I don’t have much time so I’m going to have to do this quickly. This will be my last memoir.
For the last 15 years my research has been on the aforementioned extra chromosome. Every human body is designed to have 46 chromosomes per cell, 23 pairs, everyone knows that. There are rare cases where there are more but that’s not what I’m talking about.
It’s not in a pair because there are over a dozen in the bunch. There’s too many chromosomes inside the group and whatever it is, it didn’t come from anything on Earth.
I discovered it in 2007. I was working at a university in Norway, analysing a cell from a cancer patient when I found it. I checked over and over to make sure it wasn’t an error. I showed my best friend Chris the results and he thought I had forged it as a prank. I went to the patient for another sample but when I checked again it was gone, and her cancer had disappeared. She was on the road to recovery but one day the nurse went to check on her and she was dead. During the autopsy they found that there was nothing wrong with her except for the fact that the birthmark she had was gone.
I looked for more instances of it happening and I found only 2. One of them happened in 1902 and was hushed up for some reason. The other one had happened very recently, and the man who had it was still alive.
His name was Tobias, and when I visited him to ask about it, he went white as a sheet. He beckoned me in and I sat down.
“Are you sure you want me to tell you?” He asked me.
“Yes.” I answered
He took a deep breath.
“It appeared when I was dying of a stomach infection. The doctors couldn’t do anything, the bacteria were resilient to any anti-biotic they threw at it. It got worse and worse and they gave me a month to live. Then they found the chromosome. They couldn’t explain it and thought that their machine didn’t work.”
He coughed loudly
“They sent for a replacement, but they didn’t need it. I was in bed, puking up blood, when they appeared.”
“They?” I asked
“Horrible things. They were at least 9 feet and towered over the bed. Bulbous disgusting heads with too many eyes. They had tentacles and claws for arms and one of them reached towards me.”
He picked up a glass of water and sipped from it.
“He spoke to me. Told me that I had something that belonged to them. They thanked me for keeping it safe. They said it was the reason I was dying but they could save me.”
“This seems a bit far-fetc…” I started saying.
He tackled me to the floor and started yelling in my face.
“DONT CALL ME CRAZY. I’M NOT CRAZY!” Green spittle flew from his mouth as he collapsed back into the chair and looked exhausted.
I got up scared when he started talking again, in a quiet voice,
“They took it from me. The infection and the chromosome. But it wasn’t without cost. I was born with this birthmark”
He pulled up his sleeve and showed me the same black patch that was on the woman.
“You’re either born with it or someone passes it to you. It’s what marks you for them. They search for it, but when they take away the chromosome, they give you something too. As punishment.”
He began coughing again.
“I’ve managed to fight it off for years, but I can’t *cough* keep it away forever”
He collapsed to the floor as I tried to pick him up.
“What is it? What do they give?” I asked
He was struggling to get the words out now.
“They were here before we were, they lived on a paradise Earth. We chased them away by stealing their most powerful gene. It made us gods, so we killed almost all of them. But present day humans can’t handle it’s power. That gene is what makes them strong. They’ve gotten almost all of them. They hate us….. when they get the last of it, we’re done for… they’ll come back. And…. we…. don’t… stand… a chance….”
The patch was spreading across his body now.
“They don’t want me to tell you… spread the word… please”
The patch had reached his head and then he went limp. The darkness peeled off his skin and dissolved into the air.
I ran out of the house screaming as I dialled the police. They didn’t believe me about the story and just sent me home. When I got back I learned that Chris had a fall at work and they found a tumour in his brain.
I’ve seen them around for the last 15 years. At the edge of my vision, hovering over Chris at his bedside. Because Chris has the mark.
Chris died 2 years ago. Before he died I had been fired for my outlandish theories. But I pulled myself together after he died. I got a job and got married. My life was back on track. But not for long.
They are cruel creatures. They didn’t go for me. They went for my family. My sister, my wife, my father, my mother. All of them got the mark. They’re all dead now.
I was at my wife’s side when she was dying. She had a month to live and I wouldn’t leave her bedside. I was going to confront the creatures who had ruined my life.
They appeared in a burst of green light and I stopped them from approaching my wife. The one in the lead looked at me, and then I was on the floor convulsing as he spoke to me.
“We are only missing three.”
And then I looked behind them and saw the dimension they now lived in. It was teeming with creatures, but they were weak and malnourished.
They had given their power to this gathering team to collect enough for all of them.
He took the gene from my wife and I watched as she died slowly.
They only need two more genes.
So please, if you see anyone with that mark. Kill them. It is for the good of humanity.
This applies to me as well. The mark appeared on me yesterday. I see the light filling the room as they come to claim me already. I will not allow it. I have a loaded gun. Not for them but for me.
I will deny them their victory
Goodbye