Our Past Always Finds us In The End (Part One)

The first contact had been short and terse.

MaryJane had been into her second beer, first pill and was hitting the cigarettes hard when her Droid buzzed, then began her ringtone.

"....She's a Superfreak....Superfreak...."

What the....no one had her number, all her contacts were filtered to voice. And damn who picked that ringtone? Prolly Renaldo. Oh definitely Renaldo. Freak, who changes their friends ringtone? He only bummed it for a half hour!!

So she picked it up. And sighed.

Rich Reptilian
212-555-6661

"Silas, my old high school fart around buddy. Nice. Learned to spoof since 88 huh? Damn we used to have some good times, but where did you obtain my number, Senor?" Over the last twenty some odd years her voice had deepened and rasped, totally the ciggies.

"MJ, my sex kitten, doll how are you?" he purred, stunning her with a stirring she had long forgotten. It angered her.

"Look, babe, the last time we got jiggy with it, I WAS an eighteen yr old sex kitten. Today I am a fat old woman who is ugly and drinks too much. Why dont we leave this in the past where it belongs." She sighed, going to hang up.

"Dont hang up! I need to see you. There is something I have to tell you."

"Aww come on, Silas, please. Who gave you my number, Randy? Ill kill him. I aint interested, and you are ruining my night."

She hung up.

That had been the end of it. She went about her life, working eight hours, then home to her beer, her medicine and her cigs. Oh and her laptop of course, she spent all her spare time on it, and refused to apologize for her lifestyle. She had no kids, and no man, and spent ninety percent of her free time online, surfing, learning, connecting, numbing.

At home she lived with her friend Renaldo, a small Cuban homosexual who adored MaryJane and tried to get her to go out partying with him, as he was hot as hades and 25, but she was too old for that nonsense and not interested in that stuff anymore. Something had her attention right now, and it involved a triangle sighting not far from her domicile.

So life went on and MaryJane forgot all about Silas.

Until the huge envelope arrived.

And MaryJane realized no matter how forward ones thinking, our past always finds us in the end.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Renaldo came skipping into her bedroom, wafting Axe.

"Look!! Who is Richard. I. Reptilian? He sent you this humongo letter!! OPEN IT!"

He plopped on her bed.

She yanked it from his hand and ordered him to refresh her vices.

Happily, he obliged.

She noted the stamp, New York. How generic.

It was huge, a large manilla envelope full of stuff. So she opened it, immediately regretting it.

"Well what is it?" Renaldo handed her a fresh pack of cigs, a cracked beer, and a lighter.

"Get out and don't pout. I have to be alone. I promise I'll tell you but not until I compose myself. And no listening at my door ok? I might have to make a few calls."

"OKAY"! He sashayed out of the room, wounded, and went straight to mix a Mojito. She better tell him what was in that envelope!!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She pushed the entire mess aside and reached for the beer, gulping and trying to calm down. She began to relax when the beer was two thirds drained. After two cigs, she felt calm enough to face the pictures, and Silas note.

"MJ, please please look at those pictures, you are the only other one left now. Just me and you, and Dr. Kimball is on his last leg, dementia, wasting away in some nursing home. Worthless now, his mind is totally gone. They said that the older
one is looking for Mother, and the younger one, the big one, is along for the ride. It makes Renatta's death look a bit more suspicious dont you think? You cannot drink this away MJ they are coming for you next. In fact I have data that says they have been watching you. I am in the Marriott, I will be here for two days. If you want my help you need to come. This is not a joke, and I dont want you....well I do but you said you were ugly and fat now." At this point she smiled, and folded the letter. She turned to the pictures. The first two were of babies, little cute babies, well cute if you liked an alligator/human hybrid looking baby.

The second set sent chills down her back. She shoved the whole mess back into the envelope and she hollered for Ren. It was going to be a long night.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Silas was a patient man.


He knew the first set of pictures would suck her right back to the past.

