For A Star To Fall

Chapter 20: Finger-pointing

Chapter 20

But.....was it? Was it Father's fault? Was he the one that had caused Mother's death? Emyle frowned at her traitorous thoughts. Of course he had not! Father was a good man, and he would have rather died than hurt those he loved. Mother had made a mistake, and that was why she had been taken. Besides, Dr. Valin was the real one that was supposed to be blamed. He was their enemy. He was the evil one, the despicable one, the one that wanted to torture Father with his serums and chemicals and supplements.

And if anyone was to be blamed, apart from Dr. Vain himself, it should be Emyle. She led them to the building and that was how they captured Father and her. And it was ridiculous how easily she had been knocked out. Emyle had been trained by Father in hand-to-hand combat. She knew how to use a gun and knives and staffs and how to detonate and dismantle explosives and use practically every weapon on the face of the earth. It was simply not in her nature to be knocked out so easily and effortlessly, like she was merely a ragdoll, just a weak little girl. She should have fought back, but she had allowed herself to be distracted by the conversation between Father and Dr. Valin. It had been foolish of her. Father had to be extremely disappointed in her now.

However, she was going to make it up to Father. Emyle swore it. When she had completed this mission on her own and without his help, Father would once again be proud of her. Even though he was not showing his disappointment in her now, in the video, but she knew that he was feeling it in his heart, because Emyle-his daughter, had failed him when he had needed her the most. It would hurt him, to know that she had not been ready to carry out the plan that night after all, but she would make him see, make him see that she truly was prepared, and that she could take on anything that came her way.

Onscreen, Dr. Valin frowned, and lines appeared between his eyebrows and on his forehead. "You really should have stopped her, Aaron," he said in a reprimanding tone. "You should have prevented her from coming to the facility grounds with you. You could have delayed your plan of scouting out the area until I had finished testing and modifying my serum, so that if I had taken her, I would not have hurt her during the process of the experiment. Then she would have been all right, and nothing would have happened and she would be alive!" Dr. Valin's face twisted itself up horribly, and rage passed like a dark cloud over his features. But then he raised a hand, and dragged it down the side of his face in a prominent display of how stressed he was feeling, obscuring his expression from the camera's view for a second. When he dropped his hand, it was as if he had literally wiped his face clean. There was no expression on his face, only a blankness that seemed to long for a little animation.

Emyle tilted her head to the side and studied Dr. Valin. He had not done anything like this before. This meant that he was abnormally upset about this particular topic-Mother's death, it seemed. What information could she gather from this observation? Did Dr. Valin blame himself for Mother's death? But, if this was true, why would he accuse Father of doing something he himself had done? It was rather illogical for someone as smart as Dr. Valin.

However, Dr. Valin's gaze was sharp when it stabbed at Father's face. The glint in his eyes could only be either madness or pure, uncorrupted genius. But Father was turning red, Emyle realised, and it was most definitely not because of embarrassment. Why did people turn red from embarrassment anyway? She thought, but pushed her useless wonderings aside. There were more important things to muse about than the reason for others' facial reactions to emotions. Father whipped his head side to side and his cheeks bulged outwards as he attempted to spit the piece of cloth that served as his gag out of his mouth. Then Dr. Valin tutted a little, like a mother chiding her child for making a mistake. He raised his eyebrows, and a look of bemusement plastered itself across his facial features. The wild anger from only moments before had already disappeared completely, leaving his current expression surprisingly empty in comparison. It was as if that was the only time that he had lost control over his emotions, and the wrath that he had shown was the only true feeling he had allowed himself to express. That mad glint was still shining in his eyes, but there was a curiosity that was present in them now, though Emyle was clueless as to what he wanted to know so badly. "Oh, yes, old friend," he said suddenly, "you must want to say something to me, after being silent for all this time. Hmm...let me take out this gag."