Chapter 16: New Information
The next morning Vlad pulled me into his room as soon as I left mine. There were no words shared as he closed the door. Before I could voice my confusion, his arms wrapped around me. He had me in a tight embrace, showing no signs of letting go.
"Are you alright?" I asked after the silence felt too long.
"Just let me have this." He whispered.
"Is something wrong?" I tried again.
Vlad growled in displeasure. "I said-" he took a deep breath and relaxed. "Allow me his privilege, just for a while."
My arms twitched at my sides during his embrace. After a while I felt compelled to wrap my arms around him, but my hands could only brush his arms after he finally let go. He looked at me with tired eyes.
"We need to speak with an old friend of mine. You, myself, and that operative you care for." He finally said.
"Why?" I asked with hands folded on my chest.
His mouth became a thin line. "I came across some concerning information."
I was completely confused as to why we were walking towards the neighbor's house. As we made it to the front door, Vlad hesitated to ring the doorbell. I looked at K, who looked at me, and he shrugged in equal confusion. He took a deep breath, muttered a few words of encouragement to himself, before finally ringing the doorbell.
A thin, tall, old man wearing a suit opened the door. "Good afternoon, the masters were not expecting company at this time." He said with a straight face,
"I'm sure Jack wouldn't mind a surprise visit from me." Vlad sounded pleasant, but his face seemed tight.
And speaking of the devil. "V-man, is that you?" Jack came practically skipping to the front door. "How'd you know we moved here?"
The butler scrunched his face and left with a silent departure.
"We've been neighbors for nearly 3 days." Vlad explained, body tense.
"Really?" Jack asked. "Who would've thought we'd be neighbors."
"Yes, who would have thought?" Vlad muttered before Jack shouted.
"Hey Maddie," Jack shouted, "you wouldn't believe who's the new neighbor."
"Oh?" Footsteps were heard and a voice grew closer. "Who is it, Jack?"
As Maddie stepped into view, the smile on her face fell. Vlad gave a small smile, but his posture stayed the same. The front door was quickly shut. There was a short argument inside, with Maddie quickly checking out the window, and the door was open again.
"Sorry about that, I was just...surprised to see a familiar face." Maddie's voice was strained.
"So what brings you here neighbor." Jack smiled at his old college friend. "And with friends, no less!"
"Sadly I am not here for a friendly neighborhood welcoming." Vlad opened with. "I'm here for more pressing matters. I became aware of a study Maddie was conducting involving Infatuation's victims." He gestured at me and K. "Including their object of affection and their romantic partner at the time."
Maddie's eyes widened in realization, while Jack looked confused. "I don't know V-man, what you said should involve 3 people, but you brought 2."
"Jack," Maddie placed a hand on her husband's arm. "Vlad is the third person." Her husband's mouth dropped.
"Why didn't you tell us you were a victim?" Jack asked while holding an ice pack to his head. He didn't take the information too well.
We were all at Fenton Works. It turns out after the Fenton's found out about Infatuations side effects, and finally getting noticed as legitimate ghost hunters, the government employed them. They were given a "fat check" that they used to finally buy a house and keep their workplace separate. In their said workshop, Vlad, K, and I were hooked up to several machines. Maddie wrote down in her clipboard every time she looked at the monitors.
"I do have an image to uphold, Jack." Vlad reasoned. "Risking vital information could, and almost, ruin not only my career, but as well as my livelihood."
"What do you mean "almost"?" Maddie asked.
Vlad let out a nervous cough. "Well, it seems that someone, a political rival, came across some information. Information involving myself and Miss Velia."
Only one "political rival" came to mind. "Russel." I whispered.
After uttering his name, Maddie, K and Vlad stiffen.
"Russel, as in Emily Russel?" Maddie asked.
"No, her brother, Mike Russel." Vlad answered. "How do you know his sister?"
"She's part of a pattern." Maddie lit up a projector. "Almost every group affected by Infatuation has met her, or seen her before." Every image shown on the projector had two or three faces circled, probably victims, and the image of Emily Russel in the background. "I believe she has some correlation in what we've recently found."
"What did you find?" I asked.
"Well, in layman's terms, we've found the victims, their person of interest, and any romantic partner both have had during the victim's trance, show a chemical imbalance. And if those imbalance's tip over a certain line, everyone involved will be trapped in Infatuation's power."
"Instead of just one person being bitten by the ghost powered love bug, it's everyone. It'll be like one of those Spanish soaps that make no sense." Jack gave his input.
"Have you found a way to balance these chemicals?" K asked.
Jack and Maddie nodded. "We've found that giving a certain diet will help with the imbalance." Maddie went back to writing.
