Going Through the Change

by Samantha Bryant

  Jumpy, restless, and fighting a growing feeling of unease, Jessica wandered to a table off to the side of the lab. When she’d been held prisoner, she hadn’t been able to see this table well, but she knew it was where Dr. Liu kept the green gems she had been so intent on. She reached in her pocket and touched the one she had stolen. It was warm to the touch, and Jessica could have sworn it vibrated in her hand. Maybe she was just nervous.

  The wall above the table had a series of pictures pinned to it. They featured different views of the inside of the body, focusing on different systems. They were rather like the illustrations in an anatomy textbook. Jessica couldn’t glean anything from them. She was getting tired of not understanding what was in front of her or even what was happening to her.

  She had almost turned away when something glinted on the worktable, catching her eye. She moved a pestle and mortar to one side and revealed a small stash of the greenish crystals. Jessica picked up the stone and held it to the light. It was beautiful, translucent, and almost glowing. There were three large pieces of it on the worktable. Jessica pocketed them. Something about them just appealed to her. Besides, Cindy Liu owed her.

  inda shifted again. Guard duty was turning out to be pretty dull. But she knew Patricia was right. Of the three of them, Patricia was the best suited to dig through the papers and files and find the useful stuff quickly.

  But still, watching the spiders spin webs on the creaky old staircase was growing old quickly. Linda almost wished someone would come, just so she’d have something to do. She was restless. Plus, she was hungry. Her new body seemed to require a lot more food than her old one. The salad she’d prepared for dinner had been delicious, but now, her stomach was growling like a bear. Linda remembered how hungry her brothers had always been growing up. Her mother used to fuss about how it was like feeding an army, even as she hummed her way through the hours of baking and cooking. Linda had inherited a love of cooking from her.

  Linda was pulled out of her daydream about ropa vieja and fresh homemade tortillas by a squeak in the floorboards above. She leaned her head into the lab, whistling softly. Jessica jumped but then nodded and moved to Patricia’s side. When Linda turned back, she was face-to-face with a very young Asian woman who had to be Cindy Liu.

  The girl jumped back at the sight of Linda. “Who are you?” she asked. “What are you doing in my laboratory?”

  Linda gulped and then stood up taller, showing her full height. “We don’t want any trouble.”

  “We?” Dr. Liu stretched her neck, trying to peer past Linda into the open door behind her. Linda moved to fill the gap. “Who else is with you?” Dr. Liu’s tone was demanding and shrill.

  Maybe it was a trick of the light, but Linda would have sworn Cindy Liu now looked as young as one of her own daughters. She knew Cindy Liu was twenty years her senior, but the woman on the staircase, staring her down, looked twenty-five at the oldest. Patricia hadn’t been kidding.

  Just then, Patricia stepped up behind Linda and cleared her throat, cuing Linda to move. She tried to position herself so she could watch Patricia and Dr. Liu at the same time. She didn’t see Jessica. She wanted to go look but didn’t want to leave Patricia unprotected, either. She stayed where she was.

  “Patricia! Where did you go the other day? I was so worried about you!” Cindy’s voice was solicitous, but the kindness didn’t touch her calculating eyes. She moved down two more stairs, stretching out her arms like she might embrace Patricia, but Linda stepped up and moved the bat in her hand just enough to call attention to it.

  “That’s close enough,” Linda said.

  Patricia didn’t acknowledge Cindy. She put a hand on Linda’s shoulder. “We’ve got what we need. Let’s go.”

  “You heard the lady. Go back up the stairs.” Linda poked Cindy with the bat. It was a gentle touch, but she still reacted like it was painful. The flash of rage in her dark eyes worried Linda, but she wasn’t going to let it show. She jabbed the bat toward the top of the stairs. “Go,” she said, pushing her voice low to sound more threatening.

  Cindy Liu compressed her mouth into a thin line. But she obeyed. In her stiff back, Linda could see the angry and difficult woman who had upset the elder Mrs. Liu all those years. Linda remembered the worry in the old woman’s face whenever she talked about her Cindy. She was worried her daughter might do something really awful one day. “She just doesn’t understand that other people are people,” she’d said, wringing her hands in her lap. “She is like her father that way. Heartless.”

