#26 Haunted

"Ack!" Orso Knox screamed as he rapidly thrusted himself upright on his king-sized bed, panting heavily and in a cold-sweat from the nightmare he just had; flashes of teeth, needles stuck in him, her cruel voice coming from somewhere just out of reach, and him doing horrible things against his will. He put a hand to his face to rub his temples as he told himself, "It's just a dream," although the words lost most of their meaning as he had been in this routine most nights. It had been almost two months now since he was free of his monstrous microchip and the woman responsible for doing this to him, but things from that time still lingered; the nightmares, the soreness in his muscles (mainly in his jaws and limbs) and reflexively jumping/twitching whenever his stimulus was too high. The rich man had already been to several doctors who gave him a complete workup each time and was prescribed different sleeping pills and pain meds, but he refused to take any more than a couple a day; he even saw a therapist a few times to get their take on the matter.

She offered what she could, but given the uniqueness of the case, the best she told him was he had post-traumatic stress disorder, which quite frankly he found as a reasonable diagnosis. He knew matters of the mind were often harder to treat short term, but he found his current situation rather unbearable. Orso continued to stare into the inky black void that was his room, with only the city light seeping in through the window blinds to provide any illumination. He then massaged his jaw as it had been aching too, although it was hard to peg if it was somehow residual effects from his mutation or if he had clenched it in his sleep.

Tiredly sighing, the balding man took stock of the situation as he thought, I can't keep doing this. Maybe I can't get everything fixed right away, but there's got to be something more I can do. I've tried going back to work to get some semblance of normal, but even that feels ineffective given how I'm often too tired to engage properly.

Orso laid back on the bed and rolled over onto his left side before he found himself absentmindedly stroking his right arm, feeling the scar on his forearm, a permanent reminder of his imprisonment at the hands of Diane and he couldn't help but wince as he traced the mark. Maybe if I talked to someone that understood, but who? he found himself pondering. The others seemed to be willing enough for the most part, and even then, they're all in jail except for that one lady. Would a visit work or would they ask too many questions again? He continued to wonder as he briefly remembered the police interrogation he got while recovering at the hospital; had it not been for having no prior criminal record, he was sure he would have received worse treatment and more skepticism. Probably wouldn't want to talk about it with me anyway, although I bet they got some mental scars too; maybe different from mine, but still, he glumly told himself as he moved onto his back and stared at the dark ceiling.

The balding man winced again as he felt a spasm in his legs that felt like a hot grip on his calves and they stiffened for 10 seconds before the sensation disappeared. He let out an exhaustive sigh and thought, I may never be 100% again, but I'll do what I can do. Perhaps…Orso then shuddered as a fleeting idea crossed his mind, but it was something he so far avoided giving any weight to. But maybe avoiding it is part of the problem, he found himself wondering as his eyelids finally started to droop. The former mutant proceeded to let out a defeated sigh as he quietly stated, "Okay. Tomorrow I'll talk to her. She may actually know more about what happened than the others and I don't imagine she's been fairing particularly well in light of the atrocities committed under her name. I just hope I'll be able to look at Liv and not crumble under the memories of her twin."

With that, he considered the matter decided (although he was still extremely wary to follow through) and attempted to fall back into an uneasy sleep, tossing and turning for another night.

Just do it. You can't keep this up much longer and continue stalling. Just ring the door bell, Orso scolded himself as he stood outside Liv Amara's modest apartment. It was a two-story place that was dark blue in color with a white trim that had a set of windows on each side of the caramel-brown colored door and an additional pair on the top floor, presumably the bedrooms. Outside there were some perfectly pruned, dark green bushes hugging the wall along with freshly mowed grass, indicating that someone was at least taking care of this place.

For the William Shakespeare expert currently waiting outside the biotech genius's house, he found himself nervously massaging he hands as he paced a little, still trying his best to move forward with his resolution. Finally, he ignored his internal conflict and rapidly pushed the button, knowing he couldn't take it back once he did. He waited anxiously as the seconds creeped by until he heard the shuffling of footsteps inside.

A moment later, Orso heard the click of the door being unlocked to have it then open up to the face of Liv Amara. She had her blonde hair tied up into a ponytail today as well as wore a sapphire blue blouse and a dark grey skirt to go with her heels. Upon seeing the duplicate face of Diane, fleeting memories involuntarily came to the surface in the rich man's mind of evil smiles, cold words and various devices prodding him. No, it's not her, he reminded himself. He quickly shook his head to dispel these visions and with a little more focus, could see Liv too appeared unsettled by the sight of him, looking like a mixture of shock and guilt clearly written on her face.

