Here comes the infamous typhoid plague, which I had the pleasure of bringing to life, also, in "Raptured in Re-Animation. :D Tragedy suffered once again, but it's more impactful since it is someone near and dear to our heroine here. :(

Chapter Four

Epidemic Evil

So, by June of 1999, Herbert and I graduated and got our degrees - I got my scholarship, too - but we weren't licensed doctors just yet for a few more years. But we could get employment now with our doctrines since we were both finished with school. My mom was crying and taking our pictures on that day, hugging and kissing us both much to Herbert's embarrassment, though I could see that he was pleased she did.

"We made it," I said as soon as it was just us, away from everyone and near one of the trees which blocked the view. I thought we needed the privacy because of what I had wanted so long to try out with him but never had the chance to do. "We're finally getting away from this place as students. We're going to be doctors someday soon."

He smiled then, his eyes shining, but the resistance was in his tone. "Yes, indeed, but there is still work to be done here. We'll be here for the summer or for how long it takes. Guaranteed it won't be forever."

"No, it won't," I agreed. "There's still so much work to do...and something I've waited long enough to give to you."

Herbert lifted a brow. "And what is that?"

I leaned up and kissed him full on the lips instead of speaking myself. To finally kiss him washed me with the feel of a waterfall - cool and refreshing, but also jolting with the pain of chills. I was chilled to the bone and to my heart mostly because I was afraid of how he would react verbally. His whole body tensed, shocked by the boldness and unused to PDA as everyone else called it. But he brought his hands up to cup my face when we drifted apart. He didn't say anything to me, his blue eyes still shining, telling me he'd been wanting to do that, too. I figured because he was such a genius the work came above everything else, glad I made the move when he was too shy to be the leading man. I giggled softly and shared another kiss with him before a throat was cleared behind us.

"Well, well, lovebirds finally, eh?"

"Dr. Halsey, ah-hm," I said, doing the honors. "Sorry, sir." I looked down in embarrassment, his reassuring laugh not making me feel better.

"No, that's all right, you two. I just wanted to say that I look forward to you two being here for a while longer before everyone misses you. Well, almost everyone," he said with the look to Herbert before nodding curtly and leaving us alone. Herbert snorted and shook his head.

"The fool will stop speaking to me like that someday soon," he said softly, dangerously. "Hopefully soon enough. He's haunted our every steps long enough, and to think of how he finally realizes how blind he was," he added with the secret smile that sent shivers up my back. I really began to feel like our relationship was getting to be more than just science partners and friends even though we never talked about it, not much since Spring Break with Mom.

Speaking of Mom, she took us out to dinner, where we celebrated and just talked about other things that weren't medicine-related, once again. There were times Herbert wasn't exactly interested in whatever Mom said but did his best to pretend he was. He did admit to me he adored my mom, but "not everything unrelated to medical science is always fascinating", as he put it.

We went home later that evening, just him and I for the remainder of the day, and that was when he grabbed me and pulled me in for another kiss. I burst out giggling and put my hands against his chest out of habit, not really wanting to push him away, but he ended it early anyways. "It's your fault I did this just now, Barbara," he told me, his smirk joking but his tone serious. I tried to think of how to respond to that, but had no idea how to. I wanted to take it to the next level but knew it was too soon. We'd known each other for three years - well, less than a year since we never spoke before then - and I didn't want either of us regretting rushing into a real commitment.

But in the following month, the whole town was down struck with the dreaded typhoid itself.

This is the one summer I will never forget, either, for the next sixteen years that would pass. The scourge, sent from hell, stalked through Arkham like the Devil himself, taking every life without mercy. It was also through this summer I lost someone so precious to me...and another loss which Herbert shook himself up after so long of trying to convince he was making a breakthrough in medical science, but led to a brutal conclusion after the plague. A horror known to me alone now that Herbert West had vanished, tied with the Sefton Asylum mishap.

Like I said before, Herbert and I didn't have our medical licenses yet, but since we were the best and brightest and out of school now, as well as making the decision to stay in the summer for more work before moving somewhere else afterwards, we were among those who aided the stricken, the numbers terrifyingly high far worse than the swine flu. I felt my mind and body stressing over how many dead were taken to Christchurch Cemetery, burials made without embalming for donors or anything, but Herbert did not handle this any better than I did.

