Chapter 10

Anders feels strange, like he is floating, suspended in a pool of water. But that is just silly. The last thing he remembers is leaving the office with his co-worker covered in his cum. After that, everything is a blank. His mind reels, seeking the lost time, if any. Everything is dark, but warm. He feels good, like he is a baby in his mother’s womb. How he knows how this feels is because he has been there before. It’s not a memory, at least he doesn’t think so, but a feeling.

Slowly, he opens his eyes like he would were it morning. Everything is blurry, much like it is in the morning, but this is different. Everything is different. He is in water! Panic takes him and he fails wildly in the water. I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! But there isn’t a need to. There is something attached to his face. He reaches up to feel it. It is some kind of breathing apparatus, though he can’t tell much more than that.

There is a sudden show that passes over, at least that’s what Anders thinks it is. He tries to look through and beyond the murky water. Everything is dark save for a small splay of light coming through the other side. Darkness covers and uncovers the light and he is ever more certain it was a shadow. And, if there is a light, then there certainly has to be a way out of wherever it is that he is. Hysterically he tries to move, swim and climb through the viscous fluid, but finds he can’t gain any amount of ground.

Panic once again starts to overtake him. But just as quickly as it begins to set in, the liquid begins to drain. Once it is all gone, the mask supplying his much needed air, pulls away with a suctioning pop. He takes his first gulp of air, and it feels like he has been reborn, taking his first gasp of air on his own. With clear eyes and without the distortion of the fluid, Anders sees that he is in some kind of pod, and it is much smaller than he initially thought. And the other side with the light filtering through is open.

Cautiously, he steps forward, to the edge of the doorway. Where panic had first tried to pry its way in, fear now takes its place. With still no knowledge of how he got here or no memory after leaving Ashley in the office, he is certainly uncertain of what comes next. He takes a steadying breath, the cool air welcoming as it fills his lungs. Then he takes his first step outside the pod.

The first thing he sees is the cabin, his cabin. His eyes dart to the front door, which is securely shut and then to the left. Instantly he freezes. Sitting in the corner, and looking very much decayed, is his co-worker, Ashley. “What the fuck...” he begins to say when a noise catches his attention. He looks further to his left to see his wife standing at the sink, obviously finishing up the dishes. “Do you kill her?” he blatantly asks.

The woman turns around to face the man, but she is not Janelle, but Mela. “Of course not,” she answers. “But I did her.”

Anders cannot believe what he is seeing, nor the puzzling answer she gives. He looks back to the corner, and this time he sees not Ashley, but his wife. “What the fuck is going on?” he whispers. “I’ve had enough of this.”

“I can explain everything,” Mela says, drawing his attention back to her. This time she has wings. Not small ones, but full sized bat wings. Anders thinks gargoyle, but that can’t be right. “I need to explain everything for the process to finish.”

“What process?” he asks.

“Your mind has to accept the changes, the fiction, for it to be over,” she continues, unhindered by his question. “You have been relieving the last part of the life you once knew.”

“Are you saying my confusion is some dream?” he asks, not understanding this riddle at all. “Is that why I don’t remember coming here? Is this why nothing seems right?”

“Yes,” Mela hisses. “I am inside you right now. I have been influencing your mind to accept the changes within you.”

Anders drops his head, his mind a swirl of memories that he isn’t sure are even his, given the revelation. When he lifts it up he asks, “When did it start?”

“When you met Ashley outside of work for the first time,” she replies coolly.

“But she said she didn’t remember you,” he counters. “She was adamant that you were never there then or any time after.”

“Of course she would,” Mela says with a smirk. “I influenced and changed your memories. I made her forget about me to benefit me.”

“Then you showing up at the parking lot?” he questions, trying to separate his memories from the false ones.

“I wasn’t there,” she admits. “And I wasn’t there that same night in the living room. In fact you went straight to bed and dreamed of the excitement you had in the parking lot.”

“But it seemed so real.”

“Because it kind of was,” she says, her smirk turning into a smile. “You dreamt of Ashley that night. You dreamt she showed up and caught you. I merely manipulated your thoughts and placed me in her place.”

“The shower was real at least?” he asks, hoping that there is at least something real in his head.

“Everything except for seeing me in the mirror,” she informs him.