"O-Orso Knox," was all the blonde woman was able to stammer out before dropping her hand from the door and staring in silence.

The aforementioned man rubbed the back of his neck and warily responded, "I'm sorry if I caught you at a bad time. I've uh, been having some trouble about…you know and thought maybe you'd have some answers or advice."

Liv now shook her head as she processed his words and hastily replied, "Oh! Yes, yes. I'll do what I can. Come in won't you." She then stepped out of the entry way and allowed Orso to walk through, albeit after a little hesitance on his part.

Once inside, he could see the living room on his left, which was painted a soft sage color had various framed photographs of nature hanging on the wall. There was also a giant flat screen TV along with black couches and a small malachite coffee table, which rested on top of a white rug. In front of him, the former mutant saw the staircase leading upstairs to the second floor that was dimly lit from the sunlight pouring in. Lastly to his right, it appeared to be a sitting room with a bookcase along the back wall, an antique clock and a wooded table flanked by two jade green high-back chairs all on top of another white rug.

Liv led him off to the right as she gestured for him to take a seat before telling him, "I'll go get us something to drink."

She started to turn to head to the kitchen when Orso Knox spoke up, urging her, "Please Miss Amara. You don't have to. Come. Let's get this over with." The young woman stopped in her tracks as her face turned to one of hesitance and resign. She sighed and did as the other requested, where they both sat down and caused the chairs to squeak slightly. After a few moments of silence, the balding man gave a small cough and started. "Again, I'm sorry for the random visit, but…things haven't exactly been better since the last time we spoke."

Liv nodded politely as she grew more concerned, remembering the time she was referring to being almost two months ago. He along with the other former mutants had been taken to the hospital to have their monstrous implants removed as well as observe their conditions. The biotech major herself was taken too as her time in stasis and the damage from the parasynths had caused atrophy throughout her body. In a few days' time, the doctors evaluated her and made sure Liv was on a recovery regimen of exercise and nutrition; during those days, the police had already seen that the criminals were returned to jail while Orso was sent home on his own recognizance. Once cleared for release, there was also the young intern Karmi that was seen, but her parents had come demanded she be brought home immediately.

As soon as the doctors allowed them, Liv was informed by the cops of everything her clone and former assistant had been charged with; had she not seen some of the atrocities with her own eyes, she would not have believed it. For those days in the hospital where she was questioned, she had been cooperative with them, even though she thought they may arrest her as well for triggering this cascade of events. Although they eventually absolved her of Diane's actions, they warned her of further investigations possibly arising to ascertain the legality of her own practices. The recovering woman accepted that she had a job to do, and once she was free to access her files again, made sure other abhorrent and illegal experiments weren't laying around.

In addition to returning Sycorax back into a research center for actually benefiting people, Liv had attempted to reach out to those given implants to see how they were faring, mainly from guilt that they essentially were guinea pigs. As she found out, two had done it willingly, two were blackmailed into it and two more were forced to get the chips to become essentially hostages; this knowledge certainly made the biotech CEO shudder with horror at all of the scenarios she heard and had taken its toll on her conscience. The criminals found it odd that Liv wanted to know, but they answered all the same with just some occasional soreness every now and then but nothing severe. She had attempted to reach out to Karmi to offer her sincerest apologies and any reparations she could, but her parents refused to let Liv speak with her given all that happened; as for Orso Knox, he accepted her call of apology, yet claimed nothing was wrong beyond the slight pain, so clearly something had changed or he lied.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of said wealthy man when he gave a small gasp in pain before he proceeded to massage his right hand to alleviate it. Seeing the older gentleman in distress, Liv quickly got up to go to the bathroom adjacent to the sitting room, reach into the medicine cabinet for some over the counter meds and fetch a glass of water to hopefully help him. He accepted the light pain medication and took a swig of water to swallow the pill, followed by telling her, "Thanks. It comes and goes, but I don't want anything too strong; I've got enough problems as you can see." He gave a tired laugh as an attempt to lighten the mood, only to create more concern within Liv.

"So, what all is bothering you?" the young woman inquired as she took her seat again.

