Forgotten (Book 2 in Jessie Celestia)

Chapter 39

Hello minna-san!  Sorry for the long wait for this chapter.

I hope you enjoy this extra-long chapter and I have a question for you readers at the end!

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~Marks P.O.V.~

I watched as Sting, Lexi, Lector, and Hornet left the house. I clenched my fists to conceal my anger.  I still couldn't believe that after all that has happened, Jessie still chose to save him.  Maybe that's why I will never be able to understand why she always puts own safety on the line for her friends and comrades.  "You seem to have a dislike for that man huh?" Dr. Dana inquired after a couple minutes of silence.  When I didn't reply to her, she sighed.  "Well don't just stand there like an idiot, come and help me get your meal ready.  I'm not going to cook by myself just because you and the others are temporarily staying here.  I'm a woman who thinks that you must earn what you use." I was a bit irritated by her words, but in the end I knew she was right.  After all, she was the one who had saved us, and now that I was left alone with her, I couldn't just stand there and reminisce about the past. 

"...Alright," I mumbled after a while, walking over to her.  "What do you want me to do?"  Satisfied, the doctor gestured to the cutting board behind her.

"I take it you know how to mince something right?" she asked.  I silently nodded.  "Good, then go ahead and mince the onion.  Lucky for you, I already peeled it."  Grabbing a knife, she abruptly pointed it at my chest, its tip only inches away from piercing me.  I, however, was not fazed.

"if you want to kill me, then go ahead," I said in an emotionless tone.  "After all these years, I believe I have deserved it." Sighing once again, Dr. Dana twirled the knife around in her hands before gripping onto its wooden handle.

"I'd be insulted if I wasn't aware that you were serious," she commented.  "But, since I am, all I can say is that you know that's not true, and you know why." My emotionless expression turned to one of confusion.

"What do you mean by that?" I cautiously asked. The woman with chocolate brown skin rolled her eyes before handing me the knife.

"I mean that Eric, or should I say your father, would never want you to die, much less willingly," she answered as she walked up to one of the cupboards.  "So don't go stabbing yourself.  I'd hate for blood to stain my wooden floors."

"Y-...you knew?" I stuttered, temporarily stupefied that she knew I remembered her and that she knew me.

"Of course I knew child. The way you keep looking at me says it all," she scoffed as she rummaged through her cupboard's shelves.  "Jeez, you've inherited your father's ignorance."

"But then you should've known Jessie...and you should have saved her instead of me!" I could feel myself getting infuriated again.

"Don't use that angry tone against me," she warned, giving me a sharp glare with her hazel eyes.  "As I already told Sting and his brown cat, I only learned about her being kidnapped recently. I did try to save her, but by then she was overcrowded with guards, making it impossible to have even touched her.  Do not forget I only possess magic suitable for a doctor, not a fighter. That stunt I pulled was not easy for someone like me you know?"  She paused for a minute. "...Besides, the foolish girl would have protested and fought against me, had I gotten to her..." My anger slightly diminished as I realized that, although having a stern and uninterested personality, she felt guilt for resigning as our family doctor after...the Caesar incident.

"And why would she have done that?" I asked.  It was meant to be a retort, but it instead sounded worried, which was exactly how I felt right then.