Letter to my comment-ers

Dear _____________,

In response to your comment(s) I have a few things to say. No, I did not recieve and "For Dummies" books and once again I must inquire, why do you read blogs of people you don't like? And why do you try to leave annoymous comments. Own up to them. It's kind of sad and pathetic that you feel the need hide what and who you are. And yes, even though your comments don't post I still get them sent to my e-mail account.

As to my other commenter (and I hope you're not one in the same) I do have a half assed apology to give you. My last blog was not complete and it was nothing more than a rant about the holidays. It was not a dig at you or your boyfriend or any gifts I received. I appreciated all the gifts I received especially from you. When I say the blog was incomplete I meant specifically the part dealing with where you commented. Honestly, we knew they were from you and not him (I'm trying to leave names out of this so bare with me) and the only part we were joking about is if they really had come from him and not you. I don't want to return them and it was a poorly formed joke. I thought the fact that you guys sent anything at all was nice and thoughtful. I'm sorry you couldn't have been there. I could have told you a story about why I found it so funny. I won't write it here because I'm trying to leave this anonymous. I wish you would have left me a way to contact you instead of having to blog again. I hope you keep reading my blog because if you don't you will never get this apology. Not that I apologize for writing my blog the way I want.... I have my blog to rant about stuff when it bugs me. This holiday sucked for me and I wanted to let it out in a forum that wouldn't make all the people who love me think I am ungrateful. No one really reads my blog and its more of a journal than a well established blog. This is my place to be free if that offends you don't read it. I write what I feel and I'm not going to compromise my feelings to please people. Especially people I've only met twice before.

with regards,
Courtney

Eartha -- Chapter 7

Well, here we go again. Another chapter in the story. A chapter I enjoy because we see Mora and Roger again although after this point the story become primarily about Eartha and Garrick. This is the last we see of one of my better characters and even though not a lot happens in this chapter its probably one of my favorites. Enjoy.


Chapter 7

Eartha could not get home quick enough. She was fidgeting the entire way back home and she managed to be the first one off the subway to find her parents. She saw her mother first and she took off running without a second thought. She threw herself at her mother and embraced her in the biggest bear hug she could muster. She felt her mother’s bare cheek against her own. She felt the warmth flow through her body and was overjoyed to finally be able to really feel someone again. Even her father avoided touching her bare skin ever since he transferred a vision once. She held her mother for an eternity afraid that she might be dreaming. She saw her father coming towards them from the other direction. They were alive. That was all that mattered at this moment. Alive and well. They were never going to leave her sight again. She would make sure of that. Not until the monster killing psychics were caught and locked up forever.
“My goodness!” her mother exclaimed, “What is this?”
“I was so afraid,” Eartha mumbled into her mother’s hair as she finally relaxed.
“Of what?” her father asked.
“That they would come after you before I had a chance to see you again,” Eartha explained turning to her father for another bear hug.
“No one is coming after us,” her mother assured her, “we’re not ever really part of that psychic community. The only person we ever talk to is Dr. Timmus. We hadn’t even heard of the disappearances until he called.”
“These people don’t care if you are active in the psychic community or not. If you have any kind of ability they’re going to try to recruit you,” Eartha said.
“No one has approached us about joining anything,” her father tried to calm her.
“But they will! I just know there’s a reason for all this!” Eartha exclaimed.
“A reason for what, sweetie?” her mother asked.
“All these visions I’ve been having!”
“Visions?” her father cut in as her mother gasped and stepped back.
“Yes!” Eartha cried out with annoyance, “All the visions of those people disappearing and then that man that they killed for not joining their group.” Neither of her parents could speak. They both stared at their daughter dumbfounded. It took Eartha a moment to realize what this meant. “Dr. Timmus didn’t tell you that I was having visions?” she asked.
“No,” her mother whispered.
“There must be a reason for that,” her father insisted, “he wouldn’t keep something that important from me.”
“What has he told you?” Eartha asked.
“He told us about the attack from that vampire kid and the break in. He warned me that my file might have been taken and that we might be at risk. Then last week he called me and told me a number of people known to have psychic abilities had gone missing recently. What exactly have you been seeing? Wait! We shouldn’t be talking about this here,” he said suddenly, “Let’s go home.” He quickly ushered his wife and daughter out of the subway station. He changed the subject to lighten the mood, “We have a surprise for you, Eartha,” he said happily.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You are not going to spend your summer vacation locked inside the house this year!” he exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” Eartha asked tensely. She had been looking forward to resting all summer to muster her energy for next year.
“We have rented a beach house for the summer,” he explained, “It’s a private beach. Only the people with the beach houses can use it, so you wont have to worry about a lot of people being around.”
“We’ll have a real vacation this year,” her mother added.
“Well, when do we take off for there?” Eartha asked grinning.
“Right now,” her father announced, “We have your summer clothes packed up and ready to go in the car. Eartha happily skipped ahead of her parents towards the car. Mora and Roger exchanged worried looks.

