Silence of the Geisha Horror: Yukis Revenge (16 page)

“Shh, be quiet.”

“What are you planning, you devious little devil?”

“Remember how I was going to show you how to break into a cadaver lab?”

“Yeah?”

“That's going to happen tonight.”

The microwave dinged from the kitchen and they pulled apart as Xavier walked in with two loaded plates. “Did you want anything Yuki?”

She shook her head. “I'm busy tending to our patient here. I'll eat later.”

“I, however, am plenty hungry,” Julie said. “And will eat for the two of us.”

They settled into a comfortable silence, Yuki clearing away dirt and blood from Julie's cuts then applying band aids while the other two ate. At one point she took a break to go up to her bathroom, but she was back before too long.

She could tell that Detective White was getting anxious waiting for McAnany. It started with him glancing out the window every fifteen minutes, then it evolved to tapping his foot. Then checking his watch.

“How about a cup of coffee?” Yuki suggested as she finished up the last bandage on her friend.

“How did you know?” Xavier said with a smile.

“Oh, me too!” Julie chirped yet again. Yuki laughed, and took both of their plates into kitchen. She set McAnany's kettle on the stove and assembled the peculator like he had taught her to. While the water was boiling, she took the sleeping pills the doctor had prescribed to her and crushed them with a spoon. While overdosing was dangerous, she gave him a larger amount than recommended.

It only took a few more minutes for the coffee to finish, and she poured it into two very different mugs. “Hey guys, sugar or cream?”

“Black.”

“A whole ton of sugar and some milk if you got it!”

That made it even easier to remember which was which. Quickly Yuki wrapped up preparing the two drinks and took them to her friends.

They both drank contentedly, and Yuki busied herself with warming up a plate of leftovers for herself. She sat down on the couch and tried not to stare obtusely at Detective White.

“I'm going to miss you,” Julie murmured, looking over the edge of her mug forlornly.

Yuki blushed slightly. “We'll still see each other, when this is all over.”

“Will it ever be over?”

“Yeah. It has to.”

“Do the two of you have so little faith in me?” Xavier asked.

“It's not so much a lack of faith in you, as a lack of faith in a system so easily corrupted.” Yuki supplied. “The powerful seem to be untouchable, and the weak must break the law themselves to get justice.”

“That sounds very defeatist.”

“But do you think they're wrong?”

“Who're wrong?”

“The weak, who break the law to get the justice they deserve. The powerful people who hurt them break the law all the time. Is it wrong for their victims to do whatever they need to survive?”

“That's a dangerous road you're treading down, Yuki. If we sink to their level, are we any better than them?”

“Depends on how you look at it. They've assaulted at least three innocent women, you and killed a domesticated animal. Serving in kind to them is more like dispatching of dangerous monsters with a taste for blood.”

He leaned forward, as if he was going to stand. “Now listen here, Yuki...” He trailed off, then looked to the coffee in his hand. “Did you...did you drug me?”

“Sorry,” She apologized, tears pricking at her eyes. “I couldn't have you stop me.”

“Don't do this Yuki. Please, don't become like them.”

“I have to, so no one else becomes like me.”

The expression on his face was one of sadness and utter disappointment before he slipped into unconsciousness.

“Holy shit, Yuki. I can't believe you did that.”

“I know. He's never going to forgive me.” She let out a long sigh and stood. “Are you sure you're up for a college heist?”

“Are you kidding. I wouldn't miss it for the world.”

“Thank you.” She took a deep breath, clearing out the fear, weakness and regret. “You won't be there for the end, you know. You can't. If this goes right it's just going to be the three of them, and me.”

She nodded. “I understand. As long as I get to help you pull off whatever it is you're planning, I'm down.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Now let's go get everything you need, nerd.”

*

Rape Victims are 6 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Yuki looked up at the science wing of their building. It wasn't unusual for cramming students to spend overnights in the labs. But it was unusual for a student on medical leave to be lurking around campus at night.

“Wow, fancy place here. You never told me you were going to be a doctor.”

“I didn't tell you a lot of things.”

“True. So what are we waiting for?”

They were both leaning against one of the weeping willows on campus, watching the south entrance intently. “My student card won't work. We just have to wait for a guy to head for the same entrance, make sure we approach at the same time. Chances are he'll hold the door open for us.”

“Smart.”

“I've been accused of that before.”

Then again she wasn't sure how smart it was to rely on the probability that a male student would be crossing by. Luckily, she didn't have to run the chance statistics too many times in her head before someone came along.

“Let's go,” She hissed, trying to walk forward quickly, but not so much to be obvious.

Yuki never realized how difficult it was to keep pace with someone without looking at them directly. But somehow she managed, and both she and the boy reached for the door at the same time.

“Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there.” He said, beaming at her and holding the door open. He had a strange accent, and Yuki belatedly recognized him as the transfer student from Canada. It figured. “After you, ladies.”

“Thanks,” Yuki murmured, hurrying past.

“Yeah, thanks babe.”

They strolled down the hall until the Canadian turned left into the chemistry labs. Yuki let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and Julie jumped up and down excitedly.

“I can't believe that worked.”

“Me either.”

“Now how are we supposed to get into these other doors? They all have number pads.”

“Students are sent the codes to the doors necessary to their majors at the start of every unit.” Yuki answered, looking for the door they needed. “Of course the door does log every time someone enters or exits, but I'm not really worried about that.” No, her only worry was making sure that her enemies suffered.

Finally she found the door she was looking for. She punched in the code and the number pad beeped cheerily at her. She was just about to push the door open when she thought of something.

“Hey Julie,”

“Hey what?”

“Have you ever seen a dead body before?”

“'Fraid not.”

“Ah...well. That's going to change very shortly.”

