Chapter Five
Morning again.
It always seemed to be morning. Kyle always woke up in the mornings. He wasn’t up for very long, but he was up for mornings. They all seemed to be exactly the same.
A sort of routine seemed to have developed since Kyle had awakened from his coma. At six or seven in the morning, Kyle woke up for a shower and breakfast consisting mostly of toast. There were other things in the house to have, but for some reason, nothing appealed to him, and he ate at least toast to get his mother off of his back about not eating. After breakfast, he went back up into his room and read a book for several hours. He never thought he would spend his summer rereading every book he owned, but that was how it was looking. Or, he would do his homework assignment he had for the summer, but that only took three days to do, start to finish (it’s amazing what one can do when one has nothing else to do). Afterwards, he would just take a nap at about five, which turned out to be him going to bed for the day. If Jules and Justin came over, he would stay up and enjoy their company while they were there, and then go to sleep. Two weeks had passed in this manner.
He was always tired. Probably because every day there was another episode with his marks, which he decided to call them energy vessels. He called them this because that’s what they did. The name fit them. Somehow or another, he was carrying and radiating some kind of energy. Glasses and metals began to vibrate when he reached out for them; lights would flicker slightly when he got close enough, and they perpetually glowed softly; it may not always be noticeable, but they never stopped glowing. There was no other explanation for it.
But he still couldn’t figure out why did they grew, and why it caused him pain when they did. Three different doctors in two weeks, one actually coming to their house, had no answers, so, to Kyle’s great relief, his mother stopped taking him to them, and probably lost her trust of them altogether.
But the vessels continued to grow, and now, two weeks after he had woken from his coma and four after the incident that gave them to him, they were now close to reaching his elbow. They wrapped all the way around his arms like snakes strangling their prey, crossing paths as they moved. No new ones sprouted from the original vessels on his palms. He had only felt one episode like the first after the first one in front of the twins, and that happened to be in the middle of the night five nights ago. It woke him up, which is what annoyed him the most, and right after a great dream. He was so exhausted from the spasm that he didn’t wake up until one in the afternoon the next day.
But the little ones came daily, yet there was no way to predict when they would strike. Sometimes it would be right as he woke up, right before he went to bed, or even during meal times. He could always count on having at least one every day, but how many he would have in a day was impossible to tell. The record so far was four in one day, and he was so sore he didn’t leave his room that day at all, except to relieve his bladder when needed. For the first few days, he tried to keep count of them all, but soon gave that up after the first week. They never lasted more than a minute, though, and for the most part, he could just shrug them off and go on with his day.
Kyle didn’t know how to think about all of this. It was scary to think about what all of this could mean. All of this happened just because he touched that alien. Justin was able to touch him without being hurt, but what if he started hurting people by just being around them? He had no idea what was now inside him, and a part of him just wanted to hide until he figured that out. What if he would eventually need to be quarantined? Worse, what if he needed to be quarantined for hurting someone he cared about? So he stayed away from people. He avoided going out. He wouldn’t talk to his family or friends.
So it was morning again. Kyle dragged himself out of bed, grabbed something to wear for the day, as well as a fresh towel from the heap on his floor, which had become a mess the like of which was unheard of in Kyle’s room, and headed for the bathroom he and Sarah shared. Thankfully, no one answered when he knocked, so Kyle let himself in and locked the door behind him. As he did so, he noticed that the vessels were longer than he remembered when he went to sleep, their erratic yet organic paths now reaching just past his elbows. He realized he must have had another growth in the night; this had happened before, being part of the reason he stopped trying to keep track of how many spasms he was having. He didn’t bother turning the light on, but undressed and started to bathe. This was about the only practical use he could find for these vessels, that he would never need a flashlight ever again.
When he was dry and dressed, he went downstairs to get some breakfast. His parents were already gone for their respective jobs, his father policing the students who stayed at the university for the summer and his mother doing whatever summer jobs she had managed to procure for herself. Kyle’s mother stayed home from work for the first three days after Kyle woke from his coma, but after Kyle convinced her that he was going to be fine, she went back to work, but reassured that she was never more than a phone call away. If Kyle had told her about the spasms he was having, she’d probably never be three feet away from him. The one episode that she did witness at dinner one night Kyle was able to convince that it was him just being full, and quickly left the table; she never pursued the incident.
He ate his toast alone and in silence. Sarah was on the couch with her Nintendo DS. In a minute, he was done, cleared his space on the table, and sat down next to her on the couch.
