I'm Sorry, Phineas

I'm sorry brother. This was meant to be the greatest summer yet; the rollercoasters of those halcyon summers were long past. We have reached beyond those childhood dreams to aim for greater things. Today we aim to transcend reality. To become gods. At 15 years of age you may be asking "Aren't you a little young to become deities?" And yes, yes, we are but all that power at our fingerprints. After all our achievements we felt the constraints of mortality chafing at us like the oppressive heat of a hot day in the Tri-State area.

Phineas began this. Sat under the tree in the backyard as usual. My brother has always been the speaker. I let him and I'm grateful for it. When I speak people look at me and I can feel their stares under my skin, crawling and itching. Phineas never looks at me when I speak. It makes me feel safe. "Ferb this is not enough. We've done everything, created so much. We've reached the limits of what our mortal bodies can do but not what we can achieve within our potential." I nodded. He spoke of this in the same voice he proposed all our other projects. With devout fervour in his voice. "We must seek to transcend our humanity"

The machine was laughably easy to build, easier to build than the beach was to create. A few nuts, bolts, a giant baby head and several transformers. It was done. Phineas went first. He led I followed, the way it had always been and now that we were about to become gods: The way it would always be.

We were fools.

He stepped in. I retreated around the corner and flicked the activator. The lights grew impossibly bright and then shattered in an unholy din, driving me to my knees as glass shards rained down around me. In the pitch black, illuminated by the steady red glow from the machine, I felt a vast presence rush past me and over me and through me. There was a sound as though air had rushed in to fill a vacuum, followed by the sickening sounds of bones snapping and reforming. My brother cried out and I heard the wet splat of flesh against the ground.

Then I heard his voice. "Ferb? I... I... can't see. Did... did it work?" I stepped around the corner to see my brother. Or. Or what had been my brother. What was before me now wasn't human. It wasn't even a glimpse of what could have been a human. A hulking, raw flesh glistening behemoth of blubber barely clothed in skin under which bulges appeared and moved ceaselessly. The creature stood on bulbous legs ending in clawed chicken feet.

"Phineas" My voice croaked. I cleared my voice and tried again. "Phineas. I. It... It didn't work. I'm sorry brother, I'm so so sorry" My brother face with its mop of red hair protruded towards me somehow undistorted. "I hunger" "You Hunger?" "Yes, so hungry" He opened a second endless mouth below his face. It bit out a chunk of our reality and in the gap, I saw things I couldn't comprehend and would never forget leaking towards us.

What have we wrought? Our hubris drew us here. We were Icarus but our wings will not burn alone. Instead as we fall to earth it too will catch alight and we shall all burn to destruction together. I drew closer to the gap. Feeling it's seductive, horrifying call, I longed to know what was beyond.

The door to our workshop was flung open, a bright shaft of light blinding me. In the whole stood two silhouettes, one tall and skinny, it was the scientist from the tower and the other? The other was Perry, our platypus but with a trilby?

They aimed the odd weapons they were holding towards my brother and I pushed towards them till the tip of the muzzle touched my chest. "Get away from him, please! We can fix this! Please don't hurt him please" They stared at me, their gazes crawling under my skin and Perry shoved me aside. The scientist fired his weapon and my brother screamed. It wasn't a monstrous scream it was my brother. My brother in pain. His face fell first, and I caught it, cradling it in my arms as the rest of his huge body crashed to the ground behind him. He looked up at me "Don't cry brother. Finally, we have done it all." Tears that I wasn't aware I was crying dripped onto his face and I wiped them away.

Suddenly the flesh mound began to quake. The two behind me raised their guns again. The creation imploded, furling until all that remained was my brothers' body. It looked so small without the restless energy that defined him in life.

We were too young for this.

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