The following story is just that, A Story. This is a work of fiction based on the story telling of the Hi5 studios YouTube channel Project: 863. None of the "Villain's" in this story are real nor is the Syntec Laboratories. There are no government contracts between said fictional company and Military. This is considered Fan Fiction.
Names of Real businesses and people in this story are:
Hi5 Studios of California. (The name of the company has been changed since the time of the first writing, It is now known as 'Spellbound Inc.')
Matthew 'Matthias' Fredrick, Woodland 'Woods' DeMar, Samantha Fekete, Michael 'Mike' Badal and Izzy 'The man stuck with fixing every hole the team kicks into the walls, lol;)'
Any names appearing, or names of some businesses not already mentioned above are by pure coincidence.
In a city in central California is a building. That building is the center of a lot of odd activity. It once housed an entire Biological Science Laboratory named Syntec. The founders goal was to create medications and treatments to better the world. His vision was to quote: “Our goal at Syntec is to progress civilization through science for the good of everyone.”
Founders, Nelson Syphus, Wesley Nathaniel, and a third co-founder yet to be identified created Syntec. Together they made breakthrough discoveries that caught the eye of the Military. Because of this contracts were made between Syntec and the Military. The secret to these projects have not been discovered at the time of this writing. After Fire, Corruption, Manipulation and Betrayal Syntec temporarily closed it's doors in the original building to move out and expand to more facility's nationwide. During the move trouble brewed.
A man with his own vision Matthias Fredrick moved his YouTube channel into part of the building. Creating a studio for gaming and other creative outlets. Little did he know that the secrets of such a move would soon come to a head. After finding a Key with the number 863 written on a piece of tape stuck to them, strange things started happening at the HI5 studios.
~Prelude~
7:43 pm Syphus leaves Blue base at HI5 studios after injecting himself. He had been staying in a Hotel. In pain and needing somewhere to crash he wanders around till he finds an unlocked apartment complex. thinking he would just crash in the halls until morning he looks for a corner to lay down in. By this point he is delirious and sweating. his skin is cold yet on fire and he can’t feel his fingers. The Injection sight is burning as well as his body. Not knowing what he is doing he fumbles around in the dark hallway. Stumbling he slides down in front of a random door accidentally hitting the door bell on the way. Everything goes in and out after that. By now it is 8:15pm.
Chapter 1
~Finding Him Again~
I'm trying to sleep but can’t. The Nightmares won’t leave me alone. “Forget it.” I mumble throwing the covers off. I look over at the clock seeing it’s only 8pm. I went to bed right after getting home from work at 7. I thought I would be able to sleep get an early start on my next couple of days off but...nope. The couple next door is fighting again, I can hear them through the wall separating our living rooms. There wasn’t a cheaper place to rent so I had two options, this place or the street. Being new here I did not want to be homeless. Although I doubted I would get mugged, unless by a drug crazed pedophile. It’s not that I’m ugly or anything. I’ve been told I look intimidating. “Pretty but intimidating at the same time, a friend once told me. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and just when I was about to run a shower my door bell rings.
“Who the hell?” I ask to no one. “If its that idiot next door I am going to let her have it.” I say to myself as I exit the bathroom and cross the living room. “She should just leave his ass, she’s not stay....” I don’t finish my sentence as when I open my door I see a man crumpled up on my unwelcome mat, Literally my welcome mat says GO AWAY’. He’s dressed all in black and at first I think he is a bum looking for handouts until he looks up. Through his face mask he hoarsely calls out “Help me”. His forehead is dripping with sweat and his eyes are pleading yet...far away. Also, There’s blood, a lot of it. I can’t tell where it is coming from but the front of his shirt and down one leg is covered in blood. At least it looks like blood. His clothes are dark so they could just be wet.
I look out into the hall but don’t see anyone else. I look back down at the man. He is breathing heavily on the verge of blacking out. I put an arm under his shoulder and help pull him up, He’s medium build but heavy. “Just lean on me.” I tell him, internally laughing ‘Lean on me. good one’. It’s an inside joke you’d only understand if you knew me.
