Surprise

The next morning, Rosella was spending her time alone in the living room before she received a call. She wondered who it could be since Elrod said he was going to be away for a week.

"Hello?"

"Miss Pearl."

"Dr. Zyme?" Why was Elrod's colleague calling her? "Is something wrong? I don't usually hear from you over the phone."

"Please listen, Dr. Purvis has something he wants you to see," he explained, sounding… nervous?

"Wait, Elrod is still there? I thought he was leaving on personal business for a week."

"He knows he told you that, but he changed his mind and really wants to show you something. He insists you come as quickly as possible."

"O-Okay," she replied, "thank you for letting me know. I'm heading out."

"Good, he'll be very glad. Good-bye," Dr. Zyme concluded, hanging up the very next second.

"What's wrong with Dr. Zyme? Was he in a hurry? And why did he call to tell me about Elrod's surprise instead of himself?"

And why did his plans suddenly change like that? Something felt very peculiar here…

000

Rosella stood outside of the building of MegaKat Biochemical Labs, still pondering what the sudden surprise here was.

She walked in, grinning at the sleeping guard Amel, then rode the elevator. While she waited, she thought she should be happy that at least she could see Elrod instead of waiting a week.

Still, what did he have to show her at the lab? Maybe there was a successful experiment he wanted her to see? Maybe something to help with the environment? She hoped that was it. They both cared about the welfare of nature, and she always cheered for him to make a difference, big or small.

Eager to see, she smiled when the elevator reached her destination before she made a beeline for the lab whose door was opened ajar.

Confused, she stepped in to see how dark it was how it first felt…empty. "Elrod? I'm here."

Where was he?

She didn't like the silence that came with the darkness. Her heart jumped when the door was closed behind her. Looking behind her, she thought it must be Elrod. She wasn't off the mark.

What stood out from the shadows were unfamiliar…and scary! Yellow eyes that glowed eerily. Their owner stepped out to reveal himself.

Rosella covered her gasp when she got a good look at what sort of looked like a tom kat, but he had no fur. He was bald, but that wasn't what was shocking. His bare skin was green! Two different shades up and down his strange body.

"Wait, his tail…? It looks reptilian." And she knew her reptiles. In fact, on his head, instead of hair, three long, black fronds were sticking up.

What frightened her the most were his thorn-sharp claws on those bony, lizard-like hands and the fangs in his long muzzle.

Terrified when she knew he had her trapped, she fell on her knees, shaking like a leaf as she braced herself whatever fate he had in mind with her.

"Who are you?"

"You don't have to be frightened," he assured softly. "If I wanted you dead, I think we both know you would be by now, wouldn't you?"

Blinking in realization, she breathed quietly to calm herself. There was another, more important question she desperately wanted answered. "Please, where are Doctors Purvis and Zyme?"

"Dr. Zyme is in, but he isn't present at the moment," he replied, sounding like he didn't want to talk about him. "And as for Dr. Purvisss, well, try to guess."

Riddles? This intimidating being had her and the doctors hostage, and he wanted to play riddles? Wait, he was wearing a lab coat himself. And his upper torso's skeletal structure and his voice looked and sounded familiar.

No, it couldn't be. It couldn't! But the similarities and the hinting tone in his voice…

"Elrod, is that really you?" she asked carefully.

"Yesss, my love," he affirmed a bit giddily, his eyes glowing brighter from the emotion as he slowly stepped up to her. "I know I look… well, horrifying…"

"What in the world… happened to you?" She didn't scoot back, but she felt even more scared than ever. This had to be a nightmare. This wasn't her fiancée.

"I can… honessstly say this wasn't an intention by me or anyone else," he started to explain, refraining himself from touching Rosella whom he wanted to help be placate.

"Then… this was an accident."

"Yesss, but I am still your Elrod," he conciliated. He extended his right hand. The looks of those claws made her flinch a little but the way he held out his appendage was the same as how her boyfriend would do it.

Needing to know if this was reality, though hoping for his sake it wasn't, she cautiously touched her fingers on his smooth, green flesh.