“I just can’t believe she’s having visions on top of everything else she has to deal with,” Mora said with her arms wrapped across her chest. She was standing at the beach house window looking down at her daughter running through the surf.
“You must have known she was going to inherit something like my abilities,” Roger reminded her. He came up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her.
“But I thought her extreme version of my gift was what she inherited from you,” Mora protested.
“That had nothing to do with me,” he replied, “She would have been like that even if I had no abilities at all. Those two gifts have nothing in common. She’s stronger than you just like you were stronger than the parent that passed it on to you.”
“It just seems so unfair that a little girl should have so many burdens like this,” Mora whispered.
“And how fair is life?” Roger asked, “Besides they’re only burdens when you view them as burdens.”
“God! What? Are you a walking proverbs book today?” Mora exploded suddenly, “Our daughter suffers everyday and all you can say is ‘life isn’t fair’! She can’t have friends or a normal life; she can’t even do things normally. She’s swimming at five o’clock in the morning because there’s no one swimming that early and yet ‘it’s only a burden if you view it as a burden’? How else am I supposed to view it?!” She pushed him away as he tried to comfort her. She didn’t want to feel better about this. She had brought a little girl into this world that could never fit in and would never feel normal even among people like Roger.
“Mora, had I known you were a healer when I met you I would have forced myself to give you up no matter how much it hurt,” he whispered honestly, “I know the dangers, but I didn’t know what you were and that changed everything. It changed both of our lives and there isn’t anything we can do to change it. Don’t think that it doesn’t pain me to see how difficult it is for my daughter, but that is how it is and we need to accept that or Eartha never will.”
“I just want her to be normal… to feel like she belongs… just once,” Mora whispered defeated. Roger couldn’t say anything. As much as he would have liked to tell his wife that Eartha could be normal he wasn’t even sure that was true and he couldn’t completely accept what his daughter was going to have to deal with for the rest of her life.

The summer ended too quickly for Eartha. She knew her parents were safe as long as she could see that they were safe. She couldn’t go back to school. If she went back she wouldn’t be able to see them and she couldn’t be sure that they were safe. She would just have to discuss her concerns with her parents rationally. They weren’t safe if she wasn’t near them and that was simple enough to understand. There was no way they would make her go back to school once they understood that. Eartha was very sure of herself and went to discuss school with her parents right at that moment.
“I’m not going back to school this fall,” she announced.
“Oh really?” her mother replied as her father just smirked.
“No, I can’t. It’s not safe,” she explained.
“Don’t you think Dr. Timmus knows when it’s safe for his students to come back?” her father asked.
“No, I mean it’s not safe for you if I go back to school,” she explained.
“Safe for us?” her mother asked.
“We’re not in danger, honey,” her father reassured her.
“Yes, you are!” Eartha insisted. They apparently didn’t understand what she was trying to explain to them. “There must be a reason that these visions are coming to me and not to anyone else. It’s warning me that you two are in danger and I can somehow prevent it.”
“Visions are not necessarily an omen for the person receiving the vision,” Roger explained.
“Have you seen us in one of your visions?” her mother asked.
“No,” Eartha replied.
“Then what makes you think that someone is coming after us?” she asked.
“I just have a really bad feeling about these visions and I just know there’s a reason why I’m having these visions~” she stopped suddenly. They weren’t going to believe her and they were going to send her back to school. She knew there was just no way they were going to keep her home this year. She could see the look in their eyes. They didn’t believe they were in any kind of danger and that she was just being paranoid.
“Honey, I remember my first visions too,” her father tried to comfort her, “and they made me overly anxious about everything too.”
“You’ve never seen anything like this!” Eartha shouted savagely, “You don’t have any clue what this is like! I’m just waiting for the next body to appear in my mind and I don’t know if it’s going to be you!” She turned and ran from the room seconds before she burst into tears. She was angry with her parents for not believing her, but she was more upset with herself for not handling that situation better. Her parents were never going to believe her if she broke down into tears every time she tried to explain these visions. She was just being too emotional and that’s all they would see.

