42nd Moon: The Woe of Soulmates

by Thea Chin

  “They really do pull their support after your soulmate dies, don’t they?” she chuckles dryly.

  She then takes a look around the fairly empty Saturday office. The enterprise seems to be doing alright even without the support of the Council and is probably why Darren wasn’t so afraid of the consequences of losing his soulmate. Consequences. Tsukiko almost scoffs at the word. It’s almost like soulmates are a way for the Council to control their wolves rather than a romantic idea.

  No, not almost. She thinks back to what Irene told her about Chan—that’s exactly what they are doing, aren’t they? They seem to keep a tight tab on the soulmates too if they were able to locate Irene before Chan even met her himself. How did they know she is his soulmate though? Were they stalking Chan to see which stranger on the streets makes his mark glow?

  All these questions are overwhelming Tsukiko, but at least the headache is not returning even as she racks her brain for plausible explanations. She decides to first type these thoughts into her phone then focus on getting the folder back to its rightful owner. Problem is, she still does not know whom the files belong to. The only executive she knows is Darren. Could he have left this for her? If so, why, especially when he was so against the fact that Ms. Silva might be his biological mother? The monthly withdrawal supports her stance rather than his. Did he leave this here for her to find those charges without verbally spilling a secret himself?

  Again, too many questions. Regardless of who it is, Tsukiko feels like her safest bet is returning the folder to Darren. He has most likely seen this information himself, so nothing classified will be in the wrong hands.

  After packing everything into her box, Tsukiko places the red folder on top of it all and rides the elevator to the top floor. It dings open, and she sees that Darren’s secretary is not in today. She instead knocks at Darren’s door, and to her surprise, he opens it.

  “How may I— Oh, it’s you, Tsukiko,” he greets.

  “Hi,” she waves nervously. “I, um, found this on my desk and didn’t know what I should do with it.”

  Darren looks down at the red folder with a look of recognition that passes through his eyes.

  “D-did you read it?”

  “I…” Tsukiko hesitates. “Yes, I did. I apologize,” she finally decides to admit.

  The young man doesn’t say anything and instead just nods and takes the folder back.

  “I’ll see you at home then?” she concludes.

  “Actually,” he looks at the number of things she is carrying, “do you want me to drive you? I can connect a basket on the back of my bike for your things.”

  Tsukiko feels a dull ache in the muscles of her arms. “That would be great,” she breathes. “If you don’t mind, then I’ll really appreciate it.”

  When Darren finishes packing up for the day, the two head down to the parking structure where he helps her secure her belongings to his motorcycle. When he gets to the cake box she bought from Yellow Brick, he raises a brow.

  “For Han?” he asks.

  Tsukiko confirms it. “Yeah… He’s been busy lately with his father and helping me with some things, so I thought this might help cheer him up.”

  “You two got really close this past year and some, haven’t you?” he mumbles.

  “Sorry?” she says, wondering if she heard correctly.

  “Nothing,” he lies and hands her his helmet. “Be sure to strap this on tightly.”

  She does as told as he gets on first and waits for her to mount.

  “Have you done this before?” he inquires when she does.

  “Not that I recall.”

  “Just… hold on,” he tells her.

  He swallows a lump and reaches for her hand and puts it around his waist. Her other hand mirrors the first, and he can feel heat rising to his cheeks. He wonders if all these months of unrequited affection is enough to make the soulmate connection wear out for her or if she still feels the same as he does now. He doesn’t expect her to. Besides, it would be unfair of him to even hope for her sentiments after all that he did, especially now after Terena left him. She doesn’t deserve to be anyone’s second choice. He looks at the yellow glow on his wrist as the yellow traffic light above him turns into an embarrassed and guilty shade of red.

  * * *

  As predicted, Jaiden drags his feet into the study room Tsukiko is occupying after a tiring day at his company.

  “Need… emotional… jumper… cables…” he gasps dramatically with his arms extended.

