Savage Genesis, part 16

"Mom, it's me. I promise. I'm in New York. I know I've been gone a while but I can explain everything. But I need some money so I can buy an Amtrak ticket," Adam said. There was a silence. For a moment, he was afraid that she didn't believe him, that she'd think he was some teenaged hooligan playing a very bad prank on her.

"Adam?" She said finally. Her voice waivered and sounded like it might break. "Is it really you?"

"Yes, mom. It's really me," he answered. He heard what sounded like his mother gently sobbing on the other end of the line. "I missed you so much," he added. He gave her time to get out what she needed to, he had had to deal with his abduction in his own way so he'd let her deal with it in hers.

"I thought I'd lost you," she finally said.

"No, I'm fine. But I need you to wire me some money so I can come home."

"Okay," she said. "Let me get cleaned up and I'll go do that."

"Thanks, Mom. I'll see you soon."

He hung up with his mother and walked out of the station, saying goodbye to the officers who brought him in. They were a nice bunch of guys and they all shared a quick laugh about it. There were no hard feelings. He asked for directions to Penn Station and they gave it to him. He had hoped to get a ride but they didn't offer and he didn't ask.

Adam walked to Penn Station. He got his money and bought a ticket. He boarded his Boston-bound train. Other then a few side glances at his scraggly appearance and people refusing to sit next to him due to the smell coming off his clothes, his ride was unnoteworthy. With some help from sheer exhaustion and the gentle rocking of the train, he managed to finally fall asleep.

He got off the train at the end of the line, South Station in Boston. He walked into the terminal in a daze. He shuffled in and went downstairs to get on the T. He was moving on muscle memory without any real thought. He heard people whisper and saw a couple of them pointing. He didn't know if they were responding to the newspaper article or if they were more surprised by Whit.

Adam boarded the red line, changed to the green and got off at his old stop. He walked to his apartment without more than a fleeting thought. He noticed that the laundromat that he'd used was closed now and had been turned into a Dunkin' Donuts. He stopped at Britney's apartment building. Her red Taurus was sitting outside. The car made him realize where he was. He looked at the building again. He tried to figure out what he'd say to her. He figured it'd come to him, after all he'd done alright with his mother.

He walked to the door and pulled it open (depsite the elapsed months it seemed that the landlord still hadn't fixed the broken latch on the front door). He walked down the hall to his apartment and knocked on the door. He heard movement on the other side of the door. Chris opened the door.

"Yes?" Chris asked as he suspiciously eyed Adam. Adam too was caught off guard by Chris' appearance.

"Is... does Britney still live here?" Adam asked. The Taurus wasn't the most uncommon car, maybe it belonged to someone else in the apartment building. Or perhaps Britney had even sold it to whoever bought the apartment from her.

"Yes, she does." Chris was getting defensive now. "What is this about exactly?"

"Please, Adam said sincerely, "Please." He found he had difficulty finishing his sentence. Chris made a face. He couldn't figure out what Adam was doing there but he was pretty sure that he didn't like it. "I just want to see here. I need to see her."

"Who is it?" Adam heard Britney ask from the other room. Adam perked up.

"No one," Chris said.

"Britney!" Adam shouted. He pushed the door open. Startled, Chris took a step backwards. "Britney!" Adam shouted again as he started for the bedroom.

"Hey, get out of here!" Chris shouted. He grabbed Adam's shoulder. Adam shook it off. Thinking his fiancee was in danger, Chris reared back and punched Adam. His hand almost broke as it collided with Adam's jaw. Adam on the other hand, barely noticed. Chris, sensing Adam was about to go into the bedroom, tackled Adam to the ground.

Britney ran into the room. Adam, happy to see her, stood up and walked to her, dragging Chris behind. Adam leaned over and nonchalantly backhanded Chris, knocking him to the ground.

"Chris!" she shouter and ran to him.

Adam watched in silence as she ran past him and knelt down beside this man he did not know or even recognize. She reached out and stroked Chris' cheek. Light gleamed off of Britney's engagement ring. Adam's jaw dropped.

"Britney?" He asked in disbelief.

She looked up at Adam, recognition dawned on her.

"Adam?"

He wanted to speak to her, to tell her how much he loved her, how he'd missed her and dreamed of holding her again. He also wanted to ask who was this man and why was she wearing that huge ring (he noticed it was bigger than anything he could have gotten for her). He wanted to say all this and more. But as he stood there, looking down at her he found he couldn't say a single word to her.

He turned and walked out.

He didn't know where to go. His reunion with Britney had been one of the main driving forces that allowed him to survive his torture. He flagged a cab and took it to his mom's house. He handed over the remainder of his cash. The driver was sensitive enough to sense Adam's lonliness and isolation, he was no so sensitive as to not take the thirty extra dollars Adam gave him.

"Thanks," the driver said as Adam got out of the cab. The car drove off as Adam walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. He stood there for a moment pondering what to say. The door opened. Cindy gasped and covered her mouth.

"Adam? Is that you under all that hair?" She asked as she reached out and ran her fingers through his long thick curly hair.

"Yeah, it's me, Mom. Can I come in?"

