Unlike the lounge, with its cream flooring and white stone walls, the office had a much darker colour scheme with rich ochre wall panels and floorboards, with the navy blue rug in the center of the room, and the deep burgundy of the armchairs and the sofa against the wall opposite the door, providing a bit of contrast
At the far wall, in front of the white marble fireplace, rested Alexander's desk, a hand-crafted construct, made of solid oak and painted in a deep mahogany, the same tone as the bookcases that lined the walls, only broken up on the rear-facing wall by large windows that were currently concealed behind the thick curtains. Behind that desk sat Alexander, who looked up at you with a veritable maelstrom of expressions, but the one that was the most evident was the unmistakable look of fear.
You couldn't help the sudden tightness in the base of your stomach.
"Ah Fred, I'm glad that you and Hugo are back together, he's really been missing you," Alexander says, his expression shifting from a stressful frown to a small, happy smile. However, the smile fades as he looks back to the laptop sitting on the desk.
He let out a deep sigh and put his face in his hands for a brief moment before clasping his hands together and resting his elbows on the desk. "Fred, you should probably sit down for this. It is, as they say, a doozy."
You press your lips together as you take a seat in one of the armchairs in front of the desk, unease gnawing away at you.
You wonder what could possibly be so serious as to rattle Alexander.
Once you've settled into the plush cushions of the armchair, Alexander speaks up. "Fred, I will be frank with you here. I kept Hugo at the lab for most of the day, every day, for the past week so I could have some tests run, almost exclusively medical tests. They came back with results that are, well, alarming, to say the least." Your eyes widened as a rush of heat rose up from the center of your chest, the tightness spreading throughout the rest of your torso.
"Don't worry! Don't worry, Hugo is currently not in any danger whatsoever!" Alexander cried out, clearly seeing your distress. "Rather," He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "I am afraid that it is Humanity that is in serious danger."
"What!?" You blurt out in shock, bolting upright in your seat.
"Fred, I'll fully admit, I am not an expert on canine anatomy and physiology. Human, yes, definitely. I'm a world-renowned expert on that subject. But not canine. So I brought in an outside veterinarian to consult with. He did the tests, but I did the analysis."
Looking down at his laptop and clicking on something, he continued. "Now, I won't go into detail because we may not have time for that, but the first thing we found is that Hugo is healthy. As in, perfectly healthy. As in, 'he is at the absolute peak of physical perfection' healthy. His vitals are great and his skin, fur, eyes, teeth and everything else are in excellent condition. That led us to the next discovery. Hugo has, quite literally, infinite stamina."
You blinked in surprise. "Woah, hang on. Infinite? Seriously? I mean, yeah, he's a giant now but that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration."
Alexander chuckled. "Well, admittedly, I can't definitively say infinite as we haven't tested him for infinity, but I extrapolated the data and it's quite clear that Hugo could easily perform physical activity, hypothetically, forever, without ever breaking a sweat or feeling a workout burn."
You whistled in amazement. "Wow. Okay, that's incredible. Although, something tells me that that isn't what's got you so rattled."
He sighed, lowering his head into his hands. "No. No, it isn't. Because while Hugo's physical capabilities are incredible, we discovered something else. Something that truly frightens me, Fred."
You feel the hairs on the back of your neck rise in anticipation of this awful, awful find.
"What is it?" You croak out, your mouth suddenly feeling dry.
Alexander looks you straight in the eye, the gaze so intense that it actually scares you slightly.
"Fred, I analyzed Hugo's blood and made a remarkable discovery. I'll go into the details in a moment but the main thing I discovered was this: Hugo is still growing. And he will never, ever stop."
Your mind locked up for a moment, almost unable to comprehend what he had just told you. Never, ever stop growing? Ever?
"Ever?"
"Ever. According to the charts, Hugo will keep exponentially growing in size and strength. Fred, it's so extreme, the mathematics used to calculate this actually break down at the more extreme sizes! If my calculations are correct, Hugo will outgrow the current theorized size of the entire universe in about a week! And that is with optimistic projections!" Alexander cried, eyes wide with alarm and just a tinge of despair.
You froze, your body temperature rising in horror, disbelief, denial, and something else that you don't want to think about right now.
The universe? The universe!?
What the holy hell!?
"And, Fred. There's something else I have to confess. I know who injected Hugo with that syringe."
"You do!?" You gasp out.
"Yes." Alexander nods solemnly.
"Yes, that man was..."
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