A Little Surprise

Andrew woke up with a start. His head pounded painfully, and he had to lie back down until the room stopped spinning. How much had he drank last night? Last night, he had gone out with a group of his new coworkers celebrating his new job at the accounting firm. They seemed like pretty cool people, and it had been awhile since he had gone out for a good time. After spending so much time studying and chasing various internships had all but destroyed his social life. It was nice to go a little crazy.

But by the pounding in his head and the sickening feeling in his stomach, he may have overestimated how much he could handle. Reaching over to his night stand, he found his phone. His coworkers had been texting him, making sure he got home ok and good-naturedly ribbing him about drinking too much. One text stood out to him. It was a picture of him dancing rather... exuberantly with a girl in a tight blue dress. He had no memory of this, but he had a small sense of pride knowing he still could get the ladies. Another text was from his new boss. It simply said, “I’m glad you enjoyed your night last night. Have a good weekend, and see you first thing Monday.” Was she there? Andrew couldn’t remember.

Andrew was finally able to painfully sit up in bed and rub his eyes. He was surprised to see something written on his hand. Squinting, he read, “Cold?” What did that mean? He looked at his other hand and it read, “Colder.” What was this? He had no memory of writing this. Was it a joke being played on him?

Andrew went into the bathroom, turning on the light. He stifled a yell. Downwards on his neck was written, “Warmer.” It was also written the insides of both his arms. Pulling off his shirt, he read across his abdomen, backwards in the mirror, “Hotter.” Panic started to rise in his chest, his heart pounding. He hooked a thumb into the waist band of his shorts. Praying and hoping, he slowly started to pull down his shorts next to his thigh. A pit opened in his stomach when he saw the beginning of something written there. Pulling them down, he stared in horror at what was written there, “Surprise! Can you guess what I did?”

Andrew turned on the shower as hot as the water would go. Flinching from the heat, he scrubbed at his skin until it was painful to touch. The black letters barely faded no matter how hard he washed himself. And nothing could touch the growing sense of disgust and fear that was growing inside of him.

Coming out of the shower, he ran to his phone, desperately searching the pictures and texts for any clues. Was this some sick joke? Who would do something like this to him? No clues stood out to him. Andrew climbed back into bed and covered his entire body with the covers, trying to block out. This was just a bad dream. It was a nightmare, and he would wake up. After a few minutes, there was a ping from his phone. Groaning, he reached out and looked. There was a single email message to his new company account. He opened it and read, “Did you find it, yet? Do you feel what I left?” No signature. A fake email address. No clue to who it was.

Andrew couldn’t remember the last time he cried like this . He leaped from the bed and clawed at his body, poking and prodding, looking for any scars, any signs, or any possible sign of invasion. He sank to the floor, sobbing into his arms. What did they do to him?

A few hours later, Andrew sat in the cold doctor’s office. He didn’t go to his primary doctor. He was too ashamed for them to know. He went to the clinic in the next town. The nurse walked in, giving him a genuine smile, “Hello, Mr Carson. I do have good news. The rape kit came back negative.” Andrew gave a deep sigh of relief, but the other implications began popping into his head. His relief was short lived. The nurse continued, “While that is the good news, I want to inform you about the other tests if you believe you have been assaulted in some way.” She continued on for what seemed like forever about STD tests, DNA tests, going to the police about charges. How was he supposed to press charges when he had no idea who had done this to him?

Andrew did his best to try to find some type of routine, again. But it was like he had some type of sickness. He felt like even the lady he bought his coffee from somehow knew what happened to him. Strangers on the street stared at him like he was a freak, like something was growing out of his face. He checked in every reflective surface he passed. The only thing looking back was his terrified face.

Going to work on Monday didn’t do anything to alleviate his stress. Even the people he had pegged as ok guys came across as creeps and pervs. Everyone seemed to be talking about him. Everyone was in on the joke, and he was the idiotic victim. He went home early that day. He just laid in bed. It seemed like the only thing to do as he felt his intestines roiling inside him.

He ended up quitting his job. Not so much as he called to say he quit, but after two days without showing up, his boss called to say that if he didn’t show up in the next hour, he didn’t need to bother showing up at all. Andrew stayed in bed. No one could make him do anything. He was his own person, still. Here, under his covers, he was safe from the world. Andrew wasn’t able to sleep for awhile. It seemed like as soon as he closed his eyes, his dreams were full of bugs , tiny creatures, and swarms of germs overwhelming him.

Andrew’s brother, Jerry, had began to worry about him and came to stay for the weekend. Jerry was shocked to see the state his brother was in, and felt helpless when he refused to say what had happened. Jerry stayed for several days, helping take care of his apartment, paying bills, and even just feeding his practically comatose sibling. Slowly, Andrew came out from under the covers of his bed until he was eventually sitting in the livingroom while they watched tv. He refused to come out of his apartment, though.

Before he left, Jerry gave him the last bit of advice, “Look, I don’t know what happened, but it obviously really hurt you. The only thing I can say is that you can either let this thing make you into a stronger person, or let it define you.” Andrew contemplated that for a long time. He finally opened up his job search history and began looking for another job. Andrew eventually found a part time position at a bank that was close to home. The people there were very welcoming and were accepting of his reserved nature. In fact, a few of them thought it was classy of him that he had such self-control when it came to partying. These people became some of his good friends. After awhile, Andrew felt like he was back to a normal life, again.

One morning, Andrew walked into the bank, saying hello and shooting the breeze with the receptionist who was pretty cute. He was even thinking about asking her out to dinner one night. Whistling to himself, he settled at his cubicle and started up his computer. As he set down his bag, he noticed a piece of paper stuck to his monitor. It must be his new password. Andrew took it and read the message.

“No matter where you go. A piece of me will be with you. Do you feel me inside you?”