Numbers

Luke wasted no time the next day. As soon as everyone was up and had eaten he went straight out with Gab to get what he needed to start our transformations. Truthfully I was a little worried what he was going to come back with but within the hour he was back and up in one of the newly styled bathrooms sorting through various hair dye, makeup, and styling scissors. One by one he called us up to the bathroom and one by one we all exited looking completely different than before.

Cynthia had been Luke’s first ‘victim’, as she called herself, to be called up to the bathroom. She made her slow way upstairs while the rest of us stayed mostly in the living room working out the rest of the plan. Or tried to at least. Many things were suggested and at the same time many things were objected. There was no way we could pretend to work in the institute, not with all of the codes necessary to enter into all of the hallways. There was no way that someone wouldn’t notice a random cleaning crew walking about the halls. And there was especially no way that Julianne would just walk out with the meteorites after a few heated demands.

After arguing about the specifics for a number of minutes Cynthia made her slow climb down the stairs. Her once long blond hair now was cut short in a bob-like style and dyed black with red streaks in her hair. She didn’t look disappointed; in fact she looked more astonished than anything else. “The guy is like a freakin’ hair stylist. I thought he was a fashion designer,” she exclaimed running her hands through her slick new style.

“What did you think I did before I got my break, honey,” Luke purred from behind her, he smiled as she jumped at the sound of his voice but then quickly turned to the rest of us, “Rose, you’re up.”

Then Luke disappeared up the stairs once again. Rose quickly got up to follow him as Paul asked, “What’s that,” he directed at Cynthia who glanced down at something she was clutching.

“Moisturizer,” she muttered, quickly taking her seat on the ground leaning against the arm of the sofa.

No one said one word, but they did crack smiles. The conversation picked up again. But this time I didn’t reject ideas, just simply listened. I listened as Paul explained about various witches names Joan in the fifteenth century and the trials they were put through, truthfully I couldn’t really see how any of that related to the stealing of meteorites from a secret government institute. Well I guess we could have thrown Julianne in a river and seen if see floated…that might have given us a reason to burn her at the stake about six hundred years ago. But then my mind only wondered to what Julianne would look like if we threw her in a body of water, I kept picturing her as a wet dog or maybe an angry cat. I finally shook my head; I should probably be paying attention to what everyone had been saying.

“What if someone went in as like…I don’t know…a delivery man or something,” Cynthia suggested, “I mean those people can change every day and no one would blink an eye, right?”

Gab nodded, “Yeah, in DC I would learn the name of one delivery man only for us to get another one the next week.”

“You learned the name of your delivery man?” Paul asked in awe.

Gab shrugged, “Yeah…I liked to be nice.”

“Liked?” laughed Officer Smith, “You practically thank Cynthia for cooking food every night even though it’s her job!”

“Nothing wrong in being polite,” Gab mused, “The point is, Cynthia is right. We have an in if we can get a delivery there.”

“Okay,” Cynthia growled, “Would you like to hear the rest of the idea now?”

They paused, then looked really ashamed, “Sorry,” one of them murmured before she nodded, looking satisfied.

“Right,” she began, “If we can get someone, maybe dressed as a delivery man, into the building that person can then over take the receptionist to get the rest of us into the building. Then all we would need to do is get some white coats, walk around like we’re supposed to be there, and get those damn rocks. Olivia can lead us there we just needed to get in.”

“Hold on,” Paul said still skeptical, “you say all of that like it’s going to be easy. You have to understand that obtaining those coats will probably be very difficult not to mention what happens if we get seen in the process? The whole plan will be out the window, not to mention we’ll all be back to square one because we’ll be in the institute again.”

“Come on,” the officer laughed, “There’ll be six of us, since on will have to man the front desk, and usually only one science geek walks the halls at once. I don’t know about you but I’m not going back in that white room without a fight.”

Rose came down the steps slowly. Like Cynthia when she came down the stairs she didn’t look mad, or angry, or irritated but instead she looked bewildered. Her usually long flowing black hair was layered and straight as a board. Instead of its usually black in was blond with a hint of brown in it. It looked natural, almost surprisingly so. “Olivia,” she muttered twirling her fingers in her hair, “you’re next he says.”

I nodded and started to climb the stairs. I was both intrigued and frightened about what he was going to do. As I neared the bathroom I heard him sweeping up what he had cut of Rose’s hair. The telling swish of the broom across the tiles stopped me in my tracks but I peered into the room all the same. Luke smiled over as me, “I don’t bit ya know.”

I smiled back and stepped into the bathroom. “Straddle the seat, if you don’t mind. It’s easier to cut that way.”