“What do we do, now?” Mora asked in a choked whisper.
“She’s overreacting, Mora,” Roger tried to reassure her, “We aren’t a threat to anyone and no one even knows where we are. She has to go back to school~”
“Did you hear her?” Mora asked, “I think this threat is a little more serious than you would like to believe.”
“Mora, I somehow think I have a better grasp on this aspect of her power a little better than you,” he shot back and then realizing how rude that had come out he added, “I’m sorry.” Mora didn’t accept the quick apology thought. In fact he saw the explosion coming before Mora even realized what she was going to say. He closed his eyes and waited for it.
“You are so fucking arrogant!” she shouted, “You think you understand everything better than me just because you’ve been dealing with this longer?”
“No, I~” he started.
“You don’t have a clue what this is like for her! She sees people being abducted and she can’t do anything about it! She sees people being murdered, but she doesn’t have a clue who’s doing it! All you can do is predict what I’m going to say next and you somehow think you have a better grasp! I think you’ve lost your grasp on reality!” Mora’s face was red and her eyes were quickly welling up with tears, “She’s in pain. This is torturing her and I don’t need a special power to tell you that.” She finished completely defeated and breaking down. He took her in his arms and she had no strength left in her to push him away.
“Mora, I know what she’s going through and I know that it’s torture,” he said quietly, “No, I don’t go through this torture first hand. I had to watch my roommate from school go through it instead. I found out about five years ago that he committed suicide. I understand it in my own way, but even if we are in danger, having her here is not going to make the danger go away. She has to go back to school because if we do get attacked I don’t want her here. She will survive and go on even if we are the next to go.” Mora froze unable to say anything. He was right of course. They had to send Eartha back to school just to keep her safe. Mora suddenly pulled away from Roger and ran upstairs and, just as their daughter had, locked herself in her bedroom.
Roger stood in the living room alone and sighed heavily. When had this gotten so complicated? Why now? When everything had been going so well. He and Mora had never been closer since they discovered what the other was. They had put Eartha in the best school for her special ability. Everything had been running smoothly and then it all began to crumble away slowly. All three of their lives were being torn apart and all because of some psychotic psychic who thought he had the right to rule the world. He knew just as well as Eartha that he and Mora would not survive the attacks. He couldn’t tell his wife that he was seeing flashes already. It was getting closer and the images he was seeing were getting clearer. It would frighten her and she would want to run and take Eartha with them. He knew all too well that running away only made everything so much worse. These people who were attacking psychics were everywhere. There were stories of disappearances across the country. He had already discussed what he was seeing with Dr. Timmus, but all he could tell Roger was to watch for the signs and do everything in his power to protect himself and his family. He also told Roger to send Eartha back to school as soon as he possibly could. If these people got a hold of Eartha they would use her abilities to destroy those who would oppose them. Roger knew that Dr. Timmus’ advice was sound and the school would be the safest place to keep Eartha… especially if he and Mora did not survive. He couldn’t explain this to Mora and it was impossible to tell his daughter. He could save his daughter by sending her away and if he could save Mora’s life by doing the same thing he would. He went to the study and called Dr. Timmus.
“Hello, Roger,” Dr. Timmus answered the phone, “I sensed the disturbance. I assumed this would happen as the new school year drew near.”
“Eartha knows that we are in danger,” Roger said.
“I know. All she wanted to do for the last month of school was go home to make sure you were both safe. The fact still remains, however, that it is imperative that she comes back to school,” Dr. Timmus reminded him.
“I know, but how can I explain this to either of them without upsetting them?” he asked.
“Not upsetting them is out of the question at this point, Roger,” Dr. Timmus said bluntly, “and, really, it’s up to you how much you want to tell them…. Have you told them about your visions?”
“No,” he sighed, “I don’t want to frighten them. I really don’t want them to know. Especially Eartha.”
“Why ‘especially Eartha’?” Dr. Timmus asked.
“You said it yourself, she has to go back to school. If she knows that I’m having visions of the possible death of her parents there is no way she will leave us. I can’t put her in danger and if that means I have to lie to her and tell her that we’re not in danger I will do it,” Roger stated.
“Then why are you calling me?” Dr. Timmus asked.
“What do you mean?” Roger snapped.
“You’ve already made up your mind. Are you calling me to get my approval?” Dr. Timmus returned.
“I don’t know,” Roger moaned, “I honestly don’t know. I don’t want to lie to either of them, but I don’t think I have a choice if I want to keep them safe.”
“All I can tell you is to follow your gut. It almost never steers you wrong,” Dr. Timmus offered.
“Thank you.” The conversation ended and Roger still felt unsure about what he should do.

