by Bella Lamour
“Let's go,” She hissed, trying to walk forward quickly, but not so much to be obvious.
Yuki never realized how difficult it was to keep pace with someone without looking at them directly. But somehow she managed, and both she and the boy reached for the door at the same time.
“Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there.” He said, beaming at her and holding the door open. He had a strange accent, and Yuki belatedly recognized him as the transfer student from Canada. It figured. “After you, ladies.”
“Thanks,” Yuki murmured, hurrying past.
“Yeah, thanks babe.”
They strolled down the hall until the Canadian turned left into the chemistry labs. Yuki let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and Julie jumped up and down excitedly.
“I can't believe that worked.”
“Me either.”
“Now how are we supposed to get into these other doors? They all have number pads.”
“Students are sent the codes to the doors necessary to their majors at the start of every unit.” Yuki answered, looking for the door they needed. “Of course the door does log every time someone enters or exits, but I'm not really worried about that.” No, her only worry was making sure that her enemies suffered.
Finally she found the door she was looking for. She punched in the code and the number pad beeped cheerily at her. She was just about to push the door open when she thought of something.
“Hey Julie,”
“Hey what?”
“Have you ever seen a dead body before?”
“'Fraid not.”
“Ah...well. That's going to change very shortly.”
“Well that's cheery.” Yuki looked at her expectantly. “What? Might as well get it over with.”
“If you say so.”
The med student shrugged and stepped into the room, flicking the light on. Sure enough, there were two cadavers that were wide open, with a few snacks and drinks around them.
“Uh, is the refreshments normal?”
“Yeah, there's probably a couple of groups that were in here practicing for a test, or internship. They're probably in the break room next door, asleep on the floor.”
“You guys do that a lot? Sleep at school?”
“Yeah. There aren't enough hours in the day to learn to be a doctor, so students get creative.”
“Bleck. No thank you. I need my eight hours of beauty sleep.”
“Obviously.” Yuki headed straight for the cabinets and pulled some liquids out.
“What's that?” Julie asked, nosing over.
“Suxamethonium chloride. We use it when we're first learning dissection to paralyze muscles so they stay in place on the cadaver. Very dangerous when used on a live person. And very effective.”
“Scary.”
“That depends on your point of view.” Yuki shot back, grabbing a handful of syringes.
Once she was satisfied with the quantity of supplies, she shoved them into the front compartment of her backpack, and moved on to one of the dissection tables.
“Whoa, is that what we look like on the inside?”
“Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it?”
“Um, I guess. But also kinda creepy.”
“How so?”
“I dunno. It's just hard to think that everything I am, all my memories, emotions and everything that makes me, well...me, can be reduced down to a series of weirdly shaped meaty bits that a med student will eventually take out and play with.”
Yuki stared at her for a moment. “Well that was deep.”
She laughed. “I do get philosophical occasionally.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So what are we up to here?”
“The first thing we're taught in medical school -well, one of the first things.” She pulled up a scalpel and let the light glint off of it. “A surgeon is only as good as her tools.”
Julie drew in a sharp intake of breath. “I'm not gonna lie, that was a little creepy.”
“I try my best. Now grab me some gauze and a bottle or that rubbing alcohol over on that stand please.”
“Righto.”
Yuki looked back to the neat rows of glistening silver, wondering exactly which ones would quell the rage burning within her.
“Hey, look who joined the world of the living.”
That condescending voice. Like he was so superior than her. Like she was stupid and vile for even existing. It made her skin crawl and her stomach wretch. The three figures loomed over her, shadows dark and threatening. The reflective lense of the camera was the only point of light in their inky darkness.
“What...?” She had moaned, too stunned by the evil in front of her to comprehend the violence that would ensue.
“Shhh, Sakura. It's okay. How are you feeling?”
“Mr. Buck?What...what's going on? Who are these people?”
As the feelings from the fateful night flooded her, Yuki chose a number 10 blade. It was a hard working little tool, with its curved cutting edge that was incredibly useful for making small incisions in skin and muscles. It was most often utilized in specialized surgeries such as harvesting the artery during a coronary artery bypass operation, or opening the bronchus during thoracic surgery, but she had a much more artistic purpose in mind for it.
“I...I don't understand. I want to go home.” She was confused, frozen in terror.
The punch landed just as she remembered, sending her flying back into her prison of the trunk.
They had laughed at her, like her pain was some sort of joke, while Yuki struggled to understand why they wanted to hurt her so.
“Stop, please.” She had begged them, like she could somehow change the mind of wicked beasts.
“Home? But we planned a whole night together. Aren't you excited?”
And then the hand was in her hair, yanking, wrenching.
She reached down to the tray and picked up the number 15. It was so pretty with a small curved cutting edge. There was no wonder it was the most popular blade shape. It was ideal for making short and precise incisions.
“Now strip.”
They grinned at her. Laughed at her. Treated her as if she was no different than a doll.
“W-what?”
“Disrobe. Undress. Strip.Don't make me repeat myself again.”
