Ashton Etrigan
Age: 28
Current Mass: 165 lbs/75 kg
Mental Status: Shaken
Physical Status: Weakened
In all honesty I was already a little freaked out by the fake heart monitoring, but calmed down easily enough when I considered the events in the Void. I told myself I should be way past freaking out at this point, having already experienced enough weirdness to last me until old age over the last couple days. I still wasn’t entirely certain that everything I had experienced in the Void was actually real, but I understood by Emily’s words that the things that had occurred during my three day coma would sound pretty crazy, which actually made me feel weirdly validated.
“First of all, this is just between you and me, Ash. You shouldn’t tell anyone about what we talk about in this room, not even Deimos,” Emily began.
No worries there, I thought to myself, while I nodded my head at her. As she spoke she was also peeking her head out into the hallway outside, presumably to check if there were any other people in the vicinity that could overhear whatever she was about to tell me. She turned back to me and took a small calming breath before she started.
“I don’t know all the specifics, but I’ll tell you what I’ve gathered from bits and pieces here and there. As I told you, they kept us apart while they examined and treated you, and to be honest I’m not actually supposed to be with you yet. I pulled some strings with a few nurse friends, and even old Mrs. Solomon was kind enough to cover for me, so I could be the first one there when you woke up.”
I nodded along with her words, thinking it all sounded pretty reasonable so far. I’d heard about old Mrs. Solomon before, and the lady was seemingly nothing like her son, the Business Man. Emily was speaking slower than normal, seemingly intentionally trying to slowly build up the suspense.
“Even so, I managed to find out a couple of pretty weird things, one of which you’ve sort of already seen yourself, so I guess I’ll start there.” She said while she gestured to the still softly beeping heart monitor machine next to me. “You don’t really have a pulse.”
I blanched. Up until this moment I had thought I would be able to handle any weirdness she could throw my way with at least a modicum of composure, but with just one short sentence Emily had managed to completely stomp out any confidence I had about my own preparedness. I didn’t have much time to react, because more words started pouring out from Emily, as her characteristically quick speech resumed.
“No pulse is usually a pretty bad sign, right, but don’t worry, the doctors are pretty sure you’re not in any immediate danger. You've been breathing steadily the whole time you were unconscious, and you healed like any other person does, albeit at an increased speed. Additionally, there is a humming sound coming from your stomach. It’s very faint, and could only be measured by a spectrogram, but no one has come up with any theories as to what it could be.”
Emily’s initial recounting of what was going on with me went from casual to professional in the way she presented it very quickly. In just one sentence she’d fallen into her nurse habits, and told me what was going on like I was just another one of her patients, which I guess I was, really. She’d pulled out a little notepad with a ton of small scribbles separated by dotted lines, and quickly read the second line.
“I’m not exactly sure about the details of most of these, but I’ll try to make it as simple as possible. Keep in mind, I don’t know what’s happened to you either, so asking me won’t help much. Having said that,” she inhaled and looked at her notes again.
“Your skin was the first big change. Already at the convention they noticed that regular needles bent out of shape when they tried to give you adrenaline, and the one that finally worked was practically the size of a nail.” She held her index finger and her thumb to indicate the frankly terrifying size of the needle she was describing, which made me vaguely remember something about a giant syringe sticking out of my leg.
“The doctors apparently also had issues with other tools, such as scalpels and stethoscopes. The only successful method of checking your vitals was by forcibly shoving an endoscope equipped with a microphone down your throat to see what was going on. I haven’t heard anything about the results of that examination yet though,” she said while chewing on her pencil. “Seems like someone wants that kept under wraps.”
Emily crossed out the second line of notes and went on to the third and fourth. The rest of the discoveries during my comatose state were less dramatic, but still curious. I had been given a steady diet of water based nutrients and vitamins, through an arduous method where the nurse would essentially bottle feed me and make sure I swallowed, but not once had my body went to the bathroom on its own. It was as if my body completely absorbed everything they gave me. The next point Emily brought up was even tied to the last one, as I had wildly fluctuated in weight when I’d been weighed at different points during my recovery. I had apparently weighed in at a hefty 95kg on the first day of my coma, but I’d rapidly lost that weight, even though my body was retaining everything fed to it. I’d dropped a little over 20kg in just five days, which would make every personal trainer in the city cry tears of disbelief and dismay. I tried to hide it, but that fact made me feel pretty distressed considering I had struggled for a long time to reach a body weight of 90kg. All those hours at the gym, scrubbed away in a breath.
