Franky Is Lucky

CHAPTER 9

REGRET IS JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS

While still holding Amy, Satan, I mean Dr. Aster, opened up one of the cabinets to his left. He grabbed something and then walked up to me. I hated him with so much vehemence that I felt my stomach turn from the bile of disdain. I decided at that moment that he would pay. I was sure of it.

“Turn around please Felicite.” He was curt, not polite, with this. I did as he asked and he crudely shackled me with his free hand. He grabbed me by the shoulder and marched me out of the room. His nails dug into my shoulder and I could feel them even through my leather jacket. We walked down the hall to the beginning and made a right. We followed till we got to the hallway where I had started out and we made another right. He marched me down the hallway and stopped in front of the infirmary windows. I saw the withering man lying there once again.

“I thought we would stop here so you could admire your handy work.” Dr. Aster said. I looked from the man to him his chin was nuzzled in the crook of Amy’s neck and he was peering in at the sickly man in the bed with a look of amusement.

“What do you mean my handy work?” I said skeptically and sarcastically. I had never seen this man and for him to die he would have had to spend a significant portion of time with me.

“Well you see, you are a part of him. He is dying because of what you are.” He was trying to be mysterious and coy with his response. I wasn’t going to have it.

“You know you are annoying and I barely know you.” Probably not the best response to give the devil but I did it anyway. I wanted him to know that I was not going to take this lying down. I would be obstinate any way possible.

“Well, well ma’am aren’t we feisty? I like a challenge so all you are achieving with your sarcasm and passive aggression is joy.” He looked at me with a questioning smile to make sure I saw his point. “You see a few months ago you may remember Dr. Servantes asking you for a sample of your blood so that he could run tests. Well, unlike the story you were given, we did receive the blood. We told you it was lost so that you would not desire test results and also so that James could break off communication. We found a willing participant in an intern. His name is Matt if you care. Anyway, we injected Matt here with your blood, you being o-negative helped the cause. Instantly, we saw the effects take place. Matt slowly started to deteriorate. We had only injected him with a small portion of your blood so that we could run tests on the rest. He only had about a quarter of the vile and here is the result. We tried everything we could think of to save him. We did a full blood transfusion and even radiation. He is still dying. Your blood is killing him.” He finished looking cheerfully at the glass partition again. How could he be so happy someone was dying?

I looked at the dying kid in front of me. According to Aster he was too young to die. He had only been an intern. I felt horrible. How had they convinced him to take this suicide mission? Why had they used a human donor? Had they thought he would make it? Had they thought he would be like me? Did they really want another person like me?

I had too many questions and not enough answers. I felt grief sweep over me, another name to add to the long list of people I had hurt. Another tally mark on the cosmic point system, another tip of the scale. I hated myself. I wanted to fight this depression sweeping over me, after all I had to stay strong, but I could find no will to do it. I decided to get answers. If I was going to do this I was going to be informed.

“Why did you do this?” I asked I knew he could hear the sorrow in my voice, I knew he could sense my self-loathing, especially after what he said next.

“So you feel sorry for the dumb kid. You know he chose this for himself. We did inform him that this was a suicide mission. We did let him know all the variables.” He cocked his eye brows at me seeing if I had changed my outlook. I hadn’t so he kept talking.

“Well Franky I would say this all started about twenty five years ago. We were doing research into the abilities of the so called paranormal, but as you had, we also discovered that these people were more like leaps in the evolutionary chain. Their brains and bodies were working to harness the laws we now associate with quantum theory. In our research we stumbled upon two very unique individuals. Both were similar to you. One was a man and one was a woman, they seemed to possess the ability to surround themselves with positive energy at will. This astounded me because as you may know this made them very prosperous. Both were substantially rich, both were at the peak of health, both were intelligent and both were attractive. They had a power that went beyond anything I had ever seen. A power that meant we could change the world. If our military possessed it, even if I possessed it, then there would be no sickness, there would be no poverty. This gift could end wars, and save millions of lives from the jaws of death. But we couldn’t harness it. We had no idea if this was genetic or caused by environmental factors, or even perhaps just happenstance. I reasoned with myself that there were two such people so that could not be true. So we devised a plan to test what was the cause of this miraculous anomaly, we engineered a child. We engineered you.” I looked at him in awe. I took in the whole scene, he seemed genuinely amused by my reaction to this revelation and he continued.

