Thermophile

Seven: Assumption

KAT

I knew he saw it, the burn marks that my fingers left the blanket before I flung it away. I, myself couldn't comprehend what just happened.


"Kat," concern was very evident in my brother's voice. "what dream are you talking about?"

I was busy understanding how I burned the blanket that I couldn't verbalize an answer to my brother. My eyes were glued to my palms asking them what was going on. The onslaught of thoughts flooding my mind made me feel like I was somewhere else-somewhere empty-and none of everything makes sense anymore.

"You looked like you were trying to get away," the worry in his voice vanished as anger took over. "What did you see in the kitchen? Tell me what really happened, Kat." His face turned somber. "Mom hadn't stop crying since we brought you here."

I could just imagine my mother's tears and it pained me to think that I caused her to be like that.

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand, afraid that I might burn myself if I used my palms. "He was trying to inject me with something, he said it would hurt a lot."

"Who was he?" Leib took my hands in his.

I immediately retracted them and kept them on the side of my legs. I might harm him.

"I don't know. A different one appears every time but they all wear lab coats and masks." Flashes of whites started appearing again. I tried to focus on what my brother was saying but it just seemed like he was just mouthing it. I couldn't hear a sound coming from him with all the murmurs drowning it.

"Kat," his voice. It seemed far away.

"Please keep talking." I anchored myself on Leib's voice.

Even his frowning face was starting to blur. "Okay." He paused. Or did my delusion overtook the reality already?

Keep talking, Leib. Please.

The unintelligible murmurs were getting louder.

"The dream, what were you going to tell me about it?"

Yes, the dream.

"I dreamt of it a lot of times-more than I could remember. It always started with me as a someone that was there, but not-like a ghost perhaps." The room got clearer. The white flashes dimmed. "I didn't know who I was or what I was but I knew everything else.

"I was somewhere bright and clean, too clean. There were scientists who were doing something to a bacteria. Then there was a kid-a baby-she was in tank full of water."

My breath hitched remembering the intense gray eyes. "I went closer to her, I wondered how she could be there. The next thing, she opened her eyes and I was falling.

"She said that I was her and that we were one-"

I stopped talking when I saw a man in a white coat wearing a surgical mask enter and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

He's just a doctor, calm it down.

He came closer and greeted my brother with a nod, I thought my heart would burst out of my chest when he stopped beside my bed. He eyed me with scrutiny and scribbled on the folder he was holding.

"You are doing extraordinarily good, Miss Swenson," I cringed at his nasally voice. "I'll have a nurse check on you again later." He closed his folder and walked out of the room without another word.

Familiar. That voice.

"Little, T."

The ground dropped and I felt like I was falling, spiraling in to oblivion.

My pants came in rapid successions as realization hit along with the click of the just-closed door.

"He's," I wheezed and started to panic. "He's," Finish what you're going to say!

"Kat, what's wrong?" Leib grabbed my shoulders, he shook me and I was pretty sure I was close to passing out.

Tears flowed as I forced myself to speak. The wheezes were unsettled and only worsened, my brother hugged me real tight murmuring 'it's okay, calm down I'm here' over and over.

I cried. I cried and wanted to hit myself because I couldn't talk properly.

"He's one of them." I managed to get out breathless.

Leib stiffened and instantly released me from the security of his embrace. Without looking back, he swung the door open and ran out of the room.

I hugged my knees. What if they came back and I was alone? I would have no one to ask for help to.

Panic turned to paranoia. I tried to think of something else to calm myself but I always end up thinking of the popping sound of bubbles and unintelligible murmurs.

It seemed like hours had passed and my brother and my parents weren't back yet. Could it be that something bad happened to them?

I jumped when Leib entered.

He was breathing hard, sweat coated his forehead and his hand was shaking when he ran it down his face.

"I lost him." He told me, "Fuck, I was so close!" I felt his frustration as he paced around the hospital room. "How'd you know who he was? Do you remember everything?"

I didn't know what to say to him, paranoia was still running in my veins. "Did you see mom and dad?" I asked shakily.

"No, I was focused on catching the man." Leib went to sit down rigidly on the chair beside my bed. His emerald eyes bore deep into mine as though he could see my soul. "Tell me."

Two words. Only two words but it felt like I was made to carry something much heavier that I did not know how to begin-where to begin.

It took minutes before I spoke and Leib waited. "I remember the time I was taken, I saw them with black ski masks before they covered my eyes and electrocuted me. I remember waking up in a room, it was very bright and I couldn't move nor talk but I saw people, either they were moving or were staring at me."

I looked away from my brother's gaze, "I didn't even know if I was lying down or standing up. I didn't feel anything, it was like I was there but at the same time was not. I keep hearing these bubbles popping, like something was boiling, but I couldn't relate it to any of the fragments I recall." I searched my mind for anything else but all I got was a ringing in the ears and a headache but I felt that there were more that I could remember, it was just that my brain was stopping me from doing so.

Why? Could I not take it if I recall them? Would I go mad? Would I never look at things the same once I knew?

Silence blanketed us once more.

"The man, how did you know he was one of them?" My eyes slid to Leib's.

"I heard his voice before, in the kitchen, he was there." My voice sounded so far away.

"I checked it, Kat there was no one aside from mom and you in the kitchen."

I clutched my head, if I could just squeeze it like a sponge and all the missing chunks of my memories would come out, that would be better. Better than playing this stupid game of 'place the missing piece' with my brother.

"Sometimes I don't know what's real and not anymore, one moment I was talking and the next I missed hours." Tears welled and my nose became stuffy again. "Maybe," I stammered. "Maybe I wasn't really abducted-maybe I am mentally unstable and just made these up-I think I am going crazy if not already." My eyes widen and the tears flowed out.

My brother reached out and wiped the salty liquid on my face. "That could be a valid explanation," I frowned and he had the nerve to smirk. "But could that explain how you burned the blanket?"

"No."

"Could that explain how you are able to hold the hot pot without getting burned?" I did that?

"No."

"There must be another reason. And those people did something." To you, I finished his sentence.