'Is it definitely him?'

'Yes Sir. I saw him at the hospital, it was him. We targeted the right person all right.'

Jason smiled, but it was a cold, cruel smile that only emphasised the emptiness in his eyes. 'Good. Fetch me my brother, will you?'

The teenager nodded and scurried out of the room. Jason sat and waited, twirling an elegant dagger between his fingers and thinking about all of his evil plans.

'Brother!' He exclaimed, spreading his arms out in a welcoming gesture as the teen returned with Matthew Fournier towering over him. 'Are you ready for phase two?'

Matthew cracked his knuckles threateningly. 'Always ready to spill some blood.'

'Excellent.' Jason extracted a white envelope from his jacket and placed it down on the desk in front of him. He pushed it forwards slowly with two fingers and Matthew snatched it up greedily. 'There's the boy's address. You know what needs to be done now.'

Matthew nodded solemnly. 'When?'

'Tomorrow. 5pm.'

'Noted.' And with that, he spun on his heel and left. The heavy door swung shut and the sounds of him tearing into the envelope could be heard through the thin walls.

Jason turned his attention back to the kid in front of him. He beckoned him forward with a finger and the blonde haired boy swallowed nervously. 'I need you to do something for me, boy.'

'Y...yes sir?'

'I need you to create a distraction. The girl can't find out you were the one that poisoned her and she can't find out you have a connection to what is going to happen tomorrow. It would ruin everything.'

'O...okay. Um, what are you doing tomorrow?'

Jason's face broke into a cruel, evil grin. 'Finally getting my revenge.'


'HA! You owe me 1500 now!' Rena crowed, pointing at her younger brother. Hiro sighed over dramatically and rifled through his stack of money.

'That's it, I'm out.' He said reluctantly.

'What do I always say? I'm the master of Monopoly!'

Hiro rolled his eyes. 'Okay, calm it down. I'm only going easy on you cause you're sick.'

'Yeah, whatever you have to tell yourself.'

Rena sat back and grinned cheekily. Her hospital bed was covered in tiny plastic Monopoly houses and cards, both of her brothers were sat on either side of the bed playing with her.

'Okay, calm down children.' Tadashi said, laughing at the pair of them. 'My turn.'

Hiro sat back and started playing on his phone, leaving his older siblings to finish the game. After an intense twenty minutes, Tadashi had finally gone bankrupt and left Rena victorious.

'I am literally unbeatable.' She gloated happily. 'That's it. I've peaked! I am the greatest Monopoly player of all time! I- OW! Rude.' Hiro had launched his game piece at her at the same time Tadashi threw a dice. 'Be nice, I'm the one in hospital!'

'In case you haven't realised, we're all in hospital.' Tadashi added, scooping up the money and placing it carefully back into the box.

'Yeah... well... alright shut up.' Rena replied, grinning. She sat back in her bed as Tadashi cleared away the rest of the pieces, not even bothering to ask if he wanted help because she knew his answer already. She shut her eyes and winced as a random shoot of pain ricocheted off her bones, sending a wave of agony across her body. This was an occurance that was only becoming all the more common. Still, this didn't mean she was in any way used to it.

'You okay?' Tadashi asked, brown eyes wide with concern.

She waved him off. 'Yeah, fine.'

Truth be told, she was exhausted and in pain. But this was one of the rare nights that they'd actually just chilled out and had fun together, and Rena had no intention of ruining it just yet. Ever since she'd come to a week ago, her life had been full of tests and questioning and tearful visits and 'what ifs' and medication and doctors. She had missed simply hanging out without having to think about the fact that she'd accidentally managed to overdose on some random substance that she couldn't remember the name of. After many tests, the doctors had come to the conclusion that she'd suffered from some kind of chemical poisoning as a result of an overdose from a deadly substance, causing confusion, nausea, blackouts and eventually cardiac arrest. At first, they thought it was a suicide attempt. However, after a very tearful interaction with her older brother and numerous accounts of the teen yelling at the doctors, they'd come to the conclusion that it was nothing more than an accident. Rena got the feeling that Tadashi wasn't convinced though. He'd only left her side once or twice, the rest of the time he had been ridiculously overprotective of his little sister, even by his crazy standards. Rena appreciated the thought, but was beginning to become a little tired by his constant worrying and stressing. But hey, that was Tadashi.

'I can't believe you won Monopoly again.' Hiro said, shaking his head in annoyance. 'I calculated the exact way to throw the dice to where I wanted to go, AND the streets I was gonna buy, and yet you still won?!'

Rena's face split into a grin. 'You may be a tiny genius, but you're no match for my absolute skill. Also, I got dark blue. You know dark blue is the best street in order to rake in the most cash.'

