Darius was the...

Darius was the first to wake up and he did so under a haze of fog and intense physical pain. It felt like he'd spent the last twenty-four hours putting his body through the longest and most intense workout of his life. He groaned weakly at first, his eyes squeezed shut against the many types of aches and pains he felt. After a moment, he finally decided to open them. The lights stabbed into his head with what felt like dozens of red hot pokers.

He shut them again almost immediately and groaned more deeply.

"Damn," Alex gasped as he woke up too. His voice was gravelly and hoarse. "My everything hurts."

"Don't be a baby," Darius commented with a pain filled and whispery chuckle.

He clamped his mouth shut against a sudden cramp that sprang up on his left thigh. The muscle there twitched and jumped. Darius saw it moving underneath the hospital gown he wore. It looked like a tiny alien was living underneath his skin.

He turned his head and it rolled limply toward Alex. He let gravity do most of the work.

"I am definitely going to kill you when we get out of here."

"T-too bad," Alex smiled. It was a trembling thing that stretched lips thinly. "I'm already dying, so it looks like you're too late."

Dr. Tiberius walked into the room right at that moment. His face seemed to look older and more worn out. He glanced at them with his plain clipboard held in one hand.

"I didn't know you both were awake." He glanced at his watch. "Sooner than expected. Positive sign. Definitely a positive sign."

He said the last part to himself and in a too-quiet, mumbly voice neither Alex nor Darius could understand.

"Good morning, gentlemen." He smiled, but it was a tired, weary thing that created more wrinkles around his mouth.

He came over to Darius and recorded the vitals showing on his monitors. Then he took out a thermometer and got his temperature. He glanced at the final readout and decided that it must've been a mistake. He made Darius take it again, but the result was the same. He gave it one last try and when the thermometer read the same temperature as the previous two tries, he gave up and went over to Alex. He tried three times with him as well, but each time it read somewhere in the neighborhood of 101.3. Dr. Tiberius leaned in a little, putting his hand to Alex's forehead.

They could both see he was concerned about something.

"Do you both feel fine?"

"Other than the fact that my body feels like someone took a baseball bat to it when I was napping, I feel fine," Darius explained, trying to move as little as possible.

"Same goes for me, Doc," Alex chimed in, his voice still hoarse. "Wait. Did you say morning? You mean to tell me we slept through the rest of yesterday? Damnit, I had to work last night."

"Yes. I'm sorry about your job. I'm afraid the drug seems to physically wear the body down to the point where it needs significant time to recuperate." Dr. Tiberius glanced down at his papers and made notes about the experiment. He set the clipboard down and once again took out his digital recorder. He brought it up to his mouth, hesitating until he formed the words he needed in his mind first. He ignored Alex and Darius for a moment as he spoke.

"Subjects I and II. Morning after injection. Experiencing intense physical discomfort and low-grade fevers. Fevers appear not to impair subjects mentally or physically. It is unclear at this point if the fevers will subside or if they are simply a side-effect of the serum. Will check on the hour to make sure there are no unfortunate incidents as a result."

"Is it bad that we're spiking fevers?" Darius tried to sound calm but inside, he was still freaking out about what effects the drug was going to have on him. He started to twitch his left foot back and forth rapidly, a gesture he only did when he was nervous, agitated, or both.

"No, no," Dr. Tiberius replied quickly. "It would only concern me if it affected either of you negatively. Sweating, nausea, vomiting, things of that nature."

"What can we expect in the next few days, Doc?" Alex asked him. Although his voice wasn't a hundred percent yet, it was getting less hoarse.

"I'm sorry but I am not fully able to answer that question. I have signed my own confidentiality agreements," he told them. "The only thing I can say is that when the effects of the serum start to manifest themselves, you will both need to come here so that I may evaluate the full extent of its effectiveness. If it does what it's intended to, then it will have lasting benefits that will change the world." His eyes went foggy for a moment, as if he were imagining all the future glory he would reap.

"Whatever," Darius eyed him, unimpressed. "So far, I don't feel any lasting benefits from this drug of yours. I feel worse now than when I came in here yesterday."

