Chapter 68: Under Glass

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"I'm afraid to report that the medications were unsuccessful," Yittek began, hands behind himself as he walked to where Lance sat at the examination table. "It seems the cells are adapting to blend in with your human side. Camouflage, if you will."

"Shit..." Lance breathed. "So what do we do?"

"Try again." Yittek placed a finger on Lance's inner arm, drawing more blood.

"With a different medicine, or...?"

Yittek nodded, placing the vial a few feet away. "I'll try one called Withren. Similar to Ethulin, except a bit more potent."

Lance stayed quiet for a moment, watching his blood appear in between the space of two fingers. "Are there a lot of Razalek diseases?" he asked finally, looking up to Yittek.

"A few fatal ones, a few non-fatal ones. Energy sappers, received from plants in the forest-area."

"Oh." Glad I'm not a Razalek then. "What about Spiros?"

"Far more. Airborne, insect-traveled, some humanlike with cold-like symptoms. But it causes a high fever as well and can lead to death. More often than the human disease."

Another vial began to fill as Lance hesitantly asked, "C-Can I get that? Those diseases?"

Yittek gave him a warm smile, taking a third vial.

"Let's hope not."

______________________

Days passed by in blurs of research. In and out of the examination room, fatigue reaching his eyes, seeping into his very bones. A side effect of one medication, Yittek said. Daily instructions were clear: sit here, arm out, blood drawn. Eat, drink this. It'll help.

Those were always Yittek's words: it'll help.

Lance tried to believe him, even when countless test after test proved otherwise. Even when he couldn't sleep at night, worrying if he'd ever get better. Ever see his family again.

"Zidane mentioned you needed to combine memories with the samples he took," Lance said one day.

Yittek nodded. "I'm optimizing the samples as we speak. Stretching them, in a way, so we can combine as many memories as possible."

"And how do we do that?"

A small pill was dispensed into his open palm. Lance took it as Yittek replied.

"Recording your thoughts and mental images as you speak of your loved ones."

Sounds easy enough. "When can we get started?"

Yittek returned his grin.

"In a day or so," he replied.

Lance tried to remain hopeful, even when the day came and his stomach didn't loosen.

Submitted: December 04, 2019

Fantasy love abuse family romance adventure