Missing Pieces
Chapter 11.
Everything was quiet. Mariko slowly neared the bed. She kept the cushion close to her chest and checked herself ready. She took her time living the moment that she is about to murder the sleeping Kazuya in the hospital. She could get away from this, if she’s not caught. The fortune will be finally hers.
Reaching the bed where the young master lay was like watching a movie in slow motion. Everything was like clear and slow. You can take your time. Mariko’s head was already in the clouds. Her hunger for money blinding her from the role she had played before in the family. Now or never…it kept repeating in her mind.
She stopped beside the bed, a mere foot away from Kazuya’s tilted face. She slowly held the cushion up and very gently about to lay it on Kazuya’s gentle sleeping face. Eight inches…five inches…two inches…
Jin was waiting for the elevator to arrive. He was on the other end of the hospital building. He was thinking of Kazuya and what he ought to do to Matsumoto when he realized he had forgotten something in Kazuya’s room. It was something important and he had to have it in his hands. Just as the bell chimed signaling the elevator’s arrival, Jin immediately left to go back to the room, in a sprint.
Jin rushed to the room, arriving in sheen sweat, and gently pushed the door but found it closed. He frowned in confusion. He had not locked the door when he left so someone must be inside, he thought. Fearing that the one inside was one of Matsumoto’s henchmen, he quickly went to the nurse station and asked for the key.
“I need the key. Now.” Jin demanded, huffing in effort.
“Excuse me?” the nurse asked slightly annoyed.
“The key! Kamenashi’s private room. Now!” Jin angrily told her.
In a panic and fear, the nurse immediately handed the key. Jin grabbed it and made a run for the room, the nurse following him.
Mariko laid the cushion over Kazuya’s face and added weight to it. The younger boy was roused now that he had difficulty breathing and struggled under the wight. He pushed out his hands trying to grab the hands and kicked his feet aimlessly; his strangled voice making an unearthly tone. Mariko struggled to keep the cushion over the boy’s face.
“Die you little bastard,” was what she muttered in anger, gritting her teeth as she tried to add more weight.
Kazuya was choking for breath.
Without making too mush noise, Jin opened the door and found Mariko. He had caught her in the act.
“What the hell!” Jin yelled as he ran over to the bed. The nurse that followed Jin screamed at the scene she had witnessed.
Mariko jumped in surprise and let go of the cushion she had been holding. She turned around, a fierce look in her eyes.
Jin went over to the bed as the nurse called for immediate security. He pushed Mariko out of the way and far from Kazuya. Jin helped the choking boy up and soothed his back.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He screamed at her. “He’s already sick and helpless and yet you’re trying to kill him! Have you got no sympathy?”
Mariko screamed back at Jin.
“I have no more patience for the boy! I have enough of him being blind and being helped around…you! You…I already drove you out of the estate and yet you came back!”
Kazuya was sobbing in Jin’s arms. He had heard clearly the words that came out of Mariko’s mouth.
“You little brat! The two of you! You burden me…I wanted the money in the first place and I still want it but you-“ Mariko pointed at Jin, “You bastard came back when you were supposed to be dead and took all my chances to get the money!”
“W-what do you m-mean?” Kazuya sobbed.
Mariko sneered at the boy. “I was the one who drove your brother out of the estate! I threatened him that if he stays I will kill you freaking blind boy for a son!”
Kazuya cried hard. He was hurt emotionally now as Mariko screamed words that he did not hoped to hear from someone who took care of him.
“He might be blind but he’s no freak!” Jin yelled. He was torn between getting up and hitting Mariko in the face but the way Kazuya clutched his arm told him to stay beside him. The boy needed him.
The nurse came back to the room and two security officers were with her. Jin looked over to the door and signaled to the guards to take the woman away.
“Lead her out of here.” He commanded. The guards followed the orders.
Mariko backed away from the guards but when one took hold of her arm, she struggled and scratched and bit at the man. She had to be restrained that Jin had to ask the nurse to look after Kazuya to help with keeping the woman far from doing more harm.
“You!” She screamed at Jin. “You’re not really Koji, are you? He’s dead, you hear me? Dead! I killed him, I killed him, I killed him!” Mariko screamed.
Jin was taken aback from her words but soon regained his composure. He looked at the struggling woman in front of him and back to the sobbing Kazuya with the nurse on the bed.
The guards were looking at him, asking on what to do now, but he knew, that at the back of their minds, they were already thinking of what of really happening with them.
“Let’s take her to the police. I want her behind bars and away from Kazuya.”
And Jin had forgotten about the important thing he came back for. The ring he bought together with Kazuya’s was sitting on the bedside table, mockingly glistening under the rays of sunlight.