Chapter Twenty Five

Meg: (storms in, screaming) I HATE PEOPLE WHO REQUEST PAPER BAGS INSTEAD OF PLASTIC!

RAEB: And what, per say, contributed to that totally random comment?

Meg: STUPID PEOPLE IN GROCERY STORES! DON'T THEY REALIZE THAT IT'S TEN TIMES HARDER TO BAG THINGS IN PAPER INSTEAD OF PLASTIC BAGS?

Lizz: She's back to the three job thing again this summer: two lifeguarding ones and one as a cashier at a grocery store.

JWJ: Haha, Meg can't handle the stress!

Meg: No, I just can't deal with stupid people anymore! How about that? Like old people asking you to kill fifty trees to create paper bags to bag their twenty dollar orders because 'I can't lift anything more than one pound!'

RAEB: Meg, you're turning this into a rant!

Meg: (stops) Oh. Right. Erm, where were we?

Leigh: Back at your lovely story about a really messed-up girl who joins Ratigan's crime chain and falls in love with the rat in question.

Luke: Yeah, the one you've been working on since March?

Meg: Oh. Yeah. Erm… okay, sorry about the lack of updates? BLAME IT ON FRANCE!

Leigh: Why?

Meg: 'Cause I'm broke now, which is why I have so many jobs. (sighs dreamily) I'd pay another $3,000 to go back on that trip though…

JWJ: Hey Meg, GET ON WITH THE RETARDED STORY! I've been waiting for this misery to end for months now!

Meg: Okay, okay, sheesh.

Dr. Reinsel's flat was located within the walls of Southwark Cathedral. It was a neat, tidy apartment, kept clean by a loyal housekeeper.

Rose was shown in to his parlour by the housekeeper and told that the doctor would be with her in a minute. Then she was left alone.

Rose went over everything in her mind that Ratigan had told her to say to the doctor. Reinsel did not know her, and would therefore not trust her. Even if he believed that she was one of Ratigan's thugs, she would still have difficulty assuring him that she was not a pawn for Mouseland Yard. Who would believe that Ratigan had survived such a horrible fall?

The girl had been loath to leave Professor Ratigan at the flat. Madame Jiang had been sent for. She, along with her two sons, had managed to help Rose get Ratigan onto the bed and covered up. Madame Jiang had agreed to watch over her most respected boarder while Rose was away. Still, she could not help but worry. What if he should take a turn for the worse before she got back to him?

Her poor professor!

An older gentleman with graying fur walked into the room. "Yes? May I help you, Miss…?" he asked kindly, trailing off.

Rose took a deep breath, and tried to smile her agitation for Ratigan off to not avail. She dropped the smile, and offered the doctor her hand instead. "Dr. Reinsel, my name is Rose McGeady."

"Miss McGeady. Pleased to meet you. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Yes. I…" she took another deep breath before proceeding. "There is one thing you know very well, Doctor. I have learned this valuable knowledge from a dear gentleman, a friend of yours: 'What does not kill you only makes you stronger.'"

Reinsel looked at her strangely. "What an odd saying. I don't believe I have heard it before."

"I believe that you have, Doctor. And 'If it has killed you, then your life was of no value in the first place.'"

"Just like…?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Just like Romeo and Juliet, Doctor."

"Romeo and Juliet? That's it?"

She frowned. "Yes, it is. They sacrificed their own lives because they thought the other one was dead. They would not let the lost of their loved one make them stronger."

"True… but what about someone else killed by strife… such as Judas Iscariot?"

Ratigan had not mentioned this part of the code… unless the doctor did not trust her? Well, that was obvious.

"He was killed, some would argue, as a part of God's divine plan," Rose retorted.

Reinsel gave a short laugh. "Hah! Aren't we all? What foolishness… Silly saying, isn't it? Pity…" He broke off, looking very pensive.

"So if you will come with me, Doctor-"

"Come with you? Where?"

"Why, I… well, you know…"

"I know what?" he asked.

"Well, ah…"

She felt her confidence leave her. All she wanted to do was leave. But then she thought of Ratigan.

"Dr. Reinsel, you have to help him! He's going to die!"

"Who's going to die?"