"So, here we are," he said to me one day, shaking his head, his scowl evident beneath his mouth mask. His eyes were glittering with rage. "We have so many fresh specimens, but none for the work! I suppose we shouldn't be surprised we will EVER get one in this mess." His temper was losing fast; I hated seeing him this way. Herbert had been angry before but never at me; irritated sometimes, but never verbally or physically angry with me. I thought about biting my tongue on this before deciding against it.

"But maybe the one will come," I said, to which he scoffed.

"Oh, really? Do tell me, how?"

"Mr. West, Miss Kane! We got a new one here!"

~o~

Present Day

"What you say is nothing but mere speculation," I said coldly to Mrs. Jensen, more than ready for her to leave now so I could have the rest of the evening to myself in this house. "This town is known for so many urban legends and ghost stories, but superstitious nonsense. My husband was shady, kept to himself, but he was a good man." If only that was wholly true. Herbert had his flaws, but I still loved and believed in him, though there were times I actually wanted to leave before my heart was closed around with the icy fear of making a dreadful mistake. If I'd left him, he would have been killed by one of his own experiments without me there to help him.

The agent scowled at me. "Very well. Be as it is, but I've seen so many mysteries in life, seen so many things nobody understands. I know you and him were hiding something, but I dare not pry because I know too well to never get in too deep and cost my own life."

I hissed angrily, gripping the pen and wanting to snap it, stain my flesh with the black ink. Stain it as my heart and memory were forever stained by the memories. "What, you think I'll kill you to protect whatever secrets I'm hiding?" I sneered. My marriage to Dr. West had changed me more and more over the years.

Mrs. Jensen stood and shook her head. "Of course not. But while I may not be able to prove it, find out what happened, I know." She took the papers from me and stuffed them into a folder and into her purse, snapping it closed. "I'll be back tomorrow morning for the finalization, and then you can start packing and bringing your things over here before the month is over." Her eyes narrowed. "You'll be staying here for the night?" I nodded. Her lip curled. "It disturbs me to know you wish to relive the painful memories for one night here."

Oh, if only she knew.

~o~

16 years ago

"Mom," I gasped, looking over the newest patient who had been announced. Herbert stood by me impassively, as he could ever be. There she was, the only family I had left, wearing the light blue nightgown of a patient, her brunette hair stringy and in a ponytail, sweating and shaking uncontrollably. I should have expected this coming, tried not to, had the damned vaccinations not come in just yet.

Her eyes were glazing when they settled on us in the doorway. "Yeah, baby, it's me," she croaked out, reaching out feebly. I rushed to her side and held it, risking myself to get the influenza. "Aw, now, don't cry," she crooned when I let loose a tear, fearing for her life. How could I not? She was my mother, the woman who gave birth to me and raised me. I could not - would not - lose her now.

"Mama," I choked out. "We tried getting the vaccinations in; they're hard to get through, and so many people have been stricken so fast before they could get it..."

"But we'll do everything we can." Dr. Halsey stood in the doorway, behind Herbert. "Mrs. Kane, you're going to be fine," he promised, even though he doubted it because so many were dead despite his wholehearted energy he put into helping them. But he was determined as much as Herbert and I - well, all Herbert could think of were whether or not we would get a subject finally - to do everything he could to fight the typhoid plague.

I turned to look back at my mom's face. Her skin had a mild yellow hint to the cheeks, the bags under her eyes, and the latter once shining now dull as storm clouds. I wanted to cry more, but I had to be strong so I could save her as I was trying to do the same to everyone else. Dean Halsey did the same, taking matters into his own hands which the other doctors, graduates, and students were too afraid to do because of the danger abroad; Herbert admired everything the dean, his gentle enemy, did for the safety of others, risking his own life in the process. But while, before the month of July in 1999 ended, the dean was worshipped as the fearless savior of the town, I suffered the most tremendous loss of my lifetime, beginning during the plague but before the terror in the streets which eclipsed it.

My mother, Catherine, died on the twenty-eighth of July. She would have been forty-three next month.