Hiro nodded. 'True. True.'

Tadashi grinned. 'It's just a game! Do you really need to take it so seriously?'

Rena placed a hand over her heart and acted as though she'd been wounded. 'OFFENDED. It's never "just a game" bro, you know this.'

'Okay! I take it back!'

'Good. As you should.'

Rena reaches for a glass of water, the cannula in her hand tugging uncomfortably as she did so. It was difficult to resist the temptation to yank it out completely. 'Did I miss anything at school?'

Tadashi shrugged. 'I mean, I was only there for one day. Not much happened, although Gogo's bike ran into Caine and he spilt coffee all over himself. That was pretty funny.'

Rena grinned at the thought of Caine flying across the room because of Gogo. Sure, she was fond of the guy but she had to admit that he did need a little bit of sense knocking into him. 'Wish I could've seen that.'

Hiro frowned at them. 'Uhh, who's Caine?'

Rena and Tadashi turned to look at him in surprise. 'You don't know who Caine is?' Tadashi asked.

The younger Hamada shook his head. 'No? Why, should I? Is he not just someone in your year or something?'

'Nah, he's like Abigail. You know, someone employed by Granville to help us all out. Even though he's a bit useless, I don't know why she doesn't just save her money and not hire him in the first place.'

Tadashi grinned. 'You sure? I heard from Gogo that you two were pretty close...'

Rena stiffened. 'Absolutely not. Thought you were scared of him dating me anyway?'

Tadashi shrugged. 'I wouldn't say scared.'

Rena rolled her eyes. 'Yeah. Whatever. Anyway it doesn't matter because there is no way in hell I am ever getting with him. Nope, none at all.' She shivered, even the idea of dating Caine was repulsive.

Hiro still looked confused. 'How is it that I've never met this guy?

Rena shrugged. 'I'm sure you will soon. You've probably seen him around, you just haven't met him properly yet. Think yourself lucky really, he's a bit weird.'

'So are you, yet I choose to hang out with you.'

Rena threw the empty paper cup at him. It bounced off his head and hit the wall. 'Aren't you supposed to treat people on their death bed nicely?'

Both Hiro and Tadashi grimaced at these words, even though she was joking. 'Don't say that.'

'I'll say what I want. Free speech.'

'Just shut up.'

So she did. They sat in silence for a while, but Rena didn't mind. Her head was beginning to ache again, a side effect of either the poisoning or the medication. Or both. Rena glanced at Tadashi, who was chewing his nails and staring out the window like he did when he was thinking about something. She felt a rush of affection for him, in the entire week he'd only left her twice. Once to go home and once to go to school to grab the work they both needed to catch up on. He always made sure she was in good company and she appreciated it immensely. Aunt Cass was simply too busy to be there all of the time and Hiro didn't have the patience.

'Penny for your thoughts?' She asked him.

Tadashi jumped slightly, as though he'd only just remembered she was even there. 'Wha?'

'What you thinking about?'

He shrugged. 'Nothing that interesting.'

Rena narrowed her eyes. 'Yeah. Sure.' She replied sarcastically. Tadashi had been off for ages, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't seem to get it out of him.

He shook his head and stood, brushing off his trousers as he did so. 'I'm gonna go to the bathroom. Anyone want anything?'

Both Rena and Hiro shook their heads no, so he left without another word.

Rena rolled her eyes. 'I don't know why he doesn't just use the bathroom that's right there!'' She was in a private room that was essentially an en suite, although the bathroom she got was barely big enough for the shower.

Hiro shrugged. 'He's just weird. I guess you could say the ones down the hall are cleaner maybe? But you're definitely right either way.'

Rena nodded and they sat in silence for a minute. Hiro twisted in his seat until he was practically lying in it, staring at the ceiling. She could tell he was thinking the same thing she was.

'Have you noticed anything... off with Tadashi lately?' He said, more to the ceiling than to his older sister.

'Yeah! Definitely. I swear, he's even more annoying now than he's ever been. Not to be mean, but he's always been... what would you call it? Over protective I guess? But especially recently.'

Hiro nodded feverishly, gesturing wildly in the air as he spoke. 'HONESTLY! I keep telling him

that he doesn't need to spend every waking minute here but I swear he never listens to me!'

'Bold of you to assume that he listens to me either. I've insisted that he leaves like, a hundred times already. Not that I don't want him here! But he should go home once or twice.'

Hiro laughed. 'Yeah. He keeps calling me in the middle of class, and texting as well. It's constant, all "are you okay?" "where are you?" he KNOWS I'm in class, what is he thinking?'

Rena straightened out slightly, 'wait? he does?'

Hiro nodded, eyebrows knitting together. 'Yeah! It's like... it's like I'm 10 or something!'

