Fook

by Brian Drinkwater

  Jason just stared at his deceitful friend before revealing the iPad in his right hand as he placed the tablet on the counter between them.

  “What are you doing with that?” Derek questioned.

  “Push the button.”

  “What?”

  “Go on,” Jason insisted in the same, monotone voice.

  Hesitantly, Derek complied, pressing the single button at the bottom of the device. The iPad’s screen lit up to display a photo of a Midwestern lightning storm in the background of the security screen.

  “Go ahead,” Jason urged Derek to continue.

  Staring at Jason, Derek slid his finger across the screen, unlocking the device to reveal he and Bethany’s conversation.

  You still haven’t told me why you gave me his blood, was the last message received.

  “Jason, I can explain—”

  “—Explain what? You were curious, so you snuck a sample of the core liquid out and gave it to that whore to test.”

  “Whoa!” Derek responded, shocked at Jason’s blunt and candid description. “I know your date didn’t go well the other night but Bethany is still my friend.”

  “She climbed out of a bathroom window to get away from me,” Jason revealed the date's true outcome.

  Hesitantly, “I know.”

  “Really?” Jason’s tone finally took on some emotion as sarcasm managed to sneak its way in. “Now, how could you possibly know that? Oh, that’s right...” Sliding his finger down on the screen the conversation scrolled back to the previous night.

  Derek: Where is he now?

  Bethany: At the table. I climbed out the bathroom window.

  Derek: What?

  Bethany: He’s weird.

  Derek: I don’t know about that.

  Bethany: Half the time he just sat there staring at me silently.

  Derek: I’m sure he was just nervous.

  Bethany: Yeah, nervous and weird. I’d much rather see you tonight.

  Derek: Can’t tonight. I’m in the middle of something. Did you get a chance to run that sample I gave you?

  Bethany: The blood.

  Derek: It’s not blood.

  Bethany: It looks like blood. No not yet.

  Derek: I really need that done soon.

  Bethany: Ok. I’ll be at the lab tomorrow. I’ll run it then. Maybe we can get together and I can tell you the results in person. B===D~~(())

  Derek: Dirty girl. You text your mother with those fingers?

  Bethany: lol. Anyway, gotta go. Ride's here.

  Derek: Night.

  Bethany: Night.

  The two just stared at one another until Derek, purely in the interest of breaking the awkward silence, blurted, “What are you doing going through my texts anyway?”

  “Really?” Jason disregarded the question. “I think we’re way past broken trust here. Don’t you?”

  “Listen, I’m sorry about Bethany,” Derek stood up to meet Jason eye to eye across the counter.

  Jason didn’t respond.

  “We have something far more important to discuss though, like why your blood is in the machine’s core,” Derek continued, his tone becoming more stern.

  Again, Jason didn’t respond. He just continued to stare at his friend before slowly reaching for the iPad and with a few taps, called up the image of himself tied to the bed.

  Derek was speechless.

  “It would appear that we have a lot to discuss,” Jason spoke for him.

  Derek just stared at the familiar image.

  “How did you get that?”

  Derek didn’t have a response.

  “Did you take it? Were you there that night?”

  “No I didn’t take it, Jason.”

  “But you were there?”

  Derek hesitated.

  “After all these years, how could you keep that from me?” Jason’s voice quivered as his eyes started to well up.

  “Jason, it’s not what you think,” Derek attempted to defend himself.

  “You were the only one I ever talked to about that and now I find out you were there?”

  “I didn’t mean to be.”

  “Oh, you accidentally hid in the closet while that cunt set me up.”

  “Jason, calm down and let me explain,” Derek began to circle the counter, attempting to calm his obviously distraught friend.

  “Don’t tell me to calm down,” Jason wiped away a tear as he struggle to regain his composure.

  “I didn’t know what was happening until it was too late. Tyler told me to follow him. He said he had something to show me. Honestly, when he brought me up to the bedroom I thought he was going to tell me he was gay and hit on me,” Derek joked with a smile to lighten the mood.

  Jason didn’t laugh.

  “Anyway, when we got up there, everyone was hiding in the closet. I didn’t know what was going on and the next thing I knew, someone whispered ‘they're coming’ and they pulled me into the closet. I didn’t know what they were planning. Honestly.”

  Jason just stared, processing the information.

  “Jesus Christ, Jason, why do you think none of those pictures ever made it out. After you ran out of there I made everyone delete the pictures.”

  “What about that one then?” Jason motioned to the iPad as the screen went to sleep.

  “Tyler managed to get that one out without me knowing. He emailed it to me a week later, threatening to send it to the entire school while spreading the rumor that I had set the whole thing up.”

  Jason looked at him inquisitively.

  “I didn’t. I swear,” Derek defended himself again. “Anyway, I went over to his house and convinced him to delete the photo.”

  “Was that the—”

  “—The broken nose,” Derek smirked. “Yeah.”

  “Then why do you still have it?” Jason asked.

  “I don’t know why I didn’t delete that copy. Over time I guess I’d just forgotten about it. There’s no excuse but I’m so sorry that I never told you,” Derek reached out, lightly grabbing hold of Jason’s shoulder.

