Chapter Five

Ana flipped the open sign closed, letting out a sigh of relief, her back was killing her.

"You think you can catch a bus back tonight? I have to pick up my aunt from the airport." Tony asked Ana after closing. Ana nodded as Tony handed her the keys. Stephanie had left early and it was Mike's day off so Ana had the place to herself after Tony left.

She checked the time, 9:04, still plenty of time to finish cleaning up and catch a bus back home. She turned up the music on the jukebox, humming along with the golden tunes as she swept the floor. She skated and spun along the diner floor as she dramatically sang along with the cheesy love songs lyrics. Ana was glad that both Tiffany wasn't here and the shutters were down in the front, or else she was sure someone, mostly Tiffany, would start teasing her.

She wouldn't mind any other day, it was just that lyrics felt so, real.. so personal, she couldn't help but blush as she skated around and leaned back against the counter, dramatically falling into the bridge, the mop as her microphone.

The song was about a girl who left her parents in the country to be with a boy in the city, much to their disapproval.

While Ana wasn't from the country per say, she did end up leaving her parents' house in the suburbs after a particularly nasty argument and moving out into an apartment in the city, and working part time for minimum wage at a diner, which they hated more than anything. She grew up in a pompous family that was well off enough to believe lower paying jobs like this one weren't worth their time, nor did they really respect anyone who worked them. Ana would never forget the embarrassment she felt when she went shopping with her mom and she would toss some nasty snide insult to a clerk or fellow shopper, and the raging outbursts she would get into when she got mildly inconvenienced by either, especially a clerk.

She knew she could go all out if it was a clerk, because it was their job to put on the same customer service smile Ana had grown so accustomed to when dealing with rude customers. It was always worse when Ana tried to stand up for them, in a way she envied them. They only had to deal with her mother for the twenty minutes she was on a power trip, Ana had to deal with her for her entire life, especially during the car rides back when her mother would spend the entire drive talking about how she was in the right. Ana shuddered at the memories.

And her father was no better.

He would act as though his presence was a gift to all who had the pleasure (note the sarcasm) of being in it. He was always so impatient and entitled, and while he never raised his voice like Ana's mother did, her father always managed to find an insult that was low and deep enough to hurt. Over the smallest mistakes.

Ana gripped the counter as she remembered all the times he called her a loser that would get nowhere, working a dead end job with a partner that would never love her, inevitably leaving her for someone better.

Ana glanced back at the counter.

Tony wasn't like that, he wasn't a self-centered jerk like her parents, and he never expected things from er but… Ana shook her head. What was she thinking? Tony was just a friend, a coworker at that. He didn't feel that way about her, she was entirely jumping the gun here.

Even now as she looked around the diner she told herself she would work at to prove her parents wrong, she couldn't help but think her father might've been right about her. She had never been in a relationship that eve felt like it mattered, she knew from the beginning that it was going to fail. Tiffany told her that was the problem, that Ana's heart wasn't in it, that there was no real spark, that was the issue, not her, but as the days went on, as Ana continued serving dozens upon dozens of couples her age, she found it harder and harder to keep holding on to that mentality.

What if it really was her? Was she the one setting herself up for failure? Was she stringing people along? Was she…. A loser?

Ana blinked a few times, snapping herself out of her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to have self-reflections, she had a diner to close! She skated over to the jukebox, turning off the tunes, her good mood dying along with the sound.

And to think she was just daydreaming about being a fair girl in the city following around the one she loved and making memories.. But that wasn't happening. There wasn't anyone, and there wouldn't be for a long, long time.

Ana shook her head a final time, bouncing up and down a bit to shake herself of her pessimistic thoughts.

She shut off the lights in the dinner floor, leaving the counter lights on before she walked into the backroom, putting away her cleaning supplies, yawning with her eyes closed as she placed the equipment back, leaving the room and opening her eyes again without a second thought.

She headed to the bathroom and changed back into her normal clothes before walking back out and shutting of the lights on the main counter, hiking her bag over her shoulder and going outside, locking the glass door and reaching up to pull down the awning.

Just as she was about to pull the awning all the way down to the ground, she saw it again.

A soft glowing light caught her eye again, making her remember the week before, when she asked Tony about a light of some sort in the back storage room. She thought back to another building that had burned down due to a light being left on overnight. She rolled the awning up a bit more and unlocked the glass door again. She set her backpack down at the foot of the door, walking over to the counter and flicking the lights on, following the glowing light to the back storage room.

She looked at the bottom of the door.

The light was much brighter here than in the front, Ana was sure there had to be some sort of light plugged in, the room didn't have any windows, and the lightbulb had been out for weeks. Not to mention, the storage room light wasn't purple.

She pushed the door open, looking around for the source of the light. She located it to somewhere on the floor, pushing around the boxes and containers until she found a box that had been tipped over. She vaguely remembered doing so by accident a week or so prior, but had never really come back to pick it up. Perishable items weren't allowed in the storage room, and cleaning supplies stayed mostly under counters in the kitchen and the main counter since they were used so often.

