I don't understand anything anymore. This was supposed to be easy, find the antidote and go. As I stumble through the darkness my hands graze across the wall telling me which way to turn. Every time I pause I hear the echo of my footsteps. The paranoia tells me someone is following me but it is too dark and too silent to know for sure. I take small steps and eventually see a promising light up ahead. Forty steps later I find myself by a flaming torch mounted on the wall. It gives off just enough light to show me the entrance to the lab. I feel around the wall until I find a light switch. Once the lab is illuminated I spot the antidote.
"Dan!" Well crap. I was being followed. At least I recognize the voice.
"Brian stay away from here, and from me." Not being able to touch him since the incident a couple weeks ago was agony. I can't hurt him though, that's why I had to end things. As long as he doesn't screw this up, things might be able to go back to the way things were.
...*2 weeks earlier*...
I woke up in Brian's arms, his presence reminding me it is Sunday. I get out of the bed, carefully, not wanting to wake him. I gaze at his cute sleepy face wishing I could stay in bed, listening to his heart beat as we talked. But I have to go into work today.
The restaurant was busier than usual; at least that means more tips. Thirteen hours later I clock out, leaving at 1am. The long hours should have tired me out yet I'm wide awake. I decide to use my time to go get some pink lemonade cookies at Target, so I get in my car and start my drive. I take the country roads as I drive through the darkness. I didn't see a single car or light, and the darkness somehow grew, getting darker and darker as I continued. With my eyes focused on the road I barely noticed the glow of what could only be an animal's eyes. The glowing eyes dart across the road in front of me. I hit my breaks, trying to avoid the animal. The second I feel a thump on the front of my car a jolt of electricity enters my body and a static shock runs through my veins, leaving me paralyzed for a moment. I quickly regain my composer, put the car in park and get out to examine the damage. I step out of my car and immediately hear a small growl.
"I'm sorry," I say to the mystery animal. The growling stops and is followed by the whimpering of a dog. I can't believe I hit this poor dog! I approach the dog and drop down to my knees; I reach out to pet the dog, apologizing yet again.
"Don't touch her!" A man's voice shouts at me.
"I'm so sorry I hit your dog! I'm just glad she's alive," I respond to the faceless voice.
"Oh please you didn't hurt her. You sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine. And what do you mean I didn't hurt her!? I hit her with my car!"
"Uh… she's not what you think. I'm a scientist. I've been working with cross genetics, Lily here is my test subject and she's highly unstable. My experiments, I don't know what I crossed to cause it, but she appears to have… "
"Have what?" I ask curiously.
"I really shouldn't say anymore."
"Well why is she out here? Shouldn't she be in a lab or something?"
"Darn thing ran out on me again, it's difficult to control her. We should be heading back to the lab now." The man reached for Lily's collar with his gloved hands and clipped a leash to her. I watched as the man walked away with Lily, but after three steps the darkness swallowed him up and he disappeared. "Well that was… weird," I spoke out loud wondering what could be so secretive about cross genetics. I shrug it off and continue my journey to Target, wanting to get home to hang out with Brian as soon as possible. When I arrive at Target the parking lot is empty. I walk into the store and speed walk by the sales so I can get home quicker. I turn into the sweets aisle and run into a young blonde woman. The second our skin touches I feel a small static shock. Time appears to slow down, almost coming to a complete stop as the shock continues. I see an image of this girl walking to her car and getting beaten and mugged. The vision and shock cease and I'm confused as fuck.
"Sorry," I mutter walking past her to get my pink lemonade cookies. What the hell just happened? I usually don't imagine strangers getting beaten. I must be more tired than I thought. I try to tell myself it's nothing as I approach the checkout. "Having fun on night shift?" I ask the six foot boy working the register, making conversation.
"I wouldn't call it fun exactly; I would call it paying for my college education though," He says as he rings up my one item.
"It's still Target, it's better than a lot of other jobs," I respond.
"True. $2.89 is your total." I swipe my card and type in my pin "Here you go, have fun baking," he says handing me the bag. Grabbing the handle my hand touches his and I feel yet another static shock. My mind decided to mess with me yet again as a vision of this boy enters my mind.
Someone who could only be his boss appears and says, "This isn't easy, but I have to lay off some people." The boy looks sad and confused. "I'm sorry Mark, I have to let you go." I snap back to reality realizing I only missed a millisecond because we're both still holding onto the bag. I walked away wondering why this was happening. The automatic doors open for me, but behind me I hear the same voice from my vision, "This isn't easy, but I have to lay off some people." Okay, what the hell is happening?! I continue walking but I hear the man finish before the doors close, "I'm sorry Mark, I have to let you go." My mind jumps to that dog Lily, well apparently she's not a dog, and I guess the proper term would be mutation. Is it possible she is the reason for this? Walking to my car I try to think what exactly happened when Lily ran in front of me.
