Post by Evelyn Kuller on Oct 21, 2014 3:30:41 GMT -6
The halls of the University of California San Diego were positively bustling. The school year had begun in full, and so the halls were filled with students going from class to class, conversing with one another, looking over assignments, checking their phones. All of them living out their tiny, insignificant lives.
And not a one of them noticed him.
As the students moved around the hall, heads looking one way or another as their lives required, it was in those tiny moments where all points of view were away that he moved, stepping out from one shadow only to step across into another one and disappear as eyes swept over again. These clueless students had no idea of the “person” walking unseen with them down the hall. Where almost all of them broke off to go to wherever their lives demanded them to be, he continued on down, into the disused portion that every school seemed to have. To where a mechanic-obsessed doctor had set up his office. He stopped in front of the door and reached his right hand up, pressing it against the door. His head tilted, ever so slightly, as if hearing something. Apparently satisfied, his hand dropped from the door itself to the doorknob, pushing the door open and flowing into the room.
Dr. Kuller's office was what one would expect from him if they spent any time with the man. Various mechanical parts were scattered about, projects that had been begun and then abandoned in favor of something newer and more interesting, creating an endless backlog of planned work that anyone could browse through simply by looking around his floor. This extended to his desk, which was covered in various tools and bits of metal he had been working on. It was also, at the moment, occupied by 2 manilla folders, a set of photos showing scans of a brain, a glass, and a bottle of a quite powerful liquor that was currently only half full. The other half had, at quite regular pace, gone into the glass, and then down Dr. Kuller's throat. He sat in his desk chair, though sat would perhaps not be the best word to describe. Laying, more like, head laying against his shoulder as he stared at the wall. His eyes shifted to take in the view of his visitor. For some people, he would perhaps be a familiar sight, a tall man dressed in a white lab coat, with dark blue goggles and a medical mask upon his face. And yet, Dr. Kuller did not react as he had to the man who looked like this before. This time he reached out to his desk, grabbing the glass and holding it up in greeting.
“I wondered when you'd show up,” he slurred, trying a few times to sit up straight before finally managing to do so, reaching out to grab the bottle and pour himself another glass. “I'd get you a glass for you to partake in, but...I guess you really wouldn't be able to taste it, huh?”
The man in the goggles did not respond and Dr. Kuller frowned. “Of course,” he muttered to himself with no small measure of bitterness in his voice, “same as always. Well, since you're here even if your vocal cords aren't, I might as well fill you in, huh?”
Again, there was no response, but that didn't stop Dr. Kuller. “Before I start I just...I just wanna say...I think we were both wrong on this, about this. It's...it's just....watch, okay?”
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small remote, aiming it at the right wall, upon which a projector screen covered it. He pressed a button, and a video began to play, of just earlier that day....
–
Dr. Kuller sat at his desk, moving some of the parts around to make room, as the door clicked open and in stepped two large men in suits, escorting a man in dark blue goggles and a medical mask, along with a young girl, body entirely covered, headphones upon her ears into the room. The man in the goggles took a look around the room, shaking his head at it all, while the girl just looked blankly ahead. They approached the desk, the two men pushing her into the chair before taking out leather restraints. “Is that really necessary?” Dr. Kuller asked, and the man in the goggles looked, as much as a man whose face was covered, amused by it. “Of course it is. You do not allow a potentially rabies-infected dog free reign over it's surroundings, do you?”
Dr. Kuller looked at the girl with no small amount of disgust. “Not when that's all she was designed to be.” The man in goggles laughed. “Oh, you two will get along just great. Remove the headphones.” The two men, having restrained her arms to the chair, do so. The girl's eyes quickly come into focus, blinking and looking around. If she in any way felt distress or shock at suddenly coming to in a bizarre room, strapped to a chair, none of it showed in her face. Indeed, she seemed to take it in stride, as if this was a regular occurrence. She looked at the man in goggles and tilted her head curiously. “Where am I now?” she asked simply. The man in goggles was only happy to reply. “You're in the office of the latest physician to check you, Dr....oh, what is that quaint name you took?”
