"Ricin." I said out loud, baffled at how I could forget something so useful.
'Of course! Ricin! How could I be so stupid? A traceless poison whose symptoms can be attributed to nothing more than the flu. And which type of people are more susceptible to illness? Addicts and alcoholics fall right into that category. But that was a House moment if I've ever seen one. That felt kind of cool if I'm being honest.'
Back on topic. Although the House character token didn't explicitly give me Chemistry Knowledge, House does know some chemistry. And in that knowledge of chemistry is how to make ricin.
'Of course, House would know how to make ricin. House loves anything dangerous. Now the only thing I have to do is refine some ricin and somehow slip it into Richard's food or drink. That shouldn't be too hard considering I can move it over using telekinesis and pour it in when he's not looking.
Fantastique! This makes taking care of Richard so much simpler now. I just need to find some castor beans. There's a botanical garden not far from here, I should check if they have some castor bean plants. I could use my telekinesis to sneak some away, just have to be careful of cameras.'
I opened my phone and searched to see if the botanical garden had castor bean plants. To my luck, it did.
'Good, it's still early so I can get this done by the end of the night.'
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It was late at night now and I had just taken the bus to a stop near Andrew's house. Getting the castor beans was not as hard as I thought it might be. Just floated them along the plant and then rolled them inside my pant leg. Easy.
Anyways, the hard part was processing it into ricin. House had never done it, but he did know how to. It took two tries before I succeeded in creating it, and now it's ready to be used.
'Okay, I need to make sure no one sees me going to Andrew's house. It's not too late so Richard should be drinking still.'
I checked my surroundings without trying to seem too suspicious while making my way to Andrew's house. After a short walk, I was able to see it.
'No fence and the only street light is at the park. I just need to get a visual on Richard so I can slip him the ricin.'
I crouched and made sure to watch my step while I approached a window. As I got near it I could hear the sound of a tv and a man grumbling about something. A peek inside the window showed me Richard drinking while watching a show.
'I need to get this window open and sneak the ricin over his beer. There's a latch on the inside I can use my telekinesis on. Time to shine.'
I focused on the latch while making sure not to put too much force into it just in case it squeaks. Thankfully I was able to get the latch without a hitch. I used my telekinesis to lift the window just enough to pass the vial through.
'I have to time this to where he's not paying attention. I need him to take a piss or something.'
At that, I saw Richard groping around for the control. I saw it to the left of him so I decided to move it a little farther so he can stand up to get it.
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"Where's the fucking control? God damn it! Piece of shit control!" I heard him yell as he stood up to get it.
'Now's my chance.'
So I moved the open vial of ricin over his beer while tipping it over just enough for two grains to come out. One grain is enough to kill a man in a few days, so two should be enough to kill him in one or two.
'Dirty deed done. Time to go.' With that, I closed the window, locked it, and left while making sure no one saw me.
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Now lying in my bed, I stared at the ceiling thinking back to what I had done.
'I just killed someone. Well, not yet, but I did sentence him to death. Weird, I thought I would be throwing up or something. But I don't feel much. I don't feel bad but I certainly don't feel good.
I always told myself in my past life that if I was in a world of heroes, I would be an anti-hero. Makes no sense in leaving villains alive. One less person to make the world go mad. I mean, I'm certainly more on the heroic side than the villain side but I don't believe everyone is good all the time. It's a case-by-case basis.
Anyways, the next step in the plan is to get treatment for Andrew's mom. I'm going to suggest to Andrew he makes a donation page to help with his mom's medical bills. I'll donate the money there. Hopefully, that should be enough to complete the missions. If not, I'll keep working on it and in the meantime investigate the meteor.'
Lost in thought at what the future may hold, I didn't notice when I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep.
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I awoke in a daze to hurried knocks on my bedroom door.
"Mathew! Mathew! Wake up, Mathew! There's an emergency with your uncle." I heard my mother say in a worried tone.
"I'm up. I'm up." I said rushing to open the door. "What happened, mom?"
"I don't know! Andrew called me a while ago saying that something happened to his dad! He said he was throwing up blood and then he started to seize! They're in the hospital right now, come on! Get dressed, we're heading over!"
"Okay, give me a minute." I said before closing the door and starting to get ready.
'I knew it would work faster since I used two grains, but for it to work this fast. I guess his immune system was already weakened due to alcoholism.'
Done changing, I joined my parents in their car and we drove to the hospital.
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We arrived at the hospital and hurried towards the room where Richard was. As we got there, we could see Andrew sitting outside the room just staring into space.
"Andrew, are you okay? How's your father?" questioned my mom while giving him a hug.
"He uh, he's dead." answered Andrew with little to no grief on his face.
'Good. They weren't able to save him in time. And it looks like Andrew's taking it okay.'
"Oh my god. I'm so sorry Andrew." said my mom holding him tighter. "Did they say what happened to him?"
"They said he had multi-system organ failure but they don't know why yet."
"Jesus." whispered my father.
"Where's Karen?" said my mom noticing Aunt Karen wasn't there.
'Guess this is where we find out Aunt Karen has cancer.'
"She's back home. Alone. I-I need to go take care of her." stuttered Andrew clearly eager to leave this place.
"Wait, why do you have to take care of her? Is she sick?"
"You don't know?"
"No, I don't. I haven't talked with my sister in a long time. After your father got fired, she stopped talking to me as much and every time we did, she'd only talk for a while. Why, what's wrong with her?" mom responded getting worried that her sister might be sick or dying.
"Sh-she has cancer."
"What? Cancer? H-how? For how long? Why didn't she tell me?" said my mom clearly mortified at the thought that her sister had been suffering without her knowledge.
"A little after dad got fired. He said not to tell you because he could deal with it himself. He said he didn't want or need handouts from anyone." Pride goeth before the fall.
"Oh my god! I can't believe my sister has cancer! How is she? Is she going to be fine?"
"W-we couldn't afford the medicine on dad's disability check. If she had the medicine, she'd be fine. Or at least have a better chance." Andrew said while tearing up.
'Goes to show he is a good person. He's just as fragile as the rest of us.'
"We'll pay for it. I'm not going to let my sister die or let my nephew be kicked to the curb."
"Of course, we'll pay for it. And if you have to, you can both stay with us, Andrew." said my father, "But right now, we'll help you with this."
"Thank you." said Andrew finally breaking down in tears.