The door to my small two-bedroom house clicks open, and I close my laptop.
"Yvette? You home?"
"In here, Raph," I yell across the house from the office.
"I grabbed takeout." He lifts a white bag with red letters indicating Chinese food.
"Great," I say, standing from behind my desk.
"Is tonight the night I actually get to stay over?" Raph asks as he pulls the styrofoam boxes from the bag. When he places them on the table, the lids are near bursting open, food spilling out of the sides.
"I don't know; I'm pretty wiped. The project I've been working on at work is exhausting." Not to mention the side project I've become obsessed with that Raph can't know about. Mainly because he's the subject. The whole reason I started dating him was to get close enough to him to collect samples. Now that we've been together for a couple of months, he's expecting the relationship to go further. Which I'm not opposed to hooking up, but I know it will mean more to him, and I'm not sure I can lead him on like that.
"Alright, well, Jet and Damien will be over around 8 for poker night." Raph breaks his chopsticks and digs into his lo mein.
"Perfect." Opting for a fork, I dig into my orange chicken.
Raph and I met at a community casino night to raise money for charity. Poker night was my way of starting the relationship. Jet and Damien come sporadically. The first few times they came, it was fine, but I think they're suspicious of me and have asked prodding questions about what I do for work. I'm hoping tonight will be an easy, chill night, though.
"What is the project you're working on?" Raph asks between bites.
"Oh, um. It's basically gene therapy to help with chronic illnesses." I keep it brief. I don't want to get into the specifics. But my side project is what will really help with a breakthrough.
"Sounds important." He smiles at me as he chews, and I notice the dimple in his left cheek.
"It is. If we can figure out how to fix a specific genome, it could be a game changer."
"So, you could save lives doing this?"
"Absolutely, or at the very least, vastly improve the quality of life for millions of people."
"You're amazing." He leans in for a kiss, and I give it half-heartedly, but he doesn't seem to notice. He's really handsome and any girl would be lucky to have him, but I'm married to my work.
We finish eating, and eight o'clock comes faster than I expected. Jet and Damien are right on time, knocking before Raph lets them in.
I had set everything up on the dining room table. Cards and chips lay neatly stacked and ready to go.
"Hey Yvette," Jet says. It sounds friendly, but there's a sinister gleam to his eye that makes my stomach twist. He moves across the room and opens his arms wide before encircling me with a hug. He squeezes me tightly, enough to hurt, before letting go. He places his hands on my shoulders, digging his fingers into me. "It's been a while. How is work going?" he practically snarls the question. My veins turn to ice.
He can't know, can he?
"She's been doing some amazing work," Raph chirps as he walks behind Damien, escorting him in. Damien also has the same vicious look on his face, and suddenly the night doesn't feel like it's going to be fun.
"Really? Any breakthroughs?" His fingers dig in deeper, and I cringe in pain, but I try to hide it the best I can so Raph doesn't notice.
"Almost. I'm so close." I say. Jet lets go of me, roughly yanking me under his arm and smiling at Raph. It looks friendly, but the energy radiating from him is dangerous. Every warning system rings in my body to get out, but his grip on me is unrelenting.
Raph claps, rubbing his hands together playfully. "Who's ready to lose some money?" He smiles, and the urge to run is overwhelming.
"I think I plan to empty Yvette's wallet tonight. She normally hustles all of us," Damien says. His eyes tell me everything. They know. They have to know what I've been doing. Is it possible that Jet and Damien are the same thing as Raph? Is it possible they live in groups, or is this an oddity among their kind?
"You know, I'm not sure the Chinese food is sitting well on my stomach." I try to make any excuse I can to leave.
"Just take some meds. You'll be fine," Jet says, jostling me again.
"You barely ate anything. Maybe it's just gas," Raph says, and I wish I could slap a hand over his mouth right now.
