Author's note: Thanks to all readers for the response so far to the first chapter of Mind Contagion. This is likely to be a long story, so bear with me! Details you may be wondering about will probably be revealed later. Feel free to contact me via email anytime. I try to answer all emails, even if it takes me a couple of days to get to them. JAH
*****
Chapter Two - Testing Hypotheses
Jeremy didn't know how to feel, possibly because nothing remotely similar had ever happened to him. He could have stopped it, sure, but really, could he have? The answer was yes, but he justified it to himself because it was his first date with Lauren, and the whole situation was so...weird.
He walked into the outer office of work the next morning, still a little bit flustered from the night before. Sarah was in her usual spot, but something was odd there too. She was wearing an unusually low top and instead of glancing up from her phone like usual, she stood up and pushed back from her chair.
"Good morning Jeremy." She said. The words were there but they didn't sink in. His eyes instinctively travelled down her body. Curves. That was the word stuck in his brain. She was wearing a short skirt to match the provocativeness of the top. She looked like a proverbial hourglass, in modest heels.
"Morning Sarah, you look nice." He said, his mind on Lauren. Maybe this was a test, friend to friend.
She started approaching him.
"Do you have a minute?"
"Er, no. Gotta check on the behavioral changes." He stammered. "Can you buzz me in?"
A look of disappointment crossed her face, then she turned, bending back over the desk and hit the buzzer, sticking that perfect ass out. Jeremy darted through the door, afraid that the bulge in his pants would soon be noticeable.
"Maybe after work then?" He heard from behind him as the door closed.
_____
Lauren showed up at his lab far before lunch.
"I've got to talk to you about something." She said.
Shit, the waitress was a set-up, Jeremy thought.
"What's up?" He asked, trying to look innocent.
"Well, I'll come right out and say it." Lauren said, moving into his personal space. "I've liked you for quite a while now and I'm glad we got to go out. I'd like to see you again, and get to know you better."
"Sure. Dinner again?" He said, and his mother rolled in her grave.
She blew right through his obliviousness. "Yeah, dinner at my place tonight."
Lauren kissed him on the cheek before she left, and he just stood there stunned as the door closed behind her. She was wearing a skirt. That's a first, he thought.
What the heck is going on, he thought. Suddenly a melody played in his head.
'She said I'm going to mix it up right here in the sink...'
Years and years of hypotheses and scientific observation churned through his head.
'...it smelled like turpentine it looked like India ink...'
Lauren, Lindsay, Sarah. Lauren was the common factor.
'...I held my nose I closed my eyes...'
Jeremy was back in the elevator, heading up to the upper office.
"Sarah?" He said, coming out of the inner door.
"Yes." She said, her eyes lighting up.
"Stand up for a moment."
Sarah stood up, a quizzical look in her face.
"Ok, now what."
"Tell me what you're thinking right now. Be honest."
Gears quickly turned in the voluptuous redhead's eyes.
"I want you to fuck me."
"Really?"
"Really."
Jeremy realized that's where his thought process had stopped. His head was spinning.
"Let's talk about contagious diseases."
"Ok."
That was the kicker.
"Bark like a dog."
Sarah and Jeremy basically acted out the scene from a movie he had always enjoyed. Like Simon Says without the Simon.
"Don't tell anyone about this."
"Ok." Sarah said.
Jeremy returned to his office.
_____
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit." Jeremy repeated like a scratch on an old George Carlin album.
He spent the rest of the day, apart from lunch with Lauren, going through his notes and observations. She had definitely been giving signs at lunch, even signs that he recognized. It was an unfamiliar concept and it was causing him a bit of mental turmoil.
"Figures, just when I find a girl that might actually go out with me, I contaminate her with something, apparently something contagious." He said aloud to the mice as he checked them. Definitely the same behavior. He pulled out his tape recorder and started talking, knowing that he wouldn't be able to write as fast as his thought processes were churning.
"Apparently the substance is psycho-active in the female brain. Upon first exposure, the virus, not the subject chooses a suitable male in the vicinity and alters the host to form a desire for mating with that male. After this 'lock-on', the virus is programmed. Once transmitted to the next host, the virus is still locked on to that male if he is in range. Need to commence some testing to see if an exposed subject who has no direct contact with the locked-in male will feel any effects."
He paced around the lab like a madman.
"Initial exposure was to Lauren. Lauren and Sarah had physical contact shortly thereafter. Lauren also had contact with Lindsay at the restaurant. I left almost immediately after the Lauren-Sarah contact and she only showed symptoms the next morning. The Lauren-Lindsay contact created symptoms in Lindsay within a fifteen minute window. So now what the fuck do I do?"
"Well, for one thing, don't agree to meet Lauren's mother." Jeremy said out loud, then snorted loudly through his nose.
It finally dawned on him that he was planning to meet Lauren for dinner. He didn't want to take advantage of this, not with her at least. How was he going to get through the evening?
