by Thea Chin
“Just kidding!”
Mark’s eyes narrow as his features stretch into a devilish grin. The room itself seems to grow darker and squeaks of mangled mice chatter loudly, making the air drum with horror. A gust of wind blows past the vertical blinds, and the room flashes between darkness and light. Tsukiko turns to the door only to see that he has locked it from the outside. Returning her attention back to Mark with short breaths, she sees that he is towering over her now with yellow eyes and sharp teeth sliding against each other as he lets out a dangerous growl.
“Looking for this, Tsukiko Tsujii, also known as Leiah Takeda, organic chemistry graduate, Patient 1204176?” He holds up a different folder. One that makes her heart race. One that reads ‘Re-Biosuscitation.’
“H-how do you know all that?” she demands.
“Oh, you mean how did your little injection didn’t work on me? It did; don’t worry about that. It’s just that when you’re a Councilman like myself, you get to read Miss Tsujii’s little reports and prepare an antidote beforehand.”
“Y-you’re a—?!”
“Guilty!” he laughs in a sing-song voice. “But don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you for these illegal experiments you have done. After all, I was the one who pulled the strings to get you to where you are now, both intellectually and physically.”
“What do you mean?”
He hums. “Who do you think approved your extra funds for your ‘side projects?’ Who do you think bribed President Dust to keep quiet after that careless stunt you pulled at Destiny? Who do you think got you to the Valentine’s Day party, ordered an early ride for you from the wedding, and tipped off the Council so you’d come running to me with your findings?”
“Y-you?”
Mark throws his head back in a cackle. “Not personally, of course.”
The blinds flutter shut again, filling the room with darkness. When it opens up, Tsukiko spots a boy standing in the corner of the room.
“Hello, Miss Tsujii.”
“Surprised?” Mark teases. “You didn’t think I’d have a plan without a person on the inside, did you? Tsujii, meet John Matthews, my dead little brother.”
The boy smiles too innocently and gives her a little wave. Tsukiko shifts backwards, swallowing a lump.
“You look confused. Haven’t you wondered why a teenager has the knowledge set of a doctoral student? Or how you graduated with honors despite having your education suspended after your death at the age of fifteen? Re-biosuscitation doesn’t just revive a dead body, no. It allows us to insert computerized intelligence into the corpse too. Mechanical brilliance combined with human creativity. Isn’t it just perfect?” he coos, standing behind her and running his fingers down her arm. “You and he are supposed to just be experiments to fine-tune things until Jacque Taylor needs it when his time comes, but only a fool wouldn’t take advantage of it the second he joined the development team.”
Tsukiko shivers.
“And when a little birdy told me about you, Destiny’s little side project—” He lets out a creepy giggle.
A rat scurries up her leg. She closes her eyes, breathing in sharply when she feels it under her skirt.
“I must admit, you’ve done a rather fine job, Tsukiko Tsujii. None of this could have been possible without efforts and, of course, your naïve trust in me. Perhaps the Killer Doctor is a lot closer to home than you imagined, isn’t he? I’ve told you to be careful of whom you trust,” he snickers, grabbing the rat by its tail and tossing it haphazardly away.
Tsukiko bites her lip, using pain to pull herself out of fear. She has spent so long trying to avoid any Councilmen only to walk right into one’s den herself.
“Why are you doing this?”
Mark hollers with laughter. “The same reason why Jacque Taylor killed the king: power. I’ve worked very hard for very long for this, you know. Since my father sold John and me to be lab rats for the Council, I studied tirelessly to get into this lab and earn a position among the Council.” He tilts his head to one side. “Take pride in yourself too though, Tsujii, that your work will tear down the despicable Council and give rise to a new era for werewolves under the reign of the man who defeated the Council and freed them from the lies they were fed. Of course, this means silencing those who can prove otherwise.”
He has a scalpel in his hand. She tries to pull away as he runs the cold metal against her skin, but he holds her in place with his unnatural strength. She can only grimace as she feels her skin being split just enough to allow a trickle of blood to slide down her collar bone.