"And a few questionable shots here and there and presto." Jack pulled out syringes from a fridge. "In just three weeks everything is back to normal. But the victim and their crush still have to hangout. We still haven't solved the whole heart attack thing."
"Hold on a minute Jack." Maddie was frowning and looking at both K's and Vlad's monitors. "It seems like there's something more with their story."
Jack put the syringes back. "What is it, Mads?"
"Oh please, I gave you the whole story." Vlad rolled his eyes. "Just give us the diets, and questionable shots, so we can be on our way."
"Vlad," Maddie said, "I'm sure you told us everything, but these charts add something else."
Jack looked back and forth from K's monitor to Maddie's clipboard. "Well I'll be," he looked to be in disbelief. "This would be our first case."
"Your first case?" I was confused. Didn't they say they were studying Infatuation cases? What could have possibly come up that was new to them?
"It seems that not only is Vlad a victim, but K is as well." Maddie revealed.
"What?!" All three of us exclaimed.
"I'm guessing none of you picked up on that." Maddie pressed a button to a machine connected to all three monitors. "It doesn't surprise me, several couples never noticed a difference in their partners." Papers started to print out and she continued to talk. "But, we've never encountered two victim's with the same person of interest." She looked at the papers and handed them to her husband. "Jack, you're usually better with graphs, what do these tell you?"
Jack quickly looked at the papers. His eyes seemed focused on two. "Vlad and alphabet soup here have a moment of balance." K looked offended as Jack pulled out a third paper. "And it's when Vladdy's beau's heart accelerates." After he said that K looked even more offended.
"What does that intel?" Vlad asks.
"Not sure V-man, but it makes sense why Maddie didn't want to go through the original plan." Jack shuffled through the papers. "Every time both of you balance out, the chemical imbalance changes. We'll need to do more tests, try and find a pattern."
"How long will it take to find a pattern?" K asked.
"Possibly a week, or a month, maybe a year." Maddie started to unhook us from the machines. "We won't know for sure until we continue these studies. I would like you all to come back tomorrow for another reading."
"Say, V-man," Jack asked, "how long have you three been together?" He was still shuffling through the papers.
"We've been in contact for about five days." Vlad answered, glaring at K.
"Funny," Jack hummed, "these charts look like weeks of interaction, not a few days after reuniting."
"What?" Maddie, Vlad, and K went over to look at the charts.
"How is that possible?" K asked.
"It might have to do with all three of you interacting with one another." Maddie pondered. "We could experiment separating the three of you. Maybe take one of you out while monitoring."
"Maddie," Jack frowned, "this is Vlad we're talking about. We should be focusing on making sure he doesn't turn into a love zombie. We'll experiment after we find a pattern."
I am too nervous to move, too nervous to say anything. Not only was Vlad spelled to be in love with me, so was K. It made me question K's feelings. I wrapped my arms around myself, drowning out what was being said. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up I see K with a small smile.
"The Fentons and Masters' decided that all monitoring will be done at the manor." He said in a hushed tone.
Vlad cleared his throat, getting everyone to look at him. "Well now that everything has been settled. We will be taking our leave now. Jack. Maddie." He nodded his head in a form of farewell.
We left the Fenton's and went back to Vlad's home. We greeted everyone and headed straight to the study. Vlad took a seat behind his desk, while I walked behind the closest chair to hold on to, K leaned on a bookshelf.
"Now what?" K asked.
Vlad groaned, face pinched, and covered his face with a single hand. A moment passed before he sighed and straightened his back. "We will have to spend more time together. All three of us." He looked at us with a serious face. "If a few moments together, in a short amount of time, caused such a positive reaction, think of what long exposure would do for us."
K's brow scrunched. "There haven't been studies, it could cause a negative reaction." He reasoned.
"The Fenton's studies for victims, where they're interests were already their partner, have shown more significant progress." K stiffen at that. "There is a minimum chance of there being a negative reaction. We both are no strangers to scientific studies. If we notice anything out of the ordinary, we'll stop exposing ourselves with each other."
K stayed silent for a while, his head pointed down. "We both may not be strangers to dangerous studies, but Jeanette isn't." He looked up at me.
"That is true," Vlad started. "Miss Velia, what will it be? Will you be willing to try this exposure experiment, or continue our current situation?"
I wrung my hands, thinking over what was asked of me. One hand spending time together with both of them might open new possibilities. It might even help with finding a way to balance the chemical imbalance. But on the other hand, having our regular schedule was something familiar. There haven't been any negative side effects so far. But, we did just find out that K was also a victim of Infatuation's power.
Finally making up my decision, I looked at Vlad. "I'm willing to try the exposure experiment."
A/N: Honestly have no idea where this is going...