Dodging the bullet

A short while later I regained consciousness again, only to find Shana and Mark at my side.

“Are you ok, miss?”, asked Mark.

My mind was twirling. How on earth should I respond to that? I’m not ok. I’m far from ok. My life just jumped down into surreal territory. I remembered the threats those goons made just a little while ago. I can’t tell them the truth! It would gravely endanger them. How was I going to lie convincingly to my own children? How can I do this to them? I never lied to them before. Not even for the most painful or embarrassing questions. I try not to do white lies. The worst I do is distraction and “not telling”. But I guess life-saving lies are allowed and even obliged. Especially against someone you love more than yourself.

“I’m better now.”, I was perplexed at the soft high pitched sound I produced, “I won’t faint again.”

Ok, now for the lie… I don’t know when or if I’ll turn back. Some weeks ago, my arm was back to normal after a few hours. So, I’ll probably turn back but I have no idea on the timeline.

“Please, let me turn back! Please, don’t let me be stuck like this. And please give me a warning so I don’t change back in front of them.”, I thought desperately.

I sat up quietly, thinking, with those two little ones looking expectantly at me. They were waiting for me to say something.

“Think, Julian, think.“, I urged myself.

‘Julian’ is not here, so he must be somewhere else. Where could he be? Shopping? That would be strange. I never did that while leaving those two behind. So, he should have gone out on an emergency. But what kind of emergency? Car accident? Someone dying? Maybe aiding the ‘new me’? That would explain why I’m here. What did happen to me and who was I that I would turn to ‘me’ for help?

“What is your name? I’m Shana and this is my brother Mark.”, Shana suddenly said, tired of waiting.

“I’m Marie”, I said. “Marie? Guess, I’m Marie from now on.” I thought and continued, “Nice to meet you.”

“You father is helping me out. I fainted not far from here and my clothes got severely damaged and he gave me some of his. He is a good friend I got to know through his work. He helped me out a lot.”
“He is very good at helping.”, I added.

“Nice to meet you, Marie”, Shana replied extending her hand.

“Where is daddy?”, Mark asked.

“He went to my apartment for cloths and my medicine to prevent me from fainting again. My cloths got ruined. I can’t run around looking and feeling like this. I wouldn’t make it without fainting along the way and he couldn’t take me because that would have meant leaving you two alone.”
“He left me to babysit you for the next hours. I hope I won’t disappoint you two.”, I said while watching them smilingly. “I also hope I won’t faint again before I get my medicine. Please don’t hold it against me.” Now I just have to hope that I’m back to normal after a few hours.

“We will take good care of you.”, Shana said making herself a bit taller.

“Shall we play a card game?”, I suggested. “I heard from Julian that you are both quite good Uno players.”

“Uno!”, Mark exclaimed. “I’m gonna win again!”

Shana rolled her eyes but refrained from commenting. “I’ll get the game and set it up. Will you come downstairs to the living room? Will you be ok coming down the stairs?”, she asked.

“I just need a visit to the bathroom. Go and get everything ready. I’ll be there soon.”, I instructed, still shuddering slightly at the unfamiliar sound of my voice.

Both bounced down to the living room, chatting among each other. Things like, if you can drop a +4 on a +4, the next in line has to take 8 cards and other custom rules like that. If I don’t want to appear suspicious I’d better ask what rules they use. Even if I know them extremely well.

Now, a few minutes for myself, I remember seeing a woman in the mirror. And apparently I was right, since both of my kids recognized me as a woman. On top of that, I looked different enough that they didn’t saw any similarities with who I really am.

I stood up and looked again. I looked like a woman indeed. My face was really delicate and heart-shaped with beautifully defined lips, a much smaller nose that I was used to and large eyes. My dull brown eyes were now a mix between green and yellowish brown. My hear darkened a little to dark brown with a red gleam. It had also grown about 10 cm. This is strange. Hair is non-living tissue. “How can it change colour?”, I wondered.

I examined myself further and saw I had a nice figure, low on fat. Nice hips, not too pronounced and long legs ending in feet several size smaller then I was used to. On the chest department, I felt everything was really sensitive but there was not much to see. I wasn’t very motivated to look in detail. I just wanted to know what impression I would make talking to Mark and Shana. I should have been curious to see more of the new me it spooked me entirely. Not knowing was better. It gave me the possibility to deny everything in my head.

I walked downstairs slowly, step by step. It felt differently to walk with this body. I think it’s the rolling of my feet. Or my hips rotating more to compensate for the extra gap between my legs. Or a lower point of gravity. I didn’t like it. It made walking a chore. The only nice thing was the lightness. I felt like I was walking on a soft, bouncy cloud.

