Falling Darkness

Infection- Part I

             Falling Darkness: Infection

            There she was, eyes filled with a void I so easily recognized. Tank was all smiles and affection, blinded to her befuddled mind. His guilt rose to the surface and he touched her, trembling. It seemed that soon I wouldn’t be the only girl in Tank’s life since I knew that, this time, he wasn’t going to let her go.

PART I

Chapter 1: The Blood

            Rex shattered his skull with a bullet. The blood splattered onto my face, into my mouth, and all over my shirt. It was in slow motion and muffled by pressing invisible cotton, stuffing into my ears. My tears, my screams. What were they to him now? My love, my life, my Rex all shattering on this cold tile floor, brains leaking in a puddle of wet crimson. We were all motionless. Silent. Mouths frozen in painful agony. Surprisingly enough, the first person to move was Tank, who fell dejectedly to his brother’s side, screaming into his face.

            There was so much blood. So much blood, cascading from flattened soft hair that once held my fingers. Salty tears rolled into my mouth and I had to crouch into a fetal position. I had been so close, so close. I had felt the heat from his body, smelled the sweat on his palms, been blinded by the smoke from the gun. Had I really made the right choice?

            We wrapped Rex in cloth and tied his hands and feet. Together we laid him into the pool where we shared our first date and our tears flowed faster when we saw his feet pierced by some unknown, sharp object near one of the pool’s edges. We laid the thick black sheet over him, and left, sniffing up our guilt into napkins and leaning on each other for comfort.

            “At least he died free, of the insanity and that warehouse, I mean,” Tank said grimly.

            “How did you know about the warehouse?” I sniffed, my voice nasally.

            “Dad, told me,” he nodded towards Bill.

            I nodded in recognition and walked in morbid silence. I had the worst thoughts. Like, one of them was of Tank celebrating Rex’s death. Another was of Doc using this chance to get close to Bill. None of them were really happening, but my thoughts were becoming more and more morbid. We all went to bed that night with Rex on our minds and fire in our hearts.

            “It’s time to distribute the anecdote.” I said decisively.

            It was unanimous and everyone agreed. It was past time.

Chapter 2: Regrets

            The shipments of bat blood started coming in boxes filled with tiny vials of thick red stain. The label on top often described the sort of bat and the blood inside. Doc would test the blood then remake his anecdote while Tank and I worked on a weapon of mass distribution. Our fingers were moving in sync. Even as I looked at Tank and found him attractive, I could feel my guilt clogging up my throat. Wasn’t it my attraction to Tank that killed Rex in the first place?