Inspirational quote: Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.
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By now, Kieran, Esperanza and Arista's clone were becoming really fed up.
They had been waiting for Dr Kozak to come and rescue them for about ten minutes now, and they were all losing their minds.
"God! What's taking Dr Kozak so long?! I'm dying here, I need to use the toilet so badly!" Esperanza complained, which just made Kieran and Arista's clone roll their eyes because this was approximately the sixteenth time that Esperanza had complained about desperately wanting to use the toilet in the past ten minutes.
"Hey, Esperanza. Calm down! At least you're not upside down anymore," Kieran reminded her.
Arista's clone (before Diana had booby trapped her in the box) had helped Esperanza to not hang upside down from the ceiling anymore, however she was still hanging from the ceiling.
"Kieran's right. Stop fussing," Arista's clone agreed, sitting down on the cube she was trapped in, not being able to breathe properly.
"Is Dr Kozak coming?" Esperanza wanted to know, which was when Kieran rolled his eyes just thinking about him and Arista's clone shook her head.
"I don't know."
"How long do you think that he's going to take?" Esperanza asked again, making Arista's clone reply back with the same 'I don't know' reply.
It was then that Esperanza was about to call Dr Kozak on her phone that Dr Kozak miraculously showed up at the front of the room, hyperventilating like hell.
"Doctor Kozak!" They all shouted with jubilance at the same time.
"Yeah yeah. Hello," he replied, still hyperventilating uncontrollably due to how stressed he was and how much he had to run from the basement so that he could have returned back to save them on time.
It was either he was about to have another panic attack again or he had been running from somewhere like crazy.
"How'd you get here? Apparently you got basement booby trapped?" Arista's clone enquired, which was when Dr Kozak nodded, came inside properly, shut the door and leaned back on it.
"Cynthia Rose- uhm- I don't know actually, I just went up some stairs that led me here," Dr Kozak lied, and luckily for him no one had heard him mention or say Cynthia Rose's name.
No one said anything, that was until Dr Kozak went to his daughter, telling Kieran and Esperanza something.
And yes, Kieran was still mad at him.
This was because even though Dr Kozak said that he wasn't going to leave him, he had still done so anyway and Kieran wasn't OK with that.
"I'm going to rescue Arista out first so that me and her can help you guys. Okay?"
Esperanza nodded once she had heard that, Kieran just rolling his eyes and not talking or looking at Dr Kozak.
Dr Kozak just kept on staring at Kieran emotionlessly but then stopped once he remembered that he still had to help his daughter out of the transparent cubed box she was currently in before it was too late.
He had rescued his daughter from the cubed box in about thirteen seconds.
"Okay. Thanks dad. I rescue Esperanza. You rescue Kieran."
Arista's clone was about to leave but then stopped once she found out that her father was squeezing her hand, much to her irritation.
"Whoa whoa whoa. Why do I have to rescue Kieran? Why not you?"
Arista's clone just stared at her father, not saying anything. When she thought that it was indispensable, she shook her head and took him to a private place to go and talk to him.
"Dad. I know Kieran's really mad at you but you need to make up with him! He won't stay mad at you forever, trust me. Talk to him."
Dr Kozak shook his head and was really considering walking away and ignoring her but didn't.
"Me? Talk to Kieran? You're joking. I'd rather rescue Esperanza."
He was about to open the door of the room that they were in, that was until Arista's clone did what Kozak had done to her.
"I thought you said last time that Kieran was the only person that you wanted to talk to?"
Dr Kozak just stared back at her quite spitefully.
"I also thought you said that you can't tolerate Esperanza?"
Dr Kozak wanted to slap her.
"Esperanza's okay... I guess. Either way I'm not talking to Kieran."
That was when the two of them had a massive argument and the argument finished by Dr Kozak swearing as well as yelling:
"Fine! I will talk and apologise to Kieran if it makes you so freaking happy!"
Except that Dr Kozak didn't say the word freaking of course. Instead he said the f word.
"Good. And where did you get that candy floss from?" She wanted to know.
"Oh. My sister gave it to me like half an hour ago," Dr Kozak answered, not mentioning the fact that he was still full on texting her and when Arista told him to put her on do not disturb mode, he pretended to, but didn't actually do it.
"Dad! What did I tell you about talking to your sister?"
Dr Kozak just stopped eating his candy floss, looked up at his daughter and then frowned at her.
"Arista, you really can't stop me from talking to my own sister," Dr Kozak warned her sharply, still not mentioning the fact that:
A) He was still helplessly texting Elizabeth, and once he started texting her he couldn't stop.
B) Dr Kozak had preferred Elizabeth as a person more than everybody else (except Ezekiel), and this was mainly because he felt like he could trust her more than everyone else combined.
"But dad, you promised me that you'd stop talking to your sister and listen to Kieran more! You can't break a promise."
"Yeah well you promised me that you won't annoy me ever again after I started being nice to you but no that never happened did it?!" He shouted back, indirecting the fact about Arista destroying and breaking his gun.
Arista's clone shot her father a dirty look, her father doing the same thing but even dirtier.
"Elizabeth and I are siblings. Nothing can change that. I can't not talk to her, it would feel wrong plus Elizabeth will think that something weird is going on and will possibly start hating me. And I honestly can't live with that. Same with Ezekiel as well."
Arista's clone didn't say anything, then after that Arista's clone opened the door so that both of them could leave.
When they got back inside the room, Arista's clone immediately helped Esperanza out of the booby trap, Dr Kozak just watching her.