But the second set of pictures would bring her straight to his door.

A week passed. Then two, and finally Silas patience wore thin. He hated to call her but what choice did he have?

Unfortunately for Silas, MJ was a slick case, always had been, and the number he had found for her no longer worked. He pulled up the surveillence video of the sidewalk and front door of her home. It looked the same, didn't it? She could not have skipped with out him knowing?

So he replayed the last two weeks of video and groaned. Two days into the video, a cab pulls up and a fat but rather beautiful woman and a very handsome young man emerged from the home, with nothing more than purses, an afternoon trip to
the store, in line with previous activity, and took off in the cab. They never returned.

Two weeks later, a van arrived and loaded a few boxes, then left.

Frustrated, Silas spent a few moments throwing things and cussing. Dammit, if he could not find her he could not protect her, and from the looks of her she would be a poor match for just about anyone. He prayed she was armed. But the MJ he knew all those years ago hated guns and wanted all weapons banned. He prayed the new MJ loved guns and weapons, because she would definitely be needing them. Why had he assumed she would love to fall right back into his arms again? FOOL! Now she might end up like Renatta, or worse.

He gave the video another glance, hoping to find some clues he had missed before.

"Working on something I should know about?"

Silas startled, he had not heard the old man wheel in.

"Angus, damn, do you mind? Rude."

"Well, answer me, then, can I help?"

"I am looking over the video of MJs front door. She made a get away, probably while I was laying in bed daydreaming about her. "

"Not much to daydream about anymore huh?" Angus mused, slyly forcing his way and hand onto the mouse. A few clicks and he had the license plate numbers of both the cab and the van, and then he went back and froze and enlarged the shot of Maryjane's face.

" I can see why you still love her."

"I dont still love her, you are an insane old man." Silas shoved his chair back and went to the other room, leaving Angus to study the woman.

There was no doubt about it. Her daughter looked just like her.....

________________________________________________________________________

The two arrived at her place to discover the front door unlocked. The place had been destroyed, but Silas did not know if Mary did it or punks, or worse. He went from room to room, ending up in what used to be her bedroom. The bed was made, and on it, the pictures and the letter. He groaned. He swiped them off the bed, unable to cope with their gruesomeness at the moment. Something caught his eye, the name Dr Kimball was circled in what appeared to be lipstick. He looked at Angus.

"Well I guess our next stop is the nursing home." Silas quite lazily deduced.

Angus smiled. "We are not going to the nursing home, she left this on purpose knowing SOMEONE would go for Kimball first.

Look at the controlled chaos. Her bedroom, a pristine invitation to SOMEONE to notice. I guess there were no neon signs available."

"Why go to the length of circling Dr Kimball's name in lipstick?" Silas asked, moving towards her drawers. Angus cleared his throat. Silas sighed, and sat on the chenille coverlet.

"She was leaving clues a first grader could follow. She was assuming a first grade intelligence to be after her."

"I am smart, she knows that!" Silas cried, offended at the thought his first love would leave such insulting clues for him.

"Maybe her manboy was in charge of this phase." Silas suggested.

"Please, her man boy was in charge of packing. No Silas, I have followed MaryJane as long as you, and believe me when I say she did not circle Kimball's name, because that is not her shade of lipstick. I think her FOLLOWERS circled it as a
message, to US."

They stared at each other digesting that fact. The thought made Silas stomach churn.

"Fine let's get going, I hope we can find her before THEY do."

"We will, she has to stop and let this all sink in at some point, because she is running on adreniline and her little man is going to need a month of Sundays pampering in some hotel. Let's do some vehicle investigating, that van driver looked ike he was fresh out of the pen."

"How do you figure, because he is black? That's a bit of a stereotype isn't it?"

"I am a realist, he has the propensity to crime if he is fresh out of the pen, and that makes him more bribable."

