Changeling

Michael longingly looked out his window at the forest; the sun shone down upon the trees, casting them in a golden glow.  He turned back to his room - a bent cot in the corner with threadbare blankets and a flat pillow, well-worn clothes and cheap, broken toys littered the floor.  The vibrations from the blaring TV downstairs traveled through his legs and into his teeth; his skull throbbed with the onset of a headache.  He knew his parents lounged on the couch right now, the rubber cord tied securely and the needle stuck in the crook of their arms.  Drool dripped from the corner of their mouths as they stared blankly at the TV.  The rank smell of week-old takeout and burnt Pop-Tarts filled the hallway and assaulted his nose.  Michael set his jaw and finally decided enough was enough. 

His Superman backpack sat in the corner (his sole undamaged possession; a reward for winning his class spelling bee).  Michael didn't own much and what he had would fit well enough.  He picked a few of his best shirts, jeans, some socks and underwear, then packed his bag of marbles on top.  Five more strained minutes and both of his parents would be dead to the world.

They didn't even stir as he shut the door; the screen always clanged no matter how quietly he tried to close it.  The outside world beckoned to him:  the wind in his hair pulled him into its embrace; the forest enticingly shimmered in the distance.  Though the sky had turned overcast, Michael could still see the forest beaconed by the last ray of dimming sunlight.  He imagined the treehouse he would build; complete with a rope ladder and a slide escape (he’d worry about where to find the slide later). His planning passed the time quickly and soon he was within the forest.  Branches thick with hunter foliage drew him further along.

A gentle peace surrounded him as the forest serenaded his ears with cricket and critter sounds.  Michael walked deeper and eventually stumbled upon a small clearing padded with soft moss.  A large, bushy branch overhead promised shade when the sun reached its tendrils through the canopy.  Small branches jutted out from the trunks creating a natural ladder, while a fallen tree nearby could be used as his slide.  Michael set his backpack next to a hollow tree stump and looked around, enjoying the natural silence the forest offered.  Yawning, he nestled down amongst the moss, letting the softness and lingering warmth of the faded sun soothe him in a way his bed never had. 

Something small and hard hit him square in the forehead, causing him to stir.  Michael frowned as he awoke, momentarily disoriented.  He rubbed his head and looked around for the source, eventually witnessing a marble slowly rolling away.  Movement drew him toward the stump from where a small creature peeked its head, holding his bag of marbles in its teeth.  It watched him with over-sized green eyes reflecting the forest.  With its tall, pointed ears, a fox-like snout, and rough, brown skin, the creature almost blended into the stump.  Michael wondered if it had been there throughout his nap.

"Hi," Michael whispered.  The creature blinked at him then whispered "Hi" back in Michael’s voice.  "My name is Michael," he said, to which the creature responded the same.  "You can't be Michael too...that's my name!" and again the creature mimicked his words.  The boy looked into the creature’s eyes, trying to slow down his frantic heart.  He had imagined fantastic creatures and wild adventures during many lonely nights. Yet here was one staring him in the face and Michael could only react with hesitation and slight fear.  The creature looked at him sadly and made a small croaking noise.  It hopped behind the stump but quickly emerged looking the spitting image of Michael!  The eyes were still different; a little too big and too wide with that forest-green tint.

"How’d you do that??" Michael asked.  The creature shrugged and stated "My name is Michael.”  It cackled and took off running.  Nervously, Michael followed and soon they were sprinting out of the forest and into Michael’s front lawn. 

Michael halted, confused about how the creature knew where he lived.  Reaching back, he tried to remember if maybe he had seen those big, green eyes peering out from the forest’s darkness.  The creature eyed Michael curiously as it snuck inside, silently shooshing him.  Michael creeped over to watch from outside the living room window.  The creature tiptoed to Michael’s parents, put its fingers in its mouth and stretched his lips wide, tongue wagging.  Soundlessly laughing, it reached into its pocket and pulled out a handful of green powder.  A sharp glint flitted across its eyes as it blew the powder into their faces.  His parents sputtered as they inhaled, their eyes popping open wide.  Seconds passed as they sat stone-still staring at nothing.  The creature sidled up to Michael’s mom and gently pushed.  She fell into his dad and they both slid to the floor, their skin turning a bluish-gray as it boiled off...  

