Mystery of the Night

Owen sat despondently on the sofa in the sparsely appointed living room. Had he expected Trevor to display such insularity and lack of compassion? He supposed he had not. He knew the saying, “love is blind?” How well did Trevor love him? Was their special bond all down to a physical attraction that no objective outsider would even be able to see? Who could he confide in now that Kitty had suddenly turned monstrous? To think he once thought he could confide his worries about personal matters in her… he had trusted her above his other colleagues.

At that moment there came the sound of Trevor admitting someone. Owen felt a moment of unease which turned into a surge of horror as Kitty entered the room, followed closely by Trevor. “You have a lady caller of great beauty, you philanderer,” said Trevor scathingly. Owen felt sickened anew.

“Do not be absurd,” said Kitty, flashing Trevor an angry look. “Can you be so ignorant when it is the ignorance of other’s that forbid your love?” She shook her head and brushed her long coppery tresses away from her face. “I have an obligation to confess to doing Owen wrong.”

“You seduced him?” said Trevor, raising his eyebrows. His blue eyes held that quizzical look he affected when he was trying to wrong foot another in an altercation. Owen wanted to leave the room, but his legs wouldn’t seem to obey him at this moment.

Kitty made a small sound indicative of exasperation. “Don’t make me take you by the shoulders and shake you,” she warned. “I did not seduce Owen, I injured him deeply. I forced myself on him…”

“That still sounds like seduction,” Trevor began, but Kitty glared at him and he fell silent. She opened a small leather purse and took out a large shiningly white coin.

“I wanted to make amends, but I know Owen’s sense of pride,” she said. “I daresay you are less particular, Trevor?”

“A truesilver imperial?” said Trevor, blue eyes wide.

“Platinum if you want to use the Spanish etymology,” said Owen, finding his voice, though he sounded hoarse. With a start, he realised he was repeating the very words Kitty had once spoken to him when describing the bullion system of currency. He turned away, but could feel her gaze upon him.

“We accept your restitution,” said Trevor quickly, taking the imperial from Kitty. This did not surprise Owen. A man could live prudently on an imperial for an entire year, even in London where prices were higher than in other cities. Trevor was not averse to getting large sums in coin. Owen wondered where Kitty was getting money like this. It was only the senior, more experienced surgeons who earned such substantial sums.

“If you were not such a blockhead, you would see it all Trevor,” said Kitty sadly. “Owen won’t even look me in the face anymore.” With that she turned to go. Owen was too dispirited to try to reason with Trevor. It was as if by force of habit that he returned to work the following day.

As he tried to resume his usual schedule he felt increasingly on edge. He must find a sympathetic listener, or he felt he would burst. He was taking some completed notes to Rebecca, another friend who was a more senior surgeon, when he decided he had nothing left to lose. Rebecca Goldman was a small woman, of slender build with short, dark hair and piercing blue eyes. “Something ailing you Owen?” she asked. Naturally astute, she could see his agitation! Surely this should make things easier?

“Very much, Becky,” he said and then fell silent. He struggled with himself to speak, but it was as though his throat had seized up.

She cocked her head and gazed at him intently. “You cannot admit to it now, is that it? Hmm?” Owen shook his head. “You normally tell Dr Kitty Fuller everything on your mind. You used to be thick as thieves.” Owen blanched at the mention of Kitty's name and shook his head again. He inwardly cursed himself and his own weakness. His verbal constipation must exasperate her. Becky was a practical person and she showed it in any number of everyday things. She did not mind, for instance, being photographed in a cycling helmet, although he himself cringed at the mental image of himself in such attire… “This outfit is practical,” she had said. With a jolt, he realised his mind had been wandering. Becky was resting her chin on both her small hands.

“You are clamlike, dear,” she mused, her expression unreadable. “Is it an intimate kind of problem?”

Owen gave a start and stood up. He realised he must be pale as a ghost. “Sorry to have taken up your time, Becky,” he said. “I must get back to the grindstone.” He left her, feeling like twenty kinds of an idiot. He felt a craving for some coffee to take his mind of things. The coffee of which the surgeons partook, which he himself had shared ever since Kitty had made the request on his behalf, was thick and strong. Authentic Turkish coffee. He partook of its heady aroma and strong, full bodied taste, barely registering anything different on the edge of the flavour. He felt a warm fuzziness spread through him. Although life had been so cruel to him just now, he could no longer feel worked up. He just needed to snatch five minutes rest, no one would mind. He slipped into the broom cupboard where it was dark and quiet, and consciousness left him.

He came to in a bare, stone room, tied painfully to a bed. He still felt very groggy. His eyes roved around, trying to take everything in. Where had he been? Had he left work? Could he be dreaming? He tried to call out, but his throat was dry and he merely croaked. He waited, wondering dazedly what he could do. Half a minute later the door opened and with an icy surge of terror, a tall woman with a startlingly green face swept into the room. There could be no mistaking Kitty, with or without that dreadful mask. She was wearing a long black dress and her auburn hair hung loose behind her as she swept towards him. “Awake now, sleeping beauty?” She purred.