I don't remember acknowledging much of anything, but I know for sure my body hurt from crying so much and blubbering nonsense to Herbert and Dr. Halsey when I was a grown woman now. Herbert said nothing as he was known to do, just held me in his arms while Dr. Halsey consoled me and told me he was sorry for my loss, and that arrangements would be made just for me. "You both can go ahead and take her to the autopsy room for now, away from this mess, keep her spared from the others," he told us.

Herbert curtly thanked him and helped me stand. "Please, keep it together," he urged me as he handed me some water and Aspirin for my migraine. "We finally got it. Your mother is the chance we have."

I was shocked that he decided to use Mom as THE ONE. But everything was so disorganized and nobody was paying us any attention, though the dean did give us permission to take her away from here, so it was now or never. Mom wasn't getting any fresher than she was; I wanted her back in our lives if this solution worked. If she survived this, then Dean Halsey would be amazed and hail us, then maybe this would work on any more of the patients who gave in to the scourge... "Don't be thinking ahead of yourself, Barbara," Herbert warned as he sucked out the syringe's amount. "Remember we haven't had much luck with the formula and the freshness."

The autopsy room was empty for now, but we didn't have much time. Who knew when Halsey or anyone else would enter. I hesitantly drew the sheet from the face of my mother; like the one from the potter's field, she looked more like she was sleeping than she was dead. An eternal rest she would never awake from...until now. I prayed to God to let her come through, fingering the cross again, ignoring the snide remark from Herbert. "God has nothing to do with this, sweet. Man does this." He held up his blazing green needle when he spoke, shoving my hand away so he could take her head and lift it up, sticking the needle into her neck.

I waited with him, until the evitable happened. I was on the verge of screaming happily loud enough for the whole school and hospital to hear. Mom actually opened her eyes, the blues vivid but not displaying the emotions I was expecting her to. She didn't seem to acknowledge me or Herbert, said no words, just stared up at the ceiling with a petrified expression. Her mouth was opened, but no words came out; instead, she was gasping and uttering wordless noises of fright and...pain? Her hands rose up, shaking uncontrollably when the muscles contracted, trying to live again.

"Mom!" I leaned over her face, hoping it would get her attention. "Mom, look at me. It's me, Barbara, your daughter! Mom, do you remember?!"

I got no answer, not even a blink - and then my mother collapsed again into the irreversible repose once more. She was gone now, gone for sure this time. I wanted to scream to the heavens, to God for taking her away from me. I was making a grave mistake, sinning myself to hell, but Herbert's words of wisdom returned to remind me that everything was natural and scientific, not spiritual and idyllic. I lowered my head numbly when I drew the sheet back over my mother's again-peaceful face; I wouldn't see her again until the funeral. Or maybe not, because by then - however much longer the typhoid would last - she would be rotten by then, enough for a closed casket, in which I would never see her face before burial.

Herbert shook his head, putting the needle away. "She didn't deserve this."

"No, she didn't," I agreed, throat strained.

The door opened then, making us both jump. Dean Halsey stood there again, frowning at us both. "I was wondering what was keeping you both so long." His beady eyes landed on the covered corpse of my mother. "Taking your time to grieve, Miss Kane?" I nodded wordlessly. "Plenty of time for that later, as much as I offer my condolences, but there are others who need you both now."

We were out of there by then, Herbert scowling and shaking his head. "Bastard," he muttered. "Damn him. He almost caught us." His arm wrapped around my waist to pull me closer to him. "Better wise to not repeat that mistake again," he swore to me.

I struggled with speaking of Mom like an experiment instead of a human being; that was just how it was to me. "Why didn't she make it...unlike the last one?" Given the old Chapman place burned and could have taken our guy with it, but then there was the molested grave. We never encountered it, but Herbert would always look out the window at night, check the locks on the door and the windows, keep the garage locked as well as the car. Everything was on security, but it was mostly Herbert fearing for his own sanity and life. He was calm, but he didn't fool me in the anxiety department.

"The hot summer air doesn't favor the dead," was all he said before we joined the mass hysteria.

Up next: the post-epidemic horror itself. (chilling smile)