The Loyal Alone

Chapter Fourteen

"Violence?"

"Of the worst kind."

"He'd hit his kids?" I wanted to reach up and touch my lips were they were often bruised from an unrelenting backhand.

"No- his children, so far, have been safe from him. They are with their grandmother, my wife, they all think the two of us are dead. But he was willing to get them out of the way; to stop being a father, if it meant he could spend more time on something that truly matters to him, a cure. His children are safe, he was never violent with them, but do not let that alter my words, he has abused other subjects, we used to have a dog in the lab for companion purposes. We. Do not. Have. One. Anymore. There is no room for disobedience. Please listen to me when I say that you have hit the last straw with him."

"I haven't done anything wrong!"

"You're an anomaly. Something he cannot define, a cruse he cannot fix. Candice's death sent him spiraling for answers; again; and he's finding none. That, and your ability to retract from your change, it's an annoyance at best, maddening at the worst- and my dear, I fear the worst."

"I don't understand."

"That is okay. You don't have to understand, as long as you're obedient. He'll be here in a moment. He will ask you to change, you must change."

"I can't."

"You can."

"I won't," I look away, breathing hard. "Don't change. Don't fight. Don't die," I whisper. "Don't change. Don't fight. Don't die."

The room is quiet. I know Johnson is still here because I can smell him, but my mind blocks him out. I think of my father instead, 'above all, don't die.' He whispers. And think back to the cow prod, could it kill me? Would changing avoid that?

As I whispered to myself, the minutes passed, and eventually, the door opened again, this time, letting Olly into my little space of insanity. I considered the words that Johnson had spoken, but that's all they were, words. Simple words. Whereas my father's rules have allowed me to live thus far. I couldn't abandon him, his rules. It was all I had left.

"I won't change," I say as Olly walks closer.

"Oh, isn't she spunky this morning." He is grabbing something out of the closet from a drawer within. As he comes closer, I can see that it is a needle. It's bigger than the last one used to draw my blood. The look on his face told me I should be afraid, but I'd had my blood drawn before. This was nothing to me.

He stops when he gets to me.

"All out of spunk?" He says smiling.

"I will not change." I mumble looking away from him and at the ceiling. I could tell that Johnson was tense, there was a smell that permeated the room and it was coming from him, something that was thick and dripped dread.

"You will change, eventually. But that's not what this is about, though I do hope, that in some ways this helps you bring about change." He smirks, but I still don't look at him. "Subject Four...." He whispers to himself, "ever wonder about the three subjects that came before you?" He smiles. "Each and every one of them changed, two willingly, one, was just as stubborn as you were, but she succumbed eventually. Through an immense amount of pain..."

He bends down to hover over me and looks me in the eye, the syringe is just with in eye sight, I continue to look to the ceiling, glancing through him in a way.

"This syringe is for your venom," he says in a way that makes me shudder. "Every day I will come in and extract your venom in an attempt to help me change others. Johnson's expressed a wish to not let you bite others, this is my compromise. Though, in truth, I feel as if this is a more effective form of torture- I mean science. I feel as though, it will help you change form. Pain is a great motivator. Eventually, you will change, and when that day comes, maybe I will stop extracting venom..."