“Don’t conk out on me dude.” I say guiding him towards the couch, then I rethink this, he is covered in blood (or sweat I don’t know yet), and burning up. “come on to the tub, we’ve got to get your temperature down.” Redirecting him to the bathroom. Once inside I flip the lid of the toilet down and help him sit. “What’s your name?” I ask trying to keep him awake as I turn the water on and start filling the tub with luke warm water. He says nothing. One thing I know is if you start out with very cold water it could put the body into shock when its burning up. It could kill someone if they are as hot as this guy feels.
“Lets get your jacket off. we’ve got to get you cooled down.” As I help him, He doesn’t say anything he just keeps breathing heavy and fazing out. Once he’s stripped down to just the basic boxer shorts I see that there was no blood and his clothes are saturated in sweat! I can also see why he is so heavy. This guy is ripped! Not body builder but muscled. Purr, I have to avert my eyes to keep from blushing.
Once he is in the tub of water I grab my digital thermometer and hold it under his tongue with one hand while patting his face with a wet cloth with my other one. “102.5!” I say setting the thermometer on the counter. “I’m going to call an ambulance,” I turn to go get my phone from the bedroom but he grabs my wrist.
“No!” His low gravelly voice makes me catch my breath for a second and I’m stuck. His hand holding my wrist, his eyes are Pleading for me to listen, begging almost.
I sigh then tell him, “Ok but if I can’t get your Temperature down You-Are-Going!”.
He looks at me and nods. I turn the water on again filling the rest of the tub with colder water. The cloth I had been holding was warm and I just put it on his forehead. Re-wetting it I put it on his head again.
From the corner of my eye I see that he is watching me, not saying anything. His eyes are a curious color that I don’t recognize and they seem to be looking through me but at the same time he seems to not be there. After about fifteen minutes, (which is an eternity when there is a strange man in your bathtub), I take his temperature again and it has gone down to where I’m comfortable draining the tub.
“I’m going to get a towel, be right back.” When I return I see he has gotten himself out of the tub and is attempting to put his clothes back on. “Oh no you don’t.” I tell him grabbing the clothes and hold out the towel. “You are not going anywhere till I feel like your ok.”
He just looks at me then at the towel, standing there soaking wet in his boxers, dripping on my rug.
Finally he takes the towel and dries up before wrapping it around his waist. I drop the wet clothes on the floor and direct him to the couch. While I get a pillow and a blanket he just sits there watching me, not saying anything.
I’m bewildered. He would not allow me to remove his face mask, (no thanks COVID-19), when I was helping him undress earlier and I wondered why but didn’t ask. ‘Everyone has their reasons.’ I think to myself while I cover him with the blanket and go to my closet to find another one.
When I return he’s laying down with his eyes closed, but I have a feeling he is not asleep yet. I lock my door then take a seat in a chair kitty-corner from the couch and curl up in the extra blanket then watch as this mystery man pretends to sleep. "I know your not asleep." I say to him smirking to myself. He lets out a heavy breath and opens his eyes.
“I’m not letting you just take off. But no, I’m not going to call the cops either.” This doesn’t seem to placate him as he just stares at me saying nothing. “What’s your name?” I ask remembering he was too delirious to answer that earlier.
“Nelson.” he says hoarsely. 'Nelson?...could this be...' I think to myself before responding back. "I’m Neelie.” I look him over wondering if this is him and if he remembers. There is an energy about him I can feel it. His Aura is Greenish Grey. Nelson doesn’t say anything just tightens his grip on the blanket around him and shivers slightly while watching me, watch him.
I tilt my head to one side and say quietly, “You’re in some kind of trouble aren’t you?“. He nods. I nod back and add, “You can stay here.” I get up and put my blanket over the other one that’s already covering him. While I tuck it around him I see his eyes close as he finally goes to sleep for real this time. The energy around him seems to calm but is still thrumming.