“There’s nowhere to run, Tsujii. We’re on the tenth floor and the doors are all locked.”
“Then why haven’t you killed me yet?” she snarls.
He shrugs. “Because you interest me. You’ve always interested me, even before I chose you to carry out my conquest.”
Tsukiko looks for something—anything—within arm’s reach to help her. She is in a lab after all; this is her domain.
“So rather than killing you, I want to make you a proposal.” He releases her temporarily to press into her hand a familiar blue injection. “Take that and join me. As you know, I can save you from the woe of the 42nd moon. All you have to do is forget.”
She spots another scalpel, but what use is it against a wolf? She wishes she still has Jaiden’s spray. Wait. Maybe she can use something with the same effect. Maybe she can—
“Why so surprised?” he laughs. “I already told you you are a valuable aspect to my endeavors. So what do you say?”
“NO!” she screams. She’d found some ammonia and splashes across his eyes while taking advantage of his overconfidence.
“Curse you!” Mark howls, staggering backwards in pain. “You’ve really done it now, you witch!”
He’s faster than she anticipated. In his temporary blindness, he hurls a metal stool at her and hits her lower back with a crack. She lets out a hollow gasp as she loses control of her legs and collapses onto the floor. Any effort by Tsukiko is pointless at this point. Before she can even process what happened, he has her pinned to the ground, her shoulders burning as his claws seep into them. He gnashes his teeth above her as hot, acid saliva drips onto her face.
She stares him in the eyes, clenching her jaw. “You don’t have to do this.”
“You didn’t have to toss that at me either, now did you?” he snarls, his fangs making him barely comprehensible. “But we all make and made choices. I liked you, Tsujii. I really, really did. I’m sorry to see you go.”
Tsukiko gives up screaming and simply closes her eyes as a wave of hot breath fan her neck. This is it, she thinks, feeling her muscles go limp. After all, death is no foreign concept to her; she has been pondering on the idea ever since that day Chan woke her up on Jaiden’s bed. This is the best way to go, she had decided, at peace and with acceptance.
Except peace never comes.
Her eyelids flutter open when she feels Mark’s weight being lifted off of her and when she hears the heavy thud of a falling body a few meters away. She sits up and sees the back of a silver wolf standing between her and Mark.
“Jaiden!” she gasps.
The wolf acknowledges her with a flick of his tail before Mark pounces on him, making a whole wall of beakers shatter to the ground as they slam against the wall in a rolling tussle.
Jaiden lets out a howl, not one of a battle cry, however, but one of sorrow and confusion. He switches to his human form to wiggle out of the spot Mark pushed him into and screams, “Why? Why are you hurting her? Why are we fighting? Aren’t we a pack? A family?”
Mark races towards Jaiden, forcing him to switch back, and jumps over him when he attempts to attack. He gets his tail in his mouth and bites down, making Jaiden let out a blood curdling howl. Jaiden turns around to swipe a claw at Mark, but he is too late; Mark has grabbed a hold of his neck and bashes his head through the window.
Students from below can be heard screaming. The Council will have to cover this up l
ater. Right now, Jaiden has again reverted to his human form, clutching onto Mark’s arm with his fingers in fear of being dropped to his death.
“M… Matthews…” he strangles out.
“Pity,” he spits. “I’ve always liked you better than all those other vision-less fools. Why did you have to stand in my way?”
“B-because I made a promise.”
He points to Tsukiko. It is only then that she notices the yellow glow on her wrist, one that Jaiden promised to come after if he ever saw it. When did her bracelet come off? Who could have unclasped it amongst all this chaos?
Then it strikes her. Only one person has been out of sight this entire time.
“Miss Tsujii, run!” John yells as everyone turns their attention to the forgotten boy. In his hand are the bracelet and a fire extinguisher.
“John, no!” Tsukiko cries as the boy aims the weapon at his brother’s face.
