A Curious Tale: One girl's search for her father...

Chapter Four

Cora Curious escaped from the Science facility that had held her captive for over twenty years to find her father. After a tiring journey she found his whereabouts but sadly not him. As she waited, a handsome stranger offered her clothes and a rest, but can he really be trusted?

As Cora slept, there was a quiet knock on Oliver's hotel room door. He slowly walked out of the room closing the door softly behind him to greet an older man in his mid to late fifties. "She's in there, asleep!" Oliver sighed sadly.

"Well done my son, you did me proud finding it so quickly!" the grey haired man replied, a low and satisfied laugh echoing around the hallway.

"You promise you won't hurt her?" Oliver's voice was shaky and rather shrill, was he doing the right thing?

"You have my word, as your father!" but this did not put Oliver at ease, his father's word was worth very little. Panic and nausea overwhelmed him...what had he done? 

His father gave an eerie smile and gently shoved him aside to enter the room, "Leave it to me now Oliver, I'll take care of it!"

"She's not an "it" dad, she's a hum..." he began but was cut off abruptly as his father glared at him and grabbed him by the arm roughly.

"IT is NOT HUMAN!!! Never forget that!" the eerie smile returned and he left Oliver standing in the hallway.

Oliver's father looked at Cora with disgust, "Did you give her any of the sleeping draft?"

"No!" Oliver replied, a little shocked, "She was tired, there was no need..." again he was cut off.

"I have some serum in case it gets too rowdy! I felt I had to come alone, I didn't want to look suspicious with a half dozen of my men in tow!"

"You promised me dad, be kind to her, she's a nice girl!"

"Nonsense, it's a half breed of human and who knows what!!! It is not to be trusted!" his raised voice woke Cora as she yawned loudly and called out Oliver's name.

"Oliver?" Cora looked puzzled as she noticed the stranger in the room, "Who is this?"

"Cora this is my father, Frederick! He had some work for me to do while I..." Frederick cut in once again.

"Good day to you Cora, it is a pleasure to meet you!" he could hardly get the words out, as he sneered at her. Cora's eyes widened and she gasped.

"Wait! I know you!"

"THAT VOICE!!!" she pointed at Frederick, "You're MR BANE!!!"

"Why my dear I..." Frederick muttered and suddenly grabbed Cora's arm, she felt a sharp pain and as she looked down she could see Mr Bane injecting something into her.

The room began to spin and she felt herself falling as Mr Bane towered over her and shouted words she couldn't understand as she fell into unconsciousness, "Pick her up!"

"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME BOY?" Mr Bane shouted to his son. Oliver stood on the spot, unable to move. His heart sank to his stomach as he looked at Cora lying on the ground, so helpless! "Oh for goodness sake Oliver! I'll call in my men! I should have known you wouldn't have the stomach for this!!!"

All of his life, Oliver Bane had been a disappointment to his father! Seeing Cora lying there brought his memories flooding back! Bitter-sweet, in many many ways...

 TWENTY YEARS AGO. BRIDGEPORT SCIENCE FACILITY.

"Come along now Oliver, daddy has work to do! Leave it alone!" When Oliver was three years of age, he would often go to his father's laboratory. This day was different though, a little green girl who looked about his age was playing in the special room. Oliver had never had a playmate, so when he saw this girl, he was mesmerised.

As he gazed at her, bewitched almost, his father's secretary informed him he had a phone call. Reluctantly Mr Bane left his son to stare at his latest project. "Daddy will be back Oliver, don't go anywhere and don't antagonise it!" Oliver smiled at the little girl, and she smiled back!

She pressed one tiny hand to the glass and giggled as Oliver did what came naturally to him...

...he kissed the glass as the little girl gasped and giggled again! "Pwetty gurl!" Oliver smiled once again at her. He could hear his father calling his name from upstairs...

...it startled the girl and she scampered away from the glass, Oliver did the same and headed towards his father's voice.

Eight years had passed since Oliver first met the green girl. When his father worked late, he would sneak down to have a peek at her, now grown up like himself. He was eleven years old and soon he would be going to high school.

