Out of Their Minds

Skye leaned in giving him a big hug.

“Thanks.” She said with a small smile. She could feel with every movement the lightheadedness that was taking over. She quickly slid it into her pouch, putting her hand to her forehead. She quickly pulled away, feeling the heat from her forehead.

“Do you think you could help me to bed?” she muttered.

 

Chaos'es eyes became light blue. Niel looks at the girl and says "Sure thing." He wheels her into her room. He gently picks her up and lays her on her bed. Niel says to her "Goodnight, I hope you have'nt been in too much pain." as he kisses her forhead. Niel leaves the room.

 

She pondered everything she'd been told. She knew something would work. She knew John would die - there was no way this could have a bad ending - it just wouldn't. She thought back at her poem with a slight grin. Actually, even though she didn't need to talk to Francine, she wanted to. And maybe Francine needed to talk to her . . .

 

Gregor shook and screamed.

What?! asked Klesps.

"He .... injected .... her," said Gregor through gritted teeth.

Belleth looked into his friend's eyes. "The ... the beast is in your hands now. I will draw Calipto here."

Deep inside Francine's cells a chemical reaction took place. They all suddenly began to change slightly fighting the foreign agent Calipto forced into her body. Francine's cells still obeyed Gregor and would for the next few days until his changes became permenant.

In a small corner of Francine's mind a spark came to life and fed off of Francine's fear and hate it grew commanding her antibodies to alter and resist Fontik drug. Soon an inferno was raging and it activated the domant areas of the human brain. The fire soon had a face that Francine knew well. The face of a man who was a mystery to her.

The flame Gregor reached out to Calipto's mind and sent a spike of pure agony into it's center. "IF YOU WANT HER .... YOU MUST KILL ME FIRST!!"

Calipto shrugged off the screaming voice and the migrane with a chuckle. "You'll have to do bett ..." Calipto never finished the sentence as he felt a subtle shift within his body. "You bastard," screamed the Frontik ruler as he realized what the doctor had done. The pain and message were a ruse to get inside of his body. His cells were slowly turning human.

You'll die of old age in a few days," said Gregor. "Kill me or die .... old friend."

 

Calipto felt his breath stifling.
"No...no!"
He growled, and then got on his seat.
"This, this can't end like this, Belleth! IT WILL NOT!"
He then picked the injection and meditated.
"I've been Mr. Nice far too long, Francine. It's time I showed Belleth that I'm not this easy to defeat."
With that. He sent his coded message to Francine's brain cells, which were in utter confusion as to whom to obey. Unfortunately for Belleth, Calipto had been prepared for this.
"Francine, don't kill me..."
He mimicked her father's voice. Francine sprung up from her silent slumber, and started screaming.
"Daddy?"
"Francine...Francine where are you? Help me, don't kill me yet..."
"I won't Daddy! Daddy, don't die. I won't hurt you...I promise."
Calipto coughed, his cells weakening due to Belleth's attacks. However, Francine's brain was stranded. The time to strike.

A few electric signals from his device interrupted Francine's neurones. Suddenly, they did as he willed. The DNA did a twist. It binded with a brain cell, and it was over. The cell reproduced at the rate of sixty cells per millisecond, and Francine felt a weird change in her. The cell was different - it was not human, true. But it was not frontik either. Klesps and Belleth tried, but the cell was indestructible.

 

Tears rolled down Belleth's face. He made no other motion. All his cells were bent to the task of trying to halt the changes on Francine's body. There were simply too many changes happening too fast.

Klesps shook his head. You can't save her Belleth.

"I won't loose another one to him!"

She isn't Berequa. Your wife died years ago. You can't bring her back. Even if you somehow manage to save Francine, her mind will be burned out. She can't take anymore of this. She's going to die anyway. But you can avenge her.

A final sob broke from Belleth's lips as he reached out to Francine's mind and body. The cells resisted his attempts to stop duplicating. Handel's heart pounded in his ear. There was only one option and so Belleth, the Great Healer of Ghalmaraz, sped up the rate of cellular reproduction. In a matter of seconds, Francine's body dropped at Calipto's feet and began to decompose. Four minutes later, all that remainded of Dr. Francine was a small, oily, puddle.

"I have something for you Calipto," whispered three voices in John's skull. One was Belleth's, the second was a unknown Frontik, the third was the shrieking, high pitched voice of the thing which tortured Brenda. "Before John could answer, Belleth released the tortured death howl of Francine into John's mind."

FUeled by the fight or flight reaction inherent within Francine's last moments, Gregor sped up the process he began in John's body. In the center of John's body, a fist sized mass of cells gathered and fixed permenantly in shape and form. Calipto's eyes went wide as, for the first time, he felt a human heart beating within his chest. A heart who's cells refeused to change or alter. His torso and chest felt as if hundreds of ants were crawling beneath his skin as viens and arteries worked their way through what was rapidly becoming a human body.

