Chapter Seven: Operation
Vincent Valentine:
I sighed loudly staring down at a mass of shiny red hair. I was at square one with her again and I couldn't understand how it reverted back to this. For the past three days she hadn't spoken a word to me nor had she eaten a crumb or at least not that I know of. I wanted to ask her what happened to the trust I thought we had established, but those kinds of words didn't come easy for me.
"Aubre, please eat." I said as gently as I could. I had but a single thread of patience left in me, yet I tried desperately not to yell. I felt my jaw tightened as I suppressed that urge. She remained unresponsive. After a few minutes, I felt the thread of patience snap.
I slammed my fist down on the tray that sat across the bed. She lay under it on her back. Water jumped from its glass upon the impact of my fist on the tray landing in her hair. She jumped up suddenly and pushed the tray off the bed spilling the rest of the water along with the vegetables and chicken on the plate.
"I've decided I want to die." Her voice was low and the way her eyes pierced into mine made me want to believe she was possessed.
"What brought on that decision? I believed we had an agreement." I said crossing my arms and looking down at her through the loose bangs in my face.
She looked away and twisted her face into a frown. "I felt bad for you, Valentine. But lately I've noticed I needn't feel that way."
"I never wanted you to pity me. I don't deserve that, I know." I said honestly. I uncrossed my arms and stuck my hands in my pockets. The mood swings of pregnancy didn't appear this soon did they? Is that the reason for the sudden change of heart? I wondered to myself looking around the room. I didn't bother touching the mess that was made. I'd call a maid in a while to come clean it.
"You had me believing that you were honestly hurting as much as I am right now. But you couldn't be any happier now, could you? You've completed your task, you've got your pretty little girlfriend, and when this is all over your life will continue on as if nothing ever happen." She gave a sarcastic laugh before glaring hard at me. "My life is ruined!"
I played her words back in my mind. "Girlfriend? Are you speaking of Lucrecia?"
She gave me a smug look as if she knew that I knew what she was talking about. I sighed softly and sat down on the bed beside her. Now I began to see the reason for her attitude. While Hojo has been away these past few days, I had been sneaking off and spending time with Lucrecia. I never considered how selfish and wrong this would look in her eyes, but didn't think she'd care.
"I fell in love with her long before I knew I'd be participating in this project." I glanced over at her and she turned away from me. "But she belongs to Hojo. Not me." I sighed again and leaned forward resting my elbows on my knees. "She can lead me on as much as she wants to, but we both know the truth. She is as scared of that man as we all are and will remain by his side."
She looked away and glanced down almost as if she felt guilty for assuming such a thing. I managed a small laugh. "Again, I'm not asking you to pity me."
"You love her… Does she feel the same?" Aubre looked up at me. She looked very pale in the face so I hoped after this conversation she'd begin to eat. I sighed softly as I stared down at her.
"I don't know. Women are.." I paused for a moment thinking of a word that wouldn't offend the woman in front of me. "..confusing."
I caught her rolling her eyes at me before looking away.
"I know. I'm foolish." I admitted watching her and for some reason wishing she'd smile. Seeing her smile always reminded me that Lucrecia wasn't the only woman in the world with a smile that could make my heart melt.
She half granted my wish, turning to me with a thin smile. "Foolish indeed. Go get me some fresh food."
"Yes ma'am." I said sliding off the bed and walking out of the room. I picked up the phone and ordered another plate of chicken and vegetables and called for a maid to come and clean the place. Not only was there a mess on the bedroom floor, but the entire suite could use a bit of cleaning. Nearly five minutes after I hung up the phone there was a knock at the door. That was quick. I thought to myself hurrying over to the door to answer it. I pulled it open to see Hojo instead. Immediately my mind began to panic. If he came here now to inspect Aubre he'd find her in there nearly starved to death and blame me for not taking proper care of her. Aubre claimed I had 'finished my job' but technically my job isn't over until the child is born. Any failures from now on still result in my death.
"Go fetch me the girl." Hojo demanded. I nodded quickly and hurried to the bedroom. I shut the door behind me.
"Aubre, Hojo's here to see you." I whispered the panic was still evident in my low voice. Aubre tried to stand, but she was indeed weak from the hunger. I grabbed her wrist lightly in an attempt to steady her. "If he sees you like this, I may be in trouble."
"What do you want me to do?" she asked lazily looking up at me.
I looked over at the food on the floor.
"Forget it!" she hissed. She ripped her arm out of my light grip, stumbling back towards the bed.
"Please?" I begged.
"Hurry up, boy! Bring me the girl!" Hojo yelled from the other room.
Aubre Naluri:
Vincent turned back to me. Those expressive eyes of his were clearly begging me to comply with his plan. "Please." He said again bringing his face closer to mine. I sighed loudly and moved towards the food on the floor. Vincent darted out of the room and I heard him tell Hojo I had been sleeping and was now getting dressed. That bought me an extra five minutes to force feed myself dirty vegetables from the floor. Even though the carpet was clean. I drank the swallow of water that was left in the cup and stood giving myself a minute to shake away the light headedness. I stepped out of the bedroom to see Vincent distracting Hojo with mindless conversation.
"Come with me, dear." Hojo said wrapping his cold clammy hand around my wrist and pulling me along with him. I sent a desperate look back at Vincent. He hesitated a moment in the doorway, and then walked out of it and followed Hojo and I.
"We don't need your company, boy." Hojo said sending a glance over his shoulder.
