Changes (21 page)

Rachel came to work with a determination heavy in her heart and hope on her mind. Was she about to get everything she wanted? Was she about to have all of her answers answered? She didn’t know of course, life was never that easy, but she did think that she was onto something important. She just had to do some more research before she would know for sure. She knew that much.

Driving to the labs, she took her time to think about everything she had to do when she got there. First, she had to take the blood sample, and see if it shared the same characteristics as Collins. Second, she had to find out what it all meant. What she saw with Collins was that his blood was impervious to everything. It took over other cells, and seemed to over right them somehow—in some way. Jimmy told her that he was bitten, and that only after that, did everything begin to change. If he was right, and if Collins did bite him, she wondered if she could duplicate the event. If she could, it could be the answer to everything. It would give her the cure. If she couldn’t, then maybe she could find some other way to do it. It all made sense, but it all depended on what she could find out from his blood.

Pulling into the parking lot and parking her car, she grabbed her bag and stood out of the car with a swagger in her heart. The night seemed so perfect around her, and with it, it brought an instant shudder through her body and mind. It told her that she couldn’t wait to do this. It added to her mood. The feeling seemed hard to contain.

Walking up the sidewalk, she opened the door, and expected to see Jimmy sitting there behind the counter, but she didn’t. Not seeing him, she didn’t panic. She knew that he did patrols during the night, and not seeing him there, only confirmed that he had to be out on one now. It made sense, so she didn’t think anything more about it. She walked past the counter, went up the stairs, and headed down the hallway towards the labs. She made it to hers quickly, went inside it, and started getting ready for the tests that she planned to run.

“Wake up young man,” a voice came to Jimmy, slowly from somewhere outside his mind. It started softly at first, but built up its intensity with each word he heard. He grabbed onto the sound and pulled himself towards it. He did what the voice told him to do and he opened his eyes. “That’s it. Come to me?” The voice sounded soft and smooth. It sounded so comfortable. He went to it without a second thought.

He turned to his right, and saw the older man with the white hair looking over him with almost glee on his face. He recognized him as Mister Richard Ross. “Where am I?” His voice cracked and creaked some. It even whispered.

“That’s good?” Richard Ross prodded. He smiled as he watched him open eyes. “How are you young man?” The glee he felt almost seemed overpowering. After losing Collins, he thought everything was lost. They were so close to finding what they were looking for, but with his loss, he thought it was over, but not now. Now everything was starting over again. He had him fresh, and he was theirs to do with as they wanted. Seeing him there, having him there, gave him the greatest hope of hopes that all of this gave him the time to make it right.

“Where am I?” Jimmy asked again. He felt half there and half not. He felt completely lost as to where he was. He also felt completely confused. He couldn’t remember anything. His thoughts felt like nothing more than just ragged images. Looking to his right, he caught the double doors to the room and saw two uniformed men standing in front of them. They looked like they were guarding the room. Behind the older man, standing in front of the wall, stood the large man with the blonde hair. Seeing him, smiling at him with that God-awful smirk on his face, he grew worried all too fast.

“You’re safe my young friend.” Ross stood back up straight. “You are with us now.” He smiled.

Jimmy looked from the two men with the uniforms on and back towards the older man standing towards his feet. He heard what he said and tried to move, but couldn’t. His wrists felt heavy and weighted down by something that felt like they were covering them completely. He looked down, bending his chin into his chest, and could see that they were wrapped with what looked like straps. Seeing them, he sighed. He could also see that his uniform was no longer on him, and that he was now wearing what looked like a hospital robe, or some type of a gown. Seeing both, he knew what it meant.
They’re keeping me a hostage. They’re keeping me just like they kept Collins.
“Why am I bound? Why are you keeping me like this?” Hearing his own voice seemed like listening to someone else talk. He sounded like a million miles away.

“I’m sorry my dear boy, but we have to keep you secured. We have to keep you safe. We have to keep
us
safe.” Ross walked from the foot of the bed and made his way to the center of the room.

Jimmy watched him step in front of the two men standing by the door.

“You don’t have any idea of what you are; do you—Mister—Walls, isn’t it?” He stopped, turned back around and faced him.

Jimmy tried to nod but couldn’t. Whatever they shot him up with, which had to be something, made it all seem almost impossible for him to move. “Jimmy,” he spoke instead. His voice cracked and sounded winced. It almost sounded like an exhale and nothing more than that.

