── curiosity killed the cat | kal 1500 try out

[petrify]

username: petrify

name: johann avery

gender: male

prompt: each question to the prompt will be a different post, & will be answered thoroughly.

(optional) extras: up to 1500 words, will be posted after the answers to the prompt above.

[petrify]

johann settled himself into the familiar wooden stool, his eyes scanning the other patrons in the bar. nothing seemed to out of the ordinary, except a kid walking around with a clipboard and stopping at each of the... rougher looking people there. he was dressed in high fashion clothing, the fabric looking untouched in anyway. johann let out a sigh, watching the kid who looked about seventeen as he took a sip from the whisky in his cup. the ice clinked together as he moved it away from his mouth, and set it on the rickety table in front of him. he was curious as to why someone like him wanted to be in here; didn't he know how dangerous it was in this part of town? why was he carrying a clipboard, and why did everyone he approach look so mad each time he opened his mouth? it looked like jo was about to find out, since he made eye contact with the said kid, who's mouth dropped open at the sight of him. immediately, jo looked to the table, swallowing hard. he forgot how... how weird he looked to the average person. glancing up, he saw the preppy kid walking over to him, but with slow footsteps and a look of caution in his eyes. jo took in a deep breath, sighing heavily and motioning for the kid to hurry up. and he did just that, holding the clipboard closely to his chest as he stopped at the other end of the table, just studying jo.

"kid, sit down, for christ sake."

the unnamed teen did just that, moving the stool back a bit before planting himself down onto it, eyes still studying jo's face.

"you're makin' me uncomfortable. i'm a person, not a looking zoo," jo commented, making eye contact with the person across from him.

"oh! yes... sorry," the kid muttered quickly, obviously nervous as he sat his clipboard down, producing a pen from the front pocket of his light yellow sweater. jo contained a snicker as he watched him, wondering what was going to come out of his mouth. "so. my name is romeo, and i'm doing a report for school on people who are..." he paused, clicking his pen on the table and putting it to the paper. "misjudged."

jo picked his drink up, swishing it around and slowly nodding his head. he wasn't sure exactly what to say about that; he hadn't had a conversation with someone in awhile, so he was a little rusty with social interaction.

"romeo," he began, "like romeo and juliet?"

romeo perked up a bit, a smile crossing his face. "precisely."

jo give a small smile in return, nodding once again before downing the rest of his drink. he looked towards the bartender, and the two made eye contact.

"same thing?" the bartender asked, and jo nodded for a third time. looking towards romeo, he tried his hardest to contain a smirk. "what something to drink?"

a look of surprise crossed romeo's face, and he looked between the two of them for a few seconds before replying with. "a coke would be good."

jo didn't expect any less.

"so, um, may i have your name?" romeo asked, pen still pressed to the paper.

"jo," he answered, thanking the bartender as he came over with their drinks, and he took a sip. romeo hurriedly wrote down "joe", before looking up at him. "wait. with an e or without?"

"without."

he quickly crossed out what he wrote, before rewriting his name without the e. setting down the blue pen, he reached for his coke, cracking it open. and taking a small drink and clearing his throat afterwards. picking up his pen once more, he began writing a question down that jo couldn't exactly read from where he was sitting, but then romeo was saying it out loud.

"is there anything from your past that you are running from?"

jo's brows immediately raised at that question, and he took a small glance around at the other guys romeo had been bothering before. so that's why they didn't seem too happy with him. oh boy. jo knew he was gonna need to at least be tipsy for this. picking up his glass again, he downed the rest of it, romeo's eyebrows upturning a bit in concern as he watched him.

"i take it that this is a hard question for you?" romeo asked, tone softer.

"guess you could say that," jo replied, sighing softly. "but, there is something i'm running from. isn't everybody running from something?"

romeo said nothing as he scribbled down what jo had said, his handwriting in neat cursive, surprising considering the speed he was writing it down.

"what are you running from?"

"damn, kid, you really trying to get into my personal life, huh?"

"well, it is for my report, so i thought i would go all out," he said sheepishly, nervously clicking the pen in his hand.

"nah, it's fine, i understand. need that hard hitting evidence." jo took in a deep breath then, looking to the ceiling as if it had all the answers, eyebrows knitting together.

"there's... lots of things i'm running from. my job, and the people that came with it, and..." he paused momentarily, chewing on his bottom lip. "i guess you could say my wife. or, ex wife, who knows at this point, it's been four years." his eyes made its way back to romeo's face, who gave him an empathetic look, nodding slowly before going to write down all of what jo said.

