Chapter 8: Progression
There Tai was, back in his mother's old office. He had not the slightest idea what he was looking for, now that he knew who his father was and everything. It was pretty pathetic- his father was dead and his mother was in an insane asylum. Tai laughed while he cried. No, he did not cry, he sobbed. Now he had nobody. His "dad" had been gone for three days now, and his mother was… deceased. And they weren't even his real parents in the first place. After, he left the hospital, he walked back to his home, not knowing what else to do. He went to his mom's office, and curled up in a ball and slept in the big armchair, wishing that she were there. None of this seemed real at all, the happenings of the past week. It felt so strange to think that only seven days ago, his life was perfectly normal. Now, he had no one. No one at all…
And now, he was searching through the drawers again. There was a huge pile of newspaper clippings, books, and papers on the ground around him. He had cleared out almost all of the drawers. There was only one left. He opened the drawer slowly. There weren't very many things in the drawer. Inside was an address book, a single newspaper clipping, and a folder. First, he looked at the newspaper clipping.
"Scientist Arrested for Conducting Illegal Experiments" it read. It showed a picture of a tall man, who looked a bit depressed, in a lab coat. For some reason, Tai felt a little sorry for the man. He continued reading.
"Doctor Hatori Sohma was arrested on Friday, May 13th, accused of over 15 different charges. He had been using the basement of the Green Oaks Mental Institution in order to conduct an experiment, which apparently revolved around video games. The doctor claimed that "it was for the good of science, and man kind alike", but the police did not quite buy this story. Apparently, three teenagers were involved in this experiment, and only two survived, one of which is missing."
Friday, May 13… that was Tai's birthday! That was a pretty big coincidence… he looked at the date at the bottom of the article- 2005. Wow- that was the exact date that Tai was born. Next, Tai opened up the folder. Inside was a thick stack of papers, all stapled together. "Registered copy" it said at the top. The title was "P.S.E.2". Tai had no idea what that could mean. He began to read onward. Most of it, he couldn't understand. It said things like, "small signs of aggression, insomnia, and unusual behavior" and, "signs not progressing as planned, INOB…" He put two and two together, and made the assumption that the experiment (at least, he was pretty sure it was an experiment) was the same one mentioned in the newspaper article. He was very confused as to why his mother would have either of these things, though. In his curiosity, he was hoping to find the names of the teenagers involved in the experiment, but in the paper, they were just mentioned as "subject A", and "subject B", and "M1". Tai didn't know what "M1" meant either. He put the folder away back in the drawer. But right before he did, he noticed something at the bottom of the drawer- another newspaper clipping. This one read, "Missing- Kyo Sohma" Tai's eyes widened. That was… his father? Tai looked at the date at the bottom of the page: February 2010. This one was much more recent, then. He read on: "date missing: March 12th, 2005. That was strange. In his photo, he had looked much older… then, he saw at the bottom: "age progression photo". That explained it. Wait… that face looked so familiar. In fact, Tai was positive he had seen it before. But where? He thought about it for a moment. His stomach flipped as he remembered. He frantically searched for the newspaper on his mother's desk. He found it, and sure enough, on the front cover, it read: "Building in Rockville Mall Burned to the Ground!" The picture underneath showed the suspected killer, well, only about a quarter of his face, but it showed the hair and everything. He compared it with the older photo. Sure enough, they looked very similar. In the newer one, he looked a little older, and his hair was different, but what shocked him was that they had the exact same pair of eyes. The same eyes that Tai had.
Tohru looked around her new room. It was much dingier than the last one, and the bed looked a little hard and crusty. There was a picture on the wall, of a pier and a sunset, but that was crooked and the frame was filthy. Also, in her old room, she had had a window with a decent view of outside. Here, there was only a tiny little barred window, barely big enough for her to put her hand through. She put her things down next to her bed and sighed. She was really going to enjoy her stay here…
Wanting to forget about it all, she rubbed her eyes and lay down on her new bed. She drifted off to sleep. She didn't have any dreams, and it seemed like only five seconds later that she was awakened. Her clock read "10:04 pm". She sat up. On her lap was a white, folded up piece of paper. She unfolded it, curious of what it was and how it got there. There were only five words written on the paper, but enough to send a chill down her spine…
"Found you,"
-The black cat