Never Normal

Warning: This story contains mentions of sensitive topics such as suicide and violence.

Aaron fell to his knees in front of the stone. The stone that marked that place that his boyfriend now lay, six feet under the dirt. He blinked several times, but the tears just wouldn't come. The shock was greater than the sorrow.

The past events had done a number on him. His fluffy blond hair was full of dirt and grime. The physical pain inside him was slowly getting worse, although he had no idea what was causing it. One of his eyes was now a pure black color, as if someone had turned off a light in his socket. His other eye was still green, but he didn't know how long that would last. 

"How?" He asked, not quite aware he had spoken. 

"He wasn't mentally stable anymore," Emma said from behind him. She leaned against her car. "After we escaped the lab, he went insane. He killed his father, then he started killing random people for money. Eventually, he snapped from the stress and guilt. He slit his wrists in an alley.”

She looked around to make sure they were alone, then said, “It probably had something to do with the experiments."

Emma looked almost identical to her younger self, the version of her that Aaron remembered. Her curly red hair still came down to her shoulders, her eyes were still as bright as flames, and she was still barely taller than him. The only difference between her past self and present self was that she seemed more confident now. And more mature.

You age quicker when you're in a tough situation, Aaron thought to himself.

"But you're fine. You're not... not..." Aaron trailed off, not able to finish his sentence. It was too hard to believe. Xavier was dead. Dead. The tears began to flow, dripping down his face and soaking the dirt beneath him.

Emma watched Aaron awkwardly, not sure how to comfort him. She didn’t know him very well, but she had known Xavier. She remembered how devastated Xavier was when Aaron didn’t show up anymore.

 "Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you... left him?" 

She almost regretted what she said as soon as she said it. Almost.

There was a pause. Tension filled the air between the two of them. "I didn't leave him," Aaron said quietly.

A feeling of anger started to build up inside Emma. An anger she had held inside her for a long time. Anger for what had happened to her and all the other kids. A voice whispered inside her head.

Tell him how you feel.

"You did leave him. You left all of us!" She shouted harshly. "And for what!? So you could-"

"I was forced!" Aaron yelled. Emma went quiet, shocked by his outburst. Aaron stood up and turned around. His mismatched eyes met her fiery orange ones. "I was forced," He repeated, crossing his arms.

"My mother found out that I was seeing Xavier. She was furious, yelling at me about how we 'shouldn't create relationships with the subjects' and that I was 'a disgrace to the family'," He said. No tears flowed. He had cried all the ones he had. "She was the real disgrace. She destroyed our family."

Emma stood in silence. Finally she spoke, a touch of nervousness in her voice.

"You're not thinking about going back, are you?"

Aaron looked down, then nodded. "I have to. It's the only way to end this."

Emma looked horrified. They both suspected that Aaron’s psychotic mother was hiding in the old and destroyed lab, and they both knew that she wanted them dead. 

"But it's too dangerous!” She said, trying to convince Aaron not to go, She didn’t like him, sure, but she wasn’t going to let him walk into a death trap. “Who knows what your mother has become! She could hurt you, or worse-"

"I know," Aaron said calmly. His previous anger and sadness had dissipated. The strongest emotion he felt now was resolve. "But I have to fix this. Those experiments she conducted... they were horrible. I need to purge this world of that evil. Of her."

Aaron looked back up at Emma. An unspoken question hung in the air.

Will you help me?

Emma sighed. "I can't. I have a life to get back to," She hesitated, then continued, "I hope you can fix yours."

With that, she turned and got into her car. The engine hummed to life. She took one last look at Aaron, then she drove away.

Aaron watched her tail lights get farther and farther away, before they eventually disappeared. He sighed, then looked back at the grave.

He thought about Xavier. Xavier before he went crazy. He had shaggy black hair that was always messy, no matter how long Aaron tried to brush it. His eyes were a mesmerizing purple color, which was a result of the experiments.

As the son of the project leader, Aaron had also had a part in the experiments. He was put in charge of Xavier, injecting him with mysterious liquids that he was given and tracking certain statistics. 

Xavier hated Aaron at first, yelling at him and trying to attack him. It was understandable. Xavier’s life had been destroyed. His father had betrayed him and donated him to the project, not even saying goodbye. He was stuck inside a blank room, not allowed to see anyone other than Aaron and a few doctors. It was hard on his mind.

Eventually he calmed down, and he and Aaron became friends. They would talk about anything and everything, trying to make the time pass. Trying to forget about how messed up their situation was.

At some point, they became something more than friends. Lovers.

Now years later, Xavier was dead. And by his own doing.

Aaron's eyes began to water. Can't everything just be normal? He wondered. But he knew the answer to that question.

His life could never be normal.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, taking a deep breath as he did so. Then he spoke to the stone.

"I'll fix this, Xavier. I promise."