Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 44: How To Shatter Someone's World

Apparently, the woman noticed the color leave James's face.

"What?"

"W-what's your name?" James had never been clear on exactly who were the ones that wound up with custody of his "children". Fuller was, intentionally or not, very cryptic about it. He had assured, though, that they would go to good homes. By all appearances so far, he didn't turn out to have been lying...

That wasn't why he asked, however.

"Elena. Elena Williams." Her voice was a half-whisper. From the look on her face, even she could tell that something bad was coming.

"W-well... Tyrone..."

Fear crept into the mother's voice. The type of fear that would come before that phone call that changes your life forever. "What. About. My. Son?"

James stammered uncomfortably for a few moments.

"TELL ME!"

He finally spat it out as clearly as he could. "That dripping is Tyrone's body disintegrating. In a month, he will be a lifeless puddle of goo."

Both Elena and Cybil froze. The world around them seemed to freeze. The only thing heard was Tyrone finishing up.

Tyrone walked back into the room, a towel on his head. Being upstairs at the time of this news prevented him from hearing what was said.

"Mama... What's wrong?"

There was a look on his mother's face that was beyond description.

With the look on everyone's faces combined with what he'd been sent upstairs to do, he quickly put two and two together...such as he could.

"Is this about the dripping?"

"Y-yes," James answered. He had created Tyrone to be a quick thinker.

Nothing could be said. Apparently, nothing had to be. The boy burst into tears and took off upstairs, causing his mother to stumble off to the couch in her living room and drown in a pool of tears.

To the scientist's surprise, his daughter didn't have the same reaction. In fact, her response was to go catatonic. She was apparently dead to the world.

What did he do? He held onto his daughter. He simply couldn't think of or do anything else.

The scene froze like this for what seemed like an eternity. Outside of tending to bodily functions, it hardly was interrupted.
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James found himself waking up on a couch near Elena in the living room. Funny. He couldn't remember how he got there...

He just remembered why he got there.

Tyrone.

As much as he would have loved to give everyone sufficient time to mourn, he knew that such was impossible. Since a successful mission would have seen Cybil back by now. Wester may indeed already have figured out that something was off about this.

What can I do? He wondered as he looked at the sleeping form of his daughter under his feet on the rug and Tyrone's mother collapsed on the couch. Both faces were streaked with tears and both heads of hair were unkempt with stress.

After some thought. He had made his decision. Leaving the tortured mother to her rest, he picked up his daughter (either she was heavier than she looked, or he was as physically weak as he ever was). He didn't wake her. He headed upstairs.

He had never been a father. Not really. He realized that even with Cybil around, he had been merely using her to eke out an existence while he slithered away to feel sorry for himself.

Well, that wasn't going to happen this time.

This time, he was going to be a father.