Frozen Ones

Chapter 3 (Lio)

A hand grabbed his arm. It was covered in blood, scratches ran across the pale skin. It trembled, but still gripped him surprisingly tightly.

"Let me go," he gasped, unable to look at the figure's face. But he was sure who it was.

"Why?" Brian's cold voice asked.

Now he couldn't do anything else, but to turn around. It was like an accident: terrible and frightening but you couldn't look away. Brian's face was almost unrecognizable. Everything was covered in blood and literally dismembered.

"I – I can't help it," he stammered. "I didn't know it would happen like this. And now I just can't get out!" Fear crept up on him and flooded his veins like ice.

Brian slowly shook his head. "Of course you can do something about it. You could leave or take action against it. But you don't." Brian came closer and closer, but he couldn't move, not a bit. "You're scared."

With these words, Brian gave him a shove. He stumbled backwards and fell. But he didn't hit the ground. He fell into a lake. Water surrounded him on all sides and he continued to sink. He kicked violently with his arms and legs, but the shore moved away from him.

The last thing he saw before he sank into the black depths was Brian's face. His dead eyes staring back at him.

He couldn't breathe anymore. His lungs burned.

He drowned.

He died.

He finally received his just punishment...

Lio jumped out of bed, panting. Sweat had soaked his shirt and it took him some time to calm his breathing. He should be used to dreams like this by now. They came to see him every night, so why were they still taking him like that?

A glance at his alarm clock told him it was three in the morning. He still had so much time before he had to leave for work, but he already got out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

After taking a cold shower and freshening up, he retreated to the balcony of the large penthouse with a blanket and his laptop. From here he could look out over all the skyscrapers, their lights shining like false stars in the night.

How long should this continue?

He just couldn't do it anymore. He could no longer abuse the frozen ones, after all they were human beings too. People just like him. He didn't want that. Of course, it would be nice if they finally made a scientific breakthrough. Then he could help his mother. And himself ...

But that was damn selfish and it wasn't his place to hurt the others just because it helped him.
Still, his own thoughts sometimes frightened him. He finally received his just punishment. Had it really gotten to the point where he wanted his death? Was that why he had been working all this time? To give up in the end and leave his mother, who had wanted to give him every opportunity, alone?

It was crazy! No matter what route he took, no matter what option he pursued, someone always ended up getting hurt. Was his mere existence so problematic?

Suddenly he noticed something on his computer screen. Experienced as he was, he had even opened his mailbox, lost in thought, without expecting anything. But in his compartment, according to the flashing 1, there was a message from the laboratory. Apparently it had been sent just before midnight, right when he got home and collapsed onto the bed, exhausted.

Unsure how to feel about this, he clicked on the email and a short message with two PDFs attached filled the screen. It didn't take him long to scan everything - but the news still shocked him. It wasn't anything new or surprising, but he didn't like it.

Two new frozen ones had been caught. Leonie Braun, a 30-year-old part-time call center worker, and Jack, a 32-year-old bartender whose last name could not be found. Both were suspected of having a very severe form of the syndrome, as Lio found out when studying the attached files.

Leonie had apparently withdrawn a lot and was so mentally exhausted that she tried to throw herself onto a railway track. Investigations had revealed that most of the family members she had lived with or spent much time with had died. She apparently inherited the gene from her mother, but she committed suicide before the organization could track her down.

Jack had been abandoned in the bar as a baby and was raised by the owners at the time. They hadn't given him a last name. Later they also died and Jack had taken over the bar at some point. What was striking, however, was how well he had adapted to life as a frozen one without knowing his true identity. So he got into the habit of wearing gloves and was able to avoid direct skin contact with others, which reduced the risk to them.

With one last look at the message, Lio switched off his laptop and closed his eyes. How many were there now? Twelve? They got everything they wanted, but they didn't know what awaited them if Ms. Prinz and the others made a breakthrough. Lio was sure that no one would hesitate to harm the frozen ones in order to finally end the research project.

And himself? Would he do it? Could he take a person's life? 

Who should he choose? The frozen ones or his mother, himself and all of humanity?