Justin Time and the Time Trappers
Chapter 22

I really, really wish I had not made fun of things up until now. Because the next room made me have, as they say, a come to Krishna moment. Especially when we saw Beth…or what was left of her.

“What shit?” I said, I felt bile reach my throat and nearly puked.

Olga on the other hand couldn’t keep it down and coughed up bile. The smell in this place was horrible. It smelled like a body had died, then it was left to rot for days, then it died again. Then there was this sick smell that I recognized, from doing it so much of it throughout my life myself, and not to make fun, but it seriously smelled like someone had spurted all their junk in this room.

At the center of the room was this slab, it looked like a regular slab, but there was someone…or rather something on that I could not figure what in the hell it was. We got closer with Marx falling back a bit scanning the room. The rest of the room had these glass chambers, that we could not tell what the hell was behind them.

I got closer to the slab. Olga was coughing up a storm and tried to keep her composure off in the back. Sheamus was close behind me, while Marx looked at the chambers and looked around as if expecting anything to come out at any moment.

I got close to the slab and saw this…this thing. It looked like this very gross combination of an insect and a person, but this person was dead. It had parts of its body that was still a person. It had parts of it that looked to be an insect. I almost puked when I realized I knew who this was. It was Beth.

I recognized her malformed face. Part of her face still looked like her. That very pretty, nerdy girl that maybe I should have gone out with. The other part was this thing was a gross bug thing. A mandible was hanging out of Beth’s broken jaw. A huge bulbous eye was pushing out of her skull. It looked like she was in severe pain when she had died. The rest of her body was some sort of mixture of bug and person.

It was a horrendous sight to behold. I could still see parts of her that I barely recognized, from her stomach to her left breast but everything else about her was just wrong. So wrong.

“Good god Vinny you’re not getting a hard-on, are you?” Marx said.

“No!” I said.

“Leave it up to this sick…” Sheamus started to say.

I jumped when I saw blood splatter out of his head. Sheamus had been standing right next to me, the blood had splattered all over my face. After my shock died down I saw Marx holding his riffle in my direction.

“Marx what the fuck?” I asked.

“Yeah I got them,” Marx said clicking on something one of his arms. Before I knew what had happened, Marx was standing next to Olga with his gun to her temple. “Don’t try anything stupid Vinny.”

“What the shit Marx?” I asked. “You’re working with them?”

“No hard feelings Vinny,” Marx said.

“Is that why the eyeball recognized you?!” I said suddenly realizing that that should have put out alarm bells.

“Stupid eyeball couldn’t keep her damn mouth shut,” Marx said. “That’s why I name dropped her.”

“What hell does that mean?” I asked.

“That name I said,” Marx said. “Iris Azure, I was letting her know that I knew exactly who she was. So, if I wanted to, I could get her family killed.”

“So, you threaten someone who was changed into a monster?” Olga said.

“Monster?” Marx said. “Is that what you call that, it’s a damn improvement.”

“What about Beth?” I asked. “Did she get improved?”

“She is an unfortunate casualty,” Marx said. “You didn’t even know her real name or who she really was Vinny, don’t act so high and mighty. You’ve probably jacked off millions of gallons because of her.”

“How dare you say something so true?” I said pointing at Marx. I said the last part under my breath, but I was pretty sure no one had heard me.

“I bet you that you didn’t even know she’s probably the reason why your stupid ass is still alive.” Marx said.

“What the hell do you mean?” I asked.

“Hunraken wanted to kill you earlier,” Marx said. “That second that he scanned you that very first time you started to jump back in time, that was when he wanted to kill you. But Persephone there had a super crush on you and convinced him not to do it.”

“She had a super crush on me?” I asked.

I was starting to remember that weird parallel time I had experience, was that something that she had made on her own?

“Yeah if your dumbass did not do whatever the hell you did to change whatever the hell you experienced, maybe you could have wound up being a happy family with her.” Marx said. “It’s funny you focused on that and not the other thing that I had said.”

“Other thing?” I asked.

I started to think of what Marx had said a few moments ago, Hunraken wanted to kill me earlier when I had come in through the portal the first time. I thought of that for a moment.

“Wait that means he’s known all along?” I said.

“Damn right,” Marx said.

“But wait, didn’t these fuckers do something to your sister?” I said.

I remember hearing something about that. About the daughter of Albrecht Browne, something had happened to her. She had been experimented on by Project Rho. This was the straw that broke the Lemac’s back for Albrecht and others.

“The old man can’t confront that she volunteered to do it,” Marx snorted.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Like me, Sasha, volunteered to get experimented on.” Marx said. “She was just an unfortunate side-effect, she knew the dangers, as did I. She was trying to get rid of that unfortunate birth defect that she had, inability to walk is a heck of a thing. The Old man just can’t see that his little girl would have done something like that, she knew the risks. It didn’t work out for her like it did for me.”

“So, you join these bozos because…” I started.

“It’s the thing to do,” Marx said simply.

“What the hell kind of shit is that?” I asked.

“You don’t understand the circumstances,” Marx said.

“Yeah you joined these goons because they changed you into god knows what and it was the thing to do.” I said.

“You don’t understand what the circumstances were,” Marx said.

“What are the circumstances,” I said.

“It matters not to you Vinny,” Marx said he suddenly mouthed “Sorry.”

I was shocked when suddenly Marx shot Olga in the head and he threw her at me. I ran over to her and grabbed her before she fell to the floor. I looked up and saw Marx just look down at her.

“Stay out of this Vinny, you don’t know who you are dealing with.” Marx said as he looked down at me. I felt myself feel this intense rage. “I convinced them not to kill you, and they are willing to do it as long as you drop this case. I told them that you could be a benefit to us.”

“What the hell Marx!” I said. “Why the hell did you do that for?”

My mind was spinning. I don’t know what had happened to Marx, but back when I knew him when I was younger, he was not this callous, he was not this…brainwashed.

“Did you get brainwashed or something?” I asked.

“Like I said Vinny,” Marx said. “You don’t understand the circumstances.”

“Yeah you’re fucking as crazy as Hunraken is.” I said.

“Killing her was out of mercy and so is keeping you alive.” Marx said.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked.

“Heck of a thing Vinny, heck of a thing.” Marx said he aimed his gun at me.

“I thought you said you were keeping me alive.” I said holding my hands up.

“Oh we are keeping you alive alright.” Marx said.

Marx fired at me and then there was darkness.

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