Chapter 3

Chapter Three


Dressed in a long red felt coat with black outlines around the lapels, Zachary exit the elevator with his arms folded behind his back. Over his red eyes were a pair of thick sunglasses. His expensive boots tapped on the concrete floors as he walked on the fourth floor of the Bridgewood University Science Building. His mouth was crooked with worry as he walked down a hallway filled with doors. With a sigh, Zachary stopped at the door marked: 314. He opened the door which led into a large white room with a single operating table in the center. On the walls, among the picutres of anatomy, were cabinets of medical supplies.

Richard sat on the table. His feet rested on the side and his right shirt sleeve was rolled up to his bicept. With his glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, Richard looked from the ground to Zachary with a forced grin. "Hello, Zachary."

Zachary gave a gentle grin. "Hello again. I hear you have quite a morning." He looked around the room and then back to Richard. "Where is Martha?"

Richard sighed and adjusted his glasses. "She ... Um ... She isn't happy with us. All three of us."

Zachary smiled and nodded. "I understand that, but where is she?"

Richard pointed to the door behind Zachary. "She ... She, um, went down the hall to get some supplies."

The pointed pale ears on Zachary's head pinned back. He walked away from the door with a heavy sigh.

The door opened and a frustrated looking Martha walked into the lab room with a tray filled with glass bottles and a seringe still in its package. Over her blue eyes sat a pair of large glasses lined with red. Her deep red curly hair was pinned back into a bun and held with a silver hair clip; only a few strands from the front of her hairline sat over her face. Around her slender waist was a red blouse that matched a black smooth skirt. Draped around her body was a lab coat with a name tag pinned to the right. Her eyes darted from Richard to Zachary, who stared at her with a boyish smile. For a moment, Martha seemed trouble with her emotions. It was as if the young twenty something woman did not know if she wanted to hit the blond young man, or hug him. Instead, she went back to her work and sat the tray next to Richard on the lab table.

Martha took out a cotton ball and placed it over an open bottle of rubbing alcohol. She dabbed the ball with the clear liquid and sat the bottle back down. "You are lucky that you walked away from this." Martha said, in a British motherly voice.

Richard nodded. "Yes ... Yes I am."

Martha continued her work by rubbing the cotton ball on a spot on Richard's arm and threw the ball back onto the tray before grabbing the packaged seringe.

Zachary cleared his throat. "Do you know who they were?"

Richard shrugged as he watched his cousin. "Um ... One called himself Dennis Wingfield, I belive, but I am not certain of the other one. I believe he was called Tim, or something like that."

Martha ripped the package and pulled out the seringe. She then quickly grabbed a glass container with the lable: Prantex. She shoved the needle through the nipple lid and began to drain some of the pink liquid into the seringe.

"Is this really nessacery? I mean ... He was only just protecting us." Richard tried to say without a shake to his voice.

Martha stared at the seringe as she filled it. "Not another word, Richard." She demanded.

Zachary made a cartoon like face with a frown. "Motherly instincts are hard to shake."

"I'll speak with you later, Mr. Taylor." Martha said, removing the needle from the container and placing the tool over the alcohol spot on Richard's skin.

Zachary gave a boyish chuckle. "Surnames? Well, I must admit, I didn't realize that we were on those terms."

Richard watched the needle enter his skin and stared at the liquid inject into his blood.

Martha sniffed. "After this, I want you to wait outside. Mr. Taylor will take you home."

Richard held his mouth tightly shut and nodded.

Martha placed a bandage over the area she injected the liquid into Richard's arm and tossed the seringe onto the tray. "After I have a word with him myself. Wait outside." She leaned her palms on the table next to Richard and stared down.

Richard rolled his sleeve down and looked at Zachary, who only nodded. Holding his breath, Richard grabbed his coat and left the room.

Zachary slowly removed his sunglasses and peered at Martha with his red eyes. "Am I in trouble?" He asked with a cold voice.

Martha sighed. "The Prantex is going to remove Bugsy for good. I have shown you graphs ... Charts and even trials and still ..." She glanced to Zachary with powerful blue eyes. "You continue to subject Richard to that creature?"

Zachary slipped his sunglasses into his left coat pocket and gave one simple nod. "Yes, I have. If you remember correctly, I am the mentor to the both of them."

Martha pulled her glasses off with rage. "Four people are dead now because of that maniac and you let him run lose?! Why?! What benefit is there?!" She gave a heavy sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. "There is no good in Bugsy, Zachary."

Zachary cracked a smile. "Of course there is, what do you think Richard is?"

Martha pulled her hair clip out of her hair and ran her fingers through her curly hair. "I have grown tired of these games, Zach. I never thought you to be a stupid man, but ..." Before Martha could finish her sentence, with one blink, Zachary was standing next to her and looking down into her eyes. Martha swallowed hard.

Zachary smiled with care in his red glowing eyes. "As you have said, I have seen the charts, graphs and recorded trials. Correct me if I am wrong, but each information I have received thus far of this Prantex has killed many rats. Even the formula that your father cooked up was killing not only Bugsy, but Richard as well." He placed a cold hand on Martha's shoulder. "Tell me, out of this time Richard and Bugsy have been placed under my care, has either of their genetics been harmed in any way?"

Martha closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. "No." She said under her breath.

Zachary smiled. "Everyday Richard grows stronger, in fact, more so physically and mentally."

Martha opened her eyes and stared into Zachary's. "So is Bugsy."

Zachary nodded, pulling his eyes away from Martha's. "Very true, a negative situation, but one that can be dealt with." Zachary's eyes met with the container filled with the pink liquid. His pale hands with black sharp fingernails gently grabbed the bottle with grace and lifted it up. "We have found a cure for that and it is a placebo. Both Bugsy and Richard believe that you have found the perfect Prantex." His eyes slowly turned to Martha's once again. "However, Bugsy is no fool and Richard's trust can only go so far. Once the two realize that the Prantex is not working, everything that I have worked for will fall a part." He sat the bottle down and smiled. "For now, the two must learn to live together and we must nurture that compromise."

Martha frowned. "And if that doesn't work?"

Zachary smiled. "It will. I assure you it will. What was it that I asked of you before you moved into my home?"

Martha looked at Zachary as though she were going to melt in front of him. "Trust you."

Zachary nodded. "And have I let you down yet? I care for Richard as though he were a brother to me."

"And Bugsy?" Martha asked in a daze.

Zachary gave a grin and patted Martha's shoulder before turning to walk towards the door. "A child that is in need of guidance. Believe me when I say, out of most monsters, I understand the darkside the most." He pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them onto his face. He turned and smiled at Martha. "Have Gabriel look over your paperwork. I know you do not feel comfortable with showing others, but he will be able to help."

Martha shrugged. "But he is just a manchenic, not a scientist."

Zachary scoffed with a smile. "Well, the man did construct his own body, he understands the human anatomy better than most. Also, ask Victoria to join in. She has some understanding of science outside the normal. They both can help."

Martha sighed and shoved her slender hands into her lab coat. "All the while you attend to this matter with Bugsy?"

Zachary nodded. "Yes, I will speak with Richard's brother tonight."

Martha smiled. "Be as rough as you can with him, Richard doesn't share the damage."

Zachary smiled and chuckled. "I am only going to speak with him."