Jason’s head was throbbing madly when he finally managed to force his eyes to squint open once again. Uncertain how long he’d laid on the ground unconscious, he could taste the bitter bite of blood inside his mouth, making him want to gag. Groaning slightly, he forced himself to sit half up and then crawled over to the bed so he could lean back against it and rest.
Groggily, Jason tried to sort the cobwebs from his mind to think back on what he was doing. It was something important, at least he felt like it was something important, but his brain just wouldn’t focus enough for him to sort everything out. Squinting past the pain throbbing relentlessly in his head, it appeared he was at the door when he’d fell and passed out. Was he coming in, or going out? The pounding in his temples wouldn’t let him sort it out.
Placing the palm his left hand up to his face, Jason gripped behind his eyes and squeezed his temples tight to try and ease the relentless pounding in them, causing flashes of light to dance wildly across his vision and a nauseous feeling to swell up in his stomach. Groaning from the pain, Jason gritted his teeth so hard they felt almost as if they might break inside his mouth and forced himself to push up against the bed until he could lift himself off the ground enough to force his ass back onto the mattress so he could sit on it.
Sweating and shaking just from the effort of getting himself up to sit, Jason leaned forward, rested his arms against his legs, and rocked slightly back and forth on the edge of the bed as he tucked his head down low and tried to shield himself from the light. He felt awful; in fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt as terrible as he did now. His head was pounding. He could taste blood inside the corners of his mouth. Had his nose bled, or did he just bite his cheek or tongue when he fell? He couldn’t tell with the way he was feeling currently. His heart was racing, pounding inside his chest and his lungs felt as if they were on fire as he struggled to force in each ragged breath.
“Ppppppttaama…” He tried to call out to Pam, hoping that she was nearby, but his voice wouldn’t work; he couldn’t seem to get enough air into his lungs to force the words out. “Pptppttaaam,” he tried again, with the same wheezing lack of success. Desperation lending him strength, Jason struggled to force himself to his feet. Struggling against an endless wave of vertigo, he forced himself to stagger drunkenly one step after another until he could make it across the few steps in the room to lean against the wall at the door leading out into the hall.
Knees trembling, feeling as if he might fall or pass out again at any moment, Jason rested all his weight against the wall and slowly worked his way laborious step after laborious step down the hallway. After what felt like hours, he made it to the doorway of the first guest room and struggled to force himself to open his eyes long enough to look inside and see that it was empty.
Repeating the process three more times, he slowly worked his way past the rest of the empty guest rooms upstairs and all the way down the hall to the closed door which led to Pam’s room. Fumbling with the handle several times, Jason worked to turn it and push the door open. Stumbling drunkenly inside, pure relief washed over him as he saw Pam turn to look back at him from where she was sitting at her desk doing something.
“Pppttaam…. Plound poo…” Slurring his speech, Jason struggled to let Pam know he was grateful he found her as he staggered over and collapsed face first down on her bed. His head hurt. His lungs were burning. Jason felt completely terrible – and yet, somehow, he had a small contented smile on his face as the darkness washed back over his consciousness.
He’d found Pam; he knew everything was going to be alright now.
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Pam was sitting at her desk, humming happily to herself and scribbling in her diary. Today was probably one of the best days in her life! Oh sure, she’d gotten fussed at a bit because the old cook was a cranky bastard and didn’t like her making a mess of the kitchen – but that wasn’t important! Mrs. C had fired her, and Pamela couldn’t think of anything that could have been more perfect than that!
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She didn’t have to do chores anymore. She didn’t need to clean, or do laundry, or dust, or anything like that anymore! Mrs. C had firmly laid down the law and told her she wasn’t allowed to deal with such things any longer; she was going to hire some more maids to help Penny take care of the house. All she was expected to do was to go to school, keep her grades up, and to be certain to graduate with honors – which she was doing already!
The lady of the house had basically ordered her to quit working and to simply focus on enjoying her high school years and her studies. “You’re not working here anymore,” Mrs. C had told her in a tone that brooked no argument. “Honestly, you never should’ve been forced to work here to begin with,” Mrs. C informed her gently. “You’re young. You’ve got school, education, and all the rigors of high school to deal with. This whole mess with Chef Poophead has shown me that you’re not ready to work yet, and it was wrong of us to expect you to.”
“Don’t worry,” Mrs. C had laughed, “I’ll deal with my husband. You’ll be staying with us the same as always. You’ll get your paycheck the same as always – call it your allowance if you want to call it that. We haven’t did as we should have been doing and supporting your education fully, so we’re getting you one of those virtual helmet things to help with your studies.” At this point, Mrs. C winked at Pam and a smile flickered mischievously across her face. “Something like that will help you with your studies won’t it,” she’d asked Pamela, smirking heavily the whole time.
“It… It would,” Pam agreed, finally understanding what was going on! Mrs. C was supporting her just like she said she was going to! Her workload was being cut, she was being given her own V-RIG, and she wasn’t going to lose out on any of her income or anything else! Mrs. C was using the incident with the old chef to clear the way so she could have free time to log into Winter’s Tale and secretly support Jason in there!
Getting “fired” had never been so exhilarating and liberating an experience, and Pam couldn’t stop smiling and humming over it as she struggled to write her feelings down in her diary. She couldn’t imagine anything which could ruin her mood this evening…
…And then the door to her room slowly creaked open and Jason staggered in pale and trembling, looking more like a corpse walking than a young teen boy.
Eyes wide, she stared in shock as he shambled several steps forward and then mumbled something incoherent to her. Leaping up, knocking her chair back against the wall hard enough it dented the plaster on the walls, she was already rushing wildly to his side even as he was collapsing face down across her bed.
“Jason!” Screaming his name, Pamela was instantly across the room and by his side at the bed. Leaning across his limp form, Pam grabbed for his wrist and felt for the pulse. Relieved to find one, she couldn’t help but release the long breath she’d been holding. Her first thought was that he might have stumbled into her room and died or something, and even though his pulse was erratic, she was relieved it was stable.
Letting go of his wrist, Pam sprung up from the bed and dashed over to where her chair laid tumbled in the floor. Without giving a second thought to what she might end up breaking, she quickly scooped it up, ran out into the hallway and hurled it over the bannister and down the stairs. Without taking time to listen as it crashed down one step after another before finally banging and breaking against the door at the bottom of the steps, Pam rushed back into her room and struggled to turn Jason over to his back to check his breathing.
“What the hell’s going on up there?!” Penny opened the door, yelling up the steps before yelping in surprise as what was left of the chair tried to tumble down on her.
“Something’s happened to Jason,” Pamela screamed back! “Call 911!” Pushing herself up away from her bed, she rushed over to her dresser and pulled open the top drawer. “He’s passed out in my room and I don’t know what’s happened!” Grabbing an emergency inhaler – she always kept one in her room so she’d always know where to find one if needed – she rushed back over and held it in front of Jason’s mouth. “His pulse is throbbing, his breath is ragged, and he’s pale as a ghost!”
“OH!” Penny’s worried gasp whispered up the steps as she turned and rushed to the phone.
A moment later, Jason’s mother thundered up the steps and into Pamela’s room, concern written heavily on her face. Tears filled her eyes when she saw Jason’s pale form sprawled out across the bed. She’d seen him look bad before in the past, but never this pale and sickly. Rushing over, she knelt down beside Pamela and took Jason’s other hand in hers and tried to offer as much comfort to him as she possibly could. She wasn’t a nurse; she didn’t know the first thing about tending to someone sick. All she could do is hold his hand and pray the ambulance wouldn’t be long.