Perfect

Chapter Twelve: Veins

"Calm down, I'm not here to kill you yet," he chuckled.

"She's going to be!" He ran over to me. "Evelyn, babe, please wake up."

I am awake! I screamed.

I hoped Mr. Lek had used his last weapon on me. My ears were still tingling, but my vision was starting to come back. The world exploded into view.

"Give me her!" Mr. Lek screamed. I heard a punch, and then a slam onto a car door. A groan of pain came out of Alex's mouth. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't get up. I refused to look at them. It would hurt too much.

"I assume your project hasn't been working out well," Alex joked. "You need her specifically? No. You can take me."

"I do need her, and you know why!" I heard two grunts of effort.

"You twisted man!" A deep growl came out of Alex's mouth that I had never heard before. "Perfect genetics? That doesn't exist!"

I felt a surge of power flow through my body. At first I thought it was my last, but the power was overwhelming. Medicine, it seemed, ran through my veins. I felt wonderful. Blissful.

Then there was a slam next to me. I immediately recognized the heavy breathing as my boyfriend's.

Mr. Lek must have done something to Alex. "Get out!" he yelled. The ringing in my ears escalated to a steady drilling sound. I couldn't hear a thing, and I yearned to. My eyes were wide open, but I couldn't look around. My eyes were fixed on the moon.

I should have jumped. I should have done it.

I'm sure Alex thought the same thing. If he was still alive.

Why was I still alive? Or was I dead without knowing it?

"Well, if I can't take her, then I'll take part of her with me."

Pain scorched through my body like fire, and a throaty scream escaped from my mouth. I wanted the whole town to hear. I wanted everyone to know. I wanted them to help me. My vision again turned to black.

"Mr. Lek! Stop!" Alex's arm touched my skin; he was trying to understand what was going on. Did some glow come from my body? I was convulsing now. I felt my head contact the concrete, and blue light surrounded me.

I felt like I was immobilized. If I could have moved, I would have. It was hopeless. My limbs cried for relief from the burning pain they endured. My skin tingled and my ears rang. Mr. Lek must have injected me with something. Moments before I was in heaven, and now I was in pure hell.

What had Mr. Lek done to me? "I'll take part of her with me" felt accurate; my body screamed as if it had been separated from its parts. I knew that was not true. I still felt my beating heart and constricted lungs.

Alex put his arm under my head. "Babe, it's okay. It's okay. He just injected you with something and left. I don't know what he took. But I don't think you're going to be yourself after this."

How did he know about all this and I didn't?

Then it clicked; Alex wanted me to not worry about the coming days.

I heard a car speed away. Tires skidded.

No one seemed to care that I had screamed. I guessed that it was normal for the town to be awash with terror.

Blues and purples mixed like a lava lamp in my vision. Why couldn't I see or speak?

The convulsions slowed and eventually stopped. I searched for my head and put my hand on it. My forehead was covered in something sticky that I assumed was blood.

"Can you talk?" he asked, hushed. A painful cough erupted from his body.

I tried to shake my head no, but it was impossible.

Both of us were too weak to get up. We were so close to the house. And the worst part was that neither of us knew why or when Mr. Lek would strike. Maybe he wouldn't. Either way, he didn't really give us a decision to leave. Regardless, we were going to be part of the experiments.

My lips quivered as I tried to speak. Soon I gathered the strength: "Why me? Why does he want me so badly?"

Something wet fell onto my skin. It was either rain or my tears.

"Because you are the only person who didn't respond to it. You must be perfect already, he said."

"Perfect?" I mumbled. "What is perfect to him?"

"Well, you aren't to him. To him you're messed up, vile. But to me you're not."

Alex scooped me up, arms shaking and legs limping up the stairs to my house. "I can walk," I assured, trying to find balance in my body. After holding on to his arm and a surrounding post, I was able to stand and trip into the house. My vision still blurred. As soon as he entered, he dropped something on the ground.

"He stole something from you, some of your brain cells and body cells." I heard a jiggle in the jar. "And then he injected medicine that's supposed to numb you. Then you were supposed to be taken away to the center. They would kill you."

"Why didn't they?" I coughed.

Yellows appeared in my eyes. Soon the shapes I saw revealed themselves: a worn-down, green sofa; cream-white sofa cushions; the dirty white shirt of Alex's. "What now?" I asked. My head throbbed in pain, but I ignored it. All that mattered was that we were both alive.

Alex scratched his head. "Well, he's going to come sporadically. We can't guess. Either we deal with that or we run."

"Where can we run?" I questioned, exasperated. "We've tried. Does the government even know how harmful this is?"

"You aren't the first case like this," Alex began. "Three others, I think, are not responding to the treatments. The first one lives in Alabama. The second lived in New York. The third lived in New Hampshire. But they are all dead, except the one in D.C."

"Let's go find them," I whispered. Finally things began to come into view.