“There’s a light on in the car,” Gabriel whispered. “Someone’s getting out.”
“That cop, he’s huge. That’s definitely not Officer Miller,” she observed.
They watched as the hulking officer placed a Stetson atop his head and strode to her front door. Melissa waited for him to return to his car after he rang the bell and found that no one was home. But he did not return immediately.
“What’s going on? How many times is he going to ring the doorbell?” Alexandra asked.
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Gabriel replied.
“Do you think he let himself in?” Melissa asked.
“He would have to have a reason. Police officers can’t just barge into your house when you’re not home,” Gabriel answered.
Alexandra began to pace about the kitchen. Yoshi maintained his post at the front door. And Melissa and Gabriel watched and waited for the police officer to return to his cruiser for what seemed like an eternity.
After nearly twenty minutes passed, the police officer returned. As he walked toward his car, he paused briefly under the motion-activated floodlights affixed to the garage. With his head nearly touching the fixture, Melissa and Gabriel were afforded a clear view of the man’s face.
Melissa heard herself inhale sharply and whisper, “It can’t be.”
Gabriel wrapped his arm around her waist as she felt her knees give way beneath her.
“I’m all right,” she lied then rubbed her eyes as if the motion would purge the vision she’d just seen from existence. She pulled back the curtain again and saw that the image remained.
Eugene was standing in her driveway clad in a gray state patrol unit Stetson, gray shirt and slacks and about to get into his police cruiser.
Chapter 25
Melissa and Gabriel quickly ducked out of sight as Eugene restarted the car and switched on the headlamps. The headlights passed across the neighbor on the opposite side of her house, not Miss Harriet’s, but she and Gabriel moved away from the window just in case.
“What do we do now? Do you think he saw us?” Melissa fretted.
“Who? Who do you think saw you? The cop?” Alexandra asked.
“That was no cop; that was Eugene,” Melissa told her friend.
The color drained from Alexandra’s face. “Eugene, I thought he was dead. He can’t be, he can’t be back,” she stammered. “It’s impossible.”
“What’re we going to do?” Melissa asked again.
“We can’t leave,” Yoshi offered. “That Eugene guy could be anywhere. He could be at the bottom of the hill waiting for all we know. No one would be suspicious of a parked patrol car. If anything, they’d be grateful for it.”
“Yeah, unless they knew what was driving it,” Alexandra said in an unsteady voice.
“I agree with Yoshi, it’s too risky to leave. We should stay here until we figure out what to do,” Melissa agreed.
“And what, hang out with the dead old lady?” Alexandra asked in a shrill voice.
“I’ll run upstairs and find something to cover her with,” Yoshi said.
“This is insane, all of this,” Melissa said rubbing her temples.
“I think you’re right, Melissa,” Gabriel began. “We should stay here for a few hours, at least until it’s completely dark out there, before we consider leaving here. Then I’ll get my car and pull it up to the end of the driveway and everyone can jump in. I want to limit our exposure.”
“I don’t want you to go alone. It’s me he’s after.”
“Eugene is after both of us.”
“Then we should go together.”
“I don’t want to put you at risk.”
“I’m already at risk. And alone, I’m a sitting duck.”
Gabriel sat quietly and seemed to consider her point.
“I was alone for five long months. Anything could have happened to me while you were gone,” she added.
The words floated from her mouth. She heard herself speak them but felt as though someone else was commanding her word choice. Melissa had not planned to ever address the misery she experienced during Gabriel’s five-month absence, her pain had been her own and not his burden to bear. Seeing him burst through the door of her neighbor’s house, realizing that he’d returned, was one of the happiest moments of her life thus far, one she’d been dreaming about. She had wanted nothing more than to tell him how much she loved him, how much she’d missed him. She did not want to be critical of him or speak harshly to him, but the thought of separating again–even briefly–sparked a feeling in her she’d pushed down for several months: resentment.
“Terzini and I had a deal,” she heard Gabriel say.
“Evidently, he was not a person who could be threatened into backing off or he didn’t feel you would ever follow through on your threat.”
Melissa heard her own voice. It sounded foreign, as if it belonged to someone else, the accusing tone; the anger. She did not want to hurt Gabriel, it was the last thing she wanted to do. She did not want to drive him away forever.
“I know you’re angry with me. You have every right to be. I never thought Terzini would resurface. I thought having his laptop with proof of what he’s been working on would be enough. I never would have left if I thought you would be in any type of danger.”
“Jesus people! This is like some nauseating soap opera As My Stomach Turns or something. I think I’ll go upstairs and see what Yoshi’s up to. You two work your shit out. We have enough to deal with without you two arguing!” Alexandra interjected then stomped up the staircase in search of Yoshi.
“She’s right,” Melissa conceded. “The last thing I should be doing is giving you a hard time. You scared away that creature that kidnapped me and tied me up. And I know you never would have left if you thought I was in danger but it was hard for me when you left.”