Ross laughed. “Of course, Jimmy.” He turned from him and back to the men behind him. He walked the short distance between them and stopped again, looked over to the wall in front of Gary, found a chair, and pulled it out to the center of the room. He sat down, and faced the bed. “Well James? Do you know what you are and what you can give to us?” He decided to be broader this time around. The pride he felt showed in his voice, and it made him sound boastful, and oh so sure of himself. All three things he felt in plenty. He felt more than that.

Jimmy tried to shake his head, but couldn’t. He could barely even breathe. He could barely even form words in his own mind.

Ross bowed his head to the floor, thinking. When he finished, he raised his eyes back up to the bed. “Have you ever heard of Lycanthropy, James?” He smiled, and his eyebrows went up.

Jimmy looked at him with wide eyes. He could almost swear that he heard of the word before, but right at that moment, he couldn’t place the thought in his head long enough to answer it. Therefore, he shook his head again—well—barely.

Ross nodded. “You see, a long time ago, there were those who thought—who believed they could become animals at certain times, usually during a full moon. These people believed it and were hunted down because of it. In modern times, we call their beliefs Lycanthropy. The belief of them becoming one with nature.”

Jimmy looked from him and back up to the ceiling, wanted to laugh, but it fought him some. If he wasn’t so damn tired he would have. “You’re trying to tell me that I think I’m some sort of an animal?” He once again tried to shake his head, but still couldn’t bring up the strength to do it.

“Not believe, but are.” Ross stood up from the chair.

His actions caused Jimmy to look back at him fast. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You see Jimmy, all myths, no matter what they are, or where they come from; begin with a certain level of truth. Today’s science has so much out there that they can’t understand. There’s so much out there, that just doesn’t make any sense to them. When I first heard of it, I too thought that it all sounded crazy, maybe even a little absurd. That all changed when I met a mutual friend of ours?”

Jimmy’s eyes matched the older man’s stare as he retook the chair, and sat back down.

“Does the name Collins sound familiar to you?” He smiled and sighed subtly.

Jimmy’s eyes grew large and almost unforgiving. The realization that they knew about him and Collins came rushing into his thoughts. He suddenly felt overexposed. He felt spied on. He felt almost abused.

The look on his face told Ross volumes without the need to say another word. “I see you did. I don’t know what you knew about him, or what he told you, but he was something that convinced me of all of it. You see, he convinced me that myths are sometimes real.”

“You’re crazy?” Jimmy now did laugh. It sounded nearly empty, but it sounded like one nonetheless.

Ross now laughed as well. His, however, was full of life. When he finished it, he continued with his thoughts. “I used to think so too. When I first met him, he came to me wanting to help his fellow man. He said that he had a special gift that he thought I could use to find a way to help people—to help them end their pain and suffering. He wanted to help them to fight death itself. I too didn’t believe him, until, that is, he showed me what a special gift he had.” He stood up again from the chair, walked around to its back and took the back of it into both of his hands. He leaned up against it, still looking to the bed. “When I first saw him, I couldn’t believe my own eyes. It was—was—like magic. It was like wonder. I’d never seen anything like it before in my life. It was the most beautiful thing in the world.
He
was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” he paused, allowing himself to laugh some again. When he finished it, he went to shaking his head as well. “I couldn’t believe any of it, even then?”

Jimmy again laughed, listening to everything. He couldn’t help himself. Everything he heard made absolutely no sense to him what so ever. Everything sounded more than just crazy, it sounded almost ridiculous. “So, you’re telling me that I’m going to become some sort of an animal?” The entire idea seemed to be worth laughing at.

“Not just any animal, James, but a wolf to be more accurate.” Ross stepped away from the chair and closed the gap between him and the bed, and stopped in between them.

Jimmy again looked to the ceiling and back to the older man again. “A wolf?” He laughed again, before he could bring himself to continue. “A werewolf you mean?” He looked directly into the old man’s eyes. What he saw only convinced him that he had to be crazy. It seemed like the only explanation for what he heard. “You really are crazy?” He sighed.

Ross also sighed. He wasn’t being taken seriously, and he hated that. Therefore, he decided to explain everything he knew about what happened last Friday. “You know I’m right James? Don’t you remember what happened last Friday morning? The bite on your hand?” He pointed down to his hand, his left hand to be more accurate.

