POISON
Ozzie struggled not to drop the hypothalamus chain he had worked so hard on retrieving. He was lucky that he managed to split a hole in the middle before Thrax struck, or he would’ve been fried like all the cells have before him in their fate with the virus. But of course, Thrax was too clouded in his victory to see that.
“Too bad you won’t be there to see me break my record,” Thrax chuckled in his husky yet deadly malicious tone, “when I take down Frank’s pretty little girl!”
“She ain’t going down,” Ozzie grinned, bringing Thrax’s attention to his embedded claw on the false eyelash. “You are!”
Quickly, Ozzie split himself in half and escaped from under Thrax before reconnecting himself again. It was a sort of painful procedure—and he didn’t really like it when it happens—but in this case he’d make an exception.
A few seconds before the false eyelashes fell off Shane’s lower eyelid, Ozzie quickly jumped off it and grabbed onto one of the gooey adhesive strands that dangled just below Shane’s real eyelash, leaving Thrax screaming in denial behind his wake. The nurses were starting to urge Shane to go away so that they could do their job.
“Hey, hey, hey, no! Go back!” Ozzie exclaimed as he saw them moving further away. “Go back! Frank!”
The adhesive strand he was holding onto was starting to come off. As Shane struggled out of the nurses’ hands and ran back to her dying father, Ozzie knew he had to first move to solid higher ground. Wrapping the chain around his wrist, he quickly pulled himself up and was about to reach up for one of the real eyelash when…
“Gotcha!”
The feeling of as if being rammed over by an immunity car on a high-speed car chase hit him tenfold as he was forced to break his hold from the strand and cling onto the next thing he could hold onto unless he wanted to drop a thousand feet below to the floor where he could be trampled to death. The only thing he didn’t expect to be clinging onto was Thrax, still in one piece!
“What the Frank…Thrax?!” Ozzie struggled to get off him but was forced closer to the virus’ chest by a strong grip as they glided through the air.
“If I were you, I’d stay put, baby,” Thrax chuckled as he swerved to avoid a IV bag carried by a rushing male nurse. “Unless you’d like to end up coagulated by the atmosphere around you. It ain’t pretty.”
As disgusted and pissed as he was, Ozzie knew he was right. Unlike viruses, without the saline-like atmosphere every body has, cells would coagulate and it would be a matter of time before they suffocate in their coagulated shell and be broken into pieces like glass if not handled properly. Grudgingly, he allowed Thrax to hold him close while he held onto his turtleneck sweater, leaving the sobbing Shane to cry over her father’s dead body. Soon, they flew out of the hospital and out into the open air of human society.
“That’s our pit-stop,” Thrax announced.
Ozzie looked down. There was a teenager, probably a few years older than Shane, carrying a Pomeranian in her arms. Ozzie thought they were going to land on the girl, but instead, they landed on the dog.
“Let’s take a little breather, shall we, baby?”
--:--
“We’ll take a break before we move on to our next target,” Thrax fingered his chain nonchalantly as he removed his trench-coat and settled it on a nearby chair.
“How did you…I saw you fell! I saw you stuck on that eyelash! I saw you fell!” Ozzie screamed at the top of his lungs, lunging out forward to punch him but was stopped by Thrax’s grip.
“Do you really think that a false eyelash can hold me?” Thrax grinned as he subdued Ozzie and gave him a half-nelson, forcing him onto his knees. “All I had to do was increase the heat and it melted into putty just enough around my hand to pull out. Like I said, y’all makin’ this too easy.”
So saying, he pushed the poor cell down until his face was scraping against the floor. Using the chain that was still on Ozzie’s wrist, he wounded the loose end around the foot of the bed, tying Ozzie in place. The chain was elastic but strong; no matter how much Ozzie pulled and tugged, it would not break.
“This will have to do for now before I find a more proper restrainer,” Thrax said amusingly and sat on the bed, admiring his work.
“You…You murderer! You killed Frank! You killed Drix and Leah! You killed everyone! I hate you!!” Ozzie shouted at him, then spat at him, hitting the virus’ sweater.
“C’mon, baby, ain’t nothin’ to be so upset about,” Thrax didn’t sound the least bit offended by Ozzie’s actions as he wiped the spit off with his sleeve. “There are plenty of fishes in the sea. You’ll make new friends soon.”
“When I get out of this, I swear I’ll…”
“Kill me?” Thrax raised a brow. “Well, you almost did, I’ll give you that. You really are one cell of a guy, ain’t ya, Jones? Out of all the bodies I’ve been into, you were the only person that got me all figured out. You were the first person that I had ever had to break a sweat for. You are the only person that stood against me and fought me tooth and nail. I must admit, Jones, I am impressed. Although now, seems like the tables have turned.”
“Save the compliments for someone who would actually listen to this spit, Thrax,” Ozzie growled. “What are you waiting for? If it’s killing me that you want, you might as well just get over it!”
“After what you put me through? That’ll be too easy, baby. No, I have better plans for you. So much better.”
With that, he flexed out his signature glowing claw and, with a flick, burned off Ozzie’s clothes that dissolved like melted cheese. He then pressed the flat side of his finger hard against the middle of the cell’s chest, its heat spreading from it all the way throughout his body. It wasn’t a searing painful heat, but it was uncomfortable nonetheless. The heat soon engulfed Ozzie’s entire body from head to toe and by the time it was done, Ozzie’s body seemed to be dimly glowing like a table lamp of a night stand.
“W-W-What are you doing to me?” Ozzie stammered, although the answer was practically screaming in his head.
“Oh, just a mild modification to your body,” Thrax said as he kissed his claw as if in a self-congratulatory manner. “Since you’re gonna stick around with me, you might as well be physically compatible. I have partially infected you with my venom. Now, instead of having to worry about you freezing up like a popsicle every time we go outside, you can walk around with me in the atmosphere freely like me.”
Ozzie held up his hands in front of his face, looking incredulously at the glow. He still looked basically normal; the only difference was that his membrane was glowing like neon lights with the shine of pale orange, like a very dimmed version of Thrax’s signature claw.
“Why…Why are you doing this to me?” Ozzie demanded. “What exactly do you want from me?!”
“Patience, baby,” Thrax chuckled in that tone that Ozzie knew spelt trouble ahead. “You’ll know soon enough. Now get some rest. We’ll be moving on to the next body in 2 days tops.”
“I…I thought you wanted to take Shane down…”
“She’s old news now,” Thrax kicked his boots off. “I’m no longer interested in small fries like her. Would be just as easy as taking down Frank for the likes of me anyway. ‘Sides, I got you to play with. Probably be so much more interesting than breaking records now that I have you. Oh, I am going to enjoy breaking you, Jones, you can count on it.”
Ozzie would’ve succeeded in punching him if it weren’t for Thrax gripping his hand again, staring down at him warningly with his killer claw out until Ozzie loosened his clenched fist in defeat.
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