Dear Mr. Stevens,

I am writing this in the hopes that you will realize your mistakes.

Of course, by the time you read it, it will be too late to stop the events from unfolding anyway.

Maybe I will become one of your regrets; the way coming to you is one of mine.

I should have known that you were too narrow-minded to comprehend my genius, to understand that I was giving you a lifeline, a reason for existing. You could have been a part of something the world has never seen, and yet you chose to insult my intelligence and turn me away.

You never stopped to consider that you weren't the only person who I could turn to for assistance. All I really needed from you was permission and funding, instead I had to find it elsewhere, a plan B if you will.

But it was your doubt, your reluctance, your use of the words 'unhinged' and 'suspension', that led me to this. If you had just granted me the money for test subjects, all of this could have been avoided.

You see, in our story I may have thrown the grenade, but you were the one that pulled the pin.

I wonder how you will feel when all of this comes out. I am not stupid; in fact, I have above average intelligence, so I know there can only be two outcomes to this. The first is that the world will agree with you and insist that I be locked up for my 'crimes'. The second is that I will go down in history for my invention.

In the latter scenario, you will immediately cease to exist, a mere stepping stone on my path to greatness.

What will you do then?

You never truly understood the essence of fear, and that is one of your biggest mistakes.

Get ten people in a room and ask them what their deepest fears are, and their answers will all differ.

Snakes, spiders, needles, rats.

But it's all relative isn't it? After all, one person's fear is another's pleasure.

In truth, you do not know your deepest fear until you are faced with it. If you had asked me years ago what mine was, my answer would have been heights.

Recently I have discovered a new fear, one that is more terrifying than anything I have ever known.

I began to fear that I would die a nobody. It would wake me up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat as I pictured the fact that, once I died, I would cease to exist. My name would vanish along with people's memories of me and in fifty or a hundred years' time, it would be as though I never walked this earth.

Does that thought not terrify you? Probably not, I doubt you are even able to grasp the gravity of the situation. Let me try to put it in simpler terms for you.

There are so many things about fear that you have yet to learn.

Fear is more than just the feeling inside your gut. Fear is the sweat that drips down your forehead. The trembling in your body. The taste of metal on your tongue. It is the tears that leak from the corners of your eyes. The blur in your vision. The clenching of your stomach. The tightness in your chest. The ringing in your ears. The hair on the back of your neck standing to attention.

Fear is the panic that clenches around your heart, swallowing it whole.

But how much fear can one person take? Has anyone died from being so terrified they felt as if their lungs would burst and their heads would explode?

This is one of the many things that we shall soon find out.

I hope you are ready, because there is a tsunami heading in your direction. What will you do when you realize that all fingers point back to you?

Will you run? Will you attempt to lay the blame on someone else?

You see, fear does not restrict you, it motivates you. It is fear that causes us to do unspeakable things.

Get those same ten people in a room and place a gun in the middle, telling them that only one can make it out alive. They will all scramble over each other to get to it, to be the one that pulls the trigger.

What will be your motivating factor? The thought of jail? The realization that you could have prevented all this? What about the guilt that will be sure to follow? This is after all, your fault.

Are you scared yet? Do you feel fear? I can't help but wonder what you will do in this situation. Reach for the gun? Or wait for someone else to blow your brains out?

Maybe next time when one of your employees comes forward with a request, you won't be so quick to dismiss them and label them 'dangerous'.

Maybe you will finally learn your lesson.

Until then, I will leave you with one final thought to keep you company.

The blood is on your hands.

Sincerely,

Anna Baker