There was a coldness to the three voices. A calculating tone that is only brought about by great pain and loss mixed with pure hatred. "The hospital or I shall release the beast to hunt you down and you will die as only a human can."

 

Calipto dropped down, shivering.
"No...NO!"
All his efforts were ruined. All of them. He had never expected Belleth to let go of Francine like that. Never.
"You can't kill me fast enough! My back-up plan will - "
A series of gunshots were heard. Calipto flopped on his back, and then his skull rotated to see his murderer. Brenda.

"You?"
His weak voice filtered out as gusts of wind as Gregor's plan progressed. The damaged cells were human, and he was dying rapidly. Brenda grinned and then took a seat.
"Funny thing, Calipto, that you never valued me more than a speck of dirt. And funnier thing, Calipto, that I was considered to be working with you. Please."
She walked around the room, and then stopped in a corner.
"I dealt cases, Calipto, but never such a weird one. I mean, I was not only accused of working with you, but also accused of being an alien named something 'era', and in between all of this, you never knew anything. You didn't realize that Brenda was not a stupid psychiatrist who would be fooled by your name tag of John Francs."
Tears came into her eyes as she said this.
"John was my husband, while Eden and Tyler were my children. You took them from me...and I never forgave you. I knew it the moment you walked in. I knew it so well."
She walked towards him, grasping his skull angrily.
"Thing is, my records only mentioned you as a high school friend. When John was married to me, we kept it secret. Too bad you didn't know."

She let go, smiling proudly.
"I was working in the background, but I was working. If it weren't for me and my friends, there would've been a WW3. I kept the murder cases hushed. I kept the press away - as much as I could, at least. I kept everyone's mouths shut, and even tried to save Francine. Unfortunately, I didn't do great."
She sobbed as she looked at Francine's remains.
"And now, you're over. Too bad I couldn't have helped Belleth and Skye, but I would've loved to see you burn instead."
Calipto coughed, his last breaths escaping.
"Who...who are you?"
With a grin, Brenda said out loud:
"Danielle McCarter, spy for the US Armed Forces, just like my hubby."
With that, Calipto was over.

Brenda walked away, and dropped down at the oily remains of Francine.
"I wish it were over...but it's not."
She thought out loud, knowing the bigger secret. The bigger threat.

 

"What is going on?!" She yelled out loud. The end was near - she could feel it apon her, and she had to get to Skye. She had to tell her, before the day had ended.

 

"What is going on?!"

Gregor heard the words, but couldn't respond. The battle with Calipto had taken all his strength. It took all his effort just to keep looking human.

 

She began to walk exedingly fast, each time her clogs clacked the floor echoing in her head. Skye's door was closed, and she hated to intrude, but it was important. She opened the door, appollogizing as she did.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's me, and we need to talk, I'm sorry."

 

Skye woke up, her fever was high and sweat seemed to drip from her body. Her arms throbbed painfully were almost impossible to move. Jason sat next to her, concern in his eyes.

“I gave you another shot… the pain and the fever should calm down.” He looked at her, as if he had something to say but couldn’t say it. She let it go, as she waited for the fever to pass. The pain was dulling quickly.

She shook uncontrollably, as her body changed temperatures dramatically.

“Jason. I want to go to the playroom.”

Jason shook his head furiously, “No Miss Skye, you need to rest. You’ve got an infection…”

She grabbed his hand with force, “Jason, take me there.” He looked at her with angry eyes, as she wrapped her arm around his neck. She let go suddenly, falling to the ground. He didn’t notice as the tiles in the corner gave a jiggle. He apologized, as Olena opened the door. She looked at her with a smile.

"It's all right."

 

Her nerves seemed all wound around her skeleton tightly enough that she could barely speak, but she would continue.
"Jason, I'll take care of Skye now, okay?" She would take care of Skye forever if she wanted her, but for now she meant to get rid of the orderly. Jason nodded and left.
"Are you up for a lot of information?"

 

Skye gave a nod and watches as Jason left. She lay back in her seat, as her eye gave a violent twitch. Her stump shot forward, pain shooting through her arm. She tried her best to ignore it, as she looked up with attentive eyes at Olena.

“Tell me everything you know.” She said.

 

As Niel walks into the playroom, he notices Belleth sitting at the card table. He seems to be completely worn out. Niel's eyes grow dark.

Chaos walks over to the table and sits down. "So Belleth, what is the latest news on our friend Calipto?"