(cont. next post)

Kale Jennigns had been out of the pen for more than four years, but he had never dropped the habits he learned inside, and they gave him away to an experienced eye. Not letting the old man see his resignation, he played tough for while before accepting the money. He spilled, like beans from a poorly rolled burrito.


"Yeah I member that broad, real classy, nice and sexy. I sure would have went for her but she seemed to be married."

Silas raised an eyebrow. Angus sighed and peeled off five hundred.



"The broad and twinkle toes had me drop them at the airport."

"Do you recall any conversation on this airport trip?"

"Man I dont eavesdrop, who you take me for?"

"An ex con who has already shown he can be bought. I will pay you a thousand more at the end of this conversation. TALK." Angus meant business.

"The lady mentioned Brazil. She said she knew someone there, but she seemed to be nervous about it. Rennie, her boy toy kept blathering on about the hot Brazilian men, and what clothes they needed for the trip."

"Go on." Angus prompted.

"Rennie loves that broad, he was lighting her cigs, soothing her, and he kept asking her what the hell the envelope contained. He seemed real mad she renegged on some deal to tell him what it was and who Richie Reptilian was. Hell I thought it was some rich cougar with a twinkle toe for a bff, going off on a cruise or something. They talked crazy, like they been drinking or something."

"Or maybe on the run." Silas said, angry the conversation hadn't yeilded any more than it had.

"Yeah, maybe that's it! She mentioned the money Randy owed her, too. Thats about it. I swear I don't remember any more."

Angus handed over the rest of the money and Silas and he departed. Silas felt the conversation was a dud, but Angus disagreed.

They coupled the information gleaned from Kale with the obvious staged scene in which MaryJane expected SOMEONE to rush to the nursing home instead of investigating. He doubted she had even went because of her contempt for Dr. Kimball, and Silas suspected she went straight to the airport and was sunning it up, convinced she was safe in Brazil.

Silas was pretty far from the truth on this one.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The van driver happened to be unloading a van at the warehouse when Angus and Silas met up with him. A small quiet man, he accepted the bribe without a word, and related chronologically his dealings with 3633 Devonshire Place.

"A woman go by MaryJane called our company on May 12, asking for a pickup two weeks later. She specified which items were to be taken, and where she had left them. She mailed us a copy of the house key, and instructed us to hide it under the front mat. I was assigned the duty, it was an easy duty. I entered the home, found seven small boxes, loaded them, and proceeded to drive them back here, where I sent them to our shipping department. As per your request I located copies of the shipping labels for the items in question. May I get on with my job now, gentlemen? Have I earned this money?"

Angus dismissed him after taking the proferred envelope of paperwork. If only all informants were this easy!

A quick glance at the shipping addresses told him where the next move was.

"Silas, let's go to Brazil."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Renaldo was definitely pouting. MaryJane ignored him, because she never indulged the POUT. Despite his annoyance with her, he was going nowhere. He loved an adventure just as much as the next.

When they arrived in Brazil several days ago, she checked them into a nice hotel, and for that day, Renaldo enjoyed life to the fullest. The gorgeous views, the hot Latin Lotharios, Renaldo was in sheer Heaven. Poolside drinking Mojitos together, he had gingerly brought up the ISSUE.

"MaryJay I love you, and there has never been a day that I have EVER went back on my WORD to you, has there?" Ren began, immediately gulping on the mojito.

"No Rennie, and that's why I love you. You're my little Ren and I am your big old Stimpy. Now call that hunk over there to deliver us some fresh booze!!"

After complying, he continued.

"So why won't you tell me what this is all about, MaryJane? I mean, don't get me wrong I am so eternally GRATEFUL to be sitting by the pool of this six star international hotel watching all the eye candy drift by, drinking Mojitos with my very favorite person on this PLANet, but you said you would..."

"I SAID I would let you know what was going on, and I will, but I did NOT give a time for disclosure did I? Now drop it, Rennie, I need to relax today. Some things may be coming down the turnpike we want to be ready for."