"You know who! The only one who knows that saying besides you!"

"Miss… excuse me, I have forgotten your name already."

"McGeady. Rose McGeady."

Reinsel gave a start. He appeared to be studying her for a few minutes. Finally he picked up a newspaper and skimmed it over.

"'…Of the accomplices to this heinous act of treason,'" he read, "'only five are unaccounted for: Jack Doonegan, a wanted Dublin drug trafficker; Gerald Caster, wanted by the Yard for years for minor burglaries and a long alliance with Professor Ratigan; Fidget, a peg-legged bat with a crippled wing, one of Ratigan's most trusted lackeys; Bill Repper, another burglar and pickpocket; and Rose McGeady, 'personal' assistant to the Professor…'" The doctor grinned mischievously. "I guess fidelity does not hold up while being questioned by a Mouseland Yard official. There's a full paragraph devoted to each of the escapees, information given courtesy of your captured pals. Want me to read yours?"

Rose folded her arms and glared at him. "No, thank you."

Reinsel chuckled. "And you came here. Why?"

Rose decided that she would have to improvise now. "He survived the fall from Big Ben. I don't know how; he won't tell me. But he somehow managed to drag himself to his emergency flat, where I was waiting for him. He's in bad shape; he'll die if he doesn't receive immediate medical attention! He referred me to you; you're the only one we can trust now!"

"Hm! If I had any sense I'd send for Mouseland Yard right now."

"What?" Rose felt that she was losing miserably. She was growing desperate. "Don't you care at all?" she cried.

Reinsel shook his head. "First of all, I don't know who or what you're talking about," he said firmly. "Secondly, I don't want to know. I suggest you leave before I call the police on you."

Desperate times call for desperate measures. She threw herself at the doctor's feet, shouting, "Oh, in Heaven's name, save him!"

"Hah! You, calling out in Heaven's name?" the doctor scoffed. "It's laughable!"

"Oh, damn you! Damn you, and Basil and everyone else!"

"No need to get as dramatic as all that," Reinsel laughed.

Rose wrung her hands. "Oh, please help us! Help me," she said softly. "I can't nurse him, I can't help him. Please, I beg of you! Help us!"

"Us?" Reinsel raised an eyebrow. He then looked back at the newspaper. "How loyal were you to this Professor?"

"What?"

"How loyal were you to the Professor?" he repeated, emphasizing on 'were'. "Where did your relationship lie?"

"Why… why, he is… I mean, was… my master. And I… his servant."

"Hm." Reinsel gave her a peculiar look. He glanced at the newspaper, and then back at her. She was growing nervous. Finally he tossed the paper aside. "Never mind all that. You have pen and paper?"

"No. Why?"

The doctor gave an exasperated sigh. "Any type of paper?"

Rose reached into her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper that she had written the doctor's address upon. She handed it to him.

"Good." He handed it back to her, along with a pen. "Now write this: 'Lorelei is deathly ill. You must come quickly.'"

Rose did as she was told. As soon as she was done he snatched the paper it out of her hands and put it in his pocket.

She laid the pen down on his desk, only to be told to keep it.

Reinsel grabbed his medical bag. He put on his hat and coat. Then, turning to Rose, he said, "All right missy, let's go visit Lorelei."

When they walked outside, Reinsel made Rose call a cab, and told her to have it take them directly to Ratigan's flat, instead of a block away as she would normally be accustomed to do. Then, when they got into the cab, he made her pull the shades down over the windows. When Rose asked why, he just retorted, "Any questions, and I'm leaving you here and now."

Then, when they finally arrived back at Madame Jiang's den, Reinsel instructed her to let him go first, and follow as quickly behind him as possible, shoving him, not once leaving a gap between them.

Rose was unnerved. She had never been ordered about so much in her life (well, perhaps with the exception of her mother) and asked to do such odd things. But she complied anyway, knowing that Ratigan's life depended on it.

Now, so the reader will not be confused, I will explain all of Reinsel's actions to you.

Reinsel was suspicious. Many of Ratigan's thugs captured by the Yard had turned traitor on their own chums with the promise of easier sentences. The doctor had reason to worry that he, too, had been betrayed by one of the thugs. He had good reason to believe that he was being led into a trap. To him, Rose could have easily made up the whole story about Ratigan being still alive just to lure him into this trap.

