Chapter 44: Visiting Hours
All four of us stared at Erin, even the woman who’d brought her. Her chauffeur? Only for the day, she’d said.
Can you blame us? There was something so incongruous about this gawky college student in her oversized glasses and black jeans and DU hoodie offering up formal apologies with a bow that would make a samurai jealous.
Miguel recovered first, which was pretty bad when you consider that he was the only one of us nursing a concussion. “I’m sure that such a charming young lady couldn’t have done anything I wouldn’t forgive.”
Erin straightened up so abruptly that she almost lost her glasses for the second time. She stood ramrod straight, except for her head, which remained bowed, and her fingers, which fidgeted with the loops of her jeans. Her skin was too dark to see a blush on, otherwise I was sure one would’ve been visible.
Although she looked almost as confused as she did embarrassed. When she finally found her voice, it sounded less practiced. “Are you... looking at me through Third Eye right now?”
“Two are more than enough,” Miguel said.
She blinked. “Oh.”
“That’s quite enough of that,” the other woman said.
Now that she sounded annoyed, I finally realized where I knew her voice from. “DeepingShadows!”
“Fancy meeting you here, OC. And you too, Ash, of course. And that’s quite enough of the screen names. Especially mine. God. The mistakes of youth, come back to haunt us.” She made a sort of brushing gesture in the air. “Cam, Lena? I’m Donica.”
She held her hand out to me. Her handshake was almost as domineering as Matt’s. I wondered if they’d gone to the same business school.
Mostly, I wondered what she and Erin were doing here, and how they knew each other. Erin had implied that Donica – it felt so bizarre to think of her as anything other than DeepingShadows – had introduced her to the Third Eye Kickstarter, right? They must have known each other for a long time, which ruled out, say, Donica being one of Erin’s teachers at DU. A family connection? But they looked about as unrelated as two people could get.
However they knew each other, it didn’t explain why they were in Miguel’s hospital room. Or even how.
Last night, while I waited for Lena to either fall asleep or pretend to so I could feel all right about testing Water, I’d posted a little bit about our misadventure in Erin’s Discord. I’d told the wiki team we’d followed up on a lead where we’d gotten a Material and found Water as a result, but one of our friends got hurt.
But I hadn’t given Miguel’s name, much less his room number. Hell, I hadn’t even had his room number. I’d had to ask at the front desk this morning.
Erin must have deduced it. How? And decided to come. Why?
While I pondered the question, Donica offered a shake to Lena, too, who took it like she expected it to turn into a judo throw. Maybe bracing against that was why she didn’t bend under the pressure.
Donica stepped back and gave a curt nod.
“Finally got a name and a face to go with the handle,” Lena said. “I hope you realize, I’ll never call you DS in coms again.”
“So inefficient.” But Donica cracked a smile. “Well, neither of us were good enough for it to matter. It took me way too long to understand that.”
Lena turned her nose up. “Speak for yourself.”
Donica snorted. “Sure, Lena. Let me know next time you’re in Grand Finals. In any case, I think you’ve both met Erin?”
“This is our first time running into each other IRL,” Lena said. She thrust her hand out. “Nice to meetcha!”
“Nice to meet you too, Ashbird.” Erin seemed to have composed herself while we talked to Donica. She clasped Lena’s hand in both of hers. “You’d rather go by Lena in person?”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Whatever works for you.” Lena shrugged. “But just so you know, I’m not gonna call you NugsFan15 to your face. Sorry-not sorry.”
Erin’s smile peeked out around the fist she pressed to her mouth.
“You know these ladies, Cam?” Miguel asked. “How is it you’ve never introduced us?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I said. “I’m not the one whose hospital room they’re visiting.”
“I admit, I’m starting to doubt they just go from room to room, brightening patients’ days,” Miguel said. “Although if they don’t, they should consider starting. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Donica shot Erin a look I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Lips and eyes taut, neck muscles standing out. The tension in the room ratcheted up a couple million notches.
Erin looked back, her smile gone in an instant. She bit her lip. She lowered her head more carefully so her glasses would stay on her nose. “It’s because you got hurt, sir. I feel like it’s my fault.”
