Poisoned
Soul
By: Mark J. Hadley
CHAPTER 3: “Addiction”
Buttercup
pushed open the door to the house and floated inside, a small smile still
crossing her face. From the living
room, Blossom peered into the front room of the house and said, “It’s about
time…where have you been?”
“Hm? Oh…nowhere,” Buttercup said absently, flying
in and landing on the couch next to Blossom.
“What’s on TV?”
“Not
much right now,” Blossom said, giving Buttercup a curious glance. “What are you so happy about?”
Buttercup
was too engrossed with the TV to really pay attention to what Blossom was
saying, “What? Sure. Got it.”
“Buttercup,
listen,” Blossom said putting a hand on her shoulder. “What’s going on? You’ve
been acting funny all day…”
“Nothing,”
she insisted. “And I’m not
acting funny. I just wanna watch
TV…can’t you just leave me alone for once and let me watch?”
Blossom
waited a few seconds, staring at her, then finally answered, “Okay…fine…” She got up from the couch and flew out of
the room, as Buttercup scooped up the remote control and started flipping
through the channels. Isn’t there
anything good on?! she thought furious, gritting her teeth at the remote…
This stupid thing!
Blossom
watched from the doorway for a moment, then turned and headed for the
professor’s lab. She opened the door
and flew down carefully…the professor at a table, wearing safety goggles and
hard at work analyzing the chemical composition of Eden. He looked busy, so she waited a moment for a
good time when he wouldn’t be accidentally startled and said, “Professor?”
“Ah…Blossom,”
he nodded, not looking up from his work.
“What do you need, sweetie?”
“It’s
Buttercup,” Blossom said, glancing back up at the staircase. “She’s been acting really strange all day
today…I dunno, I’m just concerned.”
The
professor set down the tools he was working with and raised the safety goggles
up onto his head, turning to face Blossom, “Well, what do you think might be
wrong?”
“Maybe
it’s because she was knocked out yesterday,” Blossom theorized. “It could have been pretty embarrassing to
her…but I mean, nothing like that happened today, and she’s still acting
strange…”
“I
see,” the professor said. “Well, I’ll
keep an eye on her. If it looks like
she’s not getting any better after a while, I’ll talk it over with her to find
out what’s wrong. She does seem
upset at something…”
“Thanks,
Professor,” Blossom said. She looked
down at the chemical apparatus he was working with and asked, “How’s the
analysis going?’
He
rubbed his chin, “Not bad so far. I
still haven’t isolated they key components to the formula, but they’re
definitely very unique. If I manage to
do this, I’d be able to tell you exactly where the chemical came from. That should make it easier to locate where
their base of operations is.”
“You
can do that?” Blossom wondered, amazed.
“Sometimes,”
the professor said. “For example, if
the chemical comes from a plant that only grows in a particular region, that
will help narrow it down immensely.”
“Great!”
Blossom said with a smile. “In the
meantime, we’ve got to crack down on their operations here. One of them also spilled the beans on their
drop-off location earlier…they’re getting in a shipment at the parking lot by
the docks. A few more leads like this,
and we’ll be on their trail in no time!”
She started to fly out of the lab and thought, So far, so good…this
is proceeding like clockwork, everything according to plan!
* * *
Soaring
down the dark alley, Buttercup glanced around several times to make sure she
wasn’t being followed. The way that
Blossom and Bubbles kept asking her questions made her nervous…she wasn’t sure
what they’d do if they knew what she was doing, but she didn’t want to find
out. She had to make this trip quick,
also, because Blossom wanted to go to some parking lot where a drop-off was
supposed to be made.
It
didn’t take her too much searching, before she saw the figure standing up
against the wall deeper in the alley.
“Johnny?” she asked.
“Buttercup,”
Johnny said, stepping partially into the light. “Good to see you’ve come back.
What can I do for you?”
“I
think you know,” she said with a frown.
“Do you have it or not?”
“Of
course I do,” he replied with a grin.
“But first, you have to do something for me…”
Narrowing
her eyes, Buttercup asked, “Like what?”
“Don’t
worry, nothing too big,” he explained.
“Just information. What are your
sisters planning to do next?”
“What? I’m not gonna…” she started to say.
“A
little bit of info, for a little bit of Eden,” he said, removing two cylinders from
his pocket and waving it slightly.
“Look, I’ll even give you two doses, for only one bit of info. C’mon, that’s a fair trade, don’t you
think?”
Buttercup’s
eyes were fixed on the cylinders, and she just couldn’t resist it any
longer. “The parking lot, the one next
to the docks. They found out the next
shipment’s going to arrive there, so we’ll be there to stop it.” As she finished, she held her hands out.
Johnny
placed the two cylinders into her hands and said, “Good girl. This may be the beginning of a beautiful
friendship. Meet me back here anytime,
all right?”
