This letter held nothing of importance! It just held some random things that Aliyah could deal with later. There were only a few things that might need dealing with soon, but those could still wait for a bit. Mr. and Mrs. Jetson would be here at any moment now, and Aliyah still had absolutely no idea as to what she was going to say to them. How was she supposed to tell them that their daughter had been lost while under her care? Mrs. Jetson would murder her! Mr. Jetson might, but he would probably understand things more so that Mrs. Jetson could right now.
Aliyah actually was not sure how much Mrs. Jetson knew right now. The last she had heard, Mrs. Jetson did not know anything. It was likely that that had changed because they were coming here, but Aliyah still did not know exactly how much Mrs. Jetson knew. Mr. Jetson would not want Aliyah to tell Mrs. Jetson anything more than what she had already been told. He would probably want to break it to her carefully. That was something that Aliyah would be unable to do.
Aliyah was quick and efficient. Being in the position that was in did not leave much room for one to think about others’ feelings. She was no exception to that rule; she simply took it a bit further than most might. To Aliyah, she needed to prove that she was worth having this position. Nobody else really knew that, but Aliyah needed, for herself, to be hard and unyielding. Otherwise, there was no guaranteeing that she would ever get anything done the way that it needed to be done.
But anyways, Aliyah needed to figure out what she was going to do next. This was not a time for self-pity.
Alright. Maybe she should try and script everything- or at least, her parts, out in her head. There was no telling how Mr. and Mrs. Jetson would react to anything that Aliyah said. She really did not know them well enough to be able to guess something like that.
So how are you both doing? I’m assuming that your journey was not-
No. That did not sound very formal, nor did it sound right. They would all be in Aliyah’s office when they were talking so as to avoid interruption. The conversation had to be formal enough. Plus, Aliyah would likely be sitting behind her desk.
There was a knock on her office door.
Hurriedly, Aliyah made sure that everything in her office was neat and arranged. She did not know who was coming, but no matter what, her office needed to look neat and straightened up. Glancing at both letters for another moment, Aliyah shoved them both into a drawer of her desk for safekeeping. She hoped that she would remember which drawer it was after her guests had left.
She settled herself down behind her desk into her chair, making sure that she looked and felt professional.
“Enter!” She called out, her voice clear and concise. It took a little work, but it was doable.
Two people stepped in. Two very haggard and worn out people stepped into Aliyah’s office. She drew in a gasp- a very loud, completely shocked gasp.
Mr. and Mrs. Jetson were not supposed to be here yet!
Aliyah was supposed to have more time.
Assistant 527 was still an assistant, no matter what sort of family he had. He was kind of glad for the anonymity. It made most things in his life a lot easier. But in truth, he really did miss his family. Actually, to be exact, he missed his little sister. He did not miss anybody else in his family. To him, the rest of them were unimportant.
He wished that he could remember what had upset his little sister so much that she had to leave home. He felt like he should know that he was there for that when the very important decision was made. That very important decision was the reason why his sister had left; he knew that much for sure.
Sometimes, Assistant 527 dreamed of coming back into contact with his sister. He knew that she would probably never agree to it, but it was not too horrible to hope for that, was it? Of course, he did know that it was all in vain. She would never forget him- and what he had done to her, even if he himself could not remember a single thing about that situation.
It made him mad. Assistant 527 knew that someone had messed with his memories. But the only was that he could not figure out who would do such a thing like that. He did have a small idea, but it could probably never be confirmed. This business was too risky for him to mess with. Assistant 527 just happened to be caught up in it.
If he could remember something about the day his little sister left, maybe he could figure out where she had gone. It was obvious that his parents had some sort of idea as to where she might be, but neither of them were willing to share any ideas. It seemed as though they were worried that he might chase after her- as they had every right to be. They had already lost one child, it would be very hard for them to deal with losing yet another one.
But something was extremely odd about his parents.
After Assistant 527’s sister had left they had become strangely detached from everything and everyone around them. It was discerning for him to deal with. He did not like having to deal with parents that basically ignored him half of the time. Painful- that is what it really was to him.
