“But there’s a downfall when it came to Subject 2.” Scientists 2 adds. “Yes, he was a substance abuser, heroin, cocaine, even meth. But that was a few years ago.”

“Irrational brain function.” Abel answers. “Combining those drugs together leads to unnatural brain activity which the serum can’t respond well to. Leading to what we all saw. Long time abusers are unable to handle the serum’s effects.”

The scientists look to each other and take notes.

“Well, seeing 4 out of the five subjects survive this serum is really good for the books of history. Do you all, agree, gentlemen?” The elderly man asks.

All the men in suits nod their heads in agreement; The man looks to Abel and Erika.

“Mr. Wilson, Ms. Gabisa. This is a possible positive outcome for what needs to be done for all of mankind so far. We will give you our response tomorrow afternoon. Until then, you four have a good night.”

The elderly man looks to his assistant.

“Could you please escort our guests to the front door?”

The woman in black nods and signals Abel and the others to follow her. Abel unhooks his drive and the projector cord from his laptop and puts it back in the briefcase. As the woman leads them out of the meeting room, Abel could not help but stare at the woman. Something about her mannerisms felt familiar to him as they were in the elevator going up. As she guides them to the front door, Abel walks past the woman and was able to see her silver left eye and purple right eye, and her pupils were of a cat which struck Abel with disbelief as he walked away.

“Until we meet again, dear Abel.” The woman whispers to him.

As the woman went back inside the facility; Abel quietly looks as she did; eyes aglow. Autumn touches his shoulder, getting his attention and coming to his senses.

“Are you alright?” She asks concerned.

“Yes… I’m fine.” He replies quietly.

Autumn begins to read Abel’s mind.

“You know her. Do you?”

Abel moves her hand from his shoulder and takes a deep breath.

“Not now, Autumn… not now…”

“I understand. I apologize. Come on. Let’s go.”

Abel and Autumn walks up to the limo to catch up with Vance and Erika. They all get into the limo; Autumn and Vance sat next to each other and Erika next to Abel. As the limo drives out of the facility’s driveway, Erika could not help but stare at Abel seductively, her left hand inches closer to his lap; Abel instantly sees this.

“Don’t touch me.” Abel sternly told her.

Erika moves her hand away and looks at him concerned for the first time.

“Abel.” She speaks. “Can’t you be happy that we’re going to succeed with this serum? And four weeks from now, that grant will be coming our way and we can make more of the serum. Our goal is within our grasp.”

Abel looks at her with a calm look.

“That’s the first time you said something about work, rather than coitus.” He comments.

Erika became offended, folding her arms, giving him a stern look. Abel chuckles.

“You know that’s true.” He adds.

Erika looks the other way.

“We can talk about this when we get to the room.” She pouts.

Abel then looks away from her and sees Autumn and Vance talking, seeing their hands locked together and Autumn whispering in Vance’s ear. Abel then looks away from them and closes his eyes during the ride back.

.   .   .   .   .

7:30 pm. Marlene was in her room looking at her phone. Seconds later, she hears a knock at her door.

“Who is it?” Marlene asks.

Nikita opens the door followed by Lukani.

‘Hey, Mar.” Nikita greets. “Um… we just got word from the police. They arrested Marcus.”

Marlene groans and sits up on her bed.

“What happened now?” She asks.

“It was early this afternoon.” Lukani answers. “He went out to the store. The cops told me that he asked the clerk for some alcohol. The clerk refused, he got belligerent and started wrecking the store and assaulting the customers. When the cops came in, he punched one of them and they arrested him and sent him to the precinct downtown.”

Marlene sighs.

“Well, I guess we’ll have that meeting tonight. Is everyone here?” She asks.

“Yeah. Rika just came back with Ilena and Dina. Everyone’s here.” Nikita replies.

“Good. Living room. Now.”

Nikita and Lukani move out of Marlene’s way so she could get out of her room. The three head downstairs and sees their five other sisters in the living room watching TV. The youngest twin sisters, Ilena and Dina get up from the couch and run to Marlene to hug her.

“You girls alright?” She asks them.

“We’re alright, Marlene.” Dina replies with Ilena nodding.

Rika then gets up and hugs her as well.

“Good to see you again, sister.” She greets Marlene.