“And that brings us to the last detail I can confirm for now,” Emily said as she put down her notebook and sat down next to me. She pulled something small and shiny out of her pocket, and handed it to me. It was a small mirror, approximately the size of my palm. I lifted it to my face, but what looked back at me startled me so much I nearly threw the mirror away. It fell down into the folds of my bedsheets, but neither me or Emily made any attempts at retrieving it. Instead Emily looked into my eyes.
“Your eyes have changed color. Disregarding how such a thing is even possible, congrats little brother, silver suits you! I’ll be honest, I’ll miss the purple, but I guess I’ll get used to this eventually. Out of all the weird shit since the explosion, this is the most noticeable one, but only for those who already know you.”
I knew Em was only trying to make me feel better by projecting an upbeat vibe, but inside I was spiraling. The eyes that had looked back from that mirror had felt ominous, almost as if they weren’t really my own, and I struggled to keep from shaking as I looked at the spot in the bedsheets where I felt the gaze that would look back at me if not hidden behind folds of white cloth. The hollow gaze of shimmering silver irises enveloping an endless black pupil, looking just like the Void of my subconsciousness.
Emily carefully bent down and put her hand on mine, calming my slight trembling. I looked up at her and was met with a warm smile and soft eyes, trying her best to comfort me. It was weird, considering how I had been the one to comfort her only a half hour ago, when she thought I might never wake up from a coma. Seeing her put on a brave face for my sake now was the last drop that broke the dam, and tears began flooding from my eyes as the stress and worry came rushing over me. Apparently I wasn’t as stoic about my situation as I thought I would be.
“Hey.” Emily spoke softly, barely above a whisper, as she sat down next to me. She put away her little notepad and took my hands in hers and held them. Her hands felt cold around mine, and I realized she must have been exhausted. To me it may have only been a few hours of unconscious floating, but to her it had been five whole days. Five days of worrying over me, probably missing sleep and missing meals while she tried to gain any information possible about her baby brother’s coma. I felt… shameful, at my own inadequacy.
“I would like to go home now. Can we do that? Am I clear to leave?” I heard the tired weakness in my words. They stung in my ears, and I felt hot all over my body. I lowered my face in an attempt to hide the embarrassment that spread across my face, but Emily grabbed it and lifted it back up to stare into my eyes. She stared hard, looking for something. I didn’t know what, but I guess she eventually found it, because she eventually relaxed her grip and softened up in her expression. “How do you feel?” she asked, finally.
“I feel fine. Physically I mean, nothing wrong other than my limbs sort of feeling like they’re asleep. Other than that… I’m hungry. Starving actually,” I said with what I hoped was a reassuring voice. It felt like Emily considered saying no for a second, but then she sighed, and she seemed to let go of a metric ton of stress as she deflated before my eyes.
“Alright, we can go home. And yes, we can pick up some more soup on the way.”
⬨⬨⬨
“Wait here, I’m gonna go pick up the soup and some clothes for you. You’re alright with semi-old used clothes, right? Your fancy three-piece isn’t very fancy anymore,” Emily added to her initial question. I nodded and sat down in the deserted waiting area. We were somewhere deep in the hospital, and Emily kept looking back at me all the way down the hall until she had to cross a corner, which I guess was only natural all things considered. She’d been holding my hand all the way until we stumbled upon the rather large waiting space. I sat down on one of the couches, feeling slightly embarrassed as my bare ass touched the coarse fabric stretched across the old cushion. It was cold in the open space there, and I didn’t feel entirely comfortable being there all by myself. Almost as if I wasn’t supposed to be there alone, wearing nothing but a hospital gown. I heard distant sounds of voices coming from the direction Emily had gone, and I nearly decided to hide under the couch in case someone was coming this way, but I flexed my fingers a few times and stayed in the seat. I didn’t know why, but there was something weird about the whole situation. Besides, being seen hiding under a couch in a waiting room would be a lot weirder than just sitting there waiting.
Emily came back a short few minutes later, holding a black plastic bag in one hand and a square plastic box under her other arm. As soon as I saw the container I could smell the same soup from earlier and a loud rumble escaped my stomach, which elicited a look of incredulity from my sister. I practically leapt up from the couch, and met her halfway down the corridor from where I’d been sitting.