"Ahhh!" I hear a girl scream, interrupting my train of thought. I can tell someone must have put their hand over her mouth because her scream sounded like it was interrupted. That girl in Target. The one I ran into. I had half a mind to run over there but I don't want to get tangled up with this guy. I decide to call the cops and let them take care of it.
"There's a guy in the Target parking lot beating and mugging some girl," I spit out once someone answers. Realizing I left out important information I quickly add the address. They ask me to stay there until someone arrives fifteen minutes later. Well this has turned into quit a night, I can't wait to get home and snuggle up in bed with Brian. Wait, I can't do that! Each time I touched someone I had one of those horrible visions. I can't let anything happen to Brian. I can't really explain this to him, though! He would tell me I'm crazy and sleep deprived. There's no way he would even believe some genetic mutation could alter me and give me, what do I want to call this? A sixth sense? What CAN I say to Brian? 'I can't touch you and you need to leave' doesn't sound like it would go over very well. Why did this happen in the first place? I didn't touch the dog, that guy yelled at me before I could! When I hit her I thought it was just the shock of hitting something that paralyzed me for a second. What if that shock was actually something to do with her? I continue asking myself all of these unanswerable questions until the police arrive. They park their car near mine and we both get out. "I heard her scream over there," I say, pointing straight ahead. "I wanted to help but I didn't know how."
"You did the right thing. I'm officer Nick Mellos. So what exactly did you see?" He asks as his partner goes to examine the girl.
"I didn't see anything, I just heard her scream. And by her scream I could tell someone put their hand on her mouth."
"You told the dispatcher the women was beaten and mugged."
"Oh I…" I began to say. I can't explain this to him because I didn't really see it, but I did see it! "It just sounded like she was being beaten. And I guessed the guy must have been trying to get something from her."
"Well I'm glad you called, but you shouldn't make assumptions." Just then his partner walks back over to us.
"Nick, she's unconscious, and has some pretty bad cuts and bruises. There is no identification or anything on her person though."
"I saw her in the store!" I chimed in. "She had a big brown purse. That's all I know."
"Okay well you can go home; we'll take it from here." With that I got in my car and drove off. I've never been happier to leave Target than right now. This is all too freaky. The worst part is I can't have Brian by my side to comfort me. When I arrive at a red light I check my phone, noticing a text from Brian saying "Where are you peanut? I need someone to cuddle with!" What could I possibly say to him to keep him from touching me? I feel like I should be able to come up with a better plan, but the only thing I can think of is make him mad enough to not want to sleep in the same bed. I guess it's time for our first fight. Now I just have to think what we can fight about. The only problem is even if I successfully pull this off he'll want to make up in the morning. A fight is temporary; if I want to keep him safe I can't be with him anymore. I love him more than anything, how am I supposed to break up with him? I'd rather make him break up with me, just so I don't have to say something that I clearly don't mean. I have one idea, I'm already so sorry for this Brian. Before I walk in I take off my lemon and line bracelet and hide it in the glove compartment of my car. Then I walk through the door hoping Brian believes my bluff.
"Where were you peanut? You should've been home an hour ago."
"Sorry, I uh… went out." I say, scratching my cheek with my left hand.
"Hey where's your bracelet?" He's going to hate me for this.
"Shit it must have fell off at his place," I mumbled loud enough for him to hear.
"What? Where were you?" Brian asks, trying to take in what he just heard.
"Oh, I uh… nowhere. I mean…" I say, purposely stumbling over my own words.
"Dan, you're a bad liar. Stop being so mysterious and just tell me. You're making this sound really bad. I mean, I can't imagine it's what you're making me think." I tried to make my face as stern as possible, trying not to break down then and there.
"I'm just going to save you the trouble and say it is what you're thinking." I pause, watching the hurt start to form in his eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Really?" He says shocked, almost like he doesn't believe me. I try my best to stare into his eyes with an 'I'm sorry' look. "We've been together 11 months, almost a year," I can hear the catch in his throat, I have him on the verge of tears, "and you're cheating on me?!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to find out like this." I say, avoiding eye contact.
"You mean you didn't mean for me to find out," he says in anger, tears running down his face.
