Here we are! It's been a while, but here's another chapter of Supernova. Thought I'd try a new writing technique to make things a little more interesting and show things from different perspectives. Here's hoping it threads together a nicer story. Let me know what you think!
I won't say too much more, because I'd much rather see what you guys and girls, my readers think. Wow I'm repeating myself.
Let's get started!
Propagation
Hurt like a bitch to think straight. What the fuck was going on here? Audrey sat upright and gave her surroundings the once over. A hotel room. The cheap kind. She'd spent enough time in them escaping her dad's nasty turns to know. Flaky paint that peeled. A cracked mirror in the corner. Yellowed walls stained with smoke, and a dirty television set airing a shitty shopping channel. Some dumb bitch selling jewellery and trinkets by the looks of things.
How in the fuck had she gotten here? Why did her throat feel so sore? Not only was that... she wore a bath robe! A frightened rasp of breath fell out as she sat upright. Did she get drunk last night? Crazy blitzed even? Not even the worst night around town in her life felt this bad! Audrey nursed her head with her hand, tried not to panic.
She had to keep it together. She had to keep herself ticking over!
"I remember..."
A fuzzy fragment, almost too frightful to relive. A cold winter night. A nice guy. Until he pulled her into the alley 'round back of Lusties. Her voice was muffled by claws! Fucking claws! She'd tried to get away... and that was when she'd seen his face.
Blue and scaly. Kinda human but kinda not. Spittle and drool dribbled from his sharpened knife fangs. He let out a laugh, dulled her frightful screams with a needle in the neck. It was black after that. Black and cold as all fuck. Sickly liquid had filled her lungs. She thrashed and screamed, trapped inside a watery cell. And the last thing she could pick up without her head spinning out of control... a voice.
"If you can hear me, Miss Belrose, you're safe. I will escort you to safety unharmed. You have my word."
Well-spoken and stuck up as shit, but somehow it made her feel safe.
Audrey forced herself back, looked down at the blankets wrapping her body, cream with some tacky floral print. She pulled them down, drawn to a deep, grey scar trailing along her stomach. Just looking at it scared the hell outta her.
"What happened to me?"
The tips of her fingers hovered just above the gory marking. It didn't hurt... not that it mattered! Her perfect body... it was ruined!
Inching closer and closer, she prepared to touch against her tarnished skin.
A hoarse cough stole her attention. Distant but deep and painful. Audrey didn't think twice. Her heartbeat rose. She snapped in the direction of the sound. It was way more normal than the angry snarls of the mutant creep who'd nabbed her.
Seconds burned out. The coughs didn't stop. They weren't so much coughs anymore. More like choking!
Audrey found her feet and leaned up with shuddering legs against the wall. She tied the cord of her bathrobe and made slow, heavy steps. Fuck... the nasty choking wasn't easing off. Sounded like her old man after chaining eighty smokes and drinking his sweaty ass into a heap on their musty couch!
"A'ight Audrey... keep your shit in check," she whispered, met with a grungy sliding door just past the television set, beside the alcove mirror.
She reached for the faded handle, split halfway between stopping then and there, and finding whoever was making all the damn noise.
This damnable body still continued in ardent protest despite his best efforts to fight on. Markus heaved for air, fingernails scratching against the bathroom counter beside the edges of the sink. He'd not give in. His blasted physiology could rebel as much as it damn well pleased. He'd not escaped a murky warehouse laboratory to collapse to his knees in a place like this.
The man who stared him back in the reflective glass bore deep, dark rings around the bloodshot eyes of blue, alongside an unnatural glint to the iris if caught in the light. Somewhere between magenta and an alien bluish-red.
Markus shook his head in defiance, his tensed. Pain befitting that of a sharpened knife tore into his chest.
"D-damn it," he coughed hard. The dualistic beats of his heart shot hard and fast in warning.
Markus, his inner voice called out, that of the beast within his blood. We still have much that we must do. Hold yourself together and leave this place. Chrull's trail is cold.
"I am aware. Oh G-" Pinkish red spattered the inside of the pale white sink. Mark fell to his knees in exhaustion.
In the back of his mind, a beating drum within his chaotic, heightened senses began to sound. The door to the bathroom swung open. He had not the strength to move. He merely hung his head low and honed in on the droplets of unnatural lifeblood pattering on the grubby tiled floor from his lips.