"do you want to elaborate more on your answer?"

jo exhaled through his nose, almost sounding amused, before shaking his head.

"nope," he said, popping the "p".

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four years before -

"avery, what are you doing in here?"

johann jumped at the voice, dropping the papers in his hands, all of them spilling onto the floor. he knew he was caught, and he felt his blood run cold. slowly turning around, relief flooded over him when he saw that it was just his best friend - and coworker - svetlana. she graduated from not only high school, but college, early in life, and at the age of seventeen, she's now a scientist in one of the best facilities in the country. since she's so young, though, johann was the one to oversee her in everything, just to make sure she wasn't hurting herself or anything. and she instantly took a liking to him, since he was the only one who could deal with her jokes and sarcasm. because of this, he can never escape her.

svetlana had a grin on her face as they made eye contact, laughing loudly and pointing at him. "haha! gotcha!" she shouted.

"svet, inside voice," jo said softly, and svet cleared her throat before laughing softly, pointing at him once again and repeating what she had said before. jo simply sighed, shaking his head, but a small amused smile was on his face.

"so, whatcha doing in here, avery? isn't this a restricted area for us?" she asked, her eyes scanning the papers that had dropped on the floor. her eye caught one of them, and she bent to pick it up, but jo hurriedly grabbed her wrist. she looked to him, eyebrows furrowed before standing back up.

"well, if it's a restricted area for me, it's restricted for you, too," jo commented, bending down himself and beginning to pick up the papers, his hands shaking a little bit. "and it's simply none of your business what i'm doing in here. don't you have work to do?"

svet was silent, and jo sorted the papers before putting them back into a cream colored folder, turning to her with an angered look, which softened as he saw the expression on her face. she looked... hurt, almost?

"sheesh, you just had to say you didn't want to tell me and i would've understood. i don't care that you're snooping through things you're not suppose to see, you're my friend."

jo stood there silently for a few seconds before speaking.

"i'm... i'm sorry. you're right. i just can't - and don't want to - show you what i found."

"is it bad?" svet immediately asked.

jo didn't say a thing, turning back to the folder and glancing in svet's direction.

"get out of here before you get in trouble," he simply said, voice soft and almost like it was going to break.

"okay," svet replied, her voice matching his as she turned and left.

once she left, jo looked towards the door, just making sure that she had positively left. he stood there for a few more seconds, hearing footsteps go by and not wanting to make a noise to alert them to his presence. taking in a deep breath, he could feel his body shaking as he tried to calm himself down, hands sorting through the papers once again, scanning over the words before he found one specific paper, reading one part of it over and over.

day one: test subject has been injected with unknown substance. no signs of anything happening quite yet, but it will be monitored 24/7, whether that be by an alive individual or by the cameras. doctor cameron, smith, and donovan are the only people with access to anything regarding this experiment. if anybody is caught getting their nose into this, there will be severe consequences.

day two: subject is unchanging.

day three: subject is experiencing a quickened heart beat, and seems to be losing its teeth at an alarming rate. donovan has been assigned to evening/night duty, cameron is morning duty, and smith is afternoon duty. we don't want to miss any of this.

day four: donovan reported late last night that the subject had grown teeth too big for its mouth, and that is has been growing claws. it's also making a strange noise, apparently, which has never been noted in rats before. cameron then began noticing it's back legs are beginning to grow, too large for it's body. something that seems like feathers are beginning to grow on its head.

day five: the subject is dead, and we're beginning testing on its carcass. we believe everything was changing too quickly in its small body, and that we may need a bigger subject.

conclusion: the transformation was almost complete it seems, and we have all decided that we indeed need a bigger subject so the substance doesn't immediately kill them. our second decision is that we're going to preform another case 40776. hopefully we go undetected in our research, and put this to good use. we've named the substance (for now) the v-virus, but once we preform what we're planning, it will get a better name.

everything else for the other papers were diagrams of the rat, and notes by each of the three scientists that had been watching it for those four/five days. there was also a breakdown of whatever was in this "v-virus", or what they thought was in it, anyway. there was also a coded page of a bunch of different things that jo assumed was the location of where they had it, so if anybody did get in the notes - him, for example - they couldn't easily find it. and not many people knew what "case 40776" was, but jo had been in the facility long enough to hear the murmurs of it; if it was true, if it was all a hoax, or what have you. case 40776 was when they had supposedly tested on a girl with two heads, and injected them with a bunch of different medicines and viruses, and the like. and jo wasn't dumb, he was far from it, so he knew what this meant. they were going to test on orphaned children, or a child, or a kid of some sort that wouldn't be "missed", to see what would happen. and jo wasn't about to let that happen. he tucked all of the files back in, except the coded one, slipping it into his lab coat before putting the folder back where he found it. then, he walked out of the room, and went about his day.

