Chapter 45: Reawakening

Chapter 45: Reawakening

Samantha turned to Joseph and said, “Wait here. I’ll deal with her.” She took off in pursuit of the fat girl, who had started running towards the gas station and McDonald’s, if her high-speed waddling could be considered running. Despite the fat girl’s head start, Samantha caught her less than a minute later, yanking her back by the hair. The fat girl cried out as she toppled to the ground, leaving a tress of burgundy hair in Samantha’s hand. Samantha tossed the hair aside and then held up the pair of wire cutters she’s used on the little boy.

The fat girl, tears in her eyes, held up both her hands in a feeble attempt to defend herself. “Samantha, please, don’t do this,” the fat girl whined.

“You asked for it, both of you, trying to interfere with our plans.” She brought the wire cutters down on the fat girl’s left arm, the one she had nearly broken earlier. Samantha stifled the fat girl’s scream by clamping a hand over her mouth. “You aren’t going to take Joe away from me. You aren’t going to take our life away. You or your dorky little brother. This time I’ll make sure you two stay asleep.”

The fat girl bit her fingers. When Samantha jerked her hand back, the fat girl rolled up to her feet. “His name is Wendell and he’s not my brother,” she said. She tucked her useless left arm against her chest, holding out the other to ward off Samantha. “He loves you and you don’t care. You almost killed him.”

“The little jerk deserves whatever he got. He should have left Joe and I alone.” Samantha kicked the fat girl in her ample stomach, but something was wrong. The pig should have gone down in a heap, rolling around in agony. Instead, she merely grunted and stumbled back a step.

“Samantha, please, you have to stop this. He’s done something to you, like what he did to us. You have to fight against it.” Samantha kicked the fat girl again, this time a roundhouse kick to the face. The fat girl shook it off. “This isn’t you, Samantha.”

“How would you know who I am? How do you know anything about me?” This time, determined to knock the fat girl over, she tackled her, the two of them falling in a heap. Samantha recovered first, straddling the fat girl and then punching her in her lying mouth. “You don’t know anything!”

“You’re my best friend,” she said. “We were sisters back on Eternity. Don’t you remember?”

“Shut up!” Samantha slapped the fat girl across the face. “I’m not your friend or your sister. You’re a fat, disgusting slob. That’s all you are.”

“Samantha, please. Somewhere inside I know you remember me and Wendell and Rebecca and little Molly and everyone else on Eternity. We love you. Come home with us. Please.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. Joseph and I are going to start a new life. We’re going to be free.” Samantha raised her hand to strike again, but something held her back. The fat girl’s face looked so miserable, tears running down her cheeks to wash away the blood. “You wouldn’t understand what we feel.”

To Samantha’s surprise, the fat girl laughed. “I didn’t used to know what love felt like, but now I do. I know it means caring about someone so much you’d do anything for him. Do you think Joseph loves you? Really loves you?”

This time Samantha punched the fat girl in the left eye, where Joseph had struck Samantha. Where Joseph had hit her. She reached up to touch her eye. “He loves me,” she said more to herself than the fat girl. “I know Joe loves me.”

“What’s he done for you, other than make you rob a bank?”

“He made me beautiful,” Samantha said.

“On the outside maybe, but he’s made you ugly on the inside. Don’t you understand that? He gave you a new body, but he took away what made you special.”

“You’re lying. He gave me everything. A new life.” She found the pair of wire cutters lying on the ground and picked them up. Her eyes clouded up with tears, her mind swirled with confusion. Joseph loved her. He made her pretty. The memory of that night came back to her. He took the bottle of perfume and squirted her in the face. He squirted her. He hit her. He forced her to rob this bank.

“Samantha, you were never ugly to the people who really care about you. We love you no matter what,” the fat girl said. Prudence. Her name was Prudence. She and Samantha had known each other since they were little girls. The wire cutters trembled in Samantha’s hand and then clattered to the pavement.