Randomness Part II

Random Quote of the Day: "Is it safe?"

Random Thought of the Day: Liquid food coloring stains. Just pretend like the red is blood to make things more interesting.

Random Bitch of the Day: If wearing compression pantyhose makes you uncomfortable maybe you should question your sexual orientation.... because we are not going to change all our paperwork to please one insecure man. (This rant is about four weeks old, but it still bugs me).

Another Random Thought of the Day: Christmas is the time to see how many times your family can make you cry. This is why I despise the holiday. Sorry to all you Christmas enthusiasts.

Side Notes for Anyone Who Cares: I have re-written the first six chapters of my Eartha story and I have written more on The Dreamlands. I will probably have something new to post by the end of this month.

Thank you. Enjoy the day.

P.S. Randomness According to Nick:
A few interesting/random things-today is the last day to Hanukkah
-this morning I saw three cars parked on 60th street that had smiley faces drawn on the snow on their windshields, it made me smile
-apparently Sunday is Free Hug day, the sick puppies are playing in town, but I just found it amusing that we're having a free hug day

Randomness

Random Thought of the Day: Chunky Roses.

Random Quote of the Day: "The sky is blue. It's beautiful. And so are you."

Reminder of the Day: I'm buying Harry Potter #5 on Tuesday so anyone who thinks that's a good present for the holidays needs to think again.

Another Random Thought: Singing in the shower at 5 am is not appropriate when you live with other people. It's probably a good thing that I don't sing in the shower.

Thank you for wasting two minutes of your day to read this utterly pointless blog.

Eartha -- Chapter 6

Holy crap!!! Three months later and I finally continue with the posting of my story. Once again, I am re-writing much of this story and now its slightly different than what I'm posting. I completely re-wrote the last scene in the book, but since that is still several chapters away it really doesn't matter at this point. So, here is the calm before the storm and I'm sure when i re-write it it will be different, but oh well. Enjoy.