So she did. Like a helpless little minion. She did.
And finally she picked up the last tool she had in mind. The number 11. It was an elongated triangular blade sharpened along the hypotenuse edge and with a strong pointed tip making it ideal for stab incisions. It was also great for scraping and cutting.
“You know, the way you're looking at that is like how some people look at their children.”
“They are my children.” Yuki answered, packing them in her bag. “And they're going to make me very proud tonight.”
“We good to go then?”
“Not quite. There’s a couple of things that we need to borrow from our generous Mr. Cadaver here and his two other guy friends over there.”
*
The third stage of the Healing Process is Blaming. Most blaming is typically directed at the self. Victims may focus on thoughts such as: "If only I didn't...", or "I should have...", or "I shouldn't have...". Making matters worse, this self-blame is easily exacerbated by supporters like friends, family or investigators with comments such as "what were you thinking - wearing that short skirt to that seedy place" or other such comments which only serve to place the blame for the attack on the victim, instead of on the attacker who chose to take actions against the victim.
“So where are we going? It's just past seven pm. Don't your friends not come out until after nine?”
“Usually. Thomas usually goes for a work out. We're going to get him in the back parking lot. Jean-Luc goes to a coffee shop to stare grossly at his favorite barista, we can get him when he passes the alley between Portland and Scio street. And finally, Julian. He'll be the easiest. He'll leave the hotel at around nine thirty where we'l
l trail him to whatever club he goes to.”
“Remind me to never mess with you.”
“Right about now, that's probably a good idea.”
Unfortunately, since they had used the van earlier that day to rescue Julie and Rachelle, chances were the trio already knew about it. So Yuki took the back route to the gym she knew Thomas frequented, and parked several blocks away. Both she and Julie walked to the back parking lot before pausing.
“Julie, I'm going to ask you to do something pretty scary.”
“Scarier than your expression right now?”
“Probably. I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to get Thomas to chase me out. When he follows me outside of that door, I need you to jab this syringe into him and press down. Think you can do that?”
“This is one of the bastards that put the hit on us and...did what he did to you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then yeah, I'll do whatever you need.”
“Thank you. Be ready for me to burst out of that door like hell is on my heels.”
“Roger roger.”
Yuki took a deep breath, and crossed around to the front. Finally, after weeks of planning, it was finally happening. No more night terrors, no more impending sense of doom. She was taking control of her own life and ending the trio's reign of terror.
Steeling herself, she opened the front door and strode to the reception desk.
“Hi, may I help you?”
Yuki looked to the chipper blond that greeted her and gave her a charming smile. “Hello, yes! I just moved here and I've been looking at gyms in the area. I was wondering if someone is available to give me a tour.”
“Of course! If you would like to have a seat, could I get you a mineral water or seltzer while you wait?”
No wonder Thomas chose this particular gym. “I'm fine, thank you.”
She arranged herself neatly in the waiting room and tried not to look terrified out of her mind. It was certainly difficult considering the situation. But before she could lose her composure entirely, a tanned, fit man strode up to her.
“Are you waiting for the tour?”
“Indeed I am. And you are?”
“Jason, nice to meet you.”
“Yuki, nice to meet you as well.”
“Great! How about I show you the cardio area first?”
Yuki plastered the biggest smile on her face she could manage. “Sure! Sound great.”
He led her through some ridiculously swanky doors, and into a large hallway. They immediately turned right and went through another door that lead to a room full of all sorts of treadmills, elliptical and fancy looking equipment that she didn't have a name for. She scoured it thoroughly with her eyes, but there was no Thomas to be seen.
“As you can see, we have state of the art-”
“Um, cardio has never been my thing. I'm more into...weight lifting?”
To his credit, Jason rolled with her objection quite well. “Really? That's awesome. Well let's go check out our weight room.”
“Perfect. And you guys have a back fire exit, right?”
He laughed. “Of course! It's just straight down this hall and to the left.”
“Great, you never can be too safe, of course. All these hot people in one place, combustion is definitely a risk.” She almost cringed at her terrible pun.
“Hah, nice joke.” No it wasn't, but it was nice that he pretended it was. He led her to another room slightly farther down, and she was greeted by an entire wall of free-weights as well as a cacophony of every kind of assisted weight machine she had ever heard of.
And sure enough, there was Thomas, doing a set of squats. Their eyes locked and for a moment time stopped.
Everything happened at once. Yuki turned and bolted out of the door, and heard the sound of a barbell crashing to the floor behind her. Her heart thundered in her ears, but she could feel Thomas as he burst into the hall behind her.
His legs were longer than her, and she had spent the past months recovering from a violent attack.
There was no way he wouldn't overtake her. But that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was her getting out of the back door before he did get his twisted hands on her.
Seconds stretched out, while at the same time going impossibly fast. It felt like her brain and heart were going to burst from the adrenaline. But the door grew ever closer, and closer until finally she slammed into it and vaulted outside.