Rena exhaled. The last time Tadashi had done that to Hiro was in high school, after everything that had happened. It was like Tadashi was terrified he was going to find Hiro in the bathroom again unless he constantly made sure his little brother was okay. She couldn't be sure, but the pieces were slowly starting to come together. Was it getting bad again? Was she really that oblivious? Or was she just overthinking things? Rena couldn't stand not knowing. Tadashi always told her everything! What was he keeping from her? 'Huh. Weird.'

Before she could say anything else, Tadashi entered the room again. 'Rena I just spoke to a doctor outside, they want to do more tests.' He turned to Hiro before adding, 'and they want us both to leave.'

Rena felt all peace quickly evaporate and an iron fist tightened around her chest. More than anything, she hated the constant questioning and tests and treatments they put her under. She just wanted to be left alone! Unfortunately, no one seemed to be getting that memo. 'Oh... okay.'

Tadashi caught a look at her expression and gave her a smile. 'I'll come back later. Honey Lemon said on the group chat everyone else is planning to visit, and Fred's bringing pizza.'

The fist loosened slightly at the thought of seeing all her friends together again. 'Okay. Okay I'll see you later then.'


A couple of hours later, the middle Hamada was reading a book alone in her empty hospital room. She was accompanied only by the beeping of the machines keeping her alive, which was both weirdly calming and anxiety inducing. Her friends were coming over soon, she knew that. But it still didn't stop her from checking her phone every ten seconds to see if they were on their way.

She turned the page and sighed softly, finally starting to get lost within the story. In fact, she was so invested that she almost didn't notice the knocking on the door.

'Uhh, anyone in?'

Rena looked up in surprise, and almost dropped her book when saw who was standing there. The person pushed their glasses up their nose amen gave her a nervous smile, shoving his hands deep inside his pockets.

'Wh... Caine!! Hi!' She said, smiling broadly at him. She folded the page and tossed the book onto the table. 'Come, sit! What are you doing here?'

'Well... I heard from your friends that you were in hospital and I wanted to see if you were okay. How are you doing? What happened?'

'Well,' she's hesitated, not quite sure whether or not to tell him the entire story. 'To be honest, I don't really know. Everything's little fuzzy, but I seem to have accidentally ingested some kind of substance... a chemical or something from the lab. I've no idea how it happened, and neither do the doctors. But.. here I am I guess.'

Caine's eyes widened in shock. 'Wow, really? At SFIT? Surely they're looking into it or something?'

Rena shrugged. 'I think there's an investigation being opened but I've told them not to bother. It was probably down to my own stupidity rather than anything else to be honest.'

He nodded thoughtfully. 'I can see your point. I'm glad you're okay though.'

'Thanks.' Rena had no intention upon telling him that she had actually been legally dead. 'How's things going at SFIT?'

He lent back in his seat. 'Oh, you know. Same as always. I've missed our little conversations in the lab though.'

'Yeah, me too.' She debated asking him about Hiro, if he'd ever met him or not. It wasn't like Hiro to forget anything, but it seemed weird that they went to the same school yet had never even talked to each other. But, as always, Caine started talking so much when could hardly get a word in edgeways.

He started on an animated rant about a horrible customer he'd encountered at the pancake place, and Rena was more than happy to sit back and let him talk, occasionally jumping in with nods and certain comments. It was a nice change to be in someone's company without the expectation of actively joining in with the conversation.

'... and then this woman tells me she's not paying for it AND LITERALLY WALKS OUT?? My manager and I were literally chasing her across the parking lot!'

'Seriously? All that because the scoop of ice cream was the wrong flavour?'

'Yeah!'

Rena laughed. 'Man, that sounds like a nightmare. Did I ever tell you about that guy who threw his plate at the wall because his eggs weren't done right?'

'No way?! He sounds mental.'

'To be honest I reckon he was at least a little deranged. I had to clean it up and all! When I say I was FUMING-'

She was interrupted by her phone buzzing. Caine's buzzed at the same time Rena reached for hers. She glanced at the notification from the local news app, realising Caine must have the same app as well.

'Holy shit!' She said, eyes wide as she read the notification. 'An armed robbery?! That's so crazy!'

She glanced at Caine, his face had gone purely white. 'Rena... read the article.'

'Um, okay?' She swiped the notification and was met with an alarming headline.

BREAKING NEWS: ARMED ROBBERY AT SMALL LOCAL CAFE

She quickly scanned then article. Police officers at the scene, the criminal had escaped and wasn't armed and dangerous, held at gunpoint, four injuries...

Then she read something that made her clap her hand to her mouth to muffle her scream.

The Lucky Cat Cafe. Her home, her family had been held at gunpoint.