“Whoa, careful, it’s still pretty hot,” Emily said as I snatched the soup from her. “Here, take these as well and go get changed. Just head in there and put on whatever fits.”
I grabbed the clothes she handed me and turned around to look at where she pointed. A small sign over a door read WC, so I started towards it, trying to gather everything into an easy-to-carry bundle. I had to press the door handle with my foot to get into the tiny room, but once inside I closed the door and dropped everything on the floor. I sat down on the toilet and cracked the lid on the box with the soup and found the thick liquid, rich with chunks of potato and near-meat. There was a plastic spoon clipped to the underside of the lid, and I considered using it for a second, but before I could decide the soup was already flowing directly from the box into my mouth. It was like I was moving on auto-pilot, having close to no control over my own actions. I barely even felt the high heat as I struggled to swallow the second huge mouthful, and almost spilled on my hospital gown.
“Hello? I asked if you’ve managed to find something. I’m out here waiting, you know,” I suddenly heard from outside the door. In my hyperfocus towards the soup I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to change out of the horrible hospital gown I was wearing. I set the nearly empty soup box to the side and pulled at the hem of the gown, only for it to rip apart and fall to the floor.
Damn, these things are pretty flimsy, I thought to myself as I kicked the gown out of the way. I then started digging through the pile of old clothes in search of any form of underwear I could use. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but I eventually found a pair that did the job. I had to go through a couple of different pants as well, before I found some that fit me well enough without a belt, and I was about to put on a plain white shirt when I suddenly heard Emily yelp from the other side of the door. I was about to ask what’d happened, but before I could there was another voice, seemingly coming from a bit further away. I couldn’t hear what was said, but the voice sounded distinctly feminine.
“That’s alright Mrs. Solomon, you just surprised me,” I heard Emily say to the other person. She was using her patient-voice, a higher pitched version of her normal voice meant to make patients feel safe and secure no matter what she was saying to them.
“Sorry, but shouldn’t you be in bed by now? It’s late you know, and you know how anxious it makes Orion when I have to tell him about your little late night walkabouts,” Emily said after another muffled response from Mrs. Solomon. I vaguely remembered the elderly woman that Emily took special care of. She was Mr. Solomon's mother, the man who owned and operated most of the city’s infrastructure.
“Oh please, just call me Cassy. If you can refer to Ori by his name you sure as heck can do it for me as well! Now, stop fiddling with your fancy wrist phone and help an old lady out.”
The other voice just barely came through the door this time. I guessed she must have been walking closer. I heard a thump from the door as Emily leaned against it, and she gave Mrs. Solomon a short laugh. “Fine, Cassiopeia,” she said, stressing the name. “But you still have to get back to your room before the nurse on staff gets worried and calls your son. Can you do that for me, Cassy? You know how dramatic he gets about you walking around when you should be resting. Please?" I could practically hear how Emily poured all her sweetness into the last word, and I could picture the pleading look in her eyes that was entirely impossible to deny. Absolute master manipulator.
“Alright, fine, I just need to use the bathroom and then I’ll let you walk me back to my room, unless that’s another cause for panic,” Mrs. Solomon huffed jovially. She sounded like a pretty sweet old lady, with a hint of mischievous humor that entirely eluded her son. “I’m so sorry Cassy, but this bathroom here is unavailable right now,” Emily told the old lady. “Another patient seems to have had an accident there, but I’ll happily take you to another one down the hall and to the right.”
Expardon me? I looked around, but I saw no sign of anything that should make the little toilet room unavailable, or even unpleasant. It was perfectly fine. Emily had just lied to Mrs. Solomon.
“But I used this bathroom just this afternoon, how could something so serious have happened in just a few hours,” Mrs. Solomon protested, but Emily was apparently prepared. “You know I can’t divulge details about other patients Mrs. So- Cassy. Buuuut, just between you and me, let’s just say Dr. Martin is having some trouble with one of his patients.” This apparently explained everything, because Mrs. Solomon quietly giggled like a schoolgirl as a response. I guessed hospital gossip was as juicy as any other gossip.
“Come on then, let’s get going, before I have to leave,” I heard Emily from further down the hall, judging from the sound. Is she leaving me here?