Gabriel’s shoulders slumped, his posture assumed a position similar to a person who had just been punched in the stomach. She did not want to hurt him. That was never her intention. But surely he had known she was far from happy when he left. He had known how strong her feelings were for him; she had told him, professed her love for him. He possessed superior DNA and clearly processed information more thoroughly, more rapidly, than the average person, yet seemed shocked to hear that she’d had a hard time in his absence. She found his reaction perplexing, frustrating.
“I’m sorry, Melissa. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Well how did you think I would feel? Did you ever once think about my feelings when you were God-only-knows-where doing whatever it was that you did while you were gone? You hardly ever called or emailed or texted me, it was like you fell off the face of the Earth. I thought maybe you’d met someone else and moved on!”
“Moved on? How could you say that? How could you think I would want anyone but you?” Gabriel asked, pain etching his features and lacing his every word.
“The problem was that I didn’t know; I was in the dark, about everything.”
“It had to be that way, Melissa. I never wanted to leave. You think it was easy for me?”
Melissa had never considered his feelings, just assumed he was fine wherever he was. She deemed herself worthy of little esteem, guessed he’d distracted himself with something or someone else. Worry and loneliness had transformed and assumed an uglier hue. It had been replaced with jealousy and uncertainty. Self-doubt had pervaded her thoughts allowing for a seed of irrational suspicion to grow to a field of distrust in herself, and in Gabriel.
“The hardest thing I did was leave you. I thought about you every single day. Don’t think for one second you were alone in feeling isolated and frustrated. I missed you so badly it actually hurt to think about you. I was halfway around the world in one of the remotest places on the planet with no access to phones and Internet connection. There wasn’t even electricity where I was. I had to travel for days just to get to a village that had modern conveniences. The times I called or messaged were carefully pla
nned and executed trips. But it was worth it just to hear your voice and know you were okay.”
His words stung, though he clearly did not intend them to. He was merely vocalizing his side of their separation. She had never considered it, was so busy picturing him surrounded by exotic women more befitting his company than she, as beautiful as he and far less virtuous than her. Notwithstanding the earliest days of their good-bye, she never envisioned him sad without her. She only saw her own pain, her own loneliness.
“I had no idea,” Melissa whispered.
Tears began to burn her eyes. She blinked several times to clear them but her efforts failed. She started to cry.
“I’m so sorry, Gabriel. I was so selfish. I never thought you would miss me. I mean, look at you. You could have any girl on the planet. I just thought,” she sniffled but was interrupted.
“You are beautiful, Melissa and definitely not lacking in any way other than self-esteem, maybe. But I don’t love you because you’re beautiful, though it doesn’t hurt,” he smiled mischievously. “I love you because you are kind and funny. You’re smart and much tougher than you give yourself credit for. I love the way your cheeks turn bright pink when you’re uncomfortable. I love the sound of your laugh. I love that you can accept me for what I am and how I came to be. Melissa, no one can compare. You are the girl I love.”
Melissa looked to Gabriel. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she felt her cheeks flush. Gabriel smiled at her.
“There it is,” he said and brushed the back of his hand across her blushing cheek. “You have nothing to apologize for, Melissa. You didn’t leave.”
“Kiss her already, you big girl!” Yoshi called from a room upstairs.
Alexandra laughed out loud, “You’re a funny little bastard!”
“No pressure or anything,” Gabriel said uncomfortably then cupped her face in his hands. He stared into her eyes and she wanted nothing more than for him to press his full lips against hers, to feel their softness, their heat.
“You think he finally kissed her?” she heard Yoshi ask Alexandra.
“Who the hell knows? Knowing him, he’s writing her a sonnet or some corny thing like that,” Alexandra answered.
“We hear you, you know!” Melissa shouted up to them.
“Why are we friends with them exactly?” Gabriel asked nervously.
“Beats me,” Melissa answered.
Melissa’s heart pounded in her chest as she contemplated reaching up and tangling her fingers in his russet-colored locks and crushing his lips with hers, kissing him passionately enough to compensate for the five long months she missed out on kissing him. Her hands trembled at the thought of doing something so bold, so presumptuous. She felt her cheeks burn with deeper color.
Gabriel ran his fingertips down her arms and took her hands in his. She felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise and quiver as if charged by the power of an electrical storm. Goosebumps dimpled her exposed skin.
Without thinking any further, she pulled him toward her, stood on her tippy toes and took his face in her hands. Dizzied by anticipation and anxiety she brought her lips to his, felt his breathing. She closed her eyes and tried to force the nervousness from her mind and simply listen to what her heart ordered her to do. Before she followed through on her endeavor, he wrapped her in his arms, leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.
The world fell silent for several seconds. Monsters and rogue geneticists ceased to exist. Crass, sassy friends disappeared. Dead neighbors did not linger and killers posing as cops vanished. She and Gabriel were the only two people in the world for that period of time.
But all too soon, reality reared its head and their dire circumstances were illuminated once again.
“I’m guessing the silence means you two have kissed and made up,” Alexandra bellowed from upstairs. “That’s all well and good but we still don’t have a plan to get out of here.”
