Requited

The building is surrounded by tanks, helicopters, and soldiers with heavy guns. The moon casts a brilliant glow over everything. I can see all of them. They are defending the building against a nightmare. The remaining powers in the world have come together to fight a monster that destroys everything in its path. After years of chaos, this is the final battle. I laugh quietly, because I know the truth. They are not ready for me. They know what I can do, and still they struggle to protect some secret weapon in that old university lab.

I sit for a moment and look down at the chain around my neck. There is a small gold locket attached to it. It is shaped like a heart with a large black K across the front. I hold it tenderly in the blobs that used to be my hands and open it. On one side, there is a picture of a handsome young man. On the other side is a beautiful woman with short hair and a wide smile. My parents. At least I think they are my parents. This locket is the only thing I have left from my old life. Everything I have done has been because of this locket and the pictures inside of it. I have been working to destroy a world that would rip me from the only two people I think ever loved a monster like me. I drop the heart against my chest and prepare to obliterate this building, finally putting an end to my suffering. I close my eyes and think back to the day it all started.

I had awoken not far from this university. My eyes took a while to adjust to the bright summer day. When I could finally see, I could tell that I was in the middle of a park. There were families enjoying their time together. That all changed as soon as everyone caught sight of me. They screamed and pointed at me. I was completely naked and covered in severe burns, but I could feel no pain from them. I ran to a public restroom and locked myself inside one of the stalls. It was there, standing over a toilet that had not been flushed since it was last used, that I realized I had no idea who I was. I could recognize everything around me except for myself. I racked my brain trying to remember, but there was nothing. Who was I? How did I get here? Where are my clothes? Why am I burned from head to toe, and why is it not painful? I patted around my body, as if that would somehow give me the answers I needed. That is when I discovered the locket. It was the only thing I had on me. I caressed it as if it were a child, and knowingly pressed the top of it, causing the front to swing open. I immediately recognized the faces in the photographs. I knew they were the most important people in the world to me. They were my parents. I began to cry as I thought of them, and wondered if they knew what had happened to me. My sobbing was interrupted when several men poured into the small bathroom. One of them kicked down the door and shot me with a tranquilizer. My knees gave out and I passed out before hitting the floor.

Once again I found myself waking up in an unknown place, not knowing how I had gotten there. They had put me inside some sort of observatory room. I was hooked up to all kinds of machines that made absolutely no sense to me. Men and women in white coats were recording information on tablets and clipboards. I tried to speak, but an oxygen mask made that impossible. As I reached up to pull it down, I felt straps holding my hands back. I was completely shackled down to a table. When one of the doctors finally made eye contact with me, she seemed to panic and demanded everyone else’s attention. They all suddenly scrambled around, pushing buttons and checking the things stuck in to me. I felt all my power leave my body. They must have given me some sort of anesthetic. It was meant to make me paralyzed, but not put me to sleep. No matter how much I tried to move or get their attention, it was no use. I was trapped inside an immobile body, completely awake and unable to sleep. That was my life for weeks. I could do nothing but sit there as they performed tests on me without telling me why. I was trapped in my body with nothing but those awful memories. The families in the park, horrified at the sight of me. The pictures in that locket. The monsters performing these tests.

Over time, I noticed my body was beginning to heal, but not in the right way. Whether it was a result of the tests they were doing, or from whatever accident I had before I woke up, I will never know. All I can tell is that my body was changing in a terrible way. My hands and feet were swelling. My fingers and toes eventually fused together. As a result, my hands and feet became more like flippers. All my muscles became tough and large. My bones curved and extended under the stress of the grotesque muscles. I felt my teeth turn hard. My eyes bulged and soon I could see even after they turned off all the lights in the windowless room. In short, I was turning into a monster. A hideous, large, extremely strong monster.

