Chapter 6

Leah was deep in thought; she couldn't get the image of that mutilated cell out of her mind. Who would have done such a thing? Better yet, why would they? To make matters worse, no one had seen Toxin since then. It's been three weeks since that happened. Why did she suddenly go missing like that? It was all too much for Leah to think about right now, on top of many other things – like the marks on her body. They were getting worse now, last time she checked the marks had gotten bigger. Not only that, but she was feeling rather sick and cold most of the time. There were days when it was ok, but even they were starting to get less and less frequent.

Leah's thoughts were interrupted by Ozzy knocking on her bedroom door. "Leah? Girl, you awake?" he called out.

"Hm? Yeah, yeah I've been awake for a while now. Come in," Leah replied, brushing her hair out of her eyes and pull up her polo neck further.

Ozzy entered the room, giving her a reassuring smile. Or at least that's what he thought it was. "Hey, you know Carl and Kayley should be here any moment now – don't tell me you forgot about that?" he joked.

Leah laughed uncertainly, she'd actually almost forgotten that they were coming to visit for Christmas, but she wasn't about to let Ozzy know that. "Oh no – of course not! I was just doing some last minute check-ups just to see if everything's in shape around here."

"Ahh – you know I'm just messing with you Leah girl, no way you'd forget they'd be coming – what's it been, like a year now since we've last seen 'em? Yeah, sounds about right!" Ozzy grinned, putting his arm around Leah.

She smiled up at him. "Looks like we'll have to keep the noise down any time we wanna have some alone time, considering Kayley's gonna be here too. Wouldn't wanna scar the poor girl." Leah joked.

"Girl, I'm one step ahead of you – but I can't make any promises!" Ozzy laughed, leaning down to kiss her. She kissed him back lovingly, wrapping her arms around him, only to be interrupted by the sudden ringing of the doorbell. They sprung apart, startled by the sound. Ozzy grinned once again.

"Looks like they're here! Came at a bad time as I was starting to like this little moment we was havin' – but we can continue that later."

He bolted out of the room, crashing into Rex on the way out, sending both of them flying down the stairs yelling at the top of their lungs. There was a rather loud thud once they'd reached the bottom. Both Leah and Roxy walked hesitantly towards the top of the stairs and looked down, fear in their eyes.

"Uumm – g-guys? Y'all all right down there?" Roxy called down to them.

Both of them groaned in response. Leah and Roxy headed down the stairs, while Roxy tended to the fallen idiots, Leah went to answer the door. She opened it to find two familiar smiling faces greeting her.

"Leah!" Carl beamed.

Kayley smiled up at her. "Hello, Leah!"

"Guys, hey! It's so good to finally see you all again! Come on in," said Leah, smiling happily at both of them. They walked on in to find Ozzy and Rex still sprawled on the floor, groaning in unison. Roxy shook her head at them and looked up at Carl and Kayley.

"These two spit for brains fell down the stairs, really don't know what I'm gonna do with 'em," she sighed.

Carl laughed. "Classic Ozzy and Rex right there. You guys need to be more careful."

"We were trying to answer the door to you guys…" Ozzy groaned, he frowned at Rex. "Yo, getcho head off my ass!" he said, pushing Rex away and lifting himself up off the ground, rubbing his sore head. He smiled at both Carl and Kayley. "Man it is sooo good to have you guys here in Frank City! It's been too long!"

"Sure has been, Oz! Can't believe it's been a year since we last seen you all, never actually have been to Frank City before, it's so big!" said Carl, impressed.

"Shoulda seen the way it looked before Tom Colonic took over, the place was a huuuge mess! Now we've got everything under control at long last – 'cept for now with that whole murder case we had there a couple o' weeks ago." Said Ozzy, shuddering.

"Murder case-"

Carl was interrupted by a sudden loud yell. "KAAAAYLLEEEEEEEYYYYY!"

They all turned to the door to find Jacob crouched over on the ground, clutching the bags and suitcases. He looked up at Carl and Kayley. "You left me with the bags!"

"And it was so kind of you to bring them in for us, thank you Jacob," said Kayley sweetly, trying to keep the peace so Jacob doesn't go off onto one of his hissy fits.

Jacob's frown turned into a smile after hearing this. "Well you know I'd do anything for you, my sweet Kayley!"

Kayley laughed uncertainly. "Ahah – of course."

"So you guys wanna head on into the kitchen for some coffee or juice? Drix baked some Christmas cookies, the man's just been getting really into the holiday spirit nowadays. I'm not much of a baker myself, so it's nice having him doing all this for us," said Leah, leading them into the kitchen where they saw Drix taking out a tray of freshly baked cookies from the oven. He grinned at them.

"Oh my – you guys are here already? Splendid! Just in time for some of my specially made cookies too, just got a fresh batch out now. I've been baking all morning," said Drix, proudly. Taking off his oven mitts and placing the cookies onto a plate to join the many others.

"Yep! It's good to see you again, Drix – and those cookies smell amazing!" said Kayley, taking a seat beside Carl as everyone else sat down at the table. Drix placed the plate of cookies in the middle and went off to make coffee for everyone.