“It wasn’t hard to convince your parents to have you, because after meeting each other they had fallen in love anyway. When you were born we told them to raise you normally and to never tell you what you were, there was a great deal of paperwork involved to assure they wouldn’t. We watched you as you grew, but soon we realized that you were different. You did not have control like your parents, you were a black hole. Your parents were able to resist your abilities because they could take back what you had stolen, but every other person who entered your life ultimately suffered. We found with time, you became reclusive and we realized that was probably for the best. You were far more than we had ever expected you were too much to handle.” He was trying to paint me as the monster in this situation but I knew too well that I was not the monster, he was. I hated him. I hated him for giving me this life, for making me this way. I hated him for taking everything I ever cared about from me.

“However, Brent came into the picture. We could see you were infatuated, we could see that he cared about you and when you two were scene together that day at the park we had to act fast. Brent had stopped at a gas station to fill up his car on the way home and while there, one of our operatives placed a bomb underneath his car. You know the rest of the story as Amy had told you. We had to do what we did to push you over the edge but Brent did not die for a year after the accident. When he did though, we had you, and you locked yourself away solving the problem for us. There was one glitch though, your parents loved you. We had it on good information that they had breached their contract so we had to take them as well. I was always sorry about that but like Brent it was their own fault.” He paused for me to take this in.

I could not remember a time where my parents had told me anything like this. They had never mentioned that I was different, they had never talked to me about what they were. They had never made me feel like I wasn’t alone. I racked my brain for what had killed them and then I found the sliver of memory from four years ago.

It had been late at night and I had been crying in my room. Crying for Brent, myself and for everyone else that ever had to know me, and they must have heard me because they both came in. My mother cradled me and my father told me it was okay, he told me he understood. He said that they would fix everything. They died a week later. I was eighteen.

They had left me a significant trust fund, most of which went to the house I now live in and their funeral. I had blamed myself for their deaths for so long. I had thought they had been lucky to live as long as they did, that I had been lucky to have parents until I was an adult. I guess it never had anything to do with that. It had all been because of the twisted man in front of me.

I shook my head trying to etch-e-sketch away the memories. I couldn’t but I was back to reality. I was back in the hallway in front of the devil, the dying man, the traitor and the victim.

“Why do you now want me to work for you if I am so dangerous?” I really wanted to ask him how he had managed to turn to the dark side, but I saved it. I already knew the answer, greed.

“That’s the first good question you have had all day. Well we still want your gift. We just have to know where we went wrong so that we can start again. Also, we feel what you can be used as an advantage we have seen what you are capable of. You would make a great operative in our initiative to track down those with abilities we have not been able to find, we think you would have a lot of luck at this. That is what we need you for. Now, I want you to know this will be painful and tough, but I guess I will get to be the only one enjoying it.” He gave me a malicious smile before I saw his hand quickly move up to my neck and felt the searing pain run through my body. My body crumpled to the ground and I lost consciousness.

I woke up on a cot in a white room. I sat up with a start and looked around. The cot was against a white cinder block wall. The room was small and cramped on one side was a bank of mirrors. I knew they had to be two-way mirrors because why else would they be there. Against the far wall was a chair with fresh clothes on it. I got up and looked at them, they were mine. This made me instantly furious, they had been in my house! I took a deep breath and laid back down on the cot. I looked at the white ceiling and got lost in thought. I never heard Brent enter the room. I guess he didn't make a noise, one of the perks of being a ghost I guess. He startled me when he spoke.

"Why do you hate me?" He said. His voice wasn't upset or remorseful. That is what you would expect someone to sound like when they asked a question like that. I put my arm over my eyes, refusing to look at him. I took a moment to respond.

"Are you really that astounded? How could I not hate you?" I was weary, my neck was starting to throb from where Aster had used the stun gun, at least I was assuming that's what he had used. I felt like I had been hit by a semi-truck.

"How can you hate someone for what they are?" He asked with a childlike curiosity. If my eyes weren't covered he would have seen me roll them. He had become rather philosophical since he had died. It was rather annoying. I finally replied exasperated.