“Good to see you, too, Rika.” Marlene greets back.

After their embrace, the three sisters sit back down on the couch. K.C. and Asa were sitting on the love seat, Lukani decides to sit on the floor, and Marlene and Nikita decide to stand.

“Well, since everyone’s here,” Marlene starts. “We’re going to have a meeting about our father.”

“Now, everyone knows he’s detained downtown, right?” Nikita asks.

All of the sisters nod.

“And just so you all know they will let him out until the 18^th, so this is the question. What do we need to do for Marcus?”

“Keep him where he’s at.” K.C. replies. “He deserves to stay locked up.”

“Don’t take him to the center that I’m in.” Asa comments.” I don’t want him in the same building as me.”

“We should keep him at a detox clinic just so he can stop drinking.” Rika suggests.” Something we should’ve done a long time ago.”

“That’s what I was banking on.” Marlene agrees.” I was thinking about calling the clinic that’s uptown.”

“Since he’s not going to stay in jail and him going with Asa to the center is out of the question, we might as well commit him to the detox clinic. What say everyone? Show of hands.” Lukani asks.

Without question, Lukani raises her hand along with the other seven sisters raising their hand in agreement.

“Okay.” Marlene speaks. “Now paying for him to stay there until he’s sober; I’ll volunteer for that, but I can’t pay it by myself. Any other sister who would like to volunteer for this?”

“I will.” Rika answers

“So will I.” Nikita adds.

“Okay, it’s decided. The three of us will pay for it; split the cost in three. I’ll make the call tomorrow.”

After the conversation, Marlene decides to go back upstairs to her room and lays in her bed. She then gets a text message seeing it was from Abel that read:

I’m free to converse. We have 25 minutes before I retire for the night and say goodnight to you.

Marlene decides to call his phone; the phone begins to ring.

.   .   .   .   .

8:00pm. After Abel came back from the facility and back to his suite, he decides to go to the ground level of the hotel by himself. Abel sat at a table in a small café with a cup of black coffee. He hears his phone ring, sees that it is Marlene, and answers it.

“Hello, Marlene.” He greets.

“Good evening, Abel.” Marlene greets back. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well, thank you. How are you?”

“I’m doing fairly okay. How is your business venture going?”

“It went well tonight, but I must wait for the actual confirmation tomorrow at 3:00pm.”

“Are you worried?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Oh. It went that well?”

“Yes.”

“Well, good job then, Abel.”

Abel becomes curious about her answer earlier and why her voice sounded stressed.

“Marlene.” He starts. “Is there something troubling you? I can hear it in your voice.”

“Well, Abel… there was an issue that happened today.”

“What?”

“Well… since I haven’t said this to you, my father lives with me… and he had a problem to where he got arrested.”

Abel raises his brow.

“Are you well?”

“Well… I got a whiskey bottle thrown at me last night, but it missed me--”

Abel’s eyes glow with anger.

“Are. You. Well?!” He interrupts.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Marlene assures. “This happened while I was at work. My father destroyed property at a store and attacked a police officer this afternoon. That’s why he got arrested.”

“And what of your sisters?”

“According to Lukani, my sister, he put his hands on my two younger sisters, and punched Lukani in the face when she, Nikita, and my other sister, K.C. restrained him.”

In that moment, Abel felt genuine concern about Marlene’s situation.

“Please, Abel.” She pleads. “Don’t be upset. I’m fine. My sisters are fine. We’ve dealt with this before, and we have a plan. Okay?”

“No. It’s not okay.” He counters. “A woman such as yourself should not have to deal with a drunk. Keep your wits about you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Marlene became silent for a couple of seconds.

“I understand.” She replies. “So… when are you coming back?”

“Remarkably, 5:00 in the evening tomorrow, not on the 18^th. When I get back, I would like to talk to you about something tomorrow night.”

“Sounds important.”

“Yes. Nothing of a bad nature, just things that must be addressed due to my hunch.”

“About me?”

“Yes—well us actually. So tomorrow night, we’ll talk.”

“Sure. That’s fine with me.”

“Then it’s settled. I’ll see you then. Have a goodnight, Marlene.”

“You have a goodnight, too, Abel.”

Abel hangs up the phone and drinks the last of his coffee, puts some money on the table and leaves out the café and heads to the elevator.