Poison-Chp7

During the journey to Buffalo, Ozzie was not allowed to leave the bed or do any menial tasks. Thrax insisted that he rest after the forced miscarriage he gave him and made him wrap an ice pack everyday on the bruise around his middle to heal quicker. Cox offered to provide food for Ozzie’s recovery and his children Tiki, Miki, Viki and Kiki were in charge of sending it to him—since Thrax didn’t want to trust anyone else that had to do with rat city—and keeping the cell company at the same time.

“So, Dad told us you’re from the immunity force,” Tiki said one day during their lunch delivery. “Is it true?”

“You bet I was. I was the baddest booty-shakin’ cop in all of Downtown Frank,” Ozzie replied as he opened the food container. Looking in, he saw today’s lunch was some sort of greenish-yellow blob that looked like it was regurgitation from last week. Grimacing, he poked at it with a spoon, not sure whether to eat it for the sake of the kids or just chuck it out of the window.

“That means you must’ve caught a lot of bad guys back in your city,” Viki said, pouring Ozzie’s drink in a cup. It looked and smelled like coffee, so Ozzie took comfort in that, although it felt a little ironic that Viki mentioned him catching ‘bad guys’ when the kids’ parents and half-strain uncle were literally the ‘bad guys’ themselves. He knew whatever he was going to say next was pushing it, but since there was no one he knew around to debunk him, a little bragging wouldn’t hurt.

“Yup. The force practically begged me to take their case off their hands, and I had to handle everything big and small. They even called me ‘The Germ-inator’!”

“Wow~! ‘The Germ-inator’? That sounds really cool!” Miki looked at Ozzie admiringly.

“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet! I once took down a whole team of bacteria-s with my bare hands. They ain’t even from Frank’s body, like some el loco germ or something. I’ve got connections from the Flu Shot Virus all the way to the Hepatitis Vaccine Bros lining up to spare me some inside info. Heck, I had to beat the ladies off with a stick just to get a little me-time…”

“Then how come you ended up being Uncle Thrax’s pet?” Kiki asked with a skeptical look.

“Uh, well, um…” Ozzie had not expected that coming. “Well, it’s a little bit of a long story, really…”
“But the gist of it is that our little Ozzie is crazy about me.”

“Hi, Uncle Thrax!”

Ozzie looked up grudgingly at the virus who came in at the nick of time. He patted each kid on the head and sat on the bed right beside Ozzie, kissing the cell’s forehead.

“Is it really?” Miki asked. “Were you really crazy about Uncle Thrax?”

“Um, well, I wouldn’t put it that way…” Ozzie tried to worm his way out of it but Thrax chuckled and ruffled Ozzie’s hair.

“Aww, c’mon, baby, you don’t have to be shy about it. I mean, it was practically love at first sight when we met at the nasal dam.”

“He pursued you?” Kiki asked, eager to hear more.

“In a way, yes. He tracked me down all the way to The Zit Club to get a glimpse of me, yet he was so shy he had to bring along a friend to accompany him. I swear, baby, that cold pill friend of yours wasn’t exactly very helpful. In the end, you literally blew me away with your charm.”

Ozzie pouted and looked away. Thrax was practically rephrasing their whole encounter, and he was in no position to correct him.

“And then what happened?” Viki asked, her eyes shining as if they were listening to the most romantic fairytale.

“Yeah, tell us, Uncle Thrax,” Tiki was eager to know as well.

“Shouldn’t you take over from here?” Thrax eyed mischievously at Ozzie, in which the cell pouted again and absentmindedly licked the greenish-yellow blob he poked at off the spoon, not exactly tasting it.

“Go ahead and tell them yourself, Master. They asked you, not me.”

Thrax grinned and turned to his nieces and nephews and continued, “Well, he’s always chasing after yours truly here, until he got fired from his job for obsessing too much over me rather than doing his work. I took down Frank, of course, and he got jealous because he thought I decided to take a she-cell with me instead of him. He ganged up with his cold pill friend to stop me under the pretense of arresting me so that he could get his job back, but that she-cell was not really important to me to begin with, just a silly broad as my getaway hostage. We fought for a while, settled our difference and when I asked him if he wanted to be my pet since he loves me so much, he literally crashed into the deal. The rest is history.”

The children oohed and aahed at Thrax’s story, enjoying the lies thoroughly. Ozzie fought the urge to roll his eyes at this display. Only kids like them would fall for that sort of tall tale.

“So do you really love him that much, Mr. Ozzie?” Viki turned to ask the cell, who was caught by surprise at this question.

“Well, uh, I…”

“Of course he loves him, stupid!” Tiki slapped Viki on the back of her head. “If he didn’t love him, he wouldn’t become Uncle Thrax’s pet now, would he? He wouldn’t even wear the ring around his neck.”