  Tsukiko does a quick eye roll before giving him the hug he asks for, which sets his heart aflutter.

  “Actually, I have something that might be even better,” she says, pulling away before he is ready to let go.

  “Ooh, what?” he questions while trying to seem unbothered.

  “It’s in the refrigerator,” she informs and walks past him to lead the way. Once they arrive at the kitchen, she places a hand on the handle and pauses. “Guess what it is,” she prompts.

  “Cheesecake?” he suggests jokingly.

  “Cheesecake!” she confirms with a laugh. “How did you know?”

  “I didn’t, but I’m sure glad I’m right!” he drools. “Is this from Yellow Brick?”

  She nods. “You said you liked it last time, so I thought, why not?”

  “Thank you so much,” he exclaims. Jaiden pinches himself to check if he is dreaming. In front of him is his favorite dessert brought to him by none other than Tsukiko, probably because she was thinking about him when she saw the treats. She was thinking about him! He cannot be happier as he scoops the tip of it onto his spoon.

  “Ah,” he says, offering it to her.

  She takes his hand and U-turns it into his mouth. “It’s for you,” she insists.

  He gushes while savoring the bite. “How did it go, by the way? Your talk with Ms. Silva, I mean.”

  “Oh right. It’s confirmed that she is Darren’s mother, or at least she had twins for President Dust, and since Darren has been publicly associated with Destiny, she must have recognized him from the media that night at the graduation.”

  Jaiden jumps to his feet exclaiming, “We should tell him then!” before sitting back down awkwardly as if remembering his current feud with his ex-friend.

  “I think he already knows,” Tsukiko says cautiously.

  “Why’s that?”

  She tells him about the file she found on her desk and about the records of money transfer to Ms. Silva. Jaiden’s eyes widen with every word.

  “Did he leave it there for you?”

  “Probably,” she guesses. Unless it was Mark’s killer doctor. Speaking of which, “I also found out that Irene forgot some, er, things around the time she visited St. Valentine’s too and gets headaches when she thinks about it like you and me.”

  “What are you implying?” Jaiden asks, delivering the last of his dessert to his mouth.

  “I don’t know either, but maybe there’s something in that place that makes people forget things.”

  “Like a memory wipe flash pen?”

  “A what?”

  Jaiden chuckles, tossing away his trash. “The reference must be too old; sorry.”

  “I have the history of a two year old,” she reminds him. “But I was thinking something like a chemical gas, perhaps.”

  Jaiden raises his eyebrows in interest. “That’s a unique theory. Where did you get that from?”

  Tsukiko flinches, knowing how close her idea is to something that actually happened. “I read an article about a study on the possibility of using xenon gas to treat PTSD. It’s worked on mice, but isn’t exactly safe on humans.”

  “You’d think a medical facility would notice a xenon leak, wouldn’t you? Besides, a gas like that cannot be cheap.”

  “How about laughing gas?” she suggests through gritted teeth.

  Jaiden bobs his head slowly. “Large hospitals do have a supply of that. But for it to leak every time you’ve visited? And wouldn’t other patients have
said something about it?”

  “It might just be in the head scan room. Both Irene and I went there, but not enough patients would have gone for there to be a pattern noticed among the public.”

  “Have I been there too?” His head begins to hurt as he tries to recall.

  “Don’t push yourself,” worries Tuskiko.

  He offers her a weak smile. “You must think this has something to do with saving you, right? You’re spending so much mental resources on it after all, and I’ve already told you I’ll do anything to try to help.”

  “Well I—” Tuskiko is not sure where she is going with this either, but if she can recall what happened when she fainted in Lab 8 and figure out the significance of that number that keeps nagging at the back of her mind, then maybe she will find something out.

  “Now isn’t the time to back out since Ms. Silva doesn’t know anything about research on the 42nd moon curse,” Jaiden grits through clenched teeth.

