Missing Piece

~ Tenth Chapter ~

~ Jasper ~

“Lorelei… She’s in a coma.” Matt said with a monotone voice.

I froze when I heard about Lei’s condition. Violet cried harder. I really wanted to hug her and comfort her but then if I did, they’ll find out about our secret… And I don’t want to lie about the whole truth.

I walked to the Matt’s side and touched his shoulder. He looked up at me with teary eyes. This was something he never did since I met him. Yes, he never cried. He always struggled, he always embraced the pain if he knew it’s for someone, but after all of them, he always smiled and never cried.

This was actually the first time for me to witness his real feelings. I don’t know if people still believed in this saying, but “Your eyes don’t lie…” Right now, I just saw his every pain. Every agonizing word you can think of can’t describe his emotions.

“Matt, how’s your injury?” I asked him. Matt, my best friend, did not respond. He just looked at me with eyes still full of overflowing tears. I pitied him.

I guessed he forgot about himself again. He was too worried about Lorelei right now. With her condition, who wouldn’t? I understood his intentions and asked Violet and Maria to give them some time alone. We all left the room and sat on the waiting chairs outside.

Violet still hasn’t stopped crying.

“Lorelei… Lorelei… She…She… She can’t leave us! After… After all the times… She can’t leave us!” Violet whimpered before she blew her red nose on her snot-filled tissue.

I lent her my shoulder and patted her head.

“It’s alright. She’ll wake up soon.” I said with hopes that these words might comfort her.

Maria, who sat on the right side of the door, spaced out with clenched fists. I wanted to talk to her. Since the first time we met at Matt’s hospital room, I was very curious on who she was, where she came from, and what she wanted. She can be a witness or suspect of the crime which was committed a few years back.

Although these thoughts kept lingering in my head, I knew that this is not the right moment to ask such questions.

Damn, my chances are ruined…

A second later, my phone rang. Violet let go of me and wiped her tears before I answered the call from Jack.

“Excuse me.” I said to Violet and Maria. I bowed my head and went outside.

=.=.=.=.=

~ Matt ~

My sister, she’s in this filthy bed. I can’t believe I failed to protect her. After all these years, I can’t believe I’m breaking my promise to mom. I am so ashamed. I thought I was doing the right thing since we decided to move out of the orphanage and live peacefully, but looking to where we are now, we keep coming back to this place. Why? Why do we have to be cursed and burdened by our parents’ past? Our past? What did we do wrong?

I thought as I grasped Lorelei’s left hand tighter. I had long admitted to myself that I would do everything to keep our foundation standing. This, this wasn’t part of that plan. It was supposed to be a happy year for both of us. But I don’t think any of our dreams would be able to happen now.

I caressed Lorelei’s face and kissed her forehead before I stood up and went to the couch to rest.

[iThis is just a nightmare… I’ll wake up from this… I’ll just rest for a while… And sooner or later I’d realize that this isn’t real…

=.=.=.=.=

~ Jasper ~

“Can we tell them now?”

“No.”

“But won’t they get suspicious?”

“No.”

“We can’t keep this a secret forever!”

“Jasper, I said ‘no’ alright? They won’t find out unless we actually tell them something, so just keep your big mouth shut! You’re an agent. You’re not supposed to let your feelings get over your common sense!”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good. I’ll put down the phone. Remember the instructions I told you to follow.”

“Y-yes, Jack.” I sighed for a moment and remembered something. “W-WAIT! Could I tell Violet?”

He didn’t answer. I groaned as I heard him hang up on me.

I’ll take that as a “no”.

I putted my phone inside my pocket and headed towards the canteen. The moment I walked in there, I saw them. White agents, black agents, they conversed like normal people. My eyes can’t possibly fool the fact that they carried around the rings of defense.

Jack, he is serious about the secret. Still, I have no idea why he wouldn’t just let them know? Wouldn’t it be much easier to protect them and at the same time catch the culprit of everything?

I sat at one of the empty tables, removed my one-handed glove, and stared at mark. The mark that sealed me with this mission. The symbol of the Telver family’s company, but with more flare like fire that surrounded the emblem. Only the agents of this case have this symbol imprinted onto their bodies.