Dr. Kuller's lips curled into a snarl, but before he could say anything the girl looked at him and seemed to have a bit of recognition come to her face. “Dr. Cyril Kuller,” she began, “the head doctor for EXODUS. I'm familiar with him from twitter.”
“Ah, that little blue bird, bringing all manner of people together. Beautiful.” The man in goggles said, patting her on the shoulder. “Now, Cyril here will be asking you questions, and checking your head, okay?” The girl only gave a small shrug. “Whatever is to be done. I have no objections.” It was clear from how the mask crinkled that the man in goggles was smiling. “Not anymore,” he said, with no small amount of pride. He reached into his coat and produced two manilla folders, laying them on Kuller's desk. “Everything you need to know about my beautiful little Eve. Be hasty in getting the results to me. My timetable is being sped up more and more every passing day.” And on that, he turned on his heel and walked out, the two burly men following him, though it was obvious that they posted themselves on either side of the door outside.
For moments, silence was the king in the room, Dr. Kuller and Eve looking at one another. Finally, he spoke up. “So, you're the little monster he created.” She nodded. “I carry his orders out, whatever they may be.” She said as agreement. He shook his head. “He finally succeeded after all these years in getting a perfect little destroyer.” At this, she gave a small smile, finding some humor in that. “I believe in his dreams, things went far smoother once I was...born.” Dr. Kuller snorted dismissively and did not respond, instead picking up one of the folders and opening it. He took one look and let out a sigh.
“I should have expected that. I saw less black marker working for the government.” he said, tossing it back on the desk. Eve tilted her head curiously. “Did you really expect him to just give you every answer to every question?” He sighed again. “Apparently I never learn.”
She nodded.“I have gotten use to seeing people like that,” she said. “I imagine you would, makes it easier to find a target, yes?” Eve frowned, sitting back in her chair. “You make me sound like a serial killer,” she paused a moment, a frown coming on. “Well, it's not like I haven't killed, but not in a serial fashion...”
This only seemed to add credence to whatever image Dr. Kuller had of her in his head. “Yes, well, he wouldn't make a weapon without it being damned good at taking a life, would he?” he said, causing her frown to deepen. “If he had, it would have marked me as a failure, and I'd have been killed” she replied, which caused her frown to actually lessen. “How different things would have been then...” she sighed.
“Yeah, well,” Dr. Kuller began, “it's not how it happened. So we're stuck here. You strapped to that chair, and me trapped having to run a diagnostics on a weapon.” Those words caused Eve's frown to deepen once more, as she looking him over perhaps a little sadly. “I see you've already made your judgment about me,” she began, “from how he talked about you, I thought you might be more understanding...” Her words caused Dr. Kuller to slam his hands on the desk, an act that perhaps didn't have the desired effect, as Eve did not flinch. “I'm done with understanding. I'm so tired. I've run for so long, only to find myself right back where I started. Again. I'm just going to let whatever happens, happen. What's the point otherwise.”
This caused Eve to smile at Dr. Kuller. “Now that outlook...I understand.”
Dr. Kuller scoffed and pulled open one of his desk drawers, reaching in and pulling out a peculiar looking device. It looked like a metal headband, with thin metallic strips coming off of it in a curve, to fit a head. Attached to the headband is a monitor to show....something. He holds it up.
“I'm going to put this onto your head,” he stated, “and this will scan your brain, and give me a readout letting me see the kind of condition it's in.” Eve shrugged and replied, “I think I already know what you'll find there.” “Well that's good for you,” Dr. Kuller said dismissively, “but I was told to check your brain, and so that's what will be done.” Eve just shrugged again in resignation as Dr. Kuller walked over to her and placed the headband onto her. He pressed a few buttons on the monitor and it began it's work with a hum. Dr. Kuller sat back down and seemed to be content with letting the headband do it's work in silence, but Eve broke the silence. “It's not something I want to enjoy.” she said, before adding to it for explanation, “What I do to people, I mean. I enjoy it, sure, but only because that's how I was designed to feel about it. I don't want to feel that way about causing pain.” Dr. Kuller only offered her a shrug. “Too bad. You were made to enjoy it, so you do. It's just another part of being just a weapon. Take that Carey kid for example.”