  “Actually, she did tell me they were conducted and burned by Destiny Enterprise’s research division.”

  “Wait. Hold that thought,” gasps Jaiden.

  “Are you remembering something?”

  He nods. “Pain,” he answers. “Pain in my ribs. I think someone or something was electrocuting me.”

  “In the scanning lab?”

  “It definitely was a lab,” he confirms, reaching for one of her pills as the pain becomes too unbearable. “There were wires and equipment everywhere.”

  “What were you doing there?”

  “My guess is trying to keep the necklace Matthews gave me connected to your receiver piece. All the machines in the room were blocking out the signals unless I was in your proximity.”

  “It’ll make sense that our forgetfulness stems from a leak in that room then, wouldn’t it? Since your story matches up too.”

  Jaiden leans against the counter with his arms crossed. “But wouldn’t the doctor and radiologist be affected and notice something too? I mean, I’m assuming they are there even more than we and Silva are combined.”

  “It’s the only thing all our stories have in common though. If it were just Irene and me, then it might be the head scan, but your experience throws off the trend.”

  “Unless…” Jaiden trails off. “Unless they put me in the head scan too.”

  “What?”

  “I mean, why did I get shocked in the ribs?”

  “You could have walked into an exposed wire.”

  “Or someone tased me,” he hypothesizes. “Matthews was so wary about the place too, so suspicious activity like that adds up. Maybe they knew the head scan makes you forget things, and I saw something I wasn’t supposed to, so they erased my memory.”

  Considering Irene’s whipping and Tsukiko finding a blood sample that no longer exists, the theory makes sense. It also supports Mark’s killer doctor story and is all the more reason why Tsukiko needs to find the meaning of the late Leiah’s patient number at St. Valentine’s.

  “But how can that be?”

  Jaiden rebuttals, “I’m sure you would have said the same thing about werewolves a few years ago.”

  “Alright, assuming that that is true, what could you have seen in that room that you weren’t supposed to?”

  “I can’t remember that part—the machine might specifically target one memory and muddle surrounding ones so that everything blends together—but I’m hoping it is remnants of Destiny’s research. Maybe the rumors Ms. Silva heard are not completely true and some of it still remains. If it’s something Destiny wants to hide, it makes sense to hide them in a lab with secret memory-erasing technology.”

  “Not Destiny,” Tsukiko objects. “The Council.”

  “The Council?”

  She nods. “I think the Council is capitalizing soulmates and using them to control wolves like you and your brothers. They withdraw financial support when you lose your soulmate, and I’ve heard they use them as punishment when you break a werewolf law too.”

  The werewolf flinches. “I don’t like it, but it makes sense. So what do we do? Break into the lab?”

  “No, that wouldn’t be possible. Besides, if someone’s there, they might just tase you again, assuming that’s what happened,” Tsukiko frowns, tapping her finger against the countertop.

  “What do we do then?”

  “Let’s consult Mark first. This is technically all theory, so we should get more confirmation before doing anything by running it by his scientific knowledge. In the meantime, I can figure out what to do next.”

  “Matthews? No one has seen him since your graduation. He left a sticky note on his door saying that he’ll be gone and that’s it.”

  Tsukiko stands as an idea pops into her head. “Has anyone checked his lab?”

  “His lab?”

  T-25 Moons

  No one considered the lab. After all, the campus is closed right after the last graduation ceremony and does not open until the end of vacation. When the duo cracks open the chemist’s lab’s door, they are more glad to not find a dead body inside than they are disgusted by the amount of half-eaten instant noodles piled in the fume hood.

  “Oh, hey guys,” greets a zombie-looking Mark.

  “Hi M—”

  “‘Hey guys?!!’ That’s all you have to say, ‘Hey guys?’” Jaiden bellows. “Not even ‘Sorry for disappearing without a single text or call for four weeks?’”

  Despite his harsh tone, Jaiden charges into the older male’s arms and wraps him in a tight hug.