"Look, I think's best if you sleep on the couch tonight, and then leave first thing tomorrow morning." He has no idea how much this is killing me.
"Gladly." I don't know what else I could have done, anything less would have led to that static touch, and who knows what I would've seen. I go to my bedroom and lie down in my bed, forced to think about these past few minutes. That look on Brian's faces will haunt my mind forever. The worst part is I can hear him crying in the living room and I can't go comfort him. I feel like shit knowing I caused him so much pain, but touching him could do so much worse. Now that I'm away from Brian tears flood down my face as I silently cry myself to sleep.
I open my eyes and shift my gaze to the clock. 12:41. I continue lying in my bed for another thirty minutes before I get up. On my way to the bathroom I check the living room and see Brian already left. Thoughts of last night consume me as I shower. I try to push those thought aside but the thoughts that follow aren't much better. I can't touch Babz either. No one. Any human contact could cause someone unemployment, physical violence, I don't want to know what could potentially be added to that list. I decide then and there that I can't live like this. I can't keep living without human contact. I have no idea where to start, but I need to find that scientist. I remember his words as I scrub conditioner into my hair, "She's not what you think… highly unstable… ran out on me again." That's it! If she's been running out on him I need to know where that is and wait for her to appear. After my shower I grab some special K bars, a pack of Oreos, and a couple Dr. Peppers and take them with me to my car. I sit in my car and reach for the glove compartment. I open it to retrieve my bracelet then decide against it, it'll only make me think of Brian. I pull the seat belt across my body, hearing the click when it snaps into place. I put my key in and listen to the purr of the engine as the car starts. I drive to the spot I hit that dog. At least I think this is the spot, it was pretty dark last night. Conveniently there's a carpool parking space not too far, and close enough so I can see her if she's running around.
I don't know how frequent this dog runs out on that guy, I may end up having to stake out this spot for a while. I hope it only takes a few days, maybe a week. After an hour of sitting here I'm already bored. I start to entertain myself with a game on my iPhone, candy crush, but I try to keep an eye on the window for the most part. As I get hungry I snack on my special K bars and Oreos. As the hours pass I see nothing, honestly I didn't expect to see Lily, just hoped. By 1 am I decide to go home and get some sleep.
The next day I do the same thing, I bring my snack and keep an eye out for the dog or the scientist. By Thursday I decide to come a little later, thinking she would only appear at night. I also did a short vlog in my car that day catching my viewers up on what was happening in my life, aside from this whole sixth sense thing. I didn't say anything about Brian because I keep telling myself once I find this guy he'll be able to help me somehow. I go home at 1 am like usual and render my video. I'd stay up to edit and upload it but I have to work tomorrow, so I'll do it in the morning. Shit. I can't go to work like this! Imagine what could happen to a customer if I accidentally touch them! My manager will be pissed but I'll have to call in sick. I set my alarm for 8 am so I can call in as early as possible.
When my alarm goes off I call into work using the best sick voice I can make. My supervisor picks up the phone making me feel even worse about calling in.
"Hi Keith, I know I'm scheduled to work all weekend but I think I have the flu."
"Oh no, are you alright?" He asks.
"I woke up around 4 am and had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Would you be able to find a replacement for me for the weekend? I don't want to get anyone sick."
"Yeah I don't want you barfing on the customers. Just call and let me know as soon as you're better. I'd rather not have you out for three days, you're one of my best servers."
"Alright." Honestly that went better than expected. Keith hates it when people call in or ask for time off. I hang up the phone and go to my computer to upload yesterday's video. As soon as I'm done I crawl back in bed and fall back asleep. I'm not going to lie, it felt nice to sleep in on a day I was supposed to work. Four hours later I woke up and made my way into the kitchen. Opening the fridge I found a package of bacon, so I decided to cook some of it up and make a sandwich. I fried a couple eggs, stuck two slices of bread in the toaster and waited for all my food to be done. I assembled my bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and sat at the table to eat. Something as small as this sandwich, Brian's favorite sandwich, made me think of him. I miss him. I'd do anything to fix this and get things back to how they were. That's why I need to find this scientist! He'll probably have something that could help, I don't know what, I just keep hoping he'll have something. I spend my entire weekend looking for him and his dog, but no luck. Sunday around 4 pm I get a text from Brian. "Where are you? I want to talk." He must be here in Connecticut. I don't know what I could possibly say to him, so I leave it unanswered. Three more days go by and I'm beginning to think it's a lost cause. When I wake up Thursday morning I hear Babz whistling out in the family room. After checking the time I realize it's not even morning, it's one in the afternoon.
