Like most rooms in the manor, the office was very large. However, unlike the many rooms in the great house, the color scheme inside the office was different. Instead of reds and blacks, the office walls were a perfect shade of blue with silver metallic panels hanging off the center of the walls. Lights behind the panels lit up and dim beams hit the ceiling. At the end of the room, where the door sat above a half circled set of wooden stairs, there was a desk sitting just a few feet away from the door. The desk was made of glass and lined with silver metal. On top of the desk was a brand new desk top computer and beside the monitor was a small printer. Behind the desk were three silver metal book shelves that stood five feet tall and held many blue binders that had white labels; each label was imprinted with blue lettered dates. On the wall that connected to the one holding the shelves were four tall filing cabinets made of glass and lined with silver metal like the desk.
Across the room sat two blue leather couches; one of the couches faced its back to the desk and the other ran along the wall that held the cabinets. In the middle laid a gray shaggy rug and on top of the rug was a large glass table. On the wall facing the couches was a large flat screen television that showed eight different divided screens. Each screen was from a security camera feed from each part of the manor. Four on top showed the outside of the home and four at the bottom revealed a club scene in different positions. Just under the television was a mini bar made of metal and glass.
Martha sat on the couch that lined with the cabinet wall. Her head was resting in her palms as she leaned forward onto her knees.
Zachary stood at the mini bar, pouring two glasses half way full with brandy. He glanced over his shoulder to the worried woman sitting on his office couch. With care, Zachary picked up the glasses and walked over to in front of Martha. He smiled and held out one of the glasses. "Here you go."
Martha removed her head and sat up straight with a sniff. Her eyes were blood shot. She adjust the back end of her black t-shirt and took the drink from Zachary. "Thank you." She said with a mono tone voice.
Zachary held out his drink and sat down on the couch opposite of Martha's. He crossed his legs and took a sip of the drink.
Martha took one sip of the brandy and then decided to gulp down the entire glass. She heaved just slightly and rubbed her throat. "Strong."
Zachary smiled as he removed the glass from his lips. "I guess you needed that."
Martha nodded and stared at the glass in her hand. "After three years of madness, yeah I guess I did."
Zachary leaned forward and rested his glass on the table. "Now, you must tell me about Richard and this Bugsy character."
Martha sighed and looked from her glass to Zachary. "Are you certain he can't get out?"
Zachary patted his knee and nodded. "Yes, even if he did, Gabriel is watching over the door. He is used to guarding ... People like Bugsy." He gave a smirk as though he were laughing at a personal joke.
Martha sighed and fell back into the couch. "Okay ... Like you said, Richard can transform into Bugsy, but not of his free will. It is like that Jekyll and Hyde story, but stranger than fiction." She sighed and smacked her lips as if she were going to cry.
"Seven years ago, at least what I gather from the records because I was only ten at the time and too young to recall what happened, I had an uncle named Wilmore Thomas. My Dad and Uncle Wilmore were both doctors, but Dad was part of the psychiatry and Uncle Wilmore was a genetic doctor.
Back then, Uncle Wilmore and Aunt Louis would come over almost every weekend. They started to do that when my mother passed during giving birth to me. They would help my Dad take care of me. In some way, they were like my second parents. I still remember how my Aunt Louis would laugh and how Uncle Wilmore would read me bed time stories when my father was out of town.
One day, I remembered seeing Wilmore and Aunt Louis argue over something. After that, things went downhill. Uncle Wilmore was missing most of the time. There was this one time he was gone for three weeks! Aunt Louis was the main caregiver to me at the time before Dad got a job closer to home. One night, I remember hearing some crying in our house. I got out of bed and saw my father holding Aunt Louis. She was crying hysterically and her face was beaten to a bloody mess. She kept saying, 'Why would he do that?!' I didn't know who she was talking about at the time, but I found out later that she claimed Wilmore had done this to her! My father did not allow Uncle Wilmore to visit the house or let him see Aunt Louis after that. Three days later, Aunt Louis found out she was pregnant with Richard.
When Richard was born, I was his baby sitter most of the time. He was more like a brother to me than a cousin. With a new baby, Dad allowed Wilmore to see his child and eventually Louis and my uncle moved into their house together. Uncle Wilmore wasn't the same though. There was something different about him. He would be in a daze most of the time and other times he seemed like he was in a panic. I couldn't place a finger on it, but he did seem ... Just different.
Right after my fourteenth birthday, my father got a call about my Aunt Louis from a detective. They had found her laying in her bed all beaten up and her head was almost severed from her body. The police report is more graphic, but that is the closest detail I can get to. We were all upset about the death, but Uncle Wilmore seemed unphased by it all. Of course, the police though his behavior was strange and did an investigation on him. The only thing that turned up was finger prints that belonged to someone that wasn't in their system. The killer was never found.
We, my father and I, took in Richard. Wilmore didn't seem that upset by the idea. Every so often, my uncle would visit the house, but he barely visited his son. He was so distant emotionally to most of us. He did seem the same, but it was more like someone was acting like him. I didn't have much evidence at the time that something was wrong ... Until the night he came into my bedroom and ... He ... Um ... "
Martha stopped telling the tale as she bit down on her lower lip.
Zachary looked at the young woman with remorse, his eyes glowed gently. "Please continue."
