish green milky substance that had shades of grey. It glowed and seemed to be ice cold. He looked at us with a strange smile. We raised our guns, calling out to have him put his hands on his head. Instead, he chugged his mysterious concoction and reached for something underneath his jacket. We fired.

As we approached the body, instead of flesh and blood, his torn shirt revealed fur and gears. His eyes darted around the room and he gave us one last smile before the blue liquid began to trickle from his ears.