Cover of Darkness

Chapter 9: “Carol”

  It was morning with the sun shining brightly on Shadyville, the town of so many murders in the past couple of weeks. First, there was Alison’s disappeared and her parents’ murder, then Litanya and her parents, then Jason and his mother, the many who died at the prom, and then there was Carol’s parents. The events seemed to all point toward Jade and his cat-like creature in the beginning, but now, after the Prom and the attack on Carol, it pointed to Jade’s older brother.

  Carol sat up and looked out of the window. Her leg still hurt, and the bandage was blooded up. “Amber?” She called.

  Amber came into the room. “What’s the matter?”

  “Can you bring more bandages?” Carol asked as she slid her leg over the edge of the bed to prop it on a stool.

  Amber turned to the door. “I’ll be right back. I’ll ask Tommy if he has anymore.” She walked out of the room.

  Carol pulled on the metal clip holding the bandage on.

  “You shouldn’t do that.” Jade was standing in the doorway.

  Carol looked up. “Well, they have to come off before I can change them, you know.” She turned her attention to the bandage again.

  Oliver walked around Jade and over to Carol. He made his unusual squeak/meow noise and turned to look at Jade.

  “Hi, Oliver.” Carol said.

  Oliver acted like he was trying to talk as he had done countless times before, then raised Carol’s arm from the bandage.

  “Oliver, I’ve got to change these.” Carol said.

  Oliver turned to Jade and meowed quickly.

  “What are you trying to get me to do, Oliver?” Jade asked. “Change them for her?”

  Oliver nodded then squeaked.

  Amber walked to the door and looked at Carol. “I’ve found some.” She started to try to walk by Jade. “Excuse me.”

  Jade didn’t move. “Here.” Jade held his hands out to take the bandages from Amber. He looked at Oliver. “As you wish, Oliver.”

  Oliver squeaked.

  Amber made a small hesitation to handing the bandages to Jade, but she did after she glanced over at Carol. “I’ll see if I can fix anything to eat.” She pointed down the hall, before she left.

  Jade slowly walked over and sat down in front of Carol, who sat back. He slowly began to take the bandages off her leg being careful not to touch the wounds. He glanced at Oliver her made three quick squeaking noises, then a long one with its eyes shut.

  Jade chuckled then continued.

  “I’ve never heard you laugh before.” Carol said.

  Then Jade replied calmly. “I don’t much.”

  “So that guy is your brother?” Carol asked. “What is his name?”

  “His name was Jacob years ago.” Jade said. He poured some alcohol on a cloth and began to gently rub over the wounds, causing Carol to make a sound of pain. “Sorry, I forgot to warn you.”

  “It’s ok.” Carol said. “So, uh.”

  Oliver squeaked and looked at the two of them in two quick glances.

  “Why did you two do these experiments?” Carol asked.

  Jade fell silent and began to slowly wrap Carol’s leg with the clean bandages.

  Carol looked away. “Sorry, I guess it is none of my business.”

  “He sought to raise the dead.” Jade said. He didn’t look up even after Carol turned to him. “Or at least create something to seek revenge for our parents. They were in a car accident, and a doctor tried to use some unsuccessful measures on them to cause them to get well sooner, but…it failed, causing them to die. I was twelve and my brother was seventeen. He became angry and told the doctor off. A year or two later, his fascination with biology and chemistry drove him to create Prototype 01. Though the experiment proved successful, the animal died a week later.”

  Jade finished wrapping Carol’s leg, and then looked up. “I’m boring you, I’m sorry.”

  “You’re not.” Carol said. “Tell me the whole story.”

  “All right.” Jade stood up then sat next to Carol, causing Oliver to jump between them. “Prototype 02—‘Fireball,’ the one I shot in the mall—didn’t have much more success, but Prototype 03—‘Assassin’—was my brother’s pride and joy. Later he adapted his research to be able to work on humans, instead of cats, and while I slept he used it on me. When I woke up my eyes were green, my hair was black and touched the floor, and I was almost a foot taller. Though it amazed my brother, it upset me.” Jade hung his head down. “If only he would have asked me before he did such a thing….”

  “I’m sorry.” Carol said.

  Jade looked over at Carol. “Don’t be.”

  “Is it his anger causing him to do all this?” Carol asked.

  Jade shook his head and turned away. “No, this is his ambition—to destroy happiness.”

  Carol looked up at Jade, who looked at her. “Destroy happiness?”

  Oliver made a sad meow.

  “He created all of the prototypes to destroy humanity’s happiness.” Jade said. “I was Prototype 04, Oliver was Prototype 05, yet my creation, Prototype 06 was himself. Prototype 07 went berserk, and if I’m correct, it killed Alison’s parents, which caused Prototype 08—Alison, to go against him.”

  “Why did you go against him?” Carol asked.

  “Prototype 07 was a human, like Alison he was kidnapped.” Jade said. “His name was Joseph Raleigh.”

  “He vanished a year ago.” Carol said. “He was in our grade. I remember because he had a crush on Alison.”

  “That’s probably why Jacob began his new gathering starting with Alison.” Jade said. “He pulls the memories from the prototypes.”

  Oliver squeaked and jumped down off the bed, then ran out of the room. He somehow managed to pull the door shut on his way out.

  Jade looked to the door and shook his head. “Oliver.”

  Carol turned away. She felt uneasy being alone in a room with Jade, the one whose brother is causing death to her dearest friends’ families, and her family. Though she felt uneasy around him, a part of her enjoyed him being there.

  “Uh…Carol.” Jade said. He looked at the ceiling.

  “What is it?” Carol turned to look at him.

