Blood Brothers (Chapter 10)

[florida20]

[COLOR=blue]Chapter I[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]Chapter 2-4[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]Chapter 5[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]Chapter 6[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]Chapter 7[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]Chapter 8[/COLOR]
[COLOR=blue]Chapter 9[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]CHAPTER 10[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I sat calmly on a natural outcrop of stone under the overpass, waiting for my eventual showdown with Jesse. School was still technically in session but a trickle of students was already making its way from down the road. If I was lucky, this would all be over in time to train with Coach Rod. He might find my new developments?interesting. Although a hundred cars sped across the interstate overhead, the span beneath it was isolated, known only to the homeless, the addicted, and the kids from the local high school?not a place any of our parents would approve of. Everyone congregating at the base of my castle did their best to leave me alone as I sat stoically in my long sleeve hoodie and sweatpants. A dead man didn?t like to be disturbed. I smiled at this but remained at a distance; no need to ruin the surprise. I was still taking it in myself. The me of eight hours ago would have worshiped the person I?d become. I felt heavy; I felt powerful. I half believed I could rip the ten foot high granite mound I was sitting on out of the ground with my bare hands. My new muscles yearned to be used and it was a demand I found extremely hard not to obey. This must be what a tiger felt like waiting to pounce on his prey?only my prey wasn?t here yet. I was accompanied only by my thoughts, which were scattering across my mind like swarming ants. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I found myself wondering if this was a dream. I flexed my arm, watching it fill my baggy sleeve like a balloon. I could see every crevice and striation through the fabric, even the cable-like vein which ran down the face of my bicep. But it wasn?t the sight that thrilled me, it was the feel. The feeling of that bulging ball of muscle squeezing against itself was like having sex; it was impossible to describe the chemical rush that it created. This couldn?t be real. But it was. And it was amazing.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]But those ants that raced through my mind were calling out in terrified little voices. They?d started to scream their warnings while I was at the restaurant and hadn?t died down. Something wasn?t right. I shook my head, what could be wrong? I had to outweigh Jesse by 40 pounds now and I was strangely positive that I was even stronger than I looked. I worked my hand, balling them into fists then opening them and spreading my fingers wide. They wanted to hit something so bad. I?d give them their wish by allowing them to break Jesse like a twig?again.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]But that worry remained, unfocused yet intensifying. Meanwhile, a small crowd had assembled at the base of the stone, forming an impromptu circle in the middle. Situations like this were probably among the most primitive displays of humanity, right up there with public executions and anyone who?s last name was Kardashian. But just as with those latter examples, people flocked like lemmings to witness this happen.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I noticed my friend Chandler walking up the crag towards me, his face lined with worry. He wore a tight green t-shirt, showing off what most would have considered a nice body for a sophomore. It was lean and ripped in the style so popular these days. I could curl him with one arm, I thought with a smile.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?Dude,? Chandler said as he reached me and turned to look at the crowd. ?Everyone noticed you weren?t at school today. There were rumors you were going to puss out.?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I chuckled and remained seated with my arms resting on my kneecaps and hands dangling between them. My friend was barely six feet away; would he notice I was bigger?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?I don?t know why you?re laughing,? Chandler said as he looked back at me. ?I?d have shit my pants twice already. Anyway, Jesse wasn?t at school today either. He left soon after first period. Maybe he was looking for you to make sure you didn?t try to run away.?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I shrugged but something in what he?d said sent mind boiling all the more. What made you grow? my brain suddenly asked me. I began to reply that the letter with the handprint had been laced with something but, suddenly, I wasn?t so sure.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf] Chandler apparently took my silence as a request to keep talking, which he did. ?You may have bulked up enough to convince the freshman class you?re some kind of god but but Jesse?s easily the strongest guy in school and that was before he started looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger.? He coughed in his hand and wiped whatever came out of his mouth on his pant leg. ?Fuck me, I?ve been fighting this cold for weeks now.?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I raised my head, heart racing. ?What did you say?? I asked, slightly shocked at the new baritone of my voice. I wasn?t the only one caught off guard; Chandler was looking at me like I had two heads.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?You all right?? Chandler asked. ?You sound like you have a cold too.? I started to say something I hoped would put my friend at ease but the competing and overlapping little voices suddenly found a unified message and the floodgates opened.