for the next two weeks, jo was able to debunk the code, and ultimately find where they were keeping the virus, and he was glad to see that they hadn't used it on an innocent child yet. he had to disable the cameras in there while also not setting off the alarms, which was quite a challenge, and he still couldn't get it yet. he needed a key-card from one of the main three scientists; he didn't know which one, either. only one of them had complete access to it. but from studying everybody's handwriting, he determined it was smith who was the one who had the card, and who had wrote everything. this took another few days to get down his route, and jo was able to confiscate it, shut off the cameras, and get the virus.

he held the small vial in his hands, almost in disbelief that he actually got it. he then replaced the vial with a similar looking one with the same green colored liquid, which was just water mixed with some food coloring. it would probably make the kid a bit sick, whichever poor child was subjected to all of this, but nothing... dramatic would happen.

the sun had set, and jo was currently walking to his car to go home. none of the three people apart of what was happening seemed alarmed in anyway, so he had... successfully gotten away with it. for now. and he felt high on life. he had actually done that and gotten away with it. a smile was on his face as he unlocked his car, getting in and taking the vial out of his coat pocket, making sure to keep it out of sight from the windows and windshield. he stared at it in his hands, and a thought popped into his head.

what if i used it?

he had though of it earlier, and even grabbed a syringe in case he decided to go with it. but what if he died like that rat? he would definitely not be able to go back to work, they would know it was him and probably... probably test on him. he could just destroy it, or hide it in the basement to his house in the stone walls, but... that would be a waste, wouldn't it? he was a scientist just like those guys, so of course he was curious as to what exactly happened in the long run with it. he just wasn't as deranged as them to want to put that on a child.

he tapped the vial against his palm, biting his lip as he thought.

moments later, he was taking out his phone and texting svet and his wife emmaline in their group chat.

"meet me at the house, and be ready for a surprise."

and with that, he filled the syringe he had full of all the liquid, and injected it into the vein in his neck.

once he reached home, he was already feeling clammy and like he was going to be sick. when he came in through the front door, emma and svet both greeted him, but he went on by, right to the bathroom, where he dropped to his knees, put his head into the toilet, and puked.

emma rushed in, svet following, as she crouched beside him, rubbing his back.

"is this the surprise? that you're sick?" emma asked, her tone unamused.

raising his head from the toilet, he felt tears streaming down his face, and he looked towards emma and svet.

"whoa, buddy, you're not looking too hot," svet commented.

emma grabbed his face into her hands, eyebrows furrowed as she looked into his eyes.

"your eyes are turning red?" she stated, although it sounded more like a question.

"they are?" jo asked, raising his eyebrows as he placed his hands on emma's cheeks as well.

"what did you do?" emma asked, voice stern as she pulled away from him, leaning back and away from her husband, an angered expression on her face.

svet looked frantically back and forth between the two, and she jumped when emma began shouting.

"what did you do?!"

her eyes were watering, and jo was trying to speak but... but the words were getting all jumbled in his head and the pain was beginning to take over and-

he collapsed fully onto the floor, letting out a pained shout as he felt his brain burning in his skull, thrusting his fist down onto the linoleum floor.

emma stood, grabbing svet like a mother would to their own child in a time of danger, and backing up to the doorway of the bahroom.

"what did you do?" emma asked again, this time voice shaky as she began to cry. "i knew you were up to something! what the hell did you do to yourself?!" she shouted, dropping to her knees then, svet bending crouching down to comfort her.

jo raised his head to look towards emma and svet, his heart breaking as he saw his wife sobbing on the floor and svet looking at him with fear in her eyes.

"i... they had a virus... they were gonna... test on someone... couldn't let it happen... was curious and-" he couldn't finish his what he was saying, instead shouting as another surge of pain coursed through his body, his whole frame shaking.

"what?" he heard svet's voice and managed to look to her.

"this is what you found, isn't it? why didn't you tell me? why did you do this? why?" she asked, completely bewildered.

"i'm sorry."

svet's eyes went back to emma, brushing her hair back with her hand, almost petting her head to calm her. emma was looking at him now, tears still streaming down her face, eyebrows upturned as she stared at him.

