Robert's Nephew

I woke to Robert's light blue Camero pulling up to the cabin. I could feel more of my legs. My legs that were inside my own abdomen. I felt my body again. I was still thin. It felt like my hips were closer to my ribcage. I felt my hands press on different parts of my body despite only feeling around my abdomen. If this growth inside me was me, why did I not sense the world around me as if I were inside myself? I heard Robert open the driver's side door, followed by one of the back passenger doors. The sounds were close enough together that I knew someone had come with Robert. But who would he bring up here?

Robert came in quietly in case I was still resting. A well muscled young boy followed right behind him. He had sandy blond hair and hazel eyes. Light seemed to radiate from his face despite the worry that emanated from his whole being. Why did Robert bring his nephew? I understood that he wouldn't have brought Brandon if he didn't feel it was important. So what had happened while I slept to make him feel he needed to bring his nephew to see me?

"Uncle Robert, is that her?" Brandon asked.

"Yes, Brandon," Robert said. "Come say hi to Tansy."

Brandon slowly stepped toward me. Confident and sure, almost menacing if not for his innocence. I could sense his power and feel the aura shift around him as he approached. Robert set his hand on Brandon's shoulder as he stood by his side.

"Brandon, this is Tansy. Tansy, Brandon."

"It's nice to meet you," I said, not shaking his hand.

"Yeah right," he scoffed. "You only want to activate the gene to see what it does."

"I want to be able to help you, Brandon. You and the other children like you."

"Yeah, right."

"I do."

"Then why are you in bed instead of the lab?"

"Because I'm dying, Brandon."

"Serves you right," Brandon said.

"What did you say?" Robert asked his nephew.

"Serves her right. If she had succeeded in activating the gene I'd be all alone!"

"Her work isn't done yet, Brandon. Tansy has been teaching me about…."

"Not you, too!"

"Brandon, Tansy…."

"No!" Brandon backed away from his uncle and cried. "I don't want to be alone."

"Hopefully you won't have to be," Robert said, kneeling beside his nephew. He reached out and touched Brandon's arms.

Brandon pushed him off and stomped out of the cabin.

"Robert," I said, keeping him from following. "Give him some time."

"But he needs to understand that I want to know as much as I can to help them."

"I know. And he will, but it might take time. Finding out what will activate the gene will affect more than just those with it. If the gene activates on its own I want to know how to stop it, or find a way help those who have it if there is no way to stop its expression."

Robert nodded then left to check on his nephew.

Brandon came back in with Robert a few minutes later, angry. "You should just kill us all and be done with it," he said to me.

"Brandon, that's enough," Robert said firmly.

Brandon's glare never left my face.

"I want to help, Brandon. Teaching your uncle more about my work can help ensure that."

"You're just in it for the money."

I chuckled slightly. "I no longer have need for money."

Brandon glared at me.

The next wave of pain swept over me. A dull throbbing started in my hips. Each throb increased in intensity as the grinding of bone reached my ears. My hips were breaking down, shortening in length. I shifted to try and relieve some of the pressure on my hips. Hundreds of hot needles danced across the hip muscles and tendons that were still attached. This felt worse than the nails that tried to come out from wherever they hid inside me. Cold tears slid down my cheeks as I waited for the pain to subside.

Pressure increased in my back and several ribs and vertebrae popped. I cried out in pain. Robert held my hand and stroked my much smaller head. The shift was pushing more of my internal organs toward my anus. There was a lot of pressure before my hips flipped themselves upside down. There was another pop of tearing tendons as my hips settled. I tried to regulate my breathing, but it was difficult. This change to my body was different than what my parent's had experienced. I never recalled this happening to them.

"Uncle, where's the bathroom?" Brandon asked.

"Just outside in the trees," Robert replied.

Brandon left the cabin.

Why was it different? It shouldn't have been different. I reviewed in my mind what Robert had read to me from the journals. To the questions I had yet to answer. I cried when I finally understood what my father had been trying to say in his first entry. I had the gene. How had I gotten it? Had it been given to me by my parents? If so, how had they gotten it? Yes there had been a change in their energy at the zoo, but nothing else had occurred to explain the change. Had my research team discovered this about me and not told me? I hadn't thought so. Not with how Donald had pushed for it once I was awake.

I tried to tighten my grip on Robert's hand. But only my index finger shifted slightly. I had an active gene. This was what my team and I wanted to see, to know how it would adapt and if it would express within the physical body. If my team knew this, why would they keep it from me? If they knew I had the gene, what had kept them from experimenting on me? How did I stop them from asking another terminally ill person to be experimented on? How did I keep them from experimenting on someone who's gene activated as mine had? I needed to know if it really had been The One Sided Battle to activate it. I needed to know how I had not seen it; how my team had not seen it.

"Robert?" I whimpered.

"What do you need, Tansy?" he asked.

"Blood test."

"What for?"

"You'll know once I walk you through the steps. Please."

"Alright."

Robert took a blood sample to test. I instructed him in our process for separating out the gene. Robert backed away from the microscope then looked again. He did this several times before he grabbed his notebook. He wrote all of his questions.

"What do you see Robert?" I asked.

He didn't answer me. He took a picture of the slide then cleaned everything up. Then he brought the camera over for me to look at it. With the active gene in my came the markers for my parents' disease. His eyes were conflicted. He watched me for several minutes. "How long have you known?" he finally asked.

"This last degradation made me realize. All tests previous to this one have been clear."

His brow furrowed. "I don't understand."

"Move the blanket," I whispered.

Robert moved the blanket. My nightgown had been pulled up with the hip shift, leaving a ballooned butt hanging out. "The Golden Eagle?" he checked.

I nodded, my throat constricting with my emotions.

"But how? The One Sided Battle is tearing you apart."

"I don't know." Tears filled my eyes. "I hope the activation of the gene in me doesn't affect Brandon."

"I'll do a blood test when he gets back."

"It won't matter if it activates as quickly as this has."

"How would we know?"

The cabin door opened and Robert covered me with the blanket once more.

Brandon crinkled his nose. "Where's the dead bird?" he asked.

"Damn it," I said, balling my hand into a fist.

"What's going on?" Brandon asked.

I opened my mouth to answer when my jaw broke and I started gagging on my blood.