Yes I can see Aura’s. Yes I can feel peoples emotions, when they themselves are feeling them at an extreme level. No I can’t read minds. And finally No I’m not making this up. Call it a talent, a gift or call it a curse, Its all three to me. Sometimes more of a curse than gift as it keeps me away from crowds. Imagine standing next to a furnace. Your getting warm from the one unit, but imagine a room FULL of furnaces. Each one is set to a different temperature and they are all going at the same time.
Now you feel like you’re on fire, suffocating, right? Yes, that’s how a room full of people feels like to me. If I have to be in a large group I play music in one of my ears to distract me. It doesn’t always help depending on the group and the people but it does dull it down some.
I hear a groan and realize I have dozed off in my chair. I look over to Nelson and see he is still asleep but having a fit of sorts and is sweating again. I pull one of the blankets off him then get the cloth from the bathroom I was using earlier. After re wetting it I sit on the floor in front of him and wipe the sweat from his forehead.
I’m tempted to pull the mask down just a little but pause because he’s mumbling something. I can’t make it out but there is something about the way it sounds that is familiar. I can’t put my finger on why.
After the mumbling stops I wait a moment then slowly pull the face mask down. It’s the kind that you wear around your neck and pull up. As I do this I see why he didn’t want it off. I also see it IS 'Him'. My Nelson. After all these years here he is. But he looks so different.
There are scars covering his face. His cheeks are a road map of white scars crisscrossing each other making their way down over half his top lip continuing over his chin and down his neck. I can not help myself as I look his face over, I put my hand on one cheek and run my thumb down one of the scars. I don’t pity him and I don’t fear what I see. But with my hand touching his face I see in my head a distant picture of what caused those scars. I close my eyes and see what happened through my own eyes
Chapter 2
~What Happened~
’There is a room on fire. People are screaming. There’s adult voices over a couple children’s voices. An alarm is going off at a near deafening volume. People on the end of the room where the head of the inferno is are screaming and …. in flames. A woman’s voice catches my attention. I look over and see a cloudy figure standing in front of me. She says something that I can’t make out completely but it sounds angry. “You...tried..ou...ill...im...W..s..y...IL..e..ured..You Will...ay..or..is..Syphus!”
I see smoke everywhere and feel the heat of the fire...my face is burning!. The smell! god the smell of my own flesh burning. I feel pain as someone punches me in the face knocking me to the floor then kicks me in the side. The embroidered handkerchief I had in my hand goes flying.
“I’m go..ng...ll...ou!“. More kicking and punches. I can’t catch my breath between the pain and the smoke choking up my lungs. I feel like I’m going to die either from the fire in the room or.... Suddenly there’s a sting in my neck as if something with a fang has bitten me then my veins feel like they are on fire inside.
A liquid fire running through my whole body. OMG what has she done? this shadow woman has injected me with something.
My body is convulsing and burning at the same time on the cold cement floor. It feels like acid eating away at my insides. The pain is so bad I can’t even feel the burns on my face and neck. Darkness surrounds me but the pain won’t stop.
I can’t breath yet I’m screaming;
I can’t see yet I see the shadow woman running away;
I can’t move but am convulsing; The heart in my chest is pounding like a jackhammer. It’s going as fast as an Army jet breaking the sound barrier.
Just then I feel nothing, everything stops.
My vision fades to black. I can’t hear anything. I feel like I am floating. The smell of smoke is faint then disappears....Until.′
I open my eyes suddenly, gasping for air and coughing. I have pulled my hand back from Nelsons’ face and planted both hands firmly on the floor to hold myself up where I’m kneeling. I close my eyes and try to slow my breathing down as I am on the verge of hyperventilating. In through the nose, out from the mouth. I do this for what feels like a long time but is actually a couple of minutes till I’m breathing normal again. I look up towards the ceiling, my eyes still closed.
Without warning hot tears start falling down my cheeks against my will. I still smell the smoke faintly. I’m shaking inside and out, but the vision has gone away. When I finally open my eyes and look down I see Nelson’s staring back at me. There is no expression on his face. His mask is still pulled down around his neck.