The note he made Rose write, the one about Lorelei, was supposed to give the police (if, indeed, he was being led into a trap set up by the Yard) evidence that Rose had lied to him about the reasons for his assistance. Lorelei was his niece at a young girls' boarding school; he would naturally run off to help her if she ever were ill. Reinsel had the evidence; he had the letter safe within his possession, and Rose had the pen with which the letter was written with.

The cab had to pull up to the location they were bound for so there would be no reason for him not to "escape" when he supposedly realized that he was not being taken to the boarding school. Rose had to pull the shades down to make it look like that she did want him to know in which direction the cab was headed. Then, as they got out of the cab, he wanted it to look like Rose was forcing him into the den, rather than him being led in voluntarily.

All this Rose would not understand until later. All she knew as she carried these actions out was that she had to obey.

She led Reinsel into the flat. Madame Jiang jumped up from her chair by the side of the bed.

Seeing Ratigan, the doctor immediately set himself at ease. "So, you were telling the truth," Reinsel said to Rose.

"Of course," she said rather crossly. "He's terribly hurt. Can you help him now?"

"All right. Let's have a look." Reinsel pulled the covers off Ratigan's shivering, unconscious form, and began to inspect him.

"How is he?" Rose asked Madame Jiang cautiously.

She shook her head. "He sleep bad. Say things in sleep. Bad thoughts, very bad thoughts."

"Bad thoughts, eh?" Reinsel interrupted. "Probably from the shock. You say he really did fall off Big Ben? And lived to tell about it?"

"Well…" Rose bit her lip. "He's been barely conscious since I found him two hours ago. He only managed to tell me that he had fallen, nothing more."

Rose fell silent, watching the doctor as he turned the rat on his side to see what damage had been done to his back. She bit her lip, wishing that this nightmare was over, that Ratigan was well again.

The doctor laid him back on his back. "He had several serious injuries; nothing immediately life threatening, except perhaps the aftershock of his experience. Are you any good at assisting a doctor, missy?"

"When the occasion calls for it," she said with a lot less confidence than she had hoped to convey.

Reinsel frowned. "Well, the occasion calls for it, so you better pull yourself together, young lady."

"What need you her for, eh?" Madame Jiang said, folding her arms. "I help plenty. Madame Jiang a… a… what the word for it?"

"Nurse?"

"Yes, that it! Nurse! I nurse very very good to save sir."

"Then you assist me," he said, opening his bag.

"What can I do?" Rose asked anxiously.

"Stay out of the way," Reinsel said sharply.

Rose resented it, not being able to help. She watched enviously as Madame Jiang ran about, getting bandages and helping the doctor set the broken arm and tail. There was nothing to occupy her mind, nothing to focus her attention on. Thoughts of losing the Ratigan again kept creeping into her head. All she could do was bite her nails as she watched the doctor and the Chinese woman aid her dear professor. She was going crazy with panic and worry.

Ratigan now seemed to be in some state of conscious. His eyes had flickered a few times, and he had said a few incomprehensible words to no one in particular as Reinsel worked on him.

It was while Reinsel was cleaning the lacerations on the professor's abdomen that Ratigan gave an almost beastly cry of pain. He arched his back and his good arm flew out and struck the doctor clear across the chest, the force of the blow sending Reinsel stumbling into the wall, next to the head of the bed. But it appeared that this was all Ratigan had the strength for, for he collapsed onto the bed again, panting.

Rose jumped up and ran over to the side of the bed, making sure to keep out of reach of any more blows. Madame Jiang had retreated to the door, looking as if she would bolt out of the room at any more signs of violence.

Reinsel stared with wide eyes at the rat, gasping for air. "He… he could have killed me, if he had been a bit stronger…"

"Dangerous man, very dangerous…" Madame Jiang muttered, glancing from the doctor to the rat to the door.

Rose stared at Ratigan's face. His eyes were open. "Professor? Professor Ratigan?" she said softly.

He continued to stare ahead, oblivious to her presence.

Rose opened her mouth to speak again, but before the words could come out Reinsel said, "Well Madame Jiang, let us get back to work. He is still very much in danger of infection."

