Alice ( Cont )

David pushed his way through the broken door. A strong smell of bleach was making his eyes sting; he put his hand up to his face to cover his nose and mouth.

“Bloody hell Alice, I thought we were over all this, what happened?”

“I had a short lapse last week, I know I should have told you, but I thought it was nothing, then today I don’t remember anything after three o’clock this afternoon, until I heard your voice a few minutes ago.”

David shook his head.

“Okay hurry up let’s go, we’ll talk about it later.”

They left the old shed and headed back to the tube station; from there they got the train back to West London. Within forty minutes they were sitting in the living room of a large Victorian house in Chelsea.

David poured himself a large whisky and Alice a glass of tap water.

“Okay, start from the beginning, what happened last week?”

Alice took a sip of her water and then a deep breath.

“I could feel a lapse coming on last Tuesday afternoon, you were out so I lay down on the bed till it passed, I came round two hours later, I thought I’d stayed at home but then noticed mud on my shoes, maybe that’s when I met the two boys.”

“And today?”

“Same again, felt dizzy, laid down, next thing I know I’m in an old shed with two dead boys and you’re calling my name.”

“Damn it Alice, why didn’t you mention it last week, I would have upped your dosage or something, we agreed you’d always let me know if you felt it coming on.”

David shouted the last few words, Alice could see that he was angry, but more than that she could see he was disappointed.

“I’m sorry David, what will happen to the boys?”

“Well they’ve both been infected so their bodies will start to break down, skin, tissue, blood then bones, won’t be much left of them by morning.”

“Did you find me through the tracker?”

“Yes, I came home, you weren’t there so I looked on the computer and could see that you were in East London, that didn’t feel right, so I followed the signal and it led me to the shed. When I got there I could smell bleach and alcohol, so I shouted out to see if you were okay.”

“So what do we do now?”

David stood up and walked towards the door of the room.

“Start again I suppose, up your dosage, take some blood, analyse it, see what’s going on inside your body, come on, let’s get started.”

Alice got up and walked to the door, she kissed him on the cheek, not a passionate kiss, more like a kiss a daughter would give her father.

“I really am sorry David.”

For the first time tonight he smiled.

“I know, come on let’s get on with it.”

They walked into the hallway and opened a door that led down to the cellar. David switched on a light at the top of the stairs and the two of them walked slowly down the steep concrete steps.

At the bottom, David flicked another switch and the cellar lit up.

It was equipped like a modern operating theatre, state of the art medical equipment filled the room, computers were bleeping, machinery was flashing,there were long benches with various test tubes on then, in one corner there were two hospital beds.

“Lie down and get ready Alice.”

Alice rolled up her sleeve and lay down on the bed.

David took a syringe and drew a small amount of blood. He then put the file into an impressive looking machine and watched it spin for a few minutes. He took it out, carefully placed a drip of it on a slide and placed it under the neutron microscope. He bent over and peered into the lens. Seconds later he stood up.

“Fuck it, it’s back!”

Alice knew what this meant and just how serious it was. David never swore.

“As bad as before?”

“Worse, it’s rampant in the blood Alice, we need to act fast to try to get it back under control.”

David went to a large medical fridge, pulled out two vials and put the clear liquids into a large syringe.

“I’m going to double the dosage Alice, so be prepared for a shock to the system, your body will try to fight it, I’ll need to restrain you.”

He placed her ankles and wrists in clamps at each corner of the bed.

“Sorry Alice, but I can’t take any risks.”

“It’s okay David, I understand.”

David slowly injected Alice with the serum, after a few seconds her body went stiff, her eyelids started to flicker, he arms and legs strained against the clamps causing them to bruise, she was convulsing a milky white liquid from her mouth. After two minutes she was still.

David wiped her mouth, she looked so peaceful. It was a far cry from when they first met four years ago. She’d been living rough on the streets, she’d got into a fight and been taken to a local hospital, that’s when they found the abnormality, Alice had what looked like a tail at the base of her spine.

He was an expert in Human Vestigiality and she was referred to him, he began a series of tests. He quickly realised that it was far more than just an abnormality. The weird growth could not be operated on as it was attached to her central nervous system and more curiously to her sexual organs. Then one night she discharged herself and found her way to his private surgery, she was drunk and said she’d killed a man. She broke down and begged him not to call the Police.

She told him about the others, mainly homeless guys that had tried to have sex with her, they’d pin her down, climb on top of her and then she’d pass out, they were always dead when she woke up and the smell of bleach was always in the air. He was intrigued and wanted to learn more about this strange thirteen year old, she’d stayed with him ever since. They’d tried many serums over the past few years, then last year there was a breakthrough, he was convinced he’d found the cure. But now it was back.

Alice opened her eyes after twenty minutes of sleep, David had unlocked the clamps and she joined him back in the living room.

She sat opposite him, he looked concerned.

“Okay, give me the news; you’ve obviously done more tests while I was asleep so come on tell me."

David leaned forward in his chair and looked Alice straight in the eyes.

“We’ve come a long way Alice, me and you, we know the lapses come just before menstruation and especially when there is any sexual arousal, we know we can’t stop your menstrual cycles, we’ve tried and your body went into shock and it almost killed you. We know that your body craves alcohol during this time because it helps with the transformation and we know that we could, up until now, control the lapses with the serum that we developed last year, so there is a lot of plus points. But, unfortunately your body has gradually become immune to the serum, so we have to try again, we’ll get there, I promise.”

“So what is it you’re not telling me?”

“The sting from the tail has become much more potent than before, and there’s something else, you’ve developed Epidermolysis Bullosa,basically it means that you will start to shed your skin.”

Alice stood up and poured herself another glass of water.

“And what, I’ll turn into a bloody snake or something?”

“No Alice, your DNA is changing, it’s much more likely to be a Scorpion.”