CHAPTER TWENTY SIX - FORGET
B rocked himself as he clasped his knees to his chest while trembling upon the tiny bed. He didn’t know why he trembled, but he couldn’t stop. Strange, violent images flickered across his troubled mind and he could not understand where they were coming from. He knew they should mean something, but they didn’t.
He did not seem to recognise the room that surrounded him. It was almost completely bare apart from a small metal bed which had been covered in grey sheets. The walls were a depressing grey with a hint of blue, but in many places the paint had peeled away completely to show lumps of bare wall. It was better than the lab though. Here he wasn’t tied down or restrained and he had checked the place thoroughly to make sure that there were no needles or anything else that might harm him.
Marlowe had brought him in here earlier but now he was gone and B was left confused. He did not like being alone and he was aware of how empty his head felt and how sick he was at that thought. The only person he could think about clearly was Marlowe and obviously he had been with the scientist for a long time now. Strangely he could not decide how he felt about the man. Sometimes when he thought about him he was happy because Marlowe was the only person B ever really saw, apart from the guards he had encountered during his escape attempt. Behind that though, a part of his mind seemed to quiver and tremble at the thought of Marlowe. He recalled flashed of pain and his own voice screaming in pain. There was someone else as well who seemed to be drifting further and further away while calling his name. Had Marlowe separated him from someone? Or were the images just random thoughts that crossed his mind? Nothing was clear anymore. Nothing made any sense.
He closed his eyes. There were always two people waiting for him when he closed them. They would smile at him and sometimes he could even hear words, but now he could not even recall what they sounded like. His heat thumped loudly in his chest, silent to everybody but B. It was always beating fast and seemed to lurch unnaturally whenever he tried to remember anything. He could hear it screaming sometimes as if calling for him to remember everything that he had lost.
He sniffled slightly as he slunk to his feet and crossed over to the metal door that was a few short paces away. He pressed his hands up against the smooth surface and tried to slide it open, but it firmly refused to allow him to get out. Unlike the door in the lab, there was no panel for him to poke at.
He gave a cry as he threw his bruised hands against the door and then he screamed in rage as he hurled himself back down onto the bed, burying his head in his pillows. He felt like crying. He was a prisoner here in this room and nobody seemed to want to release him. He wept as he remembered his escape attempt and how close he had been to that door. He was convinced that if only he could have made it through, he would have been able to run away. He had been so close… maybe someone could have helped him find out what was happening to him if he’d made it through that door.
He rolled onto his back and stared at the cheap ceiling. “Why won’t you come and rescue me?” he whispered to no one but his own mental images of people from his past, who he felt sure he should know the names of. “I know you meant something to me. Why won’t you come?” He closed his eyes again and tears began to slide down his cheeks. Only yesterday he felt sure that he had known their names, but now they were only faces. “Who are you?” Maybe they were just random images from his dreams that had found their way to the surface of his waking thoughts.
He was suddenly aware of the tickling along his cheek and he placed his fingers to his face to feel the watery tear as it trailed down his skin. They were not going to come for him. He knew he had been here a while now. He could remember this place, but everything else before then had been washed away down a misty stream of forgetfulness.
He remembered the lab mostly, but his mind never allowed him to dwell on that place much. When he tried to think about it, he recalled flashes of pain and terror. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted to know what had happened there.
He stared down at his hands and flexed the fingers. He recalled what they had looked like as he’d snapped the neck of the guard. He felt nothing in his mind about that killing of that man and he felt sure that he should be feeling something. He could still remembered the anger that had burnt his blood, anger at the fact that no one seemed to care about him. The only person who ever came to see him was Marlowe.
His head snapped up as he suddenly heard the door whisk open and he smiled as he saw Marlowe. He was one of the people he saw when he closed his eyes, or at least B thought he was. He wasn’t sure. They looked so much alike…
“Marlowe!” he cried thankfully. He trembled as he clambered off of the bed and rushed over to him, but he was unsure of what to do next. He disliked being alone and he had been beginning to believe that everyone was just going to forget about him in this cold room, but now there was someone with him. He still felt unsettled whenever he looked at Marlowe though. Brief, jolting images of pain and anger seemed to screech across his mind and he found himself hesitating before he came any closer to him.
“B? How are you feeling?” Marlowe asked softly. A hand slithered out towards B and the teenager found his skin crawling as the hand pressed against his arm. He eyed it nervously and then pulled away slightly.
“I, um, I don’t know,” he said as his hands entwined about one another. “Um, I don’t like being alone.” The whole world seemed to be full of emptiness and when he was alone he wanted to scream so that someone could hear him and come running. However Marlowe’s presence did not have the desired effect of calming him. His muscles still felt hard and tense and his eyes darted agitatedly about the small room.
