Chapter 12: Chapter Ten: Total Cellular Degeneration

We got back to the lab quickly. Didn’t see hide nor hair from Brian on the way out, so we lucked out pretty completely in that regard.

A few hours passed laying in my room. Bianca had redid my makeup for me, and I had replaced the oversized hoodie for the blue flannel shirt I had originally been given. And from there we just kinda sat. And waited for it to happen. 

“Do you know when it starts? What are the other signs?” 

Bianca just sighs, fidgeting with her legs. “We don’t really know. It only happened the once where we could see it. It just kinda… happened.” 

I sigh back, reaching around for my cigs. Damn, empty pack. I’m out of everything, huh. “Do you think Sabrina’s going to mind if I get Bree all over her clothes when it happens? I could change out of it if she really wants me to.” 

“I’m sure she won’t mind. You wouldn’t know it from when I first met her, but she’s a bit of a little fashionista. I swear she has more clothes than I do.” That’s true honestly. I’ve never seen one of her brand of androids wear anything at all, let alone as many different outfits that she had. Well, to be fair, I had never seen an android like her before period.

I look around, scratching my head. “Where is she, anyways? Does it usually take this long to charge?”

She shrugs. “Sometimes if she’s been up too long. It’s like sleeping.”

I lay flat on my back, throwing something up in the air a few times. The door opens while I’m doing so, and I hear someone shuffle in. “Ah, speak of the devil right? Hey Seb.” 

“No. It’s me.” I jolt up, staring at Brian. Why is he here? He hasn’t come in here once since that first night. He doesn’t look particularly angry or anything. If anything, he’s worried. He looks terrible, flop sweat covering his face, eyes sunken in deeply. Bundled up heavily in a coat and an old winter hat I barely remembered owning. A shamed look on his face. Maybe he’s finally ready to listen to me? He leans over to Bianca, tapping her shoulder. “Hey, the professor needs you in his lab. Says it’s important, about the cure.” What?

Bianca’s eyes open up wide. “You’re kidding. He cracked it?” She jumps up giddily, waving her hands wildly in front of her. “Oh my god, oh my god! I’m going right now!” She bolts up the stairs, turns off out of sight.

I spring up too. “Oh my god, this is amazing. I need to go too!”

He holds his hand in front of him, stopping me from going anywhere. “No, they need to talk science. It’s not going to mean anything to you. Come with me instead. We need to talk, and I want to do it in private.”

I get quiet, stand still. “What do you have to talk to me about?” I try not to be accusatory, sound harsh. Maybe I can help get through to him.

He nods to get on the move, and I start following him. “I need to apologize to you, right? I’ve been incredibly harsh to you over the last few days, and I should make up for it. We cool, Brainy?”

I grumble a little bit. “I need to know you’re sincere. And it’s Bree.” 

He winces, but keeps marching out of the building. It’s gotten dark out already, and a little chilly. “Ok, Bree. I’m sorry. I don’t know how to make that sound more authentic than that.” 

I nod, try to give him a smile. Just that shows he’s trying harder to fix things. Maybe because I’m going to be around longer he’s come to his senses?

We reach where he’s been walking to; my car. He opens the door to the back seat, gesturing into it. “Go ahead, get in. We can talk more on the way.” 

I stare at the open doorway, the seat messy with papers and the like. Why the back seat? Wait, why the car at all? “On the way to where?”

“Somewhere private. Where we can talk more.” He motions to the inside of the car again, very insistently. I’m getting really bad vibes from this.

I back off a step. “Why should we go anywhere else when they’re discussing a cure? Shouldn’t we be getting that done immediately?” 

His face falls, and he screams at me. “God damn it, get in the fucking car!” I turn around to bolt back to the building, but he catches up to me in a few strides. “No you don’t! You’re coming with me!” He tackles me to the ground, pressing on top of me. He easily dwarfs me at this point. His chest is huge, arms are massive, he’s holding me down easily. I claw at him, catching his button up shirt with my hand, ripping a few buttons off. His chest is badly bruised, a deep purple swelter edging off from under his shirt. “No you don’t, you’re done! You should have made this peaceful!” I try to scream but he holds his hand over my mouth, muffling the sound. God, I’m trapped! He reaches behind him, pulls something out from under his coat. Oh christ, it’s a pipe wrench. He holds it out long enough for me to see before he smashes it straight into my skull, and I’m out.