The snake-like feel didn't frighten her at all since she had a love for snakes and was accustomed to reptilian skin. What she paid the most attention to was if the way he would touch her was also just like Elrod's way.

This…person gently wrapped his fingers around hers. Her eyes slowly looked to his face whose eyes began to water as he nicely gripped her hand that he brought up to his left cheek to nuzzle it in her palm. He closed his eyes that shed tears as his right hand held her right arm.

"Elrod cried with tears of joy when he and I said we love each other."

This must be Elrod.

"I was afraid I would never see you again," he whispered, never letting go.

"You mean… whatever caused this…? Did it hurt? And did it hurt so much that you thought you were going to…?" she asked, her voice shaking as she shed tears of fear and grief at the thought of him suffering such agony and even almost... "Oh, Elrod…"

The thought of his near-death experience made her lean against him, wrapping her arms around him, having no fear of his mutated appearance at all. It was whatever the awful pain that caused this that terrified her, a metamorphosis that could have easily killed him.

Elrod looked at her with a relieved smile that she wasn't scared of him before comforting her by kindly pushing her back to wipe the tears on her face, very delicately so not to pierce her skin with his sharp claws. "Shh, it doesn't hurt any more. I'm all right now. Believe me."

He held her right hand as he resumed drying her cheeks. She stopped sobbing to reach her left hand to his right hand. It was cold, but the tenderness underneath was still there.

"Is there a way to cure this?" she asked softly, holding on to his hand. "Is Dr. Zyme helping you? Is that what you meant when you said he isn't here?"

Was that why he had Dr. Zyme call her so not to scare her with his current voice?

Instead of answering, he brought her in for a tight hug to her astonishment. "I'm ssso glad you're here," he whispered. "I… can't bear for you to leave my side."

His touch indicated he meant it, but his body language felt like there was more to it. He refused to loosen his grip on her.

Did he need her help? He should know she would do anything, especially now of all times.

"I won't leave, not now," she promised, holding him, too, rubbing his back in solace. "I'll help you in whatever way I can every step of the way."

"You… just have to be here," he acknowledged, not knowing what else to say.

He shook a little as if he was dying to do something. He leaned back, his arms around her back tightly before he leaned forward to press his extended lips on hers.

Rosella blinked, not because of how different it was to be kissed by his green, scaly mouth but because his touch seemed to be saying he was forbidding her to go anywhere.

Was he afraid she would afraid herself eventually? He was wrong. She knew who he was. The next thing she knew, his new snake-like tail that he could now flex more wrapped around her torso, her arms gently pinned to her sides.

Then he carefully had her on the floor, never taking his lips off as he held her face that he caressed. His hands shook when he did. He took a look at her as they took a breath.

He closed his eyes as he pressed his lips further than he had a minute ago. She felt the tip of his tail reaching for her head to stroke her hair and neck.

There was something definitely something odd here. It all felt like he was saying over and over, "Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid."

"Elrod, please stop feeling so insecure." She held still to let this comfort him as much as possible, not noticing how his tail was keeping her arms and wrists perfectly still.

He opened his yellow eyes a little, a hint of regret in them as he quickly pulled something out of his lab coat pocket without her looking, injecting it into her right arm.

She gasped which was stifled with his mouth still on hers. She was feeling very dizzy, but good at the same time. His coils finally loosened so she used the opportunity to hold his face to stroke her fingers on his muzzle.

She wasn't entirely in her right mind because of the tranquilizer serum in her. She stopped thinking about how he was putting her to sleep and only cared about embracing him.

The remorse in him turned into bliss as he gently picked her upper torso off the floor, holding her exactly as he did when they admitted their affections at the park years ago.

"We're going to be very happy," he spoke in her left ear as she started to lose consciousness. "No matter what it costsss."

She heard him, though he sounded like he was far away as her head was put on his left shoulder. Because she was so out of it, she smiled in comfort at what he was saying as he picked her up.

"That's…good…" she breathed before everything went black, feeling him hold her closer.