I look at kade, lying on this operating table, sedated yet conscious and know he’s going through hell – because as you all know, I’ve been there.
As I listen to the pre-surgery specifics being exchanged between The Surgeon’s soul and The Twins, my mind races. Thoughts, ideas, scenarios and all sorts of get out plans course through my head: stumbling, jumbling and making little coherent sense.
One thing I know for sure is: the panic app is useless here!
‘Calm, Tan’ I repeat over and over to myself in order to make sense of what’s happening in my head. But, The Surgeon's voice overrides my thoughts – "Remember, this patient has not undergone any hormone therapy, so this is very much a slice and dice job. Also, we don't have the time for full anesthesia, so he will be conscious. I suggest you work swiftly, because if you work too slowly he may pass out, and we don't want that, we want him to experience the full intensity of the pain. That said, we can craft a fully functioning vagina at a later date, when we have more time."
All this is addressed to Twin: 2, who brandishes the scalpel in her hand. I watch her eyes dart from the scalpel down to Kade's boy bits and notice the sick relish in her eyes.
Twin: 1 joins the conversation with enthusiasm, "My sister's been practicing, and she is very, very good. On her last session she managed to fully castrate a hog in under sixty seconds," she says, proudly.
The Surgeon quivers with a perverse pleasure, "That is mightily impressive. And when you consider that human male genital tissue is much softer and more compliant than a hogs, she may well beat her personal best on this procedure," she says, with the warped smile that I never thought I'd see again.
I steel a glance at Kade. All the color has drained from his face and his eyes are widely dilated. I look away and chant to myself: I WILL SAVE HIM!
Then a word pops into my head: DIVERT.
I must find some kind of diversion tactic, anything to buy time.
I stare at The Surgeon, and the words spill from me before I can even think of the consequence, "So, you never were my mother, were you?"
Twin: 1 immediately lowers her head, whilst The Surgeon's face-hardens, "Did she speak with that pig woman?" She asks, her voice loaded with anger.
When neither twin immediately answers, I jump in with, "If you mean The Nanny, The Twin’s Nanny, then yes, we were fortunate to meet her before she sacrificed her self – for us," I say.
The Twin’s silence and the look on The Surgeon's face tell me I've hit a nerve that I must capitalize on.
I steel another glance at Kade and he mouths the words, 'The letter' – I know he's thinking the same as myself.
The information in The Nanny's letter comes racing back to me and I fix The Surgeon with a knowing eye, "You were born 'intersex' a 'hermaphrodite' with both male and female genitalia – weren't you?"
She doesn't answer me, instead she shoots words at The Twins, “You let that thing impart this confidential information to them?" I jump in, "She wasn't a thing. She was the man who supported you as a child, your endocrinologist, the person who knew you wanted to be a boy...”
..."SLICE HIS BITS OFF – NOW!" Screams The Surgeon at Twin: 2. The scalpel flashes and glints in her hand, which is trembling alarmingly as it moves towards Kade's exposed crotch.
"WAIT!" I scream with such intensity that Twin: 2 jolts and her arm shoots up, launching the scalpel upwards towards the ceiling.
Realizing her error, she looks up, just in time to have the scalpel embed itself with a sickening squelch into her right eye. Blood spurts from her eye-socket like a burst water pipe spouting claret.
Despite the gore, I remain focused on The Surgeon as Twin: 1 grapples to aid her sibling, "Oh, I get all the clinical study stuff that brought you big bucks. But, your primary motive was a sick desire for revenge. And you first exacted that revenge by abducting the man who you blamed for not doing more to convince your parents to allow you be male. You enforced a gender reassignment on him as a warped kind of punishment. I often wonder how many more victims there were in between him and me,” I say.
The Surgeon chuckles, “Oh, there have been many…”
I cut in with…”Except – I’m not one of your victims!” “No. I survived. I adapted. And amidst all of the horror you threw at me, I found a great love and happiness. With me – you failed,” I say, with a cathartic satisfaction in my smile.
She returns a smile and raises an eyebrow, “Failed, me? Never. That’s not a word that sits in my vocabulary, in life or death – is it?” Her question is addressed to Twin: 1, who has removed the scalpel from her sister’s eye and is putting a rudimentary dressing on it.
Twin: 1 stands, walks toward the glass and swipes away a smear of blood so she can see me clearly, “The Surgeon never fails. Nor do we, her clones,” she says.
I smile, smugly, “Well, that was a spectacular fail on your sister’s part,” I say.
She chuckles and looks at her twin sitting cross-legged on the floor, “She’s a little sensitive to elevated sounds. But, my sister loves inflicting pain, AND, receiving it. So that would have been an unexpected treat for her,” she says, stroking her sister’s head. I note Twin: 2 is now gently rocking and purring with pleasure. I shake my head, “You’re beyond sick, you really are!” I say, with controlled anger.
She smiles, “Go to hell, Tanya – we have work to do,” she says, walking toward the wall where she bangs a button with force.
I note the glass begin to mute and darken.
Kade’s eyes dilate with despair as his hand reaches out to me. But by the time I reach out to him the glass is black.