Madame Jiang looked scared out of her wits. "No, no, Madame Jiang do not go back there!"

Reinsel gave her an exasperated look. He stared back at Ratigan for a moment, and then with a fierceness Rose would not have expected in him, he grabbed the Chinese woman's arm and snarled, "You promised to complete this task. Now do it!"

Madame Jiang pushed herself away from him, but cautiously approached the bed once again.

Rose went around on the other side of the bed, wondering what would happen next.

Reinsel held up the alcohol-soaked cloth he was using to clean the wounds. He touched on of the long, thick lacerations once again.

Ratigan howled again and thrashed about on the bed, causing the three of them to back away as quickly as possible. He was slightly foaming at the mouth and snarling in a low, almost demonic voice, "Away, you hear me! You won't get me this time, you won't have me this time! I'll kill you!"

"He mad, like a dog!" Madame Jiang cried.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill myself! But-" here he gave a laugh belonging to one possessed, "you won't have me for yourselves!"

"He's too weak to attack… unless we get too close," Reinsel said warily. "But those wounds… they'll be infected unless I can get to them." He looked uneasy. "He needs to be tied down."

Ratigan had calmed down somewhat, but now it appeared that his sickly brain had registered the presence of the people on the right side of the bed, Madame Jiang and Dr. Reinsel. He appeared to be studying them suspiciously.

Reinsel turned white. He took one step forward, saying as gently as possible, "James, it's me, your old friend, Jason Reinsel…"

"Stay away!" Ratigan barked, causing Reinsel to jump back again. "I'll kill you if you come near me…"

Reinsel looked helplessly at the rat, then at Madame Jiang. Finally his gaze turned towards Rose.

"I cannot help him. That fall must have jiggered something in his brain. He's unstable, and he may only get worse as time comes on…"

"But he needs help!"

"Oh, he needs help all right!" Reinsel retorted. "If his wounds get infected, he'll probably go stark raving mad! He needs an asylum!"

Rose bit her lip. It was just like his periodic fits of madness she had seen only too often in the sewers. Perhaps it was an aftershock of the fall. But how to cure it?

"Professor?" Rose said softly, nervously, taking a step towards the rat. "Professor Ratigan?"

Ratigan turned his mad gaze upon her, as if noticing her for the first time.

"Who're you? Stay away from me…" he warned.

"Sir, it's me, Rose. Rose McGeady. You know me, sir, you've known me for well over a year…" she said, taking another step towards him.

He recoiled, and then growled at her, "Don't you dare do it…. I'll rip you to shreds…"

"Don't!" Madame Jiang gasped hoarsely.

She took another step near him, this time taking off the silver locket. She then took another step near him, holding out the locket in front of her, as if shielding herself from his violent madness.

Ratigan looked panicked; beads of sweat were trickling from his forehead. "I'll kill you… I don't care if you're a phantom, I'll kill you with my bare hands…"

She leaned over, holding the locket high above his face. "I have something to show you, sir," she said, her voice a little shaky.

"Don't! I don't want to see! I don't want to see!"

Rose lowered the locket down gradually, watching as he squirmed about on the bed, as if expecting a guillotine to descend from her outstretched hand. She did not breathe, but only continued to lower the locket.

It was inches from his face. He froze, staring at the object in front of him.

The silence, the calm, was unnerving to Rose. But she held her hand steady. The locket had saved her once: she was almost certain that it would save her again.

Ratigan raised his hand towards it. Then in one rapid movement he ripped the locket out of Rose's grasp and flung it away, reaching for Rose's neck in another movement and shoving her roughly, but with considerable effort, away from him. She fell back and hit the floor.

Ratigan attempted to get up, but yelled out in pain. He then tried to roll himself off the bed.

Rose got to her feet and watched, amazed, as he managed to turn himself on the right side of his body. Using his good arm, he began to push so that his whole body would roll over.

Rose made a bounding leap to the bed, placed her hands on his chest, and shoved him back down into place before he could complete the turn and fall to the floor. She then looked down into the Professor's face.

He looked so lost, scared, helpless, powerless, and alone. His eyes seemed to be pleading with her to save him from his own tortured soul.

