By Design

The Metamorphosis of Hyde into Hadley

'You what?'

I couldn't even gape at him disbelievingly.

'You're not a Natural?' I repeated, hoping that I could convince myself of that notion by saying it aloud. Elliot didn't meet my eyes; he stood there, seemingly deep in thought, but I knew that his full attention was on me, on my reaction.

'...yes, Teresa,' he murmured. 'I'm not a Natural.'

There was nothing else I could say at this point. Well, my mind was bursting with a thousand questions but I gained self-control and kept quiet. He'd tell me what he wanted to himself and I wasn't going to push it.

'You probably have a lot of questions right now.'

Yes.

'And you're probably utterly confused.'

You can say that again.

'But I've been stressing over what to say to you...how to say it to you...and I've decided,' he sucked his teeth, 'I've decided that I'll tell you everything. If you can be bothered to hear all this shit you probably don't care about, that is,' he added awkwardly.

'Elliot,' I said, ensuring that he was looking at me properly. 'I do. I do want to hear it.' He managed a weak smile and leaned against the edge of the wall, gazing up to the sky. This wasn't the first time that I'd seen his distant look. Sometimes when we were together, he'd detach himself from the world. His body moved normally but his eyes were in another dimension.

Those were the few moments that I wished that I could read minds, but that interest never ventured beyond a slight curiosity and I never spoke to him about it.

And now wasn't the time to ask him either. I had to wait for him.
'We were an ordinary family,' he finally broke the silence. 'Living in an ordinary town. We weren't rich, we weren't poor, but we managed well with what we had. And,' he closed his eyes and his forehead creased deeply. 'We were happy.'

I shuffled closer to him and leaned on the wall next to him.

'My dad was a software engineer. He'd already been pioneering the technology for Wave since before I was born, but it was still under development while we lived in town and his company was far too small to make any significant impact in the world of technology.

'It was all so normal. So calm, so care-free. We were a close family, myself, my parents and my three brothers. Even if we didn't have luxuries and robodogs and shit, it felt like we already had everything in the world.' Elliot clenched his fists tightly, a pained expression of longing twisting his face. I still couldn't find any words to say to him.

'Those perfect memories shattered within a year,' his voice darkened so heavily that I began to feel nervous. I don't think Elliot would ever hurt me, but if he snapped now, he'd probably crush his fist against the wall. It would take more than the couple of plasters in my bag to tend to that.

'When I was around ten, Wave's progress skyrocketed and my dad hit big. Really, really big. It was absolutely sensational in the technology community.

'We were all so so excited. So happy for my father's success because we knew how hard he'd worked and he deserved that bit of spotlight and the attention that was so generously paid to him. Those glory days lasted for a few months,' he spoke through gritted teeth. 'But it didn't last. It was never meant to last.'

'Never meant to last,' I echoed silently beside him. I knew this feeling. It was more familiar to me than I was comfortable with.

'It started off slowly at first. We had the money to taste a few luxuries for once in our entire lives and to upgrade our lifestyles. We were still attached as a family, but there was a different sort of atmosphere that settled between us. Even though I was only ten at the time, I was still suspicious about it. I just didn't do anything. Why would I? Why I would waste my time trying to decipher what a dumb feeling meant when I had all those brand new shit to play with?' He laughed bitterly and slammed his hand against the wall.