Jimmy swallowed as his eyes widened. The thought of everything that happened rushed back into his thoughts. The shock that they knew that too, flared through him like a blast of cold. It seemed that nothing was off limits to them. They knew everything. It didn’t seem possible, but they did. Slowly, he turned from the older man and looked down to his own left wrist, and sighed, thinking about it.

Ross watched him look towards his left hand, and seeing it, the confidence of everything he knew only built up in his mind. He felt more than just pleased seeing his reaction. He felt almost gleeful with it. Of course, he saw the tape. He saw what happened. He knew the truth. “You know I’m telling you the truth, don’t you Mister Walls?” He left the center of the room and walked back to the side of the bed. “You don’t know how happy I was when I found out that he bit you. Since that night, you already know some of the change, don’t you? You already know about the smells that you can now smell. You know about the sounds that you can now hear. You can sense the feelings from others that you can now feel. It’s all there, isn’t it. All of it is now a part of you. The wolf can do things that no human can. It’s his instinct. It’s his power.”

Jimmy looked up from his wrist and back to the older man. His eyes felt wider than ever.

“I see you do?” Ross said and smiled. Seeing his face again, brought everything he said to completion. He could see truth, deep within his brown eyes. “That change has already begun.”

Jimmy sighed, and took a deep breath—a very deep breath.

Ross left the side of the bed and made his way back to the chair. Once beside it, he turned back around. “That’s why we had to do what we did. You are the key to our future. You are the key to everything. The blood that now runs through your veins is the future for curing all illnesses, all pain and suffering. You are the key to long life, and the general welfare of so many people who now have none of it. With your help, we can solve all of that, Mister Walls. You can give them long life. You can give them hope. Will you help us?” He could hear his own excitement oozing out of his voice ten times over.

“Is that what you said to Collins, when you locked him up like an animal?” Jimmy heard himself say. He didn’t expect to hear it, and it caused him to jump some just by the sounds of the question. It didn’t sound like his own voice. He sounded distant. He sounded misplaced. Someone else had to ask the question, he felt sure of it.

Ross sighed, and felt completely surprised. The voice almost sounded like Collins. If he closed his eyes, he would have been sure of it. He had to blink several times to get the thought of it out of his head. “We had to keep our people safe. We had to keep him safe. He gave us no choice.” He held out his hands, trying to prove his point. He truly meant what he said. “He came here by his own free will.”

Jimmy didn’t agree with any of it. “Is that why you threw him into a cage and killed him?”

“That was an accident.” Ross sighed, not wanting to hear what he just did.

“An accident?” Jimmy laughed. “Is that what you call it?”

Ross looked behind to one of the two men standing at the door. He moved towards them and turned back around. “He gave us no choice. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be outside. He knew that we had to be careful for him to be out on his own. He just didn’t listen. He got out anyway, and after what he did to those poor people, we didn’t have any other choice?”

“He just wanted to have freedom. He just wanted to be free.” Jimmy looked back to the ceiling. The little black specs that dotted it formed into small little forms. He could almost see a whale, or something that looked like an eagle, with a few of them. “He didn’t kill those people.”

Ross came to the back of the chair, and retook it with both hands. His eyes widened and the glee in his throat fell away. He had to sigh everything else back down. “All of that doesn’t matter now, my boy.” He moved the chair back to the wall beside the door and turned back around. “In two days, all of that won’t matter anyway.”

Jimmy looked back to him and watched him turn. “What happens in two days?” Deep down inside, he didn’t want to know the answer. Also deep down inside, he already knew what the answer was.

“The full moon rises.” Ross sighed and turned to the door. “That’s when you’re going to change for the first time Mister Walls. And that’s something that I have no intention of ever missing.” He stopped at the door and turned back around. “Just the thought of watching it is like—it’s like watching magic. I won’t miss it. I can’t.” He looked into Jimmy’s glazed over stare. He could see that his prize looked tired and that he needed sleep. “Try and get some sleep my boy? You’re going to have a big couple of days to get ready for.”

Jimmy watched him turn to leave. “You know you can’t contain it. You know it will try it get out. You know that someday, you won’t be able to stop it.” He felt his mind beginning to freeze, and now more than ever, he felt completely displaced from whom he really was. Everything seemed so wrong. Nothing seemed right.

Ross turned back as he opened the double doors to the room. His face went blank. He then shook his head, shaking off what he just heard. “Let him rest,” he ordered to Gary and the two men guarding the door with him.