Chapter 6

The next few months of school were torture for Eartha. She didn’t feel that she was allowed to speak or write to her parents often enough to make sure they were all right. She was also becoming a nuisance to some of the other students when she continually inquired about the well being of their parents as well. Most assumed she had gone insane from her vision and very few sympathized with her. Only a few of the other precognitives understood how a vision could drive you mad thinking about how you could change what you had seen. Of course, Garrick was still sticking by her side, but she wasn’t entirely sure that he believed what she had seen either. For a while everyone assumed she had just had a really bad dream until the disappearances began.
The first few went unnoticed for several weeks by most people, but Eartha knew each time one of those people disappeared. She often woke in the middle of the night feeling the terror of the person being snatched. She was almost getting used to feeling terrible all the time, but not really. She felt responsible not doing more after each vision. Each time Eartha felt another person taken she went immediately to Dr. Timmus to tell him to expect another missing person and each time she went to speak to Dr. Timmus she became more hysterical. She knew her parents were in danger and she wanted to go home. Dr. Timmus assured her that her parents had been notified and were well prepared for the worst. This did not calm Eartha in the least. She knew quite well that Dr. Timmus had warned many people and several of those people had still turned up missing or dead.
Then the night came that Eartha woke up screaming. No one could calm her or make her stop. Dr. Timmus was sent for. Before he even got to the dorm he could hear her screaming that the murders had begun. Many students had begun to gather around the other two dorm rooms as well. He didn’t bother sending them back to bed because he knew they would not obey.
Dr. Timmus was unable to calm Eartha with words and was eventually force to sedate her. Before she passed out she looked at Dr. Timmus and whispered, “They tied him to a tree.” He was unable to get any more information from Eartha since she had finally gone out, but he knew what this meant. The situation had gone from serious to dangerous with those few words. People were now dying and the only link he had been able to find was a hysterical eight year old who was only able to tell him when to start looking for bodies. The officials had even less to follow and were almost useless when it came to the investigation. The local police in each of the cities where a disappearance was discovered was making most of the progress. Without the connection of all the missing people being psychic the police were just filing them away in the missing persons file because what police force would believe Dr. Timmus if he told them they were all psychics? So far all Dr. Timmus could be thankful for was that the school year was almost over and he would be able to dedicate his summer to tracking down whoever was hunting these psychics down.

“Are you okay?” a timid voice approached her the next afternoon in the garden. She looked up to see Garrick’s worried expression looking down at her.
“Compared to what?” she whispered with a faint smile. He sat down next to her, but he couldn’t muster a smile to return. He just stared for a moment and then finally asked, “What is happening to you?”
“I didn’t know they would hurt so much,” she whispered looking away, “he never told me that they hurt.”
“What hurts?”
“The visions… I saw him die… and I could feel his… fear… his pain,” she was focusing all her energy on keeping her voice perfectly steady and for a moment she accidentally dropped her shields. Garrick’s emotions came rushing at her before she had a chance to block them. She gasped suddenly caught completely off guard by what she felt. The pain and fear that she normally absorbed from people who were upset or worried was not there. All she was receiving from Garrick was love and concern for her well being. He was upset and she felt it, but she could feel the love behind it and it was so much stronger than any negative emotions she had ever felt from anyone. Garrick didn’t seem to notice her surprise and unconsciously he reached over towards Eartha, “I’m so sorry…” he whispered and he touched her bare cheek. She pulled back out of habit and she regretted it. He pulled his hand back quickly realizing what he had just done, but she smiled to reassure him that it was okay. She didn’t know how to explain the feeling that she had just absorbed. It was the oddest sensation… she actually felt better, revived somehow. No one had ever made her feel better by touching her. It had always been a negative experience and yet, she felt stronger. Of course, she was still upset about seeing that man, but she no longer felt the exhaustion that the vision had created. She distrusted the feeling entirely and quickly decided not to tell Garrick what she felt. It was a fluke… it had to be. People drained her of energy. They didn’t give it back to her.

