Visage | ONC 2023

ELEVEN:

It was when he pushed the end of the syringe, pressing the liquid into my body, that I felt the warmth. It slid up my arm, slithering like a snake. Then the heat turned cold, I wasn't sure how to react. "How's it supposed to feel?" I asked, looking at Mertz's face.

He blinked at me. "What do you feel?"

"I don't know," I muttered.

Mertz pulled the needle away from my skin and wrapped it in a towel. I watched as he put it on the table, then I curled my arm close to my chest. Mertz shook his head and reached for me again. There was a bandaid on his hand. He placed it over the small wound.

"I feel hot and cold." I watched as he turned away. "Like, freezing cold."

And I did. I shivered, the hair on my arm standing tall. Gulping, I passed my hands over my arms in an attempt to warm myself. Could this be the infected cells dying?

Gerry slowly turned and faced me. Then he pointed. "Do you see that?" he asked Mertz.

My gaze bounced between the two of them before I touched the side of his face that he'd noted. I felt wet. When I pulled my fingers back, a thin layer of skin came with me, stuck. My eyes widened in panic. Was I pealing?

A small bite...

"Um." Mertz pinched his brows together. "Axel, does that hurt?"

I wanted to wipe away the flesh. I rubbed my hands against my legs, peering at my palms. The skin around my fingers was red. Blistering. My heart hammered in my chest as I panicked.

Flesh dulls the ache...

"Mertz," my teeth ached, causing me to lick them, "did you think this would happen?"

Mertz came over to me, kneeling in front of me as he checked my face, and my hands, prodding at my skin.

Bite him.

"I've seen various vaccine reactions in my career," he said, "but never anything to this degree."

Groaning as the cold spread up my neck, I closed my eyes and cracked my jaw.

Bite. Him.

"Gerry, grab him some water," Mertz said.

Water, this again. Slowly peeling my eyes open, I stared at Mertz. "That shit doesn't work," I hissed.

Despite the truth that'd been mentioned but not stated, Gerry handed Mertz a bottle of water to pass to me. The doctor twisted the top. "It doesn't, but I'm at a loss, and if you hydrate—"

He handed me the water but it was my instinct that slapped it out of his hand. It crashed to the floor, spilling water across tiles. And I turned to the side to heave bile slipping up my throat.

"Mertz, do something!" Gerry shouted.

Slimey red splattered to the floor. The cold vanished as my veins filled with fire. Nothing else. Just heat, smoldering flame.

Just a bite. One bite. Calm the ache.

"Axel." Mertz moved around the chair to cup my face. "Look at me, I—shit."

He fell back to the floor the second our eyes met. I saw him but didn't. My vision blurred red.

Take a bite, take a bite, take a bite.

"I don't think this is working." Gerry helped Mertz to stand up.

"This is different. We're not someone he should react to." Mertz stepped away me. "This could be the virus leaving his body."