Insanity
Kawaii Stella
Chapter 3
Catch Me If You Can
When Marbles went into his housing sector, he didn't know what to do. He had to clear his mind somehow; he had to calm down. Why was he seeing her? He wished she was there, he really did. He missed his baby sister so, but she was away for a good reason. But, he could've prevented the key event that got her taken away. If only he had paid attention to the signs that Hacker was evil…
"You have to calm down," Marbles told himself shakily. "What will calm me down? A swim! That's it; a nice, long swim in the pool will surely calm me down."
So Marbles went and put on his swim trunks and went to the pool storage room. In the storage room he grabbed a fluffy towel and put in contact lenses so he could see where he swam. He went to the pool, which was large with two different diving boards and dived into the deep end head first, letting the cool water relax his mind and body. Marbles did laps around the pool before leisurely swimming beneath the surface, floating on his back with his eyes closed only when he needed air.
Marbles swam for about two hours and felt considerably calmer near the end of his swim. He dived under one last time and opened his eyes under water and looked to the surface, the image skewed only by the rippling of the water. He saw a small figure clad in pink on top of the diving board. Quickly Marbles swam to the surface, to see none other but Dove in a little pink swimsuit sitting atop of the board, swinging her legs above the water. This time her hair was as black as night and her eyes the same shade as their father's.
When Marbles saw that she was really on the diving board he started to swim towards her, but not fast enough. Dove stood up and said, "Marbles, I wanna swim like you! Teach me, teach me!" It was then when the little girl jumped right into the water causing Marbles to panic. He dove under to save her but she was nowhere in the water. She wasn't above the water either. He was by himself in the pool.
"Wha-?" Marbles said. "She went under. I saw her. I must sound like a broken record but I saw her! I really did…" Marbles' voice faded away into the sound of the water. He swam the pool once more as he searched for Dove. Of course she was nowhere to be seen.
Finally Marbles got out of the pool and went back into the housing sector where he decided to shower and put on his comfiest sweatpants and t-shirt in yet another attempt to calm himself down. By now it was past eight in the evening and Marbles should've eaten his dinner by now but he had no appetite. He just didn't feel like doing anything but figuring out why Dove was there.
For what seemed like an eternity Marbles paced his home trying to think. He looked at the old photographs on the walls wishing they could give him the answers he so desperately sought for. Many of the pictures he looked to showed Dove's image, ranging from her infancy to her toddler years; the last years Marbles had seen her. Every now and again he thought he heard her voice from various parts of the house but his investigations into the matter had proved unfruitful. Finally Marbles gave up his search and went to bed, hopefully ending this nightmare of a day.
Despite how hard he tried to sleep, Marbles couldn't. All he could do was lay there and wondering why God was putting him through this. What Marbles' didn't know however was that it was not God's doing, it was Hacker's.
Now seeing his sister was becoming bad for Marbles. It was bad because as Marbles thought about her more and more, Marbles' most painful memory was unearthed more than ever. Now it was near impossible to stop the memory from floating back, it hit him at full force.
Flashback
Dove had been five at the time it happened. It was the first time that Dr. Marbles had seen Hacker's true colors. It was an early summer day at Control Central, but the weather still felt like spring. Marbles had the day off to spend with Dove and Chazz while he left Hacker to take care of Motherboard with his recently built assistant, Digit.
The day had gone well and at lunch time when Marbles went to start lunch, the twins left to play in their room. They had played there for quite some time until, according to Chazz, they heard a sound. Dove had been more courageous than Chazz, thus being the one to investigate the sound. That had been the mistake of her little life.
Marbles couldn't even begin to fathom the pain that Dove was in. He remembered her agonizing scream echoing down the halls. Marbles remembered clear as day sprinting down the hall, smelling blood and hearing her cries. When he found her it was an appalling sight.
The growing puddle of blood…her shoulder mutilated…her eyes full of tears. And Hacker running away like a coward.
Thanks to his father's and his medical expertise they were able to save her and her shoulder without much damage. The scar was ugly and long though, held together by thirty or more stitches. It was an everlasting reminder of Marbles' mistake. Once the stitches were out, Dove was going to have her memories locked away so she could try to lead a "normal" life far away from Cyberspace.
Marbles remembered one of the last things Dove had told him before she left. She had said that, "You know I'm glad that it was me Hacker hit instead of you. You can do lots more than me; you get to help Cyberspace, I can't do that. I'm not as useful as you are, that's why I'm glad it was me. You're worth more."
Days later, she was gone.
"You have no idea how much you're truly worth Dove. You're more useful than you'll ever know," Marbles said aloud, sitting against the headboard pulling his knees to his chest.
All of his life Marbles tried to abide by the unspoken rule of men: Men don't cry. In conscious memory, the only time he could remember breaking that rule was when he was seventeen; that day Dove got hurt. Now he was breaking that rule again. He just couldn't take the pain anymore.
For several moments it was pure silence; Marbles just sat there with tears streaming down his face. After so long the tears stopped, there were none left to shed. He sat there in bed wide awake past eleven at night, unsure about what would happen next or what to do. He finally decided to just lie there, praying sleep would take him soon. Marbles may have been an inch closer to sleep when he felt something on his chest; something that weighed several pounds but was still small.
Marbles' eyes slowly opened to see the white haired Dove sitting on his chest. Her blue eyes stared in his with a playful grin.
"Get up sleepyhead! It's time to play!" She giggled then crawled off the bed running to the door. "Catch me if you can!" She challenged before running out of the room.
Marbles knew that was the perfect plan; he would catch her and find out why she was there. Like a wild animal he ran out of his room after, once again nowhere to be seen, Dove. He ran everywhere looking for her slipping around in his socks. His normally calm and wise brown eyes crazed with emotion.
Meanwhile, Hacker watched his creator go insane. He laughed at Dr. Marbles' misfortune, pleased he was causing it. Hacker knew that it wouldn't be long before Marbles lost it completely. Tomorrow would be the day that Dr. Marbles lost his marbles for good.