Enter the Hound: The Origin of Inu

Chapter 15: Click

 

Harvey,

            I heard you finally escaped that dreadful place.  Don’t ask how; you know I have my ways.  I am so happy to know you’re okay.

            I’ve missed you terribly, my love, and I understand the need for a sentinel.  But it’s over now!  His test subjects and slaves (“employees” -- what a joke!) Are all free.  We can be permanently reunited.

            You know best where to find me.  As if you could forget that special place....

            I await your arrival with open arms.

Yours always,

Kaede

 

            Harvey smiled as he reread the letter.  Oh yes, he knew the place she meant.  The first time he’d take her there, his car had broken down, and it was cold, and they had crawled into the back seat...

            ...but he really didn’t have time to think about that right now.  He had to move quickly before Moreau figured out where he was.

 

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            Surrounded by hot water and hazy clouds of steam, Dr. Moreau worshiped his own pale, gaunt body.  His cleansing habits were so methodical and well-rehearsed that they had become almost ritualistic in nature.  Gone was the half-crazed peanut butter sucker; this man was clean, sharp, and sterile.  Every inch, every crevice was scrubbed and scoured with a various brushes and sponges, each hanging from its own little hook on the shower wall.

            His mind churned laboriously over the events of the past three weeks as he sat and scrubbed furiously at his toenails.  He couldn’t rid himself of the image in his mind; all he could see was that damned dog-girl staring at him through the hole in the wall right before his prized test subject grabbed her arm and ran.  There was something familiar about her, something that he couldn’t see in the security footage.  Something in the way she looked at him...

            **Stop it.**

            Moreau paused in his cleaning ritual.

            **What?

            Stop staring at me like that.  People are starting to notice.

            Can I help it if you have the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen?

            I told you, I’m engaged to Harvey Pembroke.

            And so were we once upon a time.

            And that fell through, didn’t it?  You’re married to your work, James.  I’ll not be your mistress.

            Kaede...**

            The brush fell from his fingers and clattered on the slick titles on the shower floor.

            “That’s it,” Moreau whispered.  “Dear God, that’s it!”

            Clinging to the budding revelation, Moreau threw open the shower door and scrambled down the hall to the computer monitors.  Water poured off his body, leaving a trail of slick, soapy puddles that mingled with the dust and mouse droppings to form little pools of filth and grime.  It dripped off his fingers as he reached for the monitor and beaded on greasy peanut butter smears coating the desk’s surface.  Paper, lint, dust, and crumbs clung to his wet legs and feet.  In the far corner, the resident mice cowered in fear and stared longingly at the feast of crumbs on the floor that had been completely ruined by the puddles.

            “Her eyes,” he panted, scanning the footage for the dog-girl.  “She has Kaede’s eyes...”

            And suddenly he saw it: Dr. Pembroke yanked the little bitch into the testing room, then helped her evacuate them.  That rotten bastard was in on it all!

            “If she has Kaede’s eyes, then she must be related to you, too, Harvey,” he said.  A manic grin spread across his face.  “And that means I know just how to find her....”

 

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            Under the cover of darkness, Dr. Pembroke slipped from his safe haven in the abandoned neighborhood--merely three houses up the street from Moreau’s--and disappeared down a manhole.  The sewers would take him most of the way he needed to go, then it was a matter of sticking to crowds where he could blend in.

            “So long, James,” Dr. Pembroke muttered under his breath as he pulled the manhole cover by into place.  “I hope you get everything you deserve.”