 

She looked down at the sweater in her hands. She couldn't take Skye getting hurt any longer. She took some string from her pocket and tied the sweater to the metal part of the wheelchair Skye kept hitting.
"First - Gregor and John are aliens. Gregor's real name is Belleth, John's Calipto. Gregor has some kind of beast roaming around, and last I figured it was tormenting Brenda. John wants Francine, I think, but I expect now they are both dead. I don't know why I think that. I was waiting for Olena's father in the lobby when some rampage went on with the press - no one seemed to notice me. I listened, I watched, I learned. That's how I've stayed on my toes this long. Salvador brought me gasoline - it makes a great explosion with fire and I thought it'd be good for revenge. If Calipto's alive, it still will be. My name is Chloris - it means green and fresh, and I've kept it to myself so long because I wanted it to stay that way, but it inflicts something unexplainable on Olena and Vira - Olena dreamed of me as a young child. Vira's known my name her entire life. Just what I expected has come true - and what I feared. I vaguely answered Francine with a poem, because I didn't know how to say what I meant clearly when she asked me who I suspected as an alien. That's what I know. That's all my life can take to let out now."

 

Gregor's eyes slowly drifted over to Chaos. Slowly he forced his lips to move. "Calpito is dead. Francine too. Trouble is coming." Handel's eyes slowly closed. WIth the last bit of his will, he forced his eyes open again. "Trouble's coming. I saw it in Cal's mind before he died."

 

Skye’s mouth dropped open as she looked at Chloris. She didn’t know what to say, she was afraid for Francine more then anything now. She hoped her doctor was all right, but her thoughts were quickly moved to Gregor. Gregor was her friend, she cared a lot about him. She had thoughts that he might be one, but now… She didn’t want to believe it.

“Thanks.” She stammered. She wanted nothing more then to leave the room, she quickly pushed herself out the door.

“I’ve got to think…” she said, her face had lost it’s color, “I’ll see you later.” She managed to push herself forward as Jason caught the chair. He looked at her with concerned eyes.

“Playroom please.” She managed to stifle. He said nothing as he pushed her onwards.

 

As Belleth said those last few words he seemed to pass out. Chaos caught him before he fell off of the chair. Belleth's body seemed to be going crazy, every few seconds the arms would swell up and then return to normal size. His head was moving in ways that a normal person's head should never move.

"F***!" says Chaos "If people see you like this, they'll probably blame you for all of the s*** that has been happening in this place." He picks up Belleth and places Belleth over his shoulder. Chaos says "Damn, you aliens are kinda heavy." in a frustrated voice. He carries Belleth back to Niel's/Chaos'es room. He lays Belleth on the bed. "So, more trouble is coming. Just when I thought I had a way to take down Calipto, he dies and something else is going to come. F***!" says Chaos, "Take as long as you need to rest." He pulls out his knife, and says "I'll protect you until you get your energy back."

 

Glenny sat in the corner and watched wearily as Niel and Gregor mingled. It was odd, though.

"Calipto?" he thought to himself.

He watched as Niel picked Gregor up in a horrible state and whisked him away. Just more mysterious dealings, he thought. Just another day.

 

Skye’s eyes went wide as she noticed Neil walk off carrying Gregor over his shoulders. She quickly motioned for Jason to follow them, as they went into a room. She stopped in front of the door.

“I’ll be fine, you can go now.” She muttered to him. He looked at her with unsure eyes as he walked off. She gave him a half-smile and knocked on the door.

“Neil, you have Gregor in there?” she asked, her voice was shaky, “It’s Skye. Can I come in?”

 

Chaos heard someone talking on the otherside of the door.

“Neil, you have Gregor in there?” she asked, her voice was shaky, “It’s Skye. Can I come in?”

He looks at Belleth, his body was still going crazy. Chaos says "Sure, come on in.", while wondering how Skye will react to seeing Belleth in this state.

 

Gregor opened an eye and smiled at his friends. It was a struggle to keep looking human. Sooner or later, he'd have to drop the disguise.

 

Skye managed to open the door. She struggled with her chair, as her arm went side to side. Her stumps screamed in protest. Her eyes went wide as she saw the state Gregor was in. She bit her lip, the knowledge of him being an alien stopped her in her tracks. She cursed at herself angrily, it didn't matter. He was still Gregor.

She pushed herself to the edge of the bed as she threw her arm over his shoulder. She gave him a peck on the cheek, trying to hide back the tears.

“Gregor?” she whispered, “Are you all right? What happened?”

 

Gregor nodded weakly. "I have a gift for you."

 

Skye looked at him with a raised eyebrow as she maneuvered herself on the edge of the bed. She looked at his weak form, concern ridden in her voice.

“It’s not my birthday silly.” She muttered, “What gift?”