Martha sighed and nodded. "I didn't tell my father because Uncle Wilmore threatened to kill him. Two years of this passed before my father caught Wilmore in the act and he beat him over the head with a cricket bat. I had never seen my father like that before. He was always apologizing to me about what had happened. After that incident, Wilmore went missing for about six months. The police later found his body floating in a river. He had been shot through the head. They linked the murder to the murder of Aunt Louis, but I knew ... I believed that Wilmore was the killer in both situations.
My father took custody of Richard. It was then we started to notice something off about him. There were moments where Richard would be playing like a child would and then switch on a dime! He would be violent and used curse words that I had never heard before. After his violent outbursts, he would return as the kind Richard that he was and claimed that he had forgotten all about his violent fits. It was then that my father assumed he was going through a dissociative personality disorder, or split personalities.
As Richard got older, the changes happened more frequently. They were much stronger and my father had to pull Richard out of school to be put into a mental institution. Even then, Bugsy managed to get out of the facility to burn down the entire school!
There was much more than just personality changes in Richard; whenever Bugsy would emerge, Richard's curly hair would change color and he did not need his glasses. He would grow skinnier and his eyes ... His eyes ... They would be black ... Almost soulless.
At the time, my father was researching a new drug that he and his colleagues were working on. A drug called Prantex. This drug was designed to subdue any violent outburst that would occur in the human brain. He tested it on some prisoners and gained some amazing results. The only trouble was, the drug would wear off after some time. He would give the personality calling himself Bugsy minor dosages and the result was that Bugsy would change quickly into Richard! As long as Richard took the drug, Bugsy was never seen again.
All was going good. Richard was back at home and was alright. One day, three years ago, I was visiting from college when some men in black suits took Richard from the house. My father fought as hard as he could and I tried to help, but in the struggle, my father was shot and killed!"
Martha closed her eyes as a tear fell down her cheek. "When Wilmore was alive, he was working with an organization that dealt with genetic research of the illegal kind. They were experimenting on animals and were trying to link human DNA with that of an animal's. Wilmore's journals explain that he was trying to find the animal within man. He believed that he could make a man as strong as a gorilla or as fast as a lion. He was trying to make some kind of super-human. One journal entry says that he tried the formula on himself! He called it the next stage of human evolution. That was the last journal entry ... After that .... Pages upon pages of filth. Women being cut open; men being stabbed and horrible scribbling of cursing.
I knew then, Bugsy must have come from whatever Wilmore was working on. Whatever altered Wilmore's DNA must have created both Richard and Bugsy.
I spent a year after that to find a way to get Richard back. It wasn't easy, but I did it. After that, I have been using the supply of Prantex that my father created to keep Bugsy away. We have been running from London to France, to Florida and then finally to here..." She paused and smiled to Zachary. "That is when you found us."
Zachary lowered his eyebrows in thought as he looked away from Martha. He darted his eyes to her again and nodded his head to the back of the couch. "Then, I am guessing, those people in the van are from this organization then?"
Martha nodded and gave a short chuckle. "Yes ... As I said, they were experimenting on humans. Selena was one of them."
Zachary's sharp finger nails of his left hand scratched his chin. "I hardly believe that Richard and Bugsy could be so important, if they were creating telepaths."
Martha nodded with wide eyes. "They are! The telepathic humans they created were strong, but most of them died within a few weeks. Selena is the only one that survived the experiments. Even she has an expiration date." She scooted closer to Zachary on her own couch and held out a hand with excitement in her eyes. "Ever since he was born, Richard has never been sick! The doctors were baffled by it. No matter what he ate or did, it wouldn't harm him. He is the perfect human and if you were to cut him, he would heal from it in a matter of hours; no scars or bruises."
Zachary nodded. "And Bugsy?"
Martha frowned and leaned back into the couch, her excitement left her eyes. "When we tested him, if he was behaved, Bugsy showed signs of a high I.Q. The doctors said that his genius outmatched most of their tests. His speed, strength and agility are far beyond human limits." Martha rested her chin on her knuckles. "There is a problem though ... Bugsy is a parasite. He feeds off of Richard's health to remain strong. When Bugsy changes back into Richard, Richard gathers his strength and isn't that effected by it."
Zachary shrugged as he let down his right leg from his left knee. "And how is that a problem?"
Martha scratched her forehead as she continued to rest her chin on her knuckles. "I just don't like the fact that Bugsy is eating off of Richard. It isn't human."
He leaned back into the couch and let out a heavy breath through his nose. For a moment, Zachary sat silent in the office before he took in another breath. "You said Bugsy has killed once before?"
Martha nodded. "Yes." She looked at Zachary with confusion. "You don't believe me?"
Zachary shrugged and stared at the glass table in front of him. "It is my understanding that Bugsy and Richard were born at the same time, like twins. If that was the case, then there has to be some Richard in Bugsy."
Martha shook her head. "Not at all. In fact, Bugsy is entirely separate from Richard. If you were to try to match their DNA or finger prints, it would show up different. Granted, Bugsy has some similar strands of DNA like Richard's, but..."
"But that would validate what I just said." Zachary interrupted. "Bugsy and Richard might be different from one another, but each share a similarity somewhere in the blood ... Perhaps even in soul."
Martha scoffed. "Souls? Evil creatures like Bugsy don't have souls."
Zachary smiled and then stared into Martha's eyes. "Even evil creatures have souls, dear Martha ... I know that."
The two stared at each other for a long time in silence. Zachary's pinned back to his head and his eyes stared forward with fear. He quickly stood up and looked at the door.
Martha slowly stood up in confusion. "What is it?"
Zachary held his left hand out to tell Martha to stand still. "Gun shots."
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