It was the first time they had been alone together in four weeks, and hopefully nothing would go wrong like last time. She noticed him, and went back to her game as if it all was normal, except right as he sat down, her device started acting funny, flickering on and off.
“Sorry,” he said simply.
She looked at him in amazement for a second before saying “You’re doing all of it? All of the lights acting funny are because of you?”
He sighed, saying “Yeah, it’s all me. I can’t control it.” He raised his hand to eye level and inspected the vessels, now almost four inches long. “There is something funny about these things. They somehow affect everything they get close to.”
Without any warning, Sarah grabbed his left arm and jerked it toward her. Kyle nearly pulled back out of reflex, but his reflexes had dulled in the last few weeks due to his lack of activity and she had a tight grip on him.
She turned his arm over and back again several times, studying the vessels crawling up his arm. She ran her fingers across each of the extensions, all the way from his palm to where they stopped past his elbow.
“Whoa,” she said to herself quietly. “They hum, too.”
“They do what?” Kyle asked.
“I said hum. Check your ears,” she replied. She seemed to be hooked on this fact, since she still had a grip on his hand, and made no sign of letting go. “It’s like really soft; you can barely hear it.”
“Well,” Kyle said, “I’m happy you’ve found something about this to like. Can I have my arm back?”
She quickly released his arm, looking embarrassed. Kyle ignored it, though.
“So, is that all they do? Glow, hum, and ruin my game?” she asked.
“That’s about it,” Kyle said simply.
Sarah didn’t pursue the subject, and Kyle left to go to his room.
About an hour later, Kyle was upstairs reading a book and listening to his IPod when his door was suddenly thrown open. He looked up and over his shoulder to see Justin standing in his doorway.
He pulled his headphones off of his head and said, “Hey, Justin.” This was strange, considering Justin wasn’t the person to show up unexpected. And if Justin was here, that meant Julianne was probably there, too.
Justin’s usual greeting was traded in for, “Get your helmet. Jules has decided that you need to get out.”
Kyle looked at Justin, considering the implications of that statement. “What?” he said.
Justin replied, “We’re taking you to the mall. You need to get out of the house.”
br /> Kyle nodded, saying, “Ummm, no. I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Oh, come on,” he said. “You haven’t been out of this house in weeks. You’re looking as white as milk.”
“Hello,” Kyle said, now standing. “What about these,” he said holding his arms out, their soft luminescence showing in the darkened room.
“Well…,” Justin said, obviously thinking. Snapping his fingers, he said, “Put a long sleeved shirt on. That’ll hide them.”
Letting his arms drop, Kyle returned sarcastically, “Sure, I’ll put on a long shirt in the middle of summer in west Texas.”
“Oh, come on. I bet you won’t be the only one there wearing too much stuff.”
Kyle sighed. Justin wasn’t going to give up easily, and Jules probably wasn’t going to either. “Fine,” he said. “Just give me a minute.”
Justin pumped his fist in the air as he closed the door behind him. Kyle quickly dug out the lightest long shirt he had, a simple gray one. He slipped it on over his head. It would hide his arms well, but he would just have to be careful with his hands. He also dug his helmet out from under his bed, where it had developed a fine layer of dust. If this had been any other summer, Kyle would be out riding his bike every day, despite the heat. He had grown up in Texas; he was used to hot summers. You just learn to drink a lot of water. A lot. But Justin was right; Kyle hadn’t been out in weeks, and while wearing clothes clearly not for this type of weather, he would just have to be very careful. It wouldn’t be a long ride; Kyle had been riding his bike to the mall since he was twelve, always with someone else, of course.
He left his room and went downstairs, where Jules was waiting with Justin, both with helmets in their hands. Kyle held up his to show Jules, saying, “You win. Let’s go.”
Their bikes were left right by the door, while Kyle’s was in the back yard. They waited for him to go around to the back of the house, unlock it from the back porch and get back. After securing his own helmet, filling water bottles, and sending a text to Kyle’s mom telling her where they were going, they were off.
From Twin Oaks, the road they lived on, they turned left on Lynbrook, and a right when Lynbrook met Tanglewood. It was a long ride on Tanglewood, and Kyle had to stop twice to get a drink. Jules and Justin were very understanding, and Kyle was now figuring out just how blessed he was to have such good friends.
They rode Tanglewood until it met 42nd street, of which the Music City Mall was just across from them. Since it was the middle of the day, the road was relatively clear, but Kyle still pushed the button on the traffic light pole for it to change. When the red hand changed to green, they quickly rode across six lanes of open road to the mall.