The school became a very tense place for the last couple weeks of school. Especially for Eartha. Everyone was more frightened of her now than they ever had been before. Now, not only was she hiding what she was from everyone, but also on top of that she was predicting murders. Even for precognitives this was unusual. Most seers could not predict exact events or anything that specific. Eartha had no problem with the other students keeping their distance now. She was more focused on going home for summer vacation and she was worried about her parents. She knew there was a reason she was getting these visions. And she was positive it was personal, that this would affect her directly. She knew that whoever was attacking these people was going to go after her parents sooner or later. Somehow she felt that if she were there to watch over them they would no longer be in danger.
Her finals she rushed through and didn’t really care if she did not do very well on them. She wanted nothing more than to go home and she didn’t care about anything that was keeping her from her goal. On the final day of school when all the other students were throwing end of year parties she was locked in her room packing her bags. The next morning she was the first student out on the platform waiting for the subway that would take her back to her parents. She knew it wouldn’t even be there until eleven o’clock, but she was still waiting on the platform at seven.
Around eight o’clock she heard the first sounds of other people coming to the platform. “Why am I not surprised to find you out here?” a familiar voice asked.
“Where else would I be?” she returned. She didn’t bother turning around, Garrick knew well enough not to touch her. “Aren’t you going to eat breakfast before you go?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied.
“You do know the subway wont get here before eleven right?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Then why don’t you eat first?” he asked.
“I’m not hungry,” she said, “You know, if you want to go to breakfast there’s nothing stopping you.”
“I ate before I came up,” he said.
“Then why are you so concerned about me getting breakfast?” she snapped.
“I’m not,” he shot back, “I just don’t understand the stupidity of standing up here for the next few hours when you know you aren’t going to get out of here any quicker than the rest of us.”
“I just wanted to be away from them and this would be the quietest place to think and I won’t lose track of the time this way,” she explained.
“Whatever,” he mumbled. She heard him walk away and leave the platform. She glanced over her shoulder to see if he had gone for good. She was alone on the platform again. She felt bad now. She knew she had been rude to Garrick for no reason. He had been nothing but supportive ever since he found out exactly what she was. She considered going after him, but something kept her in her place. It was a feeling in her stomach. A fear that warned her not to get to close. Never get too close. Any friends that she had ever made in the past had disappeared and it hurt like hell every time she lost another one. If she never got close she couldn’t get hurt. She heard footsteps again and she receded into the shadows like she unconsciously always did.
“Eartha?” Garrick’s confused voice called out. She stepped back out surprised to see him back. “Oh, hiding again,” he said knowingly as he held out his hand with two good-sized muffins. “Here,” he said prompting her to take one, “Blueberry and cherry.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly taking the blueberry muffin.
“No, no.” he laughed, “They’re both for you. I told you I already ate.” He put the cherry muffin in her hand. He brushed the few stray crumbs off his hands and pants. She took a bite of the blueberry muffin and automatically began to feel guilty. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly.
“Why, it’s not your fault the muffins are crumbly,” he said not realizing she wasn’t talking about the muffins.
“No, I mean for being rude to you before,” she explained quickly looking away.
“Ah!” he said dismissively, “I’m used to your mood swings by now.” He grinned at her in his goofy way that told her that she hadn’t offended him at all and that he was surprised that she had even brought it up.
“So, where are you going over summer vacation?” he asked changing the subject.
“I don’t know,” she replied, “We don’t normally go anywhere. Too many people exhaust me and most entertaining places are pretty crowded in the summer. I don’t think it will be any different this summer.”
“Well that sucks,” he said lightly.
“No, it’s peaceful,” she smiled, “It’s good for me.”
“I’m going skiing,” he stated proudly.
“Ugh. Haven’t you had enough of cold weather?” she asked.
“We’ve been cooped up all year. I didn’t get to see any snow except through windows,” he reminded her.
“I’m ready to see the sun again… and my parents,” she said. A dark shadow seemed to cover her face as the thought of her parents in danger crossed her mind once again. They were home all alone with no idea how much danger they were really in. No one knew what was coming except her. They hadn’t seen what the others had done to that man… just for not joining their group. Her parents were on the list… she knew it. All these visions were some kind of warning for her. They were telling her to go to her parents and not leave them. The moment she left them they would be gone from her life forever.
“Hey,” Garrick broke in on her thoughts, “They’re gonna be fine.”
“Yeah,” she replied halfheartedly. She looked over at him and noticed he wasn’t convinced by her reply so she smiled at him. Garrick wasn’t entirely convinced by her smile either, but knowing that he could never really insist that her parents were going to be fine he didn’t say anything. Before he had a chance to lighten the conversation again the subway arrived. Neither of them had realized that a number of other students had joined them on the platform or how much time had passed.

