Live on Me Pt. 03

"Layna, Dawn, come with me," Jessica ordered. I nodded and followed, keeping my head down.

I sat in the chair I took previously and Jessica administered the drug to Dawn. She grunted as it started to take effect, and sat across from me like before. Jessica moved over to my chair and stood behind me. Dawn removed her sunglasses, and as her eyes opened, Jessica let out a long held breath.

"Finally, some success," Jessica sighed. "Layna, do you feel anything like last time?"

"No, I feel fine," I muttered. The pull of her eyes was gone, and the color was now a deep brown.

"Doctor Harper, do you think this is the one?" Dawn asked, her voice missing the previous song-like allure, replaced with a newfound hope. She stood and Jessica led her to the lab table. I was lost in thought as they discussed the new drug and the details of its use.

For the past week, I had been living in a dream-like happiness. My dream of living a life free of the stress of work and responsibility had come true. But even so... there was still pain. Jessica did everything she could, but even she was not perfect.

I found myself left with doubt. What am I really? At times I feel like her equal, but I have also felt like her servant. At times I have felt free in the most beautiful ways, but I've also felt trapped. I felt needed, but also worthless. Feelings from my old life were not gone as I had hoped, they still lingered on inside me, and life, no matter how perfect it seemed, couldn't be perfect.

Had I chosen this life because I wanted it, or because I merely thought I could run away from the pain I felt?

There was so much on my mind that I barely noticed when Jessica and Dawn were heading back upstairs.

"Layna, are you okay? Do you need to rest?" Jessica asked, placing her hand on my forehead.

"I think... I need some time to myself."

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After Jessica walked with me to my bed, she returned to the living room. Master Gilbert was chatting with Dawn, and Mr. Belero approached Jessica, his hand outstretched and eyes downcast

.

"Thank you for your hard work, Doctor. And... sorry about what I said before," he apologized, as Jessica took his hand.

"I'm sorry that I had that outburst. I get a little protective at times, I'm sure you understand," she admitted, releasing his hand and scanning the room. "Where is the other woman you brought? Ivy was it?"

"Yes, she is outside getting the last bit of sunlight she can. She wanted to see if you could help her out with something, so she tagged along," he said, making his way over to the back door with Jessica in tow. The sun was setting, and Mr. Belero walked out to the lawn chairs where Ivy was laid out in her underwear.

"Ivy, the doctor can see you now. Get inside," he ordered. The slender woman sat up.

"Come on, let me at least get a little more sun? Can't she come out here?" she whined. He shook his head and groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

From inside, Jessica could immediately tell what she was up against. Ivy was covered from head to toe in what looked like flourishing ivy and vines, like a tattoo had grown around her body. As the breeze wafted by, the leaves reacted as if they were part of a real plant, yet they stayed contained in two dimensional space of her skin.

Jessica stepped aside as Mr. Belero dragged her in, her protests continuing all the way down to the basement where he left her to meet with me. I pulled out my file for Nymphs, the closest classification I could think of to her condition and reviewed the details I had with her. The affinity for sunlight, the loss of energy and drop in mood when in a dark place for too long, and a green tint to the skin was all fairly typical for Nymphs, but this was the first time I had seen a plant like growth on and possibly in the skin. It retracted slowly as we talked, seemingly generating and now retracting from a single point on her body along her upper chest. The spot looked like a brown birthmark, but cracked like a seed.

"So, with all that said, what are you looking to get from me? A way to go outside without people thinking you have vines growing on you?" Jessica asked, already starting to take the note down.

"Nope! I wanna make it grow when I am in the shade," she stated, catching Jessica off guard. She scribbled her current note and sighed, her mind already whirring with ideas for how to possibly do it.

"Okay, to get started I'll need a few blood samples to check your DNA structure against my previous clients, then I can hopefully start from a previous concoction and work my way to what you are looking for. It may take a while and a couple test runs... is that okay with you?" Jessica said, her words pouring out in her usual professional manner as she scribbled down her notes. She placed a sticky note in the folder for Nymphs and slapped it shut before placing it on her desk and rolling her chair over to Ivy.

"I am prepared to do whatever I need to, Doctor," she said, clearly resolved to make it happen. Jessica prepared her materials and found the vein on the inside of her elbow, quickly wiping it down and getting the blood samples she needed. As Jessica worked, she noticed the vines on Ivy's skin reacting. They turned a slightly diluted green and shrank. Ivy's energy levels were noticeably lower than before as she went back upstairs.

Jessica labeled and stored the samples as needed, and added this project to a list that she kept of her current projects. At the top of the list was "A Suitable Replacement to Human Blood".

She sighed and threw the list on her desk, where it had lived for years now, and headed upstairs. Before she even reached the top, she noticed Master Gilbert standing at the top of the stairs.

"Do you think I should come back to check in with you another time, Doctor?" he asked, his usual chipper demeanor lost. "It's not every day that I see you lash out. The poor girl must be struggling."

She sighed and smiled, stopping a few steps down from Master Gilbert.

"It's not every day I find someone I like as much as her you know... and now I've probably gone and scared her off already."

"I'd say you may have to try a bit harder to scare her away, Jessica, but I advise that you have a good talk with her as soon as you can. So, shall we check on the bracelet?" he asked. She nodded as he let her pass.

They entered my room without so much as a sound as I was fast asleep. Master Gilbert slid over to my bedside and took my wrist gently, revealing the bracelet from under the covers. The three metal bands shined against the light from the hallway.

He turned to Jessica for a moment and tossed her a small stone. She caught it deftly and held it firmly in a fist.

"Jessica, the bracelet is in good condition," his voice said inside of Jessica's mind. "The band with your blood is holding up, just as you predicted. The black band remains stable as it should for the time being, and the white band... it seems to have some fluctuations running through it..."

"Her memories are showing up in her dreams quite often these days. Do you think it could be causing her to remember locked away memories?" she asked him, the stone transmitting her thoughts to him. He turned to her and shook his head.

"I don't know. It's purpose is only to act as a vessel. Her will may be interfering with the design and unlocking memories, but it's a situation I've not seen. I'll have to try and study up on the phenomenon...."

He put down my arm and held an open hand out to Jessica, a similar looking stone in his palm. Jessica placed the stone she was given with the other and he stowed them away. Without a word, he left the room. Jessica came over to the side of the bed and kneeled down, her face level with mine.

"I hope you can have a good dream tonight, Layna. I'll see you there soon."

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When Jessica became lucid, she found herself on a beach. The ocean stretched out before her and waves lapped at her toes. The touch of the water sent a shiver up her spine.

The horizon was dotted with pillars of stone, reaching into the grey sky, as if it held answers that were hidden just a few feet further beyond their sight. The sand was dark, like an ashen beach of bones.

"Layna? Are you here?" she asked to the empty beach, her voice carrying away into the sand and burrowing it's way down, unable to bounce back and echo the location of what she sought.

"Damn it, we've been in sync in the Dreamscape for over a week, she should be here," Jessica muttered to herself. She spun around at the expanse of sand, trying to find anything unique to move toward. She looked and looked, turning around and around until the sand became the only thing she could see around her.

Then a door appeared in front of her, and there I was, sitting with my back to it. Jessica smiled and approached me. I looked up at her, my eyes glossed over with sorrow.

"Jessica... someone's unlocking doors," I muttered to her. "The old doors that I thought were supposed to stay shut."

"What's behind the doors?" she asked, kneeling down in front of me. Her smile faded as she realized what it was.

"Are you sure you want to see?"