The Goose and the Gander

Chapter Three: Judging a Book

''I saw it the next day. I was sitting in the den in front of the t.v, Tinker Bell puzzle in front of me; and I was almost done. I picked up a piece from the decreasing pile beside me and fitted it into the blonde fairy's smile. Two more to go. The elderly woman on the screen was sobbing hesterically. Poor thing. ''I just want to find out who did this to my baby...'' she choked. I smirked. Her 'baby' was a bully; the most handsome boy in school with a heart of artificial gold--a jackass.

My mother saw this, and looked down at me from the sofa, her head resting on her husband's lap. ''What are you smiling at? It's a shame what happened to him...I hope the crazy idiot who killed him get's locked up'' My father nodded. ''And I hope they throw away the key'' He looked down at my unfinished puzzle and his face immediately broke into a smile. ''That's great, honey! You're almost done!'' I nodded to myself. ''I hope they catch him too...'' I remarked, though I doubted it: I buried the knife in the backyard. Chuckling, I fitted the last two pieces in the puzzle needed to complete the smile. It was always the quiet ones...''.

When she awoke, the first thing she realized was how terribly hungry she was. The gnawing pain was the cause of her waking up; she could only sleep so long with the loud complaints of her stomach. Groaning, she made a move to cover her head with the pillow beside her in an attempt to fall back to sleep. That's when she realized something else.

Her wrists were tied to the bedpost.

Bolting upright, she tugged at the bindings, mind frantic. All of the events from the day before came flooding in her mind; getting kidnapped, witnessing murder, being taken to a motel...

Her plan...

Anira cursed herself for not waking up earliar; she had thought that she wouldn't sleep late if her mind knew she was in trouble. And speaking of trouble...

Where was her kidnapper?

She tried again to work the bindings loose, refusing to give up until her wrists were raw. Ignoring the pain competing with her hunger, she stilled herself and strained her ears to ''see'' what was in the room she was in.

The first thing she noticed was the ticking of a clock on the other side of the room. Brows furrowed, she concentrated even further to seperate the sounds her keen ears were recieving. There was the faint sound of a busy neighborhood; motors, horns blaring, and morning chatter from the people, meaning she was close to a window either on or near the first floor. There was also the barely audible hum from the AC and the refridgerator...the dripping of a faucet...

She froze.

There was also the sound of someone's steady breathing to her left.

''Who are you?!'' she yelled in a mixture of anger and fear; she knew he was her kidnapper, but who exactly was he?

Bryan made in unaudible sound before uncrossing his arms and getting up from the mattress opposite her's. Anira began her struggles again, biting her lip to stop herself from moaning in pain. Bryan walked passed her and over to the window and looked out through the blinds. There were many people outside: Most of the buildings adjacent to the motel they were staying at were fast food joints, so it was expected.

There was no one in particular who caught his attention: Mostly everyone were teenagers or mothers walking with smaller children. His sharp eyes scanned every individual, magnifying them a couple of times in order to catch something that would have been hidden otherwise.

Click.

He saw what he was looking for amongst three men dressed casually near the front of the motel. Of the three, two were armed. The other man was speaking on a cell; laughing, he looked up the buiilding and smiled.

The cyborg stepped away from the window and turned to his ''charge''. The doctor's granddaughter was still struggling against the rope he used to tie her to the bedposts. He had waited until she had fallen asleep to tie her up; he did not want her spending the entire night trying to figure out how to get free--to be on the safe side. Not that he thought she could actually escape.

In her blindess, the girl took to glaring at the wall behind him, gray eyes ablaze. ''Let me go! I don't think you want to kill me, how long you've been dragging me around, you sicko'' she spat through clenched teeth. ''Are you gong to take advantage of me, you freakin pig? Can't get nothing from a willing man or woman, so your taking them against your will? How butt ugly are you?'' The girl went on an entire rant, painsakingly scared shitless but trying to cover it up.

Ignoring her, he checked the time on the clock mounted on the wall before fishing out a cell from his pant's pocket; he flipped it open and called Dr. Boskonovitch.

The doctor picked up on the first ring, voice eager. The old man had checked and rechecked his recent calls on his cell in case he missed the cyborg's call; even though he had the phone with him at all times. When he heard Bryan's voice, his heart leapt with joy--despite the fact that the other man sounded severly irked.

