Chapter 2: One Step Closer

Crackles of sunshine began to pierce through his eyes’ shutters. The scientifically crafted creature’s eyelids flapped about once or twice before his countenance winced at the pain of the radiant sun’s rays. He groaned as he used his hand as a makeshift shade to protect his night inclined eyes.

He almost couldn’t believe where he woke up. Outside, the world had so much colour. Being trapped in that white box, he nearly forgot what colour was. It was a minor thought, if anything. He could sit around admiring the world for as long as he wanted, but it wouldn’t get him any closer to freedom. He needed to find somewhere to lay low, or some far away Valhalla to take him in, but for all he knew the town was the only civilization for miles.

The man began to slither toward the peak of the roof, spying over the neighborhood that he was thrust upon. There were many buildings, ones of similar structure to the one he was residing on. His vantage point was not the greatest, but he could see quite a ways away. Nothing within sight would be of much use to him, in fact he might not be able to move anywhere considering that he would stick out like a demon among mortals. Not to mention that his attire made him seem like he just recently escaped from a hospital bed.

He might have to stake out until night for his first prowl into town, though he predicted that he might spend a lot of time getting lost. He wasn’t exactly sure where to go. He guessed that hitchhiking onto another truck would bring him somewhere farther away, which was a safe gamble, but no matter how many cities he could jump around to he would always have to hide. He was the only one of his kind, on top of that, no one knows he exists, nobody except the scientists. He had no clue how the world would react to him. If it was the same reaction that they had to augmented humans all those years ago, then he wanted no part of that.

Perhaps there was somewhere in the world where humans didn’t touch, a safe haven from the world. Russia came to mind. He remembered the tragic history of that country, though the radioactive wastelands were not exactly the most welcoming of landscapes. There was also the factor of a giant body of water in between him and that location. He wasn’t exactly the worst swimmer, but even that was too great of a travel for him to consider. Perhaps he could sneak on a boat, but he would need to find a boat first. He had no clue where the nearest coast was.

With that in mind, his plan of action was-

‘Food’ his brain mumbled as his abdomen released a sudden pang of weakness. ‘Any sort of sustenance, it’s been days since we’ve last ate.’

“Where would there be food?” he quietly questioned himself as he scoped his surroundings once more. “The human houses must have something inside them…”

‘What about the one we are lying upon?’

“I… I don’t know if there’s anyone inside.”

As the man began to deduce his strategy of acquiring a meal, a car began to back out of one of the houses nearby. The creature flinched at the movement and slid a little farther down the roof to ensure that he couldn’t be seen. It was then that he hatched a plan. As soon as the vehicle left his sight, he scuttled to the other end of the roof and investigated the driveway. He committed the two machines to memory and retreated back to his previous hiding place.

“Two cars. The person across the street exited in a car, there was room for more, but she was the only one that left. There is still another car there, which means that there is someone left in that house. This house has two cars, which means at least two humans live here, right?”

‘What if there are children?’

“What do children do during the day?”

‘It’s called school isn’t it?’

“Yes, children go to school, they would leave with the adults, maybe? How many children can humans have?”

‘There’s a limit?’

“Dr. Miller had only one child. Maybe they can have more though…”

‘Is having more than one child against the law?’

“I think it should be, I don’t quite remember. They didn’t teach me those laws very well.”

‘They taught us those laws just as well as they did traffic laws.’

“I should wait for at least one person to come out before making further plans, shouldn’t I?”

‘Sounds logical.’

With that, the creature laid low and waited for something to happen. It took quite a bit of time before anything of significance took place. The first being to leave the house looked small, probably too young to own a house, but ‘twenty three’ didn’t know better. The boy took a couple steps outside the house and then waited at the sidewalk, standing still for an eerily long period of time.

“What is he waiting for?”

‘They know we’re here! The stripe boy is meant to be bait! Look at how afraid he is, he won’t even look this way. Don’t fall for the trap.’

