Chapter Three

Methys' POV:

As I stare at Dad's figure, I heave a sigh of relief.

Dad's back. He's okay. Nothing's happened to him.

However, when I move closer to hug him - like I always do when he returns home, I realise there is something off about him.

He isn't the strong caring man I know. Instead, he looks pale, and different. Dad doesn't seem like the Dad I know.

Ask me how I know? Well, I just know. He's my father, of course I'll feel the difference.

I stop short in my tracks.

What's happened to Dad? Is he ill?

Thought after thought races through my mind at a furious pace. As my imagination runs wild, a frisson of alarm runs throughout me.

"D...dad?" Is all I can muster.

There's definitely something wrong; I can feel it in the air, a dangerous buzz, a combination of fear and excitement.

The air is so thick with tension I think I need a knife to cut through it. But even then, I don't think it'll suffice. The whole room has seemed to become darker, dangerous and eerie.

My heart begins to race. There's something wrong. This isn't Dad. You need to get out of here!

A sound snaps me out of my stupor. I look up, and see Dad, teeth bared and gnashing at me viciously. This is definitely not the Dad I know. What has happened to him?

I cower back in fear. This cannot be happening. Dad is still Dad. I'm just hallucinating.

Wake up.

I close my eyes and open them. Still the same sight. Dad, however, is turning more ill. His eyes are now more... hollow. They don't look like the eyes that were once filled with happiness and joy, the one from the Dad I know. He would always stare at me in happiness, like I'm the brightest star in the world, like I'm the best thing that's ever happened to him.

Instead, they're filled with...nothingness, emptiness, like a living yet dead person.

I pinch myself. Nothing changes. Except for Dad becoming more like a dead person, like a living corpse. Like a zombie.

Oh sparks. Oh sparks. This is really happening. It's real. But I don't want it to be real. I want Dad back. I don't want this... monster in the house. I want him back.

Please.

As if a miracle happened, Dad isn't staring at me anymore. He's turning around, towards the door. My assumption is that he's going out to I don't know where. He may be my father but I want him to leave right now, the sooner the better.

Still, like the crazy person I am, I ask, "Dad? Where are you going?"

The monster turns around, its eyes crazed and terrifying. He stares at me, sniffing the air like a mutt before lunging for me.

I scream, and run up the stairs. Dad follows me, his step like a predator securing its prey. Then suddenly he jerks, and moves down the steps.

Dad's movements are slow and unsteady, a huge difference from just now. As he turns, he looks like he's out of balance, and almost about to fall, but he doesn't. He's walking away, no, shuffling out, like a zombie, away from me. Out towards the world. The door's open and Dad just shuffles out. Unlike his usual self, he doesn't close the door behind him, instead, it's left ajar.

As Dad's figure looms away from the house, his shadow getting smaller and smaller, I can't help but cry.

I know and I understand that all this is connected somehow. The black rain, my father turning into a monster. They're all linked. And I know, that my father has changed. He's turned into something else. He's not that father who warms my heart. He's not my Dad who's a human. He's something else completely.

And now, Dad cannot be turned back. He might stay this way for an hour, a week, a month, or even forever. But, I'll never get back my father again. He's gone.

And in tray moment, I snap and mentally breakdown. I cannot stop the waves of tears from hitting again and again. Tears trickle down my face uncontrollably, staining my face with hot salty tears. My vision blurs and as the tears blind my eyes temporarily. A burning sensation stays at the back of my eyelids.

As I sit in that little corner of mine, head resting on my knees, weeping away as time passes, crying my heart out, not bothering about the outside world.

Dad, goodbye. I'm sorry I'm giving up, but I have no strength to go on, to continue when you're lost in my world.

~*~

Around what feels like a thousand years later, I lift my head up. My vision's back to normal as my tears have already dried up.

As I stare blankly at the door, I look at the house opposite mine. Erin's.

I pick myself up. Erin can talk to me, Erin can comfort me. She's my best friend, she'll understand me. She's the only person that I have left.

I trudge towards my coat, still immersed in the tragedy of Dad.

How did that happen? I ask myself.

