Zz.
"Oh, I left my other bag inside," Marcia said aloud to herself as her foot touched the first step. She quickly turned around and walked back up to the front door. She turned the doorknob as the men inside were finally wrapping up the conversation of whether the experiment had failed or succeeded.
"This time, it only attacked when it was threatened," Dr. Morgan re-iterated. "When Barton threw Jed's body into his cage."
"But it still attacked; it killed Barton after the fact!" Borg replied.
"Yes, but Marcia said the marriage to Barton made her feel like a trapped creature," Morgan replied, trying to hide his feelings for her.
"I guess it doesn't really matter in the end," Johnson countered. "The creature is gone. Let's just get out of here."
Dr. Morgan eyed Marcia as she made her way back into the house. "Can I help you with anything?"
"No. You gentlemen can go ahead. I just have to grab my other bag, and the taxi should be here any minute."
"Alright," he said as he grabbed his own luggage. "We will meet you at the airport."
"We will see," she teased. "Since we are flying to different cities."
"For now," He replied as he winked and closed the front door behind him.
The other men had already made their way down the stairs and were waiting.
"Should we give the police a call now...About the bodies?" Borg asked as he loaded their luggage into the back of the car.
"We'll ring them when we get to airport, tell them it was the monster. They already know he's in the area anyways."
"Sounds good," Morgan replied as he backed out of the driveway.
Zzz. Zzzz.
He felt his hands shaking in remorse…Not for his own actions, but for Barton's. Why had Barton killed Jed? Confusion. The love triangle? Rage. Murder. I mean, he had taken a life too, well, a few. But it was different. Barton killed in jealously. Is different. Self defense equals different.
His hands continued to shake, but he hadn't even looked down at them yet. He had been framed for a crime he didn't commit. Yet, I'm sure he wished he had made the advances...Running his half-webbed hands-if you want to call them that-through Marcia's locks. Longing eyes…just wanting someone to love. And for someone to love him back. Who could ever want a face like his; the face of a monster.
But he only killed when he was threatened; when it was kill or be killed. Didn't he? Or did he even know anymore.
At first glance, the greenish color of his hands was still there. However, the webbed skin was almost gone. He groaned loudly, enough to wake the ocean's ancient sleeping beasts. He was turning into one of them. Into a human. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't he go back to the ocean? Besides, that was his first true love. Not Kay. Not Helen. The sea. Would he ever be able to swim as he once did...after everything that had happened?
He had torn through the house, leaving it a mess. But let's be honest, he had every right - Barton had killed Jed for making advances on his wife, Marcia...Then Barton picked Jed up and threw him in cage with him. He didn't kill Jed; Barton did. So what was he supposed to do?
He broke out and put an end to Barton. Did that make him a monster? Or just another almost human? He had to kill. Or be killed because of the blame; because of the frame. If he didn't kill Barton, surely Barton would have convinced Marcia that he was on the one who had killed Jed; no matter what kind of creature-or monster-he was.
Barton was nothing more than a lying coward, and Marcia was everything. He didn't deserve her, and she deserved the truth.
"And I thought the Mississippi was something."
"Testing. One, two, three four."
So many voices. Flashbacks; his head was spinning as he tried thinking straight. He wondered if Marcia had even made it out of the house.
Zzzz. Zzzzzz.
"Where is my bag?" She said aloud. Impossible to find in this mess.
Zzzzzz. Zzzzzzzz.
Running. Running faster, faster. He wasn't really sure why, but something was wrong. He felt it. He was just trying to get away...but something drew him back. ...the house finally came into his line of sight.
Zzz. Zzzz. Zzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz. The electric fence that once kept him from the outside world had long collapsed…Lighting anything the sparks could reach. A blade of glass here and there. A shrub. The sparks licked the heels of a tree.
It wouldn't be long before he heard sirens…He just hated the noise, but something was off. He arrived just in time to see a burning tree collapse into the roof of the house…Flames licked the shingles and found their way into the newly exposed cracks in the ceiling.
He heard a shriek, and seconds seemed like hours as the flame spread throughout the house.
"Help!" It was Marcia! She was in trouble.
No matter how much hate for humanity he had built up, he couldn't let her suffer. As quickly as he could, he jolted up the stairs…passing Barton's dead body to the right. Jed's was back in his cage. By this point, the house was completely engulfed in flames. Why not head on in. Besides, not like he hadn't been burned in the accident...When the men were trying to capture him and take him away from home. That's what had started his awful transition to humanism. Before the fire, and whatever surgery the doctors performed to save him, he didn't even know he had lungs.
He burst through the front door and charted a course through his own rage and wreckage. He glanced into the first bedroom. Nothing. No one. Something had to give; where was she?
After searching in the common area, he tripped over a rug and landed shoulder first into a burning table. He groaned loudly as he stood his feet. He look at his shoulder, his skin was peeling as far as he could see up his neck.
"Help!" She squealed once she realized someone was in the house.
She had to be in the other bedroom.
He glanced at his hands again...He could have sworn the green was wearing off, but it was to hard to tell because of the ashy film that was starting to layer his skin. The smoke was getting dense, and he knew he didn't have much time to save her.
He stumbled into the other bedroom to find Marcia backed up against the wall...flaming bed and dresser in the way of her exit. He looked her directly in the eyes, and she looked back into his. For a moment, before her eyes closed, it felt as if they had connected...At least to him. Does he grab her? Did she lie in his eyes because she knew he was her only hope?
Think fast. He reached under the dresser, gripping it - making contact with the flame. After letting out a loud groan, he forcefully flipped the dresser over on the bed. He bolted through the new path and quickly lifted her up into his arms. He trudged out of the hole in wall where the door used to be. Was this finally freedom?
After inhaling a breath of fresh air, he looked around for a place away from the fire to lay her down. Or should he just take her to the shore as her final resting place?
With her in his arms, he began the walk back to beach.
Sirens finally sounded in the distance. Maybe he should have left her body next to her husbands, but she didn't seem to care for him anyway. Beach is best. And after miles of walking, he finally reached it.
As soon as he felt the sand around his feet, he gently placed her on the ground. Had they connected? When she looked him in the eyes...it was deep. Or was she honestly pleading for his help. He'd never know...But in a way, he felt as if he had lost more than Barton ever did.
He fell to his knees next to Marcia's body, moaned, and began to crawl towards the oceans. He wasn't sure how he had even tolerated the smoke for as long as he did, but it didn't matter. He had been burned. Webbed hand after webbed hand. Except for the first time, he noticed that his hands weren't really webbed at all. They actually looked like human hands. Did that make him a product of his own anger? A product of the Jealousy that possessed Barton to kill Jed? Was he guilty? He still couldn't even think straight.
Another breath of fresh air...but this time the breeze was home to a light hint of salt.
Right before he reached the water, he brought himself to his feet so he could feel the waves crash at his heels. He looked down to see the water washing away the ash. As each wave broke, his skin became lighter and lighter. No more scales, no more green. He was human.
How would his lungs even work in the water? He was still confused and didn't care. He just wanted to be free...moving deeper and deeper into the water.
He thought he heard a faint sound from behind him, but he kept going deeper until there was nothing but his head above the surface.
He heard it again; it was a feminine voice coming from the shore
"Wait!"
