Universe Leap

Chapter 03: The Plan

Chapter 3: The Plan

“Craigan, they are not dead, right?” I asked, followed by a nervous laugh.

Craige pursed his lips and morphed them into a small smile even though his lips are also shaking.

“O-Of course not, dummy. They are immortals. They can’t die,” he assured, making me reply a nervous laugh for the second time.

“Right,” I said and inhaled very deeply. “Right.”

A deafening silence enveloped us. Neither of us started speaking while still looking at our unconscious parents. Craige didn’t even moved his foot from the broken terra cotta pot as if he didn’t step on it in the first place.

I know that our parents are immortal and nothing in this world can kill them but for some reason, I started to get nervous as I looked at their unconscious body. I want to ran towards them and asked them what happened and why are they not moving but me― myself went rigid.

“Craige, why not take a look on them? They just probably fell asleep.” To my surprise, a tear fell from my left eye without any warning at all.

My chest feels heavy and there is an unexplainable pain lingering inside my stomach. There is a certain truth that my system can’t accept at all.

“Cara,” he called my name. He didn’t sound so natural. He sounds like he was on the verge of tears too.

“H-Hmm?” I responded and covered my mouth using the back of my hand as soon as tears started to flow one by one while looking at the unconscious body of our parents who are now covered with bulgy violet veins.

“I saw how the driver stabbed mom and dad using that syringe,” he said making my tears fell even harder.

“They are dead, Cara. Their lips were already violet and they even have rigor mortis in a short span of time, there’s no way they can survive that.”

We didn’t move or rather― we can’t move. We know that they are immortal yet there is still something in me saying that they lost their eternal life. Minutes passed and people who saw our parents gathered and made a crowd until one of them take them to the hospital.

Nobody even noticed us staring at them blankly. When all of the people were gone, I lost my balance and eventually knelt on the pathway as tears started to flow like a river. Craige still has his back turned against me as I hear him retrain himself from whimpering.

“We have the ability, right? Do you know how we can control them? Maybe… maybe we can back to the time when mom and dad was about to be stabbed and let’s alter the present?” I asked stupidly even though I know the answer.

Our parents’ death was not yet confirmed but that driver is already getting into my nerves. That sticker on the car’s front door is already enough for being suspicious for me. Who would even want to print a lab coat on his car? Unless they are obsessed with lab coats. As far as I know, the ones who are only obsessed with lab coats are scientists.

Wait…

Scientists.

I looked at Craige who’s busy wiping the tears forming in his eyes, not minding the pot under his foot as if he completely forgotten about it. Should I mention it to him? Or it will lead to another misunderstanding? I can’t afford to be in an argument with Craige right now since he is the only one that I have at the moment.

Like those times…

“Spill it, Catarina. You’re making me anxious,” he said and sniffed and for the first time, he laid his eyes on me.

I didn’t know that he knows that I am thinking.

I gulped. “Promise me you won’t get mad,” I asked for assurance.

His forehead creased before nodding, unsurely.

“Promise me, Craigan.”

“Yes. Cara, I promise you. So, tell me what’s on your mind,” he calmly said.

“You’re still stepping on dad’s flower pot.” I finally spilled it out.

His eyebrows furrowed and looked down. I heard how crunchy his curses were when he lifted his toe from pot. Fortunately, he is unscathed but his newly bought black shoes were covered with scratches. He looked at me furiously and was about to say something when I purposedly widened my eyes to remind him of what he had said earlier.

He heaved and closed his eyes for a second to calm himself. “Alright, is that all?”

“Actually, no,” I said making him plant his hands on his waist and raised both of his brows.

“Now what? Make it sure this time that what you’re going to say is much senseful than your first statement,” he said, obviously losing the patience that he is building up inside him.

This is actually a good sign. He now knows how to control his anger unlike the past times.

I looked from left to right. I totally forgot that the front of our house earlier was covered with concerned people and they even brought our parents in the hospital. I guess the shock for the of us in unexplainable.

Craige said that they are not breathing which is impossible since they are immortals and immortals cannot die!

I looked at Craige and didn’t hesitate to take his arm and dragged him inside the house to avoid any eavesdrop. Actually, I haven’t figured it out that much but I guess the pieces that I have discovered will have a great impact behind our parents’ attempted murder.

“What did you say that you saw earlier the moment you walk out from that door?” I asked him and pointed the door where we just entered.

“They were talking and the conversation seems very calm. I thought everything was settled when Mom and Dad turned their backs against the driver but the driver drawn two small syringes and injected it on mom and dad’s napes. After that, the driver looked at me and smirked as he maneuvers the car away from us. In a split of a second, mom and dad’s bodies turned white and their lips turned purple,” he explained, making me nod.