They crossed the parking lot until they were in front the door with the neon MGM Ice sign over it. They chained their bikes to the bench next to the door and walked in.
It was cool enough that Kyle might have needed the longer shirt. The MGM Ice maintained an ice rink all year long, keeping this part of the building close to seventy degrees for the most part of the year, although no one was using it as they were there. There were bleachers next to the rink, and many small restaurants lined the opposite wall, and small tables around all of them.
They all went to one that specialized in massive corndogs. Kyle and Jules each got one corndog while Justin got two for himself, and they ordered two big things of fries, but unlike traditional fries, these were cut to the thickness of potato chips. It took only a minute for the food to be ready. They sat at one of the tables and ate their food.
Jules was the first to break the ice. “So how are you holding up, Kyle?”
Kyle thought for a minute before speaking. “I guess I’m alright. It hurts when they… uh… grow. But otherwise, I guess I’m alright.”
Justin asked, “So is that all they do?”
It was so much like Sarah’s question this morning; Kyle repeated his answer from when she asked.
“No, they don’t do anything else.”
“Oh, come on,” Justin said. “That can’t be it.”
“Oh, yeah,” Kyle said, getting annoyed with all of the questions about the vessels. “They also screw around with all of the electronics in our house. I’m in pain for most of the day, I hardly eat anymore, and I’m obviously very much out of shape, more so than I was originally. Also, I… and here we…go…a-…g…….”
He was having another episode, but this one was different. Instead of a throbbing pain, it was longer and continuous, and much more intense. Kyle slipped out of his chair and started to scream. He had no idea what was going on around him, only that he was on the floor and no one was trying to get close to him. The vessels were glowing brighter than they ever had. Brighter and brighter they grew, and with them the pain; pain beyond anything Kyle had felt since the incident. His body twisted and bent in very uncomfortable positions, but he was unable to control himself; His throat hurt for how much he screamed. Then, it started to die down. Slowly, but surely, Kyle regained his senses back.
The first thing he noticed was that a crowd had begun to gather around them. Several people were on cell phones, but all of them were staring at him unblinking. Then, Jules got into his main field of vision. Her mouth was moving, but Kyle couldn’t hear a word. His arms hurt, but that didn’t stop him from pushing the sleeve of his right arm as far as it would go. His hearing was coming back as he heard the distant sound of sirens coming. Someone had called an ambulance, but doctors weren’t any good in Kyle’s situation.
He couldn’t believe that had just happened. The one time he goes out, and he can’t just have a good time with his friends without having a seizure in public. He was embarrassed and angry. How could this have happened? Why, of all people, him? What did he do to deserve this? And why did people have to gather to watch him writhe on the floor?
The crowd was dead silent as they all watched him push his sleeve up. Past his elbow, the vessels had grown probably three inches. Great, he thought to himself. He quickly pulled the sleeve back down before the crowd could close in, and got up and started walking to the door before anyone could stop him.
People got out of his way as he made a bee-line for the door. Good, because he felt like going off on the first person who got in his way. He almost prayed for someone to try to stop him, just so he could lose control. He could feel that someone was following him, but he didn’t stop to see who it was. He quickened his pace as the last person between him and the door wisely changed course to avoid him. Once outside, he put his helmet back on and was unlocking his bike when he heard Jules and Justin try to get his attention.
“Wait,” Jules pleaded. “Where are you going?”
“Home,” Kyle answered simply without even turning around to face her.
“Home?” Justin said. “After all of that?”
He turned on them, and Kyle saw them jump. Annoyed, and without blinking he said, “Yes, home. Where I will likely rot away or this alien infection will just kill me. I hope it does before I’m given another opportunity to go off in front of people again. I’ve been in pain ever since I woke up from that coma. What do you know? Obviously no one has any idea what is going on, and it’s not like that thing I touched is coming here to explain itself, and I bet that a doctor is on that ambulance coming, and I’ll further bet that after looking at me, he’ll have nothing close to an idea of what is wrong with me! So, yeah! I’m going home; I’m going back to my room, and I’ll probably die in there, so unless you have some other way to humiliate me in a public place again, good bye, and just leave me alone forever!!”
They were hurt; Kyle could see that as he turned away. Justin was more of a surprised hurt, while Jules seemed to be on the verge of tears. Neither of them moved until Kyle rode off.