I had to tell someone.
I couldn't keep it to myself much longer. It was too much to handle. Fortunately, I managed to get back to The Safe Place before Zizzy woke up. However, the things I had seen, and the knowledge I had gotten... I couldn't handle it on my own. Someone else needed to know, and I knew exactly who. I wandered around the abandoned hotel's halls in an attempt to find her. Eventually, I found her making her way to the bathroom by herself.
"Hey, Zee?"
The zebra turned to me before tilting her head in confusion. "Can I talk to you, please?" I asked. "Alone?" I could see the anxiety on her face as she nodded before I turned around and began to walk down the way I came from. Zee followed me, and soon we were back inside of the room I had failed to fall asleep in. As soon as Zee was inside, I closed the door before locking it, ensuring that our conversation would be private.
"Listen, I know it may seem like I'm using the fact you can't talk for my own gain, but it's the exact opposite of that," I began as I turned back around. "You and I both know what The Insolence is. He's tormented us both before. Well, last night, I snuck out, and I found something." Zee listened carefully as I told her about most of the things I had found in the journal, including how The Insolence had been around longer that we'd been alive.
"And... I found out how to take him down and save Lucella," I added. Zee's eyes widened as she sat up properly from where she sat on my bed. I felt my heart race in my chest as I bit my lip. I knew I could tell Zee because I knew she wouldn't yell anyone else. Not just because she physically can't, but because I've kept her secrets before, too. The least she could do was keep mine. "It's easy to do, but the hard part is understanding and accepting it..." I trailed off before taking a deep breath.
Then, I told her.
As soon as I finished my sentence, Zee's eyes widened. My gaze softened at her as I walked up to her. As soon as I realized that she was starting to cry, I put my hands on her shoulders before pulling her into my arms, allowing for her to cry as she wrapped her arms around my own figure. "I know, I know. It's okay. I felt the same way when I first found out," I mumbled in an attempt to calm her down. "It's alright. I already have a plan, but I need your help, alright?"
Zee kept her arms around me, but she took her head off of my shoulder to look me in the eye. I allowed her to calm down for a few more seconds before speaking once more. "I need you to keep Mimi distracted until it's time for lunch, okay?" I started. "There's a few things I need to get from her room." Zee hesitated for a few moments before nodding at me. She must've remembered the time I covered for them back when we left the sewers.
"Thank you, Zee," I continued with a smile. "Promise me you won't say a word of this to anyone." Zee nodded vigorously this time before I finally let go of her. The zebra got up from my bed before walking towards and out the door at a fast pace. The first phase of my plan was complete. Now I could start the second phase. I waited on my bed for a few minutes, waiting for my cue to leave and sneak to Mimi's room to get what I needed.
Five minutes went by, and soon, I got up from my bed, grabbed the journal, and left the room. When I rounded the corner of the hall, I noticed Zee dragging Mimi into her rooroom. "Alright, alright! I'll help you with your homework!" Mimi said through giggles. Soon, she and Zee disappeared into the latter's bedroom. I let out a sigh of relief before quietly walking past Zee's room. I quickened my pace once I was in the main room. I walked down the stairs until I reached the floor Mimi and Pony's rooms were on. Pony was in the cafeteria making lunch with Zizzy and Giraffy, so the coast was clear.
I went through the door and walked through the white and green hallways before reaching Mimi's room. Once I was there, I slowly opened the door wide enough for me to slip through before closing it behind me. I made sure that no one heard me before turning to Mimi's drawers. She had been bringing home a lot of weird substances and equipment, so her room was a lot more packed compared to the last time I was in here.
"Come on..." I muttered under my breath. "...where are they?" I opened Mimi's drawers carefully due to the amount of fragile stuff she had, but my actions were still frantic. I knew she had what I was looking for here, but where did she hide it? I searched amongst all the research papers, beakers, and lab equipment she had, but I still couldn't find it, and I was starting to lose hope. Eventually, I came across a drawer underneath Mimi's bed.
And there they were.
Perfectly organized glass bottles that could store about eight ounces of liquid, neatly organized in a way that I quickly figured out after reading the labels, followed by some empty bottles. I carefully took the last filled bottle and the first empty bottle out of the drawer before reading the labels on each of them. "'Psych Lab Zero', huh? Didn't they work with the military before?" I questioned inside my head before opening both bottles.
I poured some of the pale blue liquid into the empty bottle before closing them both up and putting the original bottle back into the drawer. Then, I stuffed the new bottle into my pocket before getting up from crouched position and walking towards the door. I opened it slowly and peeked into the hall to make sure the coast was clear, and when I confirmed that it was, I left Mimi's room, closing the door behind me and walking down the hall.