Her eyes widened a bit at him bringing Carey into this conversation. “You're chummy with him on Twitter and all, but if Daisuke or the Doktor told you to, you'd jam something sharp in his spine and have a giggle while he cries. That's what you're made to do.” She sat for a few moments, clearly imagining the scenario in her head before she began to respond. “It's true that if I was told to do that, I would, without hesitation...but because I can't do anything otherwise...and I would never be able to enjoy it, even if they ordered me to, because he's....”
Dr. Kuller's face fell as he looked at Eve's reaction, her face. Her face was a mask of sadness, some tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. “Because he's my friend.” she said, sadly. Dr. Kuller sat in silence, slumping back in his chair at this, trying to process it. Just as he opened his mouth, Eve changed. Her body, which had been tense a moment ago, relaxed, as she sat back in her chair. Her face was no long a mask of sadness, but was instead a mask of nothing, and Dr. Kuller understood. She had came here, hoping in some way that she'd been introduced to someone that understood, and he acted how he had, and still she opened up to him. And now she sealed all of that up. She spoke up, then, and it only made things worse for him. “But you're right. I'd still do it. After all, that's what a weapon does, yes?”
He had no chance to even try and make a response to that, as the headband began to let out a repeated beeping, signalling it was done. He shakily stood up and walked over to her, removing the headband and turning it to face the monitor. He tapped a few buttons and brought up the results, and blanched. “This is...this can't be right,” he said, tapping buttons again. Eve barely turned her head to regard him. “Whatever could it be, Dr. Kuller?” “It's....it's like...” he kept trying to say, finding the words so bizarre, even with what he's experienced in life, that they're hard to force out.
“It's like there's....parts of another brain....in your brain.”
Eve's expression barely changed, having heard what she clearly already expected. Dr. Kuller meanwhile stumbled back to his chair and sank into it, looking confused and perhaps even scared. Eve regarded him for a moment before speaking up. “It shouldn't bother you, you know. It won't matter” she said. He looked at her with more confusion. “You see,” she began, “in four weeks time, it won't matter.” “Why?” he asked, his fear coming out in his voice. “What's going to happen in four weeks, Eve?” This question, or perhaps the answer, causes Eve to smile. “Nothing. That's the thing. Nothing is what will be at the end of it.”
He just looked on confused, and Eve, looking more and more happy than he'd ever seen her, as if just being able to finally talk about this putting such joy into her. “They think I can't hear them, when those headphones are on me, but that's their mistakes. I've gotten so good at blocking out the sound of the droning voice coming through them, I can hear him talking about it, with the identicals. He's got some big breakthrough he's almost done with. In four weeks it will be time to move forward on it. And do you know what that will render me, Mr. Technician? Ob. So. Lete. And then?”
She slowly pressed her index finger against her temple, the rest of her fingers curled up, thumb sticking up. And she mock-fired it for him, even slumping back in her chair to simulate her corpse. She then looked up at him with the same smile. “And then I can finally sleep...so don't worry. It doesn't matter.”
