Elaclea Electronic

Chapter Seven: The Procedure

(School has been keeping me very busy, but somehow I still find time for this. XD Anyway, here's the next chapter!)

Because of the fact that Ressius wanted to speak with me, I could not manage to keep my thoughts away from what he might say. I was unable to accomplish any of the things that I had hoped to. As calmly as I could manage, I walked through the dank corridor that led to his rooms. I wished that I had some way of knowing what he was going to tell me.

The doors were unlocked, so I let myself in. I had a feeling that the old doctor would not mind. As usual, the room was brightly lit and sparkling clean. Ressius did all the cleaning himself, I later discovered. He had plenty of time to do so, after all.

The doctor stood at the counter, hunched over a couple of strange tools I did not recognize. "I suppose Dio gave you the message," he mused, turning toward me. How odd it was, to see that his right eye had been blackened and that he wore a bandage patch on his forehead. He was the last person I would have expected to put himself in danger…

"What happened to you, Doctor?" I blurted out. I had not meant to, but the words came out before I could stop them.

Ressius gave me a grim smile. "I told you Dio could be violent some times. Last night was one of those times," he replied, stepping past me and closing the doors. Besides the black eye and the slight head wound, he acted fine. However, to learn that Dio had done those things to him came as quite a shock. Ressius had told me about that the day I met him, though. I suppose I should have remembered such a thing.

He did not allow me to ask any more questions about it. "I did not ask you to come here to talk about me," he began, "I wanted to tell you about what I learned from an Anatorayan doctor who accompanied the Empress." Ressius motioned for me to follow him into his office, which I did.

Was he going to tell me that the Anatorayans found a cure? My heart swelled with hope and the world suddenly became much brighter. I wanted very much for him to go on, so that he could prove me right. "I see," was all I said, trying not to show my excitement.

Ressius sat down on a stiff, black chair and rubbed his forehead, obviously tired. "While the cure isn't exactly to my liking, it will help…Unfortunately, no one is sure what the side effects will be," he explained, "Either way, I am willing to put Dio in the Anatorayans' hands." A slight tone of apprehension lay in his voice, which led me to believe that this cure he spoke of was not all that safe.

My mouth was oddly dry, which made it hard to speak. I glanced down at me feet, wondering if Ressius would actually tell me what would be happening to the prince. "So, Doctor, what will they do to him?" I asked.

The doctor frowned and certainly did not answer right away. During the silence that followed, my mind was completely blank. He seemed as though he was trying to think of a decent way to word it. Of course, he was trying to make it sound better than it was. "The operation is actually quite simple. Only a tiny portion of his brain will be removed. The Anatorayans say that it will be a quick procedure. I hope they are right."

Immediately upon hearing that, I decided that it definitely did not sound that safe. After all, if Dio only had serious seizures a few times in his life and there was medicine that helped, what was the point in taking such drastic measures?

"Does Dio know about this yet?"

"No; we figured it would be better not to tell him until later. That was not my choice, however."

"Whose was it?"

"The Maestro's." Of course Delphine had made such a foolish decision. She did not care how her brother felt about anything. As you know, most of the time, she acted as though he did not even exist. It would make no difference to her whether he went through the procedure or not, or so I thought. Maybe she would not even notice if he ran away…

Before I left, I had one more question for the doctor. "Just how much of his brain will actually be removed?" While it was rude of me to ask this, I figured that he would understand why I wanted to know.

Ressius sighed and adjusted his silver rimmed glasses. Although he was reluctant to say, he told me anyway. "The entire frontal lobe." So, he had lied; that certainly was not a tiny part. Why had he tried to cover up that fact?

I thanked Ressius for telling me everything and quickly excused myself. While I did not know much on how the brain worked, I knew that if Dio did participate, he would not be the same person afterward. A nervous lump formed in my throat as I ran back to our house. I had to stop this from happening, but I had no clue how to do it. Of course, there was no way I could convince the Maestro to change her mind. She was a stubborn woman.

Dio was waiting for me in the living room, an impatient frown on his face. Once he saw me, he jumped up and smiled. "Welcome back! Did you talk to Ressius?" he chimed, skipping over to me.

Just looking at him made me think of how terrible that operation was going to be. Although I did not know exactly what effects on him it would have, I got the feeling that it might affect his personality. "Yes, I did…" I said slowly, trying to decide if I should tell him or not.

The prince made a circular motion with his hand, obviously wanting me to continue. I chose simply to stay away from the actual conversation.

"Ressius just wanted some information about what happened last night, that's all." I said, hoping he would believe me. I am sure that you will remember that I am a terrible liar.

Luck was on my side; Dio believed me. He shrugged and flopped back down on the couch. "Hey, sit down next to me," he said, patting the spot next to him. Now it seemed that he had a subject that he wanted to discuss.

I took the spot next to him and waited for him to speak. Minutes passed, neither of us said anything. My mind was too busy trying to come up with a way to stop the doctors from taking Dio away. Meanwhile, the prince just stared at me. For some reason, I felt a little uneasy under his prying eyes.

'Why should I feel nervous or uneasy around him?' I wondered. But then, perhaps it was not nervousness at all.

Exhaustion struck me right as I fell onto my bed. I slept deeply for about three hours, only to awaken at about four in the morning with a crazy scheme in my head. As fast as I could, I dressed and hurried to Dio's room.

This could not wait.

I knocked on the door until he opened it, rubbing his eyes. "What is it, Luciola?" he mumbled.

"Sir, I'm sorry to have woken you, but I have to speak with you right now," I said as he plodded out of his room.

Dio shot me an incredulous look. "What in the world is so important?" he asked.

"We have to run away. You're not safe here anymore." I had no choice but to phrase it that way.

(Haha cliff hanger!! XD)