Every time he went down to the basement, she was sleeping. He was a smart boy and he had guessed she was drugged on a regular basis. His father's project was based on alien-human hybrids, and since this girl was green skinned, Oliver also guessed that she was one of them. His father had confirmed that one of his scientists had created her. But she was the prettiest alien hybrid he had ever seen...

...he had never seen one, only her, but she was the prettiest! He would often get into fights at school because they called his dad the mad scientist who bred oddities in his lab. This night he visited the girl, he'd had a rough scrape with a boy twice his size! Oliver won but he had the cuts and grazes to show for it! That night, when he watched the green girl sleeping, he realised that if his father was a good man, he wouldn't have her in this glass room and he wouldn't have her drugged! The fact that he called her "it" all the time, it was like a knife to Oliver's heart every time he said it. Yes that was the day he decided to stop defending his father, and saw him for what he really was...

...a very bad man!

"Does she really have to be in here dad?" Oliver's voice cracked as he spoke.

"Yes it does, you have no idea how dangerous it is! It took out six of my men when it escaped, it is very very volatile!"

"Hello Cora!" Mr Bane spoke through the intercom, "So glad to see you are awake! You will notice that due to your escapade I've had your room stripped of all luxuries!" Cora sat cowed in the corner of her empty room as the tears flowed freely down her face.

"But do not worry!" Mr Bane continued, "I have left you something to keep you warm at night!" a single sleeping bag sat in the middle of her room.

"And if you're thinking of escaping again, I wouldn't bother if I were you, I've had the locking mechanism changed!" An evil chuckle escaped his lips as he turned heel and ascended the stairs...

...Oliver did not follow, he stood on the spot as his father disappeared upstairs, "Cora!" he whispered as she slowly stood up and walked towards the glass door.

"I'm so sorry!" he shook his head and sighed, "I...I've done a terrible thing!"

"Oliver?" Cora's tiny voice echoed around the cell.

"Yes Cora?" Oliver replied, almost excitedly.

"You're Mr Bane's...son?"

"Yes!" he hung his head, but suddenly shot up to face her, "But I will get you out I promise! I will save you! I can make this right!"

"Oliver?" again her tiny voice spoke his name, his reply the same,

"Yes Cora?"

"I don't ever want to see you again!"

Oliver had been to visit Cora despite her remark the night before, but every time he went she was asleep...or drugged!

"You promised me dad, and you lied!"

"What are you talking about now boy???" Mr Bane muttered impatiently.

"You said you wouldn't hurt her! Why is she always so sleepy?"

"I told you, it needs to be sedated for our safety!" Mr Bane's face was twisted with rage, how dare his own son question him! "I will not have one of my projects loose on the street, I am responsible for it and I will not put the public at risk!"

"Where did she really come from? Pascal Curious is her father isn't he? She isn't one of your experiments!"

"Are you calling me a liar Oliver? Your own father? I told you Vidcund Curious created it twenty years ago while I was funding his research!"

"She wasn't abducted? She told me you stole her from her father!"

"Delusions of a test tube disaster! It has been a failure from start to finish!"

"You're lying!" Oliver looked his father in the eyes, steadily and confidently, "You took a child from her home and you imprisoned her here! And for what? Your research??? She doesn't deserve this dad! She's a living and breathing person! Not one of your lab rats or foetal pigs in a jar!"

"You are on very dangerous ground my son..." his father growled through gritted teeth.

"And you are not my father any more! I quit and I'm not coming back to this place, goodbye Frederick!"

After disowning his father and quitting his job, Oliver paid another visit to Cora. She was out cold on the floor huddled up with tears stained on her perfect little green face...

...as he tapped in the code on the door and it slid open, he rushed in and scooped her up...

...as he held her close she came to, struggling to keep her eyes open and her head flopping from side to side...

"Oliver?" she muttered drowsily, "What are you doing?"

Oliver grasped her tighter and smiled, "I said I'd get you out didn't I? Unlike my father, I keep my promises!"