  Jason sat down on the stool next to him.

  “I would do anything to be able to go back and stop that night from happening,” Derek continued.

  Jason looked up.

  “But you know we can’t do that,” Derek anticipated what his friend was thinking. “You said it yourself. Altering the past could have devastating consequences.”

  Jason lowered his head again.

  “You need to put it behind you and move on. You can’t let that one event haunt you for the rest of your life. No one in your life knows about it other than me and I’m certainly not going to tell anyone,” he assured Jason as he grabbed the iPad, unlocked the screen and deleted the image. “See. Now it never happened.”

  Jason continued to sit silent, his eyes focused on the floor beneath the stool.

  “Now, honestly. Why is the core filled with your blood?"

  “Grandma Ushi always said I was special,” Jason mumbled, his eyes still diverted downward.

  “Huh?”

  “You’re going to do wonderful, amazing things is what she always told me. You’re special. You have a gift, she said. For the longest time I didn’t know what she was talking about. You know that it wasn’t until she was on her death bed that she told me the truth?”

  “The truth about what?” Derek asked, trying to get Jason to look up at him.

  “The truth about who I am and where I came from. Hell, the truth about what I am.”

  “What you are?” Derek asked confused.

  “Apparently it skips a generation.”

  “What does?”

  “My great uncle had it, Grandpa Fook I used to call him, though I guess he wasn’t actually my grandfather. He died when I was eleven, seven years before my grandmother told me the truth.”

  “Jason, I have no idea what you’re talking about but you're scaring me.”

  “I was scared when she told me. At first I couldn’t bel
ieve it. How could anyone believe something that crazy?

  “What?” Derek asked impatiently.

  “I tried to kill myself you know,” Jason looked up briefly before returning his gaze to his tapping foot.

  Derek eyes widened at the previously unknown information.

  “Yeah, tied a rope to the basement rafters.”

  “Jason, I—”

  “It wouldn’t let me die though. It prevents you from dying.”

  Derek had no idea what Jason was talking about or what to say.

  “Two weeks. I woke up in a corn field in Nebraska with no recollection of the previous two weeks. That’s when I decided that I was going to figure this thing out; to harness the power that was inside of me.

  “Jason, I don’t understand. You need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “I’ll never forget the last thing she told me though. Jason, she’d whispered, fighting the cancer for every word. People won’t understand. You have to keep this a secret. You are the last of this family. For your own safety and to ensure that our family’s gift endures, you must keep this a secret. Promise me, she’d said. So I did. She died moments later.”

  “Jason—”

  “—So what are we going to do about this?” Jason questioned, looking up at Derek with a hollow stare.

  “What do you mean?” Derek asked confused.

  “I can’t break my promise to my dead grandmother. She was right. No one could understand. Not even you.”

  Preoccupied by the text and the photo and the unusual story, Derek hadn’t noticed that Jason’s left hand was still concealed behind his back. It wasn’t until the light overhead struck the thin needle that he noticed the hidden weapon.

  Plunging the syringe into Derek’s thigh, Jason stared coldly into his roommate’s fading eyes as he slumped to the floor.

  “Not even you.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  “What took you so long?” Bethany greeted Derek at the door with a smile and an enthusiastic hug.

  Unable to muster the energy to even lift his arms, he just leaned into the welcoming hug as the world continued to spin out of control. He didn’t know how he’d gotten to the girl’s sorority. He didn’t even remember telling her that he was coming over.

  “Are you alright?” Bethany’s excitement shifted to concern as she realized that she was the only reason Derek was still on his feet.

  He wanted to say “no”. He wanted to tell her that there was something wrong with Jason and that he’d been drugged with God knows what, but just as the syringe’s chemical concoction had rendered his motor skills practically useless, they’d done the same to his vocal cords. All he could do was moan as a thin line of drool fell from the corner of his mouth, onto Bethany’s shoulder.

  “Jesus,” Bethany proclaimed as she wrapped her arm around Derek’s back and helped him into the house.

  Looking around the elaborately decorated sorority, everything seemed to have a fog like quality. The members' pictures, both past and present, seemed to float instead of hang on the surrounding walls, and the eyes of the female bust beside the grand staircase seemed to follow them as they made their way toward the stairs.

  “What happened to you?” Bethany questioned, her concern growing as they reached the first step.

  “Oh my god,” another sister gasped as she appeared at the top of the stairs.

  “I need some water,” Bethany looked up at the girl as she began coaching Derek up the first step.

  “Do you need help?” the shocked girl asked as she hurried down the stairs.

  “Just get me some water.”

  Reaching the bottom of the stairs the girl bolted down the hall, disappearing into the kitchen.

  “Jason,” Derek mumbled, causing more drool to escape.

  “What?” Bethany questioned the nearly inaudible word as she struggled to maintain their balance.

  “Sick,” Derek added.

  “I know you’re sick.”

  “No. Sick,” Derek repeated, forgetting to add Jason to the statement.

  “I’ll take care of you. We just need to get you upstairs.”