Most of us put the symbol at our wrists or at our backs, but I chose my right hand. They thought I was crazy, but at that time I thought it was cool and far easier that way.

I can’t believe I let my childish thoughts into this mission. Jack’s right, I should forget about these feelings and just concentrate on what I should be doing.

Before I wore my glove again, someone surprisingly attacked me from behind. My automatic defense mechanism reacted almost immediately. I sighed with relief and relaxed a bit when I saw it was only Violet.

Violet sat beside me and caressed my imprint.

“Your hand won’t be as smooth as this anymore once the imprint is forcefully removed.” Violet said as she let down a tear.

“I know.” I answered her as I wiped her tears with my left.

“Your back won’t be the same either.” I said comforting her with my smile.

“My back is fine, but your hand, you may not be able to use this once the infection strikes and starts spreading after the removal.” Violet said worriedly as her eyes overflowed with more tears.

I maintained my composure and pulled her into a hug.

“Don’t worry too much. The infection won’t destroy my hand and neither would it destroy your back either, alright? We accepted this mission including its every consequence. We should be able to withstand them.” I said patting her back and kissing her hair.

“The patient in room 341, I repeat, the patient in room 341 is in need of a doctor. She is in critical condition!” The speakers exclaimed in panic.

Violet released herself from my grip and looked at me with shocked eyes. She ran ahead of me to her room while I followed her from behind.

Everything suddenly moved in slow motion. My sound system seemed dead in silence. I sped up my pace from Violet’s, grabbed her hand and made a quicker run for it.

Before we reached her room, we both saw Lorelei being rushed into the ER. Violet followed Lorelei while I looked for Matt.

“Matt! Where are you?” I exclaimed inside the room. Then I heard someone whimpering beside the cabinet.

“Matt…” I whispered as I saw him sitting there with his arms wrapped onto both of his legs while he rocked himself.

I went near him and touched both of his shoulders.

“Matt, what happened?” I asked him.

“Lorelei, she, she, is she going to die?” Matt staggered out.

I looked at him with pity. He looked like a kid who lost his mother. I punched his face.

“Don’t ever say that! Lorelei, she’s going to live, alright! She isn’t going to die! Now get that butt of yours off the floor and stop being sullen!” I exclaimed hoping it would knock back some sense into him.

He looked at me with a sense of resolution. He got up and wiped his tears and putted a hand on my shoulder.

“Thanks, dude, you just helped me to stop acting gay.” Matt said with a smile plastered on his snot-filled nose face.

I laughed at his joke and hugged him.

“You are one weird man, Matt.” I added to his statement.

I turned my attention to the girl standing by the door crying.

“Hey, Violet, what’s wrong?” I asked her.

“I’m scared. I don’t know what would happen. They told me to stop before they went into the ER. I’m so worried. I-I don’t know what to do anymore.” She said between her cries.

Before I could go to her, Matt moved first. He lent her a shoulder to cry on and patted her head.

“We all are worried, Let. My sister’s so lucky to have a friend that would cry for her, and I’m sure with that one friend supporting her, she wouldn’t have any second thoughts to stay alive.” Matt said calming her down.

I admitted that I had a spark of jealousy inside, but I shrugged the feeling away.

Matt’s a good man and friend. He wouldn’t dare try hinting on my girl. Well, he doesn’t know we have a relationship… uuughhhh… stay focused Jasper!

“Hey, Jasper, we’ll wait for Lorelei outside the ER, you wanna come?” Matt asked me snapping me out of my thoughts.

“U-uh, sure!” I said running to them as we all went outside the ER and waited for Lorelei’s operation to be successful.

Two hours later…

“Are all of you Lorelei’s family?” asked the surgeon who just removed his face mask.

“No, only me. They’re our friends.” Matt replied to him.

“Oh, ok… Would you two mind if I borrowed Matt over here for a while?” He asked us.

“No, Doc, uh… We’ll just go to the canteen.” I said as I took Violet’s hand and went downstairs.

=.=.=.=.=

~ Maria ~

“Hello, Boss, it’s a success. I’ve led them to the trap.”

“Excellent work, Airam. The wait has just begun.”

I putted my phone back into my pocket and was about to go out of the closet before Jasper barged in.

“Who are you?”

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