Seventeen-year-old Lena finds Dr. Czyszczak’s dental office hiding something stranger than any school check-up, and one glowing vial may be only the beginning.
Lena had never liked the school hygienist’s office. It smelled like mint, disinfectant, and lectures she did not want to hear. Every visit ended the same way: a lecture on brushing, a pamphlet about cavities, and the uneasy feeling that someone had just looked too closely into her mouth.
But since Dr. Czyszczak took over the surgery from pensioner Maria, the place had stopped feeling ordinary.
He was in his forties, sharp-eyed and oddly cheerful, with pockets always bulging with travel-sized toothpaste in every colour imaginable. He handed them out as if they were sweets. The old surgery had been transformed into something between a lab and a magician’s workshop: mirrors, a dentist’s chair, test tubes lined up by size, wires curling around a metal tray, and, on the highest shelf, a small pot holding a carnivorous plant Dr. Czyszczak called Plateusia.
Lena came in after lessons to collect her dental certificate, the one she needed for the school trip. The corridor outside was empty, the light already fading into evening. She was reaching for the door when she heard Dr. Czyszczak inside, speaking in a low voice on the phone.
“Yes, the sample is ready,” he said. “If it works, the kids will never be afraid of brushing again. I only need to check one thing tonight.”
Lena stopped so suddenly her fingers tightened around the strap of her bag.
The room went quiet for a second, and then she saw him place a small vial on the countertop. It was lit from within, glowing an impossible blue, as if someone had trapped a piece of winter lightning in glass.
Then came a hard, frantic knocking at the window.
Not a tap. Not a branch in the wind.
Three sharp blows, urgent enough to rattle the frame.
Lena held her breath. Dr. Czyszczak turned toward the sound so fast the phone slipped from his hand. The blue light trembled on the desk, and Plateusia’s leaves seemed to shift, slowly opening.
For one frozen second, Lena could only stare. Then she realised someone, or something, was trying to get in.