The Turn: Chapter Thirteen

The Turn

Chapter Thirteen

~Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide~

Three Years before the Turn

Sirius smiled down at the six teens below, a glass of wine in his hand. Mrs. Galaxy jumped up and down near the large mirror. For a moment, she didn’t care how childish it was or how many people were watching, she was overjoyed by her son’s victory. She turned toward her husband and draped her arms around his neck. Sirius, with years of experience, raised his glass clear out of the way from his wife’s exited outbursts.

“Oh! Look, dear! Look at him! I told you that he needed a release for his energy!” the Mrs. started, “I told you he was definitely the fighter in the family. Didn’t I tell you?”

“Yes, dear,” Sirius nodded.

Mrs. Galaxy released her husband a moment and looked at Kaiba, “I did tell him didn’t I? That your brother needed a creative release and that he was definitely the fighter in the family?”

“Yes, mother,” Kaiba nodded. Personally, he thought he was much better at fighting that any of his brothers but he decided that Chaud needed to be good at something.

Mrs. Galaxy looked back at Sirius, “I told you!” She turned back to the window and looked out, “A mother knows best you know.”

“I wouldn’t dare to argue,” Sirius raised the glass to his lips.

“And did you see how well they did! Oh, I hope that boy will be alright! Did that girl just hit my Chaud in the head?! Why I ought to—oh, there they go! Where do they go when they disappear, sweetie? I wonder who the next group is. Whoever they are, I’m sure my Chaud can take them out, no problem! Now you have no excuse to hire him and his team! Oh, look at that! What is that woman wearing?! I should donate some of my clothes to her! My goodness she needs it! Can I do that honey?”

Sirius raised a curious eyebrow. He had almost missed that vital sentence in his wife’s exited rambling. Fortunately, his finely tuned ears, usually used for listening to diplomats, caught what his wife said.

“Sweetheart,” Sirius started.

She turned to him with an innocent look on her face, “I can’t donate things to one person can I? I’ll have to make an organization for people with horrible taste.”

“I can’t guarantee that I can hire Chaud,” Sirius continued, “I have to think what’s best for the Tower and not just personal preferences. And after their performance, I’m sure a lot of the other countries would want—”

Mrs. Galaxy walked up slowly to him, “Are you saying that my son could end up thousands of miles away because you don’t want to get personal? Am I hearing that right?”

“Oh, boy,” Lynx muttered. He leaned in to Kaiba, “I bet ten bucks that mom won’t let another word in.”

Kaiba smirked, “Fine. Dad’s been in worse situations before and got out of them alright.”

“Yeah, but none of them were with mom,” Lynx smiled.

Sirius was about to respond but his wife jumped ahead of him, “I don’t care if China offers them a trillion dollars! You will put up our life savings if you have to too keep our son at home! If my boy sets one foot on a plane, I swear, you will wish the devil himself were married to you! I will make your life a living hell! You understand! I don’t care how personal you have to get! I don’t care if they are the worst choice for the Tower! I don’t even care if you get a vision of the world ending if you accept them into the Tower! You will get them a job at the Tower even if it’s sweeping the floors! Because, honey, if you don’t I will divorce you! And it will be a messy divorce where I ruin your life!! Do we have an understanding!?!?”

Sirius had backed into a corner in the room. A very angry wife stood in front of him, her pointed finger bearing a hole in his chest. The look in her eyes was one of anger and dead seriousness. He knew that she meant every word. On top of that, she would probably lay him on a slab and cut his fingers off one by one until he got her what she wanted. Even worse, he would end up on the couch for years until the divorce was settled. By the look in her eyes, it was going to be one of those divorces that never really ended. Plus, she would still live there just to torture him. First it would be the fingers, then the toes, and then she would just start hacking off limbs.

For a moment, the diplomat side of him assessed the benefits and the overall pain. Then the husband side of him took control.

“I’ll do what I can,” his mouth suddenly went dry.

His wife leaned in closer, “Oh, you‘d better do a whole lot more than that, Sirius, or else.”

Sirius nodded, “Yes, darling.”

She smiled sweetly all of a sudden, “Good! My, I’m starved! Where is that room service menu?”

Sirius walked over to the couch and undid his tie. It felt like it was strangling him all of a sudden. Kaiba searched his wallet for a ten and handed it to Lynx. Lynx donned a victorious smile. Kaiba then looked at his father.

“That was frightening,” he muttered, eying his mother as she browsed through the menu.

Sirius glanced sidelong at him, “You have no idea.”

IOIOIOIOI

Zara packed her things and was about to head down to the doctor’s office to check up on Naru. Poor Naru had been in the hospital now for about three days and through he was much better, the doctor wanted to do more tests. She looked for her apartment key through the piles of envelopes that had come in the mail. Zara appreciated that almost every country wanted her and her team but she wanted one letter in particular.