One day I felt the anesthesia fading. I could grip my hideous hands a little. I thought about trying to escape, but I decided to bide my time. I waited patiently, staying perfectly still. Days and weeks crept by. My body continued to change. I felt myself getting stronger and the anesthesia getting weaker. I remained blank and unmoved as those doctors performed more tests on me. I knew a moment would come when I would be able to escape this place. I thank God for my patience, because that day certainly came. It was not exactly planned out well. I was still waiting around for my strength to come back to me, when one of the doctors came in holding something. It was small and shiny. When he came closer, I realized it was my locket. I felt a rage building inside of me as he passed it around, showing it to everyone as if it was important to them. That was the only thing I had in this world, and they were all touching it. My anger got the best of me. Without any warning, I swung my surprisingly large arms around and knocked everyone to the floor. The sounds of their screams and their bodies slamming against the floor were like music to my ears. I grabbed the locket out of the man’s hands, and threw him across the room. I ran out of the building and into the street outside. Just like before, everyone screamed as soon as they saw me. I was a monster to them. I felt the rage again. Screaming violently, I began my requite against this world that showed no love to me. I continued destroying everything. As time went on, I noticed that I had somehow developed other powers. I could channel energy into my arms and cause things to explode or melt. I was bullet proof. I could go hours without breathing. I had become a machine of terror. I destroyed everything in my path. The world could do nothing to stop me. I have survived everything they have thrown at me, from the pitiful tests at the beginning of my life, to the atomic bomb they dropped on me in Nevada. I am invincible.

That brings us back to today. They are working on some special secret weapon inside this building in front of me. I had half wanted to wait and see what it was, but I have decided to get it over with and destroy mankind’s last hope for themselves. I kiss the locket on my chest, and begin my final destruction. I plow through the armies and weapons waiting for me. I crash through the outside wall and check my surroundings. Doctors in lab coats scramble to get away from me. That brings back memories. I swing my arms and force computers to explode. I lift men and women and throw them through windows. I scream so loudly that they have to stop and cover their ears just to stop the pain. I have never felt so alive. I see a blast door in the far end of the building. I blow it up and walk through. Bodies are resting in every direction, knocked out from the explosion. I step inside and see a panicked man jump into some sort of black box with a small window. As if that will save him. This room seems like the end of the line, though. Where is the secret weapon? I look around, but there is nothing here except a bunch of monitors, buttons, and that black box. Wait a minute. That must be the weapon. I jump across the room and land right in front of it. A woman tries to block me, and I swat her away like a fly. I walk to the box, feeling the energy charging in my arms. The man inside is frantically pressing buttons. Some sort of engine begins wailing inside of it. I reach out to touch the machine and end this battle once and for all. Then something catches my eye.

The man has something around his neck. It is small and shiny. It is a gold heart with a large black K across its front. The energy pulsates away from my arms and I lose focus. I take a closer look at the man. He has a look of terror on his face, but I suddenly recognize him. It is the man in my locket. I fall on my back in shock. Tears build up in my eyes and I look around the room as if searching for some answer. The woman I knocked over is next to me. There is blood pooling around her head and she lays motionless with her eyes wide open. It is the woman in my locket. I pull her into my arms and squeeze her, crying. I carry her to the box, hoping in vain that I can save both of them. The man inside lets out a silent scream as he sees the woman in my arms. I notice a flashing light in front of him. They are numbers on a monitor. It takes me a moment to realize what they are. It is a date. Is it the day when I woke up so long ago. This black box is a time machine. They are trying to go back in time to kill me before I ever became this monster.

The memories come back. It was me. I was the man trying to go back and save the world. My wife and I created this machine. Those are not my parents in the locket. One picture is my wife, and the other is me. I can not let it happen again. I can not let myself go back. I drop my wife and reach out to stop the man inside the black box. I feel the surge of power in my arms again. The engine of the time machine crescendos into a loud wail as I grab the box and send a surge of energy to stop it. It begins to explode for a split second, and then disappears. I am left alone. Trapped in this world with nothing but these awful memories.