DURABLE (completed)

Willingly Stepped Into The Fire

Everything happened so quickly that it left my mind spinning. The man and woman I remembered from my childhood had was different. I mean they looked the same, but the shame, guilt, and a little bit of hope that rolled across their faces invariably were new. I had never seen any expression but contempt on my mother's face when it came to me but now there was so much I was frozen. I didn't know what to think.

My skepticism most have showed on my face because unexpectedly, she gave me an explanation for her behavior back then. Apparently, she had been suffering from mental illness but was now on a slew of medication that stabilized her moods, so she was better.

My father sat next to me rubbing circles into my hand and throwing in a bit of apology here and there as well. I was genuinely floored but before I could sufficiently process anything, I could feel one of my episodes coming on. The noise level in the restaurant was rising, and my mind was zeroing in on the conversations around me.

"I-I, I'm sorry, but I have to go. I can't." Sending a panicked look to Tianna and gesturing to my ears I quickly got up almost falling out of my seat as I scrambled to get to the bathroom. I prayed that putting a solid wall and a door between me and the thunderous noise would make it diminish.

As I rushed off, I glimpsed the shocked look on my parents' faces at my sudden departure but I desperately needed to get away. I barely made it inside the bathroom before everything reached a crescendo and I all but collapsed inside a stall.

*****

"Mr. and Mrs. Winspere, you have to help her! I'm Tianna by the way. Sorry I didn't introduce myself before. There is something you must know about why Nikki came back so suddenly. Lately, she's been having these...episodes. Sometimes it's her hearing. It will magnify to the point where she can hear everything within a five-block radius and then she passes out. Then there are times when her eyes will be so sensitive to light that she draws her curtains and can't leave her darkened room for days. Other times she'll get extremely ravenous but eating makes her sick.

I was able to convince her to see a team of doctors back home but, they were useless. Every test they ran on her came back showing either inconclusive or that she's okay.

There was even one doctor who suggested that the episodes were in her mind and that she should seek professional help for it. That doctor I gave a piece of my mind, but I digress. The point is that Nikki needs your help right now. She's having one of those episodes, and that's why she ran off to the bathroom."

The crying, concerned, couple who had only seconds before looked bewildered, and a little hurt were now looking at each other with such calculating eyes that I was stunned. It was like watching a mask fall off. Almost immediately, the look was gone, and I doubted what I had seen.

"She has progressed that far? We need to get her back to the lab right now. Tianna, is it? Come, help me carry Nikki to our car. My love, settle the bill and start making arrangements."

Mrs. Winspere was quick on her feet firing commands and rushing towards the bathroom. She tried to look concerned, but this time I saw it. There was a veiled look of perverse pleasure in her eyes. Something wasn't quite right.

There was nothing I could do though. I had promised Nikki that I would give her parents the benefit of the doubt because they were the best genetic scientists on the East Coast. Still, I didn't trust them; not for a moment.

New York

Josiah was sitting in front of a P.O.A.H computer hacking into their database. He had flown to New York late last night with the intent to find out what made Nikki so crucial to the organization. What he found had floored him.