Nodding,
Buttercup tucked away the two cylinders and flew out from the alley. Johnny watched her go, then pulled a
cellphone out, dialing it. He waited a
few moments for the person he was dialing to pick up, then said, “You were
right, boss…she told us they’re going to hit the shipment. What should we do next?”
“Change
the drop-off point to the eastern warehouse,” came the reply. “But also, be ready to meet with Buttercup
some more…for all intents and purposes, she’s working for us now…”
* * *
Three
hours passed, and there was still nothing.
The girls sat on the roof of a building a safe distance from the parking
lot where the shipment was supposed to arrive, but it had been quiet for way
too long. Blossom gritted her teeth a
little and said, “They lied!”
“Yeah,”
Buttercup said, playing along. “Shoulda
known those creeps wouldn’t tell us the truth, huh?” She fidgeted a little.
Her first dose of Eden had worn off a while back, and she was itching to
take the second one, but she couldn’t, as long as she was stuck here with her
sisters.
Bubbles
sat up wearily from the building and pouted, “Can we pleeease go home
now? I’m tired…and hungry…”
Blossom
sighed, and lowered her eyes. “Yeah, I
guess so. I can’t believe it,
everything was going so perfect until now…I guess we’ll have to make sure our
sources are okay next time before we act on them. Come on, girls…let’s go back home.”
“About
time,” Buttercup huffed, getting up from the rooftop and flying off into the
sky along with them. She was shivering,
and kept her hands clasped around herself to keep warm.
Blossom
noticed this, and said, “Buttercup, are you all r—…”
“I’m
fine!” Buttercup shouted back.
“Geez, why do you hafta keep asking that? I’m perfectly all right!”
“You
look cold…” Bubbles remarked.
Shaking
her head, Buttercup said, “I’m…fine…now, cut it out, already!” She picked up speed, rushing to get home
before them. Blossom and Bubbles both
turned to stare at each other…Buttercup wasn’t about to tell them
anything. Blossom only hoped that if
there was something wrong, it isn’t something serious…
* * *
Searching
quickly, Buttercup dug under the bed for a moment, looking through her little
hiding spot. It didn’t take long before
she found what she was looking for. She
pulled the tiny cylinder free from it and smiled excitedly, thinking, Yes! Ok, now I just need to find a safe place to…
“Buttercup?”
came the professor’s voice from the door, startling her. In a panic, she quickly tucked the cylinder
back away in the hiding place and sat up from behind the bed. He continued, “Are you busy?”
“Nothing…no,”
she replied quickly, floating up and landing on the edge of the bed. “What is it?”
The
professor rose an eyebrow slightly, but said, “Buttercup, we need to talk for a
moment, is that all right?”
“Uhhh,
sure…” Buttercup replied, her eyes darting nervously back to the hiding place
on the bed. “What?”
“Well,”
the professor said, walking over and sitting down on the bed next to her, “Your
behavior lately has been…well, unusual.
The other girls are getting worried, and frankly, so am I.”
“Worried? Why?
Nothing’s wrong…” Buttercup insisted, forcing a smile.
The
professor didn’t buy it this time, and said, “I think there is, and for some
reason, you just don’t want to tell me.
Is it because you’re embarrassed over failing to catch the criminal the
other day?”
“Well…”
Buttercup said, then she thought, Good excuse as any. “Yeah…a little…”
“Please
try to understand, it’s not your fault,” the professor told her. “I’m sure that whatever happened, it took
you by surprise. You can’t always be
prepared for everything, you know.
Just remember, it could have been a lot worse.”
“I
know, I know,” she said. She glanced
back at the corner of the bed quickly. How
long is he gonna keep talking? C’mon,
c’mon…
“You
got lucky this time…he just ran off after knocking you out, instead of taking
advantage of your unconscious state to do more harm,” the professor added. “I don’t blame you for being upset, but you
should just take this as a learning experience, and not be so angry at
yourself.”
“Yeah,
I got it,” she said. “Is that it?”
The
professor shook his head, “I’d also like you to try and treat your sisters with
some more respect. They’ve been telling
me that since the incident, you’ve been acting…well, mean towards them.”
“I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Buttercup explained.
“I just…I dunno…but I’ll be nicer next time, I promise, okay?”
“Okay,
that’s all I wanted to know,” he said with a smile. Standing up, he started walking for the door, “I know these are
tough obstacles, but just follow your heart, and I know you’ll do what’s
right.”
“Gotcha,”
Buttercup nodded, waiting anxiously for him to leave. As soon as he closed the door behind him, Buttercup dove for the
corner of the bed to retrieve her Eden.
But a second later, the door re-opened, and Buttercup froze, looking
back over at the door, “Wha? What?”
The
professor stuck his head back in and said, “I forgot to mention, dinner will be
ready soon.”