  At the time, Linda had written it off as an anxious mother venting, but now, she wondered if the old woman had been right. After all, Cindy seemed to think it was okay to inject Jessica with something that knocked her out and then confine her to a glass tube in the basement to run tests without permission. Who knew what she would do to the rest of them given the opportunity?

  Linda still wanted to ask about Jessica, but something told her to keep her mouth shut. She would just have to trust that Patricia had taken care of her. As if she could hear Linda’s thoughts, Patricia silently held out her hand for Linda to see when Dr. Liu was not looking. In it was a tan weight band―one of Jessica’s ankle weights. Linda nearly gasped aloud. Patricia narrowed her eyes and shook her head to silence her, and then pulled out the other ankle weight before handing both to Linda. Linda shoved them into the pockets of her jeans for safekeeping and said a silent prayer that the other two women knew what they were doing. Jessica was untethered.

  Linda pictured Jessica hovering in the rafters of the lab behind them and wondered what plan Patricia had made for getting her out of there. They couldn’t just leave her. She wished she felt a little more sure that she could trust Patricia to act in everyone’s best interest.

  At the top of the stairs, just as Dr. Liu stepped around the corner, Patricia suddenly shoved Linda forward. “Get down,” she shouted.

  Linda, startled, toppled forward, the baseball bat skittering away across the hardwood floor. She caught herself on her hands and knees, just as a burst of fire scorched the wall where she had been standing, leaving it charcoaled. Linda felt a wave of heat go past her in a burst of wind that ruffled her hair.

  Quickly moving into a crouch, Linda threw herself into the living room, aiming for a large, flowered armchair she remembered. Her aim was good. She landed behind the chair, which immediately burst into flame. She shoved at the chair with her boots, pushing it away from her and trying to stay hidden behind it at the same time. Where was the fire coming from? The chair was smoking now, a horrible black smoke that made Linda want to gag. She crawled on her belly toward the window.

  “Call off your watchdog, Cindy,” a voice demanded.

  The voice sounded strange, but Linda knew it had to be Patricia. Was the smoke getting to her? If she had to, she could carry Patricia out of there, she was sure. After all, she had carried a piano. Linda crouched on her toes behind the couch, trying to see what was going on.

  The sight on the other side of the room would have knocked her over if she weren’t already on the floor. Patricia had transformed into her dinosaur shape. Linda thought she looked even larger than she had when she had shown what she could do in Linda’s garden.

  Patricia was facing a woman Linda didn’t recognize. She was short and round, probably in her early sixties, with stiff blonde hair that stood out around her head like it wasn’t actually hers. She wore a pair of black capri pants and a billowing white blouse with pink high top sneakers. That wasn’t the strangest part, though. The woman was standing with her hands out to her side like a waitress balancing trays. In each of her hands was a rotating ball of fire. Her face was a mask of mad glee that made Linda sick to her stomach. That woman wanted to hurt someone.

  Cindy Liu stood behind the fire-juggling woman, coolly examining her nails, as if she couldn’t be bothered by the chaos happening around her, as if it were all commonplace.

  “What are you doing in my house?” she asked, her voice quiet, calm,
and somehow threatening. She might not look scary, but Linda knew looks could be deceiving. Cindy was definitely scary. She wasn’t concerned about who might get hurt so long as she got what she wanted.

  Watching her, Linda had the feeling Cindy might well want to hurt someone, too. Patricia was so sure Cindy was good at heart. Linda didn’t know about her heart, but, outwardly at least, Cindy was the gasoline to the other woman’s fire.

  Patricia spread her hands in a gesture of supplication. It was less than convincing, given that her hands looked more like claws, and her fingers ended in talons that could eviscerate anyone who got too close. “I was just looking for information about this.” She gestured to her own body. “I want to know what you did to me.” Linda thought Patricia had growled as she spoke. The fire-woman must have thought so, too, because the balls of flames in her hands grew larger.

