Sergei did his best to sit still alongside Addy’s bed. Despite his best efforts, his legs still kicked out and his arm still swung far and wide to his side. He noticed his body was twitching and fidgeting far more frequent and vibrant than it normally does.

Sergei could feel his bruised knuckles beginning to bleed, if it hadn’t been the first time this happened, then it might have alarmed him. The gentle giant paid no mind to it all. Instead, he sat by what he would define to be still, waiting for his friend to wake up.

He couldn’t help but feel responsible for Addy causing a scene and passing out. After all, he was the one who noticed the creepy red spider that crawled up Addy’s neck. Sergei wouldn’t have noticed it if he didn’t watch it crawl across his arm first.

When Sergei saw it, he thought it was a black widow at first. Once he realized that the spider was the same saturation of a harvest moon, he relaxed a little. His blood pressure spiked just as soon as it had settled once he saw the spider’s thin legs acted like daggers leaving little sprinkles of blood in its wake as it skittered across him. If he had known that the spider was going to go for Addy, he might have squashed it when it trekked across his arm.

The thought of squashing a bug on him caused his pale skin and rosy cheeks to become tinted with a sickly green.

Before the pasta coated in alfredo sauce that Sergei had for dinner could be projected out of his mouth onto the unconscious Addy, a young woman in a lab coat came in talking to herself in a foreign tongue while examining Addy’s medical reports on a clipboard. Her wavy black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, offering her no chance of masking the tiredness in her eyes from others.

Segei’s arm knocked into the wall and his foot kicked the chair next to him, producing a loud enough disturbance to cause the young woman entering to jump. The clipboard she was holding fumbled about, nearly falling out of her hand, but she managed to catch it and pull it close to her chest, “Sergei right?” Sergei nodded and smacked his arm against the wall in response to her question, “What are you still doing here? I told you your friend is fine, and all he needs is some rest. Will the others be coming back at some point?”

“I-I-I know but, I am worried.” Sergei brought his arms tight around him, attempting to use the compression to suppress his feeling of guilt.

The young woman put herself within range of Sergei’s unintentional beating by taking the seat next to him. She placed her hand that wasn’t maintaining a vice grip on her clipboard on Sergei’s back and took great care in applying just the right amount of pressure as she moved her hand up and down his back. She tilted her head down and melted Sergei’s defenses with her soft brown eyes. Looking into them, Sergei was reminded of the soothing warmth of hot chocolate that his mother would make for him on cold winter days. A quaint smile snuck across Sergei’s face at the remembrance of such fond childhood memories. Playing and laughing with his sister, while he and his family hid from the bitter teasing of Jack Frost around the fireplace.

“I admire you for wanting to stay here with Addy but, why don’t you go back to your room to settle in? It is your first night at college go enjoy it,” she motioned her head to Addy, “I’m sure he’d feel bad if he knew you spent your whole first night sitting next to him while he slept. I’m sure if you go now you’ll be able to meet up with the others that were with you before.”

“I don’t know. Maybe, “ Sergei’s hands twitched into fists, beating down on his cargo short’s pockets. He looked to the woman in the lab coat wincing with eyes filled to the brim with embarrassment, “Sorry about that Dr. Khan.”

“It’s okay Segei, no need to apologize. My brother has a similar condition,” Dr. Khan joined Sergei in standing, guarding the clipboard by holding it close to her heart. To keep Sergei from seeing the water that was beginning to soak her lashes, she relocated herself to the window. Doing her best to hold back the tears, she focused on the forest situated on the other side of the glass. Seeing the green expanse stretching for miles uninterrupted by any canker sore of civilization, helped a little, but it was still obvious her eyes were wet. “Come on Sergei. If you aren’t going to go out with your friends, at least get some fresh air and go for a walk, or start reading and taking notes for class. I need to run a few more tests on Addy, and he needs his rest. So, I’m sorry, but I am kicking you out for now.”

“Okay, could you please let me know when he wakes up?” Sergei’s voice shook in a hushed tone as he began to make his way to leave.

“That all depends on,” Dr. Khan used her free hand to thumb through papers searching for one tidbit of information, “whether or not Addy listed you as an emergency contact. Which I doubt. Most people list a parent or family member,” her hands movement ceased, and her chest began to tickle with a case of giggles.

Unaware as to what the source of humor was, Sergei froze at the door, adorning a look of befuddlement upon his face. He stood still and quiet, hoping that Dr. Khan would inform him. Social instances like this, when a decision relied too much on one’s interpretation of the scene, were hell for Sergei. Never knew if he should ask what’s funny, and risk being perceived as weird, allowing himself for further mockery from others. Or if he shouldn’t say or do anything, and just stand idle until someone informs him. His mind began to race with all the other possible responses he could use at the moment, rendering him to stand still like a deer in headlights.

