Predominance (29 page)

He lunged at me like a raging bull, wrapping his hands around my throat. “Let me out!” he demanded. “Let me out!” His hands tightened by the second.

I tried desperately to escape his grip, but he was strong—much stronger than I was at the moment. The ground began to shake again, this time crumbling down one of the walls behind me, flooding the room with a powerful white glare that finally shone upon the face of my oppressor. For a long moment, I couldn't believe, or understand, what I was seeing. This maddening reality couldn't possibly be real. The man with whom I've been speaking all this time, the man who had tried to convince me to forfeit my life for his sake, the man now choking me with all of his intense hatred…

...was me.

He was my own spit and image—and yet he wasn't. His unnatural gray eyes were filled with an anger and hatred I could almost taste, like a disgusting bile that was trying to invade all of my senses. His feathered hair was silver, the same dead silver that streaked my hair in an uneven patch above my forehead...and his inclination toward evil made him the perfect opposite of me.

Fortunately, his eyes were overwhelmed by the same light that had exposed his identity, making him turn away from the intensity of the glare. I took advantage the second he turned his head away, yanking his hands off my throat and delivering a powerful kick to his solar plexus that sent him sailing ten feet across the room and gave me the opportunity to turn and run toward the light.

“This isn't over, Victor!” he screamed furiously at the top of his lungs. “You can't run from me forever! Sooner or later, you're going to have to let me out! It's inevitable!”

I kept running toward the light, until I was no longer running, but floating bodiless in the comforting white glow: not in body, but in my own  subconscious mind. I waited there patiently, until a familiar voice that echoed in the distance brought me back to reality…

Laws of Physics

“VICTOR, COME ON
, wake up!” Sarah sounded distressed. She kept speaking, and her voice grew stronger by the second—unlike the white light, which was diminishing into a soft yellowish glow that began to warm my eyelids. I tried to open my eyes once I realized I was reconnected to my corporeal self, but my eyelids just fluttered, as if refusing to wake up from a nightmare—a very vivid nightmare. When I finally did open my eyes, I saw a distraught green-eyed face break out in a smile of relief.

“Sarah?” I croaked feebly.

“Yes, I'm here!” she answered.

“Where… Where's Yvette? Is she all right?”

Sarah sighed, as if relieved to hear my voice. “She's lost a lot of blood,” she said, “But she's going to be all right.” Her eyes flew to my far left.

It wasn't until then that I realized I was lying on a bed, apparently in a motel room. Sarah was sitting on the edge of my mattress, while Yvette lay on the adjacent bed. She was asleep; I later learned that Sarah had administered morphine for pain, enough to knock her out for a good, long while.

“She was very lucky,” Sarah said. “The bullet went through and through without hitting any bones or major arteries. I just had to stitch her up and gave her some pain medicine.” She paused for a second, changing her tone. “You, on the other hand, had me worried to death!” She chuckled with a mixture of anxiety and relief. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “You don't remember, do you?”

I shook my head silently.

“I had to extract a bullet from your shoulder, which caused an infection. You've been fighting it for two days.” I was shocked to hear that I'd been out for so long. “Do you remember the explosion?” she asked.

“Vaguely,” I said, still disoriented.

“When the oxygen tanks went off, the explosion launched you far out into the meadow. By the time I got to you, your heart had stopped. Yvette and I worked on you for the longest time before we brought you back.” She cleared her throat. “For a moment there, we thought we'd lost you.”

“Damian,” I asked fretfully. “What happened to Damian?”

Sarah lowered her head. “He didn't make it, Victor. He was too close to the oxygen tanks when they went up.”

I closed my eyes tightly, feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt. “I failed him,” I said miserably.

“He was trying to kill you, Victor.”

“I failed him,” I repeated, holding back tears.

Sarah stroked my head. “Just try and get some rest, okay?”

“No,” I disagreed, remembering what had just happened inside my brain. “We don't have much time. We have to get to your mentor, before my side effects become irreversible.”

“All right,” she conceded, a confused look on her face. “He gave me his address. But I'm afraid we can't get there by car, and we've already run out of money.”

“Don't worry about money,” I answered confidently, thinking about the settlement money I'd never used. “I have enough to go around.”

After reaching for my backpack and dragging it over, I gave Sarah a credit card and asked her to arrange transportation to wherever we needed to go. She agreed and left, reassuring me she wouldn't take too long. Just a few minutes after she left, Yvette began to wake up. She turned and moaned in pain before opening her eyes. “Victor?” she called in a hoarse whisper.