Something really odd had happened to his parents after his little sister had left. The day that they had all found out that she was gone both his mother and father were extremely distraught. But on the day right after that, something changed. They almost seemed to forget that she had ever existed. And they seemed content with the fact that the only person who really did know something was slowly forgetting most things that he knew about his sister. Of course, that had stopped happening, but there was one thing that Assistant 527 wished for with all his heart.
Assistant 527 wished that he knew his little sisters name. Of all the things that he had lost, that was the most painful to lose. It was literally there one moment, gone the next.
It was the most horrible thing that Assistant 527 could ever imagine. He had been through a lot of horrible things.
“Assistant 527: The Elders have requested your presence immediately.”
Assistant 527 was shaking in fear now. His presence was generally requested like this. Any other time his parents would say something to him.
This was bad.
Domini was sleepy. Her head was pounding, and there was something attached to her forehead. In typical Domini fashion, she reached up to rip it off. Surprisingly, it did come off easily.
She held it in her hand, examining the thing. To her, it almost seemed like it was some sort of probe. It was attached to her head through a suction cup, but there were many complicated wires leading off it. Those wires disappeared into the floor- probably into another room where somebody else was monitoring what she was doing.
Why am I here?
Domini was utterly confused. She was missing something really big here, and something told her that that was not just by chance. If it was, it would be an extremely big coincidence. A coincidence like that was not very likely to happen- and was even more unlikely to happen to Domini.
She wished that she knew where she was- and what had happened in the while before she came here. All she knew was that she had been at the Laboratory for a while then somehow had come here. Except that was not all that had happened to her. There was a huge gap in her memory where something important had happened to her.
Another thing that Domini could not understand was why somebody would go through the effort to get her here. Domini was not that important.
“Domini?” A quiet voice called, cutting through the fog that was going on through Domini’s head.
Domini did not reply back. She obviously did not know who this person was, and she did not want to know who it could be. Hoping that the other person would not come in, Domini remained silent through the next few moments as the person on the other side continued knocking and tapping on the door. Thankfully, they finally went away, leaving her in blissful silence. She breathed a sigh of relief in response.
Domini desperately wanted time to think things over. She wished she knew what she was missing between the laboratory and being here.
Something about that particular time seemed more important than the rest.
Vesper and Lavinia had both seen Mr. and Mrs. Jetson walk in, but this particular piece of information bothered Lavinia far more than it bother Vesper. Lavinia was the one who really needed to be worried anyways. According to Mr. and Mrs. Jetson Lavinia was dead. And technically, to the rest of the world, she was dead. The only good thing about this whole situation was that it would be easy for Lavinia to hide here. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Jetson had ever been here before, so that did give Lavinia a bit of an advantage here. At least she knew her way around by now.
The only thing that Lavinia really regretted right about now was the fact that she would be unable to hear the conversation that went on between Aliyah and the Jetson’s. She could not even listen from behind the door because there was a high chance that she would be caught. Aliyah’s door was motion activated. Lavinia would have to be a certain distance from the door in order to hear anything, and it was nearly impossible to hear anything if you were pressed up against the door anyways. It was practically soundproofed.
Even if Lavinia were to be able to stand by the door, chances were that she would not hear anything anyways. Still, she wished that she could. At least then she would have a chance. But for now, all that she would be able to do was stay in her room.
As Lavinia lay across her bed, she felt sleepy. Slowly, it began to overtake her…
“No, Celastrus! You cannot do that to me. Please, do not do that. We will figure something out…” Lavinia’s screamed protests died in her throat as Celastrus looked over at her. “We will,” she whispered, her usual confidence gone.
The wind whistled through Lavinia’s ears, almost making it that she could not hear Celastrus’ response. She strained her ears.
“Vesper, you know that there is nothing that we can do about it. You are just going to have to deal with that.” Celastrus’ seemed strong, at least on the outside. But Vesper could tell that she was not on the inside. Celastrus was broken, but Vesper knew that she would never admit to that- even to her twin sister.
“But what will I do without you?” Vesper was shaking really badly- and now the whistling wind nearly prevented Celastrus from hearing her.
“It is too late to worry about that now.” Celastrus’ melancholy voice hit Vesper’s ears a moment too late.
Vesper lunged, but the rain had made the ground to slippery and she missed by a fraction of an inch.
“I am so sorry, Vesper.”
And all Vesper could do was watch in despair, as her sister disappeared from her line of view for the last time.