"em... please understand-" he stopped talking, closing his eyes tightly as pain rippled through his legs, and through his mouth. he heard something fall onto the floor, and opened his eyes to see his teeth falling out of his skull.

both emma and svet sat in silence as they watched, fear and surprise and every emotion in between on their faces.

hands shaking, he felt his teeth, and then almost as if it was instinct, he began pulling them out of his mouth in rapid succession, until all of them were littering the floor. he felt relief, but only for a moment, as new ones began growing to take their place. big, discolored teeth. why was this all happening so fast? he thought he was gonna have time to tell them what he did and explain why he did it, but now he could barely even think with the pain racking through his body. his fingernails started to split, and out came black claws, blood dripping from his fingers as they grew so fast that his body could hardly keep up with everything that was happening. it was like he was living a horror movie; it almost felt unreal. but the pain going through his body told him that no, this was definitely real, and definitely happening to him.

he felt more pain in his legs, and his jeans ripping as they grew, lifting him up about four more inches then what he was originally use to. svet and emma continued to watch, and he made eye contact with them, and saw the absolute fear in emma's eyes before she looked away, but svet still stared at him, disgust written all over her face. he felt more pain in his head, and his shoulders, and in his lower back and forearms, and he thought the pain was going to last forever. but it only took ten more minutes before everything stopped hurting as bad, as he was laying on the cold bathroom floor, sweating like he was trying to sweat a fever out of his system.

"jesus h christ," svet whispered, and jo opened his eyes to see her standing over him, confusion and a hint of disgust still on her face. "what the hell did you do? you don't... avery... this..." she was shaking her head, placing her hand on her head.

emma scooted over to him slowly on her knees, taking his head into her hands again and studying his face.

"johann, why did you do this to yourself? why didn't you tell me sooner?"

jo grabbed her forearm with his hand, making sure not to scratch her with the enormous claws that now resided in his fingers, dried blood all over his hands, and he was sure there was a lot more blood in other places as well.

"i," before he could say anymore, he passed out from exhaustion, leaving svet and emma in disbelief and worry.

and when he awoke next, he knew he could no longer lead his normal life. they would know it was him and would be after him in no time.

[petrify]

romeo slowly nodded at his answer, tapping his pen on the paper a few times, obviously thinking for a few moments before he looked to jo, watching as he called for another round of whisky, and then spoke.

"and are there consequences that you would have faced if you didn't leave? if so, why are you afraid to face said consequences?"

as jo was handed his next glass of whiskey, he instantly took a drink of it as he heard the question, downing about half of it before setting it down.

"of course there would've been repercussions. i left my job without saying a word to them, so if i would've stayed in town, they definitely would've..." he paused, taking in a deep breath, "it'd be trouble, that's all i'll say."

when jo looked towards romeo, he was already writing out what jo had said to him.

"and i'm afraid to face it because... sheesh... it would've put me in jeopardy, as well as my wife and a girl who i thought of as my daughter."

romeo continued to write, not saying a word until he was finished.

"i bet you don't want to elaborate on that either, do you?"

jo involuntarily laughed, "see, now you're catching on kid. i'll let you know a little, but not too much to let you know the full story. but, hey, it's more than what the other guys in here would give you."

romeo laughed a bit, although it sounded a bit sarcastic. it reminded jo of the pity laugh svetlana would always do when he would tell a joke that wasn't funny to anybody but himself; and it made him miss her. hell, talking about all of this, even if it was a vague answer, made him miss everything about his old life.

"i bet you're not gonna wanna elaborate on any of these questions," romeo said, looking down at what he had written before glancing up at jo.

"and i bet you're right, kid."

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when jo had awoken, instead of feeling the cold bathroom floor, he felt cushions beneath him and a blanket thrown on top of him. his first thoughts were as stated before; that he had to get out of there, that they would most likely notice within time and know it was him. his eyes scanned the living room, seeing that svetlana was asleep peacefully in their recliner, curled into a ball with the blanket thrown over her head; he could only tell it was her because of the small frame. on the floor beneath her was emma, and even in her sleep, she looked sad. he wondered what the two talked about while he was knocked out. probably how foolish and dumb he was. he also wondered how the hell the two of them managed to drag him onto the couch. he didn't doubt emma's strength - she was in the military - but with his new deformed state, he was much heavier he imagined than the average person. plus, he was passed out, so he was dead weight at the time as well.

shifting a bit, he felt the residual pain from last night, and groaned softly in pain. he pushed the blanket aside, instantly looking to his hands. the dried blood from before was gone; he assumed emma had cleaned him up before putting him to bed. looking towards her then, he felt a longing for her, even if she was not even ten feet away from him. her hair was splayed on the carpet, messy strands surrounding her face. and then the pain in his heart began when he realized he was going to have to leave her - leave everything they built together - behind. he wished she could come with him, but he didn't want to put her in danger. or, was not taking her with him more dangerous? they would never know that she knew about what he had done, so he assumed she would be safer by herself and... away from him.

