The Messenger

His Vision

I wake from the sound of Barry screaming. I open my eyes to see Anabelle kneeling over Barry calling out to me. "What's going on?" I stand up immediately, kneeling next to Barry. He's sweating and shaking extremely bad. What is going on with him, is he having a seizure? 

"I don't know!" she says trying to hold him still. Barry opens his eyes and he begins screaming. His eyes are both blood shot red.

"Barry it's okay." I grab him and hold him close. "It's okay!" I repeat. He looks at me and he stops shaking. He stares at me and then closes his eyes again, but he's still. Too still. "Barry?" I get no reply. "Barry?" I shake him this time.

"I don't even know what happened! He woke up like this!" Anabelle tells me. All of a sudden he opens his eyes again. Their no longer red and he's no longer sweating or shaking. "Barry?" Anabelle hesitates. He ignores her and stares straight ahead of him. 

"Barry are you okay? What was that?" I grab his hand and pull his face to look at me. I see tears start falling from his eyes. "What's wrong?" I pull him in for a hug. He holds on me tight, sobbing. I look at Anabelle who's just staring at Barry, obviously confused as much as I am. I let him cry and my arms and let him cool down before I start asking him questions. When he lets me go, he sits down. He looks as if hes been up for days. 

"Do you know what happened?" I say holding his hand.

"I know everything." he looks away as if it's a bad thing.

"You do? That's great!" Anabelle shrieks.

"It wasn't all good. I remember my life. My old life." he frowns.

"Are you ready to tell us everything?" I ask.

"Yeah, sure." He replies and Anabelle takes a seat next him aswell. 

"Okay, go on." I squeeze his hands, "Just remember you're safe now, no matter what the past was. It can't hurt you anymore!"

"Thanks." he smiles finally.

"Of course." 

"My name is Jaden Hockly. I was 16 when I died. I lived with my parents. My mom's name was Julie and my fathers name was Chad. I had no siblings, but I had a bestfriend named Paris. Paris was my everything. We did everything together. She was practically my sister, but I loved her way more then that. I wanted to be way more then that with her. Anyways, my parents were horrible. By horrible I mean,  my dad used to beat up my mom. I tried to stick up for her, but I always ended up hurt." He pauses. I notice I have tears falling from my eyes. That's so horrible!

He continues, "One day, I was eating some type of new meat. It was meat from a cloak. A cloak is a guinea pig like animal. You know what they are. I think that's where the virus came from. That's when I started going crazy. I started to not eat. That's when I slowly turned in to a zombie. It started with headaches. And then things got worse. I craved blood as if I was some type of vampire. Yet, I had no fangs. My emotions started to change aswell. I was so angry! One day, when I came home from school my dad was yelling at my mom. I yelled for her to leave and I bit my dad and I killed him."

"Oh god, Barry." I hug him. 

"Let him finish!" Anabelle pulls us apart. 

"You don't have to finish right now." I pat his back.

"No, I need to." he glances at me.

"Alright." I nod.

"My mom was scared of me when I looked back at her. She kept screaming my eyes were red and that I was turning green. She even called me a monster. Then Paris ran in to my house. By then I was completely lost I wasn't myself. But I still remember biting in to her neck." Barry starts crying. I gasp at his words. He killed the girl he was in love with. I was starting to think love was the cure! 

"I killed her with no mercy and I did the same with my mom. I then ran outside wanting to kill more people. I could tell I wasn't the only zombie out there because there were echoes of screams and cars hitting each other and I could smell the death. And I loved it. I loved it so much." he stops for a moment.

"Do you want us to call you Jaden?" I ask him.

"No, please. Don't ever call me that." he sighs. "Just call me Barry. I like that name way more." 

"So what was the cure?" Anabelle says unpatiently.

"It was the fruit. The last thing I ate was the cloak, except for the human blood and flesh. Somehow eating regular human food cleared my immune system. It was the fruit." 

"Fruit was the cure?" I smile excitedly.

"Yes!" his mood goes from bad to good. Anabelle and I both start to hug him. This is the record for how much hugs I gave in one day, I laugh to myself. This is all just so emotional though. 

"I'm going to go grab all the fruit in this store. You guys can stay here and talk!" Anabelle smiles. 

"You're amazing." I tell Barry. "We would have never been able to do this without you. You're a hero."

"I'm no hero. I killed the love of my life and my parents. I'm a monster." He looks away.

"You weren't yourself. Who knows! Maybe their out there. Maybe they're zombies and then we can cure them!" I stay positive.

"Trust me, they're not out there. I killed them, bad. I can't believe I killed Paris." he then looks at me. "You know, you kind of looked like her. I think that's why you always soothed me down when I was duck taped to that bed. Your face reminded me of humanity."

"Well, I bet she was amazing." I nudge him, smiling. He then pulls me in for a kiss. I back away quickly.

"I can't do that." I cover my mouth.

"I'm a monster." He puts his head down.

"No, it's not that. It's just too soon. I think I loved Dylan." 

"When you love someone you don't think you do. You know it. You loved him as a friend, not as a partner and you know that. And that's okay he'd want you want what makes you happy." he says scooting closer to me.

"What if I don't know what makes me happy?" I say honestly. "You know I could leave anytime. I'm from the year 2014. I could just wakeup there one day and i'll be just a part of your memory."

"I'll find you then because I can't help falling in love with you."