“How could they know? I- I thought I was hidden up here?” the beast began to jitter nervously, that is until a large yellow bus came rolling in from down the street and allowed the striped shirt boy free passage. He quickly picked up on the symbol on the side of the vehicle that read ‘school’ and the fact that the transportation machine had more children on board.

“Oh, they collect their children in a big vehicle and bring them all to the same location. Clever.”

‘Yes, but how are we supposed to know how many people are inside now?’

“I think all children go to school, don’t they? That means that the owner of this house only has one child. That leaves two adults, doesn’t it?”

‘Sounds too simple to be right…’

“Two cars, two adults. Children can’t operate cars, right?”

‘Maybe?’

With that, the wait continued for another good half hour before a female walked out the front door and took off in one of the two cars. If ‘twenty three’ was correct in his hypothesis then there only remained one last human. Considering that the child had left and the woman came next, it would be likely to assume there was only a man left over.

Right on cue, a rather large and haggard bloke, with a mustache that most men could only dream to have, left the building. He did not take the last of the vehicles though, he merely walked down the street and to the fire department.

“Huh, well my theory was wrong…” he stated as he wiped his head.

‘Luckily he didn’t leave before we woke up. We go now?’

The unseen observer watched closely to make sure the man entered the other building and wasn’t looking back at his house. Once the man was securely out of sight, the creature began to make his move. “Yes” he whispered back to himself. It was about time too, the overabundant amount of exposure to the sun was giving him a migraine. It would’ve bothered him more if there wasn’t already so much on his mind.

He stealthily slipped off the edge of the roof and eased his way onto the back porch. He scanned the back of the structure for some kind of opening, but the only one he came across wouldn’t budge open. He didn’t want to tear up the place or give any evidence of his being there, especially when the owner of the house was a swift sprint away.

He dropped from the platform and snuck passed the side of the house, choosing the shaded side considering that it hid him better from both humans and the blistering ball of plasma in the sky. He inched his way to the front, peeking around the corner three or four times before he deemed it a safe bet to race toward the door.

‘So the plan. Food, catch another transport, keep riding transport until we reach the coast, catch a boat, keep riding boats until we get to the other side of the world, and somehow get to Russia.’

The one armed wonder clung to the door and began to twist the door knob and, surprisingly, it was not locked. In one swift motion, he zipped into the house and threw the door shut behind him.

“Yes” he murmured as he ventured into parts unknown.

If the outside world wasn’t a bizarre enough sight for the nomad, the inside world of the building was tenfold. Something as simple as the interior of the average household was completely foreign to him. Every step he took made him feel even more unwelcome than he already did. Pictures of a smiling family and infant humans were just a few examples. Strangely enough, some of the photos appeared to be slightly singed. It was curious, but the beast didn’t want to linger.

He continued to wander through the building as though it were a maze, clinging to the walls and keeping track of where he last was. Finally, his bare feet encountered the cold tiles of the kitchen. The counter, sink, and fridge were enough to tip him off that he was in a more familiar territory.

‘Eat everything’ his mind had suggested.

The creature started with the fridge. The light within the appliance attempted to ward off the demonic behemoth, but he still managed to fight off its radiance and snatch the milk carton as though it was a holy idle and popped it open in order to investigate it through smell and sight. Once it was determined safe, he ingested its contents without any further hesitation. It served its purpose of quenching his thirst, so he threw the empty box back in place and began to search the cupboards for other snacks.

Meanwhile, a very groggy looking young girl entered the scene. She wore a thick and fuzzy set of pyjamas with what looked to be a hockey mask on the midsection. Regardless of how her attire looked, she herself seemed to be half asleep as she moseyed on into the kitchen. Her shrunken eyes were so squinted it was difficult to determine whether they were open at all, not that the creature could tell, the squat young lady was hardly making a sound as he unwittingly continued to scavenge through the lower cupboards.

Almost like it were routine, she immediately went toward the fridge and popped it open. The mere creak of the door was enough to tip off the creature what was going on, and for whatever reason he thought that not moving a muscle would somehow assure that he avoided detection.