slowly sitting up on the couch, he felt every bone in his body ache, his muscles burning like he had just got done with a cross-fit workout or something. he closed his eyes momentarily, taking in a deep breath before standing to his feet. walking... felt different, thanks to his new and weird legs. he made his way to the bathroom, turning on the light and looking at the floor. there were stains of blood on the linoleum, no thanks to him, but everything else was clean. he went to the mirror that was above the sink then, only seeing himself out of his peripheral vision. he tapped his nails against the counter of the sink, almost scared to look at his reflection. then, he did it quickly, looking himself straight in the eyes, and he was taken aback - literally, he took a step back and almost fell into the bath tub - at what he saw staring back at him.

"oh, god," he muttered softly, a hand finding its way to his face as he touched everything that looked different; which was... mostly everything.

yes, he had seen the diagrams of the rat and how different it looked from a normal rat, but, he wasn't expecting to look like this. well... he kinda did, but he was too wrapped up in his curiosity to see it out for himself that it blocked everything else in his head.

he took a seat on the edge of the bathtub, just processing everything. he heard footsteps nearing the bathroom but didn't even move an inch to move out of their way, and within a few seconds he saw a shape of someone standing in the door, which he could tell was emma.

"how are you feeling?" she asked, voice with a bit of rasp in it, just how it usually was when she just woke up.

"physically? i'm aching. mentally and emotionally?" he let out a dry laugh, "not doing so hot. and i don't look so hot like i use to anymore, either."

emma clicked her tongue in response, sitting down next to him on the rim of the tub and taking his hand in both of hers.

"you're still handsome to me," she paused as they made eye contact, "personality wise, that is."

jo let out a laugh, and a smile came to emma's face. he always knew how to make her laugh.

his smile faded as he studied emma's face, and her smile began to fade too, replaced by concern.

jo put his forehead against hers, closing his eyes, and she did the same.

"i gotta... gotta-"

"leave. yeah, i know," she said softly, opening her eyes and pulling her forehead away from his.

he opened his eyes, too, and gave a small, sad smile.

"i wish you would've consulted me before doing something so stupid," she murmured.

"i wasn't thinking. i wasn't even planning on injecting myself with the virus until i actually had it in my hands. em, you know me. i'm a scientist, i'm gonna be curious, and i'm not gonna have something else that's living suffering just for my curiosity," he argued softly, emma shaking her head.

"so you would understand if i did the same thing, then? if i got some unknown substance and just injected it straight into my veins?"

"well..." jo went silent, and emma sighed.

"see? even if you weren't planning on it in the beginning, you could've still told me before you actually did it. you know, come home and have me talk you out of it, like i usually have to do with every dumb idea you have."

"my curiosity would've never been satisfied. one day or another, i would've done it."

"yeah? well i wish you would've waited. jo, we were planning on having kids in the next year or so. we were doing good with money and bills, and we bought this house not even a year ago. we were on our way," she furrowed her brows as she looked at him, obviously trying not to get angry with him.

"we can still have kids. runaway together, somewhere where they can't find me, and-"

"jo," she said, voice stern. he stopped talking and looked to the floor then.

"jo," she repeated, and he looked at her.

"i love you, okay? but i am NOT, and i repeat, NOT, going to pack up everything that i built - that WE built - and run away and not know if i will ever have a home again. if we will ever be safe. and i'm definitely not having kids with you and putting them through that. through the running away and not having anything stable, and the fact that..." she looked him up and down, "they might come out looking like you. like this," she motioned to his hands, and to his head, where the feathers had grown. "who knows what kind of pain they would be in because of that. i'm not doing that to them. i'm not doing that to myself. i'm sorry, you did this to yourself, and you're gonna go through it by yourself. you want to make brash decisions without consulting with me beforehand? then deal with the consequences by yourself, too."

she stood from where she was sitting, anger written all over her face. jo reached for her, and she shook her head, pulling her arm away from him.

"em, i'm sorry."

"it's a little too late for sorry's, johann."

with that, she left the bathroom, and jo was left with his thoughts only momentarily before svetlana had entered the bathroom, standing in the doorway and staring at him for a few moments before speaking.

"hey," her voice was a bit shaky, obviously still a bit frightened with the way he looked.

"hey," he replied, still staring at the floor and not looking at her.

"so, that was an argument you guys had, i take it?"

jo nodded.