“I'm here!” I answered eagerly, although it took me a minute to get out of my own bed—the pain in my shoulder was excruciating. I lumbered across the room until I reached the side of her bed, then sat on the edge of her mattress and ran my fingers through her hair. My touch elicited a soft moan that made her close her eyes and curved those sweet lips into a soft, pleasing smile, as if my mere touch had somehow abated her pain. But the fact was, a touch shared between us could do a lot more than that, as she reminded me the moment she opened her eyes.

“I love you, too,” she said softly.

“Hey!” I complained playfully. “I'm supposed to say it first, you know?”

Her voice suddenly overloaded with emotion. “You did.”

Despite her obvious pain, she grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me toward her bee-stung lips. My blood rushed faster through my veins, accelerating by the escalating rhythm of my enamored heart, just as it had the very first time under the weeping willow tree back at the Lab. The taste of her lips was definitely the nourishment my heart had hungered for all along—an aphrodisiac that was driving me absolutely crazy. And though we knew there were a thousand problems hovering around us, we decided to forget the world and get lost in our kiss.

My God! I really thought I could go on kissing her forever. And I could have if her caressing hand hadn't strayed from playing with my hair, to wander down to my neck and then go straight to my wounded shoulder, triggering a sudden jolt of pain that made me stop and groan like a baby.

“I'm sorry!” she apologized, biting her bottom lip—which I swear only drove me crazier. I cupped the back of her head then and mashed those fleshy lips against mine, as a highly uncharacteristic lust suddenly took control over me, plunging me into a deep ocean of ecstasy, in which I'd rather drown with her than resurface without her. I slowly began to caress her bare arm, brushing her soft, milky-white skin with the backs of my fingers, until my hand reached and cupped her delicate elbow. My mind then began to branch out, reaching an incredible resonance with Yvette's heart, which seemed to match the accelerated beat of my own. I listened to this hypnotic rhythm as I continued my search for Yvette's hand. I wanted to interlock our fingers like we'd done back in the meadow. So I kept gliding my fingertips along Yvette's forearm, raising tiny goose bumps on her skin along the way.

This was, without a doubt, the most erotic moment of my life up to that point. But more than that, it was a moment of tenderness and complete surrender, in which I realized once again that this woman was not only the love of my life, but from now on my sole reason for existence.

I finally found her hand resting on top of her bare thigh, which, I have to confess, only made me stray from her hand. Call it instinct, heat-of-the-moment, or simply naughtiness. But the truth is that I just couldn't restrain myself from gliding the palm of my hand over the side of her bare leg—so gently that I was barely touching it. Unfortunately, an oversight on my part was about to ruin the moment. It happened when, despite my gentle touch, my hand stumbled upon a thick dressing around Yvette's wounded leg.

Yvette's reaction was instinctive. “Oww!” she wailed, cringing in pain and dropping the hand she'd buried in my hair right onto my wounded shoulder again. I joined her painful cry, grabbing my throbbing arm. We both winced and complained for the next few seconds, and then we laughed in unison. “I'm sorry!” she apologized again.

“No, I'm sorry...” I trailed off, trying to snap out of the euphoric stupor I was in.

“I guess it's not safe for us to be this close right now, huh?” she said, blushing.

“I think you're right!” I laughed, stroking her head again.

***

After our intense  yet painful romantic encounter, Yvette and I decided to behave ourselves and just talk over a cup of coffee, which Yvette managed to make with one of those funny one-cup coffeemakers often found in motel rooms.

We sat at a small round table near the window, where I decided to tell her about my horrific experience after the explosion. I emphasized that it could have been nothing but a nightmare, or a delusion caused by the explosion—hence the reason why I left out a few points from the conversation, like the fact that my evil counterpart had accused me of having feelings for Sarah. However, I did tell Yvette about the danger my dark twin had warned me about.

We spoke for hours, about many things: Denali, Damian, Dr. Walker, and even Sarah. But mostly, we talked about us and our plans. Yvette was firmly convinced I was going to be okay, and that our real story was yet to be written. And though I didn't share her blind optimism, I was beginning to feel like there was, indeed, a light at the end of the tunnel. I decided to put away my negative thoughts and began to embrace a more positive frame of mind.