The girl lazily sought out the dairy product and with it her shoulders sulked and a sigh left her lips. “Goddamn it, who keeps putting the empty carton back in the fridge…” the agitated youngster moaned as she closed the fridge door. It was then that her weak little eyes noticed a crouched figure in the corner of the kitchen. A curious frown drooped on her countenance as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a rather large and thick set of glasses.

“Who the hell-” she placed the frames over her dull eyes “F**K A DUCK!” the young girl blurted as her gaze fell upon what should be the creature’s left arm. The metallic glimmer of the beastly blade that replaced his forearm reflected on the surfaces of her frames. She quivered and froze, unknowing of what to do, somehow making herself believe that if she stood still she would remain unnoticed.

Fortunately for her, ‘twenty three’ was just as terrified. The way that the kitchen was structured made it so that the tiny human was blocking his only mode of escape, and making any sudden movements toward her would most definitely trigger her to do something dangerous. He didn’t want to get himself locked into combat with a being that was without a doubt a foot or more shorter than him. So instead he hid himself behind the blunt side of his deadly body modification, of which the bulk of the metal was capable of hiding a good chunk of his body.

‘Idiot! The pictures! The pictures showed more than one infant! They’ll put us back in the box because of this! Do something! Silence her! Stop hiding like a coward!’

His heart began to rush, palpitating faster and faster as though it were to explode any second. His brain was too busy screaming at him to figure out a plan of action, so the only thing he could do was sob and wish that the human girl was just an illusion. Oh, did he hope that he was going insane. With his history it would be only par for the course.

The runty female soon caught on to the situation, showing a bit less fear toward the creature considering that it was basically huddled into a corner and balling his freakish animalistic eyes out. She was taken aback by the change of pace, though welcomed it more than having the creature ram his big metal pike through her.

Her brow raised and she took a few steps forth in a rather confident manner. “Uh, aren’t our roles supposed to be reversed here? Tiny weak girl crying in the corner while big scary guy looms over and laughs maniacally? Did you forget to attend Hollywood monster school?” She battered him with questions in a slightly curious manner.

The beast’s confusion ceased his whimpering for a brief moment as his face emerged from behind his makeshift shield. He sniffled a couple more times before he could muster any words. “W- what?” he quizzed, legitimately having no clue what she was talking about.

“Ah, okay okay, my bad. Hollywood Monster University, no need to get offended.” She stated sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

‘Is- is she making jokes? Are we sure she’s real? Try to touch her’ his inner voice attempted to deduce.

“Not a good idea…” he murmured back.

Her attempt at comedy seemed to have eased the tension of the situation, but it seemed by doing that she merely snapped the creature out of misery and thrusted him into confusion. Perhaps it was like those schlocky movies she watched, in that he didn’t understand most of her human terminology. “You know what school is right?” she questioned next.

“… Yes” the being answered though unsure of why the question was being asked of him.

The first theory was busted then. Although, he might have had an inferiority complex and answered yes so that he didn’t seem like an idiot. The monster was very peculiarly sensitive then, unlike anything the teenager had seen before.

“Then how come my joke wasn’t funny? What, you’ve heard it before?” she replied as she crossed her arms.

The beast’s eyes began to circle around the room. Nothing that the scientists had taught him prepared him for the situation. Quite frankly, he wasn’t sure how to answer her question. “Uh… No. I- I just didn’t find it funny…” he answered in an uncertain manner.

Her eyes squinted. “Alright, Mr. Comedy Critic, tell me a funny joke then” her voice oozed with sass.

The eyes of ‘twenty three’ bulged. It was one of the last scenarios that he had predicted to be in ever. The being scratched the back of his head as he attempted to conjure up some sort of humorous quip that would meet the girl’s demand. ‘It’s a trap! It has to be. For what reason would this human show us kindness? We are within her territory and we disturbed her resources in a manner that gave her displeasure. She must be hiding something from us, stalling us for whatever reason’ the brain irrationally warned.

“Preposterous” the beast muttered in response.

“Oh really? C’mon, I can wait here all day. Let’s hear it” the girl reassured as she sat on the tiled floor, crossing her legs in the process.

