Chapter Fifteen
The explosion was still ringing through Mokuba's ears as he slowly regained consciousness. He was laying sprawled across Lector, and as he forced his eyes open, he could feel that the man's arm was still around him.
"Lector?" he mumbled. "Are you okay?"
The silence startled Mokuba more fully back to consciousness. Lector was very still, and now Mokuba could feel that his chest was not rising and falling. The boy scrambled down in an instant. "Lector!" He frantically shook his former caretaker's shoulder. "Come on! You've gotta get up! . . . You've gotta . . ."
He blinked back forming tears. Lector had protected him from the blast, but it was clear he hadn't survived it. Still, Mokuba didn't want to believe it.
"Lector . . ."
Mokuba slumped forward in despair. He wasn't strong enough to perform CPR, especially on a big man like Lector. But he would have to try. He might have better luck with artificial respiration.
He pressed down in desperation, but it was soon obvious that yes, he couldn't possibly press hard enough to make a difference. He turned his attention to the artificial respiration, pushing breath into the stilled chest with all his might, then leaning back to see if Lector could start breathing on his own.
"Come on," Mokuba whispered. "Breathe, Lector! Breathe. . . ."
He wasn't sure how long he tried before he finally had to concede defeat. Either he just wasn't strong enough for this either . . . or Lector was just beyond help, no matter what anyone did.
The tears finally broke free. "Why can't I ever help anyone?" Mokuba sobbed. "Why can't I bring you back? You're dead . . . because of me. . . ."
And what about Nesbitt and Marik?! Mokuba looked around wildly. They were nowhere to be seen. They had to have gotten out! They couldn't have still been trapped in there. . . .
"Help!" he called in desperation. "Guys, please . . ."
When no one answered, Mokuba shivered. Not knowing what else to do, he finally laid down next to Lector and let his eyes close. "Please wake up," he begged, without much hope. "Please. . . ."
He slipped into a strange state that seemed to be halfway between awareness and slumber, wandering through a dream that was mostly made up of past memories involving Lector: some during the time when he had been their caretaker, some when Lector had betrayed them, and some . . . after. Over and over, he felt the terror of their flight from the doomed building, found Lector lifting him up when he couldn't run fast enough. Then the explosion, ringing through his ears, leaving Lector laying dead.
xxxx
Nesbitt groaned as consciousness began to return, making him very aware of a heavy weight across his chest. He automatically reached to push it away before the realization dawned and he stopped. "The kid. . . ."
He opened his eyes. Indeed, Marik was laying sprawled horizontally across Nesbitt, where he had fallen since Nesbitt had been carrying him in his arms when the explosion happened. He groaned as well. "Mokuba . . ."
A cold chill went through Nesbitt's veins. That was right; he hadn't seen Mokuba or Lector as they had fled the building. They had either left through a different door . . . or they hadn't left at all.
Frantic footsteps brought both of their attention up. Seto was running towards them, followed closely by Ishizu, Rishid, Gansley, Crump, and Johnson.
"Marik!" Ishizu cried.
Marik pushed himself away from Nesbitt. "I'm alright," he slurred. "Just a little dizzy." He fell into Ishizu's arms as she knelt and embraced him. "Mokuba got me out of the room I was in just before it caught fire. . . . Then Nesbitt got me out the rest of the way. . . ." He looked to Nesbitt. "Thank you. . . ."
Nesbitt grunted. "I was paying a debt." He sat up, rubbing his head.
"Perhaps, but we are still immeasurably grateful to both you and Mokuba," Rishid said.
Ishizu nodded. "You'll have to stay here with us, Marik, until you get some more of your strength back," she insisted.
Marik couldn't deny he wasn't sure he could stand at this point; the blow he had taken had been bad enough, and this experience certainly hadn't helped. "But . . . Mokuba . . ."
Rishid hugged them both. "Mokuba isn't here?!"
"No," Marik said hopelessly.
"Nesbitt, are you alright?!" Gansley demanded.
Nesbitt glanced to him. "Yes. . . . But Mokuba was with Lector. . . . I . . . I don't know where they are! . . ." He looked around, feeling helpless.
Without another word, Seto took off running and went around a corner. "Mokuba!" he called. They had to be here, somewhere. . . . They had to be, because if they weren't . . .
No, he wouldn't let his mind go there.
He turned another corner and ground to a halt. Lector was laying lifeless on the ground, Mokuba curled up equally still next to him.
Seto's heart nearly stopped. "Mokuba!" He ran over, fearing what he would find.