"Good morning sleeping beauty," Babz says as I walk out of my room.
"Morning," I respond sleepily.
"I was looking for my sunglasses earlier and checked in the glove compartment of your car, I didn't find them but I did find your bracelet," Babz said pulling my bracelet out of her pocket. "I don't know why you had it in there but I figured you'd want it."
"Sure. Just put it on the table, I'll get it in a second." I didn't want to risk touching Babz while retrieving my bracelet.
"Why haven't you been wearing it?"
"I guess it was kind of mine and Brian's thing. You know we ended things last week," I say, unsure of putting it back on, it just didn't feel right.
"It's still a cute bracelet, and I'm guessing it holds a lot of happy memories," She looked at me like she was concerned, "You haven't seemed like yourself these past couple weeks. I just want you to be happy."
"Okay," I say picking up the bracelet and clipping it together on to my left wrist, "Well I'm going out. I probably won't be back until late." I go find some jeans and a navy blue V-neck and drive out to my stake out spot. Coming out here to look for this dog has become routine and I hate it. I want my life back but I don't want to cause anyone any pain. Like usual the hours go by and I see nothing. I keep looking at my clock: 7:42… 8:56… 9:41. "What was that?" I ask myself, thinking I saw something move across the road. It appears to be nothing, but I keep watching. After a couple minutes I see something. Something that could only be that dog Lily pop off a grate in the road and dart out. Does this guy really have an underground lab? I wait a couple minutes to see if the scientist would come out, but I don't see him. I guess I'll have to find the lab myself.
I get out of my car and run over to the opened grate. Thankfully there is a ladder that I use to climb down and step into the grossness of the sewer. Something tells me this scientist guy is a little shadier than he lead on. Who has a lab in a sewer? I get my phone out to light the way through the darkness. I stay to the side following the path of the sewer. With each step I take I can hear the echo around me. This seems sketchy, I'm starting to get the feeling this guy wouldn't want me in his lab. As I continue towards what I hope to be his lab paranoia starts to build inside of me. What if he's following me? I guess if I don't trust him I could always touch him; although I'll probably need his help figuring this whole thing out. Why does this have to be so complicated? I see something glowing up ahead and make my way to the light. I find myself by a torch mounted on the wall.
"Well this seems a little out of place being in a sewer and all," I say, thinking out loud.I look forward and see the entrance to a large room. The floor drops down slightly as I take a step into the room, and I run my hands against the wall hoping to find a light switch. My hand lands on something that I hope is a light switch and I flip the switch. Twenty feet above me four large bright lights flicker on as I begin to examine the room. I look around for some sort of vile or beaker, anything that looks promising. A cabinet labeled "Cross Genetics" seems like a good place to start so I walk across the room and look at everything in the cabinet. It all seems too scientific for me except one label: Lily's bite remedy. Feisty pup, she must have bit the guy working on her. I open the cabinet and grab the beaker.
"Dan!" Shit. Someone really was following me. It's not the scientist guy though, I recognize the voice too well. My eyes shift to the entrance of the lab, landing on the boy I love.
"Brian stay away from here, and from me." Of course he starts walking towards me. I look at the contents of the beaker; it's liquid but it has the consistency of shower gel. This better work, I think to myself as I pour some into my right hand and rub it over my arms. Aside from the warmth of the gel, I don't feel anything. Something tells me this isn't working. Taking a quick look back on the label I read "if you come in contact with Lily, rub on infected area." I never came in contact with her; this stuff won't do me any good! Brian's getting closer to me. I can't let him touch me! I run across the lab, not sure what to do now, but my priority is to stay away from him.
"Dan! I don't know what the hell you're doing but stop it! Come back here!" I glance behind me to see Brian chase after me. I take bigger strides and suddenly my feet find a hole in floor.
"Ahh!" I scream as I fall into a large hole in the floor. What the hell was this guy thinking when he designed the place?!
"Dan!" Brian yells, seeing me catch myself with my right hand. Shit this stuff is slippery, I think as my fingers slowly start slipping. Brian kneels down in front of me, "Dan grab my hand!" He says quickly, offering me his right hand. I notice he still has his bracelet on his wrist.
"I can't," I say, not wanting anything bad to happen to him. I don't care what happens to me, I need to know that he's safe.