His road map of scars fully visible in the rays of the moonlight that's shining in through the window. He’s still good looking even with them but there’s age hiding behind the physical appearance. There are years, masked away. He is much older than he looks. How could that be possible? I look up into his eyes.
“Why?” he asks in his gravelly voice. His eyes follow a tear as it falls down one of my cheeks.
I think for a moment before I let out a long sigh then say, “So much pain...”, I'm still not sure if he remembers me.
I pause to wipe my face with the back of my hand. “What did she do to you?” I ask reaching my other hand to his face.
Nelson flinches back, “Don’t.”
I let my hand float there a moment before touching his cheek again anyway. He closes his eyes and lets out a breath, as if he’d been holding it in.
Nothing is said between us.
There doesn’t need to be words.
I feel it.
Pain, Fear, Confusion and anger. The anger is seeded deep and is hot. I run my thumb down a deep scar again like I did earlier. I can’t help myself. I know I shouldn’t. I know he is possibly a stranger and not my Sy and yet...There is something here.
I set my head down facing him on the seat of the couch next to him, my arm still reaching up, my hand still on his cheek. I almost say something then don’t when I feel a hand on top of mine. This is a moment I use to wish for, only in reverse, but this is better. After having felt what he felt and seen what he saw.
I could not think of anything else but his reality and the nightmares I’ve had every night for the past ten years. How? How could they be so similar? How did this man of all people end up at My door?
~Syphus~
I was half asleep on a strangers couch, why? Why did I not prepare better and have a car waiting to get me? Pride, Stubbornness, Stupidity maybe. I fell deeper into a vague dream and murmured something out loud,
"She doesn't have a say, I do." It was an argument with Wesley my friend and Co-Founder. He had argued with me about Deborah and something to do with the drug trials.
In the midst of my light dream I felt something touch me. I opened my eyes slightly to find the woman who'd let me in had a hand on my cheek. She was kneeling on the floor next to the couch sitting straight up. Her eyes moved rapidly under her closed lids. "What the hell is she doing?" I thought but didn't say out loud. She started moving her head slightly and flinching as if something hit her.
Suddenly she opened her eyes and pulled her hand away from my face. She started gasping for air and coughing. I watched as she tried to control her breathing. A few minutes go by then she looks up to the ceiling with her eyes still closed. Tears start falling down her face and she is shaking slightly.
A couple seconds later she looks down opening her eyes and see's me watching her.
I have No idea what just happened and am thoroughly confused. I do know that she pulled my mask down while I was sleeping and touched my scarred face. I have to ask, "Why?". I watch a single tear as it trails down her ivory cheek. My throat is dry so I sound a little more hoarse then usual.
She sighs and says, " So much pain." She looks to be thinking about saying something else then wipes her face with the back of one hand. "What did she do to you?" she asks reaching for my face with the opposite hand.
"Don't." I flinch. I don't know what is going on or what she did but I don't want it happening again if she touches me. Her hand hangs there for a moment then she touches my cheek again anyway. I let out a breath, closing my eyes at the same time as this feeling is suddenly calming and a memory washes over me with others flowing behind it.
'I see the old haunted house back in my hometown. A Beautiful girl waiting for me just outside. Saying goodbye to that same girl weeks later and fearing I'd never see her again.
During this I think confused...Is that..who is this woman? she looks like...
Then it flashes to the Syntec lab on fire and my face burning in pain. My whole body in Pain because of....Deborah. Just her name brings red hate to the surface so strong its as hot as the fire that ruined my face.'
She runs her thumb down one of the deep scars on my cheek. This is something my girl from home did. She doesn't take her hand away and I open my eyes to see she has closed hers and set her head down on the cushion beside me.
"Could it be her." I think to myself and without thinking I put my hand atop hers. The feel of her soft skin, her touch calms my nerves even more.
~Neelie~
I hear soft breathing and look up to see Nelson has fallen back asleep with his hand still holding mine to his face. I look him over for a second then put my head back down and end up falling asleep myself. I sleep for a couple hours then wake to stirring sounds. I was now curled up on the floor beside the couch. I was covered in the extra blanket somehow.
