Lillyesque

Three Out of Four

Lilly's POV

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I was suffocating. I was being pulled; contorted; twisted; squeezed; squished and smothered all at once. Electric pulses of utter horror ran through me like neon lights. It felt like bullets were being pelted down and throughout my veins, muscles and bones. The pain started in my arms, before tracing down every cell in my body and attacking it. Ripping it apart, almost.

I knew my eyes were open, but I couldn't see a thing. Just darkness. I could picture myself, my body jerking, eyes wide and bloodshot. Mouth open in my attempts at screaming out in agony.

This is it. I thought. I'm going to die.

Emmy's POV

"Professor, will you please explain what's going on?!" I pleaded, running over to the desk, where he stood. "How do they know the amethyst is Lilly? How is the amethyst Lilly? How has this break-in got anything to do with Lilly's disappearance?"

"Lilly's disappeared?!" Rosa cried, before the Professor could respond to any of my questions.

Grosky's eyebrows raised at this and he looked at Layton, gesturing for him to explain. The Professor gave a small, reluctant sigh, before realising that no matter how much it pained him to say it, he would have to. After all, being an Inspector, it would be good for him to know the whole story and about Lilly's disappearance.

Once the Professor had gone through the whole story- well, all that he'd told me- Rosa had turned white and I'd never seen Inspector Grosky look so confused before in his life. I'd thought that I'd be able to ask some of the questions that I'd wanted to know for far too long now. However, Grosky was the one who was first on the list to ask the questions. Luckily, he asked some of the questions that I wanted answering.

"But, Layton, how is Lilly a jewel?" Grosky asked.

"She isn't. There are three jewels, which aren't exactly normal jewels either, and when they're mixed with a certain gene, they form some sort of chemical, that forms a reaction with the heat energy from the sun," the Professor explained. Though I had to admit, at this point, I had lost it completely. "Lilly carries the gene; she's the only one left who does"

"What do you mean? How can you tell?" Grosky questioned.

"The amethyst allele is a dominative gene; meaning that either me or Claire had to carry the allele for it to be passed down to Lilly," the Professor went on, "Claire's family are the only line to carry the allele. Moreover, the allele is weak and can only be carried through the X chromosome, so it can only be carried by females."

"But boys' chromosomes are XY- that has an X," I pointed out, trying to remember as much as I could from my Biology O-Levels.

"Like I said, the allele is weak. It needs two Xs to be carried throughout someone's genes successfully. Although the X chromosome Lilly received from me, doesn't contain the amethyst gene, the one she received from Claire, did. When the two chromosomes joined, they sort of... multiplied. Well, rather, the X that didn't have the allele mutated into one that did, when it received the genetic code from the chromosome that did."

"Oh, for the Lord's sake!" Rosa exclaimed, standing up, "That poor girl's out there, somewhere, and all you can do is discuss gibberish! Shouldn't you be searching for her?!"

"Rosa... Please," the Professor said.

"The more we understand on this case, the more chance we have of finding Lilly," Grosky told her, grudgingly.

"Well, I don't see how that can be..." Rosa muttered, before sitting back down in her seat.

"Rosa, please..." the Professor repeated, as gently as he could- I could see it was taking a great amount of will to act as calm as he did.

Biting her lip, Rosa stood up and dusted off the skirt of her apron. "I'll go and make some tea," she announced, before walking out of the room.

Once she'd left, Inspector Grosky turned back the Professor. "Layton, how has this caused your daughter's kidnapping?"

The Professor took a deep breath before explaining. "The Cazzucula Islands would be one of the greatest discoveries to mankind. A whole world that many didn't even know existed- can you imagine? Whoever would find the Islands would go down in History."

"But you've had the four keys to the Islands for years!" the Inspector pointed out, "Why haven't you put them to use?"

"Because for one to obtain the amethyst, they need more than just Lilly," the Professor answered, "They need her blood. All of it."

"It would kill her, then..." I said, slowly.

"Yes," the Professor agreed, even slower than I had spoken.

"How long do we have?" Grosky asked.

"The poem says that the portal can only be opened at midday. For all we know, we have until twelve in the afternoon, tomorrow," the Professor answered, a lump forming in his throat.

"Well, then," Groksy said, standing up, "We should get to work."

The Professor nodded, gravely, before closing his eyes and keeping them tightly shut for a few seconds. He was blinking back tears. I'd heard him say more than once that a gentleman never makes a scene in public. But what did a gentleman do when his daughter was less than a day away from death?

AN: This chapter is terrible, I know. Sorry. But hopefully, it explained a lot. I kinda went a bit scientific at some point, too... Hopefully that made it more realistic. :P

Thanks to all the new reviewers! It really made my day! :D And hello to the new readers, too. Fancy leaving a review? x