"That is why you must come and see me for regular check-ups. I have to record your progress as the drug takes hold in your systems. I am not really sure how long the process will take, I'm afraid," he replied. "The pain should dissipate within a few hours, after which you will both receive your checks. I would implore both of you to see me within the week. The day after tomorrow should suffice."

They reluctantly agreed, neither one thought the testing process would have gone past the one day. Now they were stuck with the added hassle of these "check ups" on top of all their other problems.

It got on Darius's nerves because he never planned on being in a makeshift hospital room in the basement of the Glass House, taking some weird drug he still wasn't convinced wouldn't end up killing him. Now he had to spend more of his precious free time with Dr. Tiberius, which was not in any way, shape, or form a good time in his book.

Alex, on the other hand, was mainly concerned about finding time to do homework assignments and finishing up the projects that were due during the week. On top of all that, he also had to work. The rest of his hours for the week weren't much better. Being the night manager at the Ashebrook U Grill in the cafeteria was about the worst job to have when trying to complete a Bachelor's Degree. Most days it closed at ten o'clock but on the weekends they stayed open till midnight. He was usually dragging ass by the time he got back to his room. On days like those, he would be asleep before his head even hit the pillow. Most of the time, he'd still be in his work clothes. He wasn't sure how he would even fit check ups with Dr. Tiberius into his already crammed schedule.

"How long do you think these checkups will take?" Alex asked, already concerned he might get fired for missing work last night. The nail in the coffin would be missing work twice in one week. At the very least they'd take away his manager's title and the raise that went with it. That sure as hell wouldn't help his financial situation.

"Approximately half an hour," Dr. Tiberius responded.

He smiled reassuringly but it looked so fake Alex could almost read the word liar on the man's forehead.

"I just need you both to tell me exactly what is happening to you while I record your statements. That's it. Simple, yes?" he asked.

"Simple, right," Darius said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Then he went back to ignoring the others. Thoughts of Anna resurfaced and pretty much banished the whole drug trial business to the back of his mind. He couldn't help it. He was torturing himself about his situation with Anna and all he seemed to do was think about her. He knew he loved her (he'd known that for a long time now), but he never once considered how painful it would be for her to just dismiss and dump him. It felt like a large piece of himself had been chipped off and killed.

He thought about the bruises he'd seen on her. They were horrible things that twisted her into something he didn't recognize. She was a hollow shell now and that cold, simple fact made him unbelievably angry.

His rage overtook him suddenly and without thinking, he slammed his fist into the railing beside his bed. The anger he felt protected his hand and he didn't even feel the impact.

Both Alex and Dr. Tiberius glanced at him with worried looks in their eyes.

He apologized quickly but then turned away from them without another word.

They walked out of the Glass House three hours later with ten-thousand dollar checks in their hands. Alex thought about his comfortable bed while Darius's thoughts continued to circle around Anna. It was like a festering wound in his mind he couldn't stop picking at.

They finally got back to their room and Alex changed into a white shirt and a pair of plaid sleep pants. Then he went straight to his bed. As soon as he was laying down, a deep and unsettling exhaustion overtook him. It floated inside his head and body like a foggy cloud despite the fact that he'd actually gotten a decent amount of sleep the night before. He didn't puzzle over it for very long though. He was asleep the next second, his mouth hanging open.

Darius, on the other hand, sat in the chair in front of his desk, his attention focused on the phone beside his laptop. All he had to do was dial and then he could talk to her again. If he got her on the phone then he might be able to pry the information he wanted out of her and find out what low life, piece-of-shit, motherfucker was hitting her.

JUST LEAVE IT ALONE! suddenly sprang up in his mind. Those words felt so loud inside his head he nearly jumped. He remembered the complete terror radiating out of her like heat waves as she screamed those words at him. Whoever was beating her, scared her so badly that instead of asking for help to deal with him, she'd emotionally shut herself down. Just asking who hit her made her completely flip out. She looked like she'd come face to face with her worst nightmare. He didn't want to put her through that again.

Instead, he got up, leaving the phone where it was and laid on his bed. His thoughts continued to circle around Anna for a few more seconds. Then he suddenly found it hard to keep his eyes open.

He was asleep a few seconds later.