It was difficult to determine whether the kindness of the woman was setting the man at ease or not. His brain threw up as many red flags as possible, the only logical answer was that she was putting on a disguise to set him at a false sense of security. Although, he wanted to believe her motives to be legitimate, it would be convenient to have an ally in the outside world.

He lowered his metal barrier and sat in a more proper position. He absently wiped away the liquids on his face and began to clear his throat. “Okay, um… Knock knock” the monster released.

The woman’s arms disengaged with one another and a bit of a brighter smile grew on her face. “Oh my god, you can tell f*****g knock knock jokes? Okay, I’ll bite. Who’s there?” she answered ecstatically.

“Uh, me I guess?”

“Uh, me I guess, who?”

“…Me?”

“…”

“I don’t quite understand how this works…”

“Goddamn it.”

The girl laughed to herself for a moment and then peered back at the abomination. “Alright, we can work on that. Speaking of which though, what is your name?” she continued curiously.

“Project twenty three B” he spoke without any hesitation, as though he had to rehearse that phrase several times over.

The lass’s face contorted in a rather puzzled manner. “Okay, what you said right there isn’t really a name. You just spouted a number and a letter. My name’s Sandra, do you have a name that’s like that? You know, something that doesn’t remind me of a math equation?” She spoke easily, but it would seem that a dash of sass was included with her voice no matter what the tone was.

The creature had to think for a moment. He wasn’t sure if his creators had given him any other name. Most, if not, all the scientists referred to him as twenty three. On very rare occasions they might refer to him as B, but only for informalities. He supposed in the human world people had names like Sandra, so he might have to adapt and acquire one of his own. He thought on it for a good amount of time, but it ultimately came to the truck driver’s jacket and the better of his creators, Dr. Miller. “My human name is Miller” the newly named being spoke.

“Cool that means I don’t have to come up with a name for you. I was thinking you probably wouldn’t enjoy the name Slashy McStabberson” the girl mused to herself.

Miller felt uneasy about Sandra’s comment, something which was shown through his drooping lips and nervous eyes. He felt even more inclined to hide his blade behind his body to keep it out of view. “I- I don’t do either of those things. In fact, I’d prefer for you to ignore its existence.”

Sandra gave off a slight cringe at Miller’s discomfort. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ll try to avoid doing it on purpose, but sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain” she attempted to explain.

There was a brief period of silence between the two before the echo of a door slamming rung into both their ears. Miller’s eyes were quick to express the distress and Sandra had a feeling that whoever just returned home would not be so understanding of the beast that sat across from her. She hopped to her feet and swiftly signed for him to get a move on. She allowed the arm bladed being to take the lead and continued to shoo him through the hallway.

“Christ dude, who put you in that gown?” she whispered in disgust.

“It was punishment for disobedience” he answered in a quiet tone.

“Man, those guys must’ve done something way out of line.”

“What?”

“Keep going” she commanded as she shoved the large figure through her bedroom door, though being mindful enough to avoid touching his skin, and then scurried in herself, not forgetting to lightly close the door behind her to eliminate any suspicions.

The only bedroom-like area that Miller had ever been within before this point was his own, so normally he wouldn’t question the décor of most areas. He was going to chime in with Sandra’s room though.

All around the room there were large lamppost like objects, but they weren’t for light alone, there seemed to be heat radiating off of them. It was almost like he stumbled upon a lizard terrarium that was designed to house a teenage girl. The more he thought on it though, the more he wagered that might actually be the case. In addition to that, there was quite an impressive collection of films, all catalogued on shelves that lined around most of the walls. The only other item worth of note was her television that towered over her with ease and the bed facing opposite to it.

Miller didn’t quite have the time to muse over much more of the area considering that Sandra instantly came after him and began pointing to underneath her bed and yelling in the quietest manner possible for him to “get under the bed, get under the bed now!” Not only that, she was assisting him by pushing on him (again making sure she was touching the clothed part of his body), but it was a rather fruitless endeavour. It was like watching a beetle try to push a mountain out of its way.