“It’s not a ring, it’s a collar, you dum-dum!” Viki slapped him back. They would’ve had a brawl and squabbled till no end if Thrax didn’t give them a warning look and if Kiki hadn’t held the both of them back.

“So are you going to marry Uncle Thrax and officially be in the family, Mr. Ozzie?” Miki asked with wondering eyes.

“Your dad has already accepted him into the family, baby,” Thrax cut in before Ozzie could mutter something incoherent again. “That’s good enough for us.”

“Aww…But I wanna see Mr. Ozzie in a nice pretty white wedding dress.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Miki,” Kiki scowled in disgust. “Mr. Ozzie is a he-cell. He can’t wear your stupid white wedding dress!”

“So what? You can see that Mr. Ozzie is the ‘girl’ in the relationship! There’s nothing wrong with him wearing a pretty wedding dress!”

“And you four have already outstayed your welcome,” Thrax growled as he picked two children each under his arms and carried them out of the room. Ozzie could hear the kids protesting as Thrax carried them downstairs and out the front door before closing it at their faces. Moments later, he heard the virus’ incoming footsteps as he made his way back up again into the room.

“They’re gone for now,” Thrax grinned as he sat back beside him. “Finally, a bit of peace and quiet, eh, baby?”

“Yes, Master,” Ozzie replied quietly as he finally started eating his lunch they brought him properly. It didn’t taste as bad as it looked, much to the cell’s relief. Before he could take another bite, Thrax’s claws suddenly reached out to take the food container away and put it on the bedside table.

“Lie down,” Thrax ordered. “I want to see your bruise.”

Ozzie obeyed and lied down. Thrax undid the night robes and unwrapped the bandages that held the ice pack in place on Ozzie’s middle before inspecting the bruise. It wasn’t as bad as it first formed, but it was still there.

“Does it still hurt, baby?” Thrax asked as he pressed the bruise with the flat side of his normal claw. Ozzie winced but not immediately.

“A little bit.”

“We’ll be reaching Buffalo by tomorrow morning, so I want you to be prepared,” Thrax said as he replaced the ice pack and rewrapped the bandages around Ozzie’s middle. “Majah is quite the tailor and is finishing your new clothes as we speak, because I will not have you walking around showing off your bruise to everyone. But you must remember to bring along those clothes I gave you when we leave this city. Understand?”

“Yes, Master,” Ozzie nodded as he reached over to take the food container to continue eating but was pulled away again by Thrax. “Is…Is something wrong, Master?”

“No,” Thrax smiled and took the spoon from the table. “You’ve been a good boy these days. I’m going to reward you. Now open wide.”

Ozzie felt a little awkward, but he complied with Thrax’s orders. Opening his mouth, he allowed Thrax to spoon-feed him his lunch and help him drink his coffee-like beverage. As he ate, he remembered the last time he was being spoon-fed like this. When he was 10, Frank fainted when he accidentally inhaled mustard gas while trying to help out Shane along with his late wife to do her science assignment, and the fumes he inhaled caused Ozzie and his classmates who were doing a school trip to the nasal dam at that time all sick with respiratory poisoning. His mother stayed day and night in the hospital tending to Ozzie, including spoon-feeding him his meals. Thrax noticed his forlorn look and took his chin, tilting his head to face him.

“You seem upset, baby. Don’t you like your reward?”

“No, no, I mean, I like it, Master, really…” Ozzie replied hurriedly so as not to offend the virus.

“But…?”

“It’s just…” Ozzie finally sighed and said, “It’s just that…well…I’m thinking about my own family.”

“What about them?”

“I just…Well, I didn’t exactly grow up in a proper family and all that. Sure, they were perfect and all, but…but that was while they lasted. I was 12 when I lost them all: my parents, my relatives, my newborn baby sister…”

“Care to tell me what happened to them?” Thrax asked as he stirred at the food with the spoon, seemingly all ears.

“I only understood what really happened when I was 16, fresh outta high school and working my way to do college in some silly cheap budget educational program that only exist when you grow up in the wrong side of the digestive system. Apparently Frank cut his calf after Shane made him take cycling exercise to persuade him to lose weight. We were having some sort of Jones family reunion gathering at that time at the Love Handles Festival and when Frank bled, everyone but me was taken in by the current, bleeding out along with everybody who just so happen to be on the spot. I could barely remember some guy holding onto me while everyone, including my darling baby sister, was swept out of Frank’s calf, probably coagulated and gone for good. It took them 3 days to find out that I was living all alone in an empty home with no one else to take care of me after the incident. I was soon relocated to A Home for Crisis Victims—and it’s not exactly heaven on Frank—with the picture of my great-great-grandpappy as my only inspiration to join the force just as the fathers of my family did. I tried to do them proud. As soon as I graduated from college, I slaved my way through immunity training and sat through all the exams just to get into the force. I may have bungled a little, but at least I passed and got my badge and gun. I tried to show the force I could be just as good as my fathers before me in the force were. I jumped into any chance I could to prove to those who knew them that I could do it, that I could ace this and become the Star of the Force just as they did.