My, guest, is still asleep above me but has shifted and is now facing the back of the couch. Quietly getting up I put the blanket back over him as I can see he is shivering again. Standing there I look down at him and parts of the vision I had flash in my mind. The woman, the fire, the needle....the Pain. I grab my phone from the bedroom and sit in the chair.
Curiosity itches but I set my phone on the side table instead. I so wanted to open up my browser. There are just some things that shouldn’t be asked until it’s the right time to know the answer.
~The Night~
For the next couple hours I keep myself busy to stay awake. I don’t want Nelson to just up and take off. Also I want answers. So I take his clothes and put them in my little apartment size washer. Going through my closet I find a sweatshirt and pants that was left by a previous tenant and I just never got around to tossing or bringing to my work.
I check on him a couple times but he seems to be sleeping with no sign of fever. It’s around two am now and even the couple next door aren’t making a sound. Thinking it is safe, I go out to my balcony and look out at what sky can be seen in the glaring lights of the city.
I sit back in the faux wicker chair wincing at the creak it makes. I use to do Yoga back when I was looking for an alternative to medication. The mat I use to have out here has been given away for some time now. It aggravated my back problem instead of helping it.
Dr's don’t know how you feel when they can’t feel the same thing. I got sick of talking to walls that offered little advice and tried to push pills that don’t work. Stretching one leg out and resting an ankle on the railing I try to think.
There is a strange man on my couch who I know but may not remember me. A man who I once loved more than anyone on this Earth. He looks much younger than he is, but then so do I. He was injected with something Horrible by some woman. A fire scarred him for life. Then there are the nightmares I have been having for ten damn years now that involve the same fire he was in!
I close my eyes. The Nightmares...
A room I have Never been in that looks sort of like a hospital recovery room. Fire, screaming and smoke. I see people running around but no faces. In the dream I am barefoot and wearing a hospital gown as if I am one of the patients there. The floor is cement but I can’t feel it because I’m float/walking like you do in dreams, towards a doorway where I see two people standing.
They are arguing about something. The woman has no face like everyone else, but I can see the man has brown hair combed back nicely like he had just been to a meeting. He has something in one hand, its singed. The woman is now screaming at the man then punches him in the face knocking him down.
I open my eyes and gasp. “Nelson?”
“Sorry.” He is standing in the balcony doorway wrapped in a blanket.
Shaking my head to clear it, “It was too quiet. I needed some air.” I say as I get up avoiding asking the question that is nagging my brain. “I found some clothes you can wear.” going back inside I get the clothes from the bedroom and hand them to Nelson. “I think these should fit. I had to put your clothes in the wash. The jackets hanging over there.” I point to a desk chair that's on the other side of the room which serves as the dining area.
I don’t use it for that. I have a table for a desk. Sitting on top the table is a closed laptop a bottle of brushes and a box of paints. Leaning against the wall next to that is a stack of canvas'. Some Have half started paintings on them. Its not a job.
My Real job is working at a care center for the elderly. I cook or wash dishes, depending on what they have me scheduled to do. It’s not the nicest job but I’m used to this kind of work. It’s also oddly comforting being around some people who you Technically are the same age as.
Nelson comes out of the bathroom in the clothes I gave him and I see they fit just a little loose but they work.
“They fit.” I say with a small smile. He goes back to the couch and sits. “Thank you.” He doesn’t look at me he just hangs his head slightly as if in thought.
“You ok?” I ask looking him over slowly.
He doesn't say anything but puts a hand on the side of his head and groans.
“Here.” I go to hand him the bottle of Advil I keep on the coffee table for my back, but he pushes it away and shakes his head very slowly.
“It will stop.” he says, his hand still to the side of his head. I put the bottle back and get him a glass of water instead. After placing it on the coffee table in front of him I sit on the other end of the couch. He takes the glass and downs it as if he hasn’t had anything to drink forever. “Thank you.” he says turning his head towards me but not looking up. Then there's silence for a while.