I quickly obeyed; I realized I was at his mercy. After all, it was just hair…right? “I’m sorry,” Luke said sorrowfully, “But the bangs got to go.”

I laughed, “Do what you need to do.”

“How do you feel about a pixie cut? I think it would look way cute on you! And then I could dye it a darker brown with blonde highlights! Oh, I’m getting excited!”

I laughed again, “Go for it. Whatever you think will work, just as long as Julianne doesn’t recognize me.”

“Oh honey, by the time I’m done with you your poor dead Grandmother, may she rest in peace, won’t recognize you.”

And just like that he cut off my pony tail. I thought I would feel something more than just a feeling of being lighter. But with the sound of the scissor the only other thing I felt was a weight lifted, as if my long hair had been carrying all of my spare burdens. I sighed as Luke threw away the hair. It felt invigorating, it felt enlightening. It had been just hair right?

He cut away. He worked like lightening, I’m not sure I had ever seen, let alone heard, anyone cut that fast in my life. In no time he was running his hand threw my hair and checking the cut for a place he had missed. Nodding to himself he grabbed a bottle of hair dye from the counter and began to shake it, “Was brown okay,” he asked in an unusual tone.

“Yeah, whatever you think.”

He nodded and draped a towel around my shoulders then turned to put on a fresh pair of gloves. Then he got back to work spreading the contents of the bottle onto my head. I wasn’t sure what to think, the smell coming from my head was worrisome, everyone was down stairs trying to figure out how to break into a government institute, and I was sitting there having my hair dyed so no one would be able to recognize me. I wasn’t sure which topic I should focus on so slowly my mind went back to my conversation with James the night before.

I found myself praying that he would do what I asked him. I hoped he would figure it out and come to our aid, but I knew better than to wish that of James. As much as I hated to admit it he wasn’t someone I could think of to help us in much of anyway. I just hoped he had changed in that way. I hoped it with all of my being.

It took me a moment to realize that Luke had stopped rubbing the dye into my scalp. I looked back at him and he was taking the gloves off of his hands and throwing them away along with the bottle. “Okay,” he said triumphantly, “we just have to wait like twenty minutes then we wash that out of your hair.”

“Alright,” I smiled back at him.

He settled back against the wall to wait while I turned around to face him. My shoulders felt bare with no hair to rest on them and I shifted them awkwardly. I heard Luke laugh, “Everyone does that when you first cut your hair short,” he explained when I looked up at him, “It’s almost like an instinct.”

I smiled, “well it feels weird.”

“No doubt, no doubt. Hey can I ask you something?”

I shrugged, “yeah sure.”

Luke looked towards the door then came over to lean on the sink, “Have you and Paul…you know?”

I looked at him blankly. Luke raised one eyebrow, “Come on,” he urged, “have you?”

“Have we done what?”

He cleared his throat, and then glanced at the bathroom door again, “Done a sexy dance in bed?”

My eyes snapped open wide, “Luke!”

“Hey you said I could ask.”

“I thought it was going to be about the plan we were coming up with down stairs! Not…sexual pleasures in the bed room,” I finished the thought in a whisper.

“Ya can’t blame me for being curious…hell we’re all curious.”

“Where is this coming from?”

Luke shrugged smugly, “Word of the street says that someone might have been reported sleeping in another said person’s arms for a few nights after we arrived in the house…I’m not going to name names but…it seems pretty straight forward.”

I felt my cheeks grow red but I couldn’t force anything out of my mouth. Luke only looked at me expectantly until I had no choice, “No,” I said in hushed tones, “no we have not!”

He shrugged, “can’t blame a guy for being curious.”

“Actually I believe you can,” I snapped, “I believe it’s called ‘curiosity killed the cat’ or something of that nature.”

Luke chuckled, and then looked at his watch, “okay,” he said more cheery then I felt at that moment, “Time to wash out that hair of yours.”

I complied as he had me kneel down by the bath tub and gently put my head under the water. He gently scrubbed the contents of the bottle out of my hair and I watched at the water ran down my scalp as a sickly brownish color. It took only moments, and then he had me back on the toilet with a blow dryer in his hand. With his professionally quick hands he hand my hair styled and dry in no time at all. “Okay,” he announced happily thrusting the drying back onto the counter and motioning for me to stand, “You’re all done.

I happily got up and stood in front of the mirror. I stared at myself in awe. I don’t know when he put the blond highlights in my hair but there they were in the midst of my now dark brown hair. The pixie cut let my hair fall straight but it also stuck out in places which reminded me of my days in college more than anything else. I saw Luke smiling off to the side, “I’m glad you like it,” he laughed, “now be a good dear and sent Gab up.”