“B, we need to have a little talk,” Marlowe said as he sat down beside the teenager.
B’s eyes darted to him warily and he was aware of his body wriggling slightly. Slowly he inched himself a little further away from the scientist, still wandering why a part of him seemed to dislike him so intently. “What about?”
“You shouldn’t have tried to escape. I can’t have you doing that again or you might get hurt, even killed. I don’t want that.”
B could not help but want to escape though, even if Marlowe seemed to be the only person who cared about him. Something was desperately pulling at B’s body and screaming at him to get out of this place. He would escape eventually, even if he had to kill everyone in the building. “I’d kill them first,” he replied sulkily.
“People will not let you get out. Your room is heavily guarded now, especially now that we are aware of how much your strength has increased.”
B screwed his fingers up into fists and looked away from Marlowe. A growl was building in his throat and he wanted to scream. “I don’t want to stay here!” he spat as he thumped his hands upon the bed. “You can’t keep me here forever. I’m stronger and I won’t let you!”
“B!” Marlowe reached out and caught B’s hand before he could smash it down against the bed again. “You’re strong because I made you that way. I gave you some drugs to help you get better when you were ill and they have left some side effects, like abnormal strength. It won’t last forever.”
“You did not make me who I am!” B screamed as he yanked his hand away from Marlowe. “I am me, I am not your creation!” He jumped from the bed and then kicked the wall in front of him.
Marlowe remained seated calmly. “Violent urges and acts of aggressions are also side effects.”
Immediately B felt like screaming at him but the stubborn part of him was determined to prove that Marlowe was wrong. He bit down on his lip and folded his arms, his eyes flaming aggressively at Marlowe. ‘I am not suffering from fucking fucked up violent fucking side effects,’ he thought inwardly. He was just agitated because these people were holding him here while everybody else had abandoned him.
Marlowe sighed slightly. “We also need to talk about your mental abilities.”
“I’m not a nutcase!” B said sharply. “I don’t have any mental problems!” he felt the words screaming from his mouth in a blaze of fury. He was normal. He was just confused because his family had left him in the care of these strange people.
“I didn’t say mental problems,” Marlowe replied evenly. “You have developed some extraordinary abilities. You appear to be capable of telekinesis.”
B shook his head fretfully. He didn’t want any strange abilities. He wanted to be normal. He wanted to be able to remember what if felt like to be normal. He slumped down onto the bed, a safe distance away from Marlowe. “Why am I like this?” he asked faintly. “Why aren’t I normal?”
“It’s not your fault,” Marlowe said softly. “Your family didn’t treat you very well - ”
“No!” B screamed as his head shot up to glare hatefully at Marlowe. “They loved me! They loved me and they are coming back for me! They wouldn’t hurt me! You’re the one who did this!”
Marlowe shook his head. “You’re confused, B. I helped you. I looked after you. You remember me looking after you don’t you?”
B hesitated. He had a lot of memories about Marlowe. Marlowe was the only one who came to him and brought him food. He placed a hand to his head, not comprehending. He felt like he should be closer to Marlowe but he was so frightened of him at the same time. “Why did they leave me?” he murmured, more to himself than to Marlowe.
“It’s not your fault. You were sick and they didn’t want to look after you. I did and I’m trying to make you better.” He paused for a moment and B found himself creeping closer to the man and leaning against his shoulder, desperate for some kind of human contact. His eyes leaked cold tears as he buried it against Marlowe’s shoulder. “I want to be normal. I want a normal life.”
“Do you want to go back to the lab? We can run tests and see if we can - ”
B’s heart lurched in his chest and a wave of violent nausea seemed to rush to his head. “NO!” he screamed, cutting Marlowe of mid sentence. He jumped away from the doctor and returned to his bed, immediately curling himself up in a ball as close to the wall as he possibly could. “No, you don’t take me back there!” he wailed. He looked about him for something to use as a weapon and reached out for the desk lamp. His hands had turned clammy and slippery but he gripped it tightly and yanked it from the desk.
“B, no!” Marlowe said fiercely as he locked his own hand about the lamp and wrenched it away from B. B wailed slightly and lashed out with his fists clumsily. “B, stop it now!” Marlowe suddenly slapped him hard across the face and B fell back cowering.