''I have the wench. She's beginning to really piss me off, so I suggest that I leave today to bring her to you''

Dr. B shook his head even though he knew the other man could not see the gesture. ''There's too many men following her trail here. Wait there until I call you, but please: Do not saty in one place to long''

Bryan frowned in disgust and gave the girl a sour look. ''I don't like acting like some scared chicken. I could easily kill whatever jackass that tried to kill me'' he said matter-of-factly.

''I can't risk that. I have a plan that I am working on to ensure her safe arrival so be patient. Remember what you are doing this for''

He laughed. He reminded himslef what he was wasting his time doing for an old man and an insolent girl every minute. System repairs and improvements from one of the world's greatest minds.

''Fury, let me speak to her''

He replied to the doctor's request with a snort. Bryan tossed the phone on the bed over his shoulder. ''Your old man wants to speak with you. Make it quick''

Arina stopped at her struggling and looked to where she heard a phone drop, frowning. As far as she was concerned, she had no living relatives; Rachel wasn't her blood sister, they just found each other at the orphanage they ran away from when they were younger. If her grandfather indeed wanted to speak with her, how did Jigsaw (her nickname for her 'kidnapper') contact him? Did he demand a ransom for her? She fretted over this. Why would he pay to have her back if they never met? If Jigsaw didn't need her, he would just kill her...

Forcing herself back to reality, she turned to where she believed Jigsaw to be and spoke.

''My arms are tied up''

Bryan crossed his arms. ''So?''

''...Well, I can't talk on the phone with my hands tied up...'' she said slowly, infuriation quickly building up as she pointed out the obvious. ''Unless you want to hold it to my ear'' She added this knowing full well he wouldn't agree. His only other option would be to untie her...

Smiling, Bryan went over to the bed and picked up the phone, looking down at the girl as he spoke to the doctor. ''She doesn't want to speak with you'''

Arina's mouth literally dopped open. ''What?! I never said that you creep! Let me speak with him!''

On the other end, the doctor frowned and pushed his spectacles farther up the bridge of his nose. He clearly heard his granddaughter's respose to Bryan's remark. Thinking about it, his frown was replaced with an increasing smile. He hadn't heard her voice since she was only three asking if she could sit on is broad shoulder's with that beautiful smile of hers. Now she was shouting angrily ready to rip the cyborg apart. It amazed him how fearless she was in her blindness.

Or maybe she was fearless because of her blindness.

''Bryan,'' the doctor said quite calmly. ''Can I please speak to Arina? Do not make me upset''

Fury laughed at that, disgust building up at what the older man was suggesting. That he had to do whatever the doctor said and that he was supposed to give a flying fuck by making him upset. He hated to have to be told what to do and have to actually listen.

''The way I see it now old man, I can kill the girl if you don't do as I say'' he responded fiercly.

Arina shuddered and took up tugging at the bindings around her wrists.

Dr. Boskonvitch ignored the squeeze of his heart at the threat and remained calm. ''If you do anything to hurt my granddaughter Fury, you can forget recieving any technological help from me. You would just have to kill this old man''

In cruel and unimaginable ways... he thought, but he kept that to himself. Rolling his eyes with a grunt, he took a knife from his belt and cut the rope between the bindings of her wrist and the bedpost. This caught her by surprise, but not as much as the phone hitting her in the forehead.

''Ow!'' she yelped before sighed angrily. When she moved her arm to grab the phone, she felt a sharp pain in her wrist. Moving it under her nose to smell what she thought was there, her eyes narrowed when she found that she was correct.

She smelled the metallic scent of blood.

Taking the phone, she had every intention in her mind to tell her grandfather the way she was being treated. She didn't remember him, but he had to care if he cared enough to speak with her.

Unless he was telling her he refused to pay the money...

''H-hello?'' she asked, suddenly feeling very timid and completely ignoring the snort she heard from 'Jigsaw'.

Dr. B smiled warmly at the sound of her voice. He remembered the very outgoing little girl who wanted to make friends with everybody and everything. Shy wasn't in her vocabulary. ''Hello Arina'' he answered.

The brunette's eyes widened as her lips parted. The words she had been planning on saying died on her tongue. His voice though changed by age sparked memories she thought dead.