  “There, there, you poor thing,” Mark coos teasingly. “Did you miss me?”

  “You insufferable feline,” Jaiden grumbles, pushing him away.

  “Did you find something interesting?” Tsukiko transitions, looking for something to help with the stench from a man cooped up in a single room for an entire month.

  “Actually, I did,” he says proudly, chasséing to an ice chest in the corner of the room. From it, he pulls out a bag of ground meat from which both Jaiden and Tsukiko take a step back. He turns it around for them to see a glowing line drawn across the side.

  “I’ve made this,” he performs a grand gesture at the meat, “react to this.” He turns his right wrist towards them to show that his soulmark is illuminating as well. “And if I do this,” he continues, jabbing two metal rods into the plastic bag. He then sends an electrical current through the rods, and his wrist glows brighter like Darren’s would when Tsukiko is in danger.

  “Great… you made a hamburger into your soulmate,” Jaiden deadpans.

  “Not exactly,” Mark says with a frown. “I still haven’t figured out why this makes two people fall in love with each other or,” he looks at Tsukiko, “how it kills the soulmate.”

  “That’s exactly what we’re here to ask you about,” Jaiden says urgently.

  “Spent an entire month on this, and y’all don’t even appreciate it,” Mark grumbles under his breath. Louder, he adds, “What is it then?”

  “We have a theory that there might be remnants of the research done to save Mrs. Dust from the 42nd Moon curse,” Tsukiko explains. “We just have a few kinks in our ideas that we would like you to assess the possibility of.”

  “Dust’s late mother? She died of the woe of the 42nd Moon?”

  “You would have known if you didn’t disappear for a month,” Jaiden grumbles.

  Tsukiko ignores him. “She did, and we think the records of her situation might be hidden in St. Valentine’s Memorial’s basement.”

  Mark watches in mild amusement as his two previous students fill in for each other the seemingly absurd theory they came up with over the break. When they are done and slightly breathless, he almost whispers “cute” at them.

  “Well? Is it possible?” Tsukiko inquires.

  “You’re asking me if a hospital can invest in, research, and operate a memory-erasing machine beneath the government’s and public’s radar?” he reiterates.

  Tsukiko flinches at how it sounds.

 
; “Yes. Yes, it is,” Mark answers matter-of-factly.

  “What?”

  “St. Valentine is privately funded, meaning they go by a very separate set of rules. We also have no connections with them, so no one knows what their processes and budget are. Jaiden, you know this, don’t you?”

  The younger boy nods.

  “So it’s totally possible. As for the machine itself, I just made ground pork my soulmate, so the sky’s the limit,” he concludes.

  Jaiden and Tsukiko look at each other. Mark lifts up the lid to the ice chest to put his project back inside. Just then, a squeak can be heard, and a mangy, zombie-looking rodent leaps from the opened container. Jaiden yelps at the sudden appearance of a creature, making the other two chuckle.

  “There it goes,” Mark says with concerning affection in his voice. “So, Tsujii, since you and Han are finally suspecting the hospital like I told you to, does this mean you’ve told him about the killer doctor then?”

  Tsukiko freezes, panic in her eyes which makes Mark’s jaw drop in mirroring concern.

  “Oh,” he says in a tiny voice.

  “What killer doctor?” Jaiden questions.

  “Um, nothing..?” Mark tries.

  The younger male looks between the other two. “What are you hiding from me?” he grills his brother. When he doesn’t respond, he turns to Tsukiko, and in a brittle voice whimpers, “… Ki?”

  “I’m sorry,” she apologizes with her head down. “It’s better for you if you didn’t know though…”

  He walks over and lightly puts his fingers around hers. “I want to.”

  Tsukiko looks quickly at Mark for guidance, but he is busy playing with the rat that just escaped the ice chest.

  “Remember how I went for a check-up after going through those blood vials I told you about?”

  He nods carefully.

  “Well, I uh, didn’t go by choice.”