Melissa Brewer
Long Story #2
English 410
Prof. Michael Crowder
Phillip (Robert) Williams III, September 2000
Robert's father was a firefighter who had died honorably on the job. Robert would dream of fire, burning his subconscious thoughts, charring his hopes, and leaving soot over all his fantasies. He would wake at the age of twenty eight in the same firehouse where his father woke on his last day alive, run his hands through his flaming red hair and catch the scent of the thick, black, piping hot firehouse coffee he enjoyed every morning.
His work kept him away from his family a lot and it put a strain on his marriage. His wife, Brooke, eventually left him and Robert let her have everything. There was no custody battle and she agreed to let him see the girls whenever he wanted. In return he gave her everything she wanted, much more than she needed. He visited Taylor and Clair as often as possible and even moved into a tiny apartment in the bad part of town just to be able to give them more. It was a lonely existence. With the exception of the guys at the firehouse, his only friend in the world was Peter, his neighbor from down the hall.
Robert was part of a unit of firefighters referred to as 'Hotshots'. They were wild land firefighters with extensive training, often called in on large fires that are endangering homes or other structures. Robert slowly got out of bed and went for a cup of that firehouse coffee, but he never got it. The emergency sirens blared, and it was time to go to work. The men scurried to the trucks, suited up, and headed out. A forest fire, about 30 miles off the highway. He thought to himself, "What was anyone doing there?"
They arrived at the scene; it was a four-alarm fire. The structure was a large round white facility, about 20 stories tall. It was blazing before them and quickly spreading to the trees surrounding it. Robert jumped down and out of the truck and ran to the hose. He could barely see through the clouds of smoke or hear anything above the sirens blaring around him. Robert and the rescue team braved the fire, intent to rescue anyone trapped inside. They saved several people, and Robert continued to search for more. He heard a man choking and hurried towards him, when the floor collapsed all around him. Robert was two stories up before he fell through the building into the middle of the inferno, and was rendered unconscious. By the time his team found him, the fire had burned through his uniform and began to scorch his skin.
Adesina, April 1988
Adesina was a woman born and raised to kill. Every day she woke in a large white room with high ceilings and nothing but paint on the walls, a white four drawer dresser next to her twin bed and a large mirror on the farthest wall from her bed that was too high for her to use. All she would ever smell is fresh paint. She would dress herself, brush her teeth and wait to be escorted to school, by men in white coats.
Her school was no different than most schools, except that it was on the other side of the large facility she had grown up in, and she went to school, by herself. She was taught math, history, geography and science the first half of every day. On the second half she learned combat training, military operations, high-precision sniper killing with moving targets, real-time training exercises in high-speed guerilla style strike-and-withdraw operations, and her personal favorite, the Brazilian fighting style called Capaoira. She was able to speak German, Russian, French and English fluently by the age of fifteen.
She knew what a normal life was, she knew that hers was quite unique, and she had a passionate desire to have a normal life of her own someday. The only man she knew was her Doctor, Dr. Ignacia. He would come and talk to her about what she learned at school while he checked her vitals at least twice a day. The nurses would come and go, but he was the only person constant in her life and even he seemed slightly detached from her for some reason, until the first day of her seventeenth year.
Dr. Ignacia had all the guards stand down from their duties to observe her room on this night. She was awakened by the doctors' heavy footsteps entering her bedroom. He approached her bed swiftly, held her down by her throat, and began to lick behind her ear. Before she had a chance to make any noise, he ravaged her body mercilessly, over and over until it was dirty with the sin and sweat he forced upon her. For the first time in her life she smelled something other than paint, and it smelled like unadulterated bile. She felt like her skin was boiling. She could still hear him huffing deep breaths over her body, having his way with her until her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fainted from anxiety.
Samara, January, 1972
Samara was strikingly beautiful. She had strawberry blonde hair, olive skin, high cheekbones, legs that seem to go on forever, and a beauty mark below her left eye. She could mute a room just by walking through it, and she could convince a man to change his mind about anything by whispering, subtly in his ear, an idea between drags from a Virginia Slim. She married young, to a scientist named Henry. She was twenty four years old and he had just graduated Oxford and moved to America for his Research. She was a Goodwill Ambassador for India. After they married, she would donate much of her husband's fortune to a colorful array of charities.