Instead, Mokuba stirred, looking up at Seto with heartbroken eyes. "Seto. . . . He's dead, Seto! He was protecting me and now he's dead!" The tears spilled over. "Why do people keep getting hurt because of me?! It's not fair! It's not . . ."
Seto took Mokuba in his arms, holding him close. "It's not because of you," he said, even though he knew it wouldn't help. "They make their own decisions."
"To help me," Mokuba whispered.
"Just like you made a decision to save Marik," Seto said. "He might be dead if it wasn't for you."
"I'm sure Nesbitt or Lector would have got him out," Mokuba mumbled.
"Maybe not in time," Seto said. "Once the place started burning, it went fast. They didn't know where Marik was, either, but you did. You were able to act faster than they could have, since you had that valuable knowledge."
"I guess."
"Mokuba, I'm proud of you," Seto said. "I know Marik is too. And I'm sure Lector was."
Mokuba choked back a sob, burrowing against Seto's shoulder.
Seto looked to the lifeless form on the ground. Lector . . . you kept your promise. You protected Mokuba with your life.
At last Mokuba pulled back, looking from Seto to Lector. "Do you know if Marik's okay?" he asked. "And Nesbitt?"
"They're alright," Seto said. "Marik's just kind of dazed." And he couldn't help thinking, If only Lector could have found the same exit they did. . . .
"Oh, that's good," Mokuba said in relief. At least something was going right. . . .
Seto nodded. And at least you're still safe, thanks to Lector. . . .
"What are we going to do, Seto?" Mokuba suddenly asked, his voice plaintive and crushed.
Seto really didn't know. He could only say, "I could arrange for Lector's burial. Although his friends may want to do that."
"They probably will," Mokuba said weakly. "This will crush them. . . ."
Seto frowned. It no doubt would. They were a very close-knit group; the loss of one of them would not be handled well.
That was an understatement. The Big Four were running up now.
"How on Earth did they get over here?!" Gansley cried.
Johnson stopped short. "I don't think Lector's alright," he gasped, shaken.
"Of course he's alright," Gansley shot back.
"He has to be," Crump said. But he could see it didn't look hopeful.
Mokuba looked up at them, heartbroken. "I'm sorry, guys," he choked out. "He's really gone. I tried and tried to get him back, but . . . I couldn't. . . ."
Nesbitt stiffened. He ran over, dropping to his knees next to the still form. "Lector, get up!" he ordered. "Get up!" He shook his friend on the shoulder. When there was no response, he just stood up and stared, still not wanting to believe it.
Lector can't be dead. It's too impossible.
He snarled and turned, picking up a fallen metal rod from the wreckage.
"Nesbitt?!" Gansley exclaimed. "What are you doing?!"
"Something we're all very familiar with," Nesbitt retorted. "Taking revenge!" He turned, running around the side of the warehouse's skeletal remains.
Mokuba cringed. "Oh no. . . ."
Gansley stared after him. Then, shaking, he dropped to one knee and touched Lector's shoulder. "Lector. . . . Are you truly gone then?"
"I wish he wasn't," Mokuba trembled. "Like I said, I was trying to get him back. Nothing worked. . . ."
"Maybe for you, it wouldn't," Gansley said, thinking along the same lines Mokuba had, that the boy wouldn't be strong enough.
"I'll try," Johnson volunteered.
But his attempts met with the same result. He finally pulled back, staring at the other man. His normally tan skin had such a pale cast to it. "He's dead," Johnson whispered, shaken and devastated. "I . . . I can't deal with this. . . ."
"Come on, Buddy!" Crump suddenly cried. "You're not really leaving us, are you?! You're not. . . . You can't. . . ." He sank to his knees, staring at their fallen comrade.
Mokuba looked away, trembling. For a moment he had still had some hope.
Seto drew Mokuba close and the boy turned and hugged him tight. "What about Nesbitt?" Seto asked. "Do you have any idea where he might be going?"
"Probably to Lector's father," Gansley said. "And we'd better go after him before he gets himself killed as well."
Crump swallowed hard. He didn't want to leave Lector, but Gansley had a very good point. They couldn't lose another friend too.
"Okay," he said with a heavy sigh. "You'll look after him until we come back, won't you?"
Seto gave a grave nod. "Not that there's much we can do now. But we'll take him away from here. Come to the hotel when you're done."
"You won't . . . turn him over to the ambulance or call the morgue or something yourself, will you?" Crump asked.