Eventually she left him poolside to return to her room, to see if the boxes had arrived yet. They had.

She opened them, examining the contents, making sure it was all there. It was. She made a few phone calls, and with in the hour, had a knock on the door. Before she opened it, she peered out the curtain. Rennie was deep in conversation with a nice looking young man.

She allowed the man to enter, with his brief case, and his guards, carrying equally large cases them selves.

It took MaryJane exactly ten minutes and ten thousand dollars to become armed better than a small militia. She stuffed the cases under her bed, wondering how to gently break the news to Ren he would be expected to carry some of this stuff in his own bags.

Ren was outraged and deeply wounded when MaryJane announced they were leaving the city for a small remote village in the Amazon Jungle. That was no count of a vacation!! And the arsenal, Ren felt weak in the knees. He had never fired a gun before, and it scared him. But MaryJane must have had a really good reason for it so he did as she told him to do. She had never led him astray before.

The Jeep pulled up in front of the Hotel, and who was driving, but Randy, her no good ex husband. Rennie squealed his displeasure, but MaryJane kicked his shin.

"Shut up, he is military trained." She hissed, and thus they piled into the Jeep to disappear into the Amazon Jungle that Hot May Afternoon. Her past had not found her yet, and if she had her way she would outrun it or stay one step ahead of it until the day she died. And she would use every measure she had to do so, even her odious ex husband.

And if all that failed, she would meet her past HEAD ON, and ARMED to her teeth, ready and prepared to blast her past back to the stone ages where it belonged.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Angus and Silas arrived at the hotel to discover from a maid the tenants of room 1772 had not been back for six days, but the room was paid up for three weeks. It left them with their first snag, where to turn from here? Silas suggested getting the room next door and trying to break in, to see what clues if any were left behind. Angus sighed. He was tired, and agreed, on the stipulation that they rest tonight, and proceed fresh in the morning. A week is not that big of a lead, and sometimes the old man did his best thinking after a good nights rest digesting things in dream land. Silas idea of rest was to conk out after a few drinks poolside. They both slept well that night, unaware that at that moment, MaryJane and her motley crew had arrived at their destination, prepared for battle if need be.

________________________________________________________
Randy was what people referred to as a meathead, a big brute of a man who ruled by fist and fury, and maybe a few brewskis. When MaryJane had called him with the OFFER he jumped on it. His third wife had just dumped him and he was a bit down on At the moment, he was down on his luck. In fact he owed MJ a pretty nice chunk of change. But she offered to wipe the slate clean and let him choose one of the weapons, AFTER the mission was complete. She also wanted him to teach her how to survive in the woods, and some other survival skills, like firemaking and fishing. She said they had two weeks to complete the mission, so he figured why not?

When he arrived to pick her up he was not surprised to see her dragging along a pet. Randy had not even acknowlegded Rennie, and that was fine with Ren, who was skittery about the whole adventure to begin with. He did not even know what they were going to do or accomplish. All Mary Jane said was there is a man in the jungle who owes me some answers. That sounded mysterious, so Ren decided what the hey, and of course MaryJane had given him a very large gun to use. Randy seemed to be the only one relishing using the weapons.

The farther away from the city the thicker and more dangerous the jungle became. It took six days to reach their destination, a tiny village hidden in the jungle. Maryjane alit and the others followed, she knew exactly where she was going.

She stopped in front of what could only be described as an Americanized jungel hut. Someone had taken the time to paint it, and put some shutters on it. A small white fence decorated the walkway. A mailbox sat perched upon a log.

"I know you are in there, Jake. I can smell your chemicals."

Shuffling sounds, then the door opened, revealing a portly man her own age. He was hairy from head to toe, and smiled tautly when he saw the entourage she had brought along.

"Can your....Goons....wait outside? I have some....delicate equipment I would hate to see them thug over."

"No they enter with me."

