A Freak of Science

Interlude: 1

After slamming the laptop screen down, Kathy glared at the small square window. Brilliant sunlight streamed through the blue curtains, but all Kathy could think about was how mad she felt.

     She looked down at her old flip phone, wondering if the ringtone was going to go off at any moment. She couldn’t remember how many emails she had sent to her best friend over the last month. Her best friend wasn’t even answering any of them.

     “What kind of best friend are you?” Kathy grumbled, still staring down at her phone. She still wasn’t ready to accept that maybe something horrible had happened to Cecil in the city and that was the reason why she wasn’t answering anything. Kathy didn’t want to think about anything terrible happening to Cecil. It just reminded her of—

     There was the sound of banging against her closed bedroom door. A male voice was screaming in a high falsetto. Kathy gritted her teeth, trying not to lose her temper. She shouldn’t be this way with her brother. He didn’t know better.

     He used to.

     Soon, the banging stopped and Kathy heard the noise of dry sobs. There were thumps against the door now so she assumed that he was rocking back and forth now. She wished that her mom and dad were home so that they could deal with him. At the moment, she was stuck with her demented older brother.

     “Damn,” Kathy muttered under her breath while she walked to the door and flung it open. Her brother nearly fell backwards into the room and started screaming again.

     His brown hair was sticking up in odd angles and clumped together unnaturally. His eyes were wide and had a wild look to them while he grabbed onto the hem of Kathy’s pants. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

     “Geez Kyle, calm down,” Kathy said, trying to get her brother to release his grip. “Why don’t you go downstairs and have a nice bowl of cereal? Mom and Dad are at work this morning, you know. They can’t be here all day.” Though her words were calm, there was an undertone of annoyance in them. When he tried to grab her again, Kathy shot him a glare.

     “It’s already hard enough with you like this. Why don’t you even attempt to be normal? You used to be better one.” Her eyes grew teary for a moment before she quickly wiped them away. “Just go!” Kathy tried to push him out of her room.

     “N-no!” Kyle was saying. He repeated it over and over again, his jaw working hard like he was trying to say other words but just couldn’t manage them. In the end, he stuck with repeating the same word. “No. No. No!”

     “Shut up!” Kathy screamed. She hated how her brother was acting this way, crawling on the floor in this manner. She could still remember when a simple smile of his would send all the other girls swooning and how he would always demand to wear what she deemed ‘preppy’ clothing. That used to be annoying, but Kathy would do anything to have that back now. She remembered him bullying her into telling him her first crush (which he then used against her). That older brother was nothing like the whimpering man on the ground. If she had her way, she would rather see a dead Kyle and still have him be the way she remembered than be alive and be the way he was now. It felt more painful to see him like this.

     Kathy managed to shove Kyle out of her room before slamming the door on him. He whined against the door, still screaming “no” along with garbled nonsense. Kathy wiped away tears she hadn’t noticed she shed.

     “Stupid!” Kathy muttered angrily, flopping onto her messy bed. She stared at the white ceiling, trying to forget what happened. She shut her eyes, trying to forget her brother while he banged against her door.

     The thought of Cecil came up almost immediately. She scowled, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand. Cecil was an innocent up in Toronto. That city had messed Kyle up. Kathy didn’t want that happening to Cecil. The thought of it was terrifying. Cecil wasn’t responding to any messages that Kathy left. The Durands seemed to have cut contact with everyone in Grimsby. She didn’t even know what happened to Cecil. She said something about earning a large amount of money from some company that requested her to live in Toronto.

     The things people did for money. She rolled her eyes.

     Kyle’s whining stopped with preamble. Kathy sat up, frowning. Kyle didn’t shut off until he was completely done with it. Something was wrong.

     Walking over the small space between her bed and the door she flung it open, ready to ask Kyle what his problem was now. Instead of Kyle, a tall, lanky man with odd dyed blue hair stood in front of the door. His features were so sharp that Kathy felt like she could cut herself on them. Kathy’s initial feeling was panic, but she squashed in down in favour of rationality.

     Before she could ask him who he was, she remembered that no one in Grimsby had blue hair. Her heartbeat took off immediately, galloping quickly. Kathy took deep breaths to try to stay calm. “W-we don’t have anything you want,” she said, starting off with a stutter but ending off strongly. If only she actually felt brave, she might actually have a chance of pulling a buff off.

     The man smiled, showing his razor sharp teeth. Kathy attempted to repress a gasp of shock but didn’t quite manage it.

     “Oh, you have,” he said, his tone sharp and whip-like. Kathy felt a cackle of air around them and took a step back. “You see, you know Cecil Durand. That’s all we need.”

     Kathy’s eyes widened. Before she could do anything else, something sharp, yellow, and whip-like made its way straight towards her. She felt something hard and electric collide against her chest. Then there was nothing but pain starting from the centre of her chest that diffused all over her body until it reached her head and the pain was too much. She let out a gasp for air before collapsing on the ground in a heap.

     The man picked her up with ease, still smiling wickedly. He pushed against the space below his ear. “Request: CX HQ. This is El; mission success.” He then began to make his way out of her room.

     Lying just outside the door, Kyle stared at the threatening man. Memories blurred through his mind—pain, screaming, so much hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again. The man was still there, walking straight past him.

     Kyle rocked back and forth while he watched them leave. “No,” he muttered, eyes closed while he tried to get the faint screaming out of his head. “No. No. No.”

I actually had a lot of fun writing this part. :P