Five

“Miki, can I ask your brother to drop me off somewhere?” asked Akara to her friend as they sat in the backseat of a car.

Miki turned to look at her. She tucked her raven hair behind her ear. “Sure, Aka…” replied Miki, staring at her questioningly.

“Thanks. Hideki?”

“Yeah?” asked the boy driver three years older than them. He stared at her through the rearview mirror.

“Um… can you just drop me off at the EDEN Laboratory place?”

They both stared at her. “Um… sure… I guess.”

“Aka… why are you goin’ there?” asked Miki.

“Oh… um… it’s my mom, heh, she has to…uh… get something checked from her medicine prescriptions or something… I’m supposed to meet her there.”

“Oh… do you want me to come with you?”

“N-NO! No… I might be there for awhile, and you know how your parents are with curfew…heh heh.” She laughed nervously twisting a strand of her ash brown hair between her fingers.

“Okay…”

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Akara stepped inside the facility, her face reflected onto the newly waxed tiles that covered the lobby. In front of her stood the security guard desk. She eyed him nervously, as he leaned back in his pilot chair stuffing globs of food in his mouth.

He stared into a portable television, eyes flashing through every winking moment. When she figured it was safe, she slipped past him and headed towards the five elvators that stood behind him in the far wall.

Security is not so tight here for such a large corporation… well, I guess those weird men with the suits are more responsible for it than that guy…

She jammed on the “up” button nervously, her stomach churning inside her. She had no idea where she was to go, and she suddenly regretted the fact that she should’ve planned it before entering the building.

Ding! The elevator slid opened, and Akara screamed in surprise.

Standing in front of her was Toshiro Momoro, arms crossed, and an apathetic look on his face. The elavator doors closed behind him, and he stared at her through his shades.

She laughed nervously. “Um… nice to see you again,” she said, wiping her clammy palms on her skirt.

“Didn’t you sign a contract?” he asked, now leaning against the elevator.

“Well…”

“You agreed to the fact that you will not interfere with us if we don’t interfere with you right when you left through those doors. You’re interfering.”

“I know… but—“

“Listen, girl. Weren’t you the one who was being all bitchy yesterday and saying that you wanted to stay as “far” away from us as possible?”

“Yeah… but I just realized something, okay? And that something changed my mind about you guys.”

“Well, that’s too bad. Sorry, but we don’t keep up with your mind changes. So… I’ll see your ass walk out that door now. Bye.”

She suddenly realized something. She wasn’t here to argue. “Where is my brother?” she asked firmly.

He turned away and sighed. “He was right. You did come here for that. Look, we can’t say anything, okay? We probably don’t even have your brother. So why don’t you get your paranoid ass out of here?”

“He knew? Dr. Caine?”

“Yeah. Did you just think that it was a coincidence that I’d come meet you down here?”

“He knows I was gonna ask because he is here, isn’t he?”

“Now you’re not making any sense. I was ordered to get you—“

“Where is my brother?” she pressed on.

“I don’t know where the hell he is!”

“Tell me! Where is he?!”

“Are we gonna come back to this?!”

Tears started to form in her eyes. Memories soon flooded her mind, as a voice in her head yelled at her to give up. She couldn’t give up. She started to cry, hopelessly.

“How could you?! How could he lift my hopes up by saying that he said ‘hello’, and then suddenly destroy it again by not even letting me know where he is?! He’s the only family I have! I just wanna know… I just wanna know where he is…please…” She said all this through her sobs, face red and swollen.

Toshiro stared at her. He didn’t expect her to just break down like this. He thought that she would just put up another fit, and try to fight her way through the elevator. But now… he began to pity her…

“Hey… don’t… don’t do this, okay? We can’t tell you, alright? We just can’t…” Hesitantly, he placed a hand on her shoulder as she shook violently from her sobs.

“But… but why?” she asked again, now sounding like a begging child.

“Shh… look… we just can’t, okay? We’re not entitled to give out this type of information…stop crying now…”

“No!” She clenched her fists. “TELL ME!! WHY… CAN’T…YOU…TELL ME?!!!”

A vase broke into a million pieces.

They stopped suddenly. And stared behind them in unison towards the origin of the sound. She breathed heavily.

Toshiro’s eyes shifted to stare at her. “D-did you just do th-th—“

“SORRY!! I’LL PAY FOR IT, OKAY?!” yelled back the security guard, as he bent over to pick up the small shards on the floor.

Toshiro breathed out a sigh of relief.

Little did he know that 30 feet from him, a light bulb blew out.