At that point she opened the top of her bag revealing a shiny silver gun. He stood to the side, and they all three entered.

(End of Part One.)

we're allowed to ascend into the realm of possibility selections then we must fall back down to our personal hells in order to learn how to repent.

what else can you ask for? that is indeed merciful.

Well thank you for your comment.

It may take me a few days to pull together Part two the way I want it to read. Plus my muse is hit or miss, right now she is visiting.

Critique welcome, feedback, etc. Thank you.

I am a real fan of all your writing, Hotbaked. You are very talented at putting images together.

I can see there are a lot of people following your writings here, and I am one of them. Your stories are always engaging, but more than that -- I think I just like the way you structure your ideas, and state them in a very surprising and clever way. I get it!

Really cool. Thanks, for this and your other stories.

Edit to add: I am sorry I don't spend more time commenting here. I should have made that comment earlier -- maybe on some of your earlier stories or prose. Keep writing!

Edit to add one more note: I would be interested in the conclusion, but in a weird (but obvious) way, part one stands by itself. If I were you, I wouldn't feel obligated to ever finish part two. What you have here is oddly complete, and doesn't need anything. (That kind of agrees with the title of your story. I like the fact I am left hanging around at the end. )


[edit on 25-8-2010 by Axial Leader]

Thank you for the comments, Ax.

I am still working on this little story, but I have not had the mental energy the past few weeks to work on my writing much. I love cliffhangers, myself, too! Unfortunately, this one may end up being one!!

ETA, I will go ahead an post up what I have completed of part 2, and if we are lucky, I may get around to part three in the future! I have to edit it and all, first, thanks again for the interest. Writing is one of my biggest passions in life.

[edit on 3-9-2010 by hotbakedtater]

"Jake, you haven't changed a bit. Kind of like I haven't changed a bit." MaryJane began, looking around the place, which was larger than it first appeared. In fact, the hut was built over an underground lab, the above section was for looks.

"MaryJane, my my your charm has only deepened in the....years since we have seen one another. I thought I told you everything on the phone, and dear, that call was not CHEAP." Jake swept his arm to a chair, indicating to Ren and Randy to have a seat. "Your goons can stay up here, we can chat down below. Like old times," he added, snickering. She scowled. He stopped.

"Randy, you know what to do." She said, to which Randy nodded, and remained standing, though Ren plopped into the small chair and sighed. Randy removed a sub machine gun from his bag and stood like a Redneck Rambo at the door.

The underground lab was like any lab, sterile and white and full of beakers and tables. A few men and women worked quietly on different jobs. Jake led her into a small office, sparely furnished. They sat, and Jake offered coffee. Maryjane declined, and got to the point once he shut the door.

"You said they died shortly after birth." She took a stack of photos from her purse, copies of the originals she left behind, and tossed them on his table. He blanched, and looked away.

"MaryJane, the babies I saw and held DIED. I assure you, this is some sick.....joke...."

"I have lived the last twenty years thinking my baby was dead. Now I get this letter from Silas, who claims Renatta was killed by her offspring, which DIED all those years ago!! And these pictures, Jake, who is that girl? She looks JUST like ME!! I know Silas is slick, and I am wondering if this is photoshopped. You need to tell me what really happened back in that other lab that night in September, twenty years ago, or I am gonna have Randy and Ren kill every last one of you."

Jake looked at the still beautiful woman sitting in front of him, he could see the stress and the lack of sleep on her face. And he could see the distrust. She was buying into this ridiculous story, because it came from HIM, Jake angrily thought. But was it so ridiclous?

"I never saw them actually perish, MaryJane. I cremated the two bodies, though. Dr. Kimball delivered them to me in a small white cardboard box, and he authorized the cremation. He told me not to look in the box it would be....easier.....that way. Well, it was not easy. I was charged by my mentor and my idol, my GOD, to cremate these two hybrid babies, which we had worked so hard to create...." He stopped abruptly.

