Wiping the tears of joy off her cheeks as she recomposed herself, Callisto crawled to the side of the white bed.
Looking down at her feet barely an inch away from the floor, the girl suddenly froze in place as she was reminded of a memory that left a sour taste in her mouth.
It happened roughly four years ago.
One night, the 4 year old younger Callisto felt thirsty and thought about getting herself a drink. At the time, her condition already reached the point where she could no longer walk around the Mandjet residence alone without using crutches.
Knowing what was happening to her was the same thing her older sister went through when Leona was at her age, the youngest daughter thought she already prepared herself for what was about to transpire.
It was only when she tried to reach for the glass she filled with water that Callisto realized just how wrong she was.
"Ah!"
Bang!
Glass break!
Without warning, the young lady fell on the cold floor, shards of glass scattered around and luckily none hit her. However, Callisto's drink was covering the floor as slow as her mind was processing what just occurred. The moment her mind caught up with the situation, the young lady could barely articulate herself.
"Ma... Mama! Papa! My... my legs! I-I can't feel my legs! Mama! Papa!"
Perhaps it was also because it signifed that her life was truly nearing its end. But that moment of powerlessness definitely terrified Callisto more than anything.
Now that she was about to take a step off the mattress after being bedridden for a long time, her sour past made it seem as though trying to make the first step out of the bed was like attempting to climb the peak of a tall mountain one was never meant to reach. Fortunately, she knew to snap herself out of it.
Slap!
"Ow! I-I overdid it!"
It might have been out of the blue, but that stinging sensation left by the palm of her hand on her leg certainly helped resetting her mind.
"It's not the same as back then."
Holding the bed sheet with a tight grasp, Callisto's feet slowly touched the tile floor. The cold feeling crawled through her skin.
And then...
"Here goes nothing!"
The girl propelled herself off the bed, standing on two feet and immediately started wobbling.
"W-w-wait!"
Luckily, she was able to gain balance after awkwardly flailing her arms around.
A sigh of relief echoed in the white room. "That was close."
As her breathing relaxed, the young lady took one step after another, slowly and carefully.
With each stride, the pace would increase bit by bit. With each soft giggle under her delighted grin, the silver tail wagged almost in perfect rhythm.
"My back's feeling kinda weird since I woke up, but I can really move!"
Not long since she circled the room a few times, Callisto's movements slowed down to a halt. Cat ears and tail fell flat like the wild plants during a dry spell.
"I didn't think it would actually work."
Eyes directed at the only window in the room from across her bed, Callisto's expression darkened as she went deep in thought.
She could not help but feel as though her older sister got done dirty. If the Mutated DNA Fusion worked on her, then why didn't it work the same for Leona?
"It's unfair... it's really unfair."
Both of them wished to live. The two of them were willing to cling to even the slightest bit of hope, just so their wish could come true. So why did only one of them got their wish granted? Was it simply because one of them had to go and the other was meant to stay?
As those questions boggled her mind, the young lady looked at the white ceiling, as if her gaze was directed at someoe. Or to be more precise, toward God.
"I'm really glad you gave me a second chance to live," she said to God. "But I can't help but also feel mad at you."
Tears formed at the corner of her eyes as the sound of her whimpers resonated within the room. She tried wiping them off with one arm, but it did nothing more than smear her face with it as more clear salty liquid came out of her marbles.
"Leona, are you watching me? I understand if you're feeling cheated and angry at me, but..." Callisto sniffled. "I'd be lying if I said I'm not happy to be alive right now. That's why..."
With her voice faltering due to the emotion welling up inside her, the young girl looked at the palm of her left hand, clenching it as she made a vow to herself.
"I... I will not resent God for taking you away from us. I'm not gonna tell myself that... I should have been the one who died... or I... I should have been in there with you instead. I'm gonna live my life... but I will never forget how lucky I am to be where I am today."
Callisto closed her eyes. She then took a deep breath and exhaled to sort out her thoughts. And right as she was calming down...
Click!
The young girl was alerted by the sound of the door knob being twisted open by someone outside.
"Huh?"
That someone pushed the door wide open. Before Callisto were three very familiar figures. Facing the young girl in front of them, the three individuals looked completely speechless.
With both ears above her head and her tail regaining vigor, Callisto's dark expression warped into a much more vivid one.
"Mama, Papa, Uncle Phillip."
.
.
.
Rewinding time not far from that moment, the elevator door opened to the floor where Callisto's room was. And from it, came out three people.
"You don't say that an operation is successful unless the patient regains consciousness, which you don't have any idea, at all!"
One of them was a woman with a long and brown hair who did not seem to be in the greatest mood at all. Even the sound of her high heels felt as though Thor was having a bad day and causing chaos with his lightning.
"Callisto is unconscious because her genome is still in the process of reforming and the time it takes to finish can be random. Phillip and I know because we've made countless tests on animals before doing the actual operation on Leona five years ago!"
Beside the woman was a doctor, trying to make an argument with the lady's statement.
"I'm not buying it, Raymond."
Those two were Callisto's parents, Raymond Mandjet and Adela Mandjet.
"Nothing out of what we are expecting has taken place since Phillip and I performed the MDF, that's why we can say for certain that the operation is successful! Calli will wake up!"
Raymond Mandjet, the gentleman in a nice collared shirt and necktie under a labcoat, was the founder and CEO of the Mandjet Medical Center. The MMC started as a small clinic after Raymond graduated college, offering care for an affordable price in his and his family's hometown, San Mateo, Rizal. But as of the current year, the MMC had over 200 hospitals and numerous outpatient facilities located around the globe. Its main headquarters, where they were currently at, was located in Manila, Phillipines.
"I'm not buying it."
Adela Mandjet, the beautiful brunette in a classy white trouser suit with a pretty lotus necklace and a wedding ring Raymond gave her, was the owner and CEO of the White Lotus Trading. The White Lotus Trading was already a huge company even before she inherited the business from her parents after graduating college, but it grew even more since Adela took over. Thanks to her, the trading company easily took a spot in the top 100 largest companies in the world based on their annual revenue.
"Hey, help me out here, Phillip!"
"There's nothing I can do if Adela won't listen even to her own husband."
The other doctor wearing a similar attire to Raymond and was closely following behind the husband and wife was their very close friend, Phillip Chua. He was a well-known doctor in the world of medicine whose expertise was said to be second only to Raymond Mandjet. However, Phillip retired and left the field after a failed MDF operation on Leona Mandjet five years ago.
Without Adela knowing, Raymond dragged Phillip out of retirement to help him perform the operation on his second daughter, which they both believed to be a success.
But like Adela said, she wasn't buying it.
"Adela, wait! Can you please calm down for a second and listen to me?"
"You two performed the operation on Callisto behind my back and then use your connection to cause problems in my company to hide that fact. Do you really expect me to calm down after finding all that out?"
Adela remained steadfast on her stride towards Callisto's private room. Phillip and his friend could do nothing but follow her as the husband continued to speak.
"Callisto knew you'd try to stop us no matter what, so we had to keep it a secret!"
With a thunderous sound of her heel hitting the floor, Adela halted and faced her husband.
"What do you expect me to do, Raymond, huh? To just let you do the very thing that killed and warped the face of her sister?"
It wasn't only audible from the tone in her voice. One could tell from the look on Adela's face just how angry, sad and betrayed she was feeling at this very moment. It was very clear that the past lingered strongly in her mind as Adela told her husband right in his face;
"Leona did not deserve to die while bearing someone else's face. And so does Callisto."