Michael turned away, blinking rapidly to clear the horrifying vision.  He pushed the heels of his palm into his eyes to stop the tears threatening to fall.  Shivering, he removed his hands. The creature stood in front of him again, reverted back to its original form.  “You can live with me now,” it croaked.  “You are free!”  Michael stared, thoughts racing as he thought of his parents writhing on the floor.  Biting his lip, he glanced at his bedroom window where he had created so many fantasies about a better life.  It couldn’t be any harder than what he already lived through.  The creature had rescued him in its own, twisted way but he saw a genuine concern in its eyes, something his parents never expressed.  This creature could offer him the adventure and companionship he desperately desired.  Besides, he could always run away again...

Lasagna Dream

“I think there's one more over here...come on before it defrosts.”  The two men waded through an ocean of broken consoles and torn apart metal pipes to reach the last cryo-chamber.  The glass was broken into little spiderwebs and they almost could not make out the face of a girl on the other side, ice frozen in her raven hair.  

“How the hell did they miss this one?  It looks ancient!”

“I'd peg it at about...21st century make?  I mean, look at the binding.  The glass even!  I'm surprised this girl still looks fresh.”

“Should we break it open?  Looks like someone started to anyways.  You don't think it was them, do you?  Those dents are pretty deep – I don’t know what else could have done that....”

“Ugh,” the other man said shivering, “....hopefully they left at least.”  Each picked up a piece of metal to pry open the door.  After a few attempts, the metal bent under the weight of the two men and the door slowly creaked open.  Cold air burst forth in puffs of white and the glass shattered from the release of pressure.  Sparkles of white flew in every direction as the body of the girl tumbled out into the first man's arms and he almost dropped her from the suddenness of the fall.  Her limbs were stiff from the centuries of freezing and they could barely make out puffs of breath between her blue lips.  

“We need to get her back to the lab, ASAP.  If we don't rejuvenate her soon, she’s a goner,” the second man said, turning to begin the climb back over the pile of junk.  The second man followed, embarrassed to have to drag her.  Once out of the room, they shared the burden and carried her back to the vessel waiting on the loading dock, entry platform down and glimmering in the pale light of the moon.  Suddenly, a dark shadow passed briefly over the moon when they were a few hundred feet from the entrance.  The first man stopped and gazed upwards, his eyes opening wide as the moon changed from a pale golden to a watery crimson.  

“Jemmy....Jemmy look!”  The second man looked up and froze.

“Shit, we need to move.  Come on, Mica.  Move!”  They took off running, closing the distance as fast as their legs would run.  It wasn't fast enough.  A wall of darkness rose up in front of them, cutting them off from the vessel and its safety lights.  Mica dropped the girl's legs and turned around to see the wall surge up behind them as well.  

“Mica, pick her up, let's go!” Jemmy screamed.  Mica shivered in place, pale blue foam leaking out of the corners of his mouth.  They heard a high-pitched wail cutting through the air like a knife, circling the men.  

“Just go, Jemmy...” Mica push the girl on him and took off running in the opposite direction, hoping to be a diversion away from the pair.  Jemmy watched his friend till he was consumed by shadows then half ran, half dragged the frozen girl to the platform.  They barely made it when the shadows turned their attention towards them.

“Bridge, get us up, now!  They are here...”  It seemed a lifetime before the platform was fully raised, leaving the shadow people with blood-red eyes behind, snarling and grasping with their skeletal fingers.  For a moment, Jemmy thought he could see the pale face of Mica in the mix but then the edge of gloom was sealed off by metal and the two people were alone in a shiny metallic room full of blinking lights and whirring gizmos.  He looked at the pale form in his arms, wondering if she was worth the loss of his friend to the fiends.  She doesn't look that special anyways, he thought, scrutinizing the ice-encrusted black eyelashes and freckled nose.  Hell, I wonder how she afforded to be frozen.  Her clothes were the simple cryo-provided uniform of a low grade, skintight, white spandex - the quality suits were saved for the affluent.  Jemmy could see patches of frostbitten skin where the ice had eaten away the cloth.  

“Jemmy, Mica, do you copy?  Guys, that was way too close.”  Jemmy laid the girl on the floor and pushed the button on his wrist communicator.  

