Franky Is Lucky

As I stood up I looked around the room and thought about my options. I instantly figured what I should do. Despite the fact that this house was now a mine field I ran to the kitchen and searched through the junk drawer. I grabbed some duct tape scissors and cooking twine. I ran back into the living room and set them on the floor. I then grabbed a chair from the kitchen and set it next to Garrison's unconscious body and began the laborious task of lifting him into the seat. Using the twine and duct tape I secured him to the chair as tightly as I could. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of cleaning ammonia from under the sink and unscrewed the lid and then I stuck it under Garrison's fat little nose.

He woke with a sputter and a jolt after a second. He looked around the room dazed and then he snapped back to reality. He started shaking the chair and screaming at the top of his lungs. I stood there watching him trying to figure out what I could do to get him to shut up and cooperate. I slowly screwed the cap back on the cleaner bottle and just stood tense and unmoving. Something about this gesture was unsettling to him and he started whimpering.

I looked up as soon as the screaming stopped he looked at me.

“I hate you, you crazy bitch. Both of you I hate you!” He said angry but quiet.

“See the problem is Garrison is that I hate you too. Mainly because you attacked me in my own home and also because you are too valuable to kill. However, I know and you know that death isn't always so bad compared to the alternatives. So you have an easy decision to make. Either you tell me everything I need to know and help me or you don't and then I am forced to make sure that your life is a living hell. Now what will it be?” I looked at him sternly. Good thing I loved action films or else I wouldn't have known how to do or say any of what I just had.

“Listen! I don't know what you think I know. I am no one! No one! I swear!” He looked down and started sobbing. “Let me go! Please Let me go! I don't know anything.” He was pathetic to me then. Spineless and almost useless but in a lot of ways he was my only hope. I just wanted to smack him and say “Be a man seriously!” but I didn't.

“Listen I am not an idiot. I know all about you Garrison. You were a computer analyst for AGH you hacked their firewall and were demoted for accessing confidential information. I am not an idiot! So don't sit there an lie to me you are only making this harder on yourself!” I had lost my cool for a second there but slowly I regained my composure as I stood watching the gears in his head turn.

“You said you didn't know who I was earlier! How do you know this?” He looked at me both accusing and skeptical. Wondering possibly what I could know and what he would have to tell me.

“Well it's your misfortune that I happen to have some powers you don't know about.” I wanted him to think that I was more exceptional than I really was. Even if that had consequences. I turned to the side and put my hand on my chin and I looked out the window for a second. I stood there contemplating what to say and do to make him talk, letting him sweat for a few more precious minutes while I did. After a little while I turned my head towards him and looked at him. Then I turned back. Man I could have been a mob boss or an actor, too bad I couldn't give those a shot.

I stared out the window and then I said while still staring off into the distance. “Listen, I am tired. Tired of games, tired of people messing with me and the people I care about. I know you know what I need you to tell me. I know that you are trying to use it to protect yourself. I am not a brutal person Garrison. I'm really not. I just want the same thing you want... My life back. So listen if you tell me what I need to know I will let you go. If not I'm going to have to give you a good dose of my blood. So what will it be? I'll give you a few minutes to decide.”

I turned away and walked out of the room to the kitchen. I rummaged through the junk drawer again and I found a needle and lighter and then I grabbed a glass from the cabinet. I walked back into the living room. I held the flame to the needle to sterilize it. I shook it through the air and the I pricked my forefinger and thumb on my left hand several times. The small beads of blood fell into the glass I was holding underneath it and I squeezed to collect a sizable amount. I looked at him slightly over the top of the glass and then said almost to the glass and not to him “You know this is definitely one of those instances where this will hurt you way more then it hurts me. I am totally okay with that.” I looked at the glass again and then I looked at him and a small smile quivered over my face because I had thought of something very clever to say. “Need a chaser?” I said as I mockingly jiggled the glass in front of him.

He looked at me in horror as I slowly walked towards him with the glass in one hand and my other out stretched. I grabbed him by his nose and pinched it tight and then I pushed his head back and he tried to hold his breath but it was of no use he breathed out and as his mouth opened I brought the glass to his lips and he screamed “ALRIGHT! I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!”

I backed away and set the glass on the coffee table. “Good.” I turned his chair to face the couch and then went and sat down. As soon as I had positioned myself I waved my hand beckoning him to speak.

“AGH is a federally subsidized company with contracts for weapon development, medical research and alternative energy research. They have offices all over the world and have the best and brightest minds working for them. They make billions but they want more. According to your file you are one of their most secret projects. I mean the encryption on anything that even mentions your name is ridiculous. It took me almost nine months to figure out.” He looked at me waiting for me to praise him I think. I didn't.

“They think you are some mythical creature. They mention the word succubus all over the reports about you. The problem is no one had seen you for several years. They knew where you lived and what not but they weren't sure if you were even alive still or if it was some decoy. They had been planning to draw you out for a long time. Apparently you would be very valuable to one of Aster's pet projects he called the S.I.G.I. They always called it the see-g.i. It means Special Individuals Gathering Initiative.” He looked at me again to see if I was please. I wasn't though I didn't know the name of the plan I had gathered that is what Aster had intended to do after I had seen the machine that read memories and realized they duplicated Amy's abilities mechanically.

I looked at him exasperated “I already know all about that Garrison you are starting to bore me. What else.”

He looked flushed and frightened. I tapped my wrist as if to say he was running out of time.

“It's not just that. He thinks that what you can do is like some kind of key to immortality. I hacked his private journal, which I don't think he found out about, he thinks that if he can harness what you do he wouldn't just have good luck he would be able to drain life force from other people. That is why he has gone to great lengths to test your blood on my brother and to try and capture you. At least that is what I think.”

I sat for a second in thought. This was an interesting turn of events. Aster wanted power and I was in a position to give it to him. I was sure Grant and Hughes had only thought of the countless government contracts and money for a biological weapon that would wreak unimaginable havoc with a single drop. I was sure they were in it for the money. But Aster, it was an interesting thought, he wanted power. What is more powerful than life itself? But he was insane to think that I could help in anyway with him obtaining that. After all my life was nothing but destruction. Why would he want that and how would he go about getting it?

I looked at Garrison finally. “What else?”

“That's all I know I swear! I have told you everything. They demoted me before I could find out anything else.”

I looked with a scowl at him. I couldn't help it they cropped up when I was deep in thought. He winced. I nodded and then got up. I went to the bathroom and grabbed some rubbing alcohol from under the sink. I walked back to the living room poured some into the glass of blood and then I sloshed it around. I poured it carefully onto the log in the fire place then I set it on fire. I didn't need that lying around. I looked back at Garrison there was an indescribable look of relief on his face. I threw the glass into the fire breaking it and then I smiled at him.

“I wouldn't be too relived there is plenty more where that came from.” I said as I walked past him I patted him on the shoulder.

I went and took the ammonia and unscrewed the cap and then I waved it under Amy's nose. She stirred with a gasp and a cough. “What is going on?” She said.

I looked at her calmly and soothingly. “It is time to go.”