Samara was elated with joy when she found out she was pregnant at age twenty six. A boy, just as Henry wished. The pregnancy was going well until unfortunately when she was eight months pregnant, Samara stumbled upon secrets that revealed to her, that her husband Henry had crossed all limits of cruelty with his experiments. The information was caustic to her life. She planned to leave him in the night. Samara grabbed one bag of luggage and walked out of their mansion and around to the garage where Henry already had some men in white coats waiting for her. He knew what she knew; it was unfortunate she knew but never the less, he couldn't let her go. Henry's men forced her into the back of the white windowless van. The white coats entered the back of the van, held her down, strapped her to a gurney, and sedated her.
She woke up, locked in a large white room. Days turned into weeks in the white room, until one day while pacing back and forth her water broke. The white coats rushed in to obtain her and bring her to the hospital ward of this big white facility where she had been held captive. The labor lasted only two hours, but felt like ten to her. She all but forgot where she was when she held him in her arms and said aloud to herself, "Scott Ronin Ignacia, my beautiful boy." He then was taken from her by the nurse's and rushed out of the room. Now she was alone and frightened for not only her own, but the life of her newborn son. Her husband entered the room.
"He's beautiful isn't he?" Samara said with hope in her voice.
"Almost as beautiful as you my dear," Henry replied expressionless. He raised a needle to her arm; she was too weak from the labor and the painkillers to resist his advances.
"What are you doing? What is that?" Samara asked.
"I have to protect what I'm doing here Samara, it's very important and you won't understand, or you can't and It's better I take care of you than Mr. Grey, at least my way you will feel no pain. This is going to hurt me more than..."
"No! Please! Bring Scott back to me! I don't want him to never see me again!" Tears burst from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as the medicine worn in and she slumped back into her hospital bed. Her consciousness faded and she was no longer a threat to anyone.
Kevin Bennet, December 1990
Kevin was born an orphan, adopted as an infant to Kathy and Donald Bennet. He was a rebellious child who never responded well to authority. His parents didn't seem to care too much about him, especially his stepfather. They never celebrated his birthday and he was raised in a very strict environment, early curfews, restricted diet, and strenuous interrogations from his parents on anyone who befriended him and came to his house. Sometimes Kevin wondered why they ever adopted him at all.
On his sixteenth birthday his plans to go to the river with friends was suddenly canceled when his parents sent him to his room, or if you asked him, his prison cell. About two hours later, he saw from his window a van pulling up into the driveway of their two story ranch style home. It was white with no windows except in front. Two men exited the vehicle wearing white coats. They moved swiftly, one of them had a briefcase. He went to the stairs to see who they were.
"It's all there." one of the white coats said to his parents.
"Will we ever see him again?" Kathy asked.
"That's not necessary ma'am." The other white coat replied as they both started toward Kevin's room.
Kevin felt his pulse quicken as he decided to run back into his room and out the window, down the fire escape and into his father's car. He knew how to hotwire a vehicle. This type of thing was elementary to him as experience from his rebellious years finally became of use. Sweat was beading down his wrists as he rubbed the wires together until a spark, and it ignited. The engine turned and he peeled out, burning the rubber off the outermost layer of the wheels, and he sped down the road fast as humanly possible to get away from whatever those men wanted to do with him.
Over the next couple of years he would live in exile, afraid he was being hunted by those men in white coats. He sounded delirious, if you walked by and heard him speak in his sleep on top of the cardboard box beds he made over the next couple of years. Eventually he met a guy named Kirk, a few years older than him but not many, who taught him the ropes and provided shelter for him in exchange for his help to knock off a few liquor stores, steal a car here and there, and a lot of small time stuff like mugging people on the streets for their wallets, jewelry and cash. He never felt comfortable with his criminal behavior, but sometimes you have to get your hands a little dirty to survive.
He did not succeed in avoiding the law, or the men in white coats. After about five years of running, he was caught running out of a jewelry store. They took him downtown with a couple other kids Kirk had recruited to work for him and Kirk as well. After they finger printed Kevin, they put him in a separate holding tank. Six hours later, much to his dismay the white coats entered the room quickly moving toward him, and plunging a needle into the crook of his elbow before he could think about kicking or screaming. He fell quickly into a haze of an undesired rest.