It’s too late. Both her warning and his attempt are too late. Mark casts Jaiden to the side and appears behind John before the extinguisher’s pin even drops to the floor.
“Miss—”
With one hand, Mark grips his neck and slams him against the wall.
“You filthy, backstabbing demon,” he hisses before letting him go. “Don’t think I’ll revive you again.”
A streak of red follows his head as his body slides down. Tsukiko screams, and John, with his remaining strength, shifts his eyes to look at Tsukiko.
‘I’m sorry,’ he mouths. ‘Thank you… for the stew.’
Mark turns back around with a vein visibility popping from his neck. “Promise?” He scoffs at Jaiden’s earlier words. “Then what about your frat induction promise to stand by and protect your brothers until the end?”
“It looks like you never considered us brothers,” Jaiden snarls. “It looks like you’ve been planning this for a while, Matthews. How long? How long have you lied to us? How long have you been willing to turn your fangs on us without a second thought?”
“I—!”
Jaiden softens his voice. “Chan, Lee, Dust, Fischer, Zeng, me… How long have you hated us when all we tried to do was love you and pull you from the darkness your father left you in?”
His words seem to take an effect on Mark. He flinches but covers it up by throwing Jaiden onto the ground with his claws over his throat.
“Save the talk, Han. This battle was over the moment you chose me as your opponent.” Mark rips something from his arm, and a brilliant glow exuberates from it—one that John’s mark compliments. Of course Mark has a backup plan. Is his brother bleeding out on the floor because of his betrayal or to simply enhance Mark’s powers?
“I have danced around you for long enough,” Mark growls. “I have about ninety more seconds before he dies, and ten before you die.” He brings the silver wolf to his knees.
“Jaiden!” Tsukiko tries to stand but collapses instantly. She turns back to see her legs lying uselessly on the ground from her earlier injuries.
Mark raises his arm, but Jaiden is quicker to shout, “Darren, now!”
Yet another figure flies across the room. Tsukiko feels a wave of relief, but it is short-lived. Mark sticks out his hand before Darren can even get to him and grabs the brown wolf by the neck.
“You didn’t think I expected Dust to pop out from somewhere? Whose mark do you think I expected you to have seen to come here?” Mark sneers. “Give it up; a Councilor’s soulmark is engineered to be stronger than yours.”
Tsukiko drags herself across the floor. If only she can get to John. He has her soulmark nullifying bracelet after all.
“The mark isn’t what makes the wolf strong,” Darren struggles. “It’s love. It’s the desire to protect.”
“You hardly even remember her,” Mark scoffs.
“Who told you that?” he smirks.
To remember her, he would have needed the antidote. If Mark made his own antidote, someone else must have taken the fourth pill! It seems John had more up his sleeve than even Mark could predict.
Speaking of which, Tsukiko quickly changes directions of her crawl as a new idea dawns on her. Her bag is closer to her than John is and is filled with a multitude of things she can use. Sensing her idea, Mark pulls Jaiden out from under him and tosses him onto the bag. The sound of glass vaccines shattering makes Tsukiko’s hope break with it, but Jaiden doesn’t seem to notice. He is quickly back on his feet, trying to save his brother while Tsukiko salvages what she can. The only things left intact are three of her orange antidotes, she realizes, albeit they are crushed under Jaiden’s weight.
She looks up to see both Darren and Jaiden pinned down and struggling for their life. There isn’t much time left. Tsukiko grabs sulfuric acid stock from a shelf and hurls it and her remaining pills at John. As soon as the bottle breaks, the chemicals mix and burst into flames, extinguishing the last of the boy’s life.
“No!” Mark screams, toppling backwards as he clutches his wrist in pain as his soulmark begins to peel away. John’s dead. She’s killed what was left of him, that sweet little boy from her lab…
“Come on!” Darren cries, shaking her. She can see an unconscious Jaiden draped over his shoulder. “We have to go!”