"Of course," she said and stepped aside. Adam walked in and found himself walking into the kitchen and sat down at the dining room table. He ran his hand over the table top. The last time he'd sat at that table was the last night he'd spent with Britney. He'd laughed and been embarrassed by stories of his own childhood. Now, she was gone. Engaged to another man.

His mother sat down in the chair next to him. She didn't say a word. She scooted her seat closer to him and put a hand tenderly on his back.

"I went to Britney's. She's..." he trailed off. She patted him lovingly.

"I know. She sent me an invitation."

"She did?"

"Yeah. She's a nice girl."

"You met the guy?"

"No. But I'm sure he's a nice man."

Adam's shoulders started shaking violently. He broke into loud sobs. Cindy pulled his head over onto her shoulder. Despite all the pain and betrayal and loss he'd felt over the past few months, he hadn't cried. But it all added up, had become too much to bare. He was adrift without purpose or direction.

He slept in his old house that night after a shower and a shave. At his insistence his mother pulled out the kitchen shears and chopped off a large portion of his shaggy mane. He then climbed the stairs and went into his old room. He hadn't lived in that room for the past three and a half years but it still looked the same. He turned off the lights and laid in his bed. He found that despite their being no light on in the room, he could still quite clearly. He could see all his posters (Freddie Fabulous, Wonder Woman and Major Pain). It wasn't his ability to still see in the dark, however, that was the cause of his inability to fall asleep. That was due to a great restlessness inside him.

After much struggling, he managed to sleep for about an hour and a half. He continued to lie in his bed for another hour before he got up. Despite his short rest, he actually felt quite awake and alert. He walked around his room before he heard a sound that caught his attention. A quiet shuffling, glass clinking. He opened the door to his room and walked out.

Downstairs Adam found his mother sitting at the kitchen table. She was sipping on a glass of bourbon on the rocks. Adam wondered if he should leave her alone and allow her some privacy. He turned to walk off when his mother called his name. He didn't know if he'd revealed his presence to her when he took a step or if she'd been aware of him the entire time he was there, all part of the mystery that parents can elict in their children. He walked into the kitchen and sat down at this table alongside his mother.

"What happened to you?" She asked after a moment's silence. Adam had avoided talking about his absence and up until now she had respected his silence. He could tell now that it had been eating her up inside.

"The night I visited you, that night I was..." Here he wished there was another way to say this. "I was abducted by aliens." She didn't say anything, nor did she give any visable clues as to what she was thinking. He didn't know if she was in disbelief or thought him crazy or what else might be running through her mind. "While I was there, they experimented on. I don't know why but one did tell me..." Again he trailed off as he thought of Ruhe's revelation that he was Adam's father. He didn't know how to broach the subject with his mother without sound accusatory.

"One of them told you what?" She asked.

"He said he was my father." Again she didn't even react to his words.

"So," she said finally, "you met Ruhe."

"So he was telling the truth? He is my father?" He was so surprised to find himself angry and even a little hurt. "Why didn't you ever tell me? And what the hell was up with my... I mean, James."

"James was my husband and he wanted to be your father. We often talked about having children. When I got pregnant though, he became enraged. He'd been out of town for a month and so he knew it wasn't his. I told him about the abduction but he didn't believe me. So, he left. Said he didn't want a whore for a wife. I didn't want you to know where you came from so I hid the truth from you. I told you that James was your father and that he died just before you were born."

"But why didn't you say something?"

"What would you have had me say? That I was impregnated by an alien? That he told me that he'd come for you and there was nothing I could do about it?" She had gotten loud, almost hysterical. Her body quivered in that way that reveals when a person is teetering on the edge, about to fall off. Her cool veneer had melted away.

"You knew?" Adam asked accusatorily. "You know they were going to take me and you didn't tell me? Try to warn me? Mom, you've got to tell me everything. What happened to you, exactly what you know. You gotta tell me everything."

"I can't. I can't relive that. You don't know what you're asking of me."

Adam ripped his shirt off of his body in one fluid motion. Even in the dim light of the kitchen, his scars were clear, tiny white mountain ridges that ran across his body, marring his otherwise impressive physique. "This is what they did to me, Mom. I can't forget it or ignore it but I've got to try and understand it and you are the only person who can help me do that." Cindy looked away from her son's scarred body.

She continued to avoid his pentrating gaze (how much that reminded her of Ruhe's icy stare). She cleared her throat and began to speak. She spoke in a clear and quiet voice, she spoke without any major pausing or stuttering. It seemed as if she faltered or took too much time to think about it then she wouldn't be able to go on. Adam noticed this and let her speak uninterrupted.

"Several years ago, I was kidnapped by aliens. I was held in a dark room. An alien came in the room, he was tall and graceful. He... he said his name was starson. He couldn't speak though, he could only repeat words with this Dictaphone kind of thing. He tried to explain that he needed a child, to help his people and that it had to be part human.

"He raped me. He was gentle but he was strong. I didn't want to do it but he forced me. I hated him. Despite his apologizes and attempts at tenderness. I hated him. Perhaps I even hated him all the more for it. So after it was over, I spat in his face and I cried and I told him that I despised him. He said nothing though, he just stared at me. I began calling him every bad thing I could think of.

Catch up on past installments of Savage Genesis!

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