WRECKING BALL, stiles stilinski

05. human chimera

chapter five,
human chimera

Sitting in her AP Biology class, Talulla felt oddly empty. The seat next to her was not occupied by Lydia since she'd been hospitalized not long before today. She began staring off in the black abyss that was the top of her desk space as Mrs. Finch wrote on the board with her chalk. There were various drawings of DNA containing colors of red, blue, and yellow. And Talulla's staring competition with the tabletop was cut short as Mrs. Finch set down the chalk, speaking loud and clearly to the class, "If ninety-nine point nine percent of our DNA sequence is the same as other humans, what could account for the missing point one percent difference? Theo?"

Talulla swiveled her head, eyes pointing towards Theo as his head snapped up, "Um, Nucleotides."

"That's right." Mrs. Finch quickly told him before turning towards the hand that flew up in the air, "Yes, Kira?"

Talulla watches as Kira's hand slowly drops back down to the table, "Can there be more than one species in the same DNA?"

"No, but there can be multiple sets of DNA in the same individual. We call that a chimera. Anyone know where that term comes from?" Point towards the girl right behind Talulla, "Sydney?"

"Greek mythology. It's a lion with a goat coming out of it's back and a tail that ends in the head of a snake."

"That's right, Sydney. Do you want to read us the full Wikipedia entry off your phone?" Mrs. Finch notices, speaking disappointedly to her student. "But that does get us into the next topic of mutation. As you know from the reading, DNA is a fragile molecule."

Mrs. Finch's voice trails off as Talulla once again finds her brain drifting off into the void. She becomes curious of the term Chimera and what can occur for someone to have two sets of DNA. Attempting to scan her own brain to find answers to her curiosity, she's left empty-handed. After what seems to be a minute or two, she begins to pick her items up off the desktop, watching as other students exit the room before her.

Eventually, no other student inhabits the room as Talulla steps forward to speak to her teacher, "Mrs. Finch, I had a question about a person having multiple sets of DNA."

Mrs. Finch turns towards the young girl, "Of course, Talulla. What were you wanting to ask?"

"Well, I was just thinking, how would it occur for someone to have more than one set of DNA. Is it just a procedure or is it a bunch of different things that lead up to the person eventually having another set of DNA?"

Mrs. Finch sighs slightly as she crosses her arms over her chest, looking up to ceiling in thought, "As of now, I only know of three situations that would cause someone to become or be a human chimera. A fairly common situation is in a twin pregnancy. If one of the embryo dies, some of the cells are absorbed by the other twin. This leaves the one embryo with both it's original cells and the cells of their former twin. Another situation is if one undergoes a bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow has stem cells that become red blood cells, so someone who has a bone marrow transplant will have blood cells that contain the same genetic code as their donor."

Talulla listens to every words Mrs. Finch tells her with the highest of attention, "The last one also comes from pregnancy. It's a very small amount, but when mother's are pregnant, some of the cells from the baby get into their blood and go to different parts in the body."

"Okay, that makes a lot of sense. So, they're mainly of natural causes unless used to save a life?"

"For the most part, yes." Mrs. Finch reaches down to her desk, moving stuff around, "That was a great question, Talulla. Now, I've got another class in a few minutes, so I've got a few things to do. Have a great rest of the day."

"Of course. Thank you, Mrs. Finch. You have a great day, too."

Talulla walks out of the classroom door, the small smile on her face fading as realization hits her. Bone marrow transplants help patients with leukemia. Talulla had leukemia before, her head now beginning to flood with the remembrance of her struggles. With a large shaky release of breath, Talulla realizes in her own head that she herself is a human chimera.

It was now later in the day, and Malia, Stiles, and Talulla had been in the library trying to find any kind of information in the many books that the library held. However, Malia and Talulla had both left just minutes prior. The two girls found themselves in Tracy's bedroom, the yellow police tape lining parts of the room. Malia had told Talulla to come with her, seeing as they'd fought and been with Tracy just a few moments before her death.

The two sat silently on the edge of Tracy's bed, before Malia stands up. Talulla watches as she walks towards the wall, looking and lifting up a few of the drawings that were pinned against it. So far, there didn't seem to be any type of indication that Tracy knew what was going on.

Talulla stood up, pushing her top half back up by lifting her hands off of her knees. She slowly walks towards a drawer set, eyeing a book that's set diagonally on the corner. Pushing a red, heart-printed wallet away from the top of the book, she wraps her fingers around the spine, lifting it with her left hand. A yellow post-it note attached read, 'Here's the book you asked for. Cheesy stuff, but still a fun, scary read.'

Malia now stands next to Talulla, reaching her hand out and disconnecting the note from the book itself. The two girls turns towards each other with a look of concern and fear on their faces as the same cloaked figures they'd seen before lie on the front cover. Talulla's own fear grows larger than her friend's, remembering that she's not only seen them once, but now three times. The creatures she's seen in her dreams and right in front of her burned bright in her brain, The Dread Doctors.

author's note !

word count: 1077
published: december 9, 2021