Switched

Eleven

BatOwl

The smell of the coffee hits my nose and the smell of stress sweat from people working on their laptops. College kids probably. I look around in the cafe; searching for Miranda. A waving blonde catches my attention. She's sitting at a tall table for two, perfect. I awkwardly jog over to her and have a hard time getting on top of the stool.

"Hey!" She smiles and she pulls out a thick folder, and her smile fades.

"Is that all for me?" My heart rate shoots through the roof, but this is only the size of the folder. It's the inside that counts.

"So, want me to start at the beginning?"

"Yes..."

Miranda opens the folder and pulls out papers with tons of words and numbers on it.

"This is the testing they did on your", Miranda searches for a word "significant other."

"What's it say? What's it on?"

"Well, it's all about how this "reverse" liquid would work on him. Did it?"

I frown, "Yes, but why'd they only change him and not me?"

Miranda fingers down through the page, "It says here that... he was never meant to be changed."

I nearly vomit, "What?" My voice has to stay lowered so I don't draw any attention. Miranda's face expression saddens, "I'm sorry Evan."

"Please just call me Vanoss."

"I apologize. Anyway, they figured Delirious was the dominant one and he'd be the one to, well, fertilize you." I hate this. I hate this so much.

"But... why?" Not the waterworks, no.

"Vanoss, they were going to use your own child against you and your whole group, but mainly you and Delirious."

"What did we do to like piss them off?" After my question, Miranda flips through the files.

"There's nothing in here." Miranda pauses and taps her finger to her lips, "We're the bad guys and you're the good guys."

"You aren't a bad guy Miranda." I grab her hand and she smiles, "Thanks, Vanoss."

"Thanks for going against them, even though it'll cost you your job."

"Nah, I fucking hated that place as soon as I walked in. Just seeing you and Delirious all strapped up like that." Miranda shakes her head in disgust and we both chuckle afterward.

"Miranda, I have an important question."

"Yes?"

"Am I already pregnant?"

Miranda sits there and stares at me, "Welp, let's figure it out." She flips and flips through the huge folder. I sit there and wait; glad that she's magnanimous enough to do this for me. It's such a weird thing to deal with as an intern. "You guys just broke out yesterday, correct?" I nod, remembering the vision, the whole "break out" thing. I carried Delirious out and then he got shot.

Miranda sighs in frustration and flips to the way back of the file. This causes some of the files to fall to the ground. I hop down quick and start to gather up to fallen files. A sudden pain rips through my stomach and up my spine. My head pounds and the world goes purple for a split second.

Miranda is down by my side instantly, "Vanoss? Are you okay?" I look around, ignoring Miranda's question for now. People are starting to stare and whisper. "Could we go somewhere else?" I ask, knowing she would want to make me feel comfortable.

We arrive at the garage to our apartment. I tell Miranda to park at a clothing store parking lot across the street. If she obeyed no one inside would get suspicious. Miranda and I sit in her car so no one would see another one of my fits.

Miranda clears her throat, "So was that apart of one of your visions?"

I sigh, "Unfortunately not. We could figure out what caused it though. In the files."

Miranda reaches into the back seat of her little red car. She pulls out the thick folder with all the secrets once again. I suffer from anticipation, watching Miranda flip through the file. Her eyes move back and forth, like a person writing on a typewriter and pushing the paper after it reaches the edge.

"Vanoss..." Her hand shakes with the one piece of paper in it.

"What's wrong?" I grab the paper out of her hand, she was speechless. I skim the file and spot my name at the top. It's a letter from one of the staff to another. I read it out loud for Miranda and for myself, "We've figured out something about our specimen Evan, and it's not good for him and his friends. If we're able to impregnate him he'll hardly make it through the pregnancy..." I drag off, reading the rest in my head. Miranda sits with her head in her hands. I set the file down. I wasn't going to be able to stomach the rest. I skip to another page and find out that I am indeed already pregnant. Tears automatically fall out of my eyes. I let them fall onto the paper leaving little marks everywhere. There is one thing I have to do, and I feel like shit for having to, but, I can't tell Delirious...

***

SHORT CHAPTER, BUT BATOWL IS PREGNANT 

- H.C