  Linda decided it was time to make her move. As quietly as she could, she moved to the end of the couch, where she had a clear shot at the fire-wielding woman. She moved into a crouch like a football player. Before she could talk herself out of it, she ran toward Cindy and the fire lady, yelling, “Get out of here, Patricia!”

  atricia didn’t move. She stood there open-mouthed watching Leonel hurtle himself at Helen. What was he thinking? The woman could throw fire! He was going to get himself burned. Idiot!

  Acting quickly, she leaped into the air, lunging toward Cindy and Helen. She cleared the short end table easily, but knocked over the other armchair with her elbow. The chair landed in Leonel’s path, and he tripped, flying straight toward Patricia.

  The next thing she knew, Patricia was sprawled out on the ground. She sat up. The room was becoming thick with smoke. They had to get out of there before the police and firefighters arrived. “Leonel!” she called.

  “Here!” He was behind her. She moved to his side and helped him sit up. His forehead was bleeding. He wiped the blood from his eyes, leaving a grisly smear across his cheek and coughed. “Where are they?” he asked.

  “There, by the wall. I think Helen is knocked out. We have to get out of here before she wakes up and tries to torch us again!” Patricia tugged at Leonel’s arm, but he remained stubbornly seated.

  “Where’s Jessica?”

  “She’s fine! I sent her out the window. She’ll be waiting in the tree outside the lab, around back.” Leonel was still sitting on the floor. Patricia stood and reached to tug him to his feet. “Come on! The fire is spreading. We’ve got to get out.”

  Leonel coughed into his sleeve and then pointed at Cindy and Helen’s limp bodies. “We can’t just leave them here. They’ll die!”

  Patricia hated it when she had to admit someone else was right, but Leonel was right. She took a deep breath and ran over to Helen’s inert body. The smoke was thicker over there. She struggled to move the fat woman, but she was just too heavy. Patricia could see Cindy trapped beneath the large woman’s body. “A little help?” she yelled.

  Leonel appeared at her side. He knelt and scooped up Helen easily. “Where?” He coughed, eyes streaming.

  “Outside!” Patricia’s lungs were starting to burn. She thrust her arm out toward the door. Oddly, her vision stayed clear. She wondered if her scales had come with some kind of protection for her eyes as well. That could be handy.

  Leonel moved quickly toward the front door. It was closed, and his hands were full, so he kicked the heavy wooden door with one booted foot. To Patricia’s surprise, the door fell forward, pulling the police tape with it as it fell onto the front porch like a drawbridge.

  Patricia tossed the limp body of Cindy Liu over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry, leaning forward to avoid spearing her on one of her back spikes, and followed Linda and Helen out of the hole where the door used to be. They staggered down the steps and collapsed at the edge of the lawn. Patricia flopped Cindy down, resting her head against Helen’s prone form. Both of the unconscious women seemed to be breathing.

  Patricia sat on her haunches, looking out at the street in front of them. She could hear distant sirens. Neighbors were starting to come out of their homes. Leonel was throwing up into the garden bed. Patricia tried to calm herself down. She hadn’t worn the opera cape. There was no way to hide her condition. She needed to calm herself so her scales could retract, or the sight of her was going to start a mass panic.

  When he finished throwing up, Leonel sat back on his heels. “Jessica!”

  Patricia’s eyes flew open. She had entirely forgotten the other woman. Leonel was on his feet with astonishing alacrity. He was already running around the side of the house by the time Patricia found her feet and pursued him.

  She found her partners in the backyard. Leonel had just pulled Jessica down into his arms. It was hard to tell if the tears streaming down his face were from relief or from smoke damage. They left sooty tracks down his cheeks. Glancing back at Patricia, he pulled the ankle weights from his pockets, strapped them onto Jessica, and then gently lowered her to the ground.

  “What took you so long?” Jessica asked, rubbing her arms. They were visibly shaking.

  Patricia felt guilty for leaving her to cling to the tree so long. The smoke hadn’t harmed her. She could have gotten to her sooner.

  “We ran into some trouble,” Leonel said, shooting another meaningful look at Patricia.

