PAST MEMORIES

Flashback

" C'mon Theresa... I have already told you, you are not supposed to play around in this place." Ms Erica screamed a bit to warn her little daughter about playing around in the laboratory. Ms Erica was always busy handling chemicals and mixing different formulas but still, she didn't get what she wanted...the modified or an activated formula of the M2V drugs.

   She finally left what she was doing and looked at Theresa. She finally shouted

   " Theresa...I said stop it. " The little girl stopped running and stared at her mother with her hazel eyes. Her mother went where she was and knelt down.

   " Theresa... mommy wasn't scolding you. This place isn't safe for you to play around. Everything in here is toxic and...I don't want any harm to reach you" she said politely while stroking Theresa's hair.

   " I'm sorry mommy...I promise I won't do that again." Ms Erica gave a smile and hugged her daughter.

" Seems there have been a lot going on here." It was Theresa's father speaking

   " Ooh... Hutchinson, I hope you are not jealous of me Just because I got a hug from the prettiest girl in the world."  Erica spoke just to see the reaction from Mr Hutchinson... He never loved Theresa. Surprisingly, Mr Hutchinson entered the laboratory and reached where they were. He spoke while Erica stood up

    " I'm not jealous at all.. infact, I know Theresa loves me more than you isn't it baby girl?"

   " Yes daddy" Theresa replied with a smile planted on her face. After some seconds Ms Erica spoke

   "Hutchinson...did you find anything that can give us a clue concerning the M2V drugs? "

   " Not yet my love. I came here because I missed you guys...do you mind if we go out for some fresh air?"

  " No Hutchinson! I can't go out yet.. because I have not done anything yet" she replied not because she didn't want to go out but because she was puzzled. Hutchinson was never nice to her and he always rejected his own flesh and blood.

Hutchinson rolled his eyes then replied

   " come on Erica... you have been inside here for almost two weeks now! Just give me five minutes my love?"

   "Well okay but...I hope it's just five minutes"

   " Mommy, daddy... I am going to the washroom"  Theresa spoke

   " Okay honey. Be careful baby" Ms Erica replied. They got out for some fresh air not remembering about their own daughter's safety. The laboratory was left open and While they were busy talking, promising themselves, accepting Theresa as their own daughter and reconciling... Theresa got back inside.

   After some time Ms Erica spoke to her husband

  " Hutchinson wait... where is Theresa?"

" Oh my God, I even forgot if we left her alone . Let's go back... thanks God that we haven't gone that far" they went back to the laboratory running for their daughter's safety. Ms Erica's pace braked when she saw her loveliest only child laying on the floor unconscious.

  " Theresa...noo, Theresa" she knelt down and held Theresa in her arms. She was unconscious and there was a bottle of antidepressants pills. Hutchinson held his forehead and started shouting at Erica

   " This is all your fault! You knew that this place isn't safe yet you allowed her to enter and play around. Your carelessness has harmed our daughter" Erica looked at Hutchinson and replied

  " My love... you were the one who convinced me to take a walk with you right?"

   " Ooh really... Are you just blaming me? You are the one to blame because of your carelessness. You didn't lock the laboratory while you knew she loves playing in here"

She couldn't hold her tears back...she cried and asked

   " Wait a minute...are we just arguing while Theresa needs our help now?"

    " don't shift the topic!... you know very well that was the last bottle of antidepressants that you were using."

    Erica stood strength less while her tears continued flowing. She saw Hutchinson picking up Theresa, he looked for a pulse and any sign of life but there was none. She suddenly heard what she didn't want to hear

     " You killed her"

Flashback ends...

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    Xavier got out and saw a group of guards in black suits running towards him, they were all holding up their guns while searching for Miss Erica. When Xavier saw them he screamed

     " She shot me and ran away! Please chase after her and don't let her escape."

Some of the guards started running towards that direction, one of them remained after being called by Xavier

   " I need the first aid kit now...this wound is bleeding so much"

  " Sure Sir" the young Asian guy replied with a firm tone. Xavier added

  " I need you to show me where oxygen tanks are kept... they must be inspected and if even one oxygen tank is taken,that means she has escaped"

" I can do that Sir... lemme take the first aid kit for you"

  " There is no need to do that for me because there is no much time... you just give me the kit and show me where you keep the oxygen tanks. I can handle the rest"

  After two minutes he had whatever he requested for. He first ran back to the room and handed over the kit and syringes. He finally headed to where oxygen tanks were kept and hid one underground.  He then notified the guards that Ms Erica has taken one oxygen tank since one was missing. He looked at the guards and spoke to them

   " Make sure you catch her....I want her dead or alive, you hear me?"

   " Yes sir! " They replied boldly enough and Xavier spoke

  " I will be in Mr Hutchinson's office...I am going to remove the bullet and, " he paused for a while then spoke with watery eyes

    " Spend my last moment with Cara, I hope no one disturbs me" he rubbed his tears away and walked towards the office.