“It’s not far, it’ll only take two minutes, then you’ll go back to bed, okay?” Emily was almost inaudible, but she spoke up when she said “two minutes”, almost like a yell from down the hall.
Okay, so I got two minutes, I guess. I dove back into the pile of clothes in search of socks with no holes.
⬨⬨⬨
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“Here, this way.” Emily pulled me along into a side corridor that stretched out into dimly illuminated darkness. I nearly stumbled over a bit too long pant leg after her, trying to keep up with her brisk pace. She was moving a lot easier than I could, with her skinny jeans and dark hoodie. She’d even stuffed all her bright blonde hair under the hood, presumably to keep it from falling into her face. She kinda looked like a college med-student that was running on way too many cups of coffee.
She had come back from walking Mrs. Solomon after a short while, and knocked on the bathroom door, asking if it was occupied. I came out dressed in the most fitting clothes I’d found in the pile, which still left a lot to be desired concerning sizes, but I made do. Emily seemed as cheery as ever, except for her panting breath, as if she’d been running or something. There was something going on with her, but it didn’t feel right to ask her about it right away, considering all she’d done for me during my coma, and after I woke up. Still, the feeling of something gnawing at me in the back of my head wouldn’t go away as we headed down into the dimly lit corridor, in a direction I didn’t know where led.
“Hey, quick question, where are we going? We’ve been walking for a few minutes now, and I don’t recognise any of these corridors, and it doesn’t really feel like we’re headed towards the main entrance.” I had been trying to orient myself as we went along, but I’d never been in this part of the hospital before. We’d been walking for maybe four minutes, but I still hadn’t seen a door or a window that led outside.
“We’re currently headed to the staff garage. I’m not really allowed to be parked there unless I’m on duty, but I figured it’d be alright. It’s not as if I don’t have a good excuse.” She answered my question with a wink, and stepped around another corner. I felt there was something off with her explanation, just like how she acted with Mrs. Solomon, but I was physically stopped before I could say anything.
I hadn’t seen it, but right after turning the corner Emily had stopped, and I bumped into her as I followed, almost sending us both to the floor. What stopped us was the hands of a man dressed in a security guard uniform. He caught Emily’s shoulders as I pushed her forward, and kept us both standing. However in that position I could faintly hear her breathing in short huffs, and I felt her heartbeat through her back against my chest. Her pulse was racing.
“Woah there, where are you going in such a rush?” The man's voice sounded concerned with a hint of forced authority, and I immediately froze up.
Shit, are we not supposed to be here? Has Emily led us somewhere off-limits?
“Shh, not so loud,” Emily answered the man, which only confused me even further. I had absolutely no idea what was going on and was getting tired of it, but decided to keep my mouth shut until we were alone. I was beginning to rack up a whole bunch of questions.
“Emily, goddamn, I thought something happened. I got your text, but-”
“Yes, sorry, I know,” Emily cut him off and pulled her hood back. “Mrs. Solomon surprised me, and I had to deflect. It’s fine, I handled it.” She stepped around the security guard and pulled a multikey out of her pocket. She held it up to a door I hadn’t noticed and a faint click came from the lock. Emily pressed the door handle and slowly swung the door open, just enough to poke her head out. I just stood there awkwardly in front of the security guard. He turned his gaze from Emily to me.
“So, you must be the brother, then. Ashton, right? I heard you went through some really horrible stuff, and ended up in a coma. It’s good to see you on your feet, although I gotta be honest, you look a lot better than I expected after what Emily told me.”
The security guard, whose name was Eric according to his badge, laughed nervously as he brought up my coma, and for some reason all my apprehension towards him just evaporated at that moment. He was no longer an authority figure, just a nervous guy, seemingly helping my sister for some reason. That calmed me down some, and I was able to give him a somewhat reassuring smile.
“Yeah, I’m probably going to require some form of professional therapy once I get around to processing everything. I kinda woke up maybe thirty minutes ago, and I’m still catching up to everything, both mentally and physically.” As I spoke I realized the words were truer than I meant them to be. I hadn’t really reflected on my state of mind much about the events at the convention, but the moment I did I felt tremors appear down my spine. I shut them down and exiled the thoughts before they would paralyze me completely.