  Patricia snorted. “I’ll say.” Trouble in the form on an inept and uncooperative man named Linda-Leonel. She kept the thought to herself for the moment. Right now, the important thing was to get away from there without having to confront the authorities. “We’ve got to get out of here. I don’t want to explain to the police and fire department what we’ve been up to tonight.”

  The three women quietly joined the perimeter of neighbors and gawkers gathering. Though Patricia’s feet were bare, her clothing torn, and Leonel’s face was bloodied, they managed not to attract much attention. There were others with injuries, and most people focused on the rising flames in front of them. Patricia’s head swiveled. No one seemed to be paying attention to them. That was good.

  A quick glance at the yard revealed an empty lawn. Helen and Cindy must have regained consciousness and slipped away. That was probably bad. At least they had gotten what they came for. Jessica still had the small backpack Patricia had filled with papers and the hard drive she had stolen.

  Jessica tugged at Patricia’s arm. “Is there anything in Dr. Liu’s lab that might explode?” Her eyes were wide and fearful. Patricia reviewed the lab in her mind’s eye quickly. There were tanks along the east wall. Of what, she didn’t know. Who knew what was on her lab shelves? She nodded to the other two.

  “We’ve got to get these people away from here!” Jessica shouted.

  All three women stood, still thinking.

  Suddenly, Patricia grinned. “I’ve got this one.” She turned away from the crowd for a moment, her body a strange ripple in the darkness. Her reptilian face fully on view, she thrust her claws at Jessica and said, “Now scream!”

  elen crouched in the bushes of the house across the street, the still unconscious body of Dr. Liu beside her. The homeowners were out in the street, gawking like all the other neighbors. They should be safe for a few minutes. There was time to catch her breath and figure out what the next step should be.

  Helen was fuming. In fact, her palms were still red as coals, and her entire body was putting off steam. When she moved her hands, she saw she had burned handprints into the grass they were resting in. She burned a wider swath of grass and patted it out with her hands, trying to make it less obvious.

  She checked Cindy again. She was breathing, though she sounded asthmatic. Helen, of course, was unharmed by the smoke and fire, but she worried Cindy would suffer lung damage. She knew better than to seek medical attention, which came with other kinds of attention as well. Attention they didn’t need. She would wait for Cindy to wake and find out what she needed.

  Patricia O’Neill. Helen had known she was trouble when she first laid eyes on he
r. She’d been right. If only Cindy would have listened to her, they might have avoided all this. Cindy had insisted Patricia was an old friend and would do them no harm, that there was no need to seek her out. Helen had bowed to her wishes. After all, Cindy was the genius.

  Old friend, indeed. Old was right―that woman had to be at least sixty-five―but she was no friend to Cindy. Helen itched to get back out there and fight, but she knew Cindy was in no shape to take them on. She knew she herself would be bruised and sore as well when the adrenaline wore off. So, she sat down and waited, watching the chaos through the shrubberies that shielded them from view.

  She saw it when Patricia and the man reappeared at the side of the house. They both had protective arms around a small blonde that had to be Jessica Roark. The big guy had been calling her name when he got back up after the fight. Patricia had told him Jessica was all right. Jessica, she remembered, was the blonde girl who had come to Dr. Liu for help and then left the lab in a mess and called the cops, claiming she’d been kidnapped. Cindy had just been trying to help. Jessica hadn’t even let her explain.

  She watched the large man with special interest. Patricia had called him Leonel. This had to be the same man who had broken the stasis tube in the basement laboratory and taken Jessica away the day she had first laid eyes on Patricia. Who was he? Cindy said she had no idea. Jessica had a husband, but clearly, this wasn’t a marketing executive stalking across the lawn, hair flowing behind him like some kind of god. Cindy had said Jessica was an only child, so he couldn’t be her brother, either. Could he be her lover? How had he tracked Jessica down to break her from the tube?

  The tube had been made of industrial polymers. Cindy said it could have withstood explosive charges, yet, he had broken the glass, and they didn’t find any evidence he had used anything other than his bare hands. Not to mention what he had done to the door, the door that was as heavy as a bank vault seal. What gave this man such incredible strength?