Payne & Joie

Chapter 15

I use the reflective surface of one of the books as a rudimentary mirror. My lips look strange when they have little color, all gray and white. My face has gone all sorts of strange colors now. At least they match my half circles under my sore eyes. It's what grabs my attention after the growing infected area of my skin, it's black in the middle, like a black hole had consumed what the wound once was. I can't tell if it was always this big or had come to be this way. Each word that enters my brain is murky, black, and useless. I try to focus on what we should do next but nothing sticks in my head.

Madeline has her eyes closed with her cheek to my shoulder. Her facial skin is gray as well. I can't see Mina's face. She's still curled up in a ball by the table, her hair acting as a thick black curtain. Perhaps we're all turning into stone statues to be put in the gallery upstairs. All sense of time has faded. How long has it been since they had gone to sleep? Fifteen minutes? An hour? I count the thumps of my heart.

"One, five, two, three, four." I say in rhythm.

I wonder if they can hear my voice up there? The thump of my heart? As if on cue, I hear footfalls come down in rhythm with the beatings of my heart. Slow and steady, they're heavier beats than Joy's delicate steps. I know before I see his golden hair who it is.

When he gets to the bottom I see he's holding six items; three water bottles, and three packets of crackers. They look unappealing and dry. He goes to Mina first without a word and drops one of each by her side. She doesn't move to take it. I panic for a second when I don't see her chest rise, but but it eventually rises in sync with mine. Next he lumbers to Madeline and does the same. There's nothing you would call emotion in those blue eyes, neither pain or joy. Just emptiness. Perhaps we are more similar than I had once thought. His pupils don't connect with mine as he drops my shares haphazardly by my feet. I can't feel my feet except for the occasional pin prick that sends a shiver of pain up my spine. He reaches into his jacket, the same one as before and pulls out a small blue pill.

He presses it into my hand embedded with his warmth. I think idly about the fact we're close to holding hands. I try to ask the reason with my eyes but he doesn't meet them.

"Joy said to tell you to take this. It's for your flu." Paynes says blankly.

"I need to go to the hospital," I groan. I struggle to lift a hand to my head. "My infection is getting worse."

Payne pushes the water bottle into my hand.

"Joy says you have the flu, so you have the flu. You either shut up and take the pill or you don't. Doesn't matter to me what you do, or what happens to you. If you decide to just wait and die I don't care. Just one last person I have to account for on the plane." Payne hisses.

His breath is hot on face and his eyes are like small stones. His cheekbones stick out from a hollow face. It's a far cry from the soft touch that it had before. Perhaps this is a different person. An evil twin.

"Plane?" I whisper.

"Joy has a private plane waiting for us at the charter near here. We'll take the plane to Canada soon. I don't feel like telling the others so tell them once I'm gone. Be prepared to go. If any of you try to escape, you die."

"I know you're a good person, Payne," I tell him. He still smells like cologne. "I need you to take me to the hospital. My cut is literally turning black." I reach out tentatively for his cheek. To stroke away a stray strand of golden blond hair.

In an instant he grabs my wrist. I squeak. Madeline stirs in her sleep. A blue vein throbs in my arm. But I am too weak to resist. His face comes even closer now, the whites of his eyes expanding. He reminds me of the extinct lion species in the nature documentary we watched in school: the apex predator.