Dr. Khan turned to Sergei, noticing his generic college shirt had puddles of liquid beginning to grow beneath his armpits. Sympathy flooded Dr. Khan’s emotional core, she chose to not make him more uncomfortable by acting like everything was normal, “Sergei, Addy listed you as an emergency contact. I have your number, and I’ll give you a call when you can come sign him out.”

Sergei’s arms lake stopped growing, but the clothing saturated with his sweat was becoming a darker shade of gray, “Okay. Wa-Was that what you found funny?”

“No, I find it hysterical that he provided a packet of additional pages of legal documentation for his emergency contacts. I can’t show it due to legal reasons, but let’s just say he provided a whole slew of people for me to contact, depending on the medical circumstance.” Dr. Khan shook her head, “I must admit this is the first time I’ve had anyone do this.”

A hearty chuckled made way through the thick beard covering Sergei’s mouth, his glasses were on the verge of falling off his nose, “Oh yeah, we were in study hall when he drafted it up. I remember after he sent it to one of Brad’s family’s attorneys for review and finalization.”

“Why would he do all of this for emergency contact for college?”

“Well, Addy’s mom can be a bit overbearing and ‘dominating’ at times. Long story short, she and Addy got into an argument about partying at college. His mom threatened she’d pull him out of school if she got a call about him having to go and get his stomach pumped. He told her she wouldn’t, and then did all of that so she’d only get a call if he was on his deathbed.”

“Understandable, I myself have a mother who could match that description."

Sergei made his way through the door, but stopped halfway to check on Addy once more, “Goodbye Dr. Khan.”

“Goodbye Sergei,” she nodded her head to him, bidding him farewell. Once he left, her hand gripping the clipboard began to relax.

Due to the pressurized mechanism on the door, it didn’t close immediately. The door moved at a snail’s pace, however, it stopped once it got to the halfway point.

It hung still for a moment, as Dr. Khan began fiddling with the machines that were hooked up to Addy’s motionless body.

The faint duet of the machines and Dr. Khan filled the air with a perfect blend of timeless groove and new age techno.

While making tunes, she began scribbling additional notes to the papers on the clipboard.

*Knock*

*Knock*

*Knock*

The metallic twang of knuckles against the door caused Dr. Khan to nearly jump out of her skin, the clipboard managed to escape from her clutch, and found itself skidding to the half open door. He stopped once it made contact with some unseeable force, and began to rise off the ground, while the door resumed its progress on closing.

“God damn it Paul, please do not be doing that to me right now.” Dr. Khan’s caramel skin was flushed with red and pink from anger and embarrassment.

Paul held the clipboard up and began shifting its contents with fervor, “It’s alright Amal, the kid is loaded up with enough tranquilizer to stop the heart of an elephant.”

“I know Paul, but we don’t even know if that’s enough to keep him sedated. You were barely able to subdue him when he woke up the first time.” Dr. Khan threw her arms up in the air in frustration. She stormed over to the floating clipboard and pointed her finger with a hefty amount of accusation, “You do realize that when he wakes up, there is a high probability he goes on a killing rampage?”

“Yes.” Paul’s tone conveyed his indifference, while continuing his examination of the data.

“Did you know that there is an equal possibility that he is mutated into some freak of nature?”

“Yes,” his tone still had the same indifference as before, but he no longer flipped through the papers.

“Then I’m guessing you also know that there is an even higher likelihood that he is rendered brain dead?”

“Yes,” this time an ounce of annoyance made its way into Paul’s voice, and he lowered the clipboard to his side.

Dr. Khan went to Addy’s side to run diagnostics, hoping she could avoid any further confrontation. Paul went to the foot of Addy’s bed, and put the clipboard in the attached rack. He placed his hands on the bed’s frame to rest.

Uneasy tension began to build in the air, accompanied by a solo from the humming machines. The machine reading Addy’s heart beat provided the beat, and the monitor next to Dr. Khan provided the rift through various melodic beeps and buzzes.

Paul decided he’d be the one to break the awkward silence, “Amal, you forgot that there is one last outcome that could happen.”

Dr. Khan looked up from the machine she was toying with, and looked hard at the space she assumed Paul’s head was, “Oh, how stupid of me to forget the minute possibility that he could become an abnormal. That option is only an anomaly, at best an outlier,” she thought the disappointing look on her face wasn’t enough for Paul to know what her opinion was. She kept going, doing her best to drive her point through Paul’s skull, “Out of our entire first wave of test subjects, all of them died. The second wave, two lived, but are some sort of crime against nature. The third wave, one lived. But, what was the fucking cost for those four successful errors? Not in terms of finance, but converted into human life. I don’t know how the hell you convinced the old man into letting you do a fourth wave of testing, but I am not helping you. I can’t take any more blood on my hands.”

The tears she tried holding back earlier came flowing out with no fear of being seen. Her nerves fried at the thought of partaking in another round of testing. Her hands tried their best to offer her some privacy, but their efforts did little to muffle her crying or slow the flow of tears.

“Amal, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. But, you don’t have a choice in matter, the old man authorized Steel Curtain.”