Dr Arif moaned, Boris sighed

“No, no, no, no, no”, his voice increased in pitch and volume and he hurled the phone at the wall and curled up in a ball. He screamed in rage and moaned in frustration. Boris stood by, arms folded. He rolled his eyes, and sighed lightly. He looked over at the smashed phone, almost made to move towards it, and then decided it wasn’t worth it. He’d just get Arif another one. That seemed to be his task these days. Aiding and abetting Dr Arif Tendu in running from monsters. How could you run from the monsters that plagued your mind, though? There was a small, constant drip and patter as drops of water fell from somewhere in the ceiling to the cold floor below. The doctor was curled up in a ball, his arms around his knees, sounds of animal frustration coming from him. His eyes would be red, rimmed with tears, and tired from the exhaustion and stress that comes from staring at a screen all day long.

Boris knew what had probably happened. The doctor didn’t say it, not when he was awake at least. In his dreams though, that was another matter. In his dreams, he would complain about it all the time. Boris knew all the doctor’s secrets, not that the man would try to hide them from his longtime and most trusted employee/bodyguard/whatever Boris was. The doctor would cry about it in his sleep. Boris would hear it all. In the morning, they would pretend like nothing had happened. Boris knew the probable cause for the doctor’s frustration. One by one, his experiments were failing him. There had been fifteen working screens. The experiments that had survived. Slowly they began to die. One by one by one. Within weeks of their departure, there had been thirteen that had remained. The first just died. A heart attack, or so the authorities had thought. Boris had to give it to the doctor, his designs were incredible. If the host could not survive, the parasite would shut him down and dissolve into his bloodstream. It would be like nothing had ever happened. Except, you know, the host would be dead. The second had turned into an animal. Unthinking, consciousless animal. Dr Arif had hoped his parasite could turn it back into a human but it had not. So he had given the order for it to shut him down. And then there were thirteen. They had been on the road for two months now, running from god knows what. Well and Dr Arif knew too. But he wouldn’t say it, even in his sleep. He would just whimper and wake up, silently. Eyes opened in horror. He would wipe them in silence. He didn’t want to travel in hotels. He was afraid of being trailed. Was afraid of security footage. They found Airbnb’s and usually that sufficed. This was the third virus to die. Was probably what it was. He was always on the phone, watching them remotely. Dr Arif Tendu moaned. Boris sighed.