The Legendary Junkmaster

"Yes, yes! Just coming! One moment please!" An old woman's voice responded from within the clinic.

Harry lightly tapped his foot on the wood below his feet as he nervously waited for Dr Cee to answer the door. He kept staring at Jason as if to tell himself that he was here because it was absolutely necessary!

Footsteps could suddenly be heard on the other side of the door, and Harry could not help but break out in a nervous sweat. The latch clicked as the door swung open.

"Welcome, come right…" The blonde bombshell that answered the door suddenly cut off her sentence as she stared at Harry's figure. "YOU!"

Her screech was ear piercing as her voice reached a level of sound not meant for human ears. Before Harry could get a word in edgeways, Dr Cee proceeded to try and slam the door in his face! Harry let out a yelp of pain as he reacted quickly enough to plant a heavy foot between the door and its frame. He could have sworn that he just felt a few bones break!

"Lizzie! Listen to me! It's not like that! It's my grandson! He needs your help!" Harry begged with a pleading voice. He silently panicked that she might just turn a deaf ear to him. The door slowly creaked open again as Dr Cee's youthful appearance reemerged in the gap.

"Your grandson, you say?" Dr Cee replied with a curious tone as she raised an eyebrow at the old man. Her old woman sounding voice vastly contradicted her bombshell body and gorgeous youthful face. Her eyes seemed to peer around Harry's figure until she caught sight of Jason standing there. "Oh my! Come in! Quickly now before I change my mind!"

Dr Cee swung her door wide open as she gestured for them to hurry inside. Harry sighed with relief as he quickly grabbed Jason's hand and led him inside. The interior was surprisingly well lit by a mixture of windows allowing natural light and well-placed glass containers that held slow-burning candles.

The aroma these candles gave off had a vaguely relaxing effect on the mind. Harry only noticed this as his worries about Jason's condition seemed to wash away with each sniff he took of the air. Dr Cee rapidly closed the door behind her guests before rushing over to study how severe Jason's condition was.

She placed a hand on his forehead before staring intensely into his eyes. She muttered a few things to herself beneath her breath before she moved on to take his pulse. As what passed as a professional doctor in these parts, Dr Cee had obviously spotted the signs that Jason was suffering from MDS.

"You're in luck, Harry! Any longer and his condition might have become irreversible!" Her scolding voice cut straight through Harry's relaxed mind, sobering him up in rapid order.

"You can help him, Lizzie?" Harry exclaimed after he processed what her words meant. There was an almost pleading tone to his question.

"Of course! You know fine well what my ability is! As long as his mind isn't too far gone, I can pull him back." Dr Cee snorted before she flashed a grin at the unsuspecting Harry. "There will be a price to pay, of course."

Harry stared at her figure as she casually rubbed her thumb against her fingers on her right hand in the universal gesture for money. "Of course. No price is too great for his life!"

Harry almost felt indignant that this old hag was suggesting that he would not pay the price. Dr cel's eyes went wide as she stared at the man in front of her. "You've changed in these past forty-nine years, Harry. I never thought I'd see the day where you were willing to part with your wealth."

"You underestimate me, woman. That's all. Get on with it, then. You said it yourself. Time is important here." Harry moved off to the side where he would be able to keep a close eye on his grandson without getting in Dr Cee's way.

She nodded in approval at the position he took before placing a palm flat against Jason's forehead. A few moments passed by before a soft green glow shone from beneath the skin of her hand that was in contact with Jason. Her breathing steadily grew ragged as sweat ran down her brow.

Jason's eyes rolled back into his head, but he remained standing. Harry almost lost it when he saw blood flowing from Jason's eyes, ears and nose. However, he knew better than to interrupt the woman. She was the only chance Jason had of being able to return to everyday life.

Harry gritted his teeth and balled up his fists as he forced himself to watch on silently. Gradually, the blood flowing from Jason turned a darker colour. The process continued on for another fifteen minutes of nerve-wracking tension for Harry. It was at this point that the blood stopped leaking from his grandson's body.

Dr Cee gasped for breath as she removed her hand from Jason's forehead. She fixed him with a concerned expression before nodding satisfactorily as she noticed that some semblance of life had returned to his eyes.

Jason coughed up a little blood as he took in his surroundings. He felt dizzy, weak and confused. His gaze finally caught sight of his grandfather before he yet registered something in his mind.

"Gramps I…" Jason never got the chance to voice whatever it was that he wanted to say. The procedure had left him completely drained, and he was already weakened, to begin with, due to his unstable mindset.

Dr Cee caught the boy in her arms as his body went limp. Harry took a few concerned steps forward, doing everything in his power to stop himself from taking his grandson into his own arms. Seeing that Jason had basically just fallen asleep but was otherwise healthy, Harry could finally sigh with relief. The worst was finally over for them! Or so he thought!