He opened the door and stepped in. He only found Ms Erica treating Cara. She was holding the small glass bottle having a clear blue liquid, she drew some of the liquid using the syringe almost 3cc. She was like

   " She needs to get the maximum dose of the M2V injection...so I'm gonna give her the second shot"  she finally injected Cara's neck with the blue liquid and added

" I'll give her the last shot" she injected Cara's chest while Xavier closed the curtains and went back to where Erica was treating Cara.

  " How does that drug work?" Xavier asked.

   " It's a bit complicated" Erica replied while taking a scalpel to open the gun wounds which were deep

  " Uum... But in a simple way, the drug has the ability to disolve and distribute in the blood even when it has clotted. You see" she paused then, opened the wound at the stomach and continued

  " The M2V injection distributes in the blood slowly and...it then reactivate every cell that it comes in contact with,that's why I gave her a maximum dose in different body parts. "

   " So you did that to minimize the time taken for her to regain a heart beat?"

   " Yes pretty boy." She answered while putting the bullet in the kidney dish. Her blood had not yet clotted that much, so it gushed out whenever Ms Erica cut Cara's body.

She was like " I hope she recovers better and doesn't get any infections. This little surgery of ours is predisposing her to get infections."

She removed the other bullets at the chest and the thigh. When she was done Ms Erica spoke

" do you happen to know how to-"

   " Stich?... I'm an expert" she rolled her eyes while wiping the blood on Cara's body

    " Young man... You must be kidding! "

   " You know that I work for Hutchinson right? So I'm always at the risk of getting shot most of the times...I remove the bullets myself and stitch the wound." A sigh escaped Ms Erica's mouth. She allowed him to stich Cara's wounds while speaking

   " I know better than you can say. I understand how risky it is to work for him. Back in 1994 before I was pregnant...I used to smuggle drugs for him and I was shot several times." Xavier stopped binding Cara's skin together and looked at Erica's eyes, he spoke

    " He allowed his own wife to do that dirty business for him?"

    She nodded with watery eyes " you can say so. I did that out of love because he wanted me to do that for him. But when I was caught and locked up he never showed up"

Xavier felt the emotions in her tone and her face expression, anyone could tell that she was going to cry soon. She continued

  " He got me pregnant and... when I gave birth, he never accepted our baby as his own. He mistreated me and slept with almost half of the casino girls he met. I always convinced him to believe what I was saying or even doing DNA test...but he never agreed"  Xavier was almost finishing but the pain behind this story overwhelmed him. He added

    " Why didn't you leave? Everything could work out!"

    She smirked then replied " I was obsessed over him. So... I believed that one day he will accept our daughter, I had that feeling inside that, one day he will go back to the Hutchinson who used to love me so much"

   Xavier took off his gloves and wore a new pair of gloves. He asked while collecting back the instruments

" Did you win his love again?"

    " No! Just...more shame and beatings I guess. But...as time went by, I thought why not discovering man 2 vampire drugs?(M2V drugs), I had that thirsty for being loved and accepted by him. I thought maybe the drugs would help him with his illegal businesses...I thought that they will help him create a fierce and strong army in any business he did whether it was smuggling drugs or killing his enemies." She paused for three seconds then continued

     " It actually worked because he finally accepted doing the DNA test. And the day he got the results our daughter died"

    " How did she die?" Xavier asked and read the expression on Erica's face, the question was stinging. He finally acknowledged it

    " Well I'm sorry for being too much curious. I will-"

    " It's okay don't worry... She was called Theresa my one and only child. Well, After discovering the pills...I was trying to invent an intravenous formulation in my own laboratory. So one day Hutchinson came in the lab and asked me to take a walk with him. He was going to apologize for everything and start over as a family because of the DNA results he got which proved that, Theresa was his own daughter"

she sighed heavily,her voice became more hoarse and her face reddened

  " I was so happy when he apologized and promised to love Theresa. But when we went back to the laboratory...we found Theresa dead. You see, I left the laboratory open when Hutchison took me out and..I never reminded myself that Theresa loves playing in the laboratory." She was crying so much already that Xavier felt her pain. He hugged Ms Erica while she continued

  " I found her dead in my own lab ...she had  ingested my antidepressants pills (amitriptyline) and overdosed herself"

Xavier was patting her back and speaking

  " Don't blame yourself Ms Erica. I'm sure Theresa won't like seeing you in so much tears"

   " The thing that pains me is that-" she paused then took the tissue that Xavier had offered, she wiped her tears and blew her nose then carried on

   " I had no antidote at home so I decided to rush my daughter to the hospital. I couldn't enter inside since I was a wanted drug smuggler and my ' so called husband 'who was not wanted at all didn't want to support me."

    " I was so afraid even to talk to anyone... I took my daughter out of the car and left her near the hospital stairs. That's all...I don't even know where she is, how she looks like or if she survived..all I can recall is that she had a birth mark which looked like a star on her waist".

Xavier held her shoulders and spoke " then you must survive to find her. We must get out of here to find Theresa."

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