My October

As it turns out the month of October was extremely busy for me. It started off with Nick and I returning to the grand town of Vermilion South Dakota for..... D Days!!! Woo hoo! So exciting. D Day (for those of you fortunate enough NOT to live in Vermilion) if SDU's Homecoming week. What it boils down to is a college town of several thousands students all getting wasted and stumbling around town. No worries of drunk driving because pretty much everything is within walking distance for you to stumble to. Here is Ashley stumbling.

Most of the day we spent drinking at the apartment of my cousins Ashley and Spencer. We ate chili and chocolate/peanut butter cake (not necessarily in that order) and Ashley's dumb cat, Vic Mackey, climbed inside my book bag to take a nap. He's a lazy piece of crap as you can see. We played drunken board games and took a walk around the neighborhood. Of course at that point half the crew had disappeared or passed out and we were left with only a few people who I like to call The Lasters. Yep, that's right, I'm the only girl who can hold her liquor apparently. Shortly after this picture was taken even Nick was passed out on the loveseat. Dustin went home a little while after that leaving Spencer and me to reluctantly go to bed at well. Boo, to all you lazy drinkers.

So that was the weekend of October 13th and it was highly entertaining. I mean where else can you yell out "STD Days!" and actually get people to cheer?

A brief stop on Tuesday October 16th, Boss's Day, since I was the only person in my office to remember and buy cards and bagels for everyone. Yeah, I'm the good one.

I took three days off after that which gave me plenty of time to clean out the storage room in the basement and turn it into a makeshift bedroom for when Ashley, Spencer, Dustin and Erica came down that weekend for Hutch's big Halloween Bash. I also managed to make a lot of food those three days: cupcakes, cookies, chili cheese bean dip, lots of jello shots and my green mixture that would be my "Absinthe" at the party that weekend. I also managed to do some laundry and other boring stuff that would make me a good little house wife if I had a husband :D

So the big Halloween Bash comes next. Where I went as the Green Fairy aka the Absinthe Fairy, Nick went as Duffman, Kristi was a mechanic, Madonna was a nurse, and Hal..... well, no one really knows what Hal was supposed to be, but eventually he gave in and just accepted that everyone thought he was Willy Wonka from the newer version with Johnny Depp. My costume got plenty of praise, mostly because my 'absinthe' was a tasty concoction that everyone wanted a piece of. I got a lot of people wasted that night between my 'absinthe' and the jello shots. There was the usual drama that goes around every year and because Hutch is usually a huge asshole his skank was there. He promised she wouldn't come, but this is a Hutch promise which usually means little to nothing. I think she got the point that no one likes her when two people rang out simultaneously "The Skank?" when someone asked where she was.... she was, of course, within earshot when this happened. Plus I kept referring to her as "the wench" all night because she was so appropriately dressed as a wench. I guess you can't really argue with what you are.

We all had fun regardless of the drama and the Skank because we were all wasted and my cousins were in town and still willing to drink a little more when we got back to the townhouse later that evening. Unfortunately they all wore exceedingly lame costumes which forced me to make fun of them throughout most of the night. I passed out really quick that night and still managed to wake up with the glue like glitter plastered to my face. That stuff took at least two showers to get off. I was pretty impressed.

The following and last weekend of the this fine month just so happened to be the busiest weekend of the month. Friday started off with an early departure from work to get to a wedding in Lincoln. I didn't take my camera in, but Nick got a bunch of pictures. I had somehow obtained a hole in the side of my cheek the day before making me completely miserable. Every time I opened my mouth it hurt, chewing food was painful and bordered on impossible and the pain was spreading throughout my mouth and onto my head. It didn't matter how much Advil I took I was miserable. I went back to the hotel (which was pretty cool since it was in an Embassy Suites) and went to bed with the TV on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was a pretty pathetic night and not much better of a morning the next day. Nick was being the best boyfriend in the world about my whining and crying and after watching the truly fantastic movie Across the Universe we went to Walgreens to get something to fix my problem.

That evening we had another party to go to at Madonna's brother's house (another yearly tradition). By this time my cheek had been sufficiently numbed up and I was in a much better mood. I was lame and wore the same costume because I had put so much effort into it, but Nick went as White Goodman and Kristi was a blue fairy. Madonna and her siblings all dressed up as musicians which ranged from Beethoven to Michael Jackson to Dolly Parton.