  Jade shook his head. “Never mind.” He stood up, and turned to Carol. “Let’s go see if Amber fixed anything to eat, shall we?”

  Carol nodded, and tried to stand. Jade helped her as they walked to the door and opened it. Oliver squeaked unusually from the other side, before he ran down the hall.

  Jade shook his head, and helped Carol to the dinning room. After he sat her down in a chair, Oliver jumped in a chair next to her. Jade shook his head before he sat down in the chair on the other side of Oliver.

  The rest of the group sat around the table and began to eat the food Amber fixed. None of the group was really hungry and just ate a bit. The ones who didn’t each much gave what was left to Oliver who seemed to enjoy the food the most.

  “Hey, Jade, do you know why your brother is trying to gather more people, and their body parts?” Tommy asked.

  “Well, I think he’s trying to come up with an ultimate creation called Prototype X.” Jade explained.

  “Prototype X?” Amber asked. “I don’t know much about genetic experiments, but in movies normally anything called by a weird name and includes an ‘X’ it normally isn’t a good thing.”

  “In mecha-anime, the mecha are called by number protocol or letters.” Mike said.

  “Anime?” Carol asked. “What the heck’s that?”

  Mike shook his head, and decided to drop out of the conversation.

  “My brother’s obsession.” Tommy commented.

  Oliver squeaked a few times, before someone gave him something else to eat.

  The group talked more about Jacob and his creations that Jade explained to Carol earlier. They tried to figure out why Jacob didn’t come out earlier after he created his pride Prototype 03, or as Jade called it
“Ultimate Assassin,” but they came to the conclusion of the small resistance to attacks. They even took Mike’s ideas into the conversation even though the conversation even made Jade lost.

  After they ate and talked, Jade helped Carol to the living room, so that she could be more comfortable. Oliver followed and again jumped to sit next to Carol. They talked about their topic more in the living room, but keep ending in dead ends that even Jade couldn’t fill. The mystery of Prototype X couldn’t be answered until Jacob himself decided it was time to reveal its purpose.

  Mike turned on the TV to a news channel but nothing was on. Since the Prom incident, the news didn’t cast. They did hear of the apartment building Amber lived in being attacked by Assassin before they killed it. They knew that Jacob was after them, but didn’t understand why he hadn’t attacked them directly, like he did in the beginning. Was it because of Alison?

  Alison slept in the back room of Tommy’s house since she helped them kill Litanya and Jason. Alison’s body was slowly morphing into something like Jacob’s turned into. Her hair had turned from blond to gray and grown drastically. Her deep blue eyes had turned red. Though the physical changes did occur, Carol recognized her as Alison—her best friend.

  Carol began to get tired and leaned over. She didn’t know that she had fallen asleep. When she woke up, she realized that she was using Oliver’s back as a pillow, while the others were still talking. She sat up and began listening.

  Oliver squeaked at sat up.

  Carol reached over and patted Oliver on the head.

  “Nice of you to rejoin us, Carol.” Amber said.

  “I’m sorry.” Carol said. “I’ve been getting tired more often.”

  “You are getting weaker because of the loss of blood.” Jade said.

  Tommy looked over at Carol. “We’ll get you to a hospital as soon as we can, Carol, I promise.”

  Carol nodded and yawned. “What’d I miss?”

  “Nothing important, Carol.” Mike said. “Maybe you should go back and get some rest.”

  Carol could tell that they were worried about her. The three gashes on her leg and the length of time before they were bandaged seriously drained her. She had been pretending that she was better, but she could tell it was making them worry more.

  “I’ll carry you to your room.” Jade said, as he stood up. He walked to her and picked her up in a way to carry her in his arms with her right side toward him to keep from making the bandage move.

  Jade walked down the hall with Oliver following close behind. He continued down the hall toward the room Tommy allowed Carol to stay in. Oliver ran ahead into the room and waited at the door for them.

  Jade walked passed Oliver and over to the bed to lay Carol down.

  “Thank you.” Carol said as Jade stepped back.

  Oliver squeaked and leaned against the door causing it to shut.

  “Oliver.” Jade said in a commanding tone of voice.

  Carol laughed. “Come here, Oliver.” She did a hand motion that called Oliver to her.

  Oliver jumped up on the bed and sat next to her left side after he jumped over her legs.

  “He’s smart.” Carol said as she patted Oliver on the head causing him to squeak.

  “They understand things we may not.” Jade said. He pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down.

  “I didn’t believe you when you said that Oliver was just an overgrown kitty-cat.” Carol said.

  Oliver rubbed his head against Carol’s, making her laugh.

  Jade looked over at the two and smiled. “He likes you.” He commented.

  Carol looked down at the bed. “You know that I’m pretending that I’m getting better, don’t you?”

  Jade dropped the smile. “Yes.”

  “You know I’m getting worse?” Carol said.

  “Yes.” He said in a dull tone.

  Carol just looked at the bed. She reached for a blanket, but she didn’t feel like pulling it up. Oliver took it from her hands and pulled it up for her.

  “Oliver can tell, too.” Jade said.

  Oliver made a sad squeak.

  “That’s why he doesn’t want you to do anything for yourself.” Jade mentioned.

  “Is that the only reason?” Carol asked, still looking down at the bed.

  Jade shook his head and fell silent. “Maybe when this is over, I’ll tell you.” He stood up and began to walk to the door. “Oliver, stay here. Get your rest, Carol.” He continued out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  “Thanks.” Carol said. She lay back in the bed and closed her eyes. She felt Oliver lay down next to her, with his head on her chest. “Thanks, Oliver, for everything, no matter what happens.” She muttered. Carol fell asleep quickly.