Being Butch Green || ✓

Chapter 6 - Fear Does Strange Things

I clutched my bag harder to my chest.

"This can't be happening," I whispered to myself. "This can't be happening."

My mind was a swirling whirlpool. It was near impossible to think. Had I really stolen their file? Did I really possess the knowledge and nature of their research? Why did this have to happen to me?

Of all the files on the planet, I just had to take theirs, and if they found out, I'd be as good as dead. I secretly hoped they hadn't searched my bag after I'd passed out. The image of the smiling Hula filled my conscious mind. I tried to shake her free as she continued to bobble up and down in an irritating way.

"Go away!" I said, frustrated at her face.

"What was that little bro?"

"Nothing." I stared straight ahead, unblinking as I tried to rid her out of my mind. This was surely punishment for throwing her out of the window. She wasn't my only problem and yet, her stupid face was the only thing I could think of.

I shifted in my seat as we got further down the road. The pain in my ribs took a backfoot as my attention faulted. The words 'GALGORT MEDICAL LAB' played on repeat like a toddler swearing from the lips of the hula girl.

"Here we are boys," Jack exclaimed as the car rolled to a stop and I snapped out of my daydream. I glanced out the window as they began to pile out of the car like synchronised aerobatics.

A tall looming building sat upon a hill; half obscured by pine trees. The air smelt like damp rain as my eyes followed the dull grey cube down the perfectly linear stone stairs. The carpark, made of the sandy yellow rocks I used to put in my fish tank, crunched under Jack's foot as he methodically moved to the back door of the van. A pang, like a needle, struck my heart.

I gulped.

As the door to my only source of protection opened, the clicking heels of a young woman pushed past a stagnant Jack and peered in at me. Her legs were masked with stockings that matched her pale skin tone and she wore a styled black skirt just below the knees. Her face grimaced in disappointment as Jack stood up straighter and tugged his shirt down. Her fingers tapped the edge of the clipboard she clutched repeatedly, and she turned her pointed nose towards the sky.

"This is not what I wanted," she said, pursing her bright red lips over at me.

He smiled sheepishly at her. "No. This is much better."

She stared into the cusps of his soul, before flickering her piercing black eyes over at me. "It better be."

"Oh, it definitely is. You see-"

She raised her hand, silencing Jack. "I really don't care, Mr Green. Did you at least do your job?"

He nodded. "She is dead."

She bit her lip and nodded as I sat rigid with fear. "Fine. Put him out the back."

"Yes Miss." Jack turned to his bootlickers and nodded at them. My face transformed into its usual nervous smile as the pair trudged through the fish-rocks and reached in to pull me from my seat.

A rock began to rise in my throat as I was hulled to my feet, still clutching my backpack. I knew I was quite a sight when I was in this state; my mother always thought so. I knew the moment I turned to look at them that they also thought so, and unfortunately for them, they had front row tickets to the spectacle.

Confused and dazed, they stood there aloof for a few seconds, staring awkwardly at my smiling and blood-soaked face.

"What's he smiling at?" one of them leaned over and whispered to the other.