“It’s none of my business, but....” I start to ask but am cut off when he holds out a hand, again slowly shaking his head.
“You are not involved. You do not need to know.”
I think about my nightmares....” But I somehow am.”
Nelson turns his head and looks at me with one eyebrow lifted, “How?”
I sigh then tell him about the nightmares. I tell him about what happens in them and how I know what I know when I touch people a certain way. How things...Happen around me that others think are insane and all in my head. As I talk Nelson listens intently and with thee best poker face I’ve ever seen. I feel his curiosity and wonder and know he is trying to connect dots in his head. Then something I say makes a sparkle light up in his eyes and his expression changes.
“Say that again.” He asks the light in his eyes more intense.
“I said I see the future and the past sometimes. But not just see it, its like I’m actually there.”
“When did this start?” he asks plainly
“Ten years ago. After I was hit by a car. I don’t even know how I got to where I was...” I pause and shake my head while looking at the floor. Nelson is silent so I continue.
“I am not from here.” I look up, “From Now Here.” I emphasize.
“Just where and When are you from then?” he asks almost sarcastically. But there is something in his tone that makes me think he knows the answer.
I bite my lip thinking about how to answer this. I’m going to sound crazy. Even the woman who hit me that day didn’t believe me. She thought it was from the accident.
“I’m...Right Now, at this point in time I am suppose to be....Much older.” I start wringing my hands and look down at the floor again.
“Something happened and I lost Thirty Years.” pausing I laugh, “Fuck...No I skipped 40 years!!” I’m so nervous about saying this that I’m internally shaking. “As for from Here. I grew up in Nevada.”
"It can’t be.” He says suddenly as I am about to continue on about how crazy it sounds. I look at him and can see he believes me. Something else too, He remembers.
“What is it?” I ask concerned and curious.
“I can’t say right now.” He pauses and holds his head this time with both hands closes his eyes and groans again.
I look at the bottle of pills but don’t ask. He won’t take them and I don’t want to push my luck. I may have just found the link to my nightmares, And the past that left me.
“You should get some more sleep.” I say moving from the couch. I go refill the water glass then sit in the chair again. Nelson lays down and covers with one of the blankets. He glances at me but doesn’t say anything then looks away and says, “I’ll tell you what I can. When you’re ready to know.”
I nod then remember he’s not looking at me at the moment, so I go to answer but see he’s fallen asleep again. I chuckle to myself and shake my head. He didn’t expect an answer anyway.
Chapter3
~Some Things Answered~
~Neelie~
Nelson sleeps through the rest of the night and into the next morning not waking until nearly noon. I offer to make him something to eat which he accepts. There is little emotion showing on his face or demeanor. I can tell though that he is still curious about what I told him last night. He asks to borrow my shower and is a polite change of company compared to other people I have met in my life. Especially people from the past that I wish I never knew.
As Nelson showers I fold his now clean clothes and set them on my bed. I don’t know what happened to him or why he won’t acknowledge that he remembers me, but do know that is probably a path I don’t want to go down. I especially don’t want to go there right now.
I haven’t felt good since waking up. Not my stomach or that, but in my head. I don’t want to have an attack...Not when I’m not alone in my apartment. I go to sit on the edge of my bed and do so clumsily. My head is spinning and feels light. I can taste metal like pennies in my mouth. “Shit.” I say to myself. Taking slow deep breaths I close my eyes trying to fight it off but the darkness makes the spinning worse so I open my eyes.
Spots fill my field of vision and the ringing in my ears start up. I can faintly see someone standing in the doorway but can’t hear anything and suddenly I’m sliding off the bed and fall to the floor.
Everything goes in and out. I feel every muscle in my body is tensed up and locked. I know I’m convulsing on the floor and must be a fright to watch.
I’m panting, gasping for breath but can’t inhale or exhale fully. I can’t feel my body but I can feel someone touching my body. There’s faint whisper of sound like a voice then the flash of silver.
