Chapter 4

Cain slowly awoke much later, the sun softly shining. He was alone, no one having come onto his land. It was private property, and no matter how much science geeks wanted to see a meteorite, they would get in legal trouble for trespassing. And since the fire was out, no one called the fire department. So, he had spent the last 4 hours passed out in the dirt, having the strangest dreams he had no hope of deciphering. Opening his eyes at a soft wet feeling to his cheek, he sees a black snout near his face. Moving slowly, body oddly sore, he picks up Balthazar, the tiny pup curling up in his arms, content now that Cain was awake.

The cube was missing, Cain looking around him for it but it was like it had never been. If the crater hadn't been near his feet, he would have thought the entire thing to be a dream. Elizabeth crawled into his lap, his companions giving comfort and support in their own way. This entire situation was just plain strange, Cain reaching up to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but pausing when he sees the palms of his hands. Odd symbols covered the skin, almost like they had been seared on although the skin was smooth. Choosing to ignore this for now, mostly to avoid panicking about this impossible situation he had found himself in, he slowly stands up, planning on just going about his day and try to forget what had happened the night before.

Bringing his pets inside, he feeds them and heads to shower since he was covered in soot and dirt. Once he was clean, he makes breakfast, then heads to gather up his hose, ignoring the crater. Perhaps if he believe hard enough that nothing had happened, then he could go about his day without freaking out over the symbols on his hands. The symbols that he could strangely understand. It was a broken string of symbols that meant life and bounty, or it was the closest translation his mind came up with. He chose to ignore this, making himself believe he couldn't understand strange symbols seared into his hands.

It wasn't until later in the morning he was bothered, a couple of kids wondering if they could see the crater, maybe grab any asteroid pieces before the local news station came to do a story about it for the paper. Shrugging, he lets the kids in on the rule that they wouldn't touch anything else. Taking them to the crater, he could tell they were disappointed that nothing out of the ordinary was there. They assumed the asteroid disintegrated on impact. Cain let them believe that, the kids catching the newspaper worker who came by, giving their interview, all the hype over the crater done in about 4 hours. He was thankful to be left alone, wanting to just forget about the crater in the woods.

Thankfully, the rest of his day went as normal as any other, the strange morning he had leaving his mind. He filled in the crater the next day, and event eh symbols on his palms started to fade. The strange event left his mind, Cain leaving it behind him. The strange cube, the images, the odd dream, it all started to fade in his memories.

That is until something new strange happened. In his shop, a couple of weeks after, he was opening a box of supplies when the knife slipped. It sliced his finger, making him hiss at the slight pain. Strangely, the pain wasn't as bad as other times he had cut himself accidentally. He looked at the wound, staring as the skin did not bleed. Instead, the skin in the wound almost looked... metallic. He stared as the skin slowly melded back together, like it had never been cut.

Cain slowly sat down in his desk chair, staring at his hand, trying not to hyperventilate. "This is not happening.." No one's skin just... knitted back together. At least, no one real. His hand trembled as he brought the knife back up, nicking himself again, just to watch the process repeat itself. Cain tried to make sense of all this, wondering just what the heck was going on. The symbols on his hands had disappeared a while ago, but he couldn't help but be aware of the strange morning weeks ago. The cube.. had it really done something to him? Where had it gone?

All of this was giving him a headache, getting up and heading inside, petting Balthazar to help him feel better. Static seemed to cling to his hand though, making the fur stand up and Balthazar whine, squirming. Putting the pup down, saddened and a little creeped out, He sat on the floor next to his pup. SO he couldn't even play with his pets anymore? His freaky skin apparently holding electric charge? This sucked. He wanted to be able to play with, hold and love his pets, not avoid them.

Sighing, he heads to his room, laying in his bed and staring at his hands. They looked normal, like nothing was wrong with them. It made him curious though. Finding a knife, he nicks his leg, hissing as blood welled up. What the hell? Was it only his hands then? How did that make any sense? Was it the freaky symbols? Did it give him super hands? How dumb was that.

Whatever it was, he was determined to ignore it. Besides making fur stand on end and giving him super skin, nothing was really wrong with it. It's not like he could go to a doctor for this anyway. If he did, he would probably be kidnapped for a government experiment of something. No thanks. He decided to just keep tabs on it, Make sure nothing else happened. If that stupid alien cube did something to him, he would not be happy.