There was another moment of hesitancy from Orso as he avoided looking at Liv, then finally steeling his nerves to stare at the duplicate face that delivered so much trauma. "Aside from the lingering pain, some things just seem to trigger my body more to fight or flight mode, like when something makes a loud sound and I jump or too many lights and I shut down." He proceeded to let out a loud sigh and rubbing his hand across his face before continuing. "Things like that, I can accept as potentially never going away and if they don't, well it won't be any different from the other people who have had to deal with these conditions on a daily basis; I'll just have to find the best way to not let it dictate my life, I guess. The thing that I can't seem to get passed or what's really been giving me grief are these nightmares. So many nights lost to them," he sullenly informed her, making Liv give him a look of sympathy and empathy at the lack of sleep part.

"Have you seen anyone about these dreams?" she asked politely.

Orso nodded slowly with a pained look on his face and replied, "Yes, I have. Every week, I go and talk about what I see when I try and fall asleep. The doctor was thinking it's PTSD given the symptoms as well as the let's say "unique" experience I had in receiving the trauma." He paused again as to let out a shaky sigh, clearly bringing the memories to the surface once more. "It was like my mind was a tangled web of pulsating feelings that were so strong, I could barely string a coherent thought together or restrain myself from attacking." Orso then gave an incredulous laugh, making Liv tilt her head at why he did that, only to get the answer a few seconds later.

"But then, after I survived all the poking, prodding and experimentation, I get cured and am finally free, or so I thought." He proceeded to look at the young woman as he stated, "The level of fear I lived with every day for over a month was insurmountable. Never knowing if today was going to be the day I'd change back into that monster except this time, I wouldn't be in charge of my own actions. It just ate me up inside that I couldn't even trust myself not to hurt anyone." Orso's voice cracked as he said, "And talk about dehumanizing when I was trapped in a cage for months on end and fed slop that I had no choice but to eat off the floor; it wasn't like I'd refuse it either because as disgusting as it was, there were some things like hunger that I couldn't even fight with all my might."

He paused again as he took another drink of water, his throat feeling dry from confessing these feelings to someone other than Dr. Marque. "I fought like hell to maintain my humanity while I was being held prisoner by both Diane and my own body." The balding man noticed Liv wince at the mention of her twin's name, but continued anyway. "So much anger, fear and hate I felt and I guess still feel. I just…" Orso now paused as he felt himself getting worked up on the verge of tears, rubbing his eyes with one hand while trying to control his breathing and calm down.

Seeing him in this state, the blonde woman couldn't help but look down in guilt and interject, "No doubt some of which is directed at me."

This caused Orso to stop and stare at Liv again, noticing her trouble looking at him. He also saw some details he had missed when he arrived such as the small bags under her eyes and the start of tears forming; she clearly had been suffering physically and mentally. Seeing her in this distressed state, the well-dressed man asked considerately, "What was it like?" prompting the 24yr old to lift her head and look at him in confusion, so he clarified, "What was it like, being asleep all those months?"

Liv blinked and looked surprised by the question, followed by wiping her eyes with her hand and replying, "Uh, I well…I really don't remember anything. There was just darkness and…numbness. I don't think I even had many dreams." She now looked hollow as she confessed this information, as if now realizing that a huge chunk of her life was lost to nothingness. But if you didn't then you wouldn't have survived, she found herself fleeting thinking. Liv then frowned as her mind countered with, But by doing so, you created a monster instead of just your saving grace. Catching Orso staring, she removed her scowl from her face, avoiding his gaze again for a moment as she let out a deep sigh.

The Sycorax CEO found herself unable to contain it anymore as she lamented, "I'm so sorry Orso. While I may not have been the one to hurt you, I played a part." The tears began to form again as the other looked at her in mild shock as she continued. "If I had just listened and shown restraint, I wouldn't have needed to create Diane in the first place. I thought her essentially being me would have been enough to make her want to be good and help, but the ambitious purpose I gave her left little room for a conscience and she did all those heinous acts in order to save me." Liv now forced herself to look directly at the balding man as she choked out, "I just wish I could have stopped her because one life shouldn't be placed above another and no matter what I do, the damage is done. You must truly hate me." She now covered her face with her left hand and quietly sobbed, letting the guilt she had been bearing visible.

Orso stared at the young woman, unsure of what to say next and feeling a mix of regret and concern from the reaction his words caused in her. He waited a few seconds more before quietly admitting, "The thought had crossed my mind."