Dr. Kuller just sat in shock, staring at her. He might have tried, eventually, to say something, but at that moment the door opened, the two thugs stepping into the room followed by the man in the dark blue goggles and the medical mask. He looked at Dr. Kuller, and his mask crinkled to indicate he was smiling. “I can tell already, Cyril, that you've finished checking out my creation.” He walked over to the desk, picking up the headband, and looking at the monitor on it. He stared at it for a few silent moments, before dropping it onto the desk. “Well, she seems in far better shape, brain-wise, than I thought she would be. How perfect for me! Oh well, Cyril, it was so nice seeing you again but I'm afraid we must run, as I said before, my timetable is getting shorter and shorter, and we must hurry!” He started to turn around, only to stop and look back at him. “But I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again quite soon.” At that he gestured to the thugs, who released Eve from her bonds and were, perhaps, a tad bit surprised when she simply followed the Doktor without any resistance, the four of them leaving Cyril sitting, alone, at his desk.
–
“Do you see now?” he asked the identical man in the dark blue goggles and the medical mask. “Do you understand? We were wrong! She's not a weapon! She's a person! And she's dangling on the god damn precipice of something terrible, even without this four weeks deadline! This is a turning point, she could be saved.” The man in the dark blue goggles did not respond, instead moving over to the desk, where he picked up the discarded headband. He began to look it over, while Dr. Kuller sat looking at him with anger in his eyes. He picked up a piece of metal off his desk and flung it at the man, shouting out at him as he did. “Say something!” he yelled as the metal bounced off the man's head, who barely seemed to notice, though he did turn his head to look at Dr. Kuller. “Say one god damned word to me!” he continued to shout. “Ever since that day I carried you out of the fire, you have not said one damned word! I've seen your organs damn it I know your vocal cords work! You have a voice! USE IT! Don't you see how important this is?!” The man stared at him, for long moments, and Cyril held some hope that finally, this was the breakthrough he'd hoped for every since that night in Aruba...
But he did not respond. Instead, he reached down again, picking up the two manilla folders, pocketing them into his jacket along with the headband, before slowly walking to the door. He stopped at it, and looked back at Dr. Kuller. Their eyes met, Cyril knew, but only for a moment, before the man looked away. And then he pulled the door open, and disappeared into the shadows once again.
Dr. Kuller sat at his desk, staring at the door long after it had shut. Slowly he reached for his bottle of liquor and his glass, but stopped. He instead dropped the glass to the floor, letting it shatter into hundreds of pieces, and chose to instead just gulp from the bottle directly.
And not a one of them noticed him.
As the students moved around the hall, heads looking one way or another as their lives required, it was in those tiny moments where all points of view were away that he moved, stepping out from one shadow only to step across into another one and disappear as eyes swept over again. These clueless students had no idea of the “person” walking unseen with them down the hall. Where almost all of them broke off to go to wherever their lives demanded them to be, he continued on down, into the disused portion that every school seemed to have. To where a mechanic-obsessed doctor had set up his office. He stopped in front of the door and reached his right hand up, pressing it against the door. His head tilted, ever so slightly, as if hearing something. Apparently satisfied, his hand dropped from the door itself to the doorknob, pushing the door open and flowing into the room.
Dr. Kuller's office was what one would expect from him if they spent any time with the man. Various mechanical parts were scattered about, projects that had been begun and then abandoned in favor of something newer and more interesting, creating an endless backlog of planned work that anyone could browse through simply by looking around his floor. This extended to his desk, which was covered in various tools and bits of metal he had been working on. It was also, at the moment, occupied by 2 manilla folders, a set of photos showing scans of a brain, a glass, and a bottle of a quite powerful liquor that was currently only half full. The other half had, at quite regular pace, gone into the glass, and then down Dr. Kuller's throat. He sat in his desk chair, though sat would perhaps not be the best word to describe. Laying, more like, head laying against his shoulder as he stared at the wall. His eyes shifted to take in the view of his visitor. For some people, he would perhaps be a familiar sight, a tall man dressed in a white lab coat, with dark blue goggles and a medical mask upon his face. And yet, Dr. Kuller did not react as he had to the man who looked like this before. This time he reached out to his desk, grabbing the glass and holding it up in greeting.