''Thank-you Mr. B!'' she exclaimed blue eyes sparkling as she licked the vanilla icecream cone placed in her hands. ''Let's ride on the horses!'' Brown eyes smiled down at her as the tall handsome man took her small little hand in his and led her to the horse riding ranch in the festival.

''How is the weather up there Arina?'' Mr. B asked. The litle girl squealed with happiness. Daring to remove her arms from around his neck, she reached for the sky in an attempt to wrap the sunlight around her fingers. ''It's sunny'' she remarked. The brunette smiled at this. ''Do you think it's warm enough to make lemonade?'' he asked, a twinkle in his brown eyes. Arina, the girl mounted on his shoulders squealed again. ''Yes!''

Arina managed to open her sleepy eyes a bit. They were sore from crying all afternoon. The gorgous blue of her eyes were beginning to loose their luter as they changed into a cloudy gray: S1he was experiencing her first lapse into blindness. ''I'm scared Mr. B'' she whispered softly. He nodded sadly with understanding. ''I know'' She tried to look at him and frowned when all she saw was an extremely blurry figure. Her eyes watered again. ''Where are you going?'' His frown deepened. ''I can't tell you...'' he whispered back. The little girl closed her eyes. ''Will you caome back?'' ''I hope'' he answered before letting go of her hand.

Arina felt her eyes water at the rush of emotions that ovecame her; hurt, anger, overwhelming joy and peace. She hastily rubbed at her tears and took a shaky breath. If there was one thing she knew about the most important man in her life, it was this; he was definetly not her grandfather. She knew because she had wished upon everything that he was. That or she would be able to marry him one day. She laughed at that. He had to be in his sixties by now. She had recently turned twenty-one.

''Arina?''

She nearly jumped when he spoke again. She heard deep concern in his voice, and she felt instantly embarrassed that she had drifted off like that. Arina was about to speak again when she remembered the pain she felt when he had left her life and how it intensified tenfold to hurt when she realized that he was never coming back. ''Why...'' she said slowly, unaware that she was voicing her thoughts out loud. ''Why did you leave?''

Dr. Boskonovitch was taken back by the suddeness of her question and the extreme emotion he heard in those four words. He was expecting that question from her sooner or later, but really later rather than sooner. The pain he had buried all those years for abandoning her immediately resurfaced as if he hadn't trained himself almost all his life to contain them. It almost overwhelmed him, but he managed to get ahold of himself in order to explain to her that he had no intention of hurting her.

''I had very important things to do...'' he started, knowing as soon as the words got out that they would do no good.

''So important that you couldn't call me?'' she asked incredulous. ''To busy to get me out of that Godforsaken orphanage? I lived on the streets for two years for crying out loud!'' She didn't mean to shout this, but when she did, Bryan gave her a dirty look before going to the window again. This conversation was going to take a while.

The doctor winced at her words and sighed. This was a lot harder than he thought. He looked at a framed faded picture on his desk. It was of him and little Arina at a festival. She was mounted on a horse and smiling warmly at the camera, her hand in his when he was about twenty years younger. He was in his mid-forties at the time; there was only a hint of grey in his brown hair, and no trace at all of wrinkles. There was too much to explain to her, none of which was appropriate to speak about over the phone.

''Listen Arina, the man who is with you is named Bryan Fury. I, er, asked that he bring you to me in a few week's time. You need to trust him for the moment. There is a lot to explain and I promis--''

''Wait!'' she said hastily. Her mind was having enough trouble grasping the fact that she was supposed to trust Jigsaw to even comprehend anything else. He had kidnapped her hadn't he? If he was supposed to be bringing her to Mr. B because of his request, he was doing a lousy job. ''Tell me now, there's plenty of--''

The phone was then snatched out of her hand by Bryan. ''Sorry, but no, there isn't'' he told her unsympathetically before hanging it up and pocketing the cell. He removed the knife from his belt again and slashed the other rope before taking her by the waist and swinging her over his left shoulder. She let out a squeal of surprise and groaned when she realized what was going on.

''Please, I won't run away, I promise'' she said pleadingly. ''Just let me--''

''No'' Came his instant reply. However, he thought better of it and threw her ''gently'' on the floor on the other side of the bed.

She cursed loudly when she hit the bed and rolled unto the ground, and was about to stand up when she heard a loud crash in front of them; it sounded as if someone had kicked down the door, and when she heard an eruption of bullets, she knew she was correct.