Rouge (28 page)

Why is it so cold in
here?
She clawed at her
blankets, but it made no difference. The cold was seeping through her veins,
all the way to the tips of her toes.

The slightest cracking sound
snapped her head to the side and she stared in horror at the glass of water
that was slowly darkening, turning to ice before her very eyes. Her heart
pounded, but it was no longer connected to the heart rate monitor. No one could
hear it thudding against her chest. She watched the mantis-green curtain, waiting
- for what, she didn’t know - until she felt the uncontrollable need to scream.

The second she opened her
mouth, her throat constricted. It closed in on her completely. She went
suddenly stiff and fell back on the pillow. Her blood was slowing. She could
feel it thickening, freezing inside of her. Her muscles tightened and she
couldn’t even move her eyes to the curtain on the other side of the room. But
she could hear it rustling.

Footsteps padded at an
achingly slow pace across the floor.

The water in the glass
hissed as it expanded, crackling like bacon in a hot pan.

And the shadow of a man came
into her vision, his silhouette blocking the light from the window. Jenny felt
panic rise in her, but only for a moment. Then, she realized she knew exactly who
it was.

Death. Finally, he had come
for her.

The shadow loomed upon her
and she saw his face. The eyes were psychotic and chilled her every bone. He
was smiling, but then the smile started to fade. The longer he gazed at her, his
eyes searching her face for something she didn’t understand, the more he
frowned. Before she could decipher the confusion and – wait, was that
hesitation? – he opened his mouth and breathed down upon her.

Jenny felt her entire body
crack like the ice in the glass and her eyes drooped shut. She fell into a cold
darkness and knew she would not be surfacing again. But in that darkness, she
was released from the pain that gripped her body. At last, she was free.

After returning home from the hospital
that Friday night, Hunter sat with her computer open on her lap. She had
absolutely no motivation to go to work, nor was studying of any interest to
her.

The apartment was silent;
Joshua hadn’t come home yet, or perhaps he was in the lab working and avoiding
her. It had been like that lately. Hunter couldn’t remember a time when their
relationship was simple and normal. It couldn’t have been just a few months ago
that they were arguing about Hamilton or talking about taking a trip to
Thailand after Hunter graduated. Suddenly he was this stranger she lived with.
She missed being able to tease him about his awkwardness or laugh with him
while they watched dumb programs on TV. Hell, she even missed the rock-talk and
the way his whole face brightened with excitement when he started a new project
or discovered a rare stone of some sort. She missed his company.

But things were different
now. A darkness had settled between them as though a cavernous hole set them
apart. Hunter still felt Joshua was to blame, because his behavior as of late
hadn’t been normal. He was cold in everything he did; in the way he walked,
talked, even acted around her. He changed. She noticed it now more than ever
after the fire at school.

Unable to concentrate on her
studies any longer, Hunter went into the spare room upstairs opposite Joshua’s
bedroom. It was almost never used, only when Joshua’s friend Barry needed to
spend the night because he’d had too much to drink. It was where all of
Hunter’s childhood things were kept, along with a lot of Joshua’s books and
trinkets that he no longer cared for. Then there were her mother’s memories, or
those that were saved from the fire. Hunter sometimes flipped through the photo
albums, just to feel happy that she once had beautiful parents. The photos
ranged from landscapes of mountains where she and Joshua stood with Leo when
they were much younger, to photos of Liz when she was pregnant in Cuba.
Hunter’s personal favorite showed Liz splashing water on Joshua as they lay on
the beach at the shack. His reaction always made her giggle.

As Hunter looked closer, she
saw the glint of her mother’s necklace, sending her hand to her neck where the
chain still hung. She sighed, put the album down and started looking in the
other boxes.

An hour later, Hunter
happened upon an interesting book. It belonged to her mother – as it said in
the front title page. It was a Chinese medicines biography. Hunter flipped
through it, wondering if it had something to do with her necklace and why her
mother made it out of a Chinese symbol, when the book flipped open almost
instantly to a bookmarked page. There, between images of a fire-breathing
dragon and a hot-chili soup recipe, was an envelope.

Hunter’s heart started to
race. She picked up the package and read her name on the front, written in her
mother’s handwriting. Without hesitation, Hunter took the book, shoved the box
back on the shelf and ran into her bedroom. It wasn’t every day that she found
a personal letter written from her mother.

Inside the envelope was a
letter and floppy disc. Hunter breathed a laugh, realizing they would not have
had USB sticks in the nineties. She put down the floppy and opened the letter.

‘My Darling Hunter,

If you’re reading this,
it either means that Joshua has told you everything about what you are and has
given this to you after finding it in my book, or you are even more like me
than I hoped and have found it yourself. Whichever it is, it doesn’t matter,
because it means that I am not there to tell you myself, and for that I am
sorry.

After the fire that destroyed my
apartment and killed your father, I was distraught. I had no idea I had fallen
pregnant, nor could I explain how I survived. Joshua was there to comfort me,
and is helping me through my pregnancy. I know he loves, but I just can’t give
my heart to anyone but Leo. I hope that Joshua will one day learn to give
himself to someone else.

When I was only a few
months pregnant, Joshua discovered almost by chance that you, too, were immune
to fire. He and I spent months researching, and soon Joshua suggested we run
some tests on you to determine whether it was true or not. Your DNA is
remarkable, and I saw Joshua change in front of my eyes. He became obsessed
with you, infatuated by your science and structure. There are differences in
your molecular biology that are unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and certainly
not like mine. Joshua predicted that, sometime in your future, the particles
from the volcanic rock would mold themselves in your core, but there is no way
to determine the outcome. I am so afraid, Hunter, of what this substance will
do to you. But Joshua is far from fearful.