Not being able to see what’s happening sends me into a blind panic and I change my tone – “Hey, wait. Come back, you said his surgery had to be a joint decision. Hit the lights and let’s talk,” I shout, banging on the glass in desperation.
Silence.
“KADE! Can you hear me?
Silence.
“Kade – don’t agree to the surgery. They probably won’t release Kelly’s soul anyway! Please, do all you can to prevent them doing this. I want you back, Kade. I want us back – we should never have come here, we made a mistake – Kade, can you hear me?”
Silence.
I race round the room in an effort to control my madly beating heart.
Then I slump to the floor: powerless, broken and failed.
……
Curled up in a fetal position all the good times Kade and I shared together return to torment me. I here his mother’s and Troy’s last words to him: “I love you more than life, my SON.” And, “I love you like a BROTHER.
Their use of the male gender and knowing what’s going on behind this blackened glass wall intensifies my turmoil.
Then – amidst the torment, a thought comforts me: is this a nightmare?
I stand up and walk toward my flying pack. I take the small knife from the pocket and draw the blade hard against the top of my left hand.
The searing pain that shoots through me shatters that thought.
This is all too real.
I’m in hell.
My warm blood seeps from my hand and splats onto the white tiled floor.
Tap-tap-tap – the sound of my blood splatting onto the cold floor gives me an insight: only the dead go to hell! I stare at my seeping blood: I’m alive!
Sudden Questions flood me with hope: is this hell, here on earth? Is it a warped creation by The Twins AND The Surgeon to control us all?
IS THE SURGEON REALLY DEAD?
……
I hastily bind a bandage around my hand, throw on my flying pack and rev up the rotor to full power. I race for the keypad and slam in 666, then turn and shout, “I’m going to look for answers, Kade. But, I’ll be back and we’ll be together again – soon.”
……
Freezing air slices through me as I fly through this vast frozen landscape. The huddled mounds of people are fewer this time. They untangle themselves and reach up toward me as I fly by, all collectively crying, “Save us,” with pathetic, cold weakened voices.
As I fly, I tell myself, if this really is hell, then it will be infinite, the space will be endless.
I fly at a steady speed, until: THUD!
When I hit a wall, I have my answer.
Luckily my rotors cushioned the impact and I hit the floor with a perfect forward role.
This place is fucking man made. A hell made by humans right here on earth. A vast thermostatically regulated fridge in which to imprison and torture unfortunate souls. The Sixth Zone is more The Fake Zone!
This revelation empowers me and I continue onwards to rescue Kade; eager to share my discovery with him.
……
A frenzy of freezing hands grab and grapple with me as I make my way back to the operating room entrance. I feel bad for having to push them away, but right now my priority is getting my guy off that surgical table.
Kade and I will liberate these people – together.
……
I call out, “Kelly, where are you?” When she doesn’t answer questions and scenarios flood my head – who is the girl in the cryogenic tank? The corpse Kade and I washed was real. The Kelly that shattered Kade’s nose was real. Who is the Kelly in here?
The questions cause me diverting doubt, which I push to the back of my head: for now, I know this place is real and I have to get out of it.
But what of Kristene? Kade and I saw and smelt her decomposing body.
I urge myself to think later. I have to rescue Kade and bring him home as the: son, brother, lover and soul mate that he is.
When I reach the keypad I holler through the wickedly effective freezing sleet, “Kelly, if you’re here, make your way to me now!”
I wait a minute or so and can wait no more – I slam in 666
……
The sudden heat is once again: heaven. I pull off my mangled fly pack, brush off the sleet and momentarily wallow in the warmth.
…...
Of course, my wallow doesn’t last long. I’m confronted by another puzzle: a bedroom has replaced the operating room.
I bang the glass with my fists, “Hello – I guess you’ve realized I’ve discovered your hell is fake and fabricated. Come and confront me, let’s make this an equal playing field for once, you pair of sickos.”
A door slowly opens and Twin:1 saunters in with a model like swagger, “Welcome back, Tanya,” she says, with a smile
“Where’s Kade? I ask, impatient.
She lowers her eyes in a sheepish way, “He’s entertaining my sister,” she says, looking suddenly coy.
“Cut the shy, girly crap – is he intact?” I ask, bluntly.
It’s then I notice that her long black robe is fitted tight, emphasizing her tall, athletic and womanly physique. And there’s a change in her demeanor, she’s less malevolent, more – flirtatious.
I’m feeling freaked.
When she speaks, it’s with a slow, simpering voice, “We’ve had a change of mind. My sister and I both agree that Kade is a rather splendid male specimen. So we spoke with The Surgeon and we have her permission to abandon his gender reassignment surgery and put him to good use.”
She sits on the bed, crosses her legs provocatively and continues, “You must understand, that although my sister and I are both pure evil, we’re also pure girls. We’ve never had a boyfriend, and we’re both rather broody. Sure we have our wonderful imps, but we’re both ready for babies, now,” she purrs.
I shake my head to stop my heart hurting, “What are you talking about?”
She grins wide, “Am I not making myself clear? Let me spell it out: Kade is ours now. You get back on your rescue mission in our fake hell, and let Kade get back to experiencing real women.”
She unfurls her legs and stands up, “Off you go, Tanya. My sister and I are off to start our family…”