“But no one liked me butting in. No one wanted me to get too involved in cases. The chief always gave me mediocre stuff to do and I was always the laughing stock of the force. They say I always screw up, that I always never follow orders and were always the rebel in the field, when the truth was that they never let me settle on a real worthwhile case to prove my worth. They all thought I was a nuisance, a shameful existence in the PD and a crazy megalomaniac who was an attention- and adventure-seeker who should be kept in a loony bin. They didn’t believe me when I tried to tell them that I made Frank puke because I saw a virus on board an oyster ready to come in. They suspended me for ‘unnecessary force’ and threw me into the worse patrol they could think of to ‘keep me out of trouble’. They sure as hell didn’t believe me when I told them you exist, and I got fired for it. They believed me too late, and now they’re all dead before I could…Sometimes there is something deep down inside me that felt that Shane deserved to be humiliated and let her father become what he was because it was her fault my family died, but I knew my father would never wanted me to do that, no matter how Frank hurt me…And now you’re rewarding me the way my Mama used to treat me, and your cousin Cox and his kids treating me like I have been with you like forever, like as if I am really one of you…It’s just…I dunno, some sort of feeling I missed out for so long, probably something that I no longer knew I’ll ever feel, what with my cruddy life…It feels…”

“Nostalgic? Painful?” Thrax suggested.

“A little bit of both, I guess.”

“You will grow into it soon enough. You will soon understand that humans, no matter how much you try to help them save their lives and keep them going, will never learn from their lessons. You will slowly understand that humans will always figure out creative ways to destroy themselves no matter how much you slave away, throwing your life out of the window to undo the damages they do to themselves. All the eating, smoking, drug-taking, lazing about, suicides, etc…All those are things that will make you see that it is not worth it to risk everything you have to rescue a body that will soon wither away and die, taking you along with it. You will know in time that it is better to just be rid of them rather than wasting your time letting them live on things that will kill you sooner or later. You will see as well how rewarding it can be as long as you stay as my pet and what a right choice it is to let me dominate you and leave that stupid body that gave you nothing but grief…”

“Frank didn’t give me grief,” Ozzie looked up at him, slightly offended by that last remark. “You did. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be lying here with nothing to do and aching every time I try to move. I wouldn’t be here thinking about what I could’ve done to save Frank from dying and not making a poor girl an orphan, possibly living a life of misery under her Uncle Bob. I wouldn’t be here beating up myself for all the guilt I might have caused due to Frank’s death, subsequently Drix, my only friend, and Leah, the girl of my dreams, to die with him. I wouldn’t even be in this whole friggin’ mess.”

Thrax looked long and hard at him. Ozzie retaliated with the same gaze. He knew whatever he just said was going to warrant him another punishment of the day, but at that moment, he didn’t care. Technically it was Thrax’s fault that Frank died and his friends and beloved was killed; that he was partially infected and glowing like a freaky neon light; that he was moving from place to place whether he liked it or not dressed like a hooker and that he questioned his sexuality; that he was subjected and will be subjected to the ‘carrot and stick’ method and all the virus’ crazy sexual fantasies; that he was raped by Finn and got knocked up with his spawn and experienced his first miscarriage. It was all Thrax’s fault to begin with, and this was the cell’s only chance to let him know that.

Ozzie flinched as Thrax lay his hand on the cell’s cheek. He braced himself for whatever punishment the virus might give him and submitted himself to the fate of Thrax’s wrath that will soon be incurred on him, but surprisingly it never came. He opened his clenched eyes and saw for a split second that Thrax’s face was strewn with emotions of…concern? Guilt? Sorrow?

Before he could make sense of what he saw, Thrax’s lip captured his own in a deep kiss, his skillful tongue dance making Ozzie melt against his will yet again. Only when both of their lungs were protesting for air then the virus let him go. Panting silently through his swollen lips, Ozzie felt his crimson cheek being slapped lightly.

“You’re just throwing a tantrum because you’re bored in bed,” Thrax said as the emotion Ozzie thought he saw was gone. “I will punish you properly later. Now finish your lunch. I need to see Majah about your new clothes.”

Confused, Ozzie continued to let Thrax spoon-feed him and help him drink. After finishing his lunch, Thrax ruffled Ozzie’s hair and left.

Whatever punishment Thrax had in mind, Ozzie prayed to Frank that the virus would forget about it eventually.