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I did catch a cold, I thought feverishly. It just took a while to show all the symptoms. That?s how colds work. They gestate, then attack. I grunted in frustration and again flexed my arm, allowing it to swell and pull my sleeves tight. How had it not crossed my mind earlier? There was no chemical laced hand print. The mere thought of that seeming logical was absurd. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?Holy fuck,? I heard Chandler say but ignored him. I wasn?t doing a good job hiding my size at the moment and didn?t care. It wasn?t the handprint; it was Casey?s blood after all. It just took a few weeks to take effect. Puzzle pieces I?d subconsciously kept separated until now finally locked into place. Casey had a disease and they fixed it with another disease. Now I had that disease?so the disease was contagious. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?We gotta go,? Chandler said, his voice shaking. ?You have to GO!? I stayed put but looked up. The crowd at the base of the hill was looking up at me and slowly backing up, their faces a sea of surprise. Did they suddenly notice how much bigger I?d gotten too?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]You have a contagious disease![/COLOR][COLOR=#bfbfbf] my mind screamed, pulling my concentration inward again. I had a disease that took weeks to show all of its symptoms. I put my hands on my head, trying to force my brain to just spit it out. So what? I thought. No one injected my blood into their ass cheek. Suddenly a terrible thought came to mind that made my whole body tense. I heard a tearing sound, barely noticing that my bicep had ripped through the sleeve. I looked up at Chandler, who I realized had raced down the hill to join the others in their retreat. Why were they running? It didn?t matter; nothing mattered now. The terrible thought had turned into a terrible memory?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]Jesse, now in a white sleeveless shirt that showed just how big his arms were, filled my view. I could hear the hoots and laughter of his friends behind him. ?Let?s just say that love pat was the least you deserved.? Then he did something I had no idea would be as humiliating as it was: he spit in my face. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]My mind churned with rage and before I could even think about it, I shot a bloody wad of spit right in his eye.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?By body ran cold and I felt myself shake. He didn?t need to inject himself; I?d given it to him for free all those weeks ago. I knew the transfer of some strange disease through a bloody wad of spit was highly unlikely, but in my heart I knew it had happened. It explained how he?d turned into such a jacked teen in only a few weeks. More puzzle pieces fell into place. He knew what he was suddenly capable of, I thought. That?s why he wanted to do this after school. He needed time. Time to do the same thing I had done.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]Only he took everything to the extreme.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I have to get out of here, I thought frantically. Now![/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I looked up at the crowd, all of whom were either running away or still looking up and slowly backing away. It had only been a couple seconds since Chandler?s innocent cough triggered this rush of enlightenment but many in the crowd were already gone.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?What the?? I started to say out loud before the second dreaded realization slammed home. The dispersing crowd wasn?t looking up at me. Their eyes were too high. They were looking behind me.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I stood up cursing, stumbling as I tried to turn at the same time. The effort resulted in me falling back against the rock. I looked up and finally saw what had forced Chandler and everyone else to scatter. Jesse, clad in nothing but skin, had made his way up the back of the stone heap, and he made my last image of Casey look like a wimp.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I didn?t know what the giant in front of me weighed? How much does a bus weigh? The new Jesse had to be a head above seven feet tall. His face was void of any youth he once had, the baby fat now replaced by hard muscular lines. His neck, as big around as some people?s waist, was a bundle of writhing snakes of muscle and sat upon traps that started at the base of his skull and bulged like watermelons to striated shoulders the size of pumpkins. His arms, which looked over 30? around, flared to the side to make room for a set of traps that could double as wings. Pecs as thick as my head bulged from his body and sat atop a cascade of abdominals that could have been mistaken for masonry bricks. A dick the size of my forearm swung between a set of thighs I wasn?t sure I could wrap my arms around. They tensed and relaxed as Jesse took his final menacing steps up the crag, each one capable of kicking a hole in a brick wall.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?Miss me?? he asked, his deep voice booming across the under pass. He reached down before I could react and grabbed me by the neck. His shoulders and arms bulged with all the more power as he lifted me effortlessly up to his eye level. Just like Casey?s before, Jesse?s body wasn?t grossly asymmetric or bubbly like you?d expect from someone so massive. Instead, he was a giant with normal proportions. Whatever this disease was didn?t discriminate by growing only major muscles. The small muscles people couldn?t isolate in weightlifting grew too. He looked like a superhero.