"wow, you guys are a lot calmer than i expected. you know, with her being little miss military and you being this big monster now."

jo said nothing.

"sorry, little insensitive i realize," she commented before sitting down beside him. "what're you going to do now?"

"i gotta run, that's all i can do. can't show up and pretend like everything is fine at work. you know what they do to people who are different. plus, i literally stole a virus from them, svet. that's a federal offense."

"what they're doing is probably a federal offense, too, you know. if what you said while dying on the floor was true."

he looked to her, watching as she put one of her hands around her throat and began to speak in a raspy voice.

"they were gonna," she took in a deep breath and started coughing, "test on someone," she coughed more, and jo laughed, shaking his head, and she stopped then, letting out a laugh as well.

they were both silent for a few seconds.

"joking is how i deal with stressful things, so i'm glad you don't seem offended."

"i'm not offended in the slightest, don't worry."

"good," she said, voice soft. silence overtook them again, and suddenly, jo felt arms wrapped around him. looking to svetlana, he saw that she was hugging him, a pained expression on her face and her eyes closed.

"gonna miss you, avery, you crazy man," she murmured, voice breaking in the middle.

he felt tears prick the corners of his eyes then, and hugged her back, putting his chin on the top of her head.

"gonna miss you too, kiddo."

he heard soft sobbing below him, and tears beginning to soak through the shirt he was wearing, but he didn't say anything about it. it was hard on him and emma, but they were adults and knew how to deal with traumatizing things more easily. svetlana, however, was still just a child. and she had to go back to the facility and hear them talk about him, and probably try to scare her out of saying if she knew anything. god, he wished he hadn't put her through this. he also wished he hadn't put emma through this, either. god, he was such an idiot.

he waited until night to finally leave, spending as much time with emma and svet as he could. and now was the time to leave and never look back.

jo turned to look at emma and svet, svet standing next to emma and grabbing her arm to keep warm. emma had her arms folded over her chest, hair blowing in the cold wind. she met eyes with him, and sighed softly.

jo approached her, putting a hand on her cheek, and she melted into his touch, eyes closing. he leaned forward, planting a soft kiss to her lips. when he pulled back, she opened her eyes, giving a sad smile. he looked to svet then, who was staring at the ground.

"head up, svet, you have a bright future ahead of you," he said, patting the top of her head. her eyebrows furrowed at that, and she bit her lip, and jo knew she was trying to contain tears.

he turned, approaching his car and opening the door.

"i love you, johann avery," emma said, speaking it fast like she was trying to hold it back but it came out involuntarily. he stopped, turning to look at her, smile on his face.

"i love you, too, emmaline faye," he replied.

"and i love you!" svetlana shouted, covering her mouth afterwards.

"inside voice, svet," jo said, smile still on his face.

she nodded.

"but i love you too, svetlana. take care of each other."

they said nothing, emma just smiling and svet burying her face in her side.

with that, he got into his car, started the engine, and was gone.

[petrify]

romeo raised his brows and nodded, knowing jo was going to give that answer. he had only been talking to him for such a short time, and not even learned that much about him, but... he felt like he knew him? in a weird way?

"okay, only two... three more questions," romeo said, "and then i'll get out of your hair."

"lay em on me."

"would you change it if you could go back? how would you change it?"

"of course i'd change it. i'd get to be with my girls and i probably would've had kids at this point. i would've done only one thing different, just one little thing, and everything could've been different."

jo stared down into the glass of whiskey he had, sighing as he downed the rest of it, and he couldn't even feel a buzz yet.

"give me that whole damn bottle," jo shouted over to the bartender, who raised his brows and sighed, bringing him the whole bottle.

"you're gonna have a huge tab to pay."

"yeah, yeah."

romeo smiled at the bartender, taking a drink of his discarded coke that was about lukewarm now. looking down at his paper, he began writing before looking back to jo.

"should i go onto the next question then, since i believe you're finished?"

jo opened the bottle of whiskey, taking a huge swig before nodding, setting the bottle on the table.

"yup."

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it only took a week for jo to already break and call emma. he was sitting in his motel room on the edge of the bed, holding his smartphone in his hands. he knew he could be tracked through it, but he couldn't let go of the only piece of emma (and svet, for that matter) he had. but he knew it was dangerous, and he needed to get rid of it before he found a place to settle so they couldn't know or guess his general location. standing up, he walked out of his motel room, putting up the hood to his hoodie and putting on his face mask. he leaned against the building, taking a quick glance around before texting svet first.

