Chasing Life

Chapter 5

Leo worked through the days, worked through the nights. He smelled like smoke, could always hear the buzzing of machinery, looked like he was covered in what he made his projects out of. Prototypes, models, blueprints. They filled his workplace until he was sure he made a breakthrough.

The bottle he had made for Will still sat in his inside pocket, rubbing against his chest every time he moved. He saved it, saved it just as Nico had asked.

But he started to lose hope that the two soulmates were going to come back.

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Nico repositioned the heavy gun in his arms as he stared at the falling rain, the streets now flooded with water. It leaked into his boots, blurred his vision as he saw the last of the ambulances drive off. It had been a hard night, a hard job. But he saved more people than he thought he would have.

"Hey, di Angelo." Percy Reynolds, another on the team, came up to greet him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nico looked up at the sky. "Quite a storm."

"Indeed it is." Percy watched him closely. "Hey, Nico...have you ever heard of soulmates?"

"Not this shit again..." Nico sighed. "You've lectured me about them before, the whole writing on your skin thing. What's the point? I probably don't have one."

Percy scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Everyone does."

"Not me." Nico took his helmet off, letting the rain hit his face. "Ready for this paperwork?"

"And the meeting." Percy sighed. "Let's get going."

Nico scratched at his wrist, felt the itching of ink. He must have accidentally written on himself again.

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Nico sat back against the wall, a bottle of pop in one hand and his phone in the other. A hard day, a hard mission. He knew there'd be hard days when he signed up for the SWAT team, but he still could never get used to it.

A pain in his calf, a splatter of liquid falling to the floor.

"I don't know, Hazel." Nico stared at his sister's caller ID. "I'm too tired to think."

"Come on, Neeks." her voice blurted from the phone as robotic wavelengths. "It'll be fun, I promise. It's tomorrow at four."

Nico scowled. "Hazel..."

"Please?" another splatter of liquid, a sharp intake of breath. "Nico, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Nico hissed. "Pulled a muscle in my thigh, I think. It's been hurting since work."

"I heard about the situation on the news." Hazel's voice grew serious. "That guy sure knew how to take hostages. You sure you're okay? I know a couple of cops died-"

"I'm fine, Hazel." Nico hung the phone up without waiting for her response. He tossed it to the nearby couch, watched it bounce before settling onto the cushions. Red, just like...

"Damn it!" Nico set the bottle on the floor before moving his hands to his thigh, the pain having started to eat him alive. "What the hel-...hell..." He looked down at his hands, saw the blood that had covered them. "Hell...hell..."

He took his shirt off to put it to the wound, trying to stop the blood until he could get himself stitched up. With his arms bare, he saw the ink that he had felt earlier: 'I remember'.

"Remember what?" Nico's attention snapped away from the wound to stare at his wrist. "That's not even my handwriting...I remember..."

Another stab of pain sent him to his feet, his thoughts on the ink disappearing. He needed to fix himself up, needed to get to his first aid kit. A simple sentence didn't matter to him.

Who would have written on him, anyway? The others must have been messing with him.

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Leo felt the hot fuels of the fire, smelled the iron heating and cooling. His first task was almost complete, his first try was almost ready. Maybe he could stop these guys from ruining peoples lives, maybe he could stop sad stories like Will and Nico.

Maybe he could still fix their story, like he fixed his machines. Maybe he could fix them.

But he heard the Scrubs talking, heard the news that sent shivers down his spine. They had changed two experiments, switched them around, to see if it would work.

They had taken Nico's memories but let Will keep his. It'd be a fun show, they said. It might send their research further.

It would be a fun show.