Gabriel’s arms relaxed around her. He did not fully release her rather he allowed his arms to fall and loosely encircle her waist. He drew his mouth away from hers and rested his forehead against hers. She knew their kiss was over but was reluctant to accept the distance between them nevertheless.
“We do need to get out of here, Melissa.”
“And do what exactly?”
Gabriel did not answer right away. He took a step backward and looked directly in to her eyes, the cobalt of his irises seemed to deepen, darken.
“Kill Eugene,” he said levelly. “We need to kill Eugene.”
Chapter 26
Eugene slammed the driver’s side door of the patrol car he’d taken from the overly arrogant state trooper who’d drawn his weapon on him, attempted to intimidate him. The mere remembrance of the officer’s brazenness sent a current of anger through his veins so charged it threatened to overtake him. He abhorred guns and any form of artillery, thought them reserved for the weak and cowardly. He believed that to truly take ownership for death, it must be performed barehanded. He knew from research and experience that human beings clung to their shiny guns passionately. He also observed how heavy weaponry prompted humans to feel superior to those who were unarmed, how it made them feel smug. What amused him about this particular condition of humanity was that their smugness, their arrogant underestimation of him, unarmed, invariably led to their deaths.
Armed humans were far more loathsome than weaponless ones; those who elected to be without defenses proved more aware, more feral and far more ferocious. With his superior capabilities, his advantage surpassed all measurable human acuity and savageness of course, but unprotected humans proved far more entertaining. They were craftier, more cunning, and far more exciting to hunt.
Eugene loved to hunt. Disappointingly, his intended quarry, Melissa Martin, was not in her house. He longed to kill her, to satisfy a long-standing vendetta. She had assisted Gabriel in his untimely and unceremonious demise. She was responsible for the months he had spent submerged in opaque fluid, confined to a long cylindrical chamber recuperating from near death. He had been unable to kill for a long period of time, too long. When the time had come and he finally emerged from his induced slumber, he had doubted his killing integrity. Doubt had been unfamiliar to Eugene, utterly alien. He would never allow for such doubt to prevail again; Melissa’s death would all but guarantee its eternal absence.
But Melissa was nowhere to be found and he did not have hours or days to spend searching for her. Traipsing around randomly was not an option. And if he were to do so, the police cruiser would need to be disposed of. With no sound idea of where Melissa might be, Eugene decided to pay Kevin, Chris and John a visit. Terzini had imprudently cloned them and released them into Harbingers Falls. Without additional education or refinement, they remained the same drooling idiots they’d always been, only stronger, faster drooling idiots.
The thought of spending time in their company was debasing but necessary as he needed to locate and kill Melissa as quickly as possible. He drove operating on the assumption that they might possess knowledge of her whereabouts.
Within ten minutes of leaving Melissa’s house, he arrived at Dr. Terzini and Gabriel’s former house. He sped down the winding, gravel-filled driveway and gaped at his nemesis’s previous dwelling. The structure was stunning with elaborate, imposing architecture, more worthy of his inhabitance rather than Gabriel’s. Eugene felt resentment rise within him. He had deserved to live in such opulence, not Gabriel for he was the rightful heir to humanity.
Unconsciously, he had begun to breathe in short, shallow pants, bitter indignation burning like bile in his throat. He wrestled with his vexation, knew it was necessary to dominate it long enough to obtain the information he desired from Terzini’s revitalized flunkies.
Eugene stepped out of the patrol car and strode to the entryway. He opened the unlocked front door and stepped across the threshold. He quickly scanned the room only to find Kevin and his drudges seated on mistreated but clearly expensive furniture with cans of beer in
their hands. The scent of marijuana filled the air along with a milky layer of smoke that clouded the area surrounding the couches. All three had been bruised and badly beaten. Kevin sat with his leg elevated and a bag of frozen peas sat atop his knee. The display was contemptible.
He did not move right away, rather he looked upon the pathetic humans with disgust. The three of them sat ingesting as much poison into their bodies as was possible. They had been cloned with additional strength and speed but without augmented cognitive capacity therefore they were as wretched as the rest of humankind, and a waste of his maker’s talent. His frustration began to mount.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Eugene demanded.
The three of them looked up shocked. Their eyes, reddened and bleary from the alcohol and marijuana, widened. Recognition registered on each drug-clouded face. There was no doubt in his mind they remembered him, remembered how he murdered them just five short months ago in the wooded area behind their school.
He also detected a vague sense of comprehension flash across their dazed expressions, like it had just dawned on them that they had failed to fulfill that which they were ordered to carry out. His maker had recreated Kevin, Chris and John with one purpose: to root out and terminate both Gabriel and Melissa; Terzini had been emphatic when detailing his instructions to them. Yet, both Gabriel and Melissa lived.
Eugene suppressed a wicked grin as he appreciated their confusion and attributed it to what they obviously perceived as his premature arrival. They had not yet showcased their incompetence to Terzini, had no reason to anticipate his appearance, but now he stood before them glowering at their ineptitude, their futility.
Soon, however, shock was replaced with dread, and fear. He watched as each carotid artery began beating wildly on their respective necks. He began to smell their terror.
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