Origins Unkown

chapter 6

"What do I tell the boss?"

He got in the car, turned it around and headed out of town. He had a few hours to decide what to do with Shadow.

John was on auto-pilot. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was going. His mind was over loaded with too many thoughts of his lonely future without the woman he loved. When he snapped back to reality, he realized he was only a few miles from the office. The boss would be in his office getting the assignments ready. He pulled into the parking lot and went around to the boss's 'secret' door. He took a deep breath, got out of the car and went to the door. He knocked three times and waited. John turned to get back in the car and go around to the front when the door flung open and the boss ran out to the car and peered into the back seat.

"What the hell happened, John?"

"She won. She beat the monster. She ate his hearts." He said sadly, trying very hard not to cry in front of the boss.

"Let's get her inside." He said quietly. John gathered her up in his arms and carried her through the door. He almost dropped her when he came into the room.

"What the hell is this place?"

"This is where Shadow comes to recoup after a bad fight." The boss said, turning on the lights.

"So you know what she is? I mean you know what she can do?" John stumbled for the right words.

"Yes. I've know Shadow my whole life. She saved me from being ripped apart by a rogue vampire when I was six. She took care of me and we built this company together."

"She's gone now. What do we do? What do I do?" John said finally breaking down.

"Pull yourself together man. She's gone, but not like you think. She's not dead. She's in a state of hibernation, like being in a coma."

"What?! How do you know that?"

"I've seen her do it before. I need to know what, if anything, she said before this happened."

John began telling the boss the horrible story. When he was finished, the boss walked over to a closet and opened it. There were hundreds of small bottles inside.

"What are those?" John asked confused.

"This is Shadow's idea. These are all the antidotes to every poison she has ever come across."

"So, which one do we try first?" John asked amazed.

"I have no idea. I don't know what kind of poison she has in her. I need to draw blood."

"That may be a problem. I gave her quite a bit of my blood." John said.

"It's fine. I need to draw from around the heart. That's where she would contain the poison."

"Oh. Let's get started then, I can't stand to see her like that." John got up and went to change clothes and scrub his hands. He kept a spare sweat suit in his locker just in case.

When he returned to the small room, the boss was getting an injection ready.

"I'll get started with the injections. I'll do one at a time every ten minutes. If that doesn't work we'll have to start mixing them until we get the right one." The boss said.

John simply nodded and walked over to the cot Shadow was laying on. He sat down beside her and took her hand in his.

"Come on baby. Come back to me. I need you." He whispered. The boss came over with this first injection.