Lighting streaks in the darkness then suddenly I’m looking down at myself. I see I’m not alone in the room. My body is still shaking on the floor but I see Nelson is there beside me.
He has put my head in his lap but is not trying to restrict any movement. Obviously he knows that doing so would only result in me breaking my own neck. He has helped me through a lot of Attacks as we grew up together. I know he can’t see me but I look at him, intently studying him.
He is still a little wet from the shower. One of my brown towels wrapped around his waist. He’s knelt down with my head on his lap and running a hand over my shoulder. He isn’t panicking or anything, just calmly sitting there and murmuring something I can’t make out. I see something new, a tattoo on the back of his neck. On the back of Nelsons neck just below where a shirt collar would hide is the tattoo of three snakes in a kind of circle. The pattern matches the pendant I have around my neck! It’s strange seeing yourself convulse and not feeling any of it. It’s even stranger to see it happen with your own head on a mans lap.
I hear Nelsons voice say my name telling me fighting makes it worse. I let go of the fear that always hits and can relax a tiny bit. There’s a flash of orange then the room gets smoky. I know what’s coming next. I don’t want to see it, I never want to but have no control as the room fills with smoke then lights up with an orange and red glow.
~Syphus~
I turn the water to the shower off and wrap in the clean brown towel that Neelie left on the counter. Opening the bathroom door I hear "Shit.". Looking into the bedroom from the doorway I see Neelie is shaking a little and seems to be on the verge of passing out.
I start to her just as she starts sliding off the edge of the bed and to the floor. I kneel down next to her and gently place her head on my lap. Her muscles are stiff and she's having a seizure right there in front of me.
So this has to be her, My Serpent Girl. She’s had seizures as a kid ever since she hit her head falling out of a tree when she was ten. "Don't fight." I say calmly.
She doesn't seem to hear me so I run a hand over her shoulder. "It is you, isn't it." I say quietly. She shakes violently then takes a gasping breath and her eyes go wide. "Shh, Neelie fighting makes it worse." I run a hand over her long dark brown, almost black hair. This seems to do something as she stops gasping as hard and closes her eyes.
This is going longer as minutes tick by. Maybe the car she told me about that hit her made it worse. Just as I'm thinking this her breathing slows and the jerking calms to mere shakes. Her muscles seem to be loosening up too. She doesn't open her eyes though. My face starts to itch then stops suddenly. A few seconds later Neelie is breathing harder and starts to jerk again.
"Come on, It'll pass." I say keeping my cool. But inside I'm starting to wonder if she's going to need an ambulance. A flash of white light sparks in my vision for a split second and I can see Neelies face looking over at me and saying something then its gone. When I look down her eyes open and she takes a couple gasping breaths.
"What did you just Do?" I ask. Something in the air feels different. I now have a memory from the fire that wasn't there before.
She turns her head and smiles at me, "Go look in the mirror." she says. Confused I help her sit up and lean against the bed before going to the bathroom mirror. As soon as I see my face I can't hold it in, "What the Fuck!?" I yell in shock.
The deep scars I have known for ten years are now only a fraction of what they were before!
~The Attack~
I step through a doorway entering what looks like a surgical recovery room. Sound comes back to me in a whoosh of screaming and the crackling of fire. A fire alarm is blaring at ear-splitting volume. A bed is engulfed with flames but no one is on it.
Smokey shadows of people in lab coats and hospital gowns are running around the room trying to get out as the curtains of two large windows light on fire. A man is screaming in one corner and I don’t need to look over to know why. I can smell the horrid stench of burning flesh. My feet are bare on the cold floor as I cross the room towards a doorway. ‘Why can I feel the cold this time?’ I am not in the hospital gown this time. I'm dressed in the same clothes I am actually wearing in reality, A pair of jeans and a v-neck shirt. There are two people standing and arguing near the door of the room. A woman figure with no face but I can see a messy bun on top her head with strands of loose hair escaping from it. Her face is cloudy like everyone else in the room. She is yelling at a man in front of her. He is yelling back, his medium brown hair that once was neatly combed back is slightly mussed.
