Chapter 3.8

Warning: This Chapter contains scenes of a graphic nature which some readers may find disturbing.

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Chapter 3.8

Almost a week had passed, and Aristotle had not been seen by anyone.

Titus had spent the majority of his time at Leon’s house and visiting Mandy at the hospital with his family whenever he could.  After realising Aristotle had disappeared, she had a stress-related stroke.  It was not too serious, but it had left her slightly weak and reliant on others, which is why the hospital was the safest place for her until she recovered.

It was fortunate she had not come back home straight away.  The letter on the laptop had been updated just a day after she went into hospital, and now Titus, Leon and Eric knew Aristotle was not coming back.

In the letter Aristotle had revealed that the Government had contacted him and had casually stated that it was advisable he gave himself up.  Aristotle grudgingly vowed he would, on one condition.

He wanted to speak to Milly, in person.

Several hours later, and much to his surprise, Aristotle had been delivered his side of the bargain.

The Government had instructed for him to visit Milly’s old house at the far end of Honeyset Valley, where they promised she would be waiting.   The moment Aristotle had set foot into the house; she led him upstairs and outside onto the balcony where they sat down with a packet of cigarettes and an ashtray.

After an awkward silence, Milly had revealed to Aristotle that she had been hiding in China.  Apparently she had pleaded with the Government to protect her from Aristotle after he had murdered Michael, paranoid that she would be his next victim after the way she had harshly broken his trust the first time he had escaped from the science facility.

They even paid for her accommodation, much to Aristotle’s disgust.

Milly spent the first few months living a stress free existence.  She picked up the language quickly and indulged in the culture as much as she could.

Things dramatically after she met Bradford Starks.  He was a skilful martial artist who occasionally trained in China.  He was visiting Shang Simla to compete in a tournament.  Milly foolishly fell head over heels in love with him the moment he had approached her, boldly asking her out to dinner.

After a few drinks and plenty of flirty comments, Milly found herself letting go completely as she invited Bradford back to her home.

After their night of passion, Bradford left whilst she was fast asleep.  Milly never saw him again.  What was even worse, just a month later, she found out she was pregnant.

“When Duke was born, my life changed forever,” Milly had confessed to Aristotle.

Milly received a phone call from the Simville Government shortly after Duke’s eleventh birthday.

They gave her no option but to move back to Honeyset Valley immediately, vowing that if she refused to go both her and Duke would be killed.

They gave her less than an hour to prepare for the long journey back to Simerica.   And just a few hours after arriving back at her old house, Aristotle had turned up, just like the Government explained he would.

“I came back to protect my Son,” Milly made herself very clear, “not to appease you.   I don’t particularly care if you want to kill me now either, I think we both know our lives are now hanging by the thread.  Soon they’ll be here kill us.”

“They won’t gain the satisfaction of killing me,” Aristotle stated firmly.  He then momentarily brushed his fringe away from his forehead after a small breeze had swept by and disrupted it, before narrowing his dark green eyes.  “But there’s one more thing I need to know.”

As Aristotle leant forward to flick the ash off his cigarette into the ashtray, Milly stared at him intently with an eyebrow arched as if to say, ‘Well, then?’

“Why, did you agree to get involved with Project Blue XX, Milly?” Aristotle asked once he had settled back into his chair with his cigarette hanging freely between his lips.  “Why did you turn your back on your family?  And what about Aunt Tia?  Why did you lure her into all of this?”

Milly half-smiled and briefly tapped her fingers against her leg.  She had expected him to ask that eventually.

“At first I just wanted to hurt Viola, which is why I decided to talk Tia into it.  I honestly never expected her to agree, but apparently the Government offered to finance the IVF treatment she was considering,” Milly paused for a moment, considering what to say next.  “After they day you were kidnapped in the park, the guilt must have got to her.  She cut all ties with Government.  I heard she eventually managed to conceive, naturally.”

Aristotle nodded to confirm Milly’s last sentence.

“As for why I got involved… Admittedly, when the Government first offered me the opportunity to live here in this house, I couldn’t turn it down.  I was young and had always dreamt of living in such a beautiful home with everything I needed,” Milly confessed as she stood up from her chair.

“Is that the only reason?” Aristotle asked as he watched her wade towards the balcony’s railings.  She stopped by them before she gazed down at her feet and awkwardly scratched her right hand wrist.

“I wanted to show off to my family, and at the same time, see them suffer,” Milly uneasily admitted.  “I realise now what I did was wrong; it damaged so many people’s lives.  But, if I hadn’t chosen that path, Duke wouldn’t be here.”

“And now I’ve done all I can as a Mum for him,” Milly drew in a deep breath before she briefly glanced over her shoulder at Aristotle.   “All that’s left to say is… I’m sorry for toying with your life, Aristotle.”

Titus vividly remembered how Aristotle had described what happened next in the letter he left on the laptop;

‘Milly apologising was a shock to the system, but that soon became the least of my worries when she started to climb up onto the railings.  I rose to my feet as she wobbled unsteadily as she struggled to keep her balance, and then…’

‘She fell forwards.’

