I push open the gate and follow the path to the door, enter the code and step inside.
And it hits me.
The house is filled with a horrible, choking smell that almost makes me gag.
I step in and hear Alex’s footsteps thundering down from the second floor.
I close the door behind me while fighting waves of nausea.
What is happening, where is this smell coming from?
It’s like some heavy chemical blend, something between powder and a biting detergent, and it’s literally hard for me to breathe, to take a deeper breath, the scent is so sharp and stinging.
"What the hell," I choke out.
Alex stops two steps away from me, and with the shift of his body and the movement of air another wave of that awful smell hits me, that biting detergent stench like half a chemical plant venting straight into this house.
"What the fuck…"
There’s a grimace of disgust on Alex’s face.
"What is that stench?" he asks, his lips trembling.
"What stench?" I ask, but a part of me already understands what just happened.
"That metallic, bitter reek…"
We stare at each other, and understanding forces its way into our minds, slow and unwanted, both of us fighting it until it finally settles on us in the very same moment.
"Are we incompatible?"
Alex’s whisper sounds louder than if he had screamed it at the top of his lungs.
My head spins.
"That’s impossible," I groan. "We are… we are perfect," I whisper as my knees give out beneath me, and I drop to the floor, Alex doing the same.
It feels like life drains out of me in that moment.
"For fuck’s sake, impossible, how is this possible? I’ve smelled plenty of incompatibles before, but this scent… it’s unbearable."
"It’s like the smell of death and blood and metal all mixed together…"
I press my hands to my face.
"Suppressants, Alex, we’ll have to use strong suppressants…"
I look at him and he’s deathly pale, tears starting to run down his cheeks.
"But how… what the hell, this is unreal, how can this be true, tell me how!"
We’re both crying, tears falling one after another, and I can barely see Alex’s shape, he’s dissolving in front of me.
Being incompatible isn’t just an ugly smell. It means lack of acceptance from society and families, it’s grounds for divorce, it’s a massive risk of genetic defects in any children.
Incompatibles simply aren’t meant to be together, their relationships always end in a breakup, everyone knows this and no one questions it. There are no exceptions.
Alex slowly crawls toward me, dragging himself forward on hands and knees, reaching out his small hand toward mine.
