Good Enough (Scomiche)

Ch 5. Fear

A/N OK. I'm pretty sure this where I'm going to lose some people. 

Just a disclaimer. None of this is historically/scientifically/medically accurate. It's just me and my stupid brain. 

Hopefully it's not too hard to follow ?

Good luck. May the force be with you.

(Will be proofing in a bit so sorry for spelling etc errors) 

_______________________________

I thought I knew him. 

For all of these years, I thought I knew everything there was to know about Mitch Grassi. I thought I knew him as well, if not better than I knew myself.

I was beyond wrong. 

I remained silent for a few moments after he finished speaking. I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t even sure that this was anything more than a joke, but the look on his face and the tears that were glossing over the fear in his eyes, the sobs shaking his shoulders, it all told me that it was real. I’d never seen his hands tremble the way they did as they reached out for me.

“Please say something…” He sounded small, like a terrified child. “I love you, please…” 

He was so afraid I was going to get up and leave him. I could tell. He held on to me, his strong arms around my body ready to hold on if it came to it. 

Did the truth change the way I felt about him? At the time, a little. You expect the person you love to trust you, you expect the person you trust with everything to be able to trust you the same way in return. 

I wondered how many lies he’d had to tell me to cover it all up. 

But then another question. 

Just because I knew about his past didn't tell me about where he'd disappeared to or why. But did I really want to know? My head said yes, but I wasn’t sure my heart was ready for it. Still, I asked anyway. 

Again, I wished I hadn’t. 

The truth was a million times more horrible than anything I could have come up with my own imagination. Mitch didn’t look at me the entire time. He looked distant as if he was remembering every dreadful moment. 

It was horrifying. If I had ever thought that I had gone through the worst 6 years that anyone could possibly go through, Mitch had just proven me wrong. 

But what did it all mean? What did it change? 

Was I supposed to ask more questions, or console the trembling man who clung so desperately to my body? 

Was I supposed to tell him that it was all ok? Was I supposed to say that things were going to be just fine or was I supposed to run away? 

At that moment I was completely frozen, unable to do anything.

I went back to the beginning of the truth. I let it replay over in my head again...over and over. 

~~~~~~~~~

“About thirty years ago there were a chain of unsolved disappearances throughout the major cities of the United States: Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston and others. 200 homeless women between the ages of 18 and 25. They were never found, not one.” 

What a way to start. My heart was pounding in my chest. How did this have anything to do with him? 

“They were used as part of an experiment. A company, AdAstra, non-government, was trying to produce advanced genetics. Some of the greatest minds in the world were all brought together by one man who had more money than he knew what to do with. Together they came up with so many theories, ways to swap DNA coding, ways to change hair color, height, build, eye color. They attempted ways to create immunities to disease, sickness.