Now's not the time to grieve, my clearer state of mind shuts out the argument completely.

Grabbing my favourite coat, the one with the fur collar, I cloak it around me and pull a beanie onto my head. Usually, I would've changed it according to the pattern or colour I liked. I loved the flowery patterns as they looked so sweet and nice. However, I don't feel like doing that now.

I slip into my winter boots and some thick mittens that I find by the shoe cabinet.

Once I open the door, the black rain comes whizzing horizontally into the house like iron fillings to a magnet, and I am thrown backward. When I finally get to my feet and brave the pellets, stepping out of the door, I feel it. The beat of the black rain against my skin. As I'm covered all over in my coat, I can't feel the effect of the black pellet like rain against my skin. I close the door behind me. The lock automatically turns and locks itself into place. Now I'll need a fingerprint to enter.

However, a patch of skin of my arm isn't covered as I move, so I feel like it's a thick-like watery substance against my skin. As soon as it comes into contact with my arm, it hisses and then it's gone again, in a matter of a few seconds. Then the cycle starts all over again.

If the information I've put together is correct, then I speculate that as long as the black rain comes into contact with any part of my skin, then I will be infected, or as the reporter said, catch the virus of some sort.

However, as the cycle repeats itself, I don't feel a single part of me changing. I don't feel weird or anything, not even the slightest change of emotions, like Dad. He seemed like a ferocious beast when he snarled at me just now. It was terrifying.

If my assumptions are correct, by now I should have already changed into something else. Just like Dad. But I still feel no change.

Maybe I'm just wrong. Maybe I have to stay under the rain for a longer period of time before the effect takes place.

I quicken my pace as my mind clears, making my thoughts become more comprehensive.

Maybe I'm just wrong. I can't always be right, can I?

However, I do not want to turn into something like Dad, even though he's still my Dad in a way. I just want I stay me. Just me. Just Methys. And not someone else; or something else.

I reach the doors of Erin's house. I don't have to knock, or ring the bell. It's just a habit. I've been here long enough to know that Erin especially hates it when I knock. She finds it very troublesome, having to place her thumb on the scanner to open the door when I could just do it myself. So, she decided to add my fingerprint into her family's, and I did the same for her too. It was just more convenient.

This time, however, is different; the circumstance is different so I decide to not barge into her house and instead, at least inform her, so I will not interrupt something I'm not supposed to see, though I'm sure Erin doesn't keep secrets from me.

"Erin?" I cry out as I rap my knuckles on her white, wooden door.

A few seconds later, a hologram appears in front of me, and Erin's standing there.

"Oh hey, Meth. I thought I told you long ago to just walk in. There's no need for formalities. Come on in."

The hologram disappears and I can hear an audible click. It must be the scanner. It's always so loud. Erin must be placing her thumb on the scanner now, as I hear a whoosh, and the door opens widely, inviting me to enter.

"Meth! Oh how great it is to see you!" Erin chirps cheerfully.

Guess she doesn't know what has happened.

"Erin, it's great to see you too." I mumble under my breath, not wanting her to hear.

But Erin's always the one with those sharp ears, so she heard me crystal clear. She must have known that I had a problem in my heart, causing my tone to be a little... uninviting.

"Meth, what's wrong?" Erin asks, clearly surprised, most likely because she knows I rarely am unhappy.

"I-" I start to say.

"Wait," she interrupts me before i can even finish my speech, "it's currently a raining apocalypse outside, yet you're running over here to talk to me?" Erin questions.

Guess I'm wrong. She knows...

"I...my dad, he's gone all weird," I say, and Erin's face darkens.

"In what way?" She asks immediately.

"He's like a wild, savage beast, and he isn't Dad," I say, my voice trembling.

Erin bites her lip. "And you walked all the way here without getting infected."

"Yes."

Erin gasps, then runs her hand over her face. She walks quickly over to a cabinet, and opens it quickly, removing a pistol.

My breath gets caught in my throat. "Erin...what are you doing?"

"I...Methys...you have to trust me," Erin says, walking towards me. With every step she takes, I move backwards, until I'm pressed against the door.

