Chapter 15
CATHERINE
“What do you mean, you’re Hyde?”
No. No. No.
This isn’t happening.
Henry looked stricken. “I can explain.”
“What you better explain is your bad joke.”
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “It’s not a joke. I’m Edward Hyde.”
I stood and stormed out of the kitchen. Henry caught up with me in the living room. He snatched at my upper arm, turning me around.
I pulled my arm back. “Don’t you dare touch me.”
“Please, Catherine. I can explain.”
Tears filled my eyes. I lifted my glasses and wiped under my lids. “So, was this all just some kind of joke or dare for your buddies? See if you can get the stupid assistant to sleep with you? Extra points if she’s dumb enough to believe you’re your own brother?”
“No! Absolutely not. It was nothing like that, I swear.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t believe you.”
Henry paced from one end of my small living room to the other. “It’s complicated.”
I threw my arms up in the air. “So you’re calling me stupid again! Get out! Just get out!”
Henry grabbed my upper arms. I tried to shrug him off, but he held firm.
“No. I’m not walking away from this. From you. You may not believe me, Catherine, but you mean something to me, and it is tearing me up inside that I’ve hurt you. Just please, please give me a chance to explain. That’s all I ask.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Well, I’m waiting.”
“I can’t do it here.”
I shook my head. “Nope. Wrong answer. Get out.”
“Just come to the lab. One more time. After that you never have to see my face again. I’ll go to the university and make sure they get you a great job in another lab, no questions asked.
I’ll even leave the university, so you never have to lay eyes on me again.
Please, baby. Just come to the lab and hear me out. That’s all I’m asking.”
I finally shrugged him off. “Fine. But don’t call me baby. I’m not your baby.”
He raised his palms up in a supplicating gesture. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Please, just come back to the lab with me.”
I shoved my feet into my Doc Martens and grabbed a jacket and my purse. “This doesn’t mean that I forgive you.”
Henry bobbed his head. “I understand.”
Henry flagged down a black cab and we rode to the lab in silence. It was a Saturday, so the university lab building was mostly deserted. We headed into the building and down the two flights of stairs to his basement lab.
Henry crossed to his desk and picked up the leather-bound journal I recognized as his personal research notes.
Usually, the formal notes were typed into a program so the university could keep track of funding, progress, and budgets but it wasn’t unusual for a research scientist to keep their own more informal notes.
Henry handed me the book.
I met his gaze as I took it. We were both aware that the day before yesterday he’d practically bitten my head off when I even tried to touch his book.
He took a deep breath. “I’ve been working on a top-secret formula called Bl88dX for about two years now. Animal trials have been complete failures, so my research wasn’t advancing quickly enough for human trials. I was going to lose my funding. So, a few days ago, I took the formula myself.”
My eyes widened. I was so shocked I started to sit down even though there wasn’t a chair near me. Henry leapt forward and steadied me before gently guiding me to a chair.
I blinked several times. “Let me get this straight. You did an unauthorized human trial… on yourself?”
Such a thing would not only get him fired, it could get him banned from the entire scientific community.
Henry nodded.
“Are you crazy? You risked destroying your career. Losing your funding for real. Holy shit, even if the trial had been successful, no reputable university or the military would have accepted the results. What were you thinking?”
“I was desperate! I thought the formula worked and the only reason why the animal trials were failing was because the formula was meant to work on the human brain.”
I stared at the journal on my lap. I opened it and flipped through the pages. Most were typed out and stapled to the journal page. I smiled inwardly. Leave it to Henry to be persnickety about even his personal journal. Then I came to a handwritten entry deeply scrawled in thick black ink.
Henry pointed to the message. “That is when Hyde appeared.”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, appeared?”
He swallowed. “After taking the formula, it was like I lost control not only of my own body but also my mind. The formula somehow split my personality. It turned me into a completely different person.”
I stared at the scrawl. It was barely legible. “You expect me to believe that you became Hyde because of a formula?”
“No.”
I opened my mouth to object.
Henry stopped me. “I don’t expect you to just believe me. I’m going to show you.”
I slowly stood. My voice shook. “Show me?”
He nodded. “I’m going to take the formula and have you observe what happens.”
I backed away. “No. You’re out of your fucking mind. I can’t. I don’t want to see Hyde again. I don’t care if he’s your brother or if I even believe this craziness that he is you.”
“Please, Catherine. It’s the last thing I’ll ever ask of you.”
I was torn. On the one hand I wasn’t sure I even believed him, but on the other hand there was a small, dark, and twisted part of me that did want to see Hyde again.
If only to slap him across the face and tell him that he meant nothing to me as well.
It bothered me to think that he’d walked away thinking he was this God’s gift to women because of his big cock and skills in bed.
I bit my lip. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes, okay. But let’s do this before I change my mind.”
Henry stood staring at me for a moment, as if he were stunned that I had agreed.
After his hesitation, he sprang into action.
He raced over to the inventory cabinet and started pulling out ingredients.
He then scribbled a list of items on a piece of paper.
He tore the paper from the pad and handed it to me with his credit card. “I need you to go get these items.”
I looked down at the list and frowned. “Are you sure? What on earth do you need all this for?”
He stepped close and cupped my jaw. “It’s for your own safety.”
I looked down at the list again.
Chain
Padlocks
Eyebolts
Electric drill
Masonry drill bit
Mace
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back.”
* * *
By the time I had returned, Henry had completed the formula. I stood close to him and looked down at his notes. I hadn’t had a chance to learn about what he was working on before now.
I looked at the complicated formula in awe. “Henry, this is impressive.”
He shrugged. “If only it had worked.”
He took the bag of items from me and got to work. We chose a brick wall on the far side of the laboratory. Henry used the electric drill to drill two holes around waist height. He then screwed the eyebolts in tight and ran the chains through the holes.
He took a deep breath. “Ready?”
I nodded.
Henry stood against the wall and held out his arms. I wrapped the chains around his wrists and up his forearms before securing them with the padlocks. I then returned to the lab table and picked up the test tube filled with a horrifying crimson liquid.
I crossed to where Henry stood chained to the wall.
I stared down at the test tube and then up at Henry. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “I’m sure. I’ll bring Hyde back one last time. Then I’ll burn the formula.”
Not knowing what else to say, I stepped close. Before tipping the formula between his lips, I kissed him gently. I then gave him the formula and stood back.
There was a palpable tension in the room.
It felt like someone was stretching a rubber band.
Each time you thought it had reached the limit and braced for the snap, the person would stretch it just a little bit further.
And then further still until the rubber started to crack and split and you just wanted to scream, “Snap! Snap already!”
Just as I was about to ask how long it would take… the transition began.
I dropped the glass test tube. It crashed on the linoleum floor at my feet, sending small splatters of blood-like formula over my shoes, but I didn’t even notice.
I backed away in horror. “Dear God…”