Kevin woke up alone in a white room. He had no memory of what happened and he was afraid. The room he was in had a single white dresser, a bed and a door which he timidly proceeded to open. He felt his pulse quicken and noticed the fresh scent of new paint, and fear. He crossed the doorway and stepped out into a long, white, narrow, hallway going both directions. He bumped into a man in a white coat and said,
"Excuse me sir, I can't remember who I am, what am I doing here?"
"You are Ronin, and you're getting to work. These walls need to be painted," He handed him a bucket of paint and a roller, "Now get to work."
Kevin's first impulse was to throw the bucket of paint at the man but he resisted, unsure of why he even felt that way or who this man actually was.
"Yes sir," he began to stroke the wall before him with white paint and careful consideration.
Dr. Ignacia, March 1972
Henry Ignacia was the youngest man to ever graduate first in his class, from Oxford University. He held a PhD in Biological Sciences, specializing in Cellular Neuroscience at the age of twenty nine. His methods were at times unethical; however his findings were remarkably advanced, and often caused his superiors to turn a blind eye to his extortions.
Soon after he graduated he moved to America and went to work at The Forensic Investigation Center in Albany New York. This is the city where he met, fell in love with, and was married to the woman he would love until the day she died, Samara.
Everything was going well until he was denied funding for an experiment he had put many years worth of work and research into. His temper took hold and he was in a rage, nearly destroying his work, throwing files around his office when a man in a black suit and trench coat walked into the room.
"Dr. Ignacia. I am Mr. Grey, and I believe we have a job opening for you."
"What? Who are you? Who do you work with?" Dr. Ignacia demanded.
"Who we work with is not what you want to know, you ask the wrong questions. What we work with, that is what you wish to know. Come with me and I will show you."
Mr. Grey escorted Dr. Ignacia outside where a white stretch SUV limo was waiting in the driveway. Anxious as he was, Dr. Ignacia kept a cool demeanor the whole ride there. No words were said. They pulled up in front of a large round white building with lots of military looking men guarding the perimeter. He was taken inside and given a tour of various laboratories performing experiments of every kind possible. They stood in front of a room full of large cylinder shaped pods and Mr. Grey turned to Henry,
"I understand you are married. I also understand you have the intelligence enough to separate your work from your emotions," He said to Henry, and Henry nodded, "We will need you to take some of her blood, her saliva and hair samples. I suspect you know why I am asking this of you."
"Yes." Henry said. "I do, and I will."
Henry had never seen a research facility of this caliber. He marveled at his new opportunity in keeping with the cool customer exterior he projected while Mr. Grey escorted him back to the long white limo waiting out front. He gave Henry a manila envelope and said,
"So you will work here, and we will fund your experiments," Mr. Grey told Henry matter-of-factly, and he continued, "There is everything you need to know in that envelope, but your wife may never visit this place or know its location. You call me tomorrow." Mr. Grey nodded and walked back through the large white facilities' sliding glass doors.
Henry went home that night to find Samara had made a huge feast for two. She always went above and beyond his expectations. It caused him to think, about how he had the chance to conduct his research with no limits, and how she wasn't that important to him anymore. She handed him a glass of red wine.
"Hello my darling, this all looks amazing, you are amazing." He kissed her gently, next to the beauty mark below her left eye.
"I have something wonderful to tell you Henry," She paused, "I'm pregnant!"
His eyebrows reached for his hairline and he scooped her up spinning her around and yelling, "I'm gonna be a dad!" She had instantly regained her importance to him. Then he carried her into their bedroom.
"Henry what about dinner?" she asked.
"Ahh screw the dinner, we should celebrate today." They melted into one another and made love until the sun came up. Afterward, Henry continued to lay with Samara in the crook of his left arm sleeping. He could smell the honeysuckle in her hair and the cool morning breeze wafting in from the morning outside. Coddling his wife, his love, the mother of his future son, he deliberated his own secret achievement that happened earlier that day and finally fell asleep.