The party didn't quite manage to live up to the Drama of a Hutch party, but it still managed to be entertaining and fun. Nick got a lot of comments on his costume which was nice for him since he took so much effort on it (you know asking his mom to sew all the pieces together). :D And yes he really did shave his facial hair to look like White Goodman's handlebar 'stach. Sad.

Sunday was the 28th and my mother's birthday. We had already decided earlier in the week that we would be unable to go out on her actual birthday due to the fact that I was going with Nick and Kristi to see Carlos Mencia who was in Omaha for the first time.

He liked our crowd so much he stayed on the stage for two hours! That's pretty awesome considering most comedians can barely come up with a hours worth of entertainment. The comedians that were with him were all fantastic too and I think at least a couple of them will soon be doing shows of their own. Fantastic. No pictures though. No one brought their camera.

On Halloween Day I had to work. Duh, it was Wednesday, obviously. That didn't stop me from dressing up. I went Emo for Halloween! Of course no one actually got that because the Emo revolution hasn't been around as long. I explained to a couple staff members that emo kids are pretty much our goth kids of old with a slightly better fashion sense. Except they apparently really enjoy having their hair in their eyes because they don't want to see the horrible-ness of the world. Don't cry emo kid!

So that was my fantastic October. And for the first time real pictures in my Blogger. Yeah, I had that one flip off picture several months back, but that doesn't count because I just found that picture on Photobucket especially for that blog. Well, let's hope that November has something to offer us that can try to match up with October :)

What is a bookshelf for, again?

I just saw a bit on the Today show that annoyed me. Oh there's a shock, something's annoying Courtney again. The bit was titled "how to decorate a bookshelf" which doesn't sound as ridiculous as it really was. It was how to place items on your book shelf to make it look as pretty as possible, which meant adding useless decorative boxes and bowls that serve absolutely no purpose. Why does this annoy me? Hmm, let me explain:

The purpose of a bookshelf is to place your books on it, right. You can order them however you see fit (I personally normally put books on my shelves according to size, but whatever you fancy is fine). What a book shelf doesn't need is useless crap that is just going to block my way to getting to my books. I don't need a bowl of potpourri sitting on some of my books that I laid sideways because they were to big to put upright. My books don't need to smell like country apples or fresh linen no matter how much i like those smells. I also don't need fabric colored boxes taking up precious book space. I have many books, all of which I would like to get to should I choose to read them again.

My bookshelf is not there to please your eyes, its there to hold my books. If books aren't pleasing to your eyes just the way there are then why the hell do you have a book shelf at all? I actually need several more book shelves for all the books I have and I don't plan on squandering any of my space on a decorative misshapen bowl just to make my guest visually appeased.

In other words, kiss my butt you silly decorative bowl people!!!!

Regina Spektor

I'm not huge on concerts. In most cases I couldn't care less about seeing a person live. I usually only go to concerts if someone asks me, someone buys tickets as a gift for me, or I'm just at a bar and some random band decides to start playing and interrupts my conversation. It's not that I'm against going to concerts or anything, obviously I've been to a few, I just don't get into it as much as some people. If I have their CD or if they are on my iPod that's good enough for me. If I can sing along with them in my car I'm happy. On the other hand when I'm at a concert and the entire mass of annoyance begins to sing along with the person on stage I get pretty annoyed. I came to hear them sing, not you, asshole. On top of that you are bound to have some Sasquatch with an over-sized head and obnoxious Friends standing right in front of you. Another thing I dislike is the fact that the people who price everything at the concert halls apparently come from the future where priced have inflated to twice their normal price. A shot glass sized drink of mostly cranberry juice and very little vodka can set you back $4 to $5.... which is why I choose to go thirsty. I'd rather pass out from dehydration and sue the hall later if it comes to that. Same goes for the concert tee's. What planet do these people come from that $30 for a plain tee is reasonable? Especially when I can easily go online and get the t-shirt half priced