“Oh God, what have I done?” Samantha said. She collapsed, sobbing, onto Prudence. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’ll be all right,” Prudence said. “We can fix everything. Wendell’s made a potion that should turn you and Joseph back to normal. We just have to make him swallow it.”

“How?” Samantha asked.

“I should have known you’d fuck this up,” Joseph said from behind her. Samantha rolled off Prudence and got to her feet. She saw the same trembling rage in Joseph as the night he’d punched her. “I never could count on you for anything.”

“Joseph, please, we have to stop this before anyone else gets hurt,” Samantha said. “We can go back home. I’m sure your father will understand—”

“I’m not going back to that shithole. I have a destiny ahead of me. I’ll be the most famous scientist in the world.” He sneered at her. “There’ll be plenty of bimbos lining up to take your place.”

“Joe, I love you. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

“I don’t need you or your love. I don’t need anyone! Not you, not my father, not my mother—no one!” He lunged forward, catching Samantha off-guard. His punch to the side of her head sent her sprawling on the pavement, the world spinning around her. She tried to get up, but couldn’t move.

Joseph stomped towards her like a rogue elephant trying to crush her. Prudence blindsided him from the side, knocking him down. He seized her by the shirt, hurling her away as though she weighed nothing. He faced Samantha, his face turning scarlet and throbbing muscles breaking through his sleeves.

Samantha got to her feet and ran back towards the bank. Prudence had mentioned Wendell had a potion that could change Joseph back. Her only hope lay in giving this to him before he finished off she and Prudence.

She came within sight of Wendell before Joseph yanked her back by the hair as she’d done to Prudence. She somersaulted around, kicking him in the head. This only made him laugh. “You can’t hurt me, baby,” he said. “You’re a fucking Barbie doll for Christ’s sake.” He swatted her aside, knocking her back into a lamppost.

Samantha sagged to the ground, her vision turning dark. She willed herself to get up, but her muscles refused to heed the command. What did it matter? He was right: she couldn’t hurt him. Before she might have been able to do something, but not with this dainty body.

“It’s too bad,” he said. “You were a nice piece of ass.” As he reared back to shatter her head with his fist like a ripe melon, she saw a flash of red from the corner of her eye. Wendell flew through the air, landing on Joseph’s shoulders. He managed to hang on even as Joseph bucked and spun like an enraged bull.

“Get the net!” Wendell shouted. “Get the net!”

Samantha heard this command from a great distance, the words slurring together to become almost indecipherable. Then she found herself on her feet, running towards the bank with Prudence leaning against her. “Come on,” Prudence said. “We can do it. Together.”

Samantha nodded her head, not quite understanding. She followed along as Prudence tucked a corner of netting into her hands. “Stay with me,” Prudence said as though to a small child. “I need you to stretch this out as far as you can. Understand? That’s a good girl.”

They ran back towards Joseph with Prudence holding the net on one side and Samantha on the other. Wendell still clung to Joseph’s neck, but even in her dazed state Samantha knew he couldn’t hold out much longer. “Keep it low!” Prudence called.

Joseph turned to face them the instant before they reached him. The net sunk into his thighs, Samantha’s corner threatening to shoot from her hand. “This way!” Prudence shouted. They ran towards each other behind Joseph, the net encircling him. Joseph thrashed around, hurling curses at them as he tried to throw Wendell off. The net became entangled in his legs until he started to wobble and then toppled like an ancient oak tree.

Wendell leapt off his shoulders at the last moment, landing awkwardly on the pavement a few feet away. As Joseph screamed and fought to untangle himself, Wendell took out a vial of orange liquid. Samantha and Prudence threw themselves on either side of Joseph to pin his arms as Wendell poured the potion down Joseph’s throat. He continued screaming a moment and then went silent. His eyelids drooped until finally closing and his body went still. “Is he dead?” Samantha asked.

“No, he’s still breathing,” Wendell said. He held out another vial to her. “This is for you.” Samantha took the vial and a moment later fell asleep alongside Joseph on the street.