Origins
Summary: I can't ignore this feeling in the pit of my stomach. – A man's descent into something less than human.
Disclaimer: Firefly/Serenity belongs to Joss Whedon and associates.
…..
My wife and I have been married for one year and seventeen days. We went to an upscale restaurant for our anniversary and I tipped the waiter forty-two dollars. He smiled brightly and took eighteen steps back to his friends where he talked to them about the huge tip the guy over there had given him.
It seems important to keep track of numbers these days. Because some days don't feel like they happened at all. And I can't ignore this feeling in the pit of my stomach that says that things aren't good. Something isn't right and it isn't going to get better.
Three days after our anniversary my wife couldn't get out of bed for work.
"I'm tired," she said. I couldn't blame her; we had been a little wild the night before. But when the next day and the next, she wouldn't even get out of bed for food, I was worried. It made me angry. I yelled at her, screamed. She merely turned tired eyes on me and fell asleep.
It was on the thirteenth day after our anniversary that I snapped. I pulled her out of bed and threw her on the ground. I screamed, I yelled, I kicked her in the stomach and laughed as she coughed up bile.
After the rage passed my hands shook as I went on my knees to her, not caring about the slime ruining my pants. I had just beaten my wife and I had never felt such shame in my life. She cried as I held her and I whispered my apologies.
It only got worse after that. I had never thought that I would be one of those husbands, but what did it really matter when my wife never saw daylight, let alone other human beings? It is ironic to think that we had moved to this planet to settle down and start a family. But they say nothing is ever easy.
I went to work one day and so few people came. I laughed to myself, thinking maybe it was time for a promotion for yours truly. But when I confronted my boss, and he looked like death had warmed over, he said no, and to get back to work.
Things like that had never made me angry before, but this was just ridiculous. I was one of his last employees still coming to work. This time I didn't stop kicking. There was bile and excrement all over the floor, mixed with blood.
All around me people were laid out, against their computers and on the floor. I pulled at their hair and scratched at their faces. They slept on.
I left.
They were not interesting.
I contacted a friend. It was eighty-seven seconds before he answered.
"What?" he snarled. I quirked a grin.
"Meet me at the town steps."
"Why?"
"Be there."
Fourteen minutes later we stand side by side with the small conglomerate of our people still remaining. Eight of us are wearing only pants, two of them are women. I lift an eyebrow at our appearance and then laugh. My laugh...it's hysterical and lasts for at least eleven seconds. I hear others joining my hysteria.
Somehow, as a group, we start heading in various directions, the scent of violence and insanity finally beginning to permeate our minds.
La Belle Mio
I narrow my eyes and step towards the restaurant. I don't know what it means. I don't know what it is. But something seems right about this place.
Exactly 0.24 seconds after I step in I remember.
My wife and I were married for one year and seventeen days. We went to an upscale restaurant for our anniversary and I tipped the waiter forty-two dollars.
I look to my right and there is my friend. I look to my left and see the man who was my waiter.
He screams as I rip into his skin, my friend laughing by my side as we bite into the flesh.
He tastes like tomato sauce and bleeds like it too.