“Then allow me to relieve you of that feeling, Erin.” Miguel reached from the bed to take her hand, but she was standing too far away. When she didn’t step forward, his attempt only managed to replace tension with awkwardness. He shrugged it off and sank back against his pillow. “The only thing you’ve done for me, one way or another, is cheer me up on a dreary morning.”
Erin shook her head. “You got hurt because of the wiki that I run.”
“Which does not,” Donica said, “make this your responsibility.”
“Not legally,” Erin said. “But ethically? Morally? If I lead people into danger –”
“You didn’t,” I said.
Erin froze.
Donica raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“The place where Miguel got hurt,” I said. “We didn’t go down there because of anything posted on the wiki, or even from your Discord. It was all original research.”
“Do Not Steal,” Lena murmured. I could hear her swallowing a giggle. If she was going to make jokes like that, she was lucky I’d promised not to tell people her avatar could have come straight off her DeviantArt page circa 2017.
Not that I would have at the moment. I was glad to hear her able to make any joke.
From how she swung between forced cheer and trying to vanish into the corner of the room, I could tell that the number of people present had exceeded her comfort threshold. At least for those she hadn’t grown to see as friends. Since Donica arguably qualified as an enemy, she might exceed the threshold all on her own.
“We went to a place signposted by the first Material that Lena and I found,” I said. “We thought to look past it because of a website that we discovered by following ARG clues last night. Miguel remembered a story about the physical location. That’s it. Nothing from the wiki.”
“ARG clues?” Erin’s eyes widened. “You didn’t mention that last night on Discord. What were they? I knew I should’ve spent more time on that side of the game...”
“There are thousands of players, Erin,” Donica said. “Don’t you think you do enough?”
“Evidently not,” Erin said.
Donica pinched her nose. “It doesn’t sound like this is our problem. I’m sorry that Mr. Herrera got hurt, but we really need to get going.” She dropped her voice, but not enough to keep us from hearing. “I told your dad I was scouting a prospect at DU. I’m going to have to get back to the office soon.”
“It doesn’t seem like there are going to be any legal issues, at least,” Erin said. “You should just go on back; if it saves time, crib whatever you like from my report. I don’t want Dad to worry.”
Another of those tight expressions I didn’t understand. Donica seemed even more high-strung in person than she did online. “Erin...”
Erin arranged her face into something I was pretty sure was supposed to be a smile, but looked more like invisible fingers were wrenching the sides of her mouth up. “You know I don’t. This will be fine.”
“Oh, I know.” Donica sighed. “You’re going to walk back?”
“I was actually going to stick around and talk to Cam and Lena. I had a lot of things to discuss with them. And Mr. Herrera, if he likes, of course! If any of them like?” She looked over her shoulder at us.
“For sure,” Lena said. “It’s super cool getting to meet you IRL, Erin.”
“I could say the same to you,” Erin said. “But you came to see your hurt friend. I shouldn’t interrupt.”
“I would never object to such a charming companion,” Miguel said. “As long as I get to hear you call me Miguel.”
“Oh!” Erin’s eyes flicked around until they found the most interesting sight: her boots. “You don’t have to say those kinds of things.”
“If you’d like me to stop, I will.” He dismissed his smile and his voice turned serious. “Just say the word.”
She shuffled her feet. “Well. You don’t have to stop if you really don’t want to.”
“Then I’ll continue,” he said, “to call it as I see it.”
“Are you really okay with this, Erin?” Donica asked.
“He’s just being nice. Also, he’s probably on painkillers?”
“High as a kite,” Miguel said. “That’s how you know I’m speaking from the heart.”
Erin covered her mouth but couldn’t quite stifle her deep-throated laugh.
“I meant,” Donica said, “you’re comfortable hanging out with these people?”
Erin looked at each of us in turn.
Lena cocked her head. I smiled. Since I was looking at Erin, I couldn’t see how Miguel reacted, but I discovered that I’d been wrong before.
I could see a blush on Erin’s cheeks.
“Actually,” she said, “I’d be delighted to.”