Tsukiko snaps out of her trance and realizes that the fire has spread much quicker than anticipated due to the spilled chemicals from the earlier fight.
“Wait! I have to save those files!”
Darren wants to object but digresses. “Which one?”
Which one? Tsukiko scans the room to see that Mark’s re-biosuscitation research is on one side while her soulmate one is on the other. There is no way Darren can grab both and still make it out of there alive, not when he has two bodies to hull out.
“That one!” she points to her own research.
Darren nods and is by her side again with it in hand before she can even blink. He holds it in his mouth and throws Tsukiko over his other shoulder just as a metal clink can be heard. Both their eyes widen to see Mark breathing haggardly with a malicious smile. He is standing next to a propane tank.
“RUN!” Tsukiko shrieks.
The last she sees before orange flames consume her vision is Darren’s widened eyes and terrified face after realizing she has rolled off of him to lessen his burden. She points weakly to Jaiden and chokes out, “Save him.”
Perhaps love is the greatest strength after all.
T-6 Moons
It hurts. It hurts so bad, she wishes she were dead. Wait, why isn’t she dead? Even if the fires didn’t kill her, the Council should have found her by now.
And maybe it did.
“Tsukiko Tsujii?”
“Yes.”
“If you are awake, then the court summons you.”
“Of course.”
With difficulty, she sits up and sees the painting of Jacque Taylor hanging on the wall. The attendant helps her into a wheelchair. There is a tingle in her right leg, indicating functionality, but she doesn’t mention it.
“You’re in for quite the judgment, Tsukiko Tsujii,” the attendant can’t help but snide.
She shrugs. “I should be dead already. If not, I only have but a few months to live anyway.”
“Death isn’t the worst thing that can happen.”
“That’s true.”
When they arrive at the courtroom, two other attendants open the grand double doors for her. Tsukiko can’t help but wonder if the Councilmen have anything better to do than to judge others. It seems they were all waiting for her to wake up after all. As they wheel her to the center, she can hear a noise outside, but no one seems to care.
“Tsukiko Tsujii. I don’t think there is any need for an introduction for you.” It seems Jacque Taylor isn’t running the session himself today.
The light on her is as harsh as last time.
“Let’s start with the witnesses, shall we?”
That’s new.
“I call to the stand Darren Dust.”
Darren? Shouldn’t they
bring someone who will testify against her?
On her right, a little way in front of her, another podium lights up, and Darren’s familiar face can be seen. He looks a little patched up; Tsukiko is glad he doesn’t look as awful as she feels.
“Darren Dust. Do you recognize this individual?”
He turns his head toward her mechanically and emotionlessly. “Yes.”
“And how is it that you recognize her?’
“She was at the fire. The fire that burned the building with me, Jaiden, and Mark in it.”
“And who was it that started this fire, Mr. Dust?”
With one cold finger, he points at her. Tsukiko feels her heart drop and her eyes go wide in realization. They’ve repositioned his memory! Her invention is much more precise than its predecessor, allowing them to erase everything until the precise moment when she lit the flame.
Tsukiko looks at her wrist and is not surprised to find a metal bracelet around it again.
“So you’re saying that Tsukiko Tsujii here started the fire that nearly killed three of our kind and a handful of innocent humans?”
“Yes.”
Something in her twists and breaks hearing her soulmate speak against her so willingly. The way he’s looking at her…
“Thank you, Mr. Dust. Now for the defendant.”
She can feel eyes being shifted onto her.
“How is it that you plead?”
“Self-defense,” she answers honestly.
A murmur of mocked laughter ripples across the room.
“And what were you defending against?”
“Councilman Mark Matthews,” she answers, looking directly at the balcony she thinks is his. She doubts they’ll believe her, but she hasn’t a better option than to tell the truth. Besides, they’ve already reached a verdict before she even stepped foot into this room anyway. All of this is just entertainment for the Council.
“Liar!” Someone across from Darren yells.
Tsukiko bites down hard on her lip when she recognizes the voice. A light shines on the speaker.