"I probably should, but I won't . . . unless you don't come back within a reasonable amount of time," Seto replied. "We'll have him at the hotel."
"Thanks," Crump said quietly.
Gansley nodded in approval. "And we want him buried in Domino City," he said with a heavy heart, his voice cracking. "His father may suddenly decide that in death he wants his son reinstated and be buried in a family tomb here. But that isn't what Lector would want. I have an extra plot bought when I was married and had thought it would last. I want Lector to have it."
"We all want that," Crump said. "He should be with us, not with some jerk who stopped caring about him while he was alive."
"Hopefully you won't have any trouble with that," Seto said. "If the father does have a change of heart, he could make a lot of trouble for you."
"And we'd make a lot of trouble right back," Gansley said darkly. "We're Lector's true family."
"I can't deny that," Seto said. "But you'd better get after Nesbitt now."
Crump sighed and gripped Lector's shoulder. "See you later, Buddy," he whispered.
Johnson stayed where he was, kneeling at Lector's side, staring blankly into the other man's face.
"Johnson?" Gansley reached for his shoulder. "You have to come now. We can't risk losing Nesbitt as well."
Slowly Johnson got to his feet, moving almost mechanically. He said nothing.
"Johnson, are you alright?" Crump stared at him.
Still nothing.
"Oh my gosh," Mokuba whispered. "He's . . . he's checked out. . . ."
"Catatonic," Seto realized.
Gansley looked up at Johnson in horror, then back down to Lector. "Farewell." He started to get up, then paused and checked for a pulse one final time before giving up. It looked to Mokuba like the old man grasped Lector's hand far longer than was necessary to search for what was not there. As he stood, his eyes looked far older and more tired than Mokuba ever remembered seeing before.
"We have to go," Gansley said to Crump and Johnson.
Although Johnson walked with them, he still refused to speak. Crump drew an arm around his shoulders, devastated. "I knew you were gonna have to face your pain someday, Pal," he said quietly. "I just never thought it would be like this."
"Face it?" Gansley countered. "He still can't face it. This is another act of utter denial."
Mokuba turned away, blinking back tears. Gansley was holding it together the best, but when he had a moment to himself, Mokuba couldn't help wondering if he would be the one to break down crying. Nesbitt too, maybe, when the fire died out.
"Come on, Mokuba," Seto said quietly when the three men left. "We have to take him away."
Mokuba sniffled but pulled back, swiping at his eyes. "Yeah. . . ."
They both started when the Ishtars and Téa came running over to them. "What happened?!" Téa cried out in horror and shock.
Mokuba looked away. "Lector's dead," he trembled. "He died saving me. . . ."
"Oh no. . . ." Marik came over to his friend, and Mokuba hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry. . . ."
"I'm glad you're okay, Marik," Mokuba whispered. "You and Nesbitt. . . . I couldn't figure out where you were. . . ."
"We went out a different exit than you did," Marik said. "I was so dizzy I didn't know up from down. I'm alright now," he quickly added.
"We need to get Lector out of here," Seto said.
"I'll have Yami Bakura bring his van over here," Marik said. He took out his phone while still keeping one arm around Mokuba. The conversation was brief, but positive. Yami Bakura was just arriving and would come.
"Do the others know?" Téa asked.
"Yeah, and Nesbitt went running off to get revenge," Mokuba sniffled. "The others went after him. They don't want him to die too. . . ."
"No, of course not," Téa said softly.
"And Johnson won't talk," Mokuba continued. "He tried to wake Lector up, and when he couldn't, he just . . . froze. . . ."
"Oh no," Téa gasped.
The van the Bakuras had rented pulled up and Yami Bakura got out, looking grim. "What do you want done?" he asked.
"Help me get him into the van," Seto said.
Yami Bakura nodded and opened the sliding door. Between himself, Seto, and Rishid, they were able to lift the big man onto the middle seat. "What are we doing with him?" Yami Bakura wondered.
"We'll go back to the hotel and take him in the back way," Seto said. "His friends can decide what to do next when they come. And we have to leave quickly. If the police see, they'll probably insist we turn him over now. The others want more of a chance to say Goodbye first."
Yami Bakura grunted, but didn't voice an objection. He went back to the driver's seat while the other new passengers were climbing inside as well. Mokuba sat between Seto and Marik on the back seat, blinking back new tears.
If only Lector was only sleeping. . . .
"He can't be dead!" Mokuba suddenly burst out. "He was alive just an hour ago. . . ."