The behemoth was having difficulties fitting himself underneath the structure, not knowing how to position his head to fit under the box spring. As he continued his attempts, there was a knock at Sandra’s door and the girl could already see the knob twisting, not before a gruff voice called out “pumpkin?”

If the emotion of nervousness was a person, it had just slapped her across the face. Her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped. There wasn’t a second to waste. “Dad! Don’t come in I’m masturbating!”

The moment after, time stood still, or at least it seemed like it had. Miller’s head slowly twisted over to Sandra, befuddlement was the only way to describe his expression. The girl replied to it with a shrug and a face that reeked of the saying ‘eh, it worked.’ She then proceeded to frantically signal him to get under the bed, going so far to kick his legs with a force that might bruise him if she repeated it about fifty more times.

“… Thanks for the warning this time…” the voice from the other side of the door awkwardly answered.

“Something up?” She quizzed, still trying to squeeze Miller under the bed as though she was trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

“Just… Saw the carton of milk on the ground and wanted to make sure everything was okay…”

“Oh that, yeah I got pissed because Gordy put it back in the fridge empty again. Slap him for me, will yah?”

“Sandra, your brother doesn’t do it on purpose.”

“Yeah, just like he doesn’t dump buckets of water on me on purpose either. If that a*****e does that one more time, I’m gonna punch him where it hurts, and you know that I know where that is.”

“He’s scared, Sandra. Don’t give him more reasons to be.”

“I don’t want to talk about this, dad. Don’t you have to go to work?”

“Sigh, yes. I forgot something. I’ll be back in a couple of hours, if you’ll be ready to talk, I’ll be ready to listen.”

“I’ll keep that in mind…” She trailed off as she heard her father’s footsteps walking away.

With the situation diffused, Miller ceased his attempts at slipping underneath the girl’s bed and slowly turned his attention toward her, almost feeling the tension that the mini maiden was going through despite the fact he had no knowledge of her quarrel. He offered her an expression of concern, and once she could sense his bulbous puppy dog eyes honing upon her she peered down at him only to flinch away a mere couple seconds later replying with “Gah.  Okay, I’m getting you something new to wear because goddamn they need to make those robes bigger.”

She swiftly scraped a blanket off the floor and tossed it the man. Miller slowly rose to his feet as he wrapped the fabric around his body, however, the outline of his blade was still quite visible.

Sandra dove onto her bed and offered him a seat on the comfy cushion. The two picked up where they left off and Miller gave a rather lengthy explanation of where he was coming from, which Sandra had a bit of a rough time following along since his way of speech was jumbled, long winded, and he had a tendency to mix around key events like he shuffled a deck of cards and pulled them out at random.

Once the beast got to his fourth or fifth run-on sentence, Sandra stopped him and thought on it for a moment. “Okay, so let me see if I got this right. Basically you were born in a test tube, and you were the twenty third attempt at creating a human through unnatural means, so what’s the ‘B’ part about?” she attempted to summarize the first bit.

“I was within the twenty third attempt. There were… five or six others, A through F… or G. I was the first to survive the birthing process, and the only one in my line.”

“And you were created to hunt the augmented humans since they inexplicitly returned?”

“I was created to for the sake of serving and protecting. I believe it was only a couple of years after the first augmented human was born that my kind were being conceptualized.”

“Okay yeah, ‘serving and protecting’, you said there was something about using lethal force?”

“Some augmented humans have the potential to be incredibly dangerous. When the time would call for it, yes I would be tasked to kill or maim them. I- I would prefer to do neither…”

“So they wouldn’t have you chase after, let’s say, a firefighter’s grandchild because they only resist fire, right?”

“If they were dangerous enough, maybe. They taught me all the augmentations that were given out almost half a century ago. They also taught me the statistics, such as the age range that new meta-humans were at and how to determine the possibility of a new one being born based on the heritage of the parents and whether or not their ancestors had altered themselves to perform their jobs better.”

“Ah, so that’s how genetics work? You know, if I become blind later in life then my children would be too.” She answered in a sarcastic manner.

