Discovering the real world

PART 3: "The first discoveries"

"Wow! You live here all by yourself baby?" Bullseye exclaimed amazed, while entering Lara's enormous and richly decorated apartment.

"Actually, this is quite small compared to my manor in England."

Lara walked in and headed towards the stairs while Bullseye remained near the doorway following her with a look one usually gives a wealthy person who likes to brag about his belongings.

"Wait for me in the living-room. I need to get some things in order to heal your wounds." She said while going up the stairs.

"So you're a doctor now or what?" he said in a somehow mocking way while heading towards the living-room. Lara stopped on the stairs and turned to him.

"I have told you, I am magic. Now go sit down and wait for me."

Bullseye looked at her a bit annoyed but she just turned her head and left. He hated to be told what to do and he was the type of person who lost his temper quite easily. So much as disagreeing with him could cost a person his life. But things were different with Lara. She was probably the only friend he ever had and although he didn't like to admit it, he was grateful to her for instructing him to be what he is today. She respected her for this but he never liked to show it. However, she was well aware of this as the way he behaved around her was quite different from her usual self.

Bullseye walked into the living-room; there were two twin sofas in front of a huge glass-door that led to the balcony. He slouched himself into one of the sofas and placed his feet on the glass coffee table in front. He held his palms up and looked furiously at the two wounds that still hurt, thinking at everything that happened that night.

A couple of minutes later Lara came down the stairs, holding a syringe in one hand.

"Are you ready?" she asked preparing the syringe while approaching him.

Bullseye took his feet from the table and looked at her curiously.

"A syringe? That's it? Babe, in case you haven't noticed I have two f***ing holes in my palms." He said angrily.

"I know that very well." She seemed to be a bit irked by his outburst. "And this little syringe is all that I need. Now take off your coat and do not ask me any more questions. Just trust me and I shall heal your wounds."

While she spoke she prepared the syringe and without loosing time she just pierced a vein from her left wrist with the syringe's needle and filled it up with her blood.

Bullseye had taken off his coat like she had told him to and was now looking curiously at her. He couldn't imagine what she had in mind but he had confidence in her. She seemed serious and sure of what she was doing and from his past experiences with her he knew that no matter how strange they seemed, her tactics always worked.

"Give me your right arm." She told him after having finished filling up the syringe with her blood.

She grabbed his arm and injected half of the blood from the syringe into his vein.

"Now give me your other arm."

She grabbed his left hand now and injected the rest of the blood into his other vein.

"I think that should do it. I've inserted equal quantities of blood in both your veins so that it spreads faster. Do you fell anything yet?"

"It's so strange. The wounds are the same as before but I don't feel pain anymore. It's like I didn't even have two huge holes in my palms."

"Excellent. That means it is working faster than I imagined. If I am correct, your wounds should be completely healed in no more than ten minutes. Now I have to go and make a phone call."

Lara turned, intending to leave but Bullseye leaped from the sofa and grabbed her upper arm with all his strength, although his palms were still pierced. He pulled her roughly, forcing her to sit down on the sofa beside him.

"You're not going anywhere babe until you explain to me what the hell's going on. What, you're some sort of witch now?" Bullseye shouted furiously. For the first time in his life he was facing something he couldn't understand; he had the feeling he was loosing control and this made him mad.

"Fine. What do you want to know?" she responded on a serious and irritated tone while snatching her arm from his grasp.

"Well, first of all you never told me what happened back there on the roof. How did you vanish just like that and what was with the glowing eyes?"

Lara sighed.

"There are many things to be said concerning this matter but I will tell you the essential and I will do my best to make you understand. Now how should I start? ..... However strange and impossible it may sound, magic as we know it from books or from movies does exist. However, what I did back on the roof has nothing to do with sorcery. It can be very well explained from a scientific point of view. The thing is there are certain people in this world whose bodies have evolved more than those of other human beings and therefor they are capable of performing certain tasks that, at first, may seem ... impossible."

