image [https://i.imgur.com/jpOYNWV.png]
"It’s not like it’ll be gone forever, honey,” Dad told my mom.
He was putting on his patient voice like he did with me when I asked too many questions.
“You say that, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she fired back, “what if there are side effects? What if it fails?”
“We’ve already been over this… “
I didn’t know why Mom sounded so angry. She’d been in a bad mood for the last couple of days, but I didn’t hear any more of their conversation because I ran out of earshot.
I had a hard time staying put and bounded around the living room and engaged everyone with my new toy.
The house was filled with guests and I was so excited, filled with giddy energy. Uncle Lenny had brought me a Nerf gun and I fired it at everyone, declaring their deaths loudly whenever I managed to score a hit.
“You’re dead!” I told a man with a blurry face and giggled when he held his hand over his heart and fell over in his chair.
“Ethan, come over here and say hello to Lisa and Angela,” Uncle Lenny’s voice sounded from the hallway.
I ran past the people crowding the room, Nerf gun held loosely in one hand and jumped up into his outstretched arms. He lifted me like I was a feather and held me in one arm, looking down at me.
“You’re getting big, it won’t be long before I’m unable to throw you around anymore,” his deep voice rumbled seriously.
“Really?” I asked him sadly.
I liked it when he threw me up in the air.
“No, not really, I’m just kidding. Your Uncle Lenny is plenty strong,” he said and flashed me a smile, showing his pointy teeth, and I laughed.
He turned us around and I saw a woman in a pretty dress with flowers who smiled at us. Hiding partially behind her legs was a little girl. They both had silver hair and it looked super pretty.
“This is my cousin, Lisa,” – he gestured at the woman – “and that’s her daughter, Angela,” he finished and pointed at the girl.
I tapped him on the arm and gestured for him to put me down. Once I was on the ground I held out my hand politely.
“Hello, I’m Ethan,” I told them in the serious way Dad had taught me.
Lisa grabbed my hand, still smiling.
“What a polite young man you are! Hello, Ethan, nice to meet you. Say hello, Angela.”
“Hi,” Angela whispered from behind her mom’s legs.
Holding my hand out to her as well, I wasn’t disappointed when she didn’t grab and shake it. Dad had told me I shouldn’t expect other children to shake hands.
“She’s a little shy,” Lisa whispered and winked at me, “but she’s around your age isn’t that right, sweetie?”
“I’m six,” Angela told me in another whisper and peeked at me with one large brown eye.
“I’m also six! But I’m turning seven in,” – I counted the days in my head – “eleven days!” I told her proudly. “But we’re celebrating my birthday today because Dad says we won’t have time for it soon.”
“Happy birthday in eleven days,” Angela said in a slightly louder still-hushed voice.
“Thanks!” I replied and beamed at her.
Her eye widened a little, and she hid her face completely.
“I think you’re the last to arrive,” Uncle Lenny told Lisa, “Let’s head inside. Benji said they had something special planned for tonight.”
--
"Urgh," I came to with a groan, my eyes opening slowly.
Lying on the floor, I could feel my slackened extremities respond sluggishly to my attempt at moving them. My head was still aching, but the debilitating sensation was gone. Pushing myself off the ground was a huge effort, but I managed it in the end and propped myself up against the frame of the bed. I wiped at my nose and ears and my fingers came back with flakes of dried blood.
My memories from before I was sent to the boarding school were hazy, but I'd always assumed that fuzzy childhood memories were the case for everyone. I had no previous recollection of a big party being thrown for my seventh birthday, but it had been so vivid and clear that it felt more like something that had happened in my past than a dream.
Shaking my head I managed to stand on shaky legs and took another bottle of water from the shelf. There was no mirror in the room, but a glance down at my shirt and pants told me that my condition would be obvious if someone came to check on me. I sipped some water and looked at my ring gratefully. Who knows what would've happened if I hadn't managed to heal myself in time?
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But the images that had flashed through my mind must have been memories. I hadn't fallen asleep until I hit the floor, and while it was possible, I didn't think my concussion had caused me to hallucinate. Maybe I had somehow suppressed the memories of my childhood as a defence mechanism myself during my school years. I'd been thrust into training without warning and it was possible that I'd unconsciously done something like that to protect myself. Or maybe there was foul play involved.
I tried to recall the imagery that had presented itself before I passed out and was assailed by a sharp pain just behind my eyes.
"Ouch, what the hell," I complained out loud and rubbed a thumb between my eyebrows.
Nothing presented itself. It was just a mishmash of incoherent colours and white noise.
The clock on the wall read 3:15 PM, so that meant I hadn't been out for long this time. I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to avoid passing out in the future, as weird as that felt, but it was becoming necessary at this point. I snorted wryly.
There was a rattling noise coming from the door and I turned towards it with apprehension. Someone had finally decided to check on me and I was glad I'd woken up in time.
The door swung open and a short middle-aged woman entered without hesitation. She didn't wear a mask and her brown eyes sparkled behind a pair of large glasses. Her hair was tied in a bun and she wore a white lab coat and black pants, a stethoscope around her neck, carrying a plastic tray with sandwiches. She smiled genially at me, her visage shimmering slightly for a second, and I noticed the four unnaturally sharp large canines, two in her upper and lower mouth respectively, before it turned back.