That and Stephanie hated walking.

She pulled the box to her; the contents had been spilled opposite to where she was crouched on the floor. She turned it right side up and peered inside. There was a small plastic square container that's lid was slightly ajar. Inside the container were two small glowing purple rings.

All that light came from these? Ana thought as she examined the rings. From these two little glowsticks?

Ana picked up the container, sealing the top as she pulled it closer to her face. She noted that the rings were quite warm, warm enough that Ana almost wanted to put them down, they felt like they were beginning to burn her hands. 'I knew I should've checked, there's no way these little things couldn't start a small fire, especially in a box full of plastic.' She thought as she fully shut the thick plastic case and examined it further. As she did so, the light from the rings began fading, until it went out completely, the temperature of the rings also decreasing to blood temperature.

Curious, Ana opened the container again, the bright color and warmth coming back to the tiny rings.

She held them between her fingers as she further examined them, placing them in her palm as she stared quizzically at them. She looked back down at the box and rummaged through the contents, there wasn't much else in there aside from some packing peanuts and singed plastic which made Ana even more confused. Had the owners ordered this? Did they know this was here? What was this for? Was this for the diner? Did Tony know this was here? She inspected the outsides of the box and Ana felt her blood run cold as the glowing purple rings shone on the black print logo of the box.

Zalic Genetics

Heart ponding in her ears and heat rushing to her face while feeling rushed out of her legs, Ana's eyes slowly moved to the rings that had now grown hot in her hands. 'Why were these here? Were the owners working with Zalic? Did they know these were here? Would they come looking for them? Would Zalic come looking for them?' Ana quickly dropped the medium sized carboard box as she searched for the small plastic one, using the light of the rings that were now growing brighter and hotter. She found the plastic, and set it on the floor as she went to take the rings from her palms and drop them into the box.

But they wouldn't budge.

Ana blinked in shock; her mouth seemed to be wired shut. Using her free hand, she picked at the rings again, but they wouldn't come out, they burned the tips of her fingers as she felt a surge of pain and white-hot panic as she saw the burning rings were sinking into her hands. Using her nails, she dug into her palm, but the rings just seemed to sink in faster, the heat burning and, when she looked, melting her fingernails. She flicked and shook her hands, even banged them against the floor, the searing pain becoming unbearable as she closed her eyes in pain while tears silently pored from her face. This was worse than the time she had broken her nose during a softball game, the worst pain she had ever been in in her life.

Her breathing grew heavy as she gripped her wrist and pulled her affected palm up to her face, blood and sweat leaking out of her palms. She looked around the room frantically, her mind searching for anything that could help her. Her head spun around to the door, an idea quickly coming into her head.

'The kitchen!' She thought, 'There's a sink in there, heat plus water should alleviate the pain!'

Without a second thought, Ana rushed to the kitchen, slamming the yellow and red door open, the pain getting worse as a slight gust of wind hit her hand from just how fast she was running, she felt like it was going to combust. She raced to the sink, frantically turning on the water, sticking her hand under the stream.

She stole a cautious glance at her palm, and immediately wished she hadn't.

Her palm was paper white and oozing multiple liquids that she was sure Tiffany could name, but for now it just made Ana queasy. She held onto the counter with her unaffected hand as she heaved and gagged at the sight. She thought her field of study made her immune to all kinds of sights and smells, but she never had smelt burning human flesh.

She hesitantly looked back at her palm, trying to find the rings within the mess.

Her eyes hurt as she stared directly at them, the feeling like she just tried to stare into the sun. The rings had sunken into her palm, which was contorting and twitching in a way she was sure that would give her nightmares. She let out a frightened sob as she watched her hand go into what looked like a seizure, the pain never subsiding and the light getting brighter but smaller.

She saw the running water through her shock and panic, frantically thrusting her palms back under the water, anticipating the stinging sensation of relief. Except..

Ana stared down in horror as she saw the water was turning to steam before it could even touch her palm. Ana opened her mouth to let out a frustrated and panicked scream, but nothing came out. She felt her knees buckled and saw black spots invade her vision as more frightened tears flowed down her face. She held onto the concrete sink for support, slipping on the tile as in her panic a large amount of water had gotten onto the floor.

Ana looked back up at the sink again, turning the water up to full blast, making the clouds of steam grow larger. Ana hissed and coughed as she felt herself slipping more, the muscles in her arm straining and contracting as the pain pushed her into a threshold she didn't even know possible. Ana grit her teeth as she gave another fruitless attempt to stop the pian in her hands.

Ana heaved and huffed, swearing to herself she saw bone, before letting out a strangled cry as she slipped on the wet tile kitchen floor, smacking her head against it in her fall.

She got me, Ana desperately thought as her vision slipped, Zalic finally got me.