"Sir," Rose breathed softly, gently to him, "Sir, it's all right. It's me, it's Rose. Your faithful servant. I won't let anything happen to you. I'll never forsake you."

And, to reassure him, she leaned over and gave his good hand a quick squeeze.

He stiffened at her touch at first, but then relaxed. Rose looked up at his eyes. He was staring at her wonderingly, as if he did not know how she got there.

"Are you all right, sir?" Rose asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes. She could feel his forehead, hot and feverish.

"You…? How? You left… gone… far away…" he muttered, still gazing at her. Then he looked around the room, and saw Reinsel and Madame Jiang standing there, staring at them.

"You insane old quack," he murmured.

Rose did not know who he was talking to until Reinsel replied half-teasingly, "I wouldn't talking, James. You're the idiot that decided to addle your already backward brain with that lovely dive into the Thames."

"Well, then what the hell are you standing there for then?" Ratigan said hoarsely, forcing a short laugh. "Fix me up, you asshole!"

"All in good time, my battered colleague. And Miss McGeady…" Reinsel motioned for her.

She glanced at Ratigan, who was giving Reinsel a questioning look. She patted his good arm, got up and approached the doctor.

Reinsel turned away from the rat. "Distract him," he said softly. "Talk to him, read to him, whatever. I think it'll spring up again unless he's got something else to concentrate upon."

Rose nodded. She wordlessly went over to Ratigan's valise, opened it, and pulled out Jane Eyre. Then, dragging a chair with her, she pulled it up to the bed.

"Sir, would you mind if I read to you for a bit?"

Ratigan seemed to comprehend what had been said between her and the doctor. "I'd greatly appreciate that," he said in a husky voice.

Rose opened the book to the first page, cleared her throat, and began: "'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner…'"

Ratigan closed his eyes. Rose continued to read, a feeling of peace and contentment washing over her as Dr. Reinsel and Madame Jiang once more applied themselves to the task of cleaning Ratigan's wounds. This time he only gave a slight gasp of pain.

"'Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,

Boils round the naked, melancholy isles

Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge-'"

Rose paused and glanced at Ratigan. He half-opened his eyes at her hesitation, as if to ask why she had stopped.

"'-Pours in among the stormy Hebrides,'" she continued. "'Nor could I pass unnoticed…'"

In her heart she knew that everything was going to be all right. How could anything go wrong, now that the worst was over?

The Adventures of Megana in France

(Many echoing footsteps are heard, as if a group of people are walking on stone.)

Katherine: Um, guys? I can't see a thing.

Amy: Where are we?

Kaitlyn: It's cold down here.

Sam: Let's leave!

Megan: We can't go back! The gendarmes will see us!

Erin: Someone remind me not to hide from the police in unknown passageways that have no lighting ever again!

Valerie: So much for "taking a tour of the Opera House," Katie! Now we're lost!

Katie: Hey, you all didn't have to agree to it!

Megan: Look, I feel steps! Maybe we can get out of here!

Ashley: They go downward.

Lilly: We better try them. We can't go back the way we came. Those policemen will see us!

(More echoing footsteps)

Katie: Weird steps! I'm going to fall!

Meg: Hah! It's that part in the movie, when the Phantom's leading her down to his lair! (sighs) I wish I was Christine! (singing softly) "In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came…"

Megan: Dude, be quiet! Someone might be down here!

Meg: Like… Erik!

Valerie: Your sister wasn't lying, you are obsessed!

Meg: Grrr. (goes to a deeper voice) "Sing once again with me, our strange duet…. My power over you-"

Erin: Stop, now! You really sound like a guy!

Meg: (still singing) "And though you turn from me, to glance behind… the Phantom of the Opera is there-"

(A yelp and a splash are heard.)

Meg: (sputtering) Gah! Gah! Cold water, freezing cold! Gah! I think I found the underground lake!

Megan: Underground lake? I thought that was something the movie made up!

Katie: Erm, no. One actually does exist.

Meg: I'm freezing!

(Suddenly a light goes on, revealing the ten girls on the edge of the lake, Meg treading water in the lake, and one cloaked figure.)

Lilly: Guys… RUN AWAY!