Stories

Beauty in the Breakdown

{...catch the wheel that breaks the butterfly...}


          My name is Page Elisabeth Walker. I am a student at a private boarding school in Liverpool, England. It's normally a very fun place, however, lately it's been more of a nightmare. Of course that's all due to the virus.

Scientists say it's like the H1N1 virus that spread around a couple of years ago. Only this time it's gotten worse. They say the first virus simply wiped out the weak, and left the strong to survive, preparing for something bigger. Well now it's come back and infecting everyone who survived it the first time. The syptoms, however, have changed for the worst. Within a couple hours of having the virus in your system, you start showing the symptoms of the common cold. Next thing you know, you're lying in the fetal position, clawing at your throat and bleeding in places you never thought you could. Your throat swells and leaves you unable to breathe. Your eyes become so itchy, they start to bleed from you scratching so much. Not only that, but you start to develop the stench of a rotting corpse, even before you're dead. Your eyes glaze over, and it looks as if you're blind. Finally, your mind breaks, shatters into hundreds of incoherent pieces, like shards of glass still holding pieces of the reflection that was once whole. You no longer have rational thought, and you develop a taste for blood. You will attack the nearest human, tearing their flesh from their very bones and devouring it in a matter of minutes. Then, it's on to your next meal.

I know all of this because I've seen it more than once. A couple of years ago, my father had H1N1. However, he got better, and everything went back no to normal. Or so we thought. It happened only a month ago now. My father seemed to have caught a cold, but soon was complaining about itchy eyes and breathing problems. We had our family doctor come and check up on him, but he said everything was fine and that he simply needed rest. So after the doctor left, we let our father sleep, and settled into bed for the night ourselves. About an hour later we heard something break, so my mother went up to see what had happened. We dissmissed the noise and went back to sleep.

My brothers awoke to her cries of pain.

"What the-" Noah - the oldest of my twin borthers - cussed and headed for the stairs.

Tristen - the younger of the two - stayed behind and jostled me awake. "Hmmmmm..." I moaned, still half asleep. "What do you want Tristen? Leave me alone..."

"It's mum! Something's happened upstairs. Noah's gone to check it out." was his urgent reply. I groaned again and rolled over, shooing him away with my hand.

"I care? leave me be, I was having a good dream..." I've always rather disliked my parents, and I could honestly care less what happened to them.

"Very well then," I felt a hand on my shoulder and next thing I knew the blankets were being ripped from my bed, leaving me exposed to cold air.

"What the hell was that for!? Give those back!" I turned over angrily and glared at my brother. "I said give them back! Hey! Are you even- mmf... mffhmmm!!!"

Tristen raised his hand to my mouth to shut me up, which pissed me off. He seemed to hear something I couldn't. Damn twin senses... I thought. I never really believed any of that stuff, but I liked to tease them about it.

"Shit! let's go, now!" I was confused, but I listened, getting out of bed and throwing on a sweater before heading towards the door where Tristen was waiting. "Hurry up." He commanded.

"Hmph!" I scowled - I really could care less about them, however, I couldn't just leave Noah up there. So I followed Tristen up the stairs, staying carefully behind him the whole way. When we finally reached the top I couldn't hear a thing, but Tristen seemed to be able to sense something was wrong.

He opened the door and we stepped inside the large room. The stench was awful, I just about threw up right then and there. Then I looked inside. I gasped, "What the-" The image of what I saw there that night will haunt me forever.

Laying on the floor, in a position thought to be impossible to maintain, was my father. The coppery smell of blood mixing with the bitterness of medicine and rotting flesh made my stomache turn. I brought my hand to my throat and wheeled around to the garbage can beside the door.

Tristen hurried to my side and brushed my hair out of my face. "Liz... just don't look okay?" He said tenderly.

When at last I was able to stand again, without toppling back over or throwing up again, he carried me to the bathroom just next door, and sat me down on the toilet seat.

"You okay now?" He asked, worry showing in his voice. I nodded weakly, trying to keep my balance. He put his hands on my shoulders to help steady me, "I'm sorry..."

For what? I meant to say, but my mouth wouldn't move and my voice wouldn't work. But, almost as if he knew what I was thinking, he said, "I'm sorry you had to see that... I should never have woken you." I felt a twinge of guilt at his statement. It's not your fault! I thought. I'm the one who looked, I'm the one that followed you, I could have ignored you and went back to bed stubbornly, like I do with mum and dad.

He took my face in his hands and looked me right in the eyes. I struggled to keep my them open, weakly looking back into his saffron orbs. "Stay here until I come back to get you okay?" and with that he was gone, mussing my hair in a weak attempt of playfulness, before leaving and closing the door tightly behind him.

I sat in silence for a moment, waiting for something to happen. Finally, I heard my mother crying and and yelling something incoherent. I could also hear Tristen trying to calm her down, "There's nothing we can do now, let's just go." and Noah yelling at them both, "What the hell is the matter here!? Quit crying and let's go!". Noah was always the more abrasive one.

Tristen tried to defend her. "Noah calm down, now isn't the time to be yelling!" Why even bother defending that bitch? I though to myself, without even knowing what was happening in the other room.

"Oh yeah? Tell her that!" Noah retorted. I found myself, for once, agreeing with Noah. That was nearly all we could agree on; my parents.

My mother's yelling was starting to get on my nerves, so I carefully lifted myself from the toilet seat and crawled into the bathtub, curling my knees to my chest and hugging them tightly. Suddenly, a loud crash echoed through the house, and for a short time, all fell silent.

Then a terrifyingly, inhuman scream ripped itself from my mother's throat. I smacked my palms over my ears in an attempt to block out any sound. It was a vain attempt, but it helped. Sounds of muffled screaming from my mother and cursing from Noah carried through to the huge bathroom and echoed off of the bare walls. I heard Tristen loose his cool - for once - and let out a few curses of his own, and... was that... growling?

Before I had time to think about it, Tristen barged in and ripped the curtain open, grabbing my hand and all but dragging me down the stairs to my room. He yelled frantically, "You have two minutes! Grab the first things your hands touch!" and left the room, not giving me any time to protest. I sighed and looked at my clock; 2:34am. What a pain. Well my parents were finally getting what was coming to them.