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]Jesse?s eyes inspected me and he barked a laugh as he tore my shirt off with his free hand, revealing my own Olympian body. ?Looks like you tried to come prepared,? he snarled as he flexed an arm that was bigger than my head. ?But I always beat the other guy when it comes to conditioning.? He drew me close. ?I suppose I should thank you for sleeping with my ex-girlfriend. I seemed to have picked up whatever you got?and took it to a place you could only dream of.?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]If my windpipe weren?t gasping for air, I would have groaned in frustration for forgetting such an obvious form of infection. Was Jenna, the girl in question, also a muscle goddess now? Now was probably not the time to ask that question. Jesse made sure of it.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]The two of us were alone, the other students scattered now to the wind, Chandler included. I couldn?t blame him. Jesse radiated with power that could crush me without thought. What would such a mentally unstable person do to a much smaller innocent bystander? I found myself wondering how he?s gained so much mass in only eight hours. I?d eaten pretty much non-stop for four before the owners of the Chinese restaurant ushered me out. It didn?t matter. The only question that matters was whether I?d live through the afternoon.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I did what any cornered animal does, I kicked and screamed and punched without thought. Every time I made contact with Jesse?s body, I winced in pain. It was like punching a brick wall covered in skin. Jesse grunted in slight discomfort but that wasn?t much of a victory. He responded by squeezing my neck, choking off what little air I had. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]He laughed as my vision began to blur and head throb. ?I can?t have you catching up to me anytime soon,? he said as he took my arm with his free hand and started to bend it awkwardly as if to break it. Pain flared from my elbow and shoulder but seemed distant and diluted as I slowly lost my grip on consciousness. I distantly wondered if his laugh would be the last thing I heard when a series of alien sounds came pouring from the surroundings. I heard Jesse curse and suddenly I was on the ground, performing a strange combo of deep gulps and throaty coughs. My senses were still dull as the world exploded around me. I could make out people coming from random directions, some monsters themselves. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I saw Jesse run naked down the same side of the crag he?d just ascended. Apparently these newcomers were big enough or numerous enough to scare him. I got to my knees, still without a full idea of what was happening around me. My head pounded as I ran in the opposite direction from Jesse, not caring if anyone followed as long as I could get away from the monster that nearly killed me. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]But I must not have been important enough. The sounds slowly faded behind me but I didn?t look back to make sure I was alone until a couple of miles later, when I fell to the ground gasping for breath.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?What the fuck?? I said aloud as I got to my knees. Fear still clouded my thoughts but at least I had control of my senses again. My vision had only just recently returned to normal. I had absolutely no idea what just happened and was still scared out of my mind. I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my parents. I didn?t care that I knew I was acting like a kid. I was a fucking kid. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I turned and made my way home; ignoring the stares and honks I received from passersby. [/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]Who were those other people? I didn?t get a good look at them but they may have been as big as Jesse, certainly bigger than me. I looked down at my body, surprised something so amazing could still seem small to me. But it was. I was bigger than Coach Rod now, but that seemed like nothing.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I stewed the afternoon?s events as I made my way home, growing gradually calmer but no closer to finding answers.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]Half an hour later, I was walking up my driveway, only slightly surprised to see my parents? cars in the driveway. It was only a quarter to five. I didn?t care. There was no hiding what I was now. They?d have to see me sooner or later.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I opened the door and walked in, still dressed only in shoes and sweatpants. I instantly saw my mom, sitting on the couch and eyes rimmed with red. She?d been crying. She looked up at me, eyes dull and uncaring at first but growing wide as they dawned with recognition. She moaned.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?Mom, I?? I started but suddenly noticed movement in the room. A man in a tie and slacks stood up from where he was seated next to my mom. Another dressed in a plain black suit and tie with white dress shirt stood in the far corner of the room, seemingly trying to take in the whole room with one look.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I stepped back, heart suddenly slamming against my ribcage. What was this?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?Jordan Baer?? the man getting up from the couch asked sternly as he started to pull something from his pocket. I nodded, confirming my identity. He nodded back. ?I?m Dr. Thornton.?[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]I remembered the name from a conversation with Casey; he was one of the doctors responsible for his miracle cure.[/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#bfbfbf]?Please sit,? the doctor said calmly as he sat next to my blank faced mother. ?We have much to discuss.?[/COLOR]

[bobtimbob]

Just had to chime in and saying I am enjoying this story a lot!

[Aronymous]

I'd love to get some more information on Jesse (his transformation etc.). I enjoy this story. Thank you!