"Fuck!" The vulgar declaration of a most catty sounding lady. Feet pattered with nervous pacing closer. Warm hands touched against Markus' bare shoulders. They frantically brought him upright again. And together, with a petite madam of intense hair of a blood red hue, the prodigy fixated upon his reflection.
"You alright? Fuck's up with you?!"
Miss Belrose had awoken. And not a moment too soon. For that Markus was must grateful indeed.
"I'm not well, miss... I must admit."
"No shit! Let's get your ass sat down." Audrey helped Mark, taller as he was, and most unshaken by his naked state, from the bathroom to the lounge. One foot at a time he inched, his pace kept with that of his small-time savior, until he reached the edge of the bed.
"My thanks," Mark wheezed, his lungs loosening, regaining a hint of dignity by covering his natural form with a bedsheet.
"You talk like something out of those crappy fifties tube flicks," Audrey appeared to be lost in pondering, a hand rested upon her chin as she pulled out a rickety chair from beside the dresser. Her pasty features fell low into a most displeased expression. "Yeah... it's you. It's gotta be. Wrung out as fuck or not."
"Excuse me," Mark spoke up, disregarding the subtle twitch of offense he felt toward such a stark generalisation. Audrey frowned, however, displeased.
Hands on her hips, one leg crossed over the other, and the redhead leered.
"Were the fuck am I? And who the fuck are you? How come I could hear you in my head when I woke up?"
"My name is Markus. Markus Kane. I believe that you, much like myself and many others are a victim of the current phenomena which plagues this town. At present we are in a small apartment in Downtown Glenberry. It once belonged to a business contact of my father."
"The blue guy," Audrey shivered at such a mention, visibly frightened, still partway lost to her own thoughts. "Reminds me those boring sci-fi nerd movies Nikki always made me watch..."
"By a 'blue guy', I assume you mean an alien, miss."
"Alien?" Audrey scoffed indignantly hard, halfway between laughter and a mocking roll of the eyes. "You mean the slimy, four-eyed probing my ass and a tracker up my cooch kind. Oh please! Fuck. That. Shit. They're not real."
"Not real?" Surely Miss Belrose spoke in jest. He'd found her suspended in a tube of liquid and she refused to see what was plain as daylight? Mark restrained his irritation. "Do not fool yourself. Think hard about the moments leading up to your awakening here. Please, I implore you."
"Suuuure, whatever you s-" Audrey paused, grabbing for her temple. Doubling over she let out a sharp, piercing yelp. "Oh shit... M-my head."
"What's wrong?" Markus closed the gap. Audrey hugged her legs against her chest and whimpered.
"T-they grabbed me," she cried out. "Jabbed wires into my arms and legs... and stuffed a tube up inside my fucking-"
Audrey cried out. Sweat crawled down her forehead and she flopped in a small, fragile head upon the mattress. She scrunched her eyes shut in abstract terror, only opening them again when Markus gave her shoulder a pat of assurance.
"It was real. And It's ripping my head apart thinking about it... The glass smashed and I heard you talking to me."
Audrey looked Mark in the eye. "Who the fuck are you, really? Feels like I've seen you before, now I think about it. S'weird. You help me cuz you thought I'd blow you to say thanks? Sorry but no!"
It was for the best, most assuredly, to tell the truth, despite the crudeness Miss Belrose so readily brought into the open.
"I'm a friend of Mike Winters. I'm the manager of his band. That is likely where you've seen me before. He's talked about you several times."
Audrey flinched, shocked at the very least. She gathered all of the strength she could and sat upright.
"Mike?!" Audrey's surprise became something of a bewildered snort. "Fuck me... You helped cuz you know pretty boy? Wait... hold it!"
A snap of the fingers. Audrey looked down her nose in realization.
"You're that rich kid he hangs around with. Drives that flashy car and smokes fancy cigars all the damn time! Great... another classy asshole. Did Mike send you to get me or something He looking for me? Shit... there's a shock!"
"I am afraid not," Markus shook his head. "Does it look in my somewhat beaten state I was sent to your aid? If anything... You and I are victims alike."
Mark paused, held his tongue. His final seconds upon Celeste's ship raced to the forefront. The ticking timer upon the hydron cube. Winters standing there, fearfully beside a mortally wounded Luvendass. The way he looked Mark in the eye before a flash of light most blinding. And most dishearteningly of all, the very last thing he said.