“Mica...didn’t make it.”  Choking on the words, he let the button go and looked back at the girl.  Some girl he’d never met over his best friend for years.  The one who had his back in every scrape they got into, trained with him in the academy, shared his first hit of Axis with...

“Jemmy...sorry man.  That’s, that’s something awful...who else is with you then?  We are registering another life form on the platform.”

“I don’t know who she is.  Send some guys from Medical - I won’t be able to carry her myself.  We’ll see what they say.  Jemmy out.”  It took only a few minutes for Jan and his medical team to arrive.  They lifted the limp body of the girl onto the auto-stretcher, examining her as they moved down the hall.

“Vitals seem stable, if not a little slow.  Appropriate for someone coming out of cryo.  Female, mid-20s, Affinity unknown.  Where did you find her?”  Jan turned to Jemmy with his portable recorder pointed at him.

“She, uh...Mica and I found her in the ruins.”

“Her chamber was still running?”

“From the looks of it, though it was badly damaged and probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway.  I think they got their first and tried to get in.  Not sure why they stopped trying, though...Any way to figure out when she’s from?  That station looked old but very empty.”

“We can run a basic scan once in Medical.  It should tell us the general year and give us an Affinity.”

Jemmy continued to follow the medical team, watching the girls eyelashes flutter.  Wonder if she’s dreaming...

“Access code, please.”  The auto-Medibay drone held out its ID pad to Jan for him to enter the codes.  The door opened with a quiet “whoosh” and closed even quieter behind them.  The team lifted the girl from the stretcher and onto the nearest table while Jemmy stood near the door, chewing his nail and watching the team work..  

“Starting basic scan now.  It won’t be more than a minute.”  Jemmy watched as a thin, silver bar descended from the ceiling and positioned itself at the girl’s head, casting a line of blue light down her body then moving back to her head.  It passed over her a few more times until it reached her head one last time, retracted, then a voice from the console started to give the analysis.

“Preliminary scans indicate human female Cassandra Farroworth, born 1986, frozen December 12, 2012.  Additional notes found.  Shall I read them?”

“Yes, computer,” Jan said, eyes on his recorder as the information populated while it was read.

“Additional notes found embedded in left forearm.  They read:  ‘Female tests to highest Affinity.  To date, no others have been found.  Our facility is under attack - we can’t keep her here.  Freezing her so hopefully she’ll survive.  She is the key to saving the world from them.’  End of message.”

Jemmy looked at the prone figure of the girl on the table, shock written all over his face.  The medical team looked similar.

“Highest Affinity...you don’t think that means...?”

“It has to be.  Alert the Captain on base.  We need to get her there as soon as possible.”  Jemmy reached for his communicator, punching in the codes for base.  A gruff voice answered after a second.

“Base.  This is Captain Rogers.  What’s is the situation?”

“Sir, Lieutenant Michaels reporting.  We found a cryo-survivor, Sir.  Basic computer scans say she has the highest Affinity...”

There was a pause before the Captain’s voice came over the communicator again.  “Has this been confirmed?” the asked in a tightly controlled voice.

“Not yet, Sir.  We want to bring her back to base for a full analysis, pending your approval.”

“Approved, Lieutenant.  Bring her back her immediately but keep her sedated.  Do not, I repeat, do not rejuvenate her.  I’ll alert Dr. Vaan of the situation.  Captain Rogers out.”

Story Starter...A Work in Progress!

The pain returned, throbbing red flashes across her eyes as it worked its way from one temple to the other.  Sparkles of white dots flashed into view and she gripped the guardrail tighter to keep from falling.  She kept putting one foot in front of the other, moving slowly and trying to not let her face show the pain she felt.  Twenty more feet till her doorstep...fifteen...the hallway stretched an impossible distance almost as if it was trying to keep the front door just out of her reach.  The screeching began after a few moments, starting off as a quiet, high-pitched whine and increasing to an all out siren-wail.  She reached up to clutch at her ear, hoping to drown out the noise while still attempting to maintain her balance as she kept moving through the hall.  Finally, she slumped against the apartment door feeling the veins in her forehead pump against the hard steel.  The handle felt cold in her hands as she twisted and fell inside, collapsing into a pile as she gave in to the swelling darkness.