This time it changes. A third person enters the smoke and fire filled room. This man is not as tall as the woman or the first man. He is dressed in a suit with a clean lab coat over it all. His dark brown hair is slicked back with probably pomade. He looks like he just came from a meeting. I can see his face and it is familiar. ‘Could that be?’ He is aged as he should be for the time, 60’s, yet he’s still handsome and doesn’t look a day over 50.
The woman see’s this new person and turns quickly on him. “You said we’d find a cure!” she screams in his face. “Wesley is Dyeing of this Virus You created!!”
“It’s not his fault.” The man I can assume is Wesley yells at her through the panic in the room.
“This is not the place or time for such hysterics.” The older man who looks like Nelson says calmly.
The woman smirks an evil smile. “I’ll get you for this Syphus!” she lunges at him and misses. Wesley starts coughing and the woman looks back at him concerned. “We need to get out of here.” He says through coughs. The room has filled with smoke and flames. If everyone doesn’t leave soon they will all be fried. I stand there watching and listening but don’t feel the heat of the fire or smell the burning anymore. I step forward a few feet, oddly I can still feel the cold floor.
“Get out. We’ll be right behind you.” The woman yells at Wesley. He doesn’t or can’t argue and runs out of the room without looking back. As soon as he is out, the woman slaps the other man in the face. She doesn’t realize that her coat sleeve is on fire and in doing so she started the mans face on fire. Probably fueled by his aftershave. He is startled then when he realizes he’s now on fire he slaps at his face with a handkerchief to put out the flames.
The woman has removed her jacket that's now burning up the sleeve and turns on the man again. She punches him knocking him down. The handkerchief goes flying out of his hand and stops under a bed. Why does everything circle back to me? The handkerchief is the very one I gave to him before he moved. I can see the N.S. I embroidered in the corner. This scene? That Is Nelson! “Nelson?!”I say without speaking.
While Nelson is on the ground screaming in pain because the lower half of his face is on fire the woman starts kicking him in the ribs. Nelson turns to protect himself an action that puts most of the fire out, as now the small flames have traveled down his neck and top of his coats collar. I step forward again and see the woman has pulled a needle from out of her scrub shirt pocket. Her lab jacket had hidden it until now.
She pulls off the cap with her teeth then stabs Nelson in the back of the neck hitting a main artery with it making him scream. While doing this she says,
" No one else survived, so You won't either!"
“NO!” I scream knowing what will happen next. Surprisingly the woman looks up as if she heard me. She looks around then back down at the now writhing body of Nelson as he screams so loud I can no longer hear the crackle of the fire around me.
“NOOOO!” I scream again and run up to Nelson.
The woman’s face goes from a sinister sneer to sheer terror as she suddenly hears my voice then see’s me materialize out of thin air. She lets out a scream of her own and flees from the room leaving Nelson writhing in pain on the floor. I stay by his side patting out the rest of the fire that has burned his handsome face leaving some peeling skin hanging in places.
I then cover my ears as his screams and the piercing emergency alarm hurts them. His body writhes and convulses in front of me. There is nothing I can do until he suddenly stops.
Panicked I check for a pulse and feel none so start CPR. The room is an inferno, and I can hear Fire and Rescue somewhere down the hall calling out. Finally Nelson takes a gasping breath and looks up into my eyes. He blinks looking up at me but not seeing me fully. The room is so full of smoke now that even being on the floor is not enough. Nelson tries to talk, "Ei..." but I shush him. We crawl on the floor to the closest door and make our way out into an equally smoke-filled hallway. Slowly we make it down the hall and away from the smoke, fire and even the Rescue crew.
“Do not let her know how you survived.” I tell him laying next to him outside on the ground behind the building. I look into his eyes, which are slowly changing color somehow, he is actually looking younger now then before I gave him CPR. “Sy.” I say before a flash of lightning crossed the smoke covered sky and suddenly I’m back in my room.