He changed, Hunter, and
I’m scared. He spends more time studying you than he ever did with his work. He
is always in the lab we built in this shack. I’m afraid of him. He’s a
different person, frantic, sometimes even psychotic. I hope it is only the
pressure of my pregnancy and this incredible discovery that has driven him to
madness.

You must understand
Hunter that I never wanted any of this. Your father and I were young, we wanted
to raise a family away from New York when Leo finished his research and I
finished my contract at the hospital and we had enough money to start a life. I
never asked for this curse, and I hate it for killing Leo and infecting both
you and me. I feel like I’ve lost everything and have only you left in my life,
you and this poisonous infection. More often than not, I wish I could rip it
out of me, but I don’t know what that will do to you. Sometimes I hear it
talking to me, whispering, taunting, wrapping its claws around me. I only hope
that it is easier for you.

But I’ve realized, after
months of hating the fire for the mess it made of our lives, that without it we
wouldn’t be who we are today. Despite the evil in us, Hunter, there is
good.
There is the promise of
strength, of a life that means something. I know it will be hard for you to
grasp this, but you must accept that the curse is a part of you. It was given
to you for a purpose. It’s up to you to unravel that in your own time.

Be a fighter Hunter, and
no matter the pain this curse causes you, know that you are stronger. Your soul
controls you. Use it.

I am sorry for Joshua. I
had no control over him. If there is a way I could take it all back, I would.
But sometimes we don’t get second chances. That’s why we need to make the right
choices now, when it counts. So make it count. Let yourself love and have a
happy life, a
normal
life.
But never forget who you are. This curse within you might not be a curse, but a
shield. If you learn to grasp it, it will lead you to greatness.

Be strong, Hunter. Never
lose faith in yourself, for when there is nothing else, there is always faith
to cling onto.

- M

P.S I copied this tape
after finding it in the lab. I don’t know what it means yet, but I will leave
more messages for you soon. I promise.’

After reading the letter
again several more times, Hunter felt the fire course through her skin more
warmer and richer than it ever had before. All the encouraging words her mother
had said about the ‘curse’ soaked into her like water in a sponge. She’d never
received anything so personal from her mother, more so than even the necklace.
Despite the fact that her mother knew nothing about the effects of Ravenadium
and its possessive power, it still gave her hope for her future. What it did
not do, however, was banish her doubts about Joshua.

So she ran upstairs to the
study where the computer monitor – thankfully – still read floppy discs. Eager to
start it up, she tapped her foot in anxiousness and injected the disc. After a
few more moments, a black window appeared on the screen.

Joshua sat before the camera
in a dark room. He would have been in his early twenties, and his usually
controlled hair was hanging in disarray over his face. It was so dark that his
features were shadowed, the only light coming from the glowing golden bulbs
swinging from the ceiling. Sweat dripped from his chin and forehead, and he
looked terribly sick, but that didn’t stop him from grinning. She had never
seen him look so excited.

“I’ve finally completed a
formula from the chemicals in Liz’s blood samples and the minerals from this
volcanic substance. I might very well hold the key, right here in this test
tube, to creating Liz’s powers. It won’t be as strong, because I don’t have the
exact solution of the Feucotetanus drug thanks to those goddamn Swedes. But
what’s science without a little experimenting?”

Hunter watched Joshua hold
up a tiny tube of blue solution for the camera, then inject it into a small
syringe. Her heart pounded and her hands became instantly clammy.
What is he
doing?

Joshua’s right hand was
shaking. He held the syringe up into the light and a few drips of blue liquid
squirted out of the needle.

“No
no
no
!” she exclaimed aloud. “Joshua what are you
doing?”

But it had already been
done, a long
long
time ago. She watched in complete
horror as Joshua forced the solution directly into the vein. His face flinched
in pain as the barrel emptied into his arm. She stared so close at the screen
that she was sure she could see the vein in his arm turn a violent shade of
electric blue.

Joshua pulled the needle out
of his skin and covered it with a cotton bud. He smiled at the camera and said,
“it’s done.”

The screen went black again.

Hunter could not believe
what she’d just seen. Had Joshua actually just tried to give himself her
powers? Or better yet, had it worked?
No way. We would both know if Joshua
could walk through fire, especially since this happened nineteen years ago.
So
then what did that solution do to his body?

Hunter went back to the
letter, but all it said was that he’d changed. That he became obsessed over
her. It related none of his strange behavior to the possibility of powers.

Had Joshua done the right
calculations, or had something gone wrong? Hot flushes and bursts of anger were
her first signs of the fire erupting, but Joshua was never hot. In fact, he was
quite the opposite.

Oh my God.

The opposite.

Hunter yanked the floppy disc
from the computer, leapt from her chair and ran back downstairs into her
bedroom. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she caught sight of the snow
globes stacked on the window sills, shelves and other various places. To her,
they had always been just another trinket of his. Now, they stood out as if
they had suddenly sprouted legs and danced the Tango.

Ice-cold fear enveloped
Hunter as ideas and answers started forming in her mind. She was in such a
panic that she couldn’t bring herself to remain another minute in the empty
apartment. Not knowing what else to do, Hunter packed a heap of clothes into
her overnight bag and hurriedly took her cash from a marked page in her
tattered
Peter Pan
book
.
Then, she fled from the apartment
without a single look back.