“I wondered when you'd show up,” he slurred, trying a few times to sit up straight before finally managing to do so, reaching out to grab the bottle and pour himself another glass. “I'd get you a glass for you to partake in, but...I guess you really wouldn't be able to taste it, huh?”
The man in the goggles did not respond and Dr. Kuller frowned. “Of course,” he muttered to himself with no small measure of bitterness in his voice, “same as always. Well, since you're here even if your vocal cords aren't, I might as well fill you in, huh?”
Again, there was no response, but that didn't stop Dr. Kuller. “Before I start I just...I just wanna say...I think we were both wrong on this, about this. It's...it's just....watch, okay?”
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small remote, aiming it at the right wall, upon which a projector screen covered it. He pressed a button, and a video began to play, of just earlier that day....
–
Dr. Kuller sat at his desk, moving some of the parts around to make room, as the door clicked open and in stepped two large men in suits, escorting a man in dark blue goggles and a medical mask, along with a young girl, body entirely covered, headphones upon her ears into the room. The man in the goggles took a look around the room, shaking his head at it all, while the girl just looked blankly ahead. They approached the desk, the two men pushing her into the chair before taking out leather restraints. “Is that really necessary?” Dr. Kuller asked, and the man in the goggles looked, as much as a man whose face was covered, amused by it. “Of course it is. You do not allow a potentially rabies-infected dog free reign over it's surroundings, do you?”
Dr. Kuller looked at the girl with no small amount of disgust. “Not when that's all she was designed to be.” The man in goggles laughed. “Oh, you two will get along just great. Remove the headphones.” The two men, having restrained her arms to the chair, do so. The girl's eyes quickly come into focus, blinking and looking around. If she in any way felt distress or shock at suddenly coming to in a bizarre room, strapped to a chair, none of it showed in her face. Indeed, she seemed to take it in stride, as if this was a regular occurrence. She looked at the man in goggles and tilted her head curiously. “Where am I now?” she asked simply. The man in goggles was only happy to reply. “You're in the office of the latest physician to check you, Dr....oh, what is that quaint name you took?”
Dr. Kuller's lips curled into a snarl, but before he could say anything the girl looked at him and seemed to have a bit of recognition come to her face. “Dr. Cyril Kuller,” she began, “the head doctor for EXODUS. I'm familiar with him from twitter.”
“Ah, that little blue bird, bringing all manner of people together. Beautiful.” The man in goggles said, patting her on the shoulder. “Now, Cyril here will be asking you questions, and checking your head, okay?” The girl only gave a small shrug. “Whatever is to be done. I have no objections.” It was clear from how the mask crinkled that the man in goggles was smiling. “Not anymore,” he said, with no small amount of pride. He reached into his coat and produced two manilla folders, laying them on Kuller's desk. “Everything you need to know about my beautiful little Eve. Be hasty in getting the results to me. My timetable is being sped up more and more every passing day.” And on that, he turned on his heel and walked out, the two burly men following him, though it was obvious that they posted themselves on either side of the door outside.
For moments, silence was the king in the room, Dr. Kuller and Eve looking at one another. Finally, he spoke up. “So, you're the little monster he created.” She nodded. “I carry his orders out, whatever they may be.” She said as agreement. He shook his head. “He finally succeeded after all these years in getting a perfect little destroyer.” At this, she gave a small smile, finding some humor in that. “I believe in his dreams, things went far smoother once I was...born.” Dr. Kuller snorted dismissively and did not respond, instead picking up one of the folders and opening it. He took one look and let out a sigh.
“I should have expected that. I saw less black marker working for the government.” he said, tossing it back on the desk. Eve tilted her head curiously. “Did you really expect him to just give you every answer to every question?” He sighed again. “Apparently I never learn.”
She nodded.“I have gotten use to seeing people like that,” she said. “I imagine you would, makes it easier to find a target, yes?” Eve frowned, sitting back in her chair. “You make me sound like a serial killer,” she paused a moment, a frown coming on. “Well, it's not like I haven't killed, but not in a serial fashion...”