A haunted look passed through Seto's eyes. "That's how death is sometimes."
Mokuba slumped against him, tears brimming in his eyes. "It's not right," he sobbed. "It's not!"
Seto held him close and looked to Marik in despair. Mokuba might not remember, but they had shared a conversation very similar to this when their parents had died.
Marik laid a hand on Mokuba's shoulder, feeling helpless. If he hadn't been kidnapped, this might not have happened. But it couldn't have really been prevented; it was either him or the younger boys.
"And he didn't want to die!" Mokuba continued. "He wanted to be with his friends. I took that away from him!"
"Mokuba, you didn't," Marik firmly told him.
"Dr. Raven did," Seto added. "And we're going to see that he pays for it."
"But that won't bring Lector back," Mokuba whispered.
"No," Marik agreed. "Nothing can do that."
"All we can do is try to stop him from killing anyone else," Seto said.
Mokuba didn't reply. He clutched Seto close, staring out the window with heartbroken eyes.
xxxx
Gansley was tightly gripping the steering wheel with both hands as he drove towards the Leichter manor. He was reeling, unable to believe what was happening even though he knew it was.
Everything was falling apart. They had left Lector lying dead on some exploded dock. Nesbitt had run off in rage and Johnson was too shellshocked to even speak. And ironically, Crump, who was normally the one having a panic attack when everything went wrong, was keeping it together relatively well.
"Johnson, come on!" he cried. "Don't do this! Are you gonna tear another hole in the gang?! I don't know how we're gonna stand it without Lector as it is! And you're checking out too?! You're just gonna leave us to deal with Nesbitt? And what if Nesbitt gets shot or something when he goes after that creep?! Me and Gansley would be all alone!"
Relatively being the key word.
". . . This must be how Lector felt when we were all dead," Gansley finally spoke.
Crump looked to him. "Helpless? Lost? Like the whole world just exploded in our faces?!"
"Exactly," Gansley said.
". . . I can't believe he's really gone, just like that," Crump choked out. "It's a nightmare. . . . I feel like I'm gonna wake up and he'll be here, telling me it was just a dream. . . ."
"Well, he won't," Gansley growled. "We'll just have to accept that our friend is dead."
Crump stared at him. "Come on! You can't really be that willing to just shove him aside!"
"What can I do, Crump?" Gansley retorted. "He's been taken away from us. It will only hurt worse to deny that fact."
"I think for me it'd hurt worse to try to accept it right now," Crump said. "It's just too much. . . . I can't accept that I'm never gonna hear his voice again, or see one of those annoyed looks again, or stumble in on him and Nesbitt arguing. . . ."
Gansley was clutching the steering wheel ever tighter the more Crump spoke. He badly looked like he wanted to scream at Crump to stop it, that it was torturing him worse to have to hear of Lector's absence in every particular, but instead he kept quiet and just let Crump ramble on.
Suddenly realizing that he was nervously spinning the light blue ring around his finger, Crump looked down at it with a start. "And what about these?" he wondered. "That weird guy said we couldn't unlock the full power of these things if we're not all there. You don't think there's any chance . . ."
"Don't fool yourself, Crump," Gansley sharply cut in. "We received a miracle. But miracles don't always happen. You can't constantly be looking for them or you'll forget to live in the here and now and make your own miracles."
"But . . . it's just . . . if we were allowed to live so we could join this fight, then wouldn't the same thing go for Lector . . . ?" Crump let go of the ring and looked to where Johnson was sitting perfectly straight, his hands in his lap. The green ring on his right hand caught the light of every streetlight they passed.
"I don't know," Gansley finally admitted. His voice sounded as heavy as his heart felt.
". . . Maybe Johnson was right." Crump suddenly sounded bitter. "It does seem like the universe is ganging up on Lector more than the rest of us."
"We're all suffering here, Crump," Gansley snapped. "When someone who is loved dies, a part of everyone who loved them dies with them."
"Yeah." Crump swallowed hard. "And for some people, a bigger chunk dies than for some other people. . . ."
Johnson didn't so much as blink.
Crump turned away, covering his eyes with a hand as his shoulders silently shook. If he was crying, he wouldn't admit it. And Gansley wasn't about to point it out.
He just let himself die a little more on the inside as he drove.
xxxx
Mr. Leichter leaned back in his chair, smoking his pipe as he looked over several documents from that day's work. All was peaceful and quiet, but he was still tense. The explosives at the warehouse should have gone off by now. All evidence of his theft of the crates should be erased, and with any luck, Dr. Raven would get blamed for the sabotage and be safely out of the way in jail. But for some reason, he felt so uneasy. . . .