“I don’t quite understand it either. They tried to teach me biology and I couldn’t quite follow. That’s how they told me in order to make it seem simpler to me. There’s probably more to it than that, but I couldn’t explain it to you. If that were the case, it still doesn’t quite explain how the augmented powers skipped a generation and suddenly re-emerged.”

“F*****g magic and miracles, dude. Life finds a way to be utterly confusing.”

“Indeed”

“Alright, let me see if I can get the last part. Fifteen year olds scare you, so you didn’t want to fight, you had a daring escape, and somehow you managed to get here.”

“To sum up, yes I suppose you are right… Life is a precious thing that I don’t understand. I would rather not be the destroyer of it.”

“Wouldn’t protecting humans from dangerous meta-humans make you a protector of life? Like, I get that you didn’t want to do the part of the job where you maim and kill, but you could just avoid doing that.”

“I wish not to fight. I’ve been trained to do so for all my life, but that doesn’t mean I would care to ever do it. I don’t want the responsibility of being a protector or a destroyer. I merely want freedom and to be left out of human conflict as a whole.”

“So what exactly do you plan to do? I mean, being free from conflict and whatever sounds cool, but what will you be doing with yourself?”

“I plan to escape to Russia and then live the same way that other animals on this planet do.”

The sound of Sandra’s radiating heat lamps buzzing in the background was the only noise in the room for a good while. The face of the girl reached a state of dumbfound matched by no other. “… Okay, um. I have several questions” she stated as she adjusted her seating. “First, how the hell are you going to get to Russia? I really doubt they’ll let you on a plane with that big honker on your arm, you know among many other things. Second, Russia is a goddamn wasteland and you’ll probably die to radiation exposure not long after you arrive. Not to mention that if you decided to live like an animal there, you’ll end up eating something toxic and dying quicker.”

“It’s been a couple of decades since the incidents in Russia, the radioactivity has to have died down by now”

“So, your creators were able to teach you chemistry, but not biology?”

“…Well no. I just heard one of them talking about it before and saying something along those lines…”

“Which means you don’t know if it’s safe to go there.”

“Well, some people do live there…”

“And they’re f*****g out of their minds.”

“Perhaps…”

“Look, you can stay here. I’ll raise my bed a little so you can actually fit under there, I’ll get you some real clothes, though you’ll still stick out like a sore thumb with your… well with your everything. You can stay here for as long as you need, or at least until the government or CIA figures out where you are and I get arrested for housing… would you be considered a fugitive?”

The mere mention of being caught made Miller a bit too nervous to even speak, so his eyes just wandered around as his teeth chattered absently in fear.

“Oh c’mon, it’ll be fun! Some swat team will be busting through my door and you’ll carry me on your back and then we move on to a chase scene where I spout one-liners while you try to escape the military! When it’s all over we’ll have a good laugh and hug it out. Maybe we can skip the hugging part, you know, the whole thing you didn’t want me to mention” she replied as she pointed to his sword arm.

It was clear that the topic of conversation did not ease Miller any more with Sandra’s elaboration. He knew the dangers she spoke of were very real and could happen, but he would prefer not to imagine those things coming a reality because it only made him think more on it and stress him out. For the time being though, her offer of assistance was handy, though strangely fearless for a person of her age.

“So, you know the dangers of keeping me?”

“Yep.”

“You aren’t afraid?”

“Hell no, you are in the one place that absolutely no one would want to look. Even if someone traces you to my house, I don’t give a f**k. Besides, this is the best stakeout spot you could ask for. You got an endless supply of movies to watch and you’ll be nice and warm while watching them!” she advertised as she sprung off her mattress and began sifting through her shelves of various films.

Miller’s eyes would’ve then wandered curiously to her implied heat lamps, but the small bit of light was bothersome, though that didn’t stop him from questioning “what are those for anyway?”

“Eh, I just get cold very easily. Hey, what do you want to watch? I can just pick randomly if that’s okay with you!” she excitedly questioned as she wandered over to her television set and pressed the power button.