"Talk to him then," she mouthed, which was when Dr Kozak mouthed back no.
"Dad. You've got to be kidding me. You're wasting time. Just rescue Kieran."
"I'd rather talk to and rescue Kieran privately, when you and Esperanza aren't here," Dr Kozak mouthed back.
"Why?" Arista's clone whispered, after she understood what her father had just mouthed to her.
"Don't worry. Hurry up."
Arista's clone didn't say anything once again. As fast as she could, she rescued Esperanza, Esperanza screaming with joy and hugging her.
Esperanza then asked Arista's clone (who she didn't know was her clone either) where the toilet was because she could have died if she hadn't gone to the toilet anytime soon, which was when Arista's clone took her, then slyly winked at Dr Kozak before she had left the room.
Then Arista's clone and Esperanza were off for good.
In the meantime, Dr Kozak and Kieran were still in the same room, Kieran still upside down and booby trapped, staring at Dr Kozak upside down.
Sighing, Dr Kozak walked forwards and locked the door, then went back to Kieran again, not saying anything.
Realising that it was either now or never, Dr Kozak had to apologise to Kieran. It took him a few tries to think about what to say at first, and about two minutes after Dr Kozak finally said something.
"Look, Kieran..." Dr Kozak started, resting one of his hands on the wall next to Kieran's booby trap and the other hand to examine his fingernails, then stopped.
"Look... Kieran, I know you're really mad at me and you have every right to be, I just wanted to tell you that I'm really sorry for everything that I've done and said and-" Dr Kozak then stopped talking one he realised something.
"Hang on. You can't talk. You've lost your voice haven't you? Well, let me talk to you another way then."
Then saying that, Dr Kozak got out a black pen from his bag, then looking for a blank piece of paper and eventually finding one after thirty seconds or so, he eventually hand wrote something to Kieran and then showed it to him.
Kieran was a bit confused at first once he saw and read that, then briefly remembering that Kieran was practically upside down, Dr Kozak turned his handwritten note upside down so that Kieran could read it properly.
Kieran frowned slightly, a bit annoyed as well as he hand wrote something else to reply to what Dr Kozak had said.
He showed what he had handwritten to Dr Kozak who rolled his eyes.
But Kieran wasn't finished yet, as he wrote something else.
Dr Kozak was slightly annoyed but didn't let it show as he wrote something else.
Kieran rolled his eyes when he read and saw that message then he hand wrote something else, showing it to Dr Kozak.
Then Kieran flipped his double sided hand written note over to the other page.
Dr Kozak genuinely wanted to shout at Kieran but didn't, instead wrote something else that was completely contrasting to what Dr Kozak was feeling right now.
Dr Kozak didn't finish his sentence, leaving Kieran absolutely perplexed as to why the heck his sentence was left unfinished.
Dr Kozak sighed, dropping both his pen and paper.
"Kid, my pen ran out. I know you can't talk but have you got a spare one by any chance?"
Kieran didn't reply. Just ended up writing something to Dr Kozak who became really annoyed at him.
"You know what, Kieran?" Dr Kozak told him, really annoyed at him all of a sudden, after reading all the four things that Kieran had just handwritten and showed to him.
"You want me to get lost? That's fine. You're driving me crazy, Kieran. Guess I won't help you out of that booby trap then."
Kieran heard what Dr Kozak had just said, and screamed.
"Wait. Dr Kozak." Kieran squeaked as Dr Kozak was about to open the door and leave Kieran for good.
Doctor Kozak then turned back around, half surprised.
"Wow. You actually have lost your voice. I thought that it was just an excuse not to talk to me. What do you want?"
"The reason I'm mad at you is because you said you wouldn't leave me & Esperanza but you did. Let's not forget the fact that when I wanted to talk to you, you wouldn't stop texting your sister." Kieran squeaked again, his voice sounding as high pitched as ever.
"I know I said that I wouldn't leave but I also told you that you and Esperanza really need to figure some things out by yourself because I can't always be there for you all the time. And also, Elizabeth is my sister. I can't not talk to her. But I genuinely meant no harm, kid."
Kieran didn't take that into much consideration.
Though in Kozak's defence, he had actually said that.
He had said, which was quoted:
OK fine. I won't leave, but you've got to do some things by yourself. Look, you're lost, figure out where you are without my help, and we'll see how things go on from there. Understood?
"You're right. I was just overreacting. And I'm sorry for getting annoyed over nothing. I see why you hate me now. But please let me out."
Dr Kozak just eyed Kieran carefully, thinking about if he should let Kieran out or not.
"I don't hate you, Kieran."
"Doesn't always feel that way."
Dr Kozak thought about this for a while, still staring at Kieran, then walked backwards.
"Pinky promise me something, kid? I'll help you out and we talk again?" Dr Kozak asked him, putting his right hand inside of the net.
"Yes!" Kieran answered, making a pinky promise with Dr Kozak's right pinky.
That was when Dr Kozak released Kieran, who hugged him, Dr Kozak not doing anything.
"So are you going to talk to me now?" Dr Kozak whispered to Kieran, when Kieran was out and not upside down again.
"Yeah, I mean I was going to say no just to mess with you, but that wouldn't be fair. I'm really sorry, Dr Kozak."
"I'm sorry too, Kieran."
Then they had hugged each other straight after that, thinking that maybe they weren't really as bad as each other had thought.
Then, well. They had escaped the room.
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Moral of chapter: Do something heroic once in a while. Your hard work will pay off eventually. Trust me on this.