"Toxin" | Part 2 of 2 | Fiction

After being subdued with chloroform, Mia woke in a small, dark room that held her captive. “Goodness gracious! I hate the dark,” she says in a low tone. And she has a pounding headache. When she moves to get up from the bed, a motion-sensing light activates. Mia is relieved that the light illuminates the room.

The door opened, and maniacal toxicologist Dr. Luigi Fabio stepped into the room.
“Hello, Mia,” he said with a smile.

Mia gasped at the sight of him. She exclaims, “I saw your picture on the police file as the suspected poison murderer. I met you at my father’s toxicology laboratory.”

Before Dr. Fabio responded to Mia, his smile vanished in exchange for a furrowed brow and a cold gaze.

“Your father, Dr. Edwards, the meddlesome fellow toxicologist, was an unnecessary interference. He had to die. He was against my vaccine named ‘Fabio-mectin.’ It will be the eponymous coronavirus vaccine that will recognize me as saving the world from the pandemic. Your father was going to tell the Food and Drug Administration that my vaccine is misleading!”

Suddenly, Dr. Fabio was filled with an uncontrollable and lunatic laugh!

-----

“I killed your father that night!”

“You and the police think that my brother is the killer. He was not the only one in your home the night of your father’s death. He did anything I told him because I prescribed him drugs for his messy drug habit and a burglar. He knew how to break into your home without anyone suspecting our entry. My brother owed me that favor!”

“Yesterday, my brother was taken into custody by the police under suspicion of being involved in your father’s murder, as his image was recorded on the Ring Doorbell of your father’s neighbor.”

-----

Mia said in a fury, “You sick psychopath! You killed my father! I hate you; I hate you! I hope you burn in Hell! What the heck is wrong with you, Dr. Fabio?! That so-called vaccine, Fabio-mectin, is a poison that you inject into people! They are dead because of you. The Food and Drug Administration will never approve it. Why am I being held captive here?”

“You are a silly, silly, silly woman, Mia! After your father’s death, the news reported that you may be able to help the police with any other details about the murder of your father because you are widely known to have a photographic memory. I cannot take a chance if you possibly remember seeing if I was at your home when I killed your father. You must die!"

"The night your student was killed, I was looking for you! I thought she was you!”

“No one suspects that I killed your father, my patients that I injected with my COVID vaccine, and your student!”

“Why did you knock me out with chloroform and not kill me?” Mia asked inquisitively.

“Because I want you to know who I am before I kill you.”

Dr. Fabio erupts into another crazed and alternating laugh. “Ha, aha, heh, ha, aha, heh, ha. Ah, ha, ha, ha!”

-----

“My patients begged for my coronavirus vaccine, Fabio-mectin. I had to help them. I just need a little more time to improve the vaccine. Unfortunately, all those people died. But they pleaded for it.”

Dr. Fabio looks demented.

In a menacing voice, Dr. Fabio said, “There is no credible evidence that I am your father’s killer or that I am the poison murderer.”

-----

As Dr. Fabio began to inject Mia with the poisonous Fabio-mectin vaccine, she kicked him with all her might in his crotch! He fell to the floor screaming and moaning in excruciating pain. Dr. Fabio squealed, “You fool! I will kill you!”

She was not restrained; so, Mia jumped up from the bed, grabbed her tote bag, pulled the room door wide open, and ran in a fury! The corridor was long and dimly lit. “Darn! It is a little dark,” Mia grunted.

She sprinted like an Olympic sprinter!

Mia dashed down the semi-dark hallway until she reached a door that she pushed open forcefully. She is surprised to see that she is running into a dense forest!

“Where the heck am I?” she worried as she darted into the forest! A little daylight was filtering through the forest.

-----

Mia hears Dr. Fabio yelling, “I am the savior of the world! My vaccine, Fabio-mectin, will work. I will make it better. You must die, Mia!”

He runs after Mia through the forest!

And still, he held on tightly to the syringe that was filled with the poison.

Mia was running like a bolt of lightning in the forest! She could hear the birds chirping, cicadas’ high-pitched singing, and felt tree branches being trampled under her feet as she darted across the floor of the forest. Her heart is beating so fast, it feels like it will burst out of her chest. She was shaking and trembling. Mia was breathing with great noise. She kept running, running, and running while tree limbs cut her face.

Mia smelled fire! She could see black smoke spewing out from the forest fires afar. Climate change fires were ravaging the woodlands in Washington, D.C. But she kept running.

Mia saw an unoccupied vacation home in the distance. She ran toward it and banged on the door while shouting, “Help! Help! Fire, fire, fire! Help!”

No one answered. She took a rock and broke the front door’s window, unlocked the chained lock, and entered the home. The ADT Security Alarm Home System went off. “Oh, boy! This alarm will surely let Dr. Fabio know that I am here.” Mia grumbled. She hollered, “Is there anyone here! Help!! Fire! Fire!” Still, no one replied.

-----

After Mia was inside the house, she grabbed her iPhone out of her handbag to call the police. She spoke rapidly to the police operator, “I am Associate Professor Mia Z. Edwards, and I was held captive by Dr. Luigi Fabio. He is the toxin murderer, and he killed my father, Dr. Charles Edwards.”

Mia gave her precise location with the help of her iPhone, the Apple Maps app. She stated to the police operator, “I am in the United States National Arboretum in Northeast Washington, D.C., inside a blue exterior vacation home. Please hurry! The ADT home alarm system was triggered after I broke into this house.”

The operator told Mia to arm herself with something and to hide. She agreed to do as the police operator instructed.

-----

Mia grabbed the telescope from her tote bag and peered through a window to see if she could spot where Dr. Fabio was in the forest. She saw him a few feet away from the home!

Mia panicked and grabbed a cast-iron skillet from the kitchen and hid in a closet. She turned down her cell phone volume, watched, and waited for Dr. Fabio to enter the home. Dr. Fabio came rushing into the home like a mighty wind! All the while, he is holding onto the syringe of toxin. He shouts, “Mia, I will kill you! Where are you?”

As soon as Dr. Fabio walked past the closet that Mia was hiding inside, she burst out of it and smacked him across the back of his head with the cast-iron skillet!! He was knocked out cold, and the syringe of toxin fell next to him on the floor.

Mia heard police car sirens and her name being called through a bullhorn. She ran outside to the police’s awaiting arms.

-----

Fabio’s brother was released from jail.

Dr. Luigi Fabio was sentenced to life in prison without parole. After Mia whacked him with a cast-iron skillet, he has a permanent bump on the back of his head.

-----

Subsequently

It was a long and terrifying day for Mia. She settles in a lounge chair on the roof deck of her condominium, opens the small brass telescope, and searches the night sky for the rare sighting of the Blue Moon. She laments, “Hello, Dad. I miss you.”

Before settling into bed, Mia plugs in a string of multi-colored lights that are pinned around the bathroom entrance, which is between her bedroom and kitchen. These lights are her night lights that help ease her fear of the darkness. She does not like waking up in the dark in the middle of the night.

Mia, diagnosed with nyctophobia, a fear of darkness rooted in the traumatic memory of her father’s murder, finds a bittersweet comfort in gazing at the night sky, which evokes memories of her dad and his tragic death. It’s a confusing mix of emotions. Finally, she mustered the courage to make an appointment with a therapist to help her manage her phobia.

-----

(Copyright © 2026 by Mia Z. Edwards. All rights reserved.)