"Yeah. I'll just grab something from the cabinet." Jet reluctantly releases me, and I move toward the bathroom, which is out of view from the dining room. Instead of going to grab medicine, I grab my laptop from the office and then rush to the bedroom, shoving it in my bag and pulling a coat on. I pull my bag over my head. As I walk down the hall, I yell loudly. "Hey, I'm going to run to the store real quick; we're out of..."
Jet is sitting next to Raph with a phone out, showing him something, and Damien has a sinister smile pulling across his lips from behind them.
"Is it true?" Raph asks. The pain of betrayal pulls his features downward, and the lump in my throat makes it hard to speak.
"Is what true?" I ask.
Raph stands abruptly, knocking his chair back, and his hand flies out, smacking the cards and chips everywhere. "Don't play fucking dumb with me," he yells. He's never spoken to me like this before, and now the plan I had seems incredibly stupid and reckless. This is why we have waivers to protect us and why we have strict guidelines and protocols to follow with testing. I broke all of it when I went on my little side quest.
"I can explain." I hold up my hands defensively when I notice Jet and Damien flanking me as they move forward.
"Yes. I want to know why you've been harvesting DNA samples off of me?" he sneers. Damien and Jet stop in their tracks, waiting for me to continue.
"I never wanted to hurt you, but I noticed the few times we ran into each other that little things about your appearance started changing. Freckles in the wrong spots, your eye color being a shade or two off, or even scars appearing and disappearing. It made me curious about how your body was changing so rapidly from each visit we had together. I asked to date so I can stay close to you. Your DNA will help me crack the code on regeneration of cells. You could help save millions of people." The words spill out of my mouth faster and faster, hoping that once I get to my last point, he'll see I was coming from a good place. That I never meant to hurt him and that I wanted to help people. But his face contorted with anger the more and more I said.
"Did you ever think that maybe knowing that secret about me could be dangerous?" His voice is deadly, and I look behind me and hope I can make it to the bedroom fast enough.
All three of them take a step forward. I turn and run. The sound of things falling over and crashing to the ground catches me by surprise, but fear and adrenaline have me moving faster than I thought possible. But it wasn't fast enough. I close the door on Jet's arm, but he's so strong he pushes me back, widening the gap. I throw my back against it and see the silver tray I held my perfumes on. I grab it and slam it down on his hand. His flesh sizzles and he wrenches it back. I slam the door, throwing the lock in place. I take a step back to catch my breath as they pound on the door.
"Let me in, Yvette!" Raph yells, and tears stream down my face.
What have I done? They're going to kill me. I was stupid and... the door bows and the frame looks nowhere near sturdy enough as they slam their body against it.
"I'm sorry. Please, just go!" I scream over the sound of a body slamming against the wood.
"We can't do that. You went meddling in business you weren't supposed to," Damien says. Anger and hate are like venom in his voice.
"Please, I didn't know. I just wanted to help," I beg. The sound of the wood splintering snaps me out of it.
"Well, all that hard work will die with you," Raph says, and my tears flow freely down my face.
Another splintering of wood forces me into action. I turn and grab the gun from my nightstand drawer, tucking it into my waistband. I turn to my window, unlocking it and tugging upward.
"Come on, damn it," I grunt as I pull harder. These old houses in town always have issues with windows sticking. Just as I yank hard enough to get it to budge, my body hits the floor, and something heavy is on top of me.
They roll me to my back, and I throw my fists as hard as I can, connecting with Damien's face, but he just smiles. My stomach sinks. I keep going, but I'm not a trained fighter. I don't have the control or technique, and he grabs my arms, pinning them to the floor. I try to get my feet beneath me, but he's too heavy.
"Please don't hurt me. I didn't know. I'll forget everything. I'll delete it all. Please," I beg.
Damien leans down, dragging his nose along my neck, taking a deep breath in. I do everything I can to crane my neck away from him. "You know I would believe you if I didn't smell the lie," he says. I sob uncontrollably. He yanks me up to my feet.
"Raph, please," I beg.