Phase two: done.
I still had a few hours to spare before lunch, and I had planned to use those hours to continue branching out the later phases of the plan that was now set in motion. I could hear the sounds of Zizzy and Pony teaching Giraffy how to cook. Things didn't seem to be going so good, which caused a smile to form on my lips. However, the voices inside of my head and the journal made themselves at home in my mind, and my smile quickly faded.
"We have discovered a supernatural entity contributing to the pandemic."
My foot had only hit the first step when I heard a male voice speaking amidst the cluttering of pots and pans. I immediately snapped my head towards the stairs before peeking over the railing. "Our scientists at PLZ have discovered that those eyes appearing around Lucella have been around since the nineteenth century," the voice continued. I slowly made my way down the stairs as I continued to listen in on the conversation between a supposed scientist and someone else.
Once I reached the second floor, I noticed that the sounds were coming from the radio room. After getting off the stairs, I slowly crept up to the door before pushing it open and walking inside. I quickened my pace as I walked up to the table where the radio, and a microphone Mimi tested out a while back, sat. Resting my elbows on the table, I continued to listen in on the conversation as I set the journal down and opened it.
"The Lucellan army is struggling to keep control over the infected, and its starting to spread further to our Doveporter friends, as well," another male voice spoke. "If we want to prevent this from becoming a global issue, we need to act now." I flipped through the journal, noticing more things besides Luciana's journal entry about Terence, including hand-drawn pictures of each woman who fell before her. The way she pictured Lillian's slim figure, Clarissa's adorable dimples, Adelaide's gorgeous eyes, Harriet's pixie cut, and Noelle's glowing smile took the air out of my lungs.
"The Doveporter army told us that a group of survivors managed to get the cure out of one of their abandoned labs. When we tested a small amount on an infected, they turned back to normal," the scientist explained. "We researched the ingredients used to create the cure, and fortunately, we have almost everything here at PLZ, except for one thing..." As he said the final thing they needed to develop more cures, everything I seen in the lab finally made sense.
"...the blood of someone who is immune."
It explained why Rose's body was there.
"The scientists in Doveport used the blood of the late Roselia Emerson, but they could only make one since it was too risky to use the blood of the deceased, even if they took the right measures to preserve it," the supposed army soldier added. "If Roselia was immune, that means her relatives are, as well. Sergeant Monroe recalls seeing a human child, approximately twelve years old, amongst the group of survivors who looked like Roselia. If she's still alive, we have to find her."
My heart stopped beating at that moment.
"She's our only hope now."
I instantly reached for the bottle in my pocket before pulling it out. "PLZ... Psych Lab Zero... it all makes sense now," I thought to myself. The scientists and the army... they were looking for me. My sister was also immune to the infection, and her blood was in the cure we used on Zizzy. Psych Lab Zero was trying to mass produce it, and the only thing they needed was my blood. Once the cure was made, they could start distributing it to all the infected around Lucella and Doveport.
Everything could go back to normal.
But TIO would still be here.
I knew I was faced with a difficult decision at that moment. I was in the beginning of preparing my plan to take TIO and The Insolence down once and for all, but I didn't realize that defeating him wouldn't make the infection he brought upon Lucella dissappear into thin air. However, curing all of Lucella and Doveport wouldn't make TIO dissappear into thin air, either. I would have to choose one of the two things to prioritize; killing TIO or saving Lucella.
Then I remembered something. Something very important about my family.
They would always put the greater good above themselves. That was the whole reason why they were killed in the first place. Rose pushed me out of the way to save me, Mom was so focused on getting me out that she didn't realize that Amanda was behind her, and Dad threw me off the gallery's third floor when David had us cornered. All three of them placed my life before their own. I was their "greater good". Even before the infection, they had suffered multiple wounds defending for greater good.
That was how they were killed so easily. Their bodies were already weak by that point.
I knew deep down that if they were here, they would want me to follow in their footsteps and put the people of Lucella above my own grudge against TIO, and in any other scenario, I would've complied with their indirect wishes, but I couldn't in this case. Both situations were too important for me to prioritize one over the other. As an idea formed inside of my head, I found myself smiling as I used my free hand to reach for the microphone.
If I couldn't do the two of them separately, I would do them both at once.
"Only hope, you say?"
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Yesterday, November 5th, was my birthday, so happy late birthday to me!
🥳🎂