"Because this is not who you are Brent." I just felt tired, I felt like I needed more sleep, but I had no idea how long I had been out or where Amy was or what I needed to do to save us both.

"I am fairly certain I am who I have always been, same as you. I may not have a body but I never lost my personality or intellect. I am still the same man. I have never hated you for what you are. I have never been able to even fathom it, so how can you hate me for what I am?" I was getting aggravated. Were all dead people this frustrating?

"Listen, what I am is not a matter of choice. I did not chose this for myself, you chose to be an asshole and work for the devil. Now leave me and my hate alone." I rolled over onto my stomach and put my head in the pillow. I wanted him to go away. I closed my eyes and started to drift asleep and then he appeared in my mind. I had forgotten he could do that. I was going to scream if he didn't leave me alone. I started but before I could Brent motioned for me to shut up. He started to speak.

"Franky, I am sorry for what has happened between us, this was the only way to help you. You have to save yourself. What you are is bad in the wrong hands. You have to get out of here. I can help you but you have to trust me." I shook my head. I couldn't leave Amy behind, there had to be a way to save her too. She had done too much for me to just give up like this. I had to fix everything.

I thought to Brent "I need to save her. I have too." My minds image of him gave me a scowl.

"Franky you can't save her. You have to get yourself out first. I know you are trying to make up for not saving me, but like I said that was never you fault and Amy is just one life versus millions and even billions if they get their hands on what you are. Do you really want that weighing on your conscious for one person. Think about it Franky." His voice had a hint of smugness and authority, like he knew he was right. Like he thought his reason was bullet proof but my emotions shot large holes in his logic. I had already made my decision.

"You can't understand this because you are dead and pretty much heartless but she is all I have. She almost died for me. I can not abandon her now." I turned over and opened my eyes and jumped about ten feet off the bed. Brent had been hovering over me. I felt violated and shocked all at the same time. What the hell! He rolled over onto his side in mid air and starred at me.

"What?" He said rather casually.

"What? What do you mean what? I know you haven't been away from humankind to not remember what boundaries are. You just crossed one kid." He smiled. God he was frustrating. "Alright well since you completely freaked me out tell me how to get out of here." He put a finger to his lips in a shushing motion and then he pointed and winked at me. He then disappeared. I hated this vanishing act crap, it was unfair.

Just then the door to my cell opened and in walked Dr. Aster and a tall woman in a lab coat. Her hair was in a long ponytail and she was very pale and hauty looking. She was wearing horn rimmed glasses. Dr. Aster started the introductions.

"Felicite this is Dr. Molokai our resident physician. She is here to check you out and make sure you are okay after that little fainting spell earlier."

"Fainting spell? You mean when you tasered me?" I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked an eyebrow at him, I was challenging him to admit his wrong doings and I was surprised with his answer.

"Why yes, that is exactly what I am talking about." He was infuriating and also without remorse. I hated this man more than I hated anyone.

Dr. Molokai walked towards me and motioned for me to sit. She grabbed a small flashlight out of the breast pocket of her lab coat. She shined it towards my eyes.

"Look ahead please. Thank you. Now please bend your neck so I can see the contact wound." I did as she asked. She looked it over and then stood up. She started asking me questions after that.

"Do you feel any pressure in your chest or head."

"Yes." I replied

"That is too be expected. How would you rate the discomfort you are in on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst pain you have ever felt?" Was she serious? I was not going to sit here and act like a child in a doctor's office.

"Where's Amy?" I finally asked. "You promised me she would be safe. Where is she?" I waved Dr. Molokai away. I wanted answers.

"She's safe for now. As long as you do what we say she will remain that way." He seemed sincere but I had to get out of this room on my own terms.

"Excuse me if this seems rude, but I don't trust you. I want to see her. I want to speak with her. If you take me to her I will comply." I looked at him skeptically. I didn't know if it was worth a shot but it seemed like it.

"It is not rude my dear, your would be a fool to trust me, and I can't have fools working for me." He motioned to Dr. Molokai and me as he opened the door. We walked out of my cell, my plan was falling into place.