This caused Liv to lift her head and stare at the rich man and seeing he got her attention, continued with, "But I never held that notion for long. Now I feel I must apologize as although I knew this visit might upset you, I was hoping if you couldn't at least help with the pain or dreams, maybe confronting the face of the person who did this to me would give me some sense of relief." He then closed his eye momentarily as he let out a deep sigh, shook his head and added, "I can truly see though that you aren't the same person and if I ever muster up the nerve to face Diane, who's to say she would actually feel any remorse or regret for what she did, and I don't think I'd ever forgive her even if she did." Orso frowned for a moment in thought before he proceeded to lean forward in his chair and inquire, "So, I've yet to ask you if you are seeing someone for your troubles?"

The biotech CEO nodded slowly as she wiped her tears away and answered, "Yeah, a little. I unfortunately have had a lot to catch up on from my sleep as well as combing through everything to make sure all of Diane's diabolical experiments are gone."

The older man gave an understanding nod and replied, "Well, I'm glad you're doing something. I can only imagine how much worse it'd be without help." There was silence for a few seconds before Orso spoke again and slowly asked, "What do we do now then?"

Liv sighed and tiredly replied, "I don't know. Medication can help with the pain, but anything fast for the mind will probably do more harm than good, and from what you told me, you don't want to become numb to the world to make it go away. Time and working through it may be the only thing. I'm sorry and I wish I could do more. That's all I want."

Orso listened to her words, frowning in realization at what she said and considerately asked, "And what about your health? Is there some treatment to help you out?" He then gave a sympathetic smile and added, "It won't make me feel better if you neglect yourself for me." The balding man paused again as a thought occurred to him and he said, "Would doing something like this more often be a good idea, as sort of a group therapy? If memory serves, I wasn't the only one dealt a bad hand by Diane, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to reach out to them too." He proceeded to briefly look away and admit, "I don't know whether this will really help, but I want to try. I can't go on like this." Orso then let his head fall and shake it to emphasize his fatigue, garnering a look of concern from Liv.

Her expression softened to one of the consideration as she worked through the possibility. He was right in there was no guarantee it would be a success, and she may not get any responses from the others (although she hoped to reach the young girl Karmi at the very least due to her circumstances), but to do nothing would likely achieve nothing. Liv sighed once more and gave a small smile as she reached her hand over and put it on top of Orso's knee to get his attention. After he looked up, she finally told him with complete sincerity, "I promise to see this through and do whatever I can."

The balding man returned the small smile now and simply said, "Thanks."

The two then sat in silence for a few more moments before Orso cleared his throat and slowly stood up out of his chair, causing the other to do the same. "Well, I'm sure I've taken enough of your time and again, I'm sorry if stirring all this up was a bit too much."

Liv shook her head and dryly replied, "It's all part of the process, isn't it?" She proceeded to put on another small smile as she began escorting Knox to the front door and added, "I just hope it works too. I'll let you know soon what happens and please let me know if anything changes; I still can't let myself off the hook so easily for everything that's happened."

Once at the entrance, the 24yr old opened the carved door again and let her unexpected guest leave to return home. He flashed a weak grin, indicating how physically and mentally draining the experience was and walked away. With the door close, Liv just rested her head on the wooden panel in front of her and let out a few shaky breaths, clearly still burdened by her guilt. She stood like that for 30 seconds before she steadied herself and began her work, adamant to keep the promise she just made and was already heading for her phone to make the uncomfortable but necessary calls; she would do her best to remain hopeful that now some real healing could finally start for those most in pain.

NOTES

I hope you found the conversation between these two reasonable for what they most likely are feeling even though we've had barely any time with Orso or Liv comparatively. Sorry if this one was really sad/depressing, but what Orso went through had to have done something lasting to him, whether it was the being experimented on part, being held hostage, forced to attack against his will, or all of them. ;_; I do plan on writing one of when Orso was imprisoned by Diane at Sycorax, but don't currently have an ETA. :/

Well, now my stories are all caught up with AO3 and FanFiction, so sorry to those that got use to a story every week as the next story will be in 2 weeks, followed by every 3 weeks after that. I like to have a few stories stockpiled in the event of writer's block/not writing as fast because I'm occupied writing other stories (I'm on a big Fizzarozzie kick at the moment ^_^333), so that's why I've had to slow my pace down.

The next story will have Olivia go over to Fred's place for the first time. :)