Flash Over, 1979
Adesina grew numb to her doctors late night visits, which happened at least once a week. She separated herself from reality when she needed to; focusing on the skills she was being taught every day to eventually use them against him. To teach him that giving in to his erotic desires wasn't going to go unpunished. The fury inside of her grew strong and fast.
She began stirring in her sleep, this did not go unnoticed by her nurse's and the guards on duty were doubled. She dreamt of fire, burning her subconscious thoughts, charring her hopes, leaving soot all over her long since stolen innocence. She woke in a fury with sweat beading from her forehead. She rose from the bed and let out a single searing scream that echoed in the large white room. Her face was grave as she extended her arms out to either side of her body. Her hands combusted, and flames burst out from her fingertips traveling in every direction she channeled her fury. The men in white coats entered the room and strategically strapped her to the bed.
"It's happened sir," One of the white coats said into a telephone mounted on the wall by the door of her room.
Dr. Ignacia walked into the room moments later and the flames burnt faster and larger until he sedated her with a syringe.
"It's ok my darling Adesina. Do not be afraid. Now tell me, how did you do that?" He asked.
"I don't know, what's happening to me?" She cried.
"That's alright. We will all know soon enough." He told her.
Her eyes felt heavy. She was heard the last crackle of the still burning fire echo to her like a lullaby, lulling her into a deep slumber.
Cecilia, October, 1991
Cecilia was born blind. She didn't know where or to whom or for what purpose. Her life went like this; she woke up, dressed herself and went to school. She was taught normal academics the first half of every day and on the second half she learned advanced martial arts, military operations, and weapons training with her Instructor Adesina. She had no idea what anyone looked like, but it was plain for anyone else to see that she had an uncanny resemblance to her Mentor. Strawberry blond hair, olive skin and even the beauty mark they both had just below their left eyes. The difference, Cecilia was about ten years younger and Adesina wasn't blind. Cecilia's skills in combat were much more advanced as well due to her ability to somehow suspend herself in mid-air.
People didn't talk to her unless they needed to. Conversations with her teachers, doctors and Adesina were all very short and to the point. She felt alone, and no one ever entertained her need to joke and be a girl until she met a boy. He came to her room to paint it. He could barely look away from her to do his job the first time he saw her.
"What is your name?"
"Cecilia, what's yours?"
"Ronin, I have to go but I will be back tomorrow."
He waved but she didn't see. Over the next few months she would usually enter her room as he was leaving it. She always smelled the fresh paint in the room when he had been there. The smell reminded Cecilia of Ronin, and she was always sad when she could smell it but he was already gone.
On Cecilia's fourteenth birthday she woke up, suspended in the air about five feet above her bed. She could see in the dark, not completely but in what could only otherwise be described as a type of infrared vision. As soon as she saw her bed beneath her she fell back into it, the men in white coats rushed into the room and strapped Cecilia to the bed with restraints she never knew were there. Then they made a call with a telephone that had never been used in her room before.
"It's happening already sir."
"What's happening?" She screamed and tried to break free, "How did I do that? Please, tell me what's happening to me!"
She felt a needle finding its way through the skin in the crook of her left elbow. The blurry red and orange mess she always saw faded away and she fell, fast asleep.
The Break out, September 2000
Adesina noticed Dr. Ignacia observing Cecilia's blossoming beauty. Adesina wasn't going to allow what happened to her, happen to Cecilia. So Adesina turned to the only other person she knew cared about Cecilia, Ronin. She passed him in the hall and slipped a note into his pocket. It was so covertly placed there that the cameras didn't even notice.
She waited to see if he would appear where she had instructed him to, outside of Cecilia's room at noon. If only to confirm the fool in love that he was, he showed up and he was prepared. They exchanged no words as Adesina reached for the lock and placed her hand over it, she melted the lock and ordered Ronin to hurry in and get Cecilia as she stood watch. The three of them ran toward an emergency exit at the end of the hallway. Two guards ran after them and Adesina turned to throw fire between themselves and the guards. The flame retardant paint on the walls kept it from spreading fast, but she persisted. Ronin opened the door and ran towards the forest surrounding the building.
"Keep running!" Adesina yelled.
Ronin and Cecilia ran so far away they couldn't see the building anymore, but they could smell Adesina's revenge burning it down behind them. They kept running.