“Well that's cheery.” Yuki looked at her expectantly. “What? Might as well get it over with.”

“If you say so.”

The med student shrugged and stepped into the room, flicking the light on. Sure enough, there were two cadavers that were wide open, with a few snacks and drinks around them.

“Uh, is the refreshments normal?”

“Yeah, there's probably a couple of groups that were in here practicing for a test, or internship. They're probably in the break room next door, asleep on the floor.”

“You guys do that a lot? Sleep at school?”

“Yeah. There aren't enough hours in the day to learn to be a doctor, so students get creative.”

“Bleck. No thank you. I need my eight hours of beauty sleep.”

“Obviously.” Yuki headed straight for the cabinets and pulled some liquids out.

“What's that?” Julie asked, nosing over.

“Suxamethonium chloride. We use it when we're first learning dissection to paralyze muscles so they stay in place on the cadaver. Very dangerous when used on a live person. And very effective.”

“Scary.”

“That depends on your point of view.” Yuki shot back, grabbing a handful of syringes.

Once she was satisfied with the quantity of supplies, she shoved them into the front compartment of her backpack, and moved on to one of the dissection tables.

“Whoa, is that what we look like on the inside?”

“Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it?”

“Um, I guess. But also kinda creepy.”

“How so?”

“I dunno. It's just hard to think that everything I am, all my memories, emotions and everything that makes me, well...
me
, can be reduced down to a series of weirdly shaped meaty bits that a med student will eventually take out and play with.”

Yuki stared at her for a moment. “Well that was deep.”

She laughed. “I do get philosophical occasionally.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So what are we up to here?”

“The first thing we're taught in medical school -well, one of the first things.” She pulled up a scalpel and let the light glint off of it. “A surgeon is only as good as her tools.”

Julie drew in a sharp intake of breath. “I'm not gonna lie, that was a little creepy.”

“I try my best. Now grab me some gauze and a bottle or that rubbing alcohol over on that stand please.”

“Righto.”

Yuki looked back to the neat rows of glistening silver, wondering exactly which ones would quell the rage burning within her.

“
Hey, look who joined the world of the living.”

That condescending voice. Like he was so superior than her. Like she was stupid and vile for even existing. It made her skin crawl and her stomach wretch. The three figures loomed over her, shadows dark and threatening. The reflective lense of the camera was the only point of light in their inky darkness.

“What...?” She had moaned, too stunned by the evil in front of her to comprehend the violence that would ensue.

“Shhh, Sakura. It's okay. How are you feeling?”

“Mr. Buck?What...what's going on? Who are these people?”

As the feelings from the fateful night flooded her, Yuki chose a number 10 blade. It was a hard working little tool, with its curved cutting edge that was incredibly useful for making small incisions in skin and muscles. It was most often utilized in specialized surgeries such as harvesting the artery during a coronary artery bypass operation, or opening the bronchus during thoracic surgery, but she had a much more artistic purpose in mind for it.

“I...I don't understand. I want to go home.” She was confused, frozen in terror.

The punch landed just as she remembered, sending her flying back into her prison of the trunk.

They had laughed at her, like her pain was some sort of joke, while Yuki struggled to understand why they wanted to hurt her so.

“Stop, please.” She had begged them, like she could somehow change the mind of wicked beasts.

“Home? But we planned a whole night together. Aren't you excited?”

And then the hand was in her hair, yanking, wrenching.

She reached down to the tray and picked up the number 15. It was so pretty with a small curved cutting edge. There was no wonder it was the most popular blade shape. It was ideal for making short and precise incisions.

“Now strip.”

They grinned at her. Laughed at her. Treated her as if she was no different than a doll.

“W-what?”

“Disrobe. Undress. Strip.Don't make me repeat myself again.”

So she did. Like a helpless little minion. She did.

And finally she picked up the last tool she had in mind. The number 11. It was an elongated triangular blade sharpened along the hypotenuse edge and with a strong pointed tip making it ideal for stab incisions. It was also great for scraping and cutting.

“You know, the way you're looking at that is like how some people look at their children.”

“They are my children.” Yuki answered, packing them in her bag. “And they're going to make me very proud tonight.”

“We good to go then?”

“Not quite. There’s a couple of things that we need to borrow from our generous Mr. Cadaver here and his two other guy friends over there.”

*

The third stage of the Healing Process is Blaming. Most blaming is typically directed at the self. Victims may focus on thoughts such as: "If only I didn't...", or "I should have...", or "I shouldn't have...". Making matters worse, this self-blame is easily exacerbated by supporters like friends, family or investigators with comments such as "what were you thinking - wearing that short skirt to that seedy place" or other such comments which only serve to place the blame for the attack on the victim, instead of on the attacker who chose to take actions against the victim.

“So where are we going? It's just past seven pm. Don't your friends not come out until after nine?”

“Usually. Thomas usually goes for a work out. We're going to get him in the back parking lot. Jean-Luc goes to a coffee shop to stare grossly at his favorite barista, we can get him when he passes the alley between Portland and Scio street. And finally, Julian. He'll be the easiest. He'll leave the hotel at around nine thirty where we'll trail him to whatever club he goes to.”

“Remind me to never mess with you.”

“Right about now, that's probably a good idea.”

Unfortunately, since they had used the van earlier that day to rescue Julie and Rachelle, chances were the trio already knew about it. So Yuki took the back route to the gym she knew Thomas frequented, and parked several blocks away. Both she and Julie walked to the back parking lot before pausing.

“Julie, I'm going to ask you to do something pretty scary.”

“Scarier than your expression right now?”

“Probably. I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to get Thomas to chase me out. When he follows me outside of that door, I need you to jab this syringe into him and press down. Think you can do that?”

“This is one of the bastards that put the hit on us and...did what he did to you?”