I remember sensing Sarah's presence even before she even got out of the cab that had brought her back to the motel... and I have to admit that my mind not only alerted me of her approach, but jolted in happiness at the thought of having her near. This irrepressible feeling made me ponder again the words of my evil reflection. Could it be true? I asked myself. Could my gratefulness toward Sarah have developed into something more? If so, what was it—what was this feeling that brought guilt to my heart the moment I felt her? I knew it was more than friendship, but I couldn't allow it to be any more than that.

I turned my eyes to Yvette, and realized that whatever this feeling was, it would never be able to compete with the love I felt for her. The thought of hurting her, if only with my thoughts, crushed my heart into a million pieces. Yet the truth couldn't be concealed by denial, and the truth was that Sarah's presence did bring a warm feeling to my heart. “Sarah's back,” I informed Yvette nonchalantly. She looked toward the door as the key turned in the lock and Sarah entered.

“Hey, guys!” Sarah said as she came in, setting a pair of crutches against the wall. Then she turned back outside and picked up a bunch of shopping bags that she juggled through the door and set on my neatly-made bed.

“What's all this?” Yvette asked, a smile on her face.

“These are for you.” Sarah handed Yvette the pair of crutches. “I also got us new clothes”—her hands dug through the bags—”some toiletries, new bandages, pain medicine, an arm sling for Victor—oh! And, of course, some food!” She grabbed one of the bags and put it on the table. “I hope you guys like Chinese.”

The smell that emerged with the steam was intoxicating. “Mmm!” Yvette beamed as she dug through the takeout boxes.

“What about transportation?” I asked, concerned.

Sarah pulled up a chair and put it in between Yvette and me, then grabbed an eggroll before she began. “It's all arranged,” she said, taking a big bite. “We're taking a six o'clock charter to Juneau tomorrow morning.” She paused to chew. “When we arrive, I'll call Sidney, my mentor. He'll tell us where to go from there.”

“A charter?” I asked. “You mean a plane!? Can't we just take the ferry?”

“No,” she said, annoyed. “It's a ten-hour ferry ride.”

“And?” I urged.

“And the plane only takes one, Victor!” she answered, confused. “Besides, the tickets are already paid for. And they're non-refundable.”

Yvette grabbed my hand, noticing my sudden anxiety. “What's wrong, Baby?”

“Nothing,” I lied unconvincingly.

She closed her eyes then and tightened her grip on my hand, as if reading me with nothing but her touch...which was exactly what she was doing. “Aw, Victor,” she said wistfully, opening her eyes, an empathetic smile on those precious lips. “You needn't be worried about how high planes travel.”

“Is this what this is all about?” Sarah jumped in with an amused smile. “Your acrophobia? Don't tell me you're afraid of flying, too.”

I scowled, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“You know about his fear of heights?” Yvette asked, almost suspiciously.

Sarah let out a loud snort. “Yeah! Can you believe, with an army on our tail, he froze like a statue at the edge of a cliff? I had to push him off into the river!”

“What?!” Yvette exclaimed, then joined Sarah in a fit of giggling.

I crossed my arms and took turns scowling at them. “Well,” I said sarcastically, “I'm so glad my phobias amuse you both.”

They laughed even harder.

After a few moments, Yvette caught her breath and said, “I'm sorry, Baby,” trying unsuccessfully to suppress her laughter. “It's just cute, you know? You're so brave about everything else, and then...this. We're not laughing at you,” she assured me, doing her best to look serious now.

“We're not?” Sarah asked, with a seriousness that only lasted for a second. She then broke out laughing again. Her contagious laugher infected Yvette, who soon joined her, even louder than before.

“That's it!” I snapped, getting up from the chair and striding angrily towards the bathroom. “I'm taking a long shower, a few of these pain pills”—I picked up the bottle of Demerol Sarah had brought—”and going straight to bed!”

Yvette blew me an apologetic kiss before I closed the door, which made Sarah stop laughing as she cleared her throat. “You shouldn't get those bandages wet,” Sarah called casually. “Let me know if you need some help in there.”

“I think he can manage,” Yvette said quickly. “Can't you, Baby?” Her blazing blue eyes pierced right through me, as if in warning.

“Sure,” I nodded with a smirk on my face, and closed the door behind me.

“I should take a look at your leg, then. Is that okay?” I heard Sarah ask Yvette.

“Sure. Thank you.”

After the shower, it didn't take long for the powerful narcotic to take effect. After a few minutes I was in bed, drowsy and ready to pass out. I remember hearing the introduction to the news broadcast Sarah was watching on TV as Yvette climbed into my bed and buried her head in my chest... And then nothing.