She skidded to a stop and turned just as Thomas joined her outside.
“What do you want?” She wheezed, still trying to play the helpless victim. It was sour in her mouth when she wanted nothing more than to curse his name.
“You little bitch! You sent that picture to Stephanie, didn't you?”
“It was a tag team effort.” She spat.
Luckily Julie caught the cue and crept out from behind the linen dumpster. Thomas managed to take one whole step towards Yuki before the redhead buried the needle in the side of his neck and depressed the plunger.
“You bitch!” He whirled to lunge at Julie, but tottered backwards. “What...what did you do?” He murmured before collapsing on the ground entirely.
Yuki didn't allow time for celebration. “Help me get him behind the dumpster and then we'll pull around the van.”
“You got it, babe.”
She shot Julie a look, but the redhead just shrugged. Together, the two of them grabbed his feet and ankles and swung him out of sight.
“By the way, there's a video camera right there,” Julie said, pointing. “I hope you don't mind I took the liberty of smearing some make up over it.”
“You're brilliant.”
“I know.”
Yuki rolled her eyes, but bolted towards the van. Speed was the key now. If they got caught, it was all over.
But they reached the van without any interruptions, and sped back to the parking lot. They pulled along side the dumpster and hauled Thomas' completely rigid body into the back doors of the van, then peeled out.
Julie let out a squeal and kicked her feet. “Oh my gawd, I can't believe that worked!”
“Well cool the theatrics. We still have to get two more.”
“Yeah, but I believe in you Yuki. I do.”
“...thanks.”
She thought she would feel relief, having one third of the trio paralyzed in her van, but the rage was only increasing. She was mad, just so enraged, that she wondered if anything would ever abate her blood lust.
“This is good,” She said, pulling over about a half mile away from the cafe that Jean-Luc liked. This one was much trickier. It was relatively tucked away from the main drag, but still, they were abducting a man in broad daylight.
“Hey, Jean-Luc seemed to like you, right?” Yuki asked.
“Eh, I dunno. Maybe? He was mostly just desperate.”
“Think you might be able to walk past the window and lure him to the alley?”
“I dunno. I guess I can try? What's the worst than can happen?”
“Incarceration. Violence. You know, fun stuff.”
“And you make it sound so glamorous.”
“I know. There's the alley. I'll wait just behind the fire escape. If you can, try to get Jean-Luc just past me. I'll needle him.”
“Alright. Wish me luck.”
“Luck. Be safe.”
The red head nodded, then headed back around the building. Yuki tucked herself back into the well shadowed crooked of a brick lined door. She held onto her syringe, her lifeline, with both hands. She could do this. She could do this. She just had to stay strong.
Silence thundered in her ears. It took her several minutes to realize that was the sound of her own blood racing through her veins. She needed to calm down. Focus. Focus.
Footsteps stirred her from her panic, and she glanced to the mouth of the alley to see Julie briskly walking into the shadowy area, head down. Jean-Luc was only a couple of steps behind her, calling out Rowena over and over again.
Yuki tig
htened her grip on the syringe and readied for Julie to pass her. But before the red head could reach her, Jean-Luc lunged forward unexpectedly and caught the back of Julie's jacket. “You are Rowena, yes?”
The red head stood stock still, her eyes darting over to connect with Yuki's. The med student saw several emotion flash through the other woman's eyes. Terror, anger, confusion, before they finally settled on defiant.
“Yeah, bitch!” She whirled, pulling herself out of her jacket and taking off down the alley as fast as she could.
Jean-Luc of course tore after her, and that's when Yuki struck, full on tackling the man. They both landed in a tumble of limbs, and he quickly overpowered her.
“Sakura,” He hissed, bringing his face so low to hers that she could smell the premium coffee he had just chugged down. “You have been quite the naughty girl.”
She gave him her most charming smile, and fluttered her lashed, before head-butting him with all her might. He reared back, but when he tried to re-center himself, he just sort of fell to the side, gasping like a fish out of water.
“Don't worry, Jean-Luc,” She comforted. “You're not dying. It's just a muscle paralytic I jabbed into your thigh when you fell. And I was so thoughtful, I made sure that you'll have company for this very new experience.” She got to her feet and brushed the dirt from her clothes. She was fairly sure that Julie was still running towards the van, and would be pulling up to the back entrance of the alley at any moment. “You don't have to thank me either, ma patit. That'll come later.”
Less than five minutes later, Julie was indeed pulling the van up to the mouth of their little ambush. Yuki had no idea how they had lucked out so much and nobody went to investigate where the agitated frenchman went, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Besides, it wasn't like she thought she was going to get away with this. She had drugged a cop after all. No, she was definitely going down for some very bad things, but not before her particular brand of justice was served.
“So,” Julie said as they pulled away from their second location. “Just one left?”
Yuki nodded. “The big Kahuna. Mr. Julian Warbucks.” She looked back to the prostrate men in the cab of the van. “Don't worry guys, soon you'll all be together again. The regular three musketeers!”