"You pretended to like me, fake dated me, and you expect mercy? I thought I actually had a shot of a normal relationship for once. I guess I was wrong." His eyes were like ice that shot right through me. "Tie her up."
"What?" I ask in shock.
Damien grabs me by the hair, yanking me behind him so hard I worry he'll rip it from my scalp. I scream in pain. Jet pulls the rope from his backpack, and I struggle against Damien's hold, only making his grip on my hair tighter. He throws me against the chair. The armrest snaps and stabs into my back. I cry out in pain. He rips my bag over my head and throws my laptop on the floor, stomping on it.
"No!" I scream as Jet makes quick work of tying me up, and I wonder if they've done this before. None of them seem the least bit remorseful. Something about them is all off.
"What the hell are you?" I ask between choked sobs.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Jet says, baring his teeth like a vicious animal.
"No, she should know what she's going to die over," Raph says. "We're shapeshifters."
My eyes blow wide with surprise. That's not possible.
"You're lying. Shapeshifters are a myth." I scoff.
"Oh, we're very real. You just happen to know three of them." Damien smirks. They turn their backs on me, and much to my relief, they didn't tie my hands down. I shift and reach the gun in my waistband. Clicking the safety off as silently as I can, I pull the trigger, hitting Damien in the back, and he drops to the floor.
Jet and Raph turn in surprise, but neither move toward me.
"Put the gun down, Yvette," Raph says.
"Oh, you can threaten to kill me, but when I have the gun now you want to listen?" I chide. "I didn't want to hurt anyone, but you've forced my hand." I notice Jet trying to inch closer, so I shoot. I was aiming for his chest, but hit his upper arm. I guess that's the disadvantage of not being able to actually aim.
"Fucking bitch," Jet yells, clutching his arm. "I'm going to fucking kill you," he snarls from behind clenched teeth.
"We can talk this out," Raph says.
"Now, you want to talk?" I scoff. "What is it with men never listening to women until you've pushed us to the brink and we finally snap? Then you want to take us seriously. Then you want to talk and work things out."
"I'm not some fuckwit from your science lab. You stole my DNA. You could have exposed what I am. I could have ended up a literal science experiment, being poked and prodded, but you never considered me. Not to mention you fucking broke my heart. You're the villain here." The words slapped me.
Am I the villain? Did I cross some lines? Of course, but I didn't hurt him? I didn't do anything to him. He should be happy I only stuck with hair and saliva samples when what I really needed was blood.
"I didn't do anything wrong." I double down.
He scoffs. "Typical. The scientist that doesn't see the emotional impact, or the fact that your meddling could have killed me."
"I wouldn't have allowed that," I say firmly.
"Really? What would have happened if the government caught wind of your research? When they came in here and confiscated all of it? You think they wouldn't have tried to find the subject? Or if anyone I knew was like me? Not to mention they likely would have killed you too, not that I would have been upset about it now that I know the truth. You were so focused on what was right in front of your face, you didn't think about the larger picture if things went wrong."
"It wasn't supposed to go wrong. You were never meant to find out."
"That's the fucking problem," Raph yells. Jet stands by his side, watching the argument unfold while he nurses his arm. "You know, for a scientist, you did a piss-poor job considering all your variables." That insult hit a little deeper than I would have liked.
"Get out, or I'll shoot you both with no regrets," I grind out.
Jet grabs his bag, and Raph grabs Damien, hoisting his body over his shoulder. "Watch your back, Yvette. Say a word about any of this, and I'll hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands." Raph turns away from me.
"Leave Damien," I say.
"Over my dead body," Jet says.
Before I could pull the trigger, they were gone. All they left behind was my trashed dining room. The reality of what has happened finally washes over me, and I sob. I clutch the gun in my hand so tightly in fear that they may come back. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that, tied to a chair, crying, and waiting for them to return. But once the sun started to rise, I came up with a plan to untie myself and finish my research, even if I have to kill Raph to do it.
People need help, and I'll be the one to do it.