"My father...he's looking for you. I've been showing symptoms of being infected, like frequent blackouts and things. I think I'm infected, Methys, but I've been surviving through some medicine my father's been giving me.

"He's out there looking for an immune, Methys, and if he knows you're one-"

"I'm immune?" My voice hitches.

Erin nods, the pistol still in her hand. "I can't kill you, Methys. The immunity...my father was the doctor who'd injected you, he's probably figured out that the blue liquid can make others immune, but there isn't any left. He wants your blood, Methys.

You need to be careful. There aren't many of you, but you need to-to stay safe. Okay?"

Without waiting for my reply, she carries on, "Shoot me."

She shoves the gun into my hand, and I almost drop it. "Are you insane? No! I'm not going to shoot you!"

"It's the only way he'll stop trying to kill people, Methys. You can save the world, as cliché as that sounds. You need to stop the black rain. I don't know where it's come from, but you have to stop it."

"By shooting you?" I ask incredulously.

Erin stares at me. "Hurry, Methys, before he comes back."

I hesitate. I'm going to kill my best friend, my best friend, in order to save so many others.

I can't do it.

"Methys," Erin says, her eyes glistening with tears. "Come on."

How could she be so calm? She's going to meet her end, yet she accepts it without freaking out. I can never be like that. I can never be like her. The least I can do is to let her stay alive.

"No, I can't do it. Sorry." I reply, tears raining down my face like a leaking tap.

I place the gun back into her hand, mouthing "sorry". I just can't do it. I'm not so great. I'd rather Erin than the whole world. I'm just this selfish.

"Maybe I can-" I start.

Something in Erin snaps. She changes drastically. In a split second, her eyes turn murderous. This is unlike the Erin I know. The cheerful little girl always there beside me. She's turned into a monster, just like...just like Dad.

She lunges at me at once. Though her movements might be quick and take me by surprise, yet I'm the captain of the karate club after all. I tackle her down in one straight move.

Erin struggles against my grasp, trying to break free. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Just then, my hand slips and I loosen my grip on her. However, she doesn't charge at me. Instead, her breathing is now slow and steady. She's back. I let go of her. Erin stands up, and her eyes are back to normal.

"See what I mean now? I need you to help me. I'm not brave enough to do it. Only you can do it. I don't want to hurt anyone who cares about me. I don't want to regret this decision, so please, please, shoot me. It's the only thing that can be done now."

I get it now. I understand. No matter how much I can't bear for Erin to leave me, I have to fulfill her wish. Just like her, I do not want her to hurt anyone. Seeing how capable she is now that she's turned into some kind of monster, I have to do this.

I clench my fists. This must be done. I grab the gun from the ground. It had dropped when Erin was trying to fight against me.

I close my eyes, my hand shaking. "I'm sorry, Erin."

"I don't blame you." Erin says, calm and steady, though her eyes are filled with one word.

Then I pull the trigger.

A red flower blossoms on Erin's temple. She smiles peacefully and collapses down. My hand jerks back as the force of firing the gun knocks me back. I collide with the table behind me, shaking hard.

Erin stares at the ceiling, her eyes wide open, yet she's still looking as peaceful as ever. I press a hand to my mouth to stop myself from screaming. Tears well up in my eyes again, and I drop the gun which felt like a dead weight.

I'm sorry, Erin, I really am.

I don't blame you.

Erin had accepted her fate peacefully so now I had to fulfill her last wish: to save the world somehow. I feel like staying beside Erin, to compensate her, for killing her, but I can't. Erin's father is still out there. Somewhere. Searching for me.

That makes me hurry to cover my tracks. Once done, I bend down and pick up the gun, clicking the safety on. I may need it in the future. I tuck it into my back pocket.

Just as I am about to walk out the door, I stop in my tracks, and lean down over Erin. Using the tips of my fingers, I close her eyes, sobbing silently.

With my coat, I leave the place where most of my fond childhood memories were. My heart throbs as I step over Erin's body carefully. A tear slides silently down my cheek as I walk away, forcing the image of the red rose on my best friend's face out of my head. But it still haunts me in my mind as I think of how Erin had looked.

Her eyes were filled with fear.