"WHAT? I thought Renatta and I had been abducted, and the kind Dr Kimball and his trusty assistant Jake the Jackass just happened to show up to help, due to your being Silas roomie at the University and all. DAMMIT I should known it was all too easy and convenient. How could I have been so STUPID??" She felt the anger building, and she gripped the gun, which of course he noticed. Gulping he hurried on.

"Yes its true. Ok? But dont blame Silas, dammit, he had nothing to do with it. If you can refrain from shooting me, I will tell you how the entire sordid deal went down, and how it even to this day dictates what I do. How it relates to my research." He pleaded with his eyes for the chance to clear the air. She told him with hers to proceed.

So they both, slowly, eased into their chairs, and Jake brought her straight back to the late eighties, one spring afternoon before her hs prom, on her only visit to Silas on campus. It was the first time she met his roomie, Jake, and his pretty but shy Iranian girlfriend, Renatta, who although of Iranian lineage, was fourth generation American. It is where the REAL story began, and ended, or so he had thought.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

The knock on the door in their dorm room caused Silas to jump from his chair and leap to answer it.

Jake and Renatta snuggled on the bed, laughing, Silas was smitten with this one.

Not that Silas had many girls fluttering about. Neither of the boys did, they were one hundred percent certified geeks, and that made it hard to attract a pretty girl, even on college campus. But something about Jake and Silas together, how easy their humor and laughter came, even at their own expense, appealed to some girls, but this was the first time one had driven an hour to see him. Jake had heard about Silas hs girlfriend, and love, MaryJane, too many times to count. He had gotten drunk with his buddy many a night as he lamented their breakup the night he left for University, due to the distance. This marked the first visit since that night, and both Renatta and Jake were caught up in Silas excitement.

"MJ! Doll! You look rad."

She smiled, a pretty smile that lit up the room. Large green eyes shone from a heart shaped face, and her red hair hung down her back. She came in and hugged Silas warmly, then they kissed.

Jake groaned comically and Renatta giggled. For the first time MaryJane noticed the company, and she laughed, a huge sound that filled the room.

"Sorry I didnt know we had an audience!! Im Maryjane, can you believe my mom named me that?"

The evening was spent laughing and catching up and wandering around the campus and town, all four of them, eating pizza for lunch on the campus square.

"So Maryjane, are you coming to University yourself?" Renatta asked.

"I would love to, but I think I cannot afford it. I will probably just get a job at a restaurant or something." She said, brushing it off.

Jake studied the pretty young lady every chance he got. She was mesmerizing to a 19 year old nerd, but he still found Renatta and her contrasting darkness what he preferred in a woman.

"What do you think of Silas becoming a research rat?" Jake asked. "You will never see him".

"I rarely see him now, do I, considering we are just friends. That happens when you grow up, Jake."

The day was fun for Jake and Renatta, but being young and in love wanted some alone time. When Maryjane mentioned the movie, they all decided to hit the drive in, and make a night of it, too. Renatta offered to let MaryJane spend the night, so she could drive home refreshed.

The couples parted to meet back at the dorms later, for the movie, Jake and Renatta heading for her dorm and leaving Silas alone with Maryjane.

"I know what you two did, Silas told me, but what you don't know is I dropped Renatta off at her dorm, because I had a few hours to mentor with Kimball. I rushed to the lab and was distraught, he was out! I had missed my hours with my mentor for a day hanging out with a couple of girls? I was pissed off. I happened to run into Dr Kimball on my way down the hall to leave and he invited me to look at some work he was deep into.

So I did. It was gene splicing, specifically reptile and human genes. He was trying to grow a hybrid. So far his attempts to impregnate a reptile with human reptile spliced eggs had failed grotesquely. Dr Kimball told me he had gotten a ghost grant for this work, and wondered if I were interested in being his assistant."

"What is a ghost grant?"