This only seemed to add credence to whatever image Dr. Kuller had of her in his head. “Yes, well, he wouldn't make a weapon without it being damned good at taking a life, would he?” he said, causing her frown to deepen. “If he had, it would have marked me as a failure, and I'd have been killed” she replied, which caused her frown to actually lessen. “How different things would have been then...” she sighed.
“Yeah, well,” Dr. Kuller began, “it's not how it happened. So we're stuck here. You strapped to that chair, and me trapped having to run a diagnostics on a weapon.” Those words caused Eve's frown to deepen once more, as she looking him over perhaps a little sadly. “I see you've already made your judgment about me,” she began, “from how he talked about you, I thought you might be more understanding...” Her words caused Dr. Kuller to slam his hands on the desk, an act that perhaps didn't have the desired effect, as Eve did not flinch. “I'm done with understanding. I'm so tired. I've run for so long, only to find myself right back where I started. Again. I'm just going to let whatever happens, happen. What's the point otherwise.”
This caused Eve to smile at Dr. Kuller. “Now that outlook...I understand.”
Dr. Kuller scoffed and pulled open one of his desk drawers, reaching in and pulling out a peculiar looking device. It looked like a metal headband, with thin metallic strips coming off of it in a curve, to fit a head. Attached to the headband is a monitor to show....something. He holds it up.
“I'm going to put this onto your head,” he stated, “and this will scan your brain, and give me a readout letting me see the kind of condition it's in.” Eve shrugged and replied, “I think I already know what you'll find there.” “Well that's good for you,” Dr. Kuller said dismissively, “but I was told to check your brain, and so that's what will be done.” Eve just shrugged again in resignation as Dr. Kuller walked over to her and placed the headband onto her. He pressed a few buttons on the monitor and it began it's work with a hum. Dr. Kuller sat back down and seemed to be content with letting the headband do it's work in silence, but Eve broke the silence. “It's not something I want to enjoy.” she said, before adding to it for explanation, “What I do to people, I mean. I enjoy it, sure, but only because that's how I was designed to feel about it. I don't want to feel that way about causing pain.” Dr. Kuller only offered her a shrug. “Too bad. You were made to enjoy it, so you do. It's just another part of being just a weapon. Take that Carey kid for example.”
Her eyes widened a bit at him bringing Carey into this conversation. “You're chummy with him on Twitter and all, but if Daisuke or the Doktor told you to, you'd jam something sharp in his spine and have a giggle while he cries. That's what you're made to do.” She sat for a few moments, clearly imagining the scenario in her head before she began to respond. “It's true that if I was told to do that, I would, without hesitation...but because I can't do anything otherwise...and I would never be able to enjoy it, even if they ordered me to, because he's....”
Dr. Kuller's face fell as he looked at Eve's reaction, her face. Her face was a mask of sadness, some tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. “Because he's my friend.” she said, sadly. Dr. Kuller sat in silence, slumping back in his chair at this, trying to process it. Just as he opened his mouth, Eve changed. Her body, which had been tense a moment ago, relaxed, as she sat back in her chair. Her face was no long a mask of sadness, but was instead a mask of nothing, and Dr. Kuller understood. She had came here, hoping in some way that she'd been introduced to someone that understood, and he acted how he had, and still she opened up to him. And now she sealed all of that up. She spoke up, then, and it only made things worse for him. “But you're right. I'd still do it. After all, that's what a weapon does, yes?”
He had no chance to even try and make a response to that, as the headband began to let out a repeated beeping, signalling it was done. He shakily stood up and walked over to her, removing the headband and turning it to face the monitor. He tapped a few buttons and brought up the results, and blanched. “This is...this can't be right,” he said, tapping buttons again. Eve barely turned her head to regard him. “Whatever could it be, Dr. Kuller?” “It's....it's like...” he kept trying to say, finding the words so bizarre, even with what he's experienced in life, that they're hard to force out.