I nodded, not really trusting my mouth to speak, and left the bathroom. I forced my hands to not touch my hair. I picked up my pace as I walked down stairs, “You’re next Gab,” I announced once I entered the living room.

Silence fell in the room. I didn’t think I had been changed anymore then Cynthia or Rose but I noticed Paul’s eyes open a little wider and the officers jaw drop about an inch before he noticed what it was doing. “Me?” Gab squeaked, “Right.”

He jumped up and made his way to the stairs. Just then the phone rang. The ring bounced off the walls and floated back to my ears as it continued ringing. “You got the phone to work?”

Rose nodded, “Only like a day ago.”

“I’ll get it,” I heard myself say, but I was already in the kitchen by the time I got the words out. I threw myself at the receiver, “Yes? Hello?”

“Ollie, what the hell is this,” It was James; I sighed with so much relief I almost fell to the floor. James had looked for the file, James had changed.

“You read it,” I heard myself state the obvious while I still silently thanked the heavens he listened to me for once in his life.

“Of course I read it! Would I have called you ranting if I hadn’t…don’t answer that! The point still stands. Why did you send me on a wild goose chase, and mind you it was a goose chase, for a damned file about astronomers? Aren’t you a Biologist? What the hell are you doing looking at the sky?”

Okay, so maybe he hadn’t changed so much. “What does the file exactly say,” I asked him calmly.

“It’s just reports! Just boring old reports from about three years ago. There’s some crap about rocks from space- “

“Meteorites,” I cut in.

“Yeah, whatever. And then it goes on to some other stuff about why the project was shut down. Why did you tell me to look up a case that is three years old! I have important stuff to do, Ollie, I know it’s hard to understand.”

“It never was shut down.”

Silence was the only response from the other line, “I beg your pardon,” he said moments later.

“It was never shut down, James. That’s why I came back to Georgia. That’s why I had to call you, the project is still going on…and you’re not going to believe what they are doing.”

“What exactly are they doing, Ollie,” James snapped back at me, “making enhanced glow in the dark rocks? This is getting ridiculous.”

“It has nothing to do with…the rocks aren’t what is the problem. You have to get down here to Georgia. You have to come to the old farm,” I spoke the words loudly, hoping he would understand.

“What the hell am I going to on an old farm, Ollie? Heard cattle?”

“You work too hard,” I forced through my stiff lips, “You should go to the old farm, remember? The one we always talked about living on when the time was right?”

Another pause came from the other end of the phone. I thought I heard him sigh, “I guess I could use some vacation. You’re right Ollie,” his voice sounded pained but he followed along anyway, “I can be there by ten.”

“Sounds great,” I hung up quickly again and stepped away from the counter and took a deep breath. James was coming. I could rely on him to get here in the matter of hours…but how was he going to react to seeing all of these people. All of these people who are supposed to be dead according to the government.

“Who was that,” came a question from behind me.

I jumped and spun around. Paul stood leaning against the door frame with a worried expression on his face. I gulped, “Just an old friend.”

He nodded but continued to study me. I didn’t know what he wanted me to say, so I didn’t say anything. I met his gaze evenly but I couldn’t help but see the hurt in his gaze. The unflinching and unavoidable love that held me to that spot, and yet the knowledge of what I had told him so long ago in that white room. I was the one who broke the silence, “Paul…He’s an old friend from college-“

“I understand,” he muttered but now I saw the flush that came to his face and immediately regretted mentioning college.

I shook my head, “No I don’t think you do-“

“Trust me I do, “He stepped into the kitchen peering over his shoulder to check and see that no one was there, “I know exactly what is happening. Do you think I…do you think this is out of pity? Do you think this means so little to the both of us?”

“What are you talking about,” Anger was starting to boil in my chest; I couldn’t believe what he was suggesting.

“What do I mean to you, Doctor? Or was I just something you took pity on?”

“Don’t call me Doctor,” I snarled, “You of all people should know that we need all the help we can get.”

“And if that means sleeping with every guy you ever met I’m just supposed to sit back and let it happen? I’m just supposed to be okay with this?”

“What the heck are you talking about? How does a phone conversation end up in me having sex with every guy I come across? I asked a friend from college for some help, is that supposed to be a crime now?”

“Maybe it’s none of my business! If you want to go back to how you were before then be my guest! I don’t care anymore!”

“It was just a phone call Paul!”

“You practically raced to the phone so no one else could talk to your ‘friend’. How am I supposed to feel about that?”

“He doesn’t know about any of you-“

“Really? He doesn’t know about your poor little experiments that you had to rescue from the secret government institute?”