We had a nice game and it would have been very relaxing if I wasn’t so anxious about being found out. They behaved like angels. They didn’t quarrel. They were polite. Everything I could have wished for as a result of the education I provided. It’s very unusual that you get to witness the results of your parenting. I was proud. Shana poured me drinks and provided snacks. It would be right if I took ‘m myself. I did give some ‘lucky’ suggestions… I was really hungry, like, a whole day of intense physical labour hungry. I think I snacked my way through half of the stock. I blamed it on the fainting.

After the UNO, which was won twice by Mark, three times by Shana and only once by me. I suggested watching a movie. We picked “Frozen” because Mark was a great fan of Olaf and Shana just adored that movie. I asked Shana if she had a blanket to snuggle under, which we have. I felt colder than normal and could use some heat. I sat in the middle and the two little ones snuck up against me. The cosy setting, the warmth of the blanket, Mark didn’t make it halfway the movie. Shana did a little better, but she fell asleep about 15 minutes later. But not after she asked if I would consider to be her daddy’s girlfriend. I was very conflicted because I was ashamed I was lying to them and very honoured that no matter what form I had, they were still fond of me.

During the movie, the moment they both were asleep, I started relaxing and the numbness returned. After about 10 minutes the numbness morphed into a soothing warmth throughout my body. Almost immediately I was feeling a lot of pain at my waist. A very obvious pain. My belt was doing an epic job in trying to cut me in two. I slowly wiggled away from between my sweeties and loosened the belt after a lot of effort. There were clear bruises and even slightly bloody wounds of that leather monster on my belly now.

I silently sneaked upstairs and put on some other clothes. They didn’t ask why Marie was wearing the exact clothes as Julian was wearing, but turning back and still using the same cloths would be greatly pushing my luck. Trying to explain why Marie wore the same clothes as Julian would have been an interesting exercise in creative lies and blatant awkward.

I was really happy to be in my normal body again and first thing I checked if down bellow everything was still hanging in the right place. I was too chicken to check it when being Marie, and I really needed the reassurance. I had the suspicion that my nether region never changed but I guess I’ll never know now.

When checking myself out, I saw the wounds on my belly were almost healed again. “That was fast! It was only 5 minutes!” I thought. I noticed something else too, I lost weight. So, I started a round of self-diagnostics. I was 2 centimetres shorter than I used to be. My hair was one shade darker then before. While I wasn’t fat, my muscles were now showing. I lost about 10 kg. And I was hungry!

When I came down again, I cleaned up everything and set out a small supper. I pulled out the chocolate sprinkles as an extra treat and cut some fruit to compensate. For myself I quickly made a large bowl of oatmeal and mixed three bananas in it. It almost swallowed it in one giant gulp. The transformations were unreal but, somehow, they obeyed at least some laws of physics and burned a ton of calories. If I could control it, I now had a killer method to lose weight. I shuddered at the thought turning into Marie just to lose some pounds.

I woke the sleeping beauties. Shana rubbed her eyes and looked around and asked “Where is Marie?”.

“She already went home.”, I replied, “She didn’t want to wake you and gave you a warm hug while you were sleeping before she left. I heard you had a wonderful afternoon with her?”

Mark nodded enthusiastically. “I like her! I won from her in UNO. Can she come again tomorrow?” Shana also looked at me expectantly.

“I don’t know if she will come again. She has her own life, you know. But you never know when she might show up again.” So true! I still had no clue what triggered the transformation and till I do, more Marie time will surely be waiting for me. I turned on the radio in the background and shivered a bit while listing to the chorus of the song playing.

“…
Yeah I might seem so strong
Yeah I might speak so long
I've never been so wrong
Yeah I might seem so strong
Yeah I might speak so long
I've never been so wrong
…” (Strong, London Grammar)

Henry Marshal vs Misty
(Henry POV)

“Idiot!”, I thought frustrated. I had destroyed all of our research, shredded all of the papers and even microwaved the hard disks. I had given everyone a day off for a job well done. I did it the moment I realized what we discovered. It was a revolutionary product. When someone was injected by it, it would rearrange some of our DNA and activate them in ways they never worked before. I still had dreams about publishing my research and put my name, Henry Marshal, into the history books but I had other more urgent things on my mind.

We were still unsure what the effects were, but the test rat we used, succeeded in opening the padlock of her cage. The rat then somehow made a very precise circle in the glass of the container the cage was in. We found her sitting on top of the container, looking at us. Her fur had changed from the typical light grey to almost black. We caught her, put her in another double cage and took some blood and hair and sequenced her DNA again. Our computers crashed on the unexpected format of the DNA results. But she had the correct identification signature so we were sure it was the same rat. Who, surprisingly, repeated her stunt the next day and appeared back on top of the container. This time we didn’t find a hole. She did something impossible.