She left the building and biked to the hospital. It was a new building that was only about five years old. It was easy to find Naru’s room.

A nurse was just exiting, “Dr. Jekyll will be with you in a moment,” she said in a cheery tone.

Zara turned the corner into the room. Naru sat on a bed poking at the hospital Jell-O in front of him. He looked up and saw Zara and smiled.

“You can eat that you know,” Zara stated.

“I know,” Naru said, “But should I?” he then looked at her with desperation, “You have to get out of here!”

Zara stepped back, “Why?”

“The doctor’s scary! I think he’s trying to kill me!”

Zara’s eyes narrowed, “Naru, are you going insane?”

Hina walked in just then with two soda’s in her hand, “I think so! He keeps rambling about how scary the doctor is. He’s supposed to be the best. When he’s not here, he works for the Tower. Not sure what he does exactly though…”

“So he could be a mass assassin that kills people in droves,” Naru said with barely any emotion.

“The Tower doesn’t assassinate people!” Hina shoved one of the sodas in her brother’s lap, “They just strongly recommend that you step down or else, type of thing.”

A shadow loomed over the door. Zara turned as the doctor walked in. Naru hit his drink under his sheets. The doctor was surly light footed, if she had not seen the shadow, Zara wouldn’t have known he was there. He had black mid length hair. He wore a white dress shirt and a black tie. His pants were black dress pants and black dress shoes were on his feet. He didn’t look at all threatening. In fact, he looked like a good well-dressed doctor. That was until you looked in his eyes and heard him speak. His eyes were black like black holes void of emotion. He rarely ever smiled and when he did it sent a shiver down your spine. When he spoke, he spoke slowly forcing you to draw in closer like a spider inviting a fly.

Zara understood Naru’s feelings toward his doctor now.

“Hello, Naru,” the doctor sighed, “How are you feeling today?”

“Good,” Naru swallowed.

Dr. Jekyll eyed him without blinking as he reached for a clipboard that the nurse had left, “It looks like everything is normal. I don’t see why you can’t go home today.”

“Really? That’s great! I’ll just leave now if that’s okay!” Naru could hardly wait to get out.

Jekyll ignored him. He looked at Zara, “Who are you exactly?”

“Zara Uzek,” she said as confidently as she could.

“Hmm,” he said looking back at the notes, “I’ll be sure to remember that.”

Zara glanced at Naru. What was that supposed to mean?

Naru shrugged.

“Hello, everybody!” Zara felt her stomach drop. Chaud walked into the room. He saw Jekyll and smiled, “Hey, Doc!”

“Hello, Chaud,” Jekyll seemed disinterested.

Hina looked at Chaud suspiciously, “How do you know everybody?”

Chaud awkwardly put his hands in his pockets, “I hear things.”

“From your sources?” Hina rolled her eyes.

Chaud nodded, “Sure, let’s go with that!”

“Goodbye, Chaud,” Jekyll walked out of the room, “Remind your brother that he still owes me one.”

When he was out of ear shot Zara stated the thought that was on everyone’s mind, “He’s creepy.”

“Well what do you expect from an ex-serial killer?” Chaud shrugged. Then he stopped, “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. You doing okay, Naru?”

Naru had gone a deathly pale.

“What’s he doing in a hospital?” Hina glared at Chaud.

“Who’s doing in a where?” Chaud responded.

“Jekyll—”

“Who?”

“What’s he doing—?”

“What?”

“Chaud stop it!”

“I don’t have a clue what you are talking about. You’re speaking gibberish,” he turned to Zara, “What say we get Naru out of here before he fades into the wall?” He walked casually over to where Naru was sitting, “Come on. We got accepted to the Island Tower. You should be happy.”

Zara looked at him, “When were you going to tell me that?!”

Chaud shrugged, “Eventually,” Zara walked toward him, arm raised. He crouched down and covered his head, “Okay, okay, don’t hit me! My dad just told me! We start at the start of next week!”

Zara rolled her eyes, “Did your dad tell the other countries that you weren’t for sale.”

He looked up at her, “You make me sound like a male prostitute but no. Apparently, my mom threatened his life or something.”

“That’s a lot of letters to send declining letters too,” Hina sighed. She and Naru must have gotten a few themselves.

“I have a few standard letters made,” Chaud smiled, “You can copy a few of them.”

Hina nodded, “That beats writing out a thousand of them.”

Chaud helped Naru to his feet, “You guys can meet the others at the entrance. I’ll help Naru into some clothes.”

Zara and Hina both left. Sometimes Chaud could be the most annoying person to deal with…wait, scratch that, he was the most annoying person to deal with but at least this time he was the bearer of good news.