I took a deep calming breath, “What are you doing this? What is wrong?”

“You know,” Paul growled stepping closer than ever to me, ignoring what I had been saying, “I felt sorry for you. I took pity on you because of what happened but now I’m starting to think you wanted it to happen,” the blood drained from my face, the images came back, the nameless man came back. I couldn’t stop them, they flashed and flashed, closing my eyes didn’t stop them. I knew nothing would stop them until I broke down. I bit my tongue hard to keep the sobs at bay, “I’m starting to think you wanted him to rape you,” Paul growled looking down at me from what seemed like a great height.

I slapped him. I felt the pain of the impact vibrate up my arm, I saw his eyes grow wide in shock, but I ignored it all because of what happened next. “What,” came the exclamation from the doorway.

I held in the sigh that came to my lips, I held the tears that brimmed in my eyes, and I glared at Paul. I watched as he turned on his heel and quickly left the kitchen, pushing past all of those that stood at the door. Once he left I couldn’t look at them, I felt myself breaking down as I heard him go farther and farther down the hall. I felt my shoulders shake as silent sobs racked my body, I felt my knees give out but I didn’t feel my knees hitting the cold stone tile, I thought I heard someone calling out to me but I ignored the voices that appeared all around me.

I felt hands pulling at me but I shrugged them off. I wasn’t sobbing, I think I had run out of those many weeks before, but silent tears wet my cheeks. I was only aware of sitting on the kitchen floor, I don’t remember everyone coming in and sitting with me to murmur reassuring thoughts. I don’t remember Cynthia putting her arms around me, I don’t remember the officer stomping out of the kitchen in a rage as he went to confront Paul, truthfully if I had been paying attention I would have stopped him. I knew, somehow, I knew that Paul was already angry enough at himself for it to even matter.

It didn’t take long for Luke to come rushing in, throwing his gloves in the trash can as he went and knelt before me like a whirling wind. “Okay, what happened honey,” he asked gently, “We don’t want that pretty face of yours to get all ruined by tears.”

I chuckled in spite of myself. If nothing else Luke could always be counted on to pull me back to myself, even if the tears still fell from my eyes. “It’s nothing,” I said wiping my eyes in a quick manner and forcing a smile to my face, “I’m just over reacting.”

“No you’re not,” exclaimed Rose, it had been Rose that had yelled from the door way, there was no way to mistake that shrill tone, “That obnoxious bastard just accused you of wanting to be raped, or did you miss that part of the conversation?”

“He did what,” Luke snapped, I don’t think I ever saw him angry before, but he certainly was now, “Would you mind repeating that? I think I died from the amount of stupidity that was in that retort.”

“Was it true,” it was a small voice, one that was shaken and sounded to be full of tears. I looked to see Cynthia’s big red rimmed eyes peering over at me. I opened my mouth to say something but she stopped me with her hand, “The truth.”

I clicked my mouth shut. “What are you talking about?” Luke snapped at Cynthia, and then he turned to Rose without waiting for answer, “what is she talking about? Doesn’t she see this is a very sensitive issue!”

“I do,” Cynthia snapped, “But I don’t think you actually know how sensitive it is,” but then in a gentler tone to me she asked, “Is it true?”

Luke immediately calmed down a fraction. His gaze shifted from me to Cynthia in uncertainty, “Is what true,” he asked slowly, this time he waited for someone to answer. I just looked at Cynthia.

“Paul said something about a man. Something about a man doing something…it is true.”

I felt myself nodding my head, “It is,” I rasped.

Cynthia stiffened, “So that’s-“

“No,” I snapped, “why does it matter what happened during those two weeks? I’m sorry I wasn’t there, can we just move on?”

I jumped up, practically pushed Luke against the wall as I made my way past. I reached the door before Rose’s voice caught me and held me where I stood, “its normal to blame yourself. It’s normal to think that you made it happen, but that’s not true Olivia. It never is.”

“Well thank you for the pep talk,” I said more sharply then I meant to, “but that’s not exactly helpful right now.”

“What happened to you,” Luke asked gently, stepping forward with a concerned look on his face that seemed strangely out of place, “Let us help.”

“The only thing that happened,” I said, “was that Paul thought something happened that didn’t. If someone rings the doorbell at ten tonight let him in.”

“Him?”

I sighed, “Yes,” I turned back to them looking them each in the eye, “Let him in.”

“Wait,” Cynthia called after me as I turned around, “where are you-“

I ignored her as I left the kitchen and walked out the front door, turning down the path to the woods that bordered the house. I needed time to think; I needed time to clear my head without everyone staring at me every time I made a sound, and I needed to get away from the place of memories to do it.