"hey, kiddo. i know this is dangerous of me to do for both you and me, but i just had to get it out of my system. i hope you are doing well and taking care of yourself. knock em dead with your smartness, okay? i believe in you. now and forever."

sending it, he then went to his contacts, and called emma, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. no answer. he waited for the voicemail to kick in before he began to speak.

"i know, i'm dumb for calling, but i'm gonna get rid of my phone after i get off this call," he paused, looking around again nervously. "just know i love you and i'll never forget you. even years from now, you will be the number one thing on my mind day in and day out, okay? please take care of yourself. i love you."

he hung up then, staring at his phone background, which was of emma on her birthday; her hair and face all made up, and the candles of her cake lighting up her face.

"damn," he whispered, putting the phone over his head, like he was going to throw it. he hesitated for a moment before throwing it to the concrete, watching it shatter. he walked over to it, and stomped it a couple times before going back into his room, throwing off his face mask and throwing his hoodie off of him as well. a rage washed over him, and it was almost like he saw red. he had been getting this a lot lately over just about everything, and he was positive it was because of the virus. to be honest, he was surprised he even lived this long, considering the rat died within days. but he was different from a rat, so that was probably the cause.

in his fit of anger, he kicked a hole through the wall, punched it in a different place, busted the old school tv with his fist, and then threw everything off of his bed before sitting down on the barren box spring, breathing heavily. the anger always came in short bursts for some reason, which he always expected more, but it never came. it was almost like he was an entire different person each time the anger would wash over him.

he felt something warm running down his fingers and looked to his hand to see that it was bleeding, little bits of glass in the cuts from punching the tv. his other hand went to run his fingers through his hair and feathers there, sighing heavily.

god, if only he did things differently.

laying back on the box spring, he stared at the ceiling, the stinging in his knuckles slowly subsiding as he calmed down.

if he could go back a week ago and change everything, he would. but unfortunately, time traveling wasn't a thing and he couldn't fix anything. not even in the slightest.

once he had the virus he should've just buried it in a box in the backyard, or hid it in the walls in the basement, or just simply washed it down the drain and just watch as those three scientists ran around the facility freaking out but not telling anybody why. and then him and svet could've snickered and watched in amusement. but no. he had to have it all for himself to feed his curiosity.

he closed his eyes tightly, his hands balling up into fists.

for a scientist, he was quite dumb.

[petrify]

"okay then, last question," romeo said, clearing his throat.

"how would that affect the future?"

“if i did what i should’ve done?” jo asked, taking another large drink of his alcohol.

romeo nodded, looking at jo expectantly.

“hmm. well, that’s quite an obvious answer, now isn’t it?”

romeo shrugged, “you never know sometimes.”

“i’d have a family by now with my lovely wife. hell, might’ve even adopted the girl i considered a daughter. things would probably be perfect. same nice house, new memories to be had with my family. it would’ve been great.”

romeo was obviously happy with the longer answer from jo finally, hurriedly writing it down with a small smile on his face.

“thank you, jo, for your time and for being so nice to me. i really appreciate it. you have proved to me right here and now that not everyone in this part are criminals and bad people.”

with that, romeo stood from his stool and approached jo, putting out his hand. jo shook it with a small smile.

“you ever need anything, you can usually find me here,” jo said.

“thank you. i hope you find happiness in your new life,” romeo replied with a smile before waving and then making his way out of the bar. jo watched him the whole time and let out a small sigh. he began downing the rest of the whiskey, ignoring the burning in his throat that screamed at him to stop.

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jo thought a lot about what the future would've had for him, had he not done the most regrettable thing in the world. often times he sat up at night, wondering what emma was up to and if she was ever going to find another partner and forget all about him. he wouldn't blame her, obviously; anybody at this point was better than him. he was sure whoever she got with wouldn't do something stupid like him and ruin her life. she deserved someone better than him, anyway.

he also often thought of the children they would've had together and what they would've looked like, what their personalities would've been and how they would've interacted with the world. emma always would say in a joking tone "i hope they're as pretty as me" with a smile on her face, and jo would always reply with "i hope they are, too." they wanted three kids, jo didn't care what gender they were, while emma wanted at least two girls. hell, three girls would've been perfect to emma, and jo would've just been happy that they were healthy, along with emma.

jo could've taught them how to ride a bike, teach them about the world in general, watch them grow, be their first dance at their weddings, teach them how to drive, help them with heart aches and heart breaks, listen to their problems, stay up with them when they were feeling sick.

he could've admired emma as they grew older together, seeing how his strong wife aged and how beautiful she would've been no matter how old she got. go on vacations together, explore the world, try new things, and just ultimately love each other through everything.

what he could've experienced with emma and their soon to be family. and he robbed himself of all of those moments. and he absolutely hated himself for it.

when he ran away, he was suppose to make a new life for himself, but all he could think about was the people and memories he left behind by being so idiotic. curiosity really killed the cat, and there was no satisfaction to be found to bring said cat back.