The world is black. Empty. It’s peaceful. You know, I didn’t expect the end to be like this. It seems a less painful way to go out at least. One strike and I’m gone. It’s cold though. I shiver more than I was expecting. The side of my face feels wet and slick. I can hear the soft crackle of a fire going off besides me. Blurry shapes move around it, stepping on twigs and leaves.

“Oh good, you didn’t die yet. I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to talk to you.” My eyes focus more; we’re in the bonfire pit. I move to stand up, but I can’t. My hands are tied behind my back, onto the chair I’m sitting on. Each foot around the legs too.

“What… what are you doing? Stop this.” I start struggling against my bindings. No good, they’re zip tied together.

He walks up to me, placing something down next to him. “I’m putting an end to this. I should have never let you go this far. You’ve endangered everything I care about.”

I continue struggling, feeling the ties digging into my skin. “What are you talking about? How in the world have I endangered you?”

He kicks my shin, hard. Argh! I yelp out in pain. “You’ve turned both of my friends away from me. Frank chose you day one and then pretended to try and worm his way back to me. Don’t think I didn’t know you’re the one who sent him to do that little pow wow lunch this afternoon. Manipulating him into thinking all these twisted things about me. I thought Morty was staying with me. But look around! I told him I needed him to meet me here when he was done breaking that stupid robot.” I take a sharp inhale. He couldn’t have, right? Brian waves to the empty air around us. “Well guess what! He bitched out at the last second too. Do you see that little toadie anywhere? You wormed your little subhuman tendrils into him too. That’s fine, I don’t need either of them. But now, now you have the balls to go after my Ma?”

Oh shit. “Brian, no, what do you mean?”

“I mean, I come home, and I get a call. From some guy, asking where my cousin was.” God damn it, I must have gave Dre the home number. “Don’t worry, I took care of that too.”

Dread overtakes me. “What did you do?”

“Told him you were drunk and took advantage of you. That you never wanted to see him again, and would press charges if we ever did. He took the hint.” I feel my teeth clench. “Whatever, that isn’t important. What’s important is that this was next to the receiver,” he says, flicking my lighter open, the engraving shimmering in the light from the fire. Oh my god. “I realized that the little freak accident came into my home. I ask ma if she remembers what we talked about earlier on a hunch. She starts sobbing! Saying she’s sorry, that she’d be a better mother in the future! I realized! The monster tried to turn my fucking mother against me too!” He kicks me again, the other leg. I scream out in pain, he’s really trying to make me hurt. Gets right into my face. “What did you tell her? Try to convince her that I like sucking cock, huh? Make her think I want some butcher to come rip me apart to get used better? Get it through your fucking skull! You’re broken, a complete cellular degenerate! You are a deformed little monster that has no bearing on my life or how I am going to live it!”

I spit in his face, he snarls and wipes it off him. “You’re the one living in a fantasy world, Brian. You felt all those things I did, we have the same memories. That lighter is all the proof you need of that.”

He scowls, holding my lighter up to my face so I can see it. “What? Some shitty little fifteen buck zippo a fag we used to bully gave to us out of stockholm syndrome? Probably got off on us kicking him around like he’s nothing. He literally begged for more. You freaks always get off on the sickest shit, right?” He glints the lighter around, catching the light of the fire off the engraving. “I should just toss it right now, right? Get rid of the trash.” 

I scream, hopping towards him. I barely move, the chair creaking and groaning with each hop. One of the hops gets my right leg loose, tied too low to the chair to prevent me from slipping out a little. I lose my balance at that, almost toppling over. “Give that back! You better not dare!” 

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He laughs at me, picking up the jug of what he put down earlier. “Don’t worry ‘Bree’, I’ll give it back to you.” He opens it up and splashes the liquid straight into my face, letting it pool in my lap, over my head. It’s the gasoline/oil mixture for the lawnmower, leftover in the garage from the summer. “I just have to light one more fire with it. Faggots get burned, right?”

I panic, screaming. “Why! Just let me go! I, I’ll move away! When they cure me, I’ll just–”

“There is no cure you moron! I just needed to get you alone!” No. No, no, no. There’s no cure? What the hell are we doing then? I feel tears welling up in my eyes. He crosses his arms, haughtily. “God, you even cry like a bitch now too. They completely ruined you.” 

