For A Star To Fall

Chapter 21: Beneficial Cancer

Chapter 21

"Hmm," Dr. Valin said, scratching at his chin. "How disappointing." He shook his head and turned away from Aaron, moving off to the right side of the rectangular view of the camera lens.

Jordan frowned. What was he going to do now? It seemed as if Dr. Valin had set out to practically torture Emyle's dad emotionally, with his poisonous jabs at his past--which totally confused Jordan. Honestly, he had no idea what Dr. Valin was getting so worked up about. From what had been said so far, Aaron had probably done something that resulted in Katherine's death, and so Dr. Valin blamed him for it. However, both Jordan and Emyle had seen that horrible last video in Emyle's mom's file in the thumb drive, and it had been startlingly obvious that it had been Dr. Valin's fault that Katherine died. He had most likely underestimated the negative effects his serum was having on her body, or just deluded himself, ignoring his own logic and simply convinced himself that Katherine was fine. Jordan had enough experience doing that himself. And the feeling, when you realize that you have been lying to yourself all this time, completely and utterly sucked, to put it honestly.

But it helped. It did actually help to alleviate some of the pain. Jordan knew. He had experienced it himself. When his mom had been in the sea, he had seen the spark in her eyes, even though he had been really young. The only other times that beautiful spark had kindled in the blueness of her gaze was whenever she looked at Jordan or his dad. That fire-that love, in her gaze had been that last thing he had seen when he looked into her eyes, just before she had walked calmly into the ocean, her bluish-silver surfboard held by her side. For a long time, he had blamed himself for not doing anything when she had walked into the sea. The weather had been bad that day, and the waves had been rough. He should have known that it was too dangerous. His mom had taught him about how to judge if it would be safe to surf on particular days and in particular conditions. He should have warned her, even though she had been determined to try surfing in such rough weather.

Yep, it was really dumb to blame himself. To an outsider, the entire business would probably seem extremely idiotic. Yes, it was; Jordan had to admit that fact now, as he looked back. He had been an idiot for trying to blame himself for something that he had absolutely no part in. Heck, he was still an idiot for having that tiny part of him that still thought it was his fault. If he had gone out into the sea with his mom that day, he would probably have been caught in that riptide too, and died alongside his mom. It had taken six months of living with his alcoholic, deadbeat dad for him to realize that. Six months too long, really. He should have left the minute his dad started showing signs of being inebriated for most of the daylight hours. There was no more guilt for leaving his dad to fend for himself, only a vague kind of pity for him--as if he was not his dad anymore, just some random guy off the streets that utterly ruined any slim chance he had to build a father-son relationship.

Then Dr. Valin came back into the view of the camera lens, clutching another syringe to his chest. He must have taken it from one of the black cabinets nearby, one that the camera could not see, or maybe a table somewhere, Jordan could not be sure. Anyway, the liquid the syringe was half-filled with was evidently his serum, except that now it was a transparent liquid, rather than the bluish one from before. Perhaps Dr. Valin had tweaked the ratio of chemical to supplement? But onscreen, Dr. Valin once again raised it to the light and squinted at it. "Must be proportionate," he muttered.

Walking over to another black cabinet, one that was in the view of the camera lens this time, he opened it and took out a large stoppered flat-bottomed flask, in which the same colorless serum was contained. Dr. Valin pulled out the stopper in the mouth of the flask and lowered the tip of the needle that was attached to the end of the syringe into the liquid. He pulled up the lever at the other end of the syringe so that it began to draw the liquid into its transparent barrel. Once the level of the liquid inside reached about three-quarters of the way, he pulled the syringe out and re-stoppered the flask. Raising it to his eye-level, Dr. Valin chuckled softly. "I may have told you before, but, like most medicines," he told Aaron conversationally while he replaced the flask back into the cabinet, as if they were only casually talking about the weather, "my serum must be of the correct amount in comparison to the subject's body mass in order for it to work effectively and bond with your DNA. You are quite tall, Aaron, and thus I had to add a few milliliters' worth of serum to the amount I have in this syringe so that it will be proportionate to your body mass. I haven't had time to prepare the syringe today, so I had to do it just now. Work is getting more stressful and busier now, and your daughter's presence, though welcome, is only making all of this worse."