Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Four

"Let me in, R! Let me in!"
"I can't! I'm not letting you in here!"
"LET ME IN!!! I need you! I have to taste you! I have to see you! LET ME IN!!! LET ME IIIINNNNN!!!!

********************

I wake up in a cold sweat, running my fingers through my hair. I feel nauseas and I run to the bathroom, vomiting into the toilet. That dream was crazy. Nalak looked so desperate and... crazy... I vomit again and moan. Then I perk up but stop and sigh.

"I can never be pregnant. That is an impossibility due to the fact that I don't have a fucking uterus." I growl, hitting the side of the bowl.
There is a tapping on the glass and I gasp, spinning around on the floor of the bathroom but see that it's only a tree knocking on the window. I sigh and get up off of the floor running my hand through my hair and turning on the water to wash out my mouth. I'm really freaked out by this albino thing. I just hope that Dr. White is wrong.

*******************

I walk to my locker and undo the lock on it when Girvan comes up.

"Hey."
"Hey, how's the baby?"
"Well... Dude, I heard a rumor that that Empty kid might be an albino."
I frown. "Who told you that?"
"No one in particular, I mean I've just heard some people whisper about it. They say because he's starting to look like one."
"Well that can't be true. I mean, it takes a while for the symptoms to show up and he was just diagnosed with being an Empty; no one said anything about him being an albino."
"Just be careful, okay? I mean, you get picked up by Tim and such but being attacked by an albino?"
"Attacked?"
Girvan makes a face at me. "Don't you even know what an albino is, R?"
"Well... I know they have to go to the Badlands if they're found out so they are part of the Altered but I never looked into them."
Girvan face-palmed and shook his head.
"Dude, how can you have not looked up stuff about the Badlands?"
"Because it never interested me." I say with a shrug, pulling my books from my backpack.
"Then I think you should go look some stuff up."
"Maybe I'll do it in English class. We have to go to the library and I already finished my mid-term book."
"I think you should. You may not want to hang out with him anymore when you see what could happen to him."
I roll my eyes and close my locker. We begin to walk down the hallway.
"I also heard what happened between you and Diamond."
"I really don't want to talk about what happened. She made me think she was a nice person and all she was doing was making me feel used."
"Well, Dia feels really bad about it."
"Tell her to tell it to my face then. Geez, I'm tired of being picked on all the time. I haven't done anything to anyone. Nature just didn't like me and I can't have kids. Oh my god, what a shame." I say, throwing my hands up sarcastically. "It's not like I'm contagious or something... Besides, some time ago men couldn't even have children and if girl were pregnant at this age, they would be scorned."
"Well we're not 'back then'. We're 'here and now' and that dictates that having a swell is normal. You're just mad because you can't. For the rest of us, it's fine."
I turn away because he's right, but I just don't want to deal with that right now.
We walk down another hallway when I see someone getting slammed against the wall.
"Do you want to have a taste of me, huh? I bet you I taste like chicken or something, right, freak?!"
"Let me go!"
"I know you want to have a little bite!"
"What are you talking about?!"
I walk over to them and see that it is in fact Nalak, who is struggling in the bully's grip against the wall. He sees me and licks his lips a little. The guy turns and frowns at me.
"What do you want, Empty?"
"Why are you beating him up?"
"Because he's a damned albino. Everyone can see it. Look at that skin! It's turning whiter every day."
"So, you're white too. Just leave him alone."
"Or what?" he says, looking at me.
I can see Girvan waiting for me, as if he's just a passerby, but I can't just let them hurt him. I smile and touch his stomach with my hand.
"I curse you to be Empty!"
"What?!" he yells, dropping Nalak to the floor, who begins to cough.
"Oh, didn't know? If an Empty touches your stomach, they can curse you with infertility as well?"
"You're lying!"
"Would I lie? I mean, I am an Empty."
The guy looks at me in bewilderment and then gets a scared look on his face, backing up.
"You- you're lying! I'm telling the principal!"
"Go ahead..." I say with a shrug.
They run off and Nalak gets up off the floor. I look at him and he rubs his neck.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine... How come everyone keeps saying I'm an albino? Dr. White didn't call all the parents, did she?" he says, looking at me.
I frown. "No, it's confidential information except from you and I. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You don't look exactly well."
"I couldn't sleep last night. I had insomnia all night and then when I finally shut my eyes, I only got about an hour and a half, maybe two hours before I had to be up to come to school."
"Ah..."
"And I'm so tired. I can barely even keep my eyes open... Anyway, I really hope that Dr. White gets the results back quicker than a week so that it can say that I'm fine except being an Empty."
"Me too."
He sniffs me and smiles as he walks away.
"You smell delectable as always, R."
I watch him walk away as Girvan comes up to me.
"I'm telling you, go research the albinos. You should know what's happening."
I nod and we walk on to get to class.