Answers and secrets

Stepping out of the lab and closing the door behind him, Reed headed into the living room where he could hear Ben coaxing the players on the television screen to run faster, his stony fists bouncing off the armrests like trampolines as he nearly sat up straight when the football player holding the ball passed one opposing player after the other, until he finally got to his feet with his fists in the air, hollering in triumph, and crying out touchdown when the screen did.

Nearby he found HERBIE setting the plates at the living room table as mechanical hands prepped dinner. Stirring a large pot of soup while what looked like a cake was being pulled out of the oven to be cooled. But there was something missing, or more specifically someone.

“Ben, do you know where Susan is?”

Caught in mid cry of triumph, Ben blinked back at Reed and slumped his arms down to his sides.

“Uh… Yeah. She went out for a bit to get something while dinner was bein cooked.”

“Out?” Wondered Reed, looking outside to the living room window to see how dark it was out in the city. “Out to do what?”

At that moment the front door opened to Susan coming inside with a plastic bag in one hand and a candy bar in the other as she kicked the front door closed and stood like a deer in the light of a truck’s headlights when she made eye contact with Reed. The candy bar still in her mouth as the two locked eyes.

“Uhm… I’m back!” Susan smiled, swallowing down the bite of chocolate. “I still felt peckish, so I went and got some chocolate to tie me over before…”

“Dinner is ready.” Called out HERBIE, sending up a chime that was heard around the large apartment. Within seconds Franklin and Valaria came almost running into the living room to join their parents while a groggy but less hungover Johnny yawned into his had and sat at his seat.

“Oh good! Dinner, lets eat.” Setting her bag of candy at the side of the table to sit at her spot, the woman set her coat behind her chair and eagerly waited for her meal while the rest of the family joined her with a sense of mild suspicion.

Served chicken soup with sandwiches, Johnny seemed the most grateful as he spooned his meal into his mouth and sighed as it helped clear his headache. The kids went to eating and Ben was already halfway done slurping his first helping. But Reed stirred his spoon into his bowl as he watched his wife sip at her meal, trying to act nonplus as to why she left so abruptly.

“So… Honey, what did you get while you were out?”

Stopping in her meal to look up with the spoon still delicately held between her fingers, the blonde woman blinked back at her husband and pulled up the plastic back at the leg of her chair to show everyone.

“I just got bored of waiting for dinner, so I went out to get some sweets.”

“Still?” Wondered Johnny, seeing the bag full of chocolate bars hanging from the woman’s hand like it was a prized haul. “And isn’t that a chocolate cake cooling off?”

Slowly lowering her hand full of goodies, the woman sat back and twiddled her thumbs together, still trying to play innocent. “Well… Sometimes a girl likes a good bar of chocolate after dinner.”

“AND an entire cake?” Pointed Ben, pouring himself a refill of soup and biting into his chicken sandwich.

“Oh, we can nibble on that at any time tonight or tomorrow.” Susan waved the matter off, despite hearing HERBIE call out that the cake was ready for the meal’s dessert. “See? I can’t eat that ALL by myself, what would happen to my girlish figure?”

“And what about the candy bars?” Reed asked, pointing back down at the plastic bag at her foot. “That’s a little excessive, isn’t it?”

Pulling the bag up onto the table, Susan plucked out a single bar and handed it over to her daughter Valaria. “Here you go kiddo, that’s 90% cocoa. That means it’s good for the heart AND its brainfood!”

Leaning out of his seat to whisper to Reed, Johnny raised a hand to cover his mouth as he whispered. “Is that true?”

Looking down at the bar of dark chocolate that looked almost jet black, Valaria blinked at the ingredients at the back. “Dark chocolate has high amounts of flavanol which improves neural activity and helps break down cholesterol in the arteries. Studies show a steady but not excessive diet on unsweetened cocoa can prevent heart disease and help maintain and even improve alertness and problem-solving skills.” The little girl recited mechanically as she set the bar down on the table and went back to her meal. “Do you have anything with caramel?”