“How about you, how do you know Emily,” I asked Eric to further distract myself. “We work together,” he answered with a big goofy smile, which gave me the impression that the aura of authority from before was mostly something he faked when necessary. “Well, kind of. I work the night shift here, looking out for some of the more out-of-control patients, to make sure they’re safe and stuff, and so I get to hang out with Em and the other night nurses a lot. There’s not much for me to do outside of emergencies, and all the nurses here are super nice, especially Em.” The more Eric droned on, the bigger and goofier his smile grew, and I got the sensation that he was just a really reliable dude. He seemed to like to talk, perhaps more than he should, but I didn’t mind hearing details about patients that were technically confidential under doctor-patient privileges, because I didn't plan on remembering much of his ramblings.
After a couple minutes of this semi-awkward chit chatting, Emily came out the door she earlier had poked her head through. I was a bit surprised, because I hadn't noticed her actually stepping through the door fully, but as she returned I realized she'd been able to keep the door open, step out and go who knew where, then come back, without me or Eric The Security Guard noticing anything. My mind flashed back to what had happened with my bes- to what Deimos had done, but I pushed those thoughts out of my head quickly. Emily wasn't like that, I was just too physically and emotionally exhausted to pick up every minute detail around me. I mean, I had just gotten out of a five day coma, and I was still so hungry. I could give myself a little slack.
Emily walked up to me and Eric and patted the security guard on the back lightly. “Thanks Eric, sorry to worry you earlier.” He turned around in surprise, apparently still not having noticed her return. “Ah! Oh, hey Em, man you scared me.” He’d been in the middle of telling me how quickly gossip spread among the staff at the hospital, mostly focused on the doctors and their secret affairs. It sounded like a bunch of unnecessary drama to me. Emily just smiled at the blond, tall man, and acted as if she hadn’t heard anything about the gossiping nurses. “Here Ash, I got you this,” she said and handed me a wristband similar to her own. It was dark gray in color, and split into segmented joints that formed a smooth fit around my wrist. It made a tiny beep the moment it clasped shut, and a purple light started filling up a thin rectangular bar on the edge of a black square. I stared at it wide-eyed.
“What- how did you get this? And why are you giving it to me?” I asked her, incredulously. The smartband was from a generation about two years old, but it was still leagues more powerful and versatile than my phone. The phone I’d had during the convention. Which was probably nothing but burned circuitry and melted plastic by now. That at least explained the why, which only left the how. Emily had been given hers as a necessary tool to do her job as a nurse, but there was no way for us to be able to afford such an expensive device easily. “It’s an extra for redundancy, in case a band breaks for any reason. The hospital keeps at least a couple dozen, so it’s never a big deal.” Emily smiled as she waved my worries away. “Besides,” she continued, “the hospital is insured to the teeth, and since the bands are prepaid up to three months, you can use it as soon as it’s charged and calibrated. That way we can take the time to find something more permanent, and I’ll return the band to the hospital, no problem. Now, come on, the car is just down these stairs, then we’ll almost be home.”
It was the way she spoke that worried me, with her voice pitched up, and a smile as wide as a barn door. It was the chipper and carefree demeanor she put on while talking to patients. “Thanks for looking out for me, Eric. I’ll get Alida to bake some extra cupcakes next week. Say bye to Eric, Ash.” I nodded my head and gave Eric an absentminded goodbye. Emily dragged me out the door she’d previously gone through, and led me down a few flights of stairs that ended in a door that led out to a parking garage underground. I heard the subtle click of car doors unlocking a few meters ahead, and we walked together through the dimly lit garage to Emily’s car. We got in, she twisted the key, and we calmly drove out into the open air.
It’s night? Wait, what time is it? I looked at the small map interface screen, where the clock read 02:12 at night. Above us through the window I saw Primo high and bright, with Secundus close behind it. The two crescent moons looked like a celestial creature’s eyes, almost, but not quite fully closed. The image remained in my head as the low hum of the engine and soft swaying of the road lulled into a dreamless slumber, where no voices would ever reach.
⬨⬨⬨
“Hey sleepyhead, we’re here.” I slowly opened my eyes and saw the familiar stone material of our apartment building. We were in the garage, and Emily stood outside the open car door, shaking me gently. “Alright, alright, I’m awake,” I told her as I grunted my way out of the car. My body had stiffened up during the half hour ride, and several joints popped as I stretched. Somewhere between the pops there was a strange echo, however. Like the dying hum of a voice coming from somewhere inside me, bouncing off my bones. At least that’s what it felt like, but when I stopped stretching and tried to listen, no lingering hum, or sound of any kind, not even a heartbeat.