“Get me out,” said Owen hoarsely. “I’ve suffered too much.”

He flinched as she touched his cheek. “A little gratitude for my providing for you would be in order,” she told him and brought her green face close, so that it filled his vision. The mask fit tightly, like a second skin, covering her face seamlessly, moulding itself perfectly to the shape of her nose and even clinging to her eyelids as her green eyes stared at him unblinking. Through his rising sense of panic, he wondered what it could be made of. “No gratitude then? Would it kill you to love me?” She waved a knife in her other hand.

Owen began to gabble, “take that thing off, Kitty and I’ll kiss you, you are pretty without it, I’ve always said…” She put a finger to his lips.

“This face of mine doesn’t inspire confidence?” She asked him and the note of affected coyness in her voice made him shudder. “Well I don’t think it’s the full ticket. Surgeon Goldman has been experimenting on her own with artificially grown tissues. She wants to find a way to cure all ills, save her patients with cankers, but she is certain she could do more… grant boundless strength and guarantee immortality.” Kitty wrinkled her shiny green nose. “I’ve tried to make this sample work, but it doesn’t really fit me. It sharpens my senses, but I always have to take it off again, it hurts my head. But can you help? You can be with me again and soothe my hurt.” She waved the knife again and Owen’s stomach twisted into a knot…

But then once again, the door burst open and a voice rang out; “Drop that, Fuller!” Kitty started and turned round. Owen felt his heart thump, yet again. Becky stood framed in the doorway and yet what in the world had taken place? Her entire head was smooth, hairless and as vividly green as Kitty’s face. If he did not know her voice, she would be almost unrecognisable. “Whatever you’ve done to yourself, you’re out of your depth!” cried Kitty. “At your age, you probably need all the rest you can get.”

“You’ve taken what never belonged to you, my student,” said Becky steadily. “Get away from the boy.”

“I daresay you’re thinking of your own lusts,” said Kitty disdainfully, her lip curling. “But he’s mine. We’re already bonded by his seed inside me.” Becky sprang forward and Kitty flew to meet her. Owen closed his eyes tight shut, but with his arms tied, he could not block his ears. There was a shriek and the sound of a knife clattering on the floor. When he opened his eyes, Becky stood over Kitty, holding a scrunched up wad of shining green material in her hand. Kitty was slumped against the wall, groaning, the mask removed, and her eyes closed. Owen breathed a sigh of relief. Becky came over and got to work untying his limbs. “Will you be alright, Owen?” asked Becky, bringing her green face close to his. “I am afraid you have suffered more than one trauma.”

Owen could not tear his gaze away from her bald green head. She was speaking to him as rationally as ever, but her physical transformation was more startling than Kitty’s had been. “What has been going on?” he asked, his voice weak and feeble.

“Kitty has been tampering in what an amateur like her should have left well alone,” said Becky sternly. “My experiments were for the good of humanity, not for one girl’s selfish lusts. She tried to use my early specimen to increase her physical powers. Now I have completed my research and perfected the tissue samples and I am now the very first test subject. If I can strengthen my own body by grafting on this genetically perfected tissue, then I can save my patients who are devoured by canker from within.” She finished untying his legs and then laid a hand gently on his arm. “And I have stopped my own aging process in its tracks and forced it into retreat. Think on that, Owen. Age and physical ailments need never claim our loved ones again.” Her eyes shone with tears as she spoke. Owen suddenly recalled how Becky’s mother had died of cystic fibrosis when she was young. Kitty had said that it must have affected Becky deeply. She touched her green cheek. “You have seen that I am much stronger now the grafting is completed. Kitty is much younger and of larger stature - not to mention that she was armed - but I overpowered her.”

Owen felt an assortment of different questions spring to his lips. “Kitty kept taking that mask on and off though…” he began. “And it wasn’t ready to be used…?”

“She did not graft it on, she wanted to keep her pretty looks I daresay,” said Becky, her lip curling. “There is a limit to the benefits it grants if the green tissue does not become one with the host and grow as a part of them.”

Owen inhaled deeply. Again, he could see Becky’s practical approach to things. She did not mind looking like an otherworldly monster if something great could come of it. Her spirit had always been one of scientific enquiry and her aim in life, the betterment of humanity. He felt at that moment, quite in awe of her. Becky helped him into a sitting position. “I guessed where she might have taken you,” she told him. “This is the only abandoned lab Kitty knows about and can gain access to. She supposed I was in the dark about it. And it was clear you had a new found fear of her. You always used to lunch with her for one thing and today you deliberately avoided her. I am so glad I got here in time.” Owen put his arms around her, giving a heavy sigh of relief. Her smooth green scalp felt cool against his cheek. Kitty and Trevor had proven untrustworthy, but Becky would support him. Becky was an amazing person. She could be his rock.

“I would feel better if I could keep my eye on you more often, my sweet,” she told him.

“We will support each other,” Owen assured her.