Bury All Your Secrets In My Skin

Warren’s body jack-knifed as he awoke in his bed. He sat upright, a cold sweat dripping from his face as his hands gripped tightly onto the bed sheet, struggling to breathe. Beverly quickly woke up, sitting up as she placed an arm around his shoulders, trying to catch his eye. “Warren it’s ok, you were just having a bad dream” She reassured, trying to calm him down. Warren didn’t listen. His chest felt tight, tears were streaming from his eyes as he sat there terrified in the dark. Beverly held him close as she kissed him on the forehead; feeling his body shaking with fear. She never knew him to be like this. She simply assumed him to be the same confident, charming man that strutted around the office. Instead, as they lie here in his bed after a night of passion, he revealed himself to be nothing more than a frightened, and perhaps lonely, middle aged man.

Warren pushed her away, swiftly moving off the bed. He sat on the window ledge, looking up at the midnight sky as he wiped away the tears. The moonlight shone down, spotlighting him as he silently prayed for God’s forgiveness. He was never a religious man, but right now he felt like he needed a miracle. He shuddered, goose bumps scattering across his skin as he tried to shake off the nagging feeling that festered within him; the feeling of shame, the feeling of regret.

“What is it?” Beverly asked, wrapping the sheet around her naked body as she sat on the edge of the bed. Warren sighed, refusing to look back at her. Why did he sleep with her? She looked about as cheap as her red hair that hung from her hair. “You wouldn’t understand, I... I just did what I thought was best” He replied shakily. Beverly groaned rolling her eyes as she rose from the bed, heading towards the bathroom before Warren grabbed her arm, holding her in place.
“I gave an order for a man to be lured into our base so we can cure the virus” He said quietly, loosening his grip on her. “We tried to find a cure, god knows we did. But there was nothing, nothing worked Bev. So Carla did some digging and found a patient from Project H who didn’t respond to the virus, they didn’t get infected. As soon as he walked through the entrance, we’re going to experiment on him and...I can’t do it. I can’t put him through it again”

Beverly stared at him unsure of what to say. They had been bringing in people for tests for months, why was this man so different? She shook her head. “I don’t understand, why is he any different” She asked, feeling rather confused about the whole situation. Warren took a deep breath, nobody else knew about this except him and Carla. Maybe talking to someone else about it would help, Carla was so emotionally blocked it was probably the reason he ran off with someone else in the first place. He had done some terrible things in his time, but none as bad as this. “He’s different because I was the one who put him in Project H in the first place” He said, trying to not meet the other woman’s eye as he spoke.

She scoffed him, shaking her head as she folded her arms against her chest. “No, you’re lying. Tell me why he’s different...and what the hell Project H is. Everyone round here seems to talk about it but not have a clue as to what it is” She demanded, narrowing her eyes at him. He rose to his feet, staring directly at her as he cleared his throat.

“Project H was designed to prevent viruses such as AIDS and cancer. We ran trials on people and it looked like it worked so we distributed it through the NHS. But, then it began mutating the patients cells, changing them into those things out there” He said, beckoning out of the window.
“When we heard of the first few outbreaks, we thought we could reverse it. We ran more clinical trials on people in the hope of curing this new virus. Only these trials were experimental, torturous, a lot of people suffered and died because of Project H and I was the one who initiated it.Around that time, Carla found out I was having an affair. She blackmailed me and told me if I didn’t bring him in for trials then I would suffer the consequences.”

“Wait? Him?”

“Does gender really matter Bev? Anyway, I refused to bring him in because I...well I just didn’t want to. I suffered for that, I got sick and I mean really sick. I don’t know how but I’ll put money on it that Carla had something to do with it. The next thing I knew I woke up in hospital with her standing over me telling me he thought I was dead and that he was being prepared for clinical trials. Of course I objected this; I didn’t want him to go through the trials. But she told me if I didn’t agree, she would go public about my involvement with the creation of the virus and I’d probably be killed for it. So I selfishly sold him out because I wanted to save myself. I honestly thought he died in the trials but as it turns out, someone discharged him before the outbreak so now Carla wants to bring him again”

Bev stood there, shocked by this sudden revelation. She had no idea how bad Project H was or that he was behind the virus. She quickly made for the bathroom, rushing inside and locking the door, refusing to say another word to this monster.

Warren stood there for a moment, gazing out of the window. “I’m sorry Frank, I’m so sorry” he muttered.

Notes

So Warren was Jimmy!

Let me know what you think... or if theres any point in carrying on

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