The lamp suddenly soared off the desk and crashed to the floor. A metal rod gleamed in the now-darkened room.
The old businessman leaped to his feet, eyes flashing. "What's going on?!" he demanded. "Who's here?!"
A figure stepped into the stream of light from the open door into the hall. His brown eyes were on fire. "I just came to tell you that your son is dead," a familiar voice snarled.
Mr. Leichter frowned. "Nesbitt, is it? Let me tell you, that is not a good joke, son."
Nesbitt slammed the rod on the desk. "It's not a joke! And how dare you call me 'son'!" His eyes flashed with outrage and pain. "Just tell me something. Where do you get off disowning your actual son, not even caring when he falls into a coma and getting everyone else not to care either, and then out of the blue asking him to come down here and fix a problem that you got into yourself?!"
"Now see here!" Mr. Leichter glared daggers at his intruder. "He'd already been in plenty of messes. I thought he might be able to clean up this one better than I could. I was thinking of the company, of everyone in it, of my family . . ."
"All except him!" Nesbitt snapped. "Sure, you cared about all the family you've got out here, the ones who might be affected by Dr. Raven attacking them to get at you. But you couldn't care less about the son you rejected. You got him out here hoping he'd be a scapegoat, and he was! Raven thought he was you at first. Then he thought that he'd use him to let you know he meant business! He didn't know you didn't care! He didn't know!"
With every sentence he swiped at something else with his metal rod. Paperweights, miniature statues, file folders, all went flying off the desk and to the floor. Mr. Leichter simply stared at him, more in disbelief from his words than his actions. When Nesbitt had emptied the desk of all its contents, he sank to his knees with a despondent, choked cry, still holding his weapon.
"You didn't love him anymore, but I did," he said. "All of us did. And I never told him . . . but I'm telling you." Disbelief filled his voice. "I never told him. . . ."
". . . You love him?" Mr. Leichter's voice suddenly cut through the darkness.
Nesbitt looked up in further disbelief. "You don't even think it's possible for someone to still care about him?!" he cried, his voice all but strangled.
"I mean, I didn't think you could love anyone," Mr. Leichter exclaimed. "You're the one who loves machines and not people, aren't you? You don't even like people, let alone love them!"
Nesbitt leaned on the metal rod. "You've been spying on all of us," he realized.
"Of course I have," Mr. Leichter retorted. "Or at least, I did back then. I learned something about every one of you people after he started running with you. Mr. Gansley is the leader, the one who sees everything like a business decision. Mr. Johnson is the crooked lawyer, always smooth, not above cheating to get what he wants. Mr. Crump is the idiot who adores penguins and pretty young girls."
"He has reasons why he likes penguins," Nesbitt growled. He had never thought he'd be defending Crump on that. Slowly he pushed himself to his feet, using the rod as a support. "And you may have learned something that's technically true about all of us, but your private detectives neglected to mention the most important things. We're loyal to each other and we don't give up on each other when times are tough. We've been through Hell, and the only reason we made it through is because we were together.
"There were times when we didn't fully appreciate or understand what we have. You're right; I wasn't interested in people for years. I preferred my machines. I understood them. I was never able to understand people. When I met the others, I didn't understand them either. And I never thought they would become more important to me than any machine ever could be. Back then, the very thought was laughable to me at best.
"I still don't understand people. There are a lot of things I don't understand about the other four men. But I don't need to understand everything or to agree with everything they do. All I really need to know is that they're my friends . . . my true family. And I never thought I would love any humans so deeply or that I would even know what it felt like if I did. But I know.
"I suppose your spies also told you that your son and I have never got along well, that we have spats and sometimes he calls me a fool and I call him names too. But unfortunately, he's usually right about me being a fool. I'm impulsive and hot-headed and I've made a mess out of things more than once. And he never gives up on me no matter what. Sure, sometimes he's mad at me and I'm mad at him, but we never forget our loyalty. We would never dream of disowning each other!"
Mr. Leichter had stayed silent all through Nesbitt's tirade, just staring at him, stunned and surprised and amazed by the depth of his feelings.
"Sure, there are some biological families that stick together through everything," Nesbitt said, "but this family isn't one of them. I've never seen a family worse off than this one." He looked with fury at the older man in front of him. "If we had known what you really had in mind for Lector, we would have fought with everything we had to keep him away from here. This time, he was a fool. But so were all the rest of us!" He trembled. "Who could have ever believed the depth of your hatred for your son?! I never even told him how much I care about him . . . and now, thanks to you, I'll never have that chance."