Oh, right. No pulse. Still alive, but no pulse. It’s fine, I’m fine, Emily said so. Fuck, what the fuck is going on with me?
“Hey, slowpoke, get your butt in gear! I may not be freezing to death, but I’m not exactly comfortable out here. Let’s get inside, where it’s warm,” Emily said, clearly having watched me stop and try to listen to my insides. She was standing by the open door to the stairwell, hands in her pockets and knees pushed together. “Coming!”
It was weird, I wasn’t wearing more than a large t-shirt, ill-fitting pants and a pair of socks with at least one hole, but I felt rather warm. Not like a sweaty, uncomfortable warm, or like a wet and steamy warmth after a hot shower, but warm like I was sitting in front of a crisp and toasty fire… or in one. It was usually pretty cold this time of year, especially with two moons hanging in the sky, and usually I was pretty sensitive to cold weather. Not tonight though. I shook my head and walked in through the door.
“That’s better,” I heard Emily sigh behind me as she closed the door. We headed straight up to the apartment where Emily scanned her thumb to unlock the door and let us in. It was dark inside and smelled a little musty. I guessed it had been a bit since Emily cleaned anything in there, but I wasn’t gonna comment on it. Instead I pulled the borrowed shirt over my head and tossed it over the back of a kitchen chair on the way to the fridge. The little bulb inside the fridge was the lone source of light that lit up my face as I scoured the contents. Everything I found was scooped into my arms and placed on the kitchen table along a bowl and a paper box from a side cabinet. Synthetic milk, cereal and mini-shmallows gathered in the bowl while the plastic wrapping around a half-eaten sandwich was torn away. I have no idea what went into my mouth first, but I was already finishing the sandwich and halfway through a second bowl of cereal when Emily turned on the light.
“How can you still be hungry?” she asked me incredulously. “Ih dohf nnmm, djff mmf,” I very intelligently replied around several mouthfuls of assorted foods. Emily sighed and closed the open fridge door. “Srrmf,” I offered in way of apology. She slumped into the chair next to me and rested her chin in her hands. She sat like that and just watched me eat for a moment, smiling softly to herself.
"Are you alright? Not to be rude, but you kinda look like a mess, and you really need a shower," I said after forcefully swallowing a large spoonful of cereal. "Yeah," Emily sighed in response, deflating in her chair. "I'm fine. Exhausted, but that's nothing new. I'm probably going to go and pass out first, then shower whenever I wake up. I'm not scheduled until - let's see," she poked at her own smartband and pulled up the monthly schedule of shifts. "Not until tomorrow night, which gives me a cushy eighteen hours to sleep, shower and eat."
She then gave me a pointed look, held it for a second, then continued. "I'm going to bed now, and I’ll probably be asleep until midday tomorrow. You’ll be fine on your own for a bit, yeah? You’re not gonna get into any more accidents, or fall into another coma, are you?” Her questions were soft spoken, but there was an undeniable threat behind the words. As if I were gonna be in a heap of trouble if I even so much as thought about taking any sort of risk. I slowly nodded my head at her in a “you got it, boss,” kinda way.
She held her gaze, straight into my face, which seemed to intensify the longer time went. Then she abruptly got out of her chair and stretched her arms backwards over her head, and I could hear several pops coming from her back and shoulders. "Good," she stated cheerfully as only she could. “It’d be nice if there was food left for breakfast tomorrow, so I’m transferring you some money,” she continued. A small, bluish window popped out from her smartband, and as Emily swiped her fingers around on the window, I took a look at the band still wrapped around my own wrist. The little bar of light had filled up almost all the way by now, and the light had changed into a silvery sheen that shimmered strangely, as if liquid. I didn’t have any personal experience with a smartband, so I knew nothing other than how to register it once the light eventually filled the thin bar entirely. I figured I’d deal with it whenever that happened.
“There, make sure there’s coffee, some form of milk or creamer, and at least a bagel.” She said the last part with no small amount of seriousness. Then she softened again, and continued, “Other than that, just take it easy this coming week, okay? I’ve spoken to your boss at the store, and they’re aware of the accide-... of what happened,” she cut herself off before she could fully mention the explosion, but the memories were already shoved into the spotlight.
