#theduke

   “Lord Heisenberg?” The Duke asked, shocked. Karl walked into the house, in his regular clothes, with small specks of dirt and what looked like small crystals on his clothes. He had his hand on his forehead, rubbing his head and temples.

   “How the hell…” Karl groaned, looking up at The Duke. The Duke stared at him in shock, Karl’s presence being completely unexpected. Karl took his sunglasses off, rubbing his eyes. “What happened? Where is everyone?” He seemed dazed, his tone confused and slightly in pain.

   “I…” The Duke tried to answer, but he really didn’t have answers that would help his questions. He usually had everything, but this one really stumped him. He would have never been able to call this.

After a while, Karl and The Duke spoke about what had happened as The Duke brought his shop around the remains of the village, a few questions lingering on their minds. The Duke would look back once in a while, seeing if what happened to Karl was going to happen to the others. Once they arrived at the remains of The Dimitrescu Castle, The Duke looked behind him again, seeing that Alcina’s sculpture was gone too. “Karl?”

   “What?” He asked, his headache gone at this point.

   “Do you see anybody around?” The Duke looked around a bit.

   “No-” Karl stopped, seeing a figure slowly stand up in front of one of the windows, the darkness of the building hiding who it was. They weren’t nearly as tall as Alcina, but they had a similar figure. “Hey!” Karl yelled up to them, them turning their head to the window, sticking their head out.

   “Who’s there?” They yelled out, their head being lit up by the sunlight once they stuck their head out the window. It was Alcina! She too had her hand on her temple, her eyes squinted from the light.

   “Come down here! Now!”

   “Alright, give me a second,” She yelled back, walking away from the window. After a bit, she walked through the doorway near the window on the lower floor. She was in the same clothes, however, she had rolled up her dress so she wouldn’t step on it. She was holding her hat, tipping it back so it would be out of her face, but it also shielded her body from the sun. Her jewelry didn’t fit her anymore, her necklace hanging on her neck, sliding down her chest. She was still tall, but not 9’6 tall, more like 6’5 now. “Care to give me an explanation on our predicament!?” She asked angrily to The Duke.

   He put his hands up, replying with, “Relax my lord, relax. At least you’re safe-”

   “AND SHORT! I’M A MIDGET NOW!” She yelled, incredibly upset. She looked like she was about to cry. Seems to have been decades since she was a “normal” height. The Duke and Karl looked at eachother, shrugging, before looking back at Alcina. After a bit of breathing to calm herself down, she asked, “Well, where are my daughters? If I’m alive, they MUST be.” The Duke looked behind him, seeing the sculptures of her three daughters, still sitting there on the shelf below the top one.

   “I’m sorry madam, but-” He grabbed the sculptures. “They are still-”

   “MY BABIES!” She quickly snatched them away from him, holding them close. “My poor little angels…” She started to cry onto the statues as Karl and The Duke just stood there in silence. Eventually, The Duke just offered to let her sit on the side of the shop so they could keep looking around. She took it, sitting by The Duke, her daughters still in her arms, slightly rocking them. Karl stood on the opposite side of the shop, keeping his eyes away from her.

   A while later, they arrive at the outskirts of The Beneviento Residence. The bridge was broken, but thankfully, there was another route around to get to the house, however, it took around an hour to get there with that route. Karl groaned when heard about how long it would take, his feet hurting at this point. The Duke offered to let him sit on the shop side, but Karl declined, however, halfway through the walk, Karl quickly jumped onto the side, sitting down. The Duke, once he noticed, just rolled his eyes as they went along. Once they reached the house, Karl looked around the residence as The Duke looked at the shelf again, wondering if Angie was going to disappear. However, instead, Angie slowly started to come to life. Literally.

   “What the fuck! Where’s Donna!?” She yelled, trying to look threatening in front of The Duke. Karl turned back to Angie.

   “Donna?” He asked.

   “Yes! Her! Where is she?!”

   “No, is that you Donna?”

   “No! I’m LOOKING for DONNA!” She clarified before hopping out of the shop and looking around. “We need to find her! She could be in danger!”

   “We are looking for her,” The Duke replied. “I’m assuming that you wish to help?”

   “YES!” She yelped, running into the house, somehow getting the door open. Karl kept searching for Donna outside as The Duke looked around as well, but mainly comforted Alcina as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes without getting her dress dirty with her mascara. The Duke was kind of unsure that she was revived too, but he didn’t want to deny that she had been, considering Angie’s rude awakening. After a while, a few hours specifically, Karl returned to the shop.

   “She ain’t around outside, maybe Angie found her-”

   “COME ON! We need to go!” Angie yelled from inside the house, opening the door. She was holding Donna’s hand, Donna seeming to be almost completely perplexed. She had a large backpack on her along with her regular clothing. “See? They are here too!” Angie dragged her over to them, seeming to smile, even though she technically couldn’t. Donna just shrugged her head onto her shoulders, slightly waving before looking up to The Duke.

   “How did you get here?” She asked in her regularly quiet tone.

   “I used the back road,” He replied. She just nodded as he patted a spot on the shop side. “We should probably keep going. We still have one more person to get, considering.” He looked over his shoulder, seeing Salvatore’s sculpture. Karl’s attention went from Donna to The Duke.