Why won’t he just let me die in peace? What was the point of getting my hopes up like that! “Why? Why not just let me die quietly in the lab? Why go through all this effort if I’m just going to go tonight anyways?”

“Because!” He roars at me, jabbing me in the chest with his sausage thick fingers. Spittle flying from his lips. “I know what you did! You and that other little tranny! You’re siphoning my life force! Draining it for your own use! Squeezing me like a sponge!” 

My mouth hangs open a little. He’s not just sounding in denial anymore. He’s not even playing the good little foot soldier of Christ. He’s utterly deranged. “What? What are you talking about?”

He throws his heavy coat off, letting it fall to the floor. Rips the beanie off his head. Bald spots on his head glisten against the fire pit. “Don’t act stupid! I have eyes, I can see what you’re doing to me!” He rips his shirt the rest of the way open, throwing it into the bonfire. His body isn’t just bruised, it’s blackening. Lumps swelling out in all directions. One shoulder is bloated up higher than the other, giving him a lopsided gait. He’s practically stuffed into his jeans, spilling out over the top of it. “You got her to run her disgusting magic and take me out! Steal all my manachemistry and fluids for your own disgusting body. All so this subhuman version of me can take over? I’m not having it!”

What in the world is he talking about? Life force? Manachemistry? “I swear to god, Brian, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. Bebe has just kept me company this whole time, I don’t know…” Wait. No. No. I can feel my expression go dead on my face, breath hitching in my throat. “I’m… I’m not the clone, am I? You are. They mixed us up somehow.” 

“No! Nooo!” He slams his fists into his skull a few times over, screaming incoherently. “I’m not going to let you lie to me anymore! You’re not going to kill me off! I’m the real one, I’m the original! You’ve taken everything else away! You’re not taking this from me too!” He gets up, flicking the lighter open, turning it on. “We’re done talking. I’m ending this.” He steps towards me, about to throw the lighter onto my lap. The flame licks up, illuminating his face orange. I need to do something quick. I struggle hard against my wrists again, still pretty tightly connected to the ratty old chair. God, I’m not going to break my hands free from these ties, he got me really tight! Shit. Damn it!

I brace every joint in my body, clench my teeth and my fists tight. Hail Mary time. I push all my weight forward, springing with my free leg, launching myself weakly at Brian, knocking him to the floor with me. He takes a nasty hit to his side from the edge of the chair, loses grip on the lighter, throwing it somewhere in the leaves and sticks. He’s screaming in pain, holding against his side, the dark black one.

Christ, that hurt. I’m sore all over, especially in my back. I can’t waste the opportunity though. With the legs of the chair open, I kick my left ankle down, sliding the left one out and free. I try to wobble to my feet while he’s distracted, and then jump, slamming back down on my back. Argh! My hand hits at a bad angle, searing pain shooting up from my palm up my wrist and arm. I heard a sick crack, and I pray that it wasn’t my arm. I push myself back up as much as I can, and I slam back down again. And this time, the chair completely shatters, wet sloppy wood joints finally giving out and letting me go. I cry out loudly, my back absolutely smashed from that move. My hands are still tied behind my back with a large shard of one of the wood posts holding between them, but I’m for the rest of it free. 

I scramble, running towards the parking clearing. I’m woozy though, and off balance, and trip onto my face after making it a few feet. When I roll back over to get up though, I get kicked in the face hard, putting me back on my ass. Brian is already up, hate in his eyes, his hand holding over a wet, slimy patch on his side. Pus oozes out between his fingers. I can see writhing under some of his exposed skin, in the more bloated sections. “You… are not… getting away!” He kicks me again and again in my side, searing pain shooting through my ribs.

I stare up at him, begging him to stop. “Please! It’s not too late, call the professor! We can stop this, we can save you! You don’t–”

“Shut up!” The sides of his mouth split a little when he yells, tears going through his cheeks. “No more lies! All I need to do is kill you, and then it’ll all go back to the way it was! I’ll be healthy, wanted, everything will be normal again!” He reaches to lift me up, and when he removes his hand from his side an absolute flood of maggots comes spilling out, upon a wave of pus and blood. The horrible things writhe inside the wound, picking clean at the slurry that was his guts. He stretches forward at me, tearing open the wound even further. I can see the tip of a rib, being cleaned off by dozens more of the larva. 

