Chapter 14 - Regrets
The loud ring of a telephone jolted Dr. Haylen from her nap in her new office at B.O.W Tech. She loved this new job, but now it was staring to get...well... a little boring. The phone rang again, but suddeny stopped, when Haylen's friend, and supervisor Ginger answered it. Haylen yawned, then strecthed her arms. "I wish this job was a little more hands-on." she sighed to herself, as she began to meddle with a paper clip. "But much LESS hands-on paper!" she laughed.
She crossed her arms, and leaned back in her chair contently... and boredly (?). "I hope Craig and.... I hope Craig is doing okay. Hm... Maybe I should call him, just to see how he's doing!" Haylen reached for her phone picked it up -- then Ginger walked in. Haylen jolted, hung the phone back up, and smiled.
"Got work for ya, hun." Ginger grinned. She plopped a good 5 pounds worth of paper on Haylen's desk. Haylen looked at the papers dully, then back up at Ginger. "This's torture!" she sighed. Ginger laughed. "No-no-no-no-no! The head guys down at Level GF8 say they interviewed someone about that new virus... you know, the one Steve has?"
Ginger asked. Haylen perked up in her seat.
"Info on the T-Veronica!?!" she screeched. "Yeah! That's it! So, I just got you the transcript... thought you'd be interested in reading it." Ginger smiled. Haylen nodded quickly, and got to reading. Wow, info on the T-Veronica!! Any news was good news!! "T-Thank you!" Haylen managed to stammer, as Ginger began to leave the office. "You're welcome." she replied.
Numerous tears streamed down his face, as he clentched the aluminum baseball bat like it was a child to him. Craig was now back in his room, crouched and leaning against his door. He sobbed, and held the bat closer to him with his trembling hands. His thoughts were racing now, he... he began to think this wasn't real anymore. Was this a game? No, it was real. Aunt Sue had a real...something...up there.
Craig lowered his head. Was is a hunter? No... Too human. Was it a tyrant? No... too much like a hunter. Well, whatever it was, it was... he slammed his fist against the wall. What exactly happened back there? He tried to remember the details, but everything... everything moved too fast. All he could remember was his loud scream, and how he felt when he swung the bat at the creature's head.
What a thud sound he had made! The sound of the bat, bashing against the monster's head!! He remembered then that he ran in a panic out of the attic, and that out of the corner of his eye he did not see the monster come after him... no... it stayed behind, withdrew in pain, clasping his head.
Craig breathed heavily as he glanced at the sprinkle of red blood on his fingers. The blood wasn't his of course, it belonged to that... thing. Of course, Craig figured that he swung the bat pretty hard. His stregnth already with his adrenaline would be a deadly combination. He sighed again and stood up. Drooping the bat on the floor, he walked up to his bed an collapsed on it, head in the mattress.
"Why would Aunt Sue keep something like that up there!?" Craig thought to himself. He wiped his tears, and sobbed again. "Why am I crying?! Did I do the wrong thing? It's just a B.O.W--" He flopped over and stared at the cieling, the tears still streaming down his face. Yes, it was only a B.O.W... but if was was just that, just a B.O.W, why would someone like Aunt Sue treat it with such care?
Why would she even bother to talk to it at night? Why would she bring it food so it could survive? The reason why he was crying was not because he knew that he had hurt a B.O.W, the reason he was cying was because he knew he had hurt.... a friend.