"So you're telling me that there really are mutants like the ones in the movies out there?" he asked with a mocking smile on his face.

"Movies are just fictional stories and many things are disturbingly exaggerated there but it is true that certain people are born with genetic mutations. But like I mentioned before this has nothing to do with the supernatural. The human body is capable of performing tremendous functions; the only problem is that not all people can use it at full capacity. There are some special genes that permit the human body to perform more complex tasks. However, at most people these special genes are .. blocked, sort of speak. Nowadays, the most common mistake people make is to believe that these so-called mutants are the result of some genetic experiments conducted by some mad scientists of the 21st century. Some even believe that this may be the result of human cloning but they are far from right. Such people possessing special abilities have existed since the early beginnings; and throughout history they've been considered either gifted by the gods or possessed by demons. In the Middle Ages many have been burnt on the stake, being accused of practicing witchcraft and worshiping the devil. Did you understand anything of what I said?"

Lara suddenly interrupted her speech noticing Bullseye's expression; he was confused but he also had the amused look of a person who thought he just realized he had listened to the greatest lie of all times.

Lara's speech had indeed been convincing but on the other hand he knew what a great liar she could be. Of course she offered him a complex explanation of the strange things he had witnessed but he just couldn't accept all of a sudden something like that.

"Sorry babe but either you made up all this whole scientific bullshit or you're totally insane. I can't believe such a crap."

"No? Then look at your hands."

Bullseye looked down at the wounds in his palms but couldn't believe what he saw. If a couple of minutes before he had two large holes in his palms that he could clearly see through, now there were only two thin cuts. He couldn't believe what he was seeing but what shocked him the most was that the now small wounds in his palms instantly closed, leaving not even a mark. He began touching and turning his hands, looking amazed at them. He couldn't deny that he was happy to have his hands in perfect condition in such a short time but he was also furious. He took it almost as a failure on his part whenever he couldn't understand what was going on, especially if it involved him.

"That's impossible. What did you do to me?"

Lara looked a little upset at his almost violent reaction and at the anger in his eyes as if she had been expecting a totally different answer but then her expression suddenly changed. A smile appeared on her face as if she remembered a little detail she had omitted.

"Oh, I'm sorry but I forgot that the appropriate answer in such a situation is not part of your vocabulary. I believe the answer you are looking for is ~ Thank You ~ .. baby." She answered ironically on a mocking tone. Still, she quickly changed her tone and continued. "Ok, so I must admit that all this is must be very confusing to you but if you would let me explain .. "

"Explain what? That whole mutant shit? You're gonna tell me you turned me into a mutant now?"

"Don't be stupid; mutants can't be made. That's something you're born with."

"Then what the hell you did to me?"

"My blood is not like that of a normal human being. It has the ability to heal in mere minutes any damage sustained by my body, no matter how severe they are. When I injected you, my blood mixed with yours thus your organism was capable of healing your wounds much faster."

"If this is so, you're saying that from now on I'll heal as fast as I did now?"

"For a short period of time, yes."

"What do you mean?"

"Imagine the blood I injected you with as a medicine. You use it several times but sooner or later you will exhaust the supply. When this occurs your body will again heal as slow as it always did. From now on, whenever you hurt yourself your organism will unwillingly use the blood I injected you with. My advice is to take care of yourself because some of my blood that now flows through your veins will come in handy if you ever catch any deadly diseases."

"So you cannot catch any diseases?"

"No! I cannot get ill, I cannot be killed; I am practically immortal. Well, let's not exaggerate too much."

"But you were normal when I first met you."

"My powers manifested later. They needed a little inpulse."

"What kind of inpulse?"

"I had to undergo a very complex operation. I had no choice; it was that or death."

"So this is why you took off without saying a word back then?"

"Yes. The Lin Kuei found me and forced me to return."

"I must be going nuts saying this but hey, if you don't take a risk you can't win. So if you say that this is for real, tell me more about this whole mutants shit."