‘It all just happened in a split second, but the result was clearly fatal.’

‘It wasn’t a particularly pleasant sight either.’

‘By now I assume they have cleaned up the mess Milly made, and have taken Duke to live with his biological Father in Riverview.  I guess, like me, Milly didn’t want to die in the hands of the Government.’

‘And so, here I am now, writing these final words to you.  My dear family, I’m sorry for everything.  I hope you can forgive me one day.   I’ve put everyone through so much stress, particularly Mother (I visited her in the hospital when she was half-asleep, she thought I visiting her beyond the grave).’

‘I may have not gotten all the answers, but now I know enough to beg you of one simple thing, Leon.  It is your responsibility to protect our legacy, especially from the Government.  They are not to be trusted.  You must make sure this is spread from generation to generation.  Don’t shield them from the truth; the Government have something planned, and us Meerkato’s must be prepared for whatever it is.’

‘ Stay strong.  Yours faithfully, Aristotle.’

Titus sighed as he gazed around Aristotle’s personal living room.  He knew he had to reach the basement room somehow, convinced there would be a clue there which would solve everything.

He closed his eyes tightly, imagining what the basement looked like.  Aristotle’s description in the first part of the letter had been very detailed, and Titus hoped he could rely solely on that to teleport there (usually he had to know the location he wanted to teleport to, or least have been once or twice in his life).  It was a risky experiment, but Titus was willing to take the risk despite his cowardice nature.

Soon, Titus’s body started to tingle…

The next thing he knew, he was stood in a cold, damp and vile smelling room which matched exactly how Aristotle had described it.  He gazed solemnly at the room beyond the windows, his eyes feasting on the burnt out chairs and debris of ash and blistered wood.  It was hard to believe Aristotle had done such a thing, but now the evidence was right in front of him.

Titus was too frightened to turn around straight away to see what was looming behind him, but he knew something was definitely there, he could sense it.

Finally he inhaled and spun around on his heels, although he kept his eyes almost level to the floor.

“Oh, no, God no,” Titus murmured when he saw a pair of legs dangling just a few inches above the floor.

Titus could not bring himself to look upwards.  He already knew it was Aristotle.  Soon he found his eyes disobeying him, and as he tilted his head up his stomach churned violently and he gagged unwillingly at the sight of Aristotle’s pale, puffy face.  He didn’t want to know how long Aristotle’s body had been there for.

He was hesitant to go and show Leon, but he knew he had to.  Until this point, Leon had no idea that Titus had the ability to teleport but he figured it was about time his brother knew.

“I’ve found Aristotle,” Titus explained meekly after pulling Leon aside from Rocio.

“Where?” Leon asked, his eyes sparkling in hope as he gazed at his brother.

“The basement.”

His younger brother raised an eyebrow.

“How did you get in the basement?”

“Just hold onto my arm… hopefully this will work.”  Leon reluctantly grabbed onto Titus’s arm tightly as he teleported them both down to the basement room.

As they stood staring directly at Aristotle’s body, the agonising cry that instantly slipped out from Leon’s lips was the single most haunting thing Titus had ever heard.

Titus managed to calm Leon down enough so he was eventually able to help Titus untie the noose wrapped around Aristotle’s neck, so they could lower Aristotle’s cold body onto the floor.  Rigor mortis had already taken place; they were able to place one of his arms over his chest without too much trouble, but the smell was horrific.  This meant he had been hanging in the basement for over three days.

Telling Eric was the hardest part.  Titus stood back and left Leon to tell him the news.  His younger brother ended up breaking down into tears and sobbed uncontrollably as he explained to Eric what had happened to Aristotle.

As a vow they had promised not to tell anybody else where Aristotle’s body had truthfully been discovered.  They told Mandy his body had been found in one of the basement’s rooms in the police station, which was a feasible story.  Still, Mandy was naturally devastated to lose her eldest son, and with next to no explanation as to why he had killed himself.   It was something she just did not want to question though, knowing all too well it was linked to how he was treated in the science facility after he was kidnapped.

When she was dismissed from hospital, Aristotle’s body was buried in the front garden, alongside Zasaka and Chris.

The suicide of Milly was kept quiet.  She had supposedly been ‘missing’ for just over a decade and no one, apart from Aristotle, had apparently seen her when she had briefly returned to Honeyset Valley.  In contrast, Aristotle’s death was announced on the news and printed across the front page of the local newspaper, although no one, apart from Tius, Leon and Eric knew truthfully where Aristotle’s body had been discovered.

When Myra had found out about what had happened to Aristotle, she was overwhelmed with grief.  She had almost moved out of town, until she had made a surprising discovery just a few weeks after splitting up with Aristotle.  Now, as Myra cradled her one year old son in her arms, she did not regret the decision to keep her baby boy.  He had so much hair for a little one and his skin was an unusual shade of light pinkish blue…

With his dark green eyes and infectious smile, Baby Zeus reminded her so much of Aristotle.