Another Vdélla, perhaps. I briefly entertained the notion of trying to overpower her but noticed the two towering shapes standing in the background with stun rods before I had a chance to act on my intrusive thoughts. Regardless of my chances against her in a one-on-one, I couldn't handle all three of them.
The people outside were equipped with the same bland grey clothes and masks as the ghouls who'd fought us at the bar. Maybe they were ghouls as well, but one of them fidgeted slightly while they looked at me and I didn't think that was the case.
Perhaps they thought an unmasked visitor would help build rapport better and I couldn't fault them for that. Bringing me food was a peace offering I could get behind—provided it wasn't poisoned or laced with a tranquillizer—but that would be unnecessarily excessive. I was already a captive.
"You're up. Good," she told me and I recognised her mousy voice.
It was the same woman who had escorted me into the room and removed my zip ties a couple of hours ago. Putting the tray down she went up to me and eyed me with a critical expression and furrowed brows.
"What happened?" she asked, nodding at my bloody shirt.
"I think I have a concussion, Tanner kicked my head pretty hard earlier today," I told her honestly.
There was no good reason for me to lie to her, but I'd lead her on a little. Looking at her bearing and the clothes she was wearing I surmised that she was the resident doctor, or health care professional at least.
"Aversion to light? Headaches? Feeling drowsy and nauseous?" she rapid-fired at me and gestured for me to sit on the bed.
"Yes, yes and yes," I replied and sat down.
My symptoms were significantly better, the nausea and drowsiness all but gone, but I played into her expectations. Only a sliver of headache remained. The ring had done its job.
She brought out a penlight and shone it over each of my eyes individually.
"Slight delay in pupil constriction," she mused out loud, "any short-term memory loss? Holes in your recollections?"
Whether the flashing images and my dream were past recollections or not, I decided not to mention them since it was a long time ago and answered her dryly, "No, I remember how I got here pretty vividly."
"Slight concussion, probably. Doesn't explain the bleeding, but you could have a slight increase in intracranial pressure. Do you mind if I take your blood pressure and check your vitals?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Of course," she answered and a slight smile tugged at one corner of her mouth, "but I can't help you if you won't let me."
Grunting noncommittally I gestured for her to go ahead.
She picked up the black cloth I'd thrown on the ground, walked out of the room and rolled a trolley up to the doorway, selecting various implements from it.
"Remove your shirt, please," she told me as she reentered the room.
I did as she asked and she looked at my amulet in passing but disregarded it and gave my heart a listen. Then she strapped the cloth around my arm and turned on the blood pressure device.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Ethan."
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
"Try to relax and don't talk, Ethan," she said.
She looked into my ears and up my nostrils with an otoscope and the BP machine tightened the band around my arm. They'd done a yearly check-up at school so none of this was new to me.
"Burst capillaries and a small tear that's already scabbed over in one eardrum," she concluded pathologically, "BP is 162 over 89, pulse 92. A little high considering your age and fitness, but nothing alarming, considering your condition. I'll be checking up on you every three hours for the next day or so," she declared and put her stethoscope back around her neck.
The ring clearly hadn't managed to heal everything. If it spent most of its charge healing any damage to my brain, that made complete sense. The intricacies of injuries to the head probably required more power, even for minor injuries. I reevaluated my head trauma and concluded it probably hadn't been that serious, but that still didn't explain the images and my dream.
"Great, does that mean I won't be eaten in the near future?" I asked sarcastically.
"Eaten? Oh no, we've got much grander plans for you and your friends," she replied and her voice took on a tone of fanaticism as her face flickered once again.
I noticed a sinister glint in her eyes when she looked at me. Right, she was nicer than the others I'd met so far, but she wasn't on my side. She went over to the door, turned and addressed me.
"Try to eat something, even if you're nauseous. We haven't done anything to the food. I'll be back at around six."
"Doc, don't forget the rod and his jewellery," one of the masked individuals said.
Definitely not ghouls, if what Rob had told me about them being unable to think for themselves was right. Drudges, probably. Maybe they were even human.
"Right," she snapped her fingers, "I knew I'd forgotten something. Sorry, Ethan, I'll need to confiscate your necklace."
I cursed inwardly. She equipped a pair of latex gloves, picked up a metal rod, and came back to stand in front of me. I didn't like where this was going.
"Stand up, please."
Complying, I let out a long breath. I should've hidden my trinkets.
"Take off the necklace and the ring, if you would," she bid me.
Pulling off my ring and necklace I put them on the bed and she scooped them up and put them in a pocket. Then she waved the rod around my body. It beeped when it passed my right pocket and she held out her hand expectantly. Sighing again I undid the clasp and handed her my pin. She waved it around the rest of me but it didn't go off again.
Next, she proceeded to wave the rod around the furniture, the plushie, and even went so far as to get on the chair and wave it around the ventilation intake. Nodding in satisfaction when it didn't beep, she stuck a gloved hand in the toilet and roamed around a little.
Never mind. Hiding them wouldn't have made a difference.
"Thank you, Ethan. You wouldn't believe where people try to stick these things to hide them from us," she said while she stood up and rolled her gloves off.
I could imagine, but I didn't say anything, putting my shirt back on instead.
"I'll be back at six. I'll bring some more food and fresh clothes. Remember to eat something," she advised and closed the door on me.