  “No,” Derek protested as he stopped climbing and, turning his gaze back toward the front door, spotted Jason standing on the bottom step, staring up at them with the same cold look he’d offered just before jabbing the needle into his leg. “No!” Derek yelled as he lost his footing, nearly sending both he and Bethany tumbling back to the first floor.

  Grabbing hold of both the banister and her suddenly startled friend, Bethany managed to regain both of their balance as Derek went down to one knee and using his hand to prop himself up, spun his attention back down the stairs.

  “What is it?” Bethany asked confused as she too turned in the direction of Derek’s terrified gaze, just in time to see her sister returning with the glass of water. “It’s just Rachel.”

  Making her way up the stairs, Rachel handed Bethany the glass.

  “Here, take a drink,” Bethany instructed as she coaxed a tiny sip past Derek’s lips.

  “Do you need me to call an ambulance?” Rachel asked.

  “No, I think he’ll be alright. I just need to get him upstairs to lay down.”

  “Let me help,” Rachel offered as she grabbed hold of Derek’s other arm and, helping him to his feet, they managed to get him up the remaining steps, down the hall and into Bethany’s room.

  “You’re sure you don’t want me to call?”

  “No. He just needs to rest,” Bethany assured her as they stared at Derek who, upon reaching the pillow covered bed, had fallen face first into the comforter and lay motionless. “You go. Have fun.”

  “You’re sure,” Rachel questioned, hesitant to leave but based on her retreating motion, eager to remove herself from the situation.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Go.”

  Rachel didn’t need any more convincing as she turned and quickly left.

  Like a rowboat on the open sea, Bethany’s bed seemed to pitch and roll with each passing wave as Derek struggled to make out the conversation taking place behind him. Fragmented memories of the night seemed to form and then fade away as quickly as they’d appeared, leaving his thoughts incomplete and his mind struggling to piece together the reality of the situation.

  He heard the door close behind him as another wave hoisted the bed into the air before sending it plummeting downward again, the constant motion, combined with the flowery smell of the bed, stirring up the contents of his stomach as another blackout overtook him.

  *****

  “Derek. Are you alright?” Bethany’s concerned voice whispered in his ear.

  He wanted to answer but even though the seas had calmed and the wave of nausea had passed, he was still hesitant to open his mouth.

  “Derek.”

  Chancing it, “Yeah,” he moaned.

  “Derek.”

  “I’m fine,” he assured her.

  “Derek.”

  “I’m okay. Just need to lay here.”

  Suddenly a shrill scream filled the room as Derek opened his eyes to the sight of Jason’s face only inches from his, laying beside him on the floor.

  “Fuck!,” he exclaimed at the sight of his unexpected roommate as he slid himself back and closed his eyes, expecting the vision to disappear when reopened.

  “Derek,” the voice repeated again. This time it was clear that the voice had not been Bethany’s but Jason’s the whole time.

  Reluctantly reopening his eyes, the vision remained as Jason repositioned himself to sit Indian style beside him.

  “Where—?”

  “—Where are you?” Jason completed the anticipated question. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” he spoke in a comforting tone. “You’re dead Derek. There was an accident and I’m sorry to say it but…you didn’t make it.”

  Derek just stared back at the familiar, yet oddly different man sitting beside him.

  “I’m just messing with you,” Jason laughed. “I had you though, didn’
t I.”

  “No,” Derek thought, still confused over just about everything as he glanced back and forth at Jason’s hands.

  “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that again,” Jason chuckled. “No more needles. I just needed that to get you here.”

  “Where—?”

  “—Where’s here?” Jason once again completed the question. “You my friend are in a sorority house. Familiar territory I bet,” he added with a grin.

  “Bethany,” Derek recalled being helped up the stairs and onto the bed on the other side of the room.

  “You know, you sure did make a mess of things,” Jason disregarded Derek’s recollection. “You couldn’t leave well enough alone. You just had to know what the mysterious fluid was. The magic, chemical concoction that I’d whipped up to make time travel possible. As if two college students...albeit brilliant ones, but college students nonetheless, could solve a century's old fantasy like time travel with some computer scraps and a chemistry set,” Jason laughed. “That’s absurd. Frankly, I’m shocked you went for it.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Derek questioned his dramatically different friend as he unsuccessfully attempted to prop himself up.

  “What’s wrong with me?” Jason repeated confused. “Wasn’t it you that said I should lighten up; that I should be more outgoing and a little less...well...me.”

  “I don’t think I said all that.”

  “Well that’s what you meant,” Jason asserted angrily. “I’m sorry,” he smiled, the sudden anger fading from his eyes. “You know, I really wanted to tell you the truth. You were the one person that I thought I could trust with something like this but I guess I was wrong now, wasn’t I?” he mimed a camera taking a picture.

  “Jason, I—”

  “—I know. I know. You didn’t take the picture. You actually destroyed all of the pictures and I should be praising your heroics and yadda, yadda, yadda.”

  “I—”

  “—Can’t say I believe it, but it was a good story anyhow,” Jason continued. “You know what? It’s water under the bridge. Don’t worry about it.”