"So, Ozzy…what were you saying before about a murder case?" Carl asked, taking a cookie from the plate.

"Oh, right – well a couple of weeks back we found a badly mutilated cell, dead, right in the Diaphragm. It was some messed up shit right there, like you wouldn't BELIEVE! Could hardly tell if it was a cell or not anymore, whoever did that – they were sure messed up," said Ozzy, biting into a cookie.

"And not only that, but Toxin's been missing ever since as well. So we're really worried that whoever did this; might have done something to Toxin too…" said Leah, shivering at the possibility.

"Oh dear, that's very strange indeed… though it seems we also have some pretty disturbing news…" said Kayley, biting her lip and looking up at Carl. He also looked very uncomfortable, putting his coffee down.

"Why, what happened?" Leah asked, her heart beating fast against her chest.

Kayley looked up at her, fear in her eyes. "I'm afraid…well…Thrax has escaped…happened there a couple of weeks back, near around the same time Toxin went missing…"

Leah almost forgot how to breathe, and the room suddenly felt very, very cold. "Wh-what-?" she breathed out, panic in her eyes.

"We did a full scale search of the entire city, we looked EVERYWHERE and covered every inch of the place – nothing. He's vanished…" said Kayley.

"Though we have a sneaking suspicion he might have gone elsewhere…maybe back to the city of Frank…" said Carl, biting his lip.

"Oh God no…no…" said Leah, feeling helpless. "That can't be true…I really hope it's not true…"

But the feeling in the pit of her stomach was practically screaming that it was all too true. The marks started throbbing painfully once more and she suddenly started feeling very dizzy, she held a hand to her forehead. An expression of pain plastered on her face.

"Leah..?" Ozzy asked, getting very worried.

"Leah…you ok?" Kayley asked.

The pain was getting worse and the dizziness persisted, flashbacks of everything that happened in the past year were flashing by her mind at lightning speed – she couldn't breathe, and it felt like there were hot knives impaling her skin.

Suddenly everything went black…

Leah woke up, feeling more cold than usual, she found herself lying in her own bed – the curtains drawn back in her room. Ozzy was sitting over on the seat in the far end of the room, he jumped up when he noticed her awake.

"Leah! Girl, are you feeling ok?" he said, walking over to her.

"I…I think so…my head's still a little sore…" she said, sitting up. She suddenly began shivering violently, everything just felt so cold. "Ugh, it's freezing!"

"Really?" Ozzy reached out and cupped her face in his hands. "You feel really warm though."

"Do I?" said Leah, trying to feel her face herself, but she didn't notice any difference. She was just so cold.

"Yeah and…those marks on your neck and arms…where did they come from?" Ozzy asked, suddenly noticing them.

Leah's hand shot up to her neck, covering the mark. "I….I don't know…look, something freaky's going on and I don't know what it is. Remember 'bout a year ago when Thrax injected me with that poison? I think it's got something to do with that…but why would it be coming back now all of a sudden?"

"Oh shit…damn, that bastard."

"I'm sorry, Ozzy. I should have told you sooner but I was afraid, I didn't know how," said Leah, pulling the covers closer to her.

Ozzy put his arm around her. "Hey, it's ok Leah girl! I'm just worried now though, you don't seem like yourself lately…and what's happening now, I really wanna know what it is, and how to stop it. And with Thrax escaping and all, just know I'll do whatever I possibly can to keep you safe, Leah!"

"Thanks Ozzy, I'm just so afraid…if Thrax is back in Frank, I don't know what will happen. Is he gonna come after me or what?" said Leah, shivering more.

"I won't let that happen, I promise you. But what I do wanna know is what's happening to you now, and what was in that stuff Thrax injected you with to make it suddenly come back a year later?" said Ozzy.

"I don't know, I wish I did! If only there was a way of getting that answer from him, but that's out of the question," said Leah.

"He wouldn't have…gotten you infected, would he?" Ozzy asked.

Leah looked at him, shocked. "Well, I…I don't know…I hope that's not the case but it's the only logical reason at the moment. Why it took this long is beyond me though…"

"I don't know, but something's starting to seem funny around here now…what if that was part of a plan of his. Something he had planned a long time ago. Whatever it is, we're just going to figure out a cure for it. Until then, you gotta try and fight it girl. I know it's not gonna be easy, and we'll be here to help you get through this, ok?" said Ozzy, holding her close.

"Thanks Oz…that means a lot," said Leah, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Looks like we'll just have to let the others know about this as well…"

Author's Note: Heeey guys, guess who's back? Yep, after 5/4 years (wow, sorry 'bout that) I've finally gotten the inspiration and motivation to get back into writing this after re-watching Osmosis Jones, regaining my unhealthy obsession with it ahah. Though the downside to all this is reading back over the earlier chapters of this story - and the first one - and finding my grammar absolutely horrendous. 15/16 year old me was terrible. But I'm back now, 20 years old and ready to write more of this! And hopefully not leave you guys on another super long cliffhanger, if y'all have stuck around for this long that is. XD At least until college starts, then my hands will be full once again. ;_;

Anyhoo, hope you guys enjoy this chapter! xoxo ~