"I'll… be fine…. I see that look you got there Mark... I chose to help you 'till now. Don't feel guil-"
A heavy, miserable sigh. Mark averted his gaze. He dared not face Audrey head on.
"I'm sorry, Miss Belrose."
"What for?"
Such ice and bile from the young woman. It was almost as though she knew of the reason behind his apprehensiveness.
Mark felt the pressure of the world, a dead weight hang in his stomach.
"Mike is dead. My inability to protect the city thus far... cost him his life. He is gone... because I failed him. He offered to help out of his own kindness. And when that crucial moment came... I was unable to do that which was required of me."
"You're shittin' me. D-dead? You playing a sick joke on me for a pity fuck? Back off or I'll knock you flat..."
"I wish it were... but sadly it isn't."
Audrey fell into silence. Her hands squeezed tight around the fabric of her robe. Tighter and tighter. Hollow and devoid of shine, her ruby eyes quivered. She got to her feet, sparing nary a hint of consideration. Quietly she left Markus on his own, shutting herself inside the bathroom. The click of the lock behind her ripped through the shroud of sickening silence.
Whimpers echoed from behind the door, faint at first.
Those whimpers turned to sobs.
Markus rose from his regret, crushing it into the depths of oblivion. He released his clenched fist, looking with thought into the palm of his scarred hand.
"Failure a second time is out of the question."
A low groan. Mike stirred, woken from the best sleep he'd had in days. He traced the faint flickers of light through the blackness of the lounge. His phone? Who was sending a message this late at night?! Shaking off his groggy haze, he looked around for signs of his roommate.
"Celeste?"
No sign of her, at least in the lounge. She'd fallen asleep against his chest a few hours back. A quick nap after a long day of trying to figure out human words thanks to her glitchy communicator. That was what Mike had managed to pick up from the series of hand gestures he'd been given, at least. Alien speech took some getting used to.
"Huh. Maybe she's sent a message to my cell through some of the fancy space tech she uses."
First things first? A wakeup slap. Reading in the dark after a lengthy rest was a pain.
Mike reached for the television remote, thankful he'd remembered where it was if nothing else, and gave it a quick whack. The screen flickered on, giving a low light. The local news? Yep. There was no mistaking Glenberry News' top reporter, Christine Carmine. That flashy red blazer and striking black hair. She was the first one on the scene of any breaking news story.
Looked like she was stood outside the front of a store tonight, smashed windows and a kicked in door.
"-reporting from the Downtown district. At around 3am alarms flared to life, waking nearby families as someone broke into the local gun store. G.P.D are still looking into things, but so far we have solid report that several sidearms and a pump-action shotgun have been stolen. Gang activity is suspected. This is the second break in since this morning, after a small clothing store on the edge of town was also hit. Only a small handful of items were taken, including a pair of cargo paints, a black vest and red summer dress. So far these incidents seem unconnected. More news to follow."
Mike shrugged, hitting the mute button on the remote. A re-run of the early news. With so much crazy shit happening lately a few idiots hitting local stores was the last of his concerns. Rolling his eyes, he brought his Huniebee from his pocket. Hold on a sec!
His eyes widened.
One message from Audrey.
A wave of relief like nothing before it washed over. Mike breathed a sigh.
"You're safe? But... they didn't report it on the news... Who am I kidding? Thank God you're alright, Audrey."
He swiped his finger across to pull open the message.
'Sup, pretty boy? Not come out and told anyone yet, but I skipped town for a while. Just got back tonight. Get down to Lusties before they close and buy me a drink already! Don't usually give guys that break shit off with me a second chance... consider yourself lucky. I'll be waiting 'round back... Tonight's gonna get craaazy!'
Mike set his phone aside checked his watch.
"Ten. Still got plenty of time if I leave now."
With Celeste out for the night, what point was there sitting around here? Audrey had been gone for weeks now. Mike had been worried sick! He had to get down there and check everything was okay, especially since she'd taken the time to contact him first, before anyone else!
He grabbed for his wallet from the coffee table.
Wallet? Check! House keys? Check!
"Hold on," Mike smiled hopefully. "Be there before you know it."
To be continued...
Thank you for sticking around until the end of the chapter I hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to share your thoughts then please feel free to leave some feedback. I'm grateful for all of the support. As always, keep on supporting Huniepop and Huniecam Stuido and I'll see you again soon. Thanks again!