“I made sure of that,” Emily continued. “You’ll be able to go back to work when you feel like it, but I strongly recommend at least a couple more days of rest, to see if no more strange things happen to you.”
There was worry in her eyes as she carefully danced around the changes to my body and what had really occurred, but none of it touched her voice. I guess I caught it because I knew her so well, and had seen it many times during our childhood. I tried to give her my best reassuring smile, even while the tortured screams of other convention guests replayed in my mind. “Thanks for taking care of me, sis,” I said earnestly. “And okay, I’ll make sure to take it easy, and get lots of rest.”
“Alright,” Emily smiled warmly. “That’s all I have the energy for tonight. Goodnight, Ash. Be a good little brother and clean up after yourself, alright?” I looked over the table and kitchen counter, and sighed at the sight of the mess I’d unwittingly left all over the place. There were plates, utensils, plastic wrapping, plastic boxes and crumbs of food pretty much everywhere, and I hadn’t noticed any of it until she pointed it out. Emily giggled as she left me to clean up after myself. “Night, sis,” I muttered, and started looking for a sponge.
⬨⬨⬨
Half an hour later I was finally back in my own warm bed, dressed in my own nicely fitting pajamas. A mug of instant cocoa sat next to my bed, on the floor, and I had my old computer opened up on my lap. I knew it wasn’t the smartest move, to go online where there were bound to be countless videos and news articles about the events at the Lodestar Convention, but I desperately needed to unwind with something familiar.
The Andromeda Star Chart was projected out around me, bathing me in ethereal lights in the otherwise dark bedroom. Everything felt better when I looked at the Chart. My problems and worries became smaller, less serious. Easier for a regular human to overcome. The undulating lights swept over my eyes and granted me a sort of comfort I struggled to find within most other things. I could just sit there and watch that tiny representation of our galaxy forever, bathed in the wonder of what power existed out there in the vast darkness of space.
However, instead of getting to relax with the stars and enjoy my hot cocoa, there was a nagging feeling deep in my stomach I couldn’t shake. It had something to do with that shining orb of special glass I had swallowed, but I was too weak to think too hard about it. There was so much blood, so many screams, and so much pain, swirling in my mind, creating a maelstrom of torment, all focused on that little bright, glass marble. It was too much.
A twinkling notification sound played low over the speakers that were drowned in my bed sheets, and I welcomed the sudden distraction. It was an email, sent from an address I wasn’t familiar with, but it was signed by a name that I recognized instantly.
Dear Mr. Etrigan.
We hope this message finds you in good health, and that your journey home was a comfortable one. We realize that your condition might not be optimal for the time being, but we put our trust in Ms. Etrigan to nurse you back to health, as she has with so many other patients. If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to come visit the hospital, and we’ll set up an appointment for you. Our lawyers have spoken to Lodestar Labs and their legal team on behalf of yourself, as well as the other patients still in our care, and we’ve set up a Fund for you to help you get back on your feet. Considering the partnership between our owner and the owner of Lodestar, this is the least we could do. We still require your signature before you can receive your portion of the Fund, which you can provide at any time convenient to you.
During your time at our hospital we discovered a few strange changes happening to your physiology, and we would be loath not to ask your permission to allow us further study of these changes, as soon as you regain your health. This would naturally come with additional compensation to you as thanks for your time and cooperation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through this email address, or reach out to one of our representatives. Their contact info will be on the attached document, along with the compensation agreement for the Fund. In the meantime, take good care of yourself and Ms. Etrigan. We look forward to hearing from you.
Signed
Orion Solomon, Chief Executive Officer, Solomon Industries
Attached to the email was one official document from Solomon Industries Legal Department, as well as a sheet containing the contact information to two doctors at the Andromeda Hospital as well as several assistants from Solomon Industries. I opened the document and began reading. Two pages later I found a dotted line and the words “sign here”, next to a fillable box for date and location. Right above that was the amount I would receive if I did. My eyes widened in shock as I stared at the amount in front of me. Something felt off in the email, I wasn’t important enough for Orion Solomon himself to take interest. Right?
Then there was the fact that they knew I was home, and that Emily had been the one to come get me. Why would they have that information? It all added up to something beyond my knowledge, but I decided to go digging as soon as I could. In the meantime I would have to figure out what I would do with two-point-five million dollars.