"Don't be an idiot, grab my hand! I'm not going to stand aside and watch the love of my life fall into god knows what!" The tips of my fingers slip off the edge as soon as I shoot my left hand up for Brian. I feel the tug when he grabs my hand as I start to fall. I also feel the shock. I can feel the electricity on my fingertips as he pulls me up. Brian's face begins to form in my mind. No. NO. This can't happen! All I can see is him, in this lab. The electricity slowly runs through my fingers. A bright light starts to form in the vision. The shock begins to run out of my fingers. The white light glows around him as the electricity runs across my palm; it begins to leave my hand. I can feel the electricity concentrate on my wrist, as if something stopped it from moving any farther. The light starts to covers his body. It shines throughout the vision and throughout my mind. "Thank god you're okay!" I hear him say. He wraps his arms around me and the second he closes his arms to wrap me in a hug the electric shock sizzles out. The white light shines so bright it completely covers the vision, not allowing me to see anything.
"I love you." I say finally wrapping my arms around him in return.
"I know. I love you too."
"And I never cheated." I spoke, desperately needing to explain myself.
"I know."
"Wait," I say letting go of him. "What do you mean you know?"
"I dropped by your house Sunday morning. I didn't really know what I was doing there, but I found myself in your car. I opened your glove compartment and found your bracelet. You didn't leave it at someone's house did you?"
"No." I answered, ready to explain myself. "You wouldn't have believed me if I said…"
"What are you doing here?!" An angry voice yells from the opposite side of the room.
"Shit, we gotta go!" I say to Brian, looking over at the scientist with his dog. Something told me he wasn't a very pleasant person. We run for the entrance and towards the ladder that brought me down here. "This is the closest thing to urban exploring I'll do with you!" I say to Brian as we run through the sewer. I can start to see the ladder as we get closer. "Almost there!" We make it to the ladder and Brian climbs up first.
"Shit!" He says.
"What?"
"The grate is back on. I'm not strong enough to get it off!" He says pushing on the grate. I think for a second.
"I know someone who is." I say, looking back at the guy running towards us. "Lily!" I yell out, and I hear her paws hit the ground twice as fast as any other dog. "Brian get out of the way, you don't want her to touch you."
"You think a small dog is stronger than me?" We hear her bark, telling us she's coming. Suddenly the little ball of fur comes running out and jumps into the air, head butting the grate and unblocking our path. "Okay, she's stronger than me." Brian admits, quickly climbing out. I follow behind him climbing as quickly as possible. Once I'm out I move the grate back in place and jump on it to get it back securely in the ground.
"Get back here!" The scientist screams as I stomp on the grate. We run to my car and look back, watching Lily run off.
"Well that was fun," I say sarcastically, looking at Brian. "So what are you doing here? Don't you have work today?"
"I was able to get the day off. Why don't we go back to your house and we can talk." Brian points out his rental car he got for the day and we both get in our cars and drive to my house. Walking up to the front door Brian starts to explain why he was in town. "I came here over the weekend too. When I didn't see you at the restaurant Saturday I kind of stalked you down on Sunday," I opened the door and we stepped into the empty house, then he continued, "You didn't go to work and then you just sat in that spot all day. I knew something weird was going on with you. That's why I came today. So what happened to you?"
"I knew you wouldn't believe me, but maybe you will now. I ran into that dog, Lily, with my car. Apparently she's some kind of mutation or something, that scientist guy didn't say much. He said something about her being a test subject for cross genetics, and that she was highly unstable. I guess something about her affected me. I had horrible visions of anyone I touched, and they were all coming true. I couldn't let that happen to you. I think I'm better now though, because when you saved me something inside of me stopped me from having that horrible vision. I didn't want you to help me because I didn't want to touch you, I didn't want you to have to experience whatever pain I envisioned." After our little adventure into that lab he has to believe me.
"I've already experienced the worst pain I can think of, breaking up with you. And as for your visions ending, falling into that hole and dangling there probably spiked your heart rate. Your heart pumped more blood into you and-"
"Rationalize it all you want," I say interrupting him, "I'm just glad everything is back to normal."
"In that case," Brian gave me a loving look and grabbed my left hand with his right, "Will you be my boyfriend again?" This small gesture made me so happy as I gave him the biggest smile.
"Yes." I leaned forward to kiss my boyfriend, something I have desperately wanted to do for two weeks now. My lips formed perfectly onto his upper lip. I instinctively place my hands on his waist, not wanting to let go. I pull him in closer to me, pressing our bodies against each other. "You're staying here for the weekend, right?" I ask in-between kisses.
"Absolutely. I just got you back, I'm not going anywhere." Brian presses his lips against mine yet again, our lips molding together perfectly as if that's exactly where they belong.