   “Moreau?” He thought for a second looking at the other two. “Will he be changed too?” He asked, somewhat with a form of childlike curiosity. The Duke slightly chuckled at his tone. Donna sat down next to Karl, Angie sitting on her lap. Donna poked around at Angie a bit, seeming trying to figure out how she was alive completely on her own. The Duke started to drive his shop out back onto the back road. On the road, Karl looked at her backpack, it slightly bumping into him. “What’s in the bag Donna?”

   She took a minute to answer, before whispering, “Stuff I thought I’d need, and stuff for Angie.” Karl asked further, but she didn’t answer much, mainly focused on Angie, who seemed to be a bit irritated by the prodding. Karl was sure that, if Donna wasn’t Donna, Angie would’ve yelled at her and swatted her hand away by now. Alcina had stopped crying at this point, but stayed silent still, watching the road as they drove along, her daughters in her lap.

   About 2 hours later, they could see the outskirts of the Moreau residence, passing by the clinic while heading to the main reservoir. While passing it, a loud groan could be heard from inside the clinic. While Karl, Donna, Angie, and Alcina looked over to the clinic, The Duke looked behind him, seeing that Salvatore’s sculpture was gone. Karl and Donna saw it too, Karl jumping off of the shop, running towards the clinic. Angie went after him, Donna getting dragged along. Karl busted the door down, looking around the small room.

He looked down to the floor, seeing Salvatore’s coat on the floor, with something, someone, underneath. Fingertips were sticking out of the ends of the sleeves, a bit of black hair sticking out the top, and with lower legs and feet sticking out the bottom. Once Angie and Donna had gotten into the clinic, Karl had taken the coat off of him. Under the coat, a man laid on the floor, only in a pair of dark green pants, stained with mud and what seemed to be puke, slightly breathing, groaning and coughing slightly. Besides the scars and acne scars that lined his back and the beginnings of his arms, and a small set of gills on his neck, he seemed… pretty normal, and the “mother” tattoo confirmed who it was. Karl looked over to Donna, gesturing to Salvatore.

“Help me out here, will ya?” He asked, trying to pick him up by his arm, trying to pull him over his back. Donna ran over, picked him up by the other arm, helping Karl as Angie cleared one of the operating tables. Karl and Donna hoisted him onto it, putting him face up. Once they got him up there, Alcina was in the doorway, a bag with her that had her daughters in it. She looked at Salvatore, her face turning to confusion, before almost looking like her expression was going to fall off her face. He was white, with long back hair that went halfway down his chest. He wasn’t very muscular, but he certainly wasn’t fat or skinny either. It was more like a dad-bod, like Karl, but a bit bigger. He also seemed to be a bit taller than Karl as well. Karl was going to ask her about it before Salvatore coughed a little, groaning in pain, slowly opening his eyes. His eyes were a dark green, as if the yellows and greys that used to be there had disappeared, along with the rest of his monstrous form. They turned back to him, looking down on him on the operating table. He looked up at each of them, before sitting his head up slightly.

“Donna…” He murmured, before his eyes shot open, moving Karl to the side before leaning his head over the side of the table, throwing up. Alcina jumped back, a disgusted look on her face as Angie jumped onto a table to get away from the vomit. Salvatore groaned, putting his hand on his head. Donna went to place a hand on his shoulder, before he just yelled out, placing his hands over his ears, his legs coming up. “GET OUT YOU BASTARD!” He shrieked, sitting up. “LEAVE ME BE!” He brought his head to his knees. He yelled one more time before going silent, lightly breathing. Karl, Angie, and Alcina stood far back as Donna placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Um… Sal?” She quietly asked, pulling at her face covering. He slowly looked over to her, wiping his mouth.

“Sorry Donna…” He apologized, smiling at her. “It’s been a while, huh?” She tilted her head slightly, before she jumped back in shock. Salvatore’s eyes widened, realizing that the obvious had never occurred to him, that she wouldn’t know what he was referring to. It upsetted him a bit, but it did make sense. Donna held up a finger in a “just a second” way, before running out of the clinic. While she was gone, he went on stand up, before grabbing his head again, stomping his foot on the floor. He hissed in pain, realizing he was barefoot, stomping on concrete, but it did seem to stop his nuisance. He was then able to stand, but his back was a bit stiff, making him slouch. To Karl and Angie’s shock, he placed his hands on his back, pushing it forward to loosen the muscles in his back, finally standing up straight. Alcina stood in silence with Karl and Angie, but didn’t seem to be in as much shock as the two. As Salvatore looked at himself, Donna ran back in, a picture frame in her hands. She stood in front of Salvatore, holding up the frame, before it slipped out of her hands, shattering on the floor. Salvatore was confused for a second, before looking down and seeing the people in it.

The photo contained two people. One of the people seemed to be Donna, in the clothing that could be seen in one of her large portraits, but without Angie, surprisingly. The other person to the right was a taller man in a doctor’s uniform. He was white with dark green eyes, with his black, long hair tied back in a ponytail, some of it wasn’t tied with the rest, so it slipped underneath the rest of it, the ends resting on his shoulders. They stood side by side, seemingly outside in front of one of the gardens that used to be lined around the village, her holding onto the crook of his arm. Donna was too busy standing there in shock, placing her now empty hand on his face, as if to check for something. He smiled at her, closing his eyes and placing a hand over hers.

“I missed you Donna. I hope I didn’t scare you.” The small part of her face covering that was touching her face became a bit wet.