As she wandered away, a freeze frame of a shark’s face breaching the water appeared on the large box’s screen. Miller slowly got out of his seat and approached the image, his eyes then curiously inspecting it. He looked back at Sandra and asked “What’s this?”

“Oh that, that’s a television, it shows images of stuff” she sort of nonchalantly answered, not exactly sure how to explain a television further than that.

“… I know what a television is. I mean on the screen.”

Sandra proceeded to turn around, unsure what he was babbling about until she got a glimpse of the light shining behind Miller. She lightly slapped her head and pushed away from her search through her shelves. “Oh yeah! I was having a movie marathon last night, I was beginning to doze off so I just sort of paused it and left it running. Whoops. Yeah, anyways, that’s what I was talking about, that’s called a moo-vee. It’s a thing you put in the TV and you can watch it.” It was after that point that she realised that she was absolutely horrible at explaining alien subjects to people.

“… I know what a movie is” Miller answered, his tone actually becoming a bit annoyed.

“M**********r, you’re going to have to explain to me just what kind of fish out of water you are so I don’t feel obligated to explain everything to you, because frankly I’m really bad at doing that. Maybe make a list of everything you know and then I’ll plan out my pop culture references accordingly” she joked and then signaled him to move away from the screen so she could see what it is he was curious about. “Okay, shark on screen. Do you know what a shark is?”

“Yes”

“Then what’s the problem here?”

“What movie is this?”

“Oh okay. This film, you probably haven’t heard about. It’s about a group of people hunting down a shark. It’s a really schlocky movie, but it has its charm. They make the shark do some crazy s**t.”

“How were they able to make the shark do things?”

“Oh, it’s actually a pretty cool story. Alright, so they had this mechanical shark, but when they put it in the water it malfunctioned and was basically garbage. The director didn’t know what to do, but at the time there was this big research boom on psychic links. So, instead of using their broken shark, they got a real shark and psychically linked it to one of the crew. Unfortunately after this movie the practice was outlawed, you know the same way augmentation was. So yeah, this is the first and only movie to use that technique.”

The impossible seemed to be met, Sandra was able to surpass the level of nervousness one man could handle. It wasn’t surprising that the one to break this world record would be Miller. The black eyed beast began to rattle as though the tectonic plates below him had crashed at light speed. His breaths grew more hectic as time went on, which quickly became an unhealthy habit.

Sandra cringed a bit, immediately sensing the errors of her way. With a swift sigh, the small simian subtly sidestepped towards the screen, shutting it off in order to prevent further hyperventilation. She met the guy about an hour ago and offered to him to stay as a house guest, if he died then her reputation as a hostess would plummet like the ratings for a slasher flick.

“Goddamn it” she muttered under her breath as she rushed to Miller’s side.

The being’s huffing and puffing was actually setting him off balance, rocking back and forth like a mighty tower threatening to fall over. Whilst Miller was attempting to fight off a stress induced coma, Sandra was poking her head around him trying to figure out how to calm him down. “Uh… It was a joke, dude! They actually just had fresh fish just off camera. They were lucky to find a shark that acted like a dolphin!”

It was too far passed the moment where she could’ve prevented his fainting. He fell flat on his face, the floor granting him a warm welcome. Sandra dug her hand into her rather short mess of hair, not exactly certain of what to do with the body. “Well, he’s definitely breathing, that’s a good sign. Thank god he didn’t land on his sword though, that would’ve been… less than desirable.” She knelt down beside the body, assessing the severity of the issue, in addition to calculating the mass of his lanky yet oddly muscular bodice.

“Sigh, you know it’s your own fault for asking about the movie. Seriously, it’s almost like you set this up so I had to find a way to fit your scrawny a*s under my bed” she sassed him as though he could hear her. Unsurprisingly, Miller added nothing to the conversation, so she got back on her feet. “Well, I guess I’ll go get some gloves…”

Author's Note

Here's the second chapter to this title. Just give it your honest opinion (and by that I mean I'm willing to give you cold hard cash (if you don't live two blocks down from me, we'll talk about shipment) to make me sound like a masterful genius).