Chapter 26
“You want to see me Dr Penelope?” It might be something important, she wouldn’t call me in the middle of the night just for a cup of tea, would she? “If it’s about my blood, then,”
“The water has unnatural substance, it’s power-formed.” She interrupts. “The pool water where you almost drowned.” She clears.
I rub my eyes, trying to get my senses into place. “So?”
“Sire Luke was rushed here for being sick. It’s because of the pool water.”
“Is he alright now?” My knees suddenly feel weak. He wouldn’t be sick if he didn’t jump off to save me.
“He was transferred to the school’s hospital. It’s just on the other side of the main building, bigger and better facilities. He’s still under observation. Don’t worry about him, there are Erda doctors attending at his condition. I’m more worried about you. You’re not sick like you’re supposed to.”
My strong immune system, of course. “I’m not supposed to feel alright, am I?”
She nods. “I’ll take care of it. By the meantime, no one should see you walking around the school. You need to stay here until Sire Luke is better. If he gets well, then you must be well too.”
“What if someone comes here and see that I’m fine? You’ll be in danger as well. I have somewhere safe to hide inside the school. I’ll be back after a week.”
She agrees and promises me to do all necessary lies to excuse me from my classes. It is still unbelievable that she’s willing to lie just to protect my secret. “Please take care of Luke.”
I pack my things silently and make my out of the dormitory, good thing it’s Saturday.
All computers are switched off when I arrived, making the whole laboratory looks like a haunted room. I cover the table with two laboratory gowns and set my back pack as my pillow and drifts to deep sleep instantly.
Morning comes, and so does Professor Wood. I scared him somehow, he didn’t expect to see me at this kind of hour. I told him about Stephanie’s devilish act, Luke’s condition and how it affects my safety. It seems that he understands me and offers me his breakfast.
“A week, you said?” he asks me. “Perfect! Then you’ll have plenty of time to recover.”
He orders me to go inside the beasts’ quarters and push the small red button at the second cell. “Don’t worry Charon died last week.” He assures. Charon, she’s the limping beast I first saw here.
I look around the cell and find the button covered with brick. I push it and feel that the walls are slightly moving. I rush outside the cell and to my surprise a whole new room emerged in the centre of the beasts’ quarters. Everything inside is white and light. It’s an operating room. I’ve seen this kind of room before, at a Kentron advertisement.
Professor Wood comes after a minute and tells me that this is indeed an operating room designed mostly for dissecting beasts. It’s huge and complete with the latest medical tools and chemicals of all purpose. This must be the place where James got locked out.
He tosses a hospital gown and let me change into it. “Lay down on your stomach after you change. I’ll just get things ready.”
I stare at the hospital gown for a while, puzzled of what he’ll do with me now but then I realized that we’ve come up to our last resort. “He’s getting worse, isn’t he?”
He nods, without really explaining my brother’s condition.
After I changed, I lay down on my stomach and everything feels cold. The atmosphere becomes even colder when Professor Wood suddenly straps my wrists and feet with silver metals that look like handcuffs. “Ever asked why I haven’t tested chemicals on you lately? This is to prepare you for this experiment. I’m not going to use anaesthesia so it will hurt a lot. The manacles will help you in place, just in case you can’t restrain the pain. Bite this instead of screaming.” He offers and put a damped cloth on my mouth. “I’ll remove your Hematopoietic stem cell from your pelvis using this.” He waves a large-gauge syringe, the needle is almost as large as an extension cord in our house. “And combine it with a mutated beast’s DNA that was perfected years ago, do some radiations and little more experiments before finally injecting it to your brother’s system.”
“You’re going to do what?” I spit the damp cloth.
“When I first examine your brother, I had a hunch of his condition. Dr Penelope had been a great help to you lately, so I decided to ask for her opinion without disclosing the entire truth. And I’m afraid that my guess is right.” He pauses, searching a lighter way to put things on me. “James inhaled numerous chemicals used for mutating beasts affecting his living cells, and when Charon bit him, she transferred an ample amount of her DNA, just enough to trigger the chemicals to work. Your brother is a work-in-process hybrid mutation.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Mutation is a genetic variation of species while hybrids are combination or let say an offspring of two different species. Charon is a mutated beast, when her DNA got into your brother’s system the process of hybridization took place. Since a human and a beast’s gene are too out of sync, complications arose, making him sicker each passing day and the only way I see it to stop is to complete the hybrid mutation process.” He explains.
“You said their genes are out of sync, completing the process will kill my brother” I say, holding my tears from falling.
He nods slightly. “If we put two different genes with perfect DNA composition, it might lower the risk of his death.” Again, he pauses. “Whether we do this or not, the chance of his death is still the same. It’s a risk worth taking for.”
This is a lot to take in. Can I take part in turning my brother’s life into a complete hell? But I can’t stand and watch him die too. Professor Wood is right, this is a risk worth taking. “A beast James is better than a dead James after all. Do it.”