"Uh…well I thought since I…" I knew he was trying to think of an excuse of why he should be allowed supervise the inspections, but he was failing miserably. On top of that, the room service he'd ordered was on its way down the hall along with the maid so he had to turn around and let them into the room.
Hojo's private lab was a horrifying place. There were live monsters in cages, dead monsters in huge capsules, Human bodies in smaller capsules, and most disturbing of all a human body lying on a table being drained of all his blood. I noticed he was wearing a Turk uniform. For a second my mind flashed and I saw Vincent lying there instead of the unidentified man. That thought made me shudder visibly. Hojo turned to me.
"Don't mind any of this, my dear. This is science!" He said with a smile. "Science is the key to understanding life. Once one fully understands life, you can then manipulate it." I stopped listening to his insane talk after that sentence. Life isn't something that should be manipulated. Especially against one's will. The horrified expression on the dead man's face showed that he defiantly didn't willingly give his life for the sake of science.
Suddenly there were three more men in the room and they helped me onto one of the tables and strapped me to it. My heart pounded as I wondered what was about to happen. Hojo returned and hovered over me with a surgical knife. "No!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Vincent Valentine:
My head shot up at the sound of a scream. Aubre.. I slammed my fist against the closed door. The maid in the bedroom quickly stuck her head out of the room to see what the noise was. I shook my head at her as if to say it was nothing. Panic took over me and all I could do was pace the room. I ran my hands through my hair so many times my fingers were tangled with strands that had been ripped out of my head. What if something had gone wrong and Hojo was about to dispose of her? How could I live with myself if that happened?
Aubre Naluri:
I woke up in a much more pleasant room. I was pleased to see I was lying in bed by an open window. I stared outside at the pretty flowers. For a second I could almost pretend I was anywhere but here in this mansion.
"You're awake." a sweet voice sounded. I turned to see Hojo's wife standing there smiling. She sat a tray of food over my bed and pulled up a chair next to me. She continued to smile as she hovered over me staring at me as if I were her most precious object. This quality in her could easily give off the wrong impressions in other situations. I could see how Vincent would mistake her extremely kind nature for intimate affection.
I tried to sit up, but quickly stopped when I felt a terrible pain rip through my upper abdomen. I couldn't help but cry out.
"Oh!" Lucrecia touched my arm gently. "You've just gone through a small surgery. Hojo needed to implant some cells into the fertilized egg." She stroked my arm lightly as if that was supposed to help the pain in my abdomen. Through the thin white gown I was wearing I could see a long bandage covering where I supposed he'd cut me open. Great, now I'd have a scar down there for the rest of my life.
To prevent me from having to lean up to eat, Lucrecia literally fed me as if I were a baby. It was a little degrading, but I was in too much pain to care. She smiled again after feeding me. "Vincent was really worried about you."
"Was he." I failed to add the question in my tone.
She grinned happily. "I've never met someone so caring in my life."
This was a good opportunity for me to find out how she felt about him. Although, I found myself hoping she didn't feel the same.
"Do you like Vincent?" I asked her receiving a surprised look from her. She laughed softly.
"Vincent's a great guy, but I'm already married and I have my obligations to my husband." Her smile faded and she looked away.
"He lov.."
"Uh.. actually speaking of Vincent, I'm going to go call him and let him know you're awake and he can come down here to see you." She shot out of the chair and hurried out of the room. I wondered why this was such a hard topic for her. A little while later, Vincent walked into the room. He noticed the empty food tray sitting over me and removed it. I watched him as he made an uneasy move towards the chair Lucrecia had been sitting in. He finally sat down and looked at me.
"I'm so sorry. What did he do to you in there? I heard you scream." He said letting his eyes travel down my body. I felt a little violated as the thin white gown I was wearing was practically see through. Though, what did it matter? He'd already seen what was under the gown anyway. I let out a heavy sigh slowly.
"I don't want to talk about it." I didn't even understand what he'd done to me. Implanting cells into a fertilized egg? What the hell was that supposed to do?
Vincent gave an understanding nod.
Vincent Valentine:
Hojo kept a close eye over Aubre over the next two weeks. Sometimes his twice daily examinations would last two to three hours. I felt so horrible and this guilt was seriously affecting my health. Both mentally and physically. I had a small examination of my own and was prescribed some medication that was supposed to calm my nerves. Being that Hojo had invented it, I flushed every pill down the toilet.
Lucrecia had been avoiding me. With Aubre spending six hours a day in Hojo's lab, I once again began to seek after her. I needed someone to talk to and share my feelings with. I didn't think Aubre wished to be burdened with them. How could I complain to someone in a worse situation than me? Why should I be complaining at all? I sighed loudly and pressed my hand against my intensely warm forehead.
There was a knock at the door.
I slowly forced my weak, aching body out of the sofa I was lounging on and walked to the door. Reno stood there looking unusually serious. He cleared his throat nervously. "What's happened?" I asked quickly. Something had to be wrong for Reno to be acting this way. The adrenaline that pumped through my veins made me forget I was ill for a moment.
"A..a phone call came." He stammered unable to look me in the eye. Phone call? That much cancelled out the idea that anything had happened to Aubre.
"And?" I asked in a more relaxed tone of voice.
"There was an accident here." His voice was a bit hoarse so he cleared his throat. "Your father's dead, man, I'm sorry." He reached out and touched my shoulder. I looked down at the hand on my shoulder thinking about what he had just said. My weak body finally gave out I was swallowed in darkness.