The journey to Bridgeport was awkward and long for the brothers. Pascal couldn't even look at Vidcund and Lazlo was in the middle. 

As they stood outside the Science Facility, Pascal's heart pounded wildly in his chest!

"How do we do this?" Lazlo asked with a hint of worry in his voice. Vidcund looked straight ahead and with confidence he replied,

"I have access to all areas of the facility. I doubt they remembered to cut off my pass!"

Being a successful scientist, Vidcund was greeted by everyone enthusiastically and allowed anywhere he wanted. When they finally arrived at the basement where Vidcund had built the cell, all the brothers were devastated at the sight. Empty!

Except for one man. "Vidcund what on Earth are you doing here?" Mr Bane spat and scowled at him.

"Where is my niece Frederick? Where is Cora?"

"We made a deal!"

"To hell with the deal Frederick, we've come for Cora!!!"

"You're too late!" Mr Bane laughed wickedly and shook his head, "She is gone, AGAIN! That's twice this week!!!"

Suddenly Pascal rushed forwards and punched Mr Bane square on the jaw as he came crashing down onto the floor...

...neither of his brothers stopped him, they all felt he had it coming! "THAT'S FOR MY DAUGHTER!!!" Pascal roared.

"Now where is she???" he demanded as Mr Bane sat on the floor stunned.

"My son took her! I don't know where she is and that is the truth!!!" he grunted and rubbed his jaw gingerly.

Silence fell on the room, until Mr Bane spoke once again, "Oliver will not harm her, he's loved her since he was a small boy he just doesn't know it yet! He's soft in the head, he's...too human!"

Under the bridge was an old derelict building, it used to be a mining shaft many years before, but because of how unstable the building was, no one ever went there. So it was the best hiding place for Oliver and Cora. "We have to get going Cora!" Oliver whispered as she rested.

"Just a few minutes more please?" still feeling the effects of the sedatives, Cora was so very tired.

"Okay but it will be dark soon, we still have a distance to go!"

As darkness fell, Oliver scooped Cora up in his arms once more, "Look I'll carry you, we really have to go!"

"Why are you doing this?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Because..." he began but his face grew hot and his palms started to sweat and she was slipping from his grip, "...let's go!"

Oliver took Cora to his friend's house. He was on holiday and had asked him to look after it. Luckily his father knew nothing about it. After Cora took a shower and borrowed some clothes she looked refreshed and less tired.

"You look much better!" he told her quietly as she smiled and stood in the doorway.

"Oliver? Why did you save me?"

"You don't remember me do you?" he smiled sadly,

"What do you mean?"

"When I was three I saw you in that room, I kissed the glass and you laughed, don't you remember?" Cora looked surprised but shook her head, she didn't remember.

"I used to visit you all the time growing up. But then I stopped, I couldn't watch you in there! When I got the call that you'd escaped, my dad sent me to get you. Until you told me about your father, I always believed you were created in my dad's lab! He lied! I did a terrible thing taking you back! And I'm sorry! But my memories of you growing up were good ones, even though you were sedated most of the time and you didn't know I was there!"

Oliver got up and walked towards her, "I was fascinated by you! You were the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen! I thought if I came to get you, I'd somehow have the courage to let you go but...oh Cora please! Forgive me!"

"Oliver I didn't know..."

"Shhh!" Oliver took hold of her in his arms gently.

She placed her hands tenderly on his face, he drew closer to her, his heart racing and his palms once again sweating, he inhaled her sweet scent and brought his lips even closer to hers...

"I'm not my father, I hope you see that, I hope..." he trailed off as their lips brushed together lightly and an electric shock shot down his back. His heart was threatening to leap out of his chest as he pressed his lips onto hers...

"Cora!" he whispered, "Please say you forgive me!" a tear ran down his cheek as he went in for another soft kiss, how could he have put his father first over this sweet, innocent girl?

"I forgive you Oliver! I forgive you everything!" she breathed and pulled his head closer...

...their lips met once again in a lingering kiss. And the world slowly melted away until there was only them! For the first time in a long time, Cora had forgotten about her father!

To Be Continued...