Trail 56 (Pt. 2)- Informing The Family

--- Jon ---

“She’s not doing good…” He managed to get out.

“What do you mean?” His uncle pressed, somehow sounding even more worried.

“There was… On Halloween there was this… Creep, Bleed… thing…” He tried to explain, the words difficult to voice. “She’s in the hospital… I uh, I was hoping… she’d be up by now…”

“That’s…” He heard John whisper a curse away from the phone, his uncle far more reluctant to curse in front of him than his Ma. “Are you alright? You’ve, you’ve been on your own for a… a week now?”

“I… I called Miss Edna.” He answered. “I was hoping she could… do… something.” (Anything…)

“Miss Edna…” His uncle John repeated. “She’s, she’s that Arcane your mom sends you to for Summers, right?”

“Yeah…” She was also the closest thing he had to a second a parent.

“So you’re, you’re not alone? That’s good… That’s good.” His uncle told him. “But uh, your mom… She’s… how is she? How bad is it?”

“She was bitten by a Creep when she, when she…” He swallowed and shook his head. “They uh, they say this kind of Creep pops up a lot during Halloween… It’s, it’s venomous but a paralytic kind that, that’ll wear off after a couple… a couple of weeks.”

“Okay… okay…” His uncle John was silent for a moment. “The doctors… the doctors say she’ll wake up, right?”

He turned to his (too still) mother lying in her hospital bed. “Yeah, they just… they just don’t know when…”

Neither of them said anything for a minute, and the heart monitor was the only sound in the room for several minutes. At least until he worked up the nerve to say that, “I should’ve called you.”

“Jon, no, no, this… You’re dealing with a lot.” His uncle told him. “This isn’t… You’re, you’re handling this as well as you can.”

He shook his head, hand on his face. “No, I, I should’ve called you and… and aunt Mags… and uncle Theo…”

“Jon, they won’t blame you anymore than I do. And I don’t blame you.” His uncle assured him. “If you want… I can… I can call them… I should still have their numbers.”

“No, no. I, I need to call them.” He argued. “You, you guys aren’t… You’re not…”

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“It doesn’t matter.” Big John promised. “They're family to you and your mom, so they’re family to me. Just like all of Jake’s family is your family despite none of you being related to them.”

“Y-yeah…” Admittedly, he wasn’t entirely sure about that, the only member of his uncle’s family he was really close to was his younger cousin Jake and maybe Jake’s older sister Jazz. The aunts that helped raise Jake after his mom passed, were… less so.

Not that he was going to point that out.

“Still, I… I should be the one to tell them…” He said instead. “I’m the one who talked to the doctors, so… I should do it.”

“If you’re sure kiddo.” His uncle sighed, understanding that he wouldn’t pass the buck on this.

“I am.” He lied.

His uncle was silent for a moment. “Just, just if you need anything you’ll tell me, right? And I mean anything at all.”

“I will.” He wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not, given how much he needed to get done that he knew his uncle couldn’t help him with. Especially not when he was Jake’s main parent, and his cousin barely twelve.

“Alright, just… just let me know if anything changes.” His uncle told him.

“I will.” He repeated once more. “If we’re lucky she’ll be up in another day or two.”

That wasn’t a lie, so much as his hope. (Then again, maybe I’m just lying to myself on that one…)

They both awkwardly wrapped the conversation up after that, neither really feeling up to small talk after dealing with the heavier topic of his Ma’s coma. He wished that marked the end of things, but honestly it was… it was only the beginning.

Seeing his Ma’s phone was running even lower than before, he pulled out his own and -after checking the time difference was okay- went through his contact list before selecting one.

After a few rings, a female voice answered, “Hey, Jon, what’s up?”

“Hey Aunt Cass, there’s uh, there’s something… something with my Ma…” It wasn’t any easier to say a second time, and he doubted it would be any easier the third. (But I owe it to them to tell them.)

---

He hung up the phone after his third call and thankfully last call. His aunt Cass and uncle Theo, members from his Ma’s unit back when she was military, both had taken the news as well as they could. (Probably better than uncle John given how they knew her when she was at her… most violent.)

They both assured him his Ma was too stubborn to let a simple Creep put her down for long, and he wanted to agree with them, but…

His eyes drifted to his comatose mother, looking far weaker than he could ever recall seeing her before, and if made the growing ache in his chest, the tightness in his throat, and burning of his eyes all so much worse.

This whole thing was… harder than he’d been expecting any conversation to be, but he’d had to do it. And was pretty sure he’d do it again if pressed but… (I hope I never have to do this again…)

His Ma would get better, and if anything ever threatened her again he’d rip them limb from bloody limb, as the wretch begged for the mercy of death.

Scene Consequences

-Jon’s Mental Health reduced. ([Good]>>[Poor].)

-New Trait: Painfully Honest- This person is honest even when it’d be easier to lie.

--Greatly decrease the difficulty of all checks when attempting to convince someone of the truth.

--Increase the difficulty of all checks when attempting to lie or keep secrets from Allied units, regardless of relationship.