I couldn't tell him, I really couldn't. He would never accept me. No he would never tolerate me.
I cant accept myself, not for what I am. I am a monster and I was one ever since I could remember.
I don't even remember what did this to me.
Thankfully, she saves me by coming into the room. As if on cue, "So here's the deal, it's really only a matter of time until your little friend here becomes a living flesh vessel for the spirit. But, I have a friend, one who was on my research team. If we can get to him, we might be able to reverse this." She tells us. She wore a bath robe, and a cigarette between her fingers. "I made some calls with some other friends, I know where he is but it won't be easy getting there." She says simply. Her face distant and cold.
"Don't talk about Mono like that." I say getting defensive.
"It's simply the truth."
"And how can I trust this truth?" Mono's brow furrowed and he plucked her cigarette away annoyedly. He took a few puffs, seeming to smirk from her disgusted reaction.
"Should you really be doing that?" The corners of her mouth pulled down into a frown as I watched the two.
"There's worse things for me to do right now doctor lady. This isn't half as bad as what is going on yes?" Mono blew some in her face before getting karma and coughing quite a bit of the smoke out. She hardly reacted, just upturned her nose a bit. I just rolled my eyes, at least he was getting back to himself. I have no idea if that really is a good thing or not. OH WELL! "I asked you a question." Mono rasped whenever he recovered from the coughing fit.
"Because. Me and my team worked on what is inside of you." Rightfully so we stared at her with puzzled looks. "That little tower you live in is part of our doing, and what is happening to you is as well."
Mono chuckled. "You don't know what your talking about. The parasites have been in my family for ages. They're passed down to each mayor of Pale city."
"We made the parasites that live inside you, idiot. It isn't a concept or a magic it is a living being inside your body." She hissed. "We made it in that lab back there. All those guys used to be part of the group a long long time ago." She pulled the ottoman closer, sitting down.
I glance at Mono, he glances back. There's something shared between us. There is a bigger part of the story that we had no idea ever existed.
"And so.. a long long time ago.." She started
~
"Gabby, this is the closest we have ever come to finding the cure to aging. Do you know what this means?" He looked up from the desk with a big grin. A small smirk climbed onto my lips and I fixed my lab coat nervously. I always get nervous when he looks at me like that.
"I know," I sigh, "But I really need to get home. To my daughter. She's been home for hours alone. I should at least see her before I hit the hay." I grin a little wider, coming over to him. "But, you'll text me if you find any important breakthroughs right? And if there's any lab emergencies..and maybe.." I bite my lip. "If you ever feel a little.."
"A little?" He asked seeming confused. I guess he didn't notice my tone, or my advances.
"Uh. A little. uhm. Stressed! Yeah! Well, I'll be going." I quickly turned grabbing my keys and leaving as quickly as possible. I have always liked him but, we have only ever been colleagues. Me and Todd would be nothing more. We met when I moved to Pantone and joined at the Institute of Science and Medicine. I have been on the team for about three years, working on a project that Todd had previously started about six years ago.
I was happy to have a job, especially trying to find a cure for aging. I watched many people die as my first job as a nurse and when I finished my degree I decided I didn't want to ever see people like that again. I wanted to find a way to eliminate the affects and illnesses that came with aging and when I met Todd and his team, it felt like the perfect match.
And now Todd felt like the perfect match for me too. I was wary, especially since my first husband left me to raise my daughter on my own. But I was willing to start again, I wanted to with Todd but it constantly felt like he was ignoring my advances.
I brushed the thoughts off and hurried home to find my daughter Clarisse asleep on the couch already. I sighed brushing her hair past her ear, and hoped she didn't hate to have a mother who was always absent. I knew though that what I was doing was right.
At least I thought so at the time.
I snuggled into bed and got into a comfortable sleep. After sleeping for a few hours, I woke to my phone ringing which I quickly answered. "Hello, it's Gabby."
"Gabby, come quick I made a terrible mistake." Todd said. I was at the institute as quickly as I could and when I came into his lab room I gasped. Four of our lab parents had disfigured faces. Multiple eyes on their faces and there skin looked patchy like different colors. They had stitches all over their faces.
"I-I let them take the first dose. I thought it was ready..I really shouldn't have I'm sorry." He shook.
"Oh my god! Todd. This, this is unethical. We can't experiment on our own team we have no idea what the effects of that stuff is, what did you do to them?" I snapped.
"I didn't do anything, they insisted they gave it to themselves!" He said, combing his hands through his hair anxiously.
"My face itchesss" Rodney whined, I recognized him only by his voice. "Otherwise I feel fine."
"MY FACE MY FACE" the other screamed in horror looking at himself in a mirror.
"I think I actually look better this way." Jason said simply.
I pulled Todd to the side, "I tried to stop them I really did." He said freaking out.
"It's not your fault." I sigh, "But you can't be over confident in your research. We should...quarantine them. There might be more effects than just looks and growing eyes." I say softly. "We shouldn't ever tell anyone about this Todd. It was just a mistake." I inhaled shakily. "lets leave it a mistake." I tried to ease him.
"right ...right." He sighed. And so me and him agreed to quarantine them all. We locked the three in an empty medical room, installing cameras and we monitored their behavior. Thankfully it didn't seem to change. They weren't sick. Or at least we thought they were. We ended up letting them out and trusting them back into our research. We continued as normal and no one had to know.
But one day, I figured out that Todd had been working after hours on the research, making altercations to it. I figured he had everything under control so I never questioned him outwardly. It came time to our first experimentation trial.
Todd chose an old dog.
"Todd, I don't think we should be testing on an animal." I whisper.
"Don't question my judgment it will only benefit it." Todd said. He had become more full of himself lately. Infact I was sort of getting tired of his attitude, we were a team but he took credit for most things. But still, I never questioned him. He injected the medicine into the dog which started to shriek and contort.
"Give it more." Todd said simply.
The team hesitated at the poor restrained dog.
"More! It isnt working yet." He growled.
"Todd stop!" I cried. I stepped between the team member with the syringe and the dog.
"Step out of the way Gabby" he growled.
"Your hurting it."
"It will all be over soon." he sneered. His eyes peered at me with something sinister.
"I'm not moving. You will have to make me move." I frowned. As soon as I said that he shoved against me. I fought him back, wrestling to keep him away as he tried to grab the syringe from the person behind me. He pushed me too far and I felt something inject into my neck.
My eyes widen and I gasped. I crumpled to the floor as my body contorted. Todd backed away terrified looking at what he had done. I twisted on the floor, my body seizing and unmoving as I whined in pain.
"oh my god it was an accident! Someone do something!" he screamed. But no one move. They simply watched me writhe.
When I woke up in a hospital room, I saw my face, disfigured and horrific. Several eyes, warped skin. The only thing in tact were my pencil thin lips that even filler couldn't fix. I was a monster. That day I decided this dream wasn't worth it. It was something evil. Those men, the dog, now me? I decided I wanted to get as far away from this project as possible.
I told the team and Todd wasn't having it.
A/N: Sorry to cut the chapter here, but I am simply because I usually do not write chapters this long and don't want everyone to die of boredom. But don't worry, I will be continuing exactly where I left off in the next chapter. Thank you for reading!