“Does the driver look funny or something? Is he drunk?” I asked again which made him purse his lips.

“I guess so. He reeks in alcohol,” he answered.

“Then it might not be the driver’s intention to inject that d**g to our parents, right?” I asked for the third time but this time, I didn’t receive any response from him as if he was not so sure what to answer.

“Maybe or maybe not. Why is he even carrying a syringe with him? And what was the thing that he injected in our parents to create rigor mortis without even hours passed?” he mumbled.

“Are you sure we are going to discuss these things even though we don’t know what is the status of our parents? Whether they are dead or alive?” I questioned which made him nod while putting his hand on his chin.

“No, no, no. It doesn’t matter whether they are dead or alive,” he said making my eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?! Their lives matter the most, i***t!”

Ugh, hate to admit but I have serious anger issues too.

He looked at me very intently as he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. “Alive or not, we are going to seek for justice,” he firmly said.

I blew the hair that are blocking my view and crossed my arms. “Well, you’ve got a point. But as you may know that we just ‘young adults,’ Craige. We didn’t even graduate in college yet.”

He looked at me and smirked but under those chilly eyes that he has, there is anger. A fuming anger that even I couldn’t control.

Between the two of us, Craigan’s the one who is more responsible when it comes to controlling his emotions. He is bottling what he is feeling until the time came when the lid of his bottle finally popped and no one could stop is rage. Even me.

I witnessed Craige raged once and it was during ‘that’ time. I don’t want to get involve when such thing happened again.

“That dr*g… That dr*g inside the syringe what interests me the most. Those d*mn d**g creators! I wish they will rot in hell.”

I gulped. The man who is standing in front of me right now is not Craige anymore. He sounds like a serial killer when he casually blurted those words out with a smirk on his face.

“Craige, I think you should tone your emotions down a bit. You might regret the things that might happened when you let anger overcome you,” I said as calmly as I could.

I touched his shoulder but immediately took it off when I realized that he wasn’t listening as if I am just a wind in front of him right now. He is only looking in nothingness while having that creepy smile on his face as if any minute from now, he would grab a sharp object and stab me.

“Craigan, I’m right here,” I said with full of courage as I shakingly snapped my fingers in front of him.

Finally, he blinked and looked at me. “Sorry?”

“I said you should tone down a bit. You’re a little too hot. Don’t let your temper overrule you.” This time, I made sure that he will hear me.

He looked at me for a second and sighed. “Right.” He sighed heavily again. “Right.”

“Good,” I said when I witnessed that he is finally calming down.

You better know who is the boss, Craige.

“You’re interested with the dr*g inside the syringe, right?” I asked him which made him nod consecutively.

“Then that dr*g should be probably in the area where Medical Technologies are working. First, we should first know what hospital did the citizens brought mom and dad,” I instructed which made him nod.

“You’re right. I think the both of us were both shocked of what happened and we didn’t have the courage to help our own parents,” he commented.

I just nodded in response. I gulped and tried to recall who are the ones called an ambulance earlier to ask them what is the status of our parents. Can’t believe that they didn’t even contact us.

“It was Janet who called the ambulance earlier but there is really no point in thinking deeply on which hospital did they bring mom and dad,” Craige said and ‘tsk-ed.’

“There are only two hospitals here; Makhanda Hospital and the La Legras Hospital,” I continued the idea that he was trying to say.

He snapped his fingers. “And La Legras is a hospital for pets. Therefore, there is only one hospital left in our options.”

I nodded. “The Makhanda Hospital.”

“Right.” Craige looked at me eye-to-eye as if he is telling me that he is going to drop a bomb that’s why I need to be prepared.

“W-What?” I stuttered.

I saw how his adam’s apple moved from up to down before speaking, “I’m going to tell you, Cara. I’m 99% sure that our parents are already dead. I am not studying medicine for nothing.”

Then again, there is a loud bang in my chest. Even though I replay in my system several times that my parents are already gone, I still can’t accept that fact. Something in my chest is pounding very very heavily to the point that it even interferes in my breathing.

I responded as my lips started trembling, “I am aware.”

“Good. I think the doctors are now examining the body of our parents or they are examining the liquified dr*g to pinpoint what is their cause of death,” he explained and I just nodded as response.

“So, here is the plan. The hospital will call us to tell that our parents just died. With that, someone will accompany us from the front desk to the morgue and eventually, they will leave. We will grab that opportunity to roam around the hospital and find where is the hospital’s laboratory and find where is that dr*g. I am sure that they are putting some labels on it for easy access.”

Craige continued discussing the plan and I just nodded and nodded, understanding every detail that he is explaining and for some reason, something in me lit up.

Rather than the feeling of vengeance, my feelings are feelings of excitement and thrill.