Atelo [MXM] [BOOK 1] ✓

CHAPTER 32: CURED

There is smut in this so if you wanna skip it just go to the end of the chapter once it starts bc it takes up the rest of it

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"All I'm saying," Eli continues from her place on Nero's bed, "is that it's really weird for him to not talk to you about the surgery. At all."

Her and Nero are both on his bed, he's sitting against the top bed post and she's leaned against the wall adjacent to him. Marley wants to be in her position, but that would be suspicious, so he pacified himself by sitting on his dresser in the company of Sushi.

Bren is laying starfish style on Marley's bed and Lenny is sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, Lola seated against Marley's bedpost a few feet from him.

Marley just shrugs. "I don't know, maybe he was in a hurry?"

Eli doesn't look convinced in the slightest. "Doctor Rellik makes a point to detail everything he's going to do to his patients. He's always done that. To everybody."

Marley looks around the room, finding Bren, Lola, and Lenny all nodding in agreement.

Now that Marley thinks about it, every time he's gone to Dr. Rellik, the man has given him an entire rundown of what's going to happen. The first time, he basically started off the whole 'appointment' with telling Marley all he wanted was some questions answered. The second time, that he was bleeding him out, though the heart surgery development happened without Marley's knowledge. He went over the details and even gave Marley some choices. He made it like some sort of twisted doctors appointment.

He even called Marley back just to tell him it would be a while before he could do the surgery to put his heart back in. Marley never realized that Rellik didn't have to do that, he could have just let Marley rot and wonder when he could finally be alive again.

However, during his last visit? He told Marley they were doing surgery, gave him anesthesia, and wasn't even there when the prince woke up.

Rellik didn't smile or greet him or anything, not like he usually would. He was off. Strange. Askew.

Marley shakes his head. "Still, I don't think it's really something to look into. He could have just been having an off day."

Bren snorts, shaking his head. "Yeah, he doesn't get it."

Before Marley can get too offended at being talked about like he isn't here, Nero asks,

"Nocona, have you ever seen a single staff member here act any different than when you met them?" Marley frowns, thinking back. "Change moods? Act strange? Treat you any different than usual?"

Marley contemplates all the employees he's met here. All the desk women are impatient and a bit rude, Supervisor Hookler is dangerously friendly, Gilbert is always suspicious, Dr. Rellik is respectful. They all act the same. No off days, no exceptions. It's something Marley only just now noticed.

"So, what, they're robots?" He asks sarcastically. Is that what they're hinting at? It's the only thing that makes sense.

Eli shakes her head while Nero raises a finger to point to his temple. Right then, the pieces fall together in Marley's head. It clicks.

"Mind control."

"It's something like that," Lenny replies. "They're all abnormal, under the threat of being locked up in here if they don't do their job properly. They're in a routine—Olucard can make them do whatever he wants."

Marley's starting to understand. "Well, isn't Olucard abnormal?"

Lenny nods, "and he answers directly to your father."