Panthera Spelaea

It didn’t take long to get settled in; twelve inches of hanger space in Svetlana’s closet, one dresser drawer, and a bedside table now contained all my possessions. My lawyer had texted me to confirm a 1 PM appointment at her downtown office, which I said I could meet. Anna was sleeping, so Svetlana and I locked up the apartment and headed for the bus stop.

Most people in Moscow don’t own cars, but the public transportation is excellent. The nearest train station was about ten blocks away; since it was a nice summer day, we decided to walk instead of waiting for a bus. It gave me a chance to talk to her without others overhearing our conversations, which I needed. I was sure Viktor and his investigators had figured out where I was staying, so the apartment getting bugged was a possibility.

“Svetlana, what I’m about to tell you I do because you are a medical professional, a friend, and my love,” I started with. “It’s going to sound crazy, but I need you to listen to it all before calling the looney bin for me. Things are happening to me that I can’t explain.”

She squeezed my hand. “I know. I’ve been trying to find a reason for your blackouts, and I can’t. I’ll keep researching, though.”

“It’s not just the blackouts,” I said. I started laying out what I’d noticed since that fateful moment on the Protoka Ulstrovskaya River a few weeks ago. “Nothing happened until my bare hand touched the fur of that cave lion, and then it was agony.”

“You said it was like being electrocuted, that your muscles locked up, and you couldn’t move. You already told me that."

“There was more to it than that,” I said. “I was looking at the thawed-out eyes of an animal that had been dead for maybe fifteen thousand years, and its eyes started glowing red at the same time.”

“Eyes?” She stopped me on the sidewalk, making me face her. “How could its eyes glow?”

“I have no idea. It wasn’t a soft glow like a house cat’s eyes, or a reflection from the sun. It was like a light was coming from inside the animal.” We started walking again. “That’s all I remember until I woke up.”

“You didn’t tell anyone about the eyes, did you.”

“I couldn’t. I was in enough trouble with three people dead and me the only survivor. If I started talking about dead eyes lighting up and power shooting from the lion to me, they’d lock me up in a mental institution.”

She didn’t say anything for a while. “There was some talk among your doctors about that after you woke up. The police were sure you were involved in the deaths and worked with others to sell the cave lion on the black market. They haven’t been able to prove anything with you, so they are focusing on finding your accomplices.”

“Which is why Viktor is so intent on surveilling me. He thinks my partners will contact me,” I concluded. “You believe me?”

“I didn’t see evil in your eyes, John. I also know just how close you came to death on that river, which argues against you being in this mess voluntarily. You were lucky enough to survive what the others didn’t, and that brought you to me.”

I let go of her hand and put my arm around her narrow waist. “You are the best thing that has happened to me in Russia, which is saying something since I found an intact cave lion specimen.”

She snorted. “I don’t know if being compared to a frozen animal is good or bad.”

“It was going to be the highlight of my life and my career, but it is meaningless compared to finding you.”

THAT shut her up. We walked for another block, me holding her to my side, her wiping away tears. “Are we going to fast?”

“Too fast for what? Who is to say what is too fast for true love?” I stopped her, putting my finger under her chin and lifting her face for a long kiss. “My body, soul, and mind are united on this. I can wait for you to catch up.”

“You barely know me,” she protested.

“That’s what I’m fixing with each day.” We kept walking, and she asked me to continue with how I was changing.

“The second blackout didn’t happen as fast. I started getting hot, like I was feverish, and I had time to leave the trail and hide in the bushes to strip. I had to cool off, it was unbearable, and that’s why I headed for the pond. From the first feeling of being hot to the pond was less than a minute. The pain hit, then I was out. When I woke up, I had the same muscle soreness, but it wasn’t as bad and didn’t last as long.”

“You weren’t feverish before you left,” Svetlana thought out loud. “If you had an infection, you’d be running a fever continuously. I’ve never heard of a fever coming on that fast.”

I nodded; it wasn’t like any cold or flu. “Then there is the swan. You said you found a dead swan by the bank of the pond.”

“Yes, it was barely recognizable. All torn up with feathers everywhere, like dogs had ripped it apart.”

“I had a feather and blood on my back when you brought me inside,” I reminded her. “I passed it off as nothing, since I was in the same area. You cleaned me up and went to work, I slept all day, and we had dinner. After dinner, I had to use the bathroom. Svetlana, there were feathers mixed in with my feces.”

Her jaw dropped. “You ATE some of that?”

“Apparently so. I didn’t get sick from it, and it’s through my system already.”

“Jesus. We should get some blood work done on you soon. Thank you for telling me, that helps.”

“But wait, there’s more.” She was reeling from what I told her already, and this next stuff was going to take her for a ride on the Crazy Train. “I’m feeling physical changes, Svetlana. Eyesight, hearing, smell and taste are all changing to become much more sensitive.”

“That’s impossible,” she said. “Senses don’t spontaneously get better, they only get damaged as you age!”

“I can prove it. Take out your phone and bring up something with text on it.” She pulled up a book she was reading. I took her phone and held it at my chest while facing her two feet away. “Can you read this?”

“Sure, I have perfect vision,” she said.

I stepped back two paces. “Now?”

She had more trouble reading it this time. At four paces, she had no chance. I gave her back her phone and told her to pick a random page while I walked twenty paces down the block. “Show it to me.”

“No one can read from there, John!”

“Please.” She turned the phone around, and I started reading. She was so shocked she almost dropped the phone in her haste to turn it around and verify I was right.

“No fucking way,” she whispered to herself.

“Yes fucking way,” I said as I started walking back. “Hearing, too. I can smell your fear, Svetlana. You don’t understand what is going on, and you’re wondering if I’m safe to be around.”

“How did you know?”

I pulled her into my arms. “I can smell when you are happy, afraid, or aroused, love. I couldn’t do that before the blackouts.”

“Are you safe? Do you think you’re losing control?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? Left unsaid was the ‘might you be a murderer’ thing. “I don’t know what is happening during my blackouts, so I don’t know, Lana. If you think you and Anna are in danger, call the police. I’d rather go to jail or the hospital than hurt you.”

“Anything else?” I could see in her eyes she was hoping I’d say yes.

“Energy and stamina are both off the charts,” I told her. “I told you I used to play soccer, and I was a decent runner, just a little too bulked-up to be good at it. My best mile time was in the five-minute range. That’s nowhere near track team speed, but it’s a fast run. This morning, I woke up feeling like I could take on the world. Twenty minutes in the pool felt like nothing, so I went for a run. I was running faster than a five-minute-mile pace, but I kept it up for thirty minutes, then I sprinted the last mile or so. I wasn’t even breathing hard when I finished.”

We were passing under the major highway and getting close to the train station. “None of it makes sense,” she said. “Bodies don’t change for the better like that, and you haven’t been out of the hospital long enough to get back in shape! Anna and I should get you tested, get a baseline set of data.”

“That’s a good idea, but it won’t explain what is happening.”

We had to stop talking as we were among others now. We found an open seat, and I held my Lana close as we headed towards the center of Moscow. I wondered what my lawyer would say about the case against me as I looked out the window.