"A ghost grant is what is funding my work here right now, I am still working under Kimball's tutelage. A ghost grant is given by a donor who does not exsist, like black ops or something. We do not question who gives us the money, you know, it never stops coming so we keep on researching."

"Did you say you are still under Kimball's tutelage? How can that be, he is laid up with dementia in some obscure nursing home, where he belongs, the monster!!"

"Hold it right there, Kimball is NOT....OK, from your point of view, yeppers, monster. But he is most certainly not laid up with dementia anywhere, why I am supposed to meet with him here in the next few days. I just spoke to him not hours before your arrival."

"So Silas was lying about that in the letter."

"God....yes, Silas was lying about a lot of things in that letter, I am really not sure why he sent it to you. Unless the specimens did survive, which would mean a dirty double cross by Kimball." Jake sighed, defeated. "You know what they say? In for a dollar in for the devil."

"Thats not what they say. Thats what people who make deals with devils say! Finish the story, Jake."

"Ok, anyway I eagerly signed on, no thought I was going to officially be working on a ghost grant project with my mentor, Kimball. He gave me my first assignment that very moment...."

"Which was?"

"Really? You cannot deduce the first assignment?"

Maryjane felt numb, and longed for a drink and a ciggie. She told him to go on already.

"My first assigment was to get two volunteers to be impregated by the specimens. He said volunteers, I said knock out drug and alien abduction story. Dr Kimball loved it, and thus is how it came to be. By the time you were ready to give birth, Kimball and I stepped in like superheroes to save the day, no one would have to know the babies were mutants, and with fat payments to go around, we all could claim to be part of life and world changing science.

The day the babies were born, in that lab, they were ALIVE. I HELD them and nursed them and took pictures and samples of them. Kimball sent me away to draw some labs on you girls, and when I came back the babies were....perished. He had sheets covering them, and told me to prepare the crematory."

"You said you looked, Jake. What did my baby look like? Dead? Deformed?"

Jake was silent for several minutes, before continuing.

"The babies did not look like the ones in the pictures Silas sent you, MaryJane. The babies looked.....human."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Human? So we gave birth to real babies? The splice did not take, and that Monster Kimball killed my baby because he saw it as a failed science experiment?? This is crazy and sick, Jake! We thought we were giving birth to monsters and the only MONSTERS were you and DR. Evil!!!!"

"No!! What's crazy is those babies or wax figures or silicone dolls I cremated were not the.....babies......you and Renatta gave birth to. Those babies were, when I held them and documented them in those hours after birth, SUCCESSFUL genetically spliced babies, and they were alive and behaving like babies do, they were crying and nursing and sleeping. It was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed, and to this day I am doing research on genetics right here in the jungle, using newly discovred plants and minerals for our work. Dr. Kimball keeps sending the checks and we keep researching."


"It is pretty obvious Kimball stole my baby. I want to find her!!"

"No you don't." Jake stared at her, disgusted she would say that. It was also becoming clear Silas pictures were quite possibly.....REAL.

"MaryJane, I think you are in great danger. Silas may be lying about Kimball, but the rest....the rest of it is plausible, and....who am I kidding, he is trying to protect you. Why did you run down here to me instead of going to him?"

"I didn't realize he held the answers I thought you did."

"Silas holds a lot more of the answers than you may realize."

MaryJane let out a long sigh.

It looked like she would be playing Silas game anyway.

"One more thing, Jake. You said you just spoke to Dr. Kimball recently. Was it about.....present or past business?"

"He asked me if I had seen you. I laughed and told him of course not. He seemed tired, and he seemed to disbelieve me. He is going to be visiting me soon, if you have any questions maybe you should stick around and ask him yourself. Our village is not very large but the people are very kind, I am sure we can find someone to share their hut with you and your....entourage."

MaryJane decided to smoke and think over Jake's suggestion. She really just wanted to smoke, though. She already knew she would be staying.

In for a dollar in for the devil, she mused.

In for the devil....
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