[petrify]

jo could feel his lungs burning as he ran through a thicket of forest, glad that the mutation he experienced benefited him in one way; he could surely run fast, and do it for awhile. but this is what got him here in the first place. being chased by the people of the facility that he once called family.

how could he have been so damn stupid? stupider than usual, that is. he made the mistake of checking into a motel with his real name instead of his fake name, even after four years of using a fake. sure, his fake name was derived from his actual one - jo alexander - but that didn't automatically make him johann avery, the man who injected himself with an unknown virus. but he should've known better that the facility had spies everywhere, and one just so happened to be the receptionist at the front desk. damn her to hell.

he stopped near a large tree, hiding behind it to catch his breath. he closed his eyes, trying to calm his nerves that were alighting with anger, signaling an outburst was about to occur.

no. no, please, not now, he thought, feeling his fingertips beginning to twitch.

opening his eyes and about to run out towards the people, he noticed a gun to his forehead.

"your name is johann avery, and you are coming with us."

before he could say anything, he felt a needle go into his neck; right where he had first injected the serum into his body.

when he awoke, he felt an immense pain going through his body.

he was in a steel chair, bound to it by his forearms, neck, and legs. something cold and metallic was on his head.

he pushed himself against the metal constraints, gritting his teeth as he felt every part of his body burning with pain.

"avery! you thought you were so smart, taking off with our virus?"

he recognized that voice. it was smith.

"you thought we would never find you?"

cameron.

"well guess what? we did, and now you're going to be our little experiment for as long as we want to torture you."

donovan.

"oh, and don't you worry about your little wife or svetlana. they've been taken care of."

jo felt his blood run cold as he frantically began writing in the seat.

"what did you do to them?!" he shouted, and he felt the anger building up and the beast inside of him about to be unleashed.

"let's just say that they won't be bothering us anytime soon. or ever, if we're being absolutely one hundred percent honest. you're all alone in this world."

before jo could begin screaming profanities at the three, he felt what felt like hundreds of thousands of needles prick into his skin, all at once, an unbearable pain surging through his body. he began screaming, his throat already raw with the harshness. all he could hear was the laughter of those three as he continued to scream, and scream, and scream, and he thought it would never end until-

"johann? johann, wake up!"

jo jumped awake, turning to the person who was currently shaking him to life. next to him was his wife, emma, and he instantly melted into her for a hug. they had been spooning before they fell asleep; jo the small spoon, and her the big one. he didn't care how it looked, it was comforting to him.

"it was just a nightmare, you're okay," emma's soft words infiltrated his ears, and he began crying into her. the nightmares were coming more frequent every night, especially since emma had returned to eight months ago.

how, you may ask?

well, romeo made his way to the bar everyday for over a year and was able to get information out of jo at each visit, and he trusted this kid fully by the end of it. he reminded him so much of svetlana that he couldn't contain himself. and let's just say, romeo got into contact with not only emma, but svetlana, and he urged them to come and be with jo, saying that he was safe, and that nobody was going to get them. jo had made a life in the slums, but it was a life nonetheless. he had a new car - since he had to ditch the old one, it was registered in his name after all - and a new home. it was a small three bedroom house, with only one bathroom, but it was again, a home nonetheless. and somehow, someway, romeo had convinced them to come and be with jo. they both were so happy to see him again, not having heard from him in years, and they didn't even care that they had to live in a not so great part of town, they were with jo, with the missing part of their family, so they didn't care.

"you okay now?" emma asked, voice still soft as she pet his head, rocking him almost like a baby. johann's hand went to her stomach, feeling the roundness of her pregnant belly. that, paired with emma almost rocking him to sleep and talking to him, made him feel safe and protected.

"yes. thank you. thank you so much for being here for me, for loving me and for-"

"mm, jo, i understand you're appreciative and everything, but can we do this tomorrow? i'm tired and need to get my beauty sleep."

jo let out a small laugh, kissing her on the lips before turning away from her, emma's arms wrapping around his waist.

"that's better, nice and quiet so i can have me some sleep," she muttered into his shoulder.

jo closed his eyes, a smile on his face as he drifted off back into the depths of sleep.

maybe... maybe he did make the right choice, after all.