I proceeded to the next step. I killed the poor rat for autopsy and extensive internal research. Which was surprisingly difficult. I already killed more lab rats then I can remember. We sometimes use them in batches of 1000 at a time. You could call me a ruthless mass rat-murderer. It was part of the job. We bred them for that purpose. Made them ill on purpose, gave them cancer, screwed around with their DNA, all for the greater good of science.

But that lab rat, Misty, she was special. When I tried to kill her, I was flooded with sympathy for her and I was suddenly acutely aware of every rat I ever killed. If it was such a routine action engraved in my muscle memory, she would have survived my intentions. But she changed me. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to kill another rat. Or even another living being. Not even when my own life was at stake. Since that moment I’ve turned vegan. The idea of eating something, that used to run around and live, completely repulsed me at my core. I even started to avoid lunch places where people ate  meat.

When she died, I cried for about an hour without being able to stop. The sadness and feeling of loss was so overwhelming. I did something completely ridiculous, considering it was just another lab rat. Before I incinerated her, which was protocol, I went outside to get some flowers. I put Misty in a small box and laid the flowers around her. I posed her so it looked she was just resting. And I took a picture of her which I had now at my home in a dedicated corner that looked a bit like a shrine. I asked her forgiveness every night before I went to bed. And I named her Misty on her funeral.

I took us a month to process all the results we got from Misty. I was already wary of the results so I tasked everyone with only one piece of the puzzle so they wouldn’t be able to see the bigger picture. The moment, I realized that we created a formula that somehow ‘promoted’ a living being to something more, something more powerful, I knew we succeeded. We were one of the first labs on the right track to create a super-being. I was quite sure we won’t be able to call it a super-human since the DNA changes were too great. If we would ever use it on a human, it would be a little like calling a mosquito a human.

Before Misty passed away by my hands, I would have jumped from joy and announced the result to the world. But know… I just couldn’t. I couldn’t let this out in the open. It was dangerous and completely disrespectful to Misty. So I sought help from a good friend I haven’t seen in ages. I went out to drink a light beer after work. I didn’t give him details but I told him I would send him something he would need to keep safe. He came up with the idea of using a double courier system to make sure neither of us where linked to the package.

The idea was that I would post the package and it would be sent to a house where the inhabitants were on a long vacation. Then someone would be paid to retrieve the package from the mailbox and deliver it to the address mentioned on a card attached underneath the mailbox. My friend would arrange the details so I wouldn’t know where the box went nor would I know any of the people involved. The box would have an identification marker so it could be identified anytime.

That night I prayed extensively to Misty’s shrine and at the end of the next day, I called everyone together with very good news. We did it! All of our hard work paid off and we discovered a formula to enhance a living being. To celebrate I gave everyone the day off with the promise of presenting all the results the day after with a glorious reception. My secretary already put one together on my demand.

So, the day off… The day of erasing everything. The day I finally got to honour Misty wishes. It took me three hours to remove every shred of data or evidence. When I was finished, all that was left, was the formula in the vial that created Misty. I put it in a package and … I saw the silent alarm coming to life.

Someone was breaking in into the lab. I quickly scanned the now spotless lab for things I could have forgotten, got the package and went to hide in a meeting room. After a few very long minutes, I heard the sound of breaking glass inside the lab. It was my clue that, whoever they were, they were far enough from me to allow me to sneak out.

I ran away on foot to post the package in the centre of the city in a mailbox without security camera’s nearby. I already had the route in my head. I would be visible on camera except for those five minutes when I would drop the package off. I was briskly walking through the park when suddenly my phone started ringing.

I took out my phone and saw it was a find-my-phone ring. “They found out and are tracing me”, I thought. I need to get away. I looked around bewilderedly. A wage slave was walking my way, clearly enjoying time off from work. I approached him so I could persuade him to post the package. He flat out refused. By mistake, I told him about the double hop system. He walked away, clearly in panic. I ran after him. He was the only person around and in a minute I would be caught. In a short struggle I managed to dump the package unnoticed in his pocket and I let him go. This time he ran away really fast. Good! That’s about the only useful thing about cowards, they run and keep on running!

I continued walking the route I planned when suddenly two men tried to apprehend me. I ran away, fully knowing that there was no escape for me. Misty would have been proud of me. Except for the moment I tripped and fell down really hard. I bruised my ribs and bloodied my hand and my face. A lot of blood dripped down from a few cuts in my hand and from my nose. My lab coat was all stained now. The two men reached me and helped me to my feet and escorted me to their car under the helpful guidance of a gun. One of them injected me some sedative and I blacked out almost immediately.