Three weeks later…

Rook stormed into the clinic, a piece of paper crumpling under her angry fist. Her eyes, hidden behind blue contacts, narrowed as she slammed the paper down on a desk. The frightened secretary looked up at her, recoiling slightly as if a heat wave were escaping the female doctor.

“What do you mean, I’ve been dismissed!?” Rook demanded, her shoulders rearing up in anger.

“W-well, Dr. Rook.. I only send the letters,” the secretary said nervously. “You’ll have to take that up with Dr. Enker, considering he’s the lead doctor on that particular case now.”

“Oh, I will. Right now!” Rook said in a haughty tone. Walking past the desk and through the double doors of the hospital interior, she ignored the woman as she tried to stop her. Rook no longer had clearance at the clinic.

“Nathan Enker, you bastard!” Rook bellowed as she entered his office. The man looked up at her from behind his thin rectangular frames and smirked.

“What is it, Dr. Rook? Why so upset?” he asked coolly. He laced his fingers together and examined her. He seemed rather pompous, Rook thought.

“You know damn well what’s wrong, you jackass!” she seethed. “You had my jurisdiction in regards to Raphael Nyx revoked. You’ve stolen my patient!” she growled.

“I did no such thing. There are doctor’s here who are master’s in their fields. They’re far more experienced than you. Come on, Dr. Rook… Three years and no progress whatsoever? That’s proof that you are not fit for this case. This boy needs superior help, and you’re just not cut out.” Enker grinned as Rook let out a hiss of a sigh.

“You may have taken him away from me as a patient, but I still have visitation rights. You’re not taking that boy from me. I’m one of the only people he trusts,” she came back with a determined glare.

--

Riff looked utterly exhausted. The same rumbling of his dad’s SUV lulled him into a half-sleep. His body hurt. His skin itched all over from being shocked. Bruises ran up and down his arms from where they’d drawn blood for testing. His eyes and ears burned from the testing they did to measure his senses.

“You okay, kiddo?” his father’s voice reachedhis ears, drawing him out of his half-sleep.

“Wha-? Oh, yeah… I’m just tired. I don’t get to see Miss Taylor anymore,” he said, sounding rather sad.

“Really? Why?” his father asked.

“They said I needed someone more professional. I don’t like any of my new doctors. They… hurt me,” he said in the same soft yet tired tone.

“Son, I know the tests aren’t enjoyable, but most medical procedures are uncomfortable. You just got to remember it’s for the best.”

“Yes, sir,” he mumbled, those narrow blue-grey eyes gazing out of the car window. It was starting to sprinkle outside.

“Riff… They’re switching my hours at work. I’m not going to be around as much. I put an ad in the news paper. We’ll find you a nice sitter for when I can’t be home, okay?”

Riff sighed. “I hate meeting new people,” he said quietly.

--

As the rain began to fall, the lightning flashed in the dim sky. Black lightning. What in the world?

A pair of soft blue eyes fluttered open. The sound of her heart beat heavily in her ears. She sat up and rubbed her head.

“It… worked,” she said, blinking. “Good job, Meliai. You’re good for something after all,” she said, smiling at her own success. “Time to find out my name,” she said, looking about the bedroom she found herself in. Locating a purse, she dug through it until she found a wallet. Pulling out a driver’s license, she read the information aloud to herself.

“Elliot Jade. Age seventeen. Hair color: Brown. Eye color: Blue,” she said, nodding to herself. Meliai decided to study everything in the room she found herself in. Better to know a little bit about the world you’re in before actually venturing out into it. If she was going to stay undercover, she’d have to learn this “Elliot’s” ways and fast. Luckily, Elliot kept a rather detailed journal.

“Ugh,” Meliai said in disgust as she read Elliot’s journal. “This girl is so… so… intolerable! Why does she describe several boys over this ‘spring break’? Are all women in this world so outlandish?” she wondered to herself. The journal told her that this Elliot was quite the vixen. She was also a hot-head and seemed to get into a lot of fights.

“Fantastic. I’m really going to have to watch my back. Now, I just need to find Keturai…” And so her search began.

--

Riff sighed as he sat in his tire swing in the front yard the following morning. No doctors today. Just… nothing. It was his day off, but all of the testing.. The needles and vials and monitors as well as the faceless doctors kept running through the ten year-old’s mind.

Sigh after sigh escaped him. The child was obviously in a state of depression.

“H-hey, kid!” a girl’s voice called out to him. Raising an eyebrow, Riff looked up to see a girl with short brown hair clicking her way up the sidewalk in high-heal shoes. She was wearing knee-high socks and a mini-skirt as well as a long-sleeved sweater. Her clothes did not match and were not coordinated well.

“Me?” Riff asked as she stopped on the sidewalk in front of him.

“Y-yeah, you. You’re,” she trailed off and pulled out an index card to read the name again. “Raphael Nyx, right?” She seemed like she was forcing herself to act bold.

“Yeah, but I like to be called Riff. What do you want?” he said flatly.

She seemed slightly taken aback. “I, well… um.. I’m Elliot Jade. I’m here responding to an ad your father placed for a babysitter,” she said. Riff watched her closely. Those blue eyes of hers seemed to quiver. There was more to this girl than what he saw. He agreed to take her inside to meet his father.

--

I know this chapter was a bit choppier than the last. I’m feeling a bit scatter-brained at the moment. It’s really late and I’m partially sleep deprived, but I just felt I had to write something. Although short and choppy, this chapter is very important because it’s actually a jumpstart to plot progression. Yay! Right? Please leave me nice reviews! Thanks for reading

-Joey Jinxstar