He grabs me by the scruff of my shirt, and starts dragging me towards the bonfire. Slime oozes out from some of his fingers as he grabs my shirt, the pressure from his hands forcing the pus out from his nails. One or two nails even popped off entirely, one hanging loosely off his finger from the corner of the cuticle.

I dig my heels into the ground, trying desperately to catch something, anything to keep me from being dragged over to my death! I’m too greased up to get away without my hands free though. Luckily Brian is slowing down, his limbs starting to give out. I bash my head into one of his legs, and hear a gross popping sound from inside it. It doesn’t even phase him, barely reaching down to rub at the spot where a thick, dark red, nearly black spot starts seeping out through his jeans. Is he in so much pain that new sources don’t even register anymore? He looks at me, spits in my direction. A tooth comes out with it, along with another maggot or two.  “You’re only making this worse. You’ve got nowhere to go. This is the end for you.”

He drags me forward again, and I start screaming. “Help! Anyone! Please!” He’s slowly dragging me with what’s left of his strength to the fire pit. Oh christ. I squeeze my eyes shut, clench my fists, my teeth, everything for the moment… That doesn’t come. I’m not moving anymore. I look up to see Brian is staring at… at a car. Someone came here! “Help! Help me please, he’s trying to kill me!” I roll over, trying to worm my way over to the man getting out of the vehicle. Headlights turn off, my eyes readjust, and it’s… 

It’s Morty. Holding the pipe wrench from the parking lot. It’s dripping with blood, probably mine. His face looks graven. I stop moving. Brian hobbles over to me, the leg I hit lifting slowly and shabbily. “Morty? You actually came. I knew I could rely on you.” He kicks me again with his good leg, and then leans over, huffing and puffing, hands supporting himself on his knees. “I’m running out of steam, out of time. You need to do it. Take him out.” 

He stammers, letting the massive wrench dangle in his hands. “I… I don’t, I can’t…” 

Brian looks up at him. “Please. You just need to do this one thing. And then it can be just like it was. You and I, together. We don’t need Frank, we don’t need any of the new hangers on, sticking their fingers into everything. Help me. Please, help me.  Oh god.” He reches, spitting black bile all over the floor near me. Looks back up at Morty. “Please, it’s now or never. Stop him.”

His eyes scrunch up, tears well in them. He looks down at me. “I’m so sorry.” He lifts up the wrench, shaking it from above his head. “I’m sorry!”

Brian sighs, standing back up. “It’s ok Morty. I knew you would come to yo–” The wrench comes down, hard, smashing into him. It must have hit a soft spot in his skull, because the weight goes straight in, the handle sticking out of the top of his head when Morty lets go. He stumbles, tries to yelp, growl, something. “Arhgghhhhhhhhh! Yhhnnnn, yhnnnn, tranhhhhhhtahhhh…” He stumbles, and falls onto his face, a disgusting squelch sound coming from it. 

Morty lifts me up, cuts me loose with a pocket knife. The wood stake falls to the floor behind us with a soft pafth. He hugs me tight, sobbing. “I’m sorry! I should have been there for you, I shouldn’t have been…” 

I shush him, catching the hitches in my breath too. “No, you were there for me. You always have been. For the me that was hurting so badly. I’m sorry I never showed you how much it meant.” I pull away, look down at Brian. He’s starting to go fast, but he’s still looking up at me, reaching up with one hand. The other is now missing huge chunks of flesh, the muscles misfiring wildly, arm spasming by his side instead of reaching up to me. The meat on the side of his face is liquifying, eyes into jelly.

I lean over to him, touch his hair softly. “I’m sorry to you. If only I was braver, stronger, growing up. You wouldn’t have needed to hide. Fester into this. I’m sorry it made your last week hell, Brian.”

He just screams incoherently at me, still reaching up, the fingers on his hand twitching and falling from snapping tendons. “Khnnnnnn, Khnnnnn! Nhhhhh!” I stand up, as fast as I can hobble my way to the car. Morty helps me along, keeps me from falling on my ass from how sore everything is. The last remains of Brian screaming out at us through the night air. We can still hear him howling as we pull out.