The Gillado

The outbreak II

Luke suddenly comes back to reality and starts screaming. "NO! NO! NO! MAKE IT STOP!" He holds his hands tightly against his ears and steps a bit in circles. He tries to find his medication, but it's nowhere to be seen. "Fuck fuck FUCK! It's still in my jacket!" He's starting to have a panic attack now. It's getting difficult for him to breathe while he's also sweating a lot. Malachai walks drowsy in the situation. She's holding his medication she found in his jacket. "I found this in your jacket. Sorry for snooping around but it seems like you need them right now. Here you go." She gives him the medication and Luke slowly calms down again. He looks at the meds, but puts them away instead. "Effexor? You're taking antidepressants?" Malachai looks confused, mostly because Luke is known to be a confident celebrity who always seems to be happy.

"It's a long story, but that's not important now." Luke goes through his hair while he sighs. "If you want help, I have both my PhD and a psychology degree. I can help you... I mean, if you want." Luke sighs and looks at Malachai with a tired look on his face. "You can't help me, no one can. Believe me, many people tried. You know how much money I lost to help that didn't even work in the end?" Malachai sighs and steps a bit back. "Fine, if you don't want help then I won't help you." Malachai walks away from the bathroom and changes herself. She is wearing white cargo pants with a green, off shoulder sleeved top now.

"Why are you changing?" Luke asks while frowning his eyebrows in confusement. "I'm assuming you won't go to sleep after such a panic attack." Luke sighs and puts his hands on his hips. "What do you even know about what I have?" "You suffer from insomnia. The Effexor you're taking makes the hallucinations even worse. It's a rare side effect, but it seems that you got affected by it. Whoever treated you Effexor should get fired because it seems like it's not the right medicine for you. You need treatment for insomnia and sleep paralysis." Luke looks surprised that Malachai knows so much just by looking at what just happened. "I can tell you that something has happened in your past that still affects you till this day. Have you ever suffered from a ptsd?"

"Why do you care?" Luke puts on his jacket, grabs a cigarette and walks to the balcony. He lights his cigarette and takes a drag. Malachai walks next to him with her arms crossed. Luke raises an eyebrow and blows the smoke a bit towards her. "Oh my god stop it." Malachai wipes the smoke a bit away and goes back inside. Luke chuckles a bit and looks how she is walking back inside. He shakes his head a bit and puts his cigarette out. After a short while though he quickly switched back to reality. He takes a picture out his pocket, which reveals a tanned, Italian woman with brown curly hair and brown eyes.

"I don't know what to do Mamma and Pappa, I wish you were here to help me. Maybe she is annoyed by all the stupid medications I need to take..."

"Fuck you fame."

He puts the picture back in his pocket and forms a ball with his hands and leans his head on them. He sighs a bit and prays a bit to himself:

"Dio per favore, tieni mia madre al sicuro."

He then sighs again and walks inside again, his hands on the back of his head. He realises the sun is about to rise again and decides to make some breakfast. Malachai has fallen asleep in the meantime on the couch. He goes to the kitchen now and takes a look in the fridge. He decides to make 'Uova in purgatorio' while he looks in the fridge. He tries to make the best version of the dish with the ingredients that Malachai has in her house. He grabs some eggs, tomatoes, salt, oil and parsley and starts to prepare it. After he's finished he is about to eat it, but then hesitates to wake Malachai up. Even though a lot has happened between them, Luke still feels a bit awkward around her.

"Wake up cocca, I made us some breakfast." Luke gently shakes Malachai a bit until she wakes up. Malachai looks a bit drowsy and runs her eyes. She looks at the table and squints her eyes a bit. She wakes up and stretches a bit while walking to the dining table. She sees the food and she starts to smile brightly.

"That looks so good! Did you make this?" "Yes, my mom used to make it for me and my sister when we were kids." Malachai sits down and looks at the food again. "Can I try?" She asks curiously. Luke nods happily and gives her a bread slice with some sauce and egg on it. Malachai tastes and smiles happily. "It's good!" She says happily. She quickly gets interrupted by a phone call. She goes to her phone and takes it.

"Hello this is Malachai Arden how may I help-"

"Flesh....meat....blood...."

Malachai puts her phone down again and looks at the number that called her. It was one of her co-workers, Bill Haarman. Malachai immediately goes to the window and checks outside. She sees people screaming and getting ripped apart. "No way... this all happened too fast. I- LUKE DON'T DRINK THE WATER ARE YOU CRAZY?" Malachai sees Luke pouring a glass of water and she takes it and puts it back. She looks worried and mad at Luke while Luke looks quite a bit irritated. "I wanted to drink something." "And I don't want you to turn into a monster, like them." Luke rolls his eyes a bit and sighs. "Look, my immune system is very high, I don't think it'll be that bad." Malachai crosses her arms over each other and looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah your immune system may have been good before you started to smoke so much." Luke sighs irritatedly and goes to the window where Malachai is standing. He gently lays his hands on her hips and moves her a bit aside. He looks outside and examines the plaza.

"It's not the water." Luke says while looking back at Malachai. "Why do you think so?" Malachai looks confused again and then notices the man drinking the water. "He's drinking water and doesn't turn into one of them." Luke grabs a cigarette again and taps it a bit on his hand. Malachai notices one thing: they are people that have either survived cancer or got the latest vaccine against any kind of cancer. "Holy shit, it's in the vaccine and medications against cancer." Malachai then starts to think once more. "There's no way it spreads this fast if that was the only thi-" suddenly something is scratching very hard on the door. It keeps making clicking noises with its mouth.

"clack... clack"

Malachai and Luke ignore it until the clacking starts to sound a bit more human.

"Luca... it's me... Cara..."

Luke starts to get sad and then mad again. "You're not my sister! She'd never use our real names in public!" There are tears falling from his face while he's still mad and in denial. Then the door barges open and a fully transformed skinwalker charges in. The skin is hanging from the body and the muscles are very visible. It's very skinny and the bones are showable. It has sharp teeth and two black holes where its eyes were supposed to be. You can't see its gender anymore and it's been dried out for a while. Malachai charges back and does and jumps on her hands. She puts her legs around the things head and does a 180° turn. The skinwalker falls on the ground and doesn't move anymore. Malachai stands up again and blows her hair a bit out her face. She breathes a bit heavier and looks at Luke. "We need to get out of here."