“Okay,
dinner, got it,” Buttercup nodded quickly.
The professor smiled and left the room again. Buttercup listened for a few moments to his footsteps to make
sure he was really leaving this time, then went for the hiding place
again. She pulled out the cylinder and
examined it with glee, thinking, Finally!
Geez, I thought he’d never stop talking! Hugging the cylinder to her chest, she flew out of the house from
the window to find a safe place…
* * *
As
they sat around the dinner table, Blossom and Bubbles went over the next plan
of attack. “Okay, so we’re not sure
when or where their next shipment is, but let’s think about this. There’s only a few ways they could be
getting it into the city unseen. They
could just be bringing it in by truck, but by boat or plane are other
possibilities.”
“Okay,”
Bubbles said, nodding, “but how will we know which?”
Blossom
unfurled a small map of Townsville and said, “Easy, we just set up another
surveillance.” She pointed to a spot
and said, “If you keep an eye on the docks here, looking for any
suspicious cargo, you can scan them with your x-ray vision to see if any
contain Eden. In the meantime, I can
cruise above town here…” She
circled a section of Townsville with her hand, “…and take a close look at any
trucks I see the same way.”
“And
Buttercup will watch the airport?” Bubbles guessed.
“That’s
right,” Blossom nodded, then glanced around, “Speaking of which, where is
she? It’s almost time for dinner…”
The
professor walked over to the table, setting down a bowl of pasta, and said,
“She should be in her room. Could one
of you go upstairs and check on her?”
“Okay,”
Bubbles said, flying up from the table and heading upstairs. She opened the door to the room and peeked
in, but a quickly glance told her that she wasn’t around. That’s weird, she thought. She noticed the open window and looked out
from it…still no sign of her.
Shrugging, she closed the window and went back downstairs.
Seeing
Bubbles return, Blossom asked, “Well?”
“She
left,” Bubbles told them. “I dunno
where she went…”
“Odd,”
the professor said, scratching his chin.
“She knew it was almost dinnertime…oh well, whatever the reason, I’m
sure she’ll be back soon enough…it’s not like she’s in any danger out
there. She’s perfectly safe…”
* * *
Ok,
I’ll be safe here, Buttercup thought, as she soared through the woods just
outside of Townsville. Glancing around
quickly to be sure no one was around, she sat down and raised the cylinder of
Eden, depressing the nozzle on the top.
As the purple gas sprayed out from the top, she took a long, deep
breath, just as she had done before.
It
always hit her hardest right at the beginning.
She became lightheaded and collapsed onto her back, staring up at the
treetops as the now-familiar warmth spread across her once again. She saw leaves falling around her from
above, but as she watched, they turned into little more than brightly-colored
streaks of light. For a crazy moment,
she thought it looked like she was flying through space, at the speed of light,
and laughed to herself.
A
deep buzzing sound alerted her to something else. Sitting up, she saw them…big, monstrous insects. Each of them had to have been the size of a
beach ball. She gasped and quickly got
up, stumbling away in the opposite direction.
If even one of them got to her, she knew it would rip her to
shreds…she quickly rounded a tree and hid behind it, propping her back up
against it…
Oh
no oh no, she thought…don’t find me…just go away! She clenched her eyes shut and waited. Eventually, their horrible buzzing sound
vanished, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She sank down against the base of the tree and looked up again. The light shining down through the tree
branches was glorious, breaking into every color of the rainbow. The smile slowly returned to her face, and
she watched as a bird flew down, landing on front of her on the ground.
Wait,
it wasn’t just a regular bird…its feathers were a brilliant gold color,
reflecting the light from the sky. It’s
made of gold, she thought, smiling happily. A bird of pure gold…wow!
Even though she wasn’t quite coordinated at the moment, she managed
to dash forward and grab hold of the bird before it could fly away. She hugged it close to herself, thinking, I’m
gonna be rich…yeah, things are looking up for me now!
Feeling
the warmth at her core, she started laughing loudly, as she thought, Everything
is so perfect…I’m warm again, I’ve got me a golden bird, and I feel just great…
One
other thought crossed her mind… I’m out of Eden after this. I’m gonna have to get more…ah, no
problem. As long as Johnny’s still
around, I’ll always have a supplier…but it stinks that I hafta keep helping him…
A
sudden wave of fear rushed over her. What
if the other girls succeed in shutting their operations down? What do I do then?! There won’t be any more Eden after that… At that moment, she put aside her doubts…as
long as she kept helping Johnny, not only would she have a steady supply of
Eden, but she’d also be sure that the cartel wouldn’t be going away anytime
soon.
Yep,
she thought, everything’s gonna be just fine… She hugged her golden bird tighter and closed her eyes, relaxing
again. This truly is paradise…
TO BE CONTINUED…