Fuse, September 2000
Phillip Robert Williams was found unconscious beneath a pile of debris in the burning white building. Robert's fire crew carried him to an ambulance waiting outside. There wasn't a hospital anywhere near The Research Facility, which was by now an apocalyptic backdrop of flames raging behind them. The ambulance driver was in a hurry and barely noticed the woman that appeared on the road before the van. It came to a screeching halt.
"Get the hell outta here lady, we gotta move!" The Paramedic in the passenger seat yelled to her.
She walked closer to the ambulance. It was dark, but you could see her sultry figure moving gracefully forward with caution in the ambiance of the vehicles emergency lights spinning around her. She stopped about three feet away and tilted her head in consideration. She peered at the hood of the car intently and flames burst out from the engine beneath it.
"What the..." the driver yelled.
The woman was gone, no; she was in the back of the van.
"How did you get back...?" The ambulance driver curled back in submission to the icy stare she threw at him.
She slung Robert over her shoulders and disappeared into the hectic night. The ambulance exploded behind her. She had gotten them at least ten miles away from the accident already. She heard it boom, but didn't look back. She wondered for a moment if the men had survived, and dismissed the thought immediately, as she was trained to do.
Robert woke up in his home the next day, with no burn marks anywhere on his skin. He thought it was all a dream. He got up, got dressed and rushed out to one of his regularly scheduled father-daughter days. He took with him a bag of garbage he intended to throw in the dumpster in the alleyway behind his apartment complex. When he entered the alleyway he saw a group of young men kicking and spitting on Pete, his friend from down the hall. They were bashing his head against the red brick wall of the building and Pete was now lying, beaten to a bloody red pulp beneath the men encircling him. Robert flew into a rage and threw himself toward them. Pinning one man to the ground, he reached back, clenched his fist and the man began to scream, they all screamed, like little girls. He looked back and his fist was on fire. He got up and all the men ran off without looking back.
"How did you do that?" Pete asked. Staring blankly at the fist Robert was still holding together in front of him. Smoke rose from his knuckles. He looked at Pete for a moment, he said nothing and then he turned and walked away.
"I have to see my girls... What the... This isn't even... I have to see my girls." Robert mumbled as he walked away in what seemed to Pete to be almost like a trance.
Flicker, September 2000
Robert arrived alone at his ex-wife's house to see his daughters Taylor and Clair. Brooke opened the door and gave Robert a friendly hug.
"Are you okay?" She put her hand to his forehead, "You're burning up." She looked at him with her blond eye brows shifting forward with concern.
"No I'm fine, I'll be alright, I'm not sick I swear. Where are the girls?" He asked
"Taylor's out back playing with the dog and Clair's in her room. Are you sure you're ok? Something is going around because Clair is sick in bed as we speak and..."
"I told you, I'm fine." Robert responded.
"Ok but make sure Clair takes her medicine and never let her outside without a coat this weekend ok? The doctor says the fever is high but it should be gone by tomorrow night."
"Daddy, Daddy!" Taylor, his twelve year old daughter came in and hugged him tight then released him and jumped around saying, "You have to come quick and see the new trick I just taught to Ember!"
"Alright just a second ok sweetheart, I'm gonna go check on Clair first." He hugged her and then proceeded up the stairs of the house while Taylor ran back outside.
Clair's room had pink walls and butterflies hanging from the ceiling. She was turning seven years old that weekend. He knelt down beside her bed.
"Aww sweetie. I wish I could make you all better for your birthday." He stroked the hair stuck to her cheek with sweat. He sat up a little to kiss her on her forehead. Then stroked her forehead and this time it wasn't hot. The fever was gone. He thought to himself "What happened to her fever? What is happening to me? I have to get away from here. No one is safe, what if I catch fire on one of my girls!"
"Baby, if you can hear me please understand I have to go but I promise I will be back soon." He ran out of the room. He told Brooke he had to leave. She stuttered searching for the words to ask him for an explanation through his frantic behavior but he ran out too fast.
He was lying in his bed that night, wondering if maybe he should go talk to Petey, and see what he thinks about all of this. There was a flicker of light by his bedroom window, he looked and a woman was perched there.