“It's like there's....parts of another brain....in your brain.”
Eve's expression barely changed, having heard what she clearly already expected. Dr. Kuller meanwhile stumbled back to his chair and sank into it, looking confused and perhaps even scared. Eve regarded him for a moment before speaking up. “It shouldn't bother you, you know. It won't matter” she said. He looked at her with more confusion. “You see,” she began, “in four weeks time, it won't matter.” “Why?” he asked, his fear coming out in his voice. “What's going to happen in four weeks, Eve?” This question, or perhaps the answer, causes Eve to smile. “Nothing. That's the thing. Nothing is what will be at the end of it.”
He just looked on confused, and Eve, looking more and more happy than he'd ever seen her, as if just being able to finally talk about this putting such joy into her. “They think I can't hear them, when those headphones are on me, but that's their mistakes. I've gotten so good at blocking out the sound of the droning voice coming through them, I can hear him talking about it, with the identicals. He's got some big breakthrough he's almost done with. In four weeks it will be time to move forward on it. And do you know what that will render me, Mr. Technician? Ob. So. Lete. And then?”
She slowly pressed her index finger against her temple, the rest of her fingers curled up, thumb sticking up. And she mock-fired it for him, even slumping back in her chair to simulate her corpse. She then looked up at him with the same smile. “And then I can finally sleep...so don't worry. It doesn't matter.”
Dr. Kuller just sat in shock, staring at her. He might have tried, eventually, to say something, but at that moment the door opened, the two thugs stepping into the room followed by the man in the dark blue goggles and the medical mask. He looked at Dr. Kuller, and his mask crinkled to indicate he was smiling. “I can tell already, Cyril, that you've finished checking out my creation.” He walked over to the desk, picking up the headband, and looking at the monitor on it. He stared at it for a few silent moments, before dropping it onto the desk. “Well, she seems in far better shape, brain-wise, than I thought she would be. How perfect for me! Oh well, Cyril, it was so nice seeing you again but I'm afraid we must run, as I said before, my timetable is getting shorter and shorter, and we must hurry!” He started to turn around, only to stop and look back at him. “But I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again quite soon.” At that he gestured to the thugs, who released Eve from her bonds and were, perhaps, a tad bit surprised when she simply followed the Doktor without any resistance, the four of them leaving Cyril sitting, alone, at his desk.
–
“Do you see now?” he asked the identical man in the dark blue goggles and the medical mask. “Do you understand? We were wrong! She's not a weapon! She's a person! And she's dangling on the god damn precipice of something terrible, even without this four weeks deadline! This is a turning point, she could be saved.” The man in the dark blue goggles did not respond, instead moving over to the desk, where he picked up the discarded headband. He began to look it over, while Dr. Kuller sat looking at him with anger in his eyes. He picked up a piece of metal off his desk and flung it at the man, shouting out at him as he did. “Say something!” he yelled as the metal bounced off the man's head, who barely seemed to notice, though he did turn his head to look at Dr. Kuller. “Say one god damned word to me!” he continued to shout. “Ever since that day I carried you out of the fire, you have not said one damned word! I've seen your organs damn it I know your vocal cords work! You have a voice! USE IT! Don't you see how important this is?!” The man stared at him, for long moments, and Cyril held some hope that finally, this was the breakthrough he'd hoped for every since that night in Aruba...
But he did not respond. Instead, he reached down again, picking up the two manilla folders, pocketing them into his jacket along with the headband, before slowly walking to the door. He stopped at it, and looked back at Dr. Kuller. Their eyes met, Cyril knew, but only for a moment, before the man looked away. And then he pulled the door open, and disappeared into the shadows once again.
Dr. Kuller sat at his desk, staring at the door long after it had shut. Slowly he reached for his bottle of liquor and his glass, but stopped. He instead dropped the glass to the floor, letting it shatter into hundreds of pieces, and chose to instead just gulp from the bottle directly.