Finally Mr. Leichter approached him. "He . . . he's really dead?"
"Yes," Nesbitt spat, "and I'll never forgive you for that." He started to get up, clutching the rod so tightly his knuckles were white. "I was there. I saw him laying dead after he saved Seto Kaiba's little brother from Dr. Raven's deathtrap at your warehouse."
Mr. Leichter went sheet-white. "The warehouse?" he rasped.
"Dr. Raven must have set up the explosion to destroy property you owned," Nesbitt said bitterly. "He was bragging about killing someone there. I took this rod from the wreckage of the building. And the only thing stopping me from killing you with it right now is knowing that for some reason, your son probably still wouldn't want me to. But I'll ruin you somehow. You're going to pay for this. I'll see to it that you'll never stop paying. Dr. Raven may have actually set off the explosion, but Lector never would have been caught in it if it wasn't for you. You tricked him to his death. You killed my brother and you don't even care!" He turned, slipping into the shadows as he disappeared from the room.
Mr. Leichter stared after him for a long moment, still reeling in disbelief. Then he sank to his knees, overwhelmed. "My son," he whispered. "My son is dead. . . ."
He picked up one of the fallen items, a paperweight his son had given him one year for his birthday. He clutched it close, trembling.
"Oh, Démas," he choked out. "What happened to us? To me? And what has become of you? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He couldn't even say Nesbitt's accusations were wrong. But he had never really intended on this outcome, even though in the back of his mind he had known it might happen, and now it was too late to fix any of it.
"It's my fault," he whispered in horror. "He was caught in the explosion I rigged. . . ."
"You rigged it, Daddy?!"
He went stiff. Evangeline had come to the doorway and he hadn't even noticed.
Her voice climbed in outraged disbelief. "You killed Démas?!"
He straightened, sheet-white. "No!" he cried. "The explosion . . . I only set it to . . . to . . ."
"To make it look like you didn't steal those crates?!" Evangeline's eyes flashed. "Gabriel heard you talking when you were taking them. He didn't want to get you in trouble, but he finally confessed today. Adele was just talking to me about it. I was coming to talk to you when I heard that man screaming." She trembled. "You killed my brother!"
"I didn't even know he'd be there when the bombs went off!" Mr. Leichter finally burst out, his voice strangled. "He wasn't supposed to be there! Dr. Raven was supposed to get blamed!"
"Démas was there," Evangeline spat. "Dr. Raven set things up to kill somebody to force you to give him back some amulet you stole from him! And the person who got killed was Démas! And for what?!"
Mr. Leichter's hands shook. He straightened, crossing the room to his desk. As he opened the top drawer, he took out a locked metal box and opened it. "For this," he rasped.
Evangeline came over to look. A jade, diamond-shaped amulet was nestled inside.
In an instant she grabbed it, clenching it in a shaking fist. "You let Démas die for this?!" she shrieked. "You didn't just give Dr. Raven his amulet to protect your son?!"
"He would have used it to attack this entire family!" Mr. Leichter boomed. "You know about the bitter feelings between our families!"
"But it didn't matter if he attacked Démas?!" Angry tears spilled from Evangeline's eyes. "You were willing to give him up?!"
"Yes," Mr. Leichter said without hesitation. "Only now he really is gone . . . and by my hand. . . ."
Evangeline screamed. And as her emotions boiled over, the amulet started to glow. Tendrils of jade-colored mist began to swirl around her as a magical wind caught her long hair and blew it upward. "What's . . . what's happening?!" she cried.
Mr. Leichter backed up against the desk. "Oh no," he said in horror. "It's true! The amulet . . . it really does have powers that react to strong emotions! Evangeline, darling, you have to calm down! You have to . . ."
"Calm down?!" Evangeline's voice echoed eerily through the room. "You killed my brother and you want me to calm down?!" She placed the still-glowing amulet around her neck. Her eyes were now giving off a matching glow as her magic lifted her several inches off the floor. "I'll never calm down! I'll avenge what you did! And don't think Dr. Raven will be off the hook either! You'll both pay, and pay dearly!" Magic crackled at her fingertips.
"Evangeline!" Mr. Leichter shouted in desperation. But it was no use. The amulet had completely taken her over. She gave him a cold look just before blasting him with her newfound powers.