"Harry, we need to talk." Dr Cee said with a solemn voice. "Your grandson is suffering from an abnormal mass in his brain. That was the cause of all of the blood you just witnessed."

Harry's heart skipped a beat for a moment as he digested the gravity of her words, "You cured it, though. Right?"

Dr Cee stared at him with an apologetic expression, "Harry, listen and understand. The growth is too far gone for me to do anything about it. I tried my best. I really did. But this is just beyond me."

Harry's mind went blank as it refused to process what she was trying to tell him. Harry immediately shut down and jumped straight to a phase of denial. Pretending a problem did not exist just so happened to be Harry's forte in life. "Thanks for everything you've done, doc. I'll take him from here."

Harry tenderly took Jason in his arms and studied his face. Memories welled up of a time when he could almost fit Jason's entire body in a single palm of his own. Dr Cee watched on with a look of resignation on her face. She was just about to open her mouth to offer him a few words of comfort when Harry cut her off.

"I'll be by tomorrow with your payment. Don't worry, you'll definitely get it."

Money was not really an issue for Dr Cee, but it stung her heart that Harry thought that it was the only thing she was after whenever they got involved with each other. Old memories resurfaced of a simpler time. In her memories, she was just a young teenage girl walking alongside a young version of Harry. Their arms were linked together in a show of affection.

Dr Cee was dragged back to reality as the sound of her clinic's door closing banged inside of the room. "Take care of yourself, Harry. You're not getting any younger, you know?"

Harry never heard the words that she had just spoken as he was already carrying Jason's sleeping figure towards their home. When they were less than five minutes from home, a familiar figure suddenly appeared.

Pop

Dani, the girl from upstairs that seemed fond of Jason, stood before him. Her faded short tartan skirt billowed in the breeze as she pulled her oversized patched-up black hoodie tightly around her body. A few tears began to well up in her eyes as she stared at Jason lying limply in his grandfather's thick arms. The sad expression on Harry's face seemed to give away that something had gone wrong.

"I ran into Mr Raymond waiting for you outside your apartment." Dani almost whispered between sobs. "Is it true? Does he have MDS?"

Dani's eyes looked sad and hopeless as she searched harry's raging face for any trace of emotion.

"I won't lie. He did. However, he's been cured of that now…" Dani failed to notice that Harry had held back on giving her a different piece of important news. Before she could reply, he cut her off, "I know what you're going to say. But please respect my wishes. Stay away, just for a few days at least. He needs to recover slowly."

Dani gently bit her lower lip in frustration. This was something that she did not want to agree to but knew that she absolutely had to. "Sure thing, Mr Wright."

Harry continued to stare at the small girl for a while longer. In the end, he was satisfied that she had meant what she had said. There was no trace of her usual cheeky and sarcastic attitude. "Thank you, Dani. I'll be sure to tell you right away when he's ready to receive visitors."

Dani slowly nodded in response as Harry walked past her carrying her best friend in his arms. As Harry turned a corner, he spotted Raymond standing waiting for them outside the door to their apartment. He gave a stiff nod in response to Raymond's questioning gaze. This effortless gesture let him know that Dr Cee had been successful in saving Jason from an empty life as a hollow doll.

"Get the door, will you? My hands are kinda full right now."

Raymond moved to perform Harry's request. He was slightly horrified to discover that Harry had not even bothered to lock their door before they left yesterday. It was the absolute height of irresponsibility!

As Harry trudged across the threshold into their small apartment, he immediately headed for the stairs. "Ray, get the good stuff out of the cabinet underneath the sink. I'm going to need a drink when I come back down."

The stairs creaked as Harry slowly climbed them, being careful not to jostle Jason's body around in the process. Harry did not have to put much effort into hopping over the small holier the staircase either, despite carrying Jason in his arms.

"What am I going to do with you?" Harry whispered as his own tears finally started to form as he looked at the door that had fallen onto Jason's bedroom floor. He carefully laid his grandson on his stiff and uncomfortable mattress. Harry glanced around the room and finally spotted the ripped blanket all bundled up.

He picked it up and took hold of its corners. With great waves of his arms, he shook the thin blanket out before gently covering Jason's sleeping figure with it. Harry leaned over and ran one of his meaty palms through Jason's untidy hair. "You'll make it through this. I know you will!"

Harry slowly left Jason to rest alone as he exited the bedroom and headed towards the sound of glasses clinking together in the kitchen. Raised voices could be heard from the two men as they filled each other in on absolutely everything that had happened to them before they finally split the earning from their loot.

As the sounds within the apartment finally disappeared, Jason rolled onto his side in his sleep. A bright blue light lit up the sleeping figure's eyelids! Jason's body rose up out of bed with deft movements and started to collect various pieces of random junk scattered around his floor. Jason stared silently from behind his closed eyes at the items he collected as he lay them out on his desk. His hands worked furiously and accurately as he began to find ways to put them all together…