Minutes, hours later, she awoke on the floor, groggy and discombobulated.  Her cellphone buzzed from inside the pouch of her purse and she reached for it, answering with a disoriented “Hello…”

“Amy, I’ve been calling for hours!  Where have you been!” the voice of her friend asked in a panic.  “Don’t tell me it happened again.  I wish you’d go see a doctor about this.  I’m worried…”

“...I know.  But I’ve seen one before - they couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  I’m not wasting any more time doing ridiculous tests all so they can tell me nothing.  I’m fine, really.  It’s just stress from the job, ok?  Now what’s up?”  She gingerly moved to a sitting position leaning her back against the door for support.  Her eyes had still not fully focused and it was hard to tune in to what her friend was saying.

“They found a two dead bodies in an apartment down town,” Janelle told her.

“Um….so?  People die all the time.  It’s the way the world works, sweetie,” Amy replied perplexed at her friend’s concerning tone.

“Oh don’t patronize me.  You think I’d be calling if it was something so commonplace?”  Sad how dead bodies in apartments have become commonplace… “One of the bodies was already dead….Like he was dug up from  his grave.  The guy died months ago!  Someone dug him up and killed the owner of the apartment then left that thing there!  No one has any clue why.  And the mess, good lord, the mess.  The woman who lived there was torn apart.  Like something out of one of those zombie movies you love so much.”

Already dead…?  She tasted copper on her tongue and grabbed the compact mirror from her purse, checking for any cuts - nothing.  Where was that coming from?  

“I mean, they even found bits of the woman’s flesh in the dead guy’s mouth and under his nails.  How does that even happen?”

Amy sighed, “I don’t know, Janelle.  Someone was very bored and very sick.  Look, can we talk later?  I feel awful and need to lay down.  I’ll call you tonight.”  Amy hung up the phone and let it drop to the floor as she pushed herself up and managed to stumble to the bathroom.  The bags under her eyes contrasted sharply with the pale white of her skin from the weeks of little sleep and the constant voice in her head telling her something was wrong but not informing her why.  Her brother had passed away back in March and it was soon after the headaches came, increasing in force as the months progressed to now, five months later and frequent blackouts.  Thankfully they had not come while she was at work or driving but seemed to begin towards the latter part of the night after she had left Horowitz & Associates.  

Doctors had been no help - only contributing to a higher debt from unpaid medical expenses carrying over from her brother’s passing.  They subjected her to tests of all kinds: blood, brain, xray, bone, nerve, you name it, she did it.  But not once have they found anything to explain the blackouts preceded by mind numbing migraines.  Psychiatrists had put her on pills and suggested she see therapist because clearly it was a symptom of depression she felt from having no more living family members left.  

“Shawn, could this be caused by the void you left behind?” she asked her reflection, hoping to catch a glimpse of him from beyond.  Histrionic.  Stop.  Splash some water on your face and move on.  Everything has an end and this too shall pass.  Amy gargled with some mouthwash and spat into the white ceramic sink, surprised to see blood mixed in.  That explains the copper taste...but no cut?  She examined her mouth further and found no signs of a tear so shrugging, she left the bathroom and moved to the kitchen to grab a glass of wine.  Empty bottles lined her counter from many nights of drinking and minimal nights of cleaning, partially because of the extended hours at work lately.  Julian Horowitz had been more than pressuring to get her at the office for longer - both to decrease his workload (as she was shooting for partner) and to try and entice her into a relationship.  Amy declined as many attempts as she could but the temptation was still there.  He was a handsome, strong, charming, powerful man that made her fingernails itch but her heart recoil.  Julian reminded her too much of Connor; much the same in demeanor and just as much an asshole when it came to women.  Sure, they could woo you away in a matter of minutes but once conquested, they soon grew bored and threw you out for the next one.  It was the same thing he did to Janelle, though Amy did not see it until it was her turn.  She genuinely thought he loved her.  Janelle was weak and and not altogether graceful when Connor turned a blind eye on her and focused it on Amy.  The two didn’t speak until a few months after he broke up with her too.  And now she has Julian lapping at her heels.  Part of her enjoyed the power of seducing these men but the other knew it was all a sham and they held all the power.  Her red hair and green eyes attracted a lot of attention but most was unwarranted and unappreciated.  So yet again, she was single and filled her life with more work than social until the headaches started resulting in the fear of going out anywhere, worrying she would black out at the bar and suffer the embarrassment of the patrons thinking of her as a drunk.