The rain mingled with Vesper’s tears, disguising them. Vesper was glad for that. Whoever she saw next did not need to see her weakness. Vesper would be strong- for her, and for her sister.
Celastrus deserved at least that much.
Rodriguez had been strangely silent all day, and even he knew that. Nobody had asked him why, but that did not matter to Rodriguez. He was glad for it. If somebody asked him what was wrong, Rodriguez might spill something that he should not, and then it would all be over for him. And probably his father as well.
It is not like his father would care if anything ever happened to Rodriguez either. After Rodriguez had helped him out, he thought maybe he might finally get some appreciation from his dad. He was very wrong. If anything, it made his father ignore him even more.
Rodriguez had tried to get back in contact with his dad recently, just to check on how Domini was doing. The number that he tried to dial had been disconnected, and it would not surprise him if it never came back on. Obviously, if Rodriguez’s dad wanted to talk to him, he would come track him down just like he had the first time he needed his help.
Rodriguez highly doubted that it would ever happen again.
But he was still battling with himself. No matter how much special hatred his dad held for him, Rodriguez still cared about him. Rodriguez did not want anything bad to happen to him, even if his father could care less about him.
While Rodriguez did not want Domini in trouble, he could not shake the feeling that his dad would come back to punish him if he let it slip where Domini was being hidden. Even if they had already moved places like his dad was prone to do, he would still be monitoring the first place that Rodriguez had delivered her too. That way, he would know if Rodriguez had said something.
The ending would be painful for Rodriguez.
But then again, he could not just let something happen to Domini in good conscience. In all honesty, Rodriguez did not actually know what his father had planned for Domini. The only thing he knew was that the man would not cause her physical harm. And she would not die if he was still alive. No matter what happened, Rodriguez’s father would keep her alive even if killed him.
When Rodriguez returned to his room, still thinking, a sheet of paper on his bed caught his attention. It was not fancy at all, but it smelled like someone had used ink on it. That meant that it was no one from this place…
He reached over and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. The small handwritten writing on the back caught his eye.
It is far too late to save her now, my son.
This could not be happening to Rodriguez now. Maybe he should tell Aliyah…
The next thing Rodriguez knew he was running down the hallway to Aliyah’s office, not caring how odd it made him look. He did not care about anything at the moment. Domini needed to be safe.
Mrs. Jetson did not need, nor did she want to hear this particular conversation that was going on right now. It was way too much for her to deal with- she was sure that even Mr. Jetson knew that.
She had just met Aliyah, and already she was starting to dislike the lady. Of course, that probably had something to do with the fact that Aliyah would not tell her where Domini was. Originally, when Mrs. Jetson had just walked in, she had asked that question. Aliyah had simply told her that Mrs. Jetson would find out eventually, but something in Aliyah’s eyes told her differently. Something about the way that her eyes had flashed led Mrs. Jetson to believe that she would not find out soon.
And that could be because Aliyah herself did not even know where Domini was.
For all of their sakes, Mrs. Jetson hoped that that was not true, but that outcome did not seem likely.
After Mrs. Jetson had asked that question, Aliyah seemed to stop trying to make eye contact with Mrs. Jetson. Most of her conversation was directed at Mr. Jetson, but that did not bother her at all. Mrs. Jetson had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, and she did not want to know, at least not right now.
No, what Mrs. Jetson was really thinking about was a girl that she had seen in the hallway. This girl really resembled Domini, but Mrs. Jetson knew that she was not. There was something about her that seemed slightly different. But to anybody else, it probably would have seemed like it was Domini. She was kind of glad that Mr. Jetson had not seen the girl. She did not want him to have some reasonable explanation as to why that girl looked so much like their daughter did.
When Mrs. Jetson had first seen her, she had had to do a double take. The girl looked so much like Domini that it had taken her a second to realize that it was not Domini.
As she was thinking about all of this, the door to Aliyah’s office bust open, and a young man stepped in.
“Aliyah,” he panted out, “I got a letter. I think it has to do with Domini.”
Mrs. Jetson watched as Aliyah’s face paled, feeling her own stomach drop.
Oh, how she wished she knew what was going on!
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Sorry for the wait, I hope it was not too hard for you guys to deal with.
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