Galatea 2 - Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19: TUMOR

“God, I really needed this, Brian.” Audrey cooed, her lithe form spreading out on the hotel bedspread.

“Yeah, I really needed this too,” he reciprocated, joining his girlfriend atop the matted sheets.

Both of them knew why they had really taken this brief reprieve to a beach in the middle of the school semester, though it would remain unspoken between them. The last thing Brian wanted to do was bring up she-who-shall-not-be-named, but he just couldn’t keep his mind off of her. Not in a sexual way, as much as Audrey had her initial doubts, but just in how surreal this all had been.

Audrey had asked why he had driven all the way to the university on such short notice, only to come all the way back in what felt like no time at all. “Oh you know, I went 200 miles in both directions just to answer a single question that could have been asked over the phone, also he was clearly lying to me about his intentions,” didn’t exactly scream confidence in a college worth returning to, but Brian remained optimistic.

He had assured Audrey that this was nothing worth worrying about, though she seemed more willing to take her mind off of it entirely then pursue the matter further. The expected status quo of a tropical vacation slowly but surely set back in, and Brian was ready for two more days of stress-free bliss.

But it seemed that Audrey couldn’t keep up with her own pledge.

“God, I bet that bitch Vanessa is just living it up,” the blonde beauty spoke through gritted teeth, unprompted. It had clearly been a thought stewing in her mind for quite some time.

“Babe, it’s not worth getting so upset about. It’ll just ruin your vacation. Just remember, she’s probably suffering too.”

“I doubt it. I know you told me she was acting strange, like some sort of split personality disorder was affecting her, but… she wasn’t cruel to you like she was to me.”

Brian could only lean over and hug his girlfriend in response, letting her wail briefly as tears poured onto his shoulder.

As much as Brian had his sympathies, he couldn’t deny—it was much worse for Audrey. There was no way Vanessa’s suffering could even come close.

***

Vanessa was suffering.

Her breathing was labored as her brief stint atop the ceiling turned into hours. She had long since kicked her two latest flings out, their mere stirring in their sleep annoying her to no end as she found herself dedicating more and more of her mental capacity to removing the infernal cerebral contraption that plagued her headspace.

While she knew of its existence, removing it would not be so simple. Giles may have been a buffoon when it came to women, but he was no slouch in being a scientific sneak.

While her telekinesis wasn’t pinpoint accurate, especially when delving into her own mind scape, it wouldn’t have mattered. The tumor, one that fed sickly sweet messages of submission like bonus cabooses into her train of thought, was not something that could be removed so easily.

It was not just a side effect of the virus, but the virus itself. So deeply interwoven with the complex biomechanics that was the human body that to remove it would take everything else with it. Like a carefully stacked trail of dominoes, it was hard not to knock over a random one in the middle without taking out a large chunk with it.

Giles, that fucker. I’m going to tear him apart. I’m going to find out how he put this inhumane device in my mind just so that when I utilize it I can tell him just how smart and proud of him I am!

…

Fuck.

It had just slipped in again. Even with her mind’s eye dead set on monitoring every input of this tumor it was still effortlessly invading her thoughts. Placating her. Making her dumber.

Vanessa couldn’t even waste time thinking. She needed to act.

Floating down from the ceiling, she didn’t even bother taking the stairs. The glass of her dorm window shattered upon contact with her perfect form, diagonally descending towards the student common grounds, not caring who caught sight of her. Several students gawked, many more took pictures. A floating woman, yet she would not let that be where the definition ended. She was a woman on a mission. A flying brick ready to smash that son of a bitch professor’s face in.

My levitation… It’s not fast enough. I’m moving at a quarter of the speed I would if I was just walking. I need to land… and then maybe Giles my beloved would be kind enough to make it go faster?

“Shut up! Get out of my head!” she shouted, adding another layer of insanity to the already surreal sight. Many gripped their ears in distress, but the message was clear to all on campus, even to outside forces who may have been watching and listening in.

Her dainty feet touched down on the ground, immediately transferring to a hurried stride as she made a b-line towards the lab. With every step, she could feel her will slipping more and more. When leading with the left foot, her mind was like iron. She was all-powerful. The world obeyed her and she was here to have a good time. But when leading with the right, her mind was like butter. She was all-powerful because Kevin had allowed her to be. The world obeyed Dr. Giles and she wasn’t about to break the mold.

Vanessa’s stride became staggered and jagged the closer she got to the lab. Trembling hands gripped either side of her head as a tsunami of nonsense commands flooded her mind with increasing voracity by the second.

The elevator ride down felt like an eternity. Wars fought and lost within her dreamscape as fantasy and reality seemed to intertwine like focusing double vision from a nasty hangover. The smart side of Vanessa’s mind knew exactly what she’d see at the bottom of that elevator. The more… easily persuaded side didn’t know what to think.

Sure enough, the expectant smile of Giles was on full display as soon as the elevator doors opened. Vanessa was right. Or had she been? It was quite hard to tell from just how heavy her mind had become. All that thinking was weighing her down. Drowning her in the sea of knowledge when she really just needed to float to the top. Yes. Float to the top. Let the loving professor save your cold, marble exterior from the depths so that he may continue to craft your brilliance. You’re nearly at your full potential. Why fight it?

An exasperated gasp was all Vanessa could let past her lips as she collapsed. Wobbling hands and knees barely saving her pretty face from a meeting with the lab floor. A finger hooked under her chin, bringing her attention upwards to the confident composure of Dr. Giles.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way, Nessa. I prefer my women to have a degree of autonomy, personally, but if that begins to threaten me at a personal level, severe action will need to be taken.” There was a degree of sorrow in his voice, but it was clear he had no serious qualms with the current outcome of his plans. “It is finally time for you to be perfect. For us to rise up into the upper echelons of society like we have so rightfully deserved. That which has been denied to us will no longer—”

Now it was Vanessa’s turn to hook her finger under his chin. Calling upon the last of her free will, she slashed at Kevin, effortlessly tearing out a large chunk of his flesh with her perfectly manicured nails. He grunted in agony, lopsidedly stumbling backwards into the nearest lab table, leaving a spotted trail of blood which quickly morphed into a river as more and more viscera poured from the massive gash in his neck.

He coughed and hacked, vision growing faint as the damage to his trachea was severe. He needed immediate medical attention and there wasn’t a doctor in America that wouldn’t have a million questions about his situation—questions that would make a trip there arguably worse than if he just let himself bleed out on the lab floor right now.

Once Brian got back from vacation properly, he’d have a hell of a lot of questions to make sense of. He tried to keep his head upright, but he found it slowly drooping downwards, as were his eyelids.

And then, a nurturing hand slowly eased his head back upright—Vanessa’s.

“Oh, my precious Giles! It’s going to be okay! I won’t let anything bad happen to you anymore! We got to get you back into tip-top shape!”

She immediately took to a medkit, her advanced mind knowing exactly what to do in a situation like this, as per the Virus’ enhancements to logical thought. She may have been his, but she wasn’t a mindless automaton. Just the kind of woman he loved.

“I can’t have my beloved perishing!” she expressed with big, beautiful green eyes—ones glistening with salty tears as she slowly helped nurse the man she had just mortally wounded back to health. “You will be the one to bring humanity to a new age! We can’t have you dying on us!”

Once more, his lips curled into a devilish smile. Even with a face as pale as snow, he knew that he was finally in safe hands and could rest easy now. He had done it. Vanessa was his.

His Galatea.