He stared wide eyed at the scientist, confusion fighting a desperate battle with the fact that this man seemed to look exactly like one of the loving people in his mind and then his eyes narrowed. He shouldn’t be treating him like this. Marlowe should not be hitting him. Marlowe was supposed to be one of those people in his mind who cared about him and wanted to look after him. He flung his arm out and Marlowe staggered back as the blow hit his face, blood trickling from his nose.
B pulled his arm back, his knuckles red and sore from the blow but fear was beginning to disappear as he realised that he could fight back. “Don’t hit me,” he whispered threateningly. His eyes stared at Marlowe’s neck and he recalled how easy it had been to snap the life of the guard that had tried to stop him from escaping.
Marlowe had a hand pressed against his blood-soaked nose, but his blue eyes suddenly seemed to flash with blackness. In one swift movement he had leapt up onto the bed and had pinned B down beneath him, his hands strapped tightly across his wrists. B gave a cry of rage and struggled frantically, but Marlowe gritted his teeth and kept his hands held back. Furious at the restraint, B kicked up with his legs but Marlowe was bigger and heavier than him.
“B,” he hissed. “You have to stop this right now! I will not have these violent outbursts directed at me!” He stared into B’s eyes and something inside of B recoiled in revulsion and fear as he saw the dark, malicious glow burning there.
“Let me go!” B snapped. He pressed up with his hands and tried to push Marlowe away. He heard the scientist grunt as he tried to keep B helpless.
“B! Stop it!” Marlowe shrieked.
“Get off, get off! I don’t want you!” B screamed and then pushed all of his weight upwards. Marlowe tried to push him back down but B had finally freed a leg and he drove his knee into Marlowe’s stomach before leaping away from the bed and backing against the wall.
“Well what do you want, B?” Marlowe said harshly. “There’s no one else here to look after you! You don’t have anybody but me!”
“Yes I do!” B yelled back. “I don’t know who you are, but you mean nothing to me! You’re keeping me here! Why won’t you let me go?”
“I’m protecting you! Your family abandoned you and I am looking after you!”
“No! I have a family and they love me!” His fists were clenched and hot tears had begun to dribble from his sore eyes. He did not understand. He did not understand why his mind seemed to think Marlowe cared about him when everything B’s own eyes saw seemed to suggest that the man was someone to be frightened of. He didn’t know anything. He didn’t know where his family was or if Marlowe was his family…
He pressed a hand to his head and screamed as he fell to his knees, begging for some scarp of information to help him decode the confusing situation that surrounded him.
And then he saw them in his mind… He could see the Marlowe look alike and someone else with blonde hair and bright blue eyes…
“I have a brother!” he gasped. He kept his eyes tightly screwed up. “I have a brother,” he murmured. He curled his knees up against his chest and rubbed his eyes. He had a brother, he was certain of that but where was he? Shouldn’t he be here with B and Marlowe?
“B,” Marlowe’s voice had turned soft and soothing, nothing like the cold tone he had used before. “Your brother left you. He didn’t want to see you anymore.”
B shook his head. “No,” he whimpered. “He’s coming to find me.”
“He’s not here. He’s not coming for you. You only have me.”
“You never answered my question before,” B whispered frailly. “You never told me if you were my father. You look like him… but I don’t know anymore.” He covered his face with his hands. “Why don’t I know anything?” His head felt as if it were being torn apart as it stretched and strained, trying to recall lost memories. His hands trembled at the
“You were sick B, very sick and it’s damaged your memory so you don’t remember. Your brother left you and I took care of you. You’re better now. You’re stronger.”
B felt hands pressing against his arms and when he opened his eyes he saw that Marlowe was right in front of him.
“Who are you?”
“B, I’m like a father to you. Your real dad left you with your brother. He didn’t want the hassle of taking care of you. He didn’t care about you and he didn’t treat you very well. I did. I looked after you.”
B cradled his head in his hands as tears trickled down his face. He couldn’t remember his family, but he felt something in his heart which throbbed so painfully at the thought of them abandoning him. Had he been that bad and unlovable?
“It’s best you forget about them,” Marlowe continued. “You can have a new life without them. You can make them regret ever abandoning you when they see how great you will become. You don’t need them.”
B closed his eyes and stared at his mental image, caressing it softly with fingers of his mind. They weren’t here with him, but Marlowe was. He knew that he did not feel right and that they should be here taking care of him.
“Let go,” Marlowe instructed. “Forget about them.”
B felt one last tear falling down his face. Why had they forgotten about him? He could no longer remember how long he had been with Marlowe for, but he knew it had been a while. Maybe it had been months or years… His family had not come for him.
“Okay,” he whispered. With that single word he allowed his mind to slowly unleash its grip upon the precious image and cast it down into the dark and forgotten depths of his mind.