Rummaging through the bag, Susan plucked out a pair of bars and handed one each to her kids. “There you go.” Seeing Reed still unconvinced, Susan rolled her eyes and brought up her right hand. “Alright fine, I’ll hold off the sweets for a while… Probably for the best. Last thing I need is to change my wardrobe to deal with an expanding waistline.”

Still staring back at his wife unconvinced, eventually Reed shrugged and went back to his dinner. The rest of the night soon fell into uneventful routine. As the family recounted the fun, they had at the boardwalk amusement park. Taking the plates and bowls away, Susan went to put the bag of sweets in the cupboard above the refrigerator and smiled at the sight of the chocolate cake waiting for her on a small glass plate. Serving dessert personally to the rest of her family, Susan hummed to herself on the first bite, her eyes fluttering at the deep and rich flavour as she dug her fork into her slice for another bite. Once again HERBIE had outdone itself.

Getting late into the night, Susan tucked in her two children and insisted they don’t overdo it with the sweets she gave them, otherwise they’d get sick… Which seemed hypocritical considering how much SHE had that day, but thankfully her son and daughter didn’t question it. Kissing them both goodnight, the Invisible Woman turned off the lights and closed their door.

Heading to her own shared room with Reed, Susan took the time to go into their private washroom and undress, drawing herself a hot shower and getting cleaned up before heading to sleep. While standing in the hot spraying water, she looked down at her hand, the one she used that sprouted a pair of milky white tentacles to ensnare those two muggers in the alley. Wriggling her fingers and turning her wrist back and forth, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. For all intent and purposes, her hand was normal. But she was still apprehensive.

After lathering and rinsing her long blonde hair and scrubbing down her lithe and model perfect body, another thought crossed her mind. In one day, she had eaten three times she normally would have, and almost half of that was in sweets and chocolate. And yet, giving her stomach a gentle pat and feeling up her hips and thighs, she looked and felt no different than when she started the day. Leaving the woman to wonder just where all she had eaten had gone to. Turning off the water and reaching for a towel, Susan dried herself off and wrapped the towel around herself while getting a smaller one to wrap around her hair.

Standing in front of the steam covered mirror, Susan wiped the mist away to get a clear reflection of herself to look over. Turning her face back and forth, the Invisible Woman squinted and checked herself over, finding nothing out of place. But she knew… She knew something WAS out of place. Taking a deep breath, she leaned against the sink with both hands and looked at herself face to face.

“Show me!”

She didn’t know who she was talking to, it was a gamble, one she hoped didn’t pay off. But what happened gave her a start when she found what looked like… Milk? Cream? Whatever it was, the white viscous fluid crept up her neck and flow down her shoulders and arms with the same speed as running water. In the span of seconds, if that, her entire body was now completely covered in this second skin as it continued to creep up and envelope her face and hair. Stepping back and letting the towel around her body fall to the floor and the one around her head drop to join it at her feet, she was now completely covered, looking like a chalk white mannequin with no features of any kind save her physical dimensions.

It was strange. She couldn’t feel her mouth or nose or even her eyes over her face… She didn’t HAVE a face. It was as if she had a thick, latex mask without seams or holes to breath through, and yet she WAS breathing, just not through her mouth. Looking down at her hands and down her body, everything was slippery smooth, and yet the fluid seemed to be a part of her, like skin. Looking back at her reflection, the blank surface of where her face would have been suddenly taken on features, manifesting in a black rimmed domino mask over the white of the symbiote covering her head where her eyes would be. Squinting and trying to make facial expressions, the eye-like formations did the same, squinting and widening as she would her own eyes. Looking down at her chest, the same black inking appeared and formed what looked like the picture of a black spider with thin and long legs wrapping around her shoulders, under her arms and down her legs, completing the visage as it stopped and became idle.

“Okay….”