"Who are you?" Robert sat up and asked.
"I am Adesina, but that's not important, you ask the wrong questions. What am I?
"What are you?"
"I'm a clone. My DNA is mixed with a serum designed to enable me with the ability to control temperature through my skin. I can make it rise, and I can make it fall."
He thought about his daughter's fever.
"I saw what happened to you. I can help you. I know you have my ability now as well. But you are sloppy with it. You can't control it and I am the only one you can trust who knows how to teach you. But first I need your help."
"What do you want me to do?" Robert asked.
"You're going to help me expose the man who did this to me, to us, his name is Henry Ignacia."
Firefly, July 2001
After two months of extensive training with Robert, Cecilia grew jealous of Robert. She couldn't wait for this to all be over so she and Ronin and Adesina could run away to some deserted island somewhere. She was tired of hiding out at Roberts's house, and having to eat whatever food he brought home. She hid the fact that she had been able to completely master her levitation powers, even from Adesina.
Robert's training was going well. He was able to master the rise and fall of temperature through his skin so well he would upon occasion flick Petey on the forehead and give him a brain freeze whenever he felt like it. Petey helped out by repairing the broken appliances Robert accidently destroyed before he mastered his skills. About nine months after the break out, the day for Adesina's revenge came and Adesina led Robert to where The Ignacious Institute was being rebuilt.
"The son of a bitch is back to business as usual." Adesina was looking at the building that appeared before them as if it had never been burned at all.
She led Robert around to a back door, a guard was posted.
"Shh." She put her fingertips to her lips and gazed at Robert sternly before she leapt out onto her hands and snapped the man's neck with her feet before he could even reach for his gun.
"What the hell? You can't just kill people, what the fuck!" Robert yelled.
"Keep it down before someone hears you and kills us. This was the only way to get in and trust me; he wasn't a good man anyway." Adesina used the man's badge card to swipe and unlock the door. Robert followed hesitantly but close behind her. They traveled down a long narrow white hallway, hiding in corners when the men in white coats passed. Adesina seemed to have their routines memorized.
They reached a door, Adesina swiped the card again and they hurried in, locking the door behind them. It was Dr. Ignacias's office. They kept the lights off.
"What are we looking for?" Robert whispered, sifting through papers on a mahogany desk.
"Anything that will expose him," Adesina answered, "It shouldn't be too hard."
A man entered the room and turned on the lights.
"You son of a bitch!" Adesina's entire body caught fire instantly and she lunged toward him, he tried to run but she thrust him down to the floor and got on top holding him down.
"How do you like it when I'm on top Doc?" she held him down and placed her hand on his face, he screamed. His skin was boiling from the fire generating from her palm, Robert could hear it sizzling, he could smell the burning flesh and he tried to reach for her, to stop her, but his power to cool himself in a fire wasn't advanced enough to prevent him from burning in the sweltering inferno of her rage. The fire was quickly spreading around the room.
"Adesina you're killing him! Wait, that was your plan all along wasn't it?"
"You might as well just get outta here Robert, and make sure the file I just had gets destroyed, It's about you." She answered.
"But you..."
"I said RUN!" The command in Adesina's voice could not be denied. He ran. He heard the last squeal of Dr. Ignacia's desperate plea to be released, and turned around. Robert ran back to her. He found her dead body lying next to what was left of the doctors. The room was hot boxed and he had to get out before he inhaled too much smoke as Adesina apparently had. He picked her body up and carried it through the fire. When he reached the outside, Cecilia was floating before him, with her eyes wide and blurring,
"What did you do?!?!?"
"I didn't... she... I'm sorry Cecilia." He began to weep.
Cecilia lowered herself to the ground. Walked quickly and with authority toward Robert and paused. She took Adesina's body with one hand, and placed the other on Roberts's chest infusing a blast that would send him flying back into the wall of the white building. He slid down and landed on his back writhing in pain. He raised his head to see Cecilia not just levitating, but flying away with Adesina's body.
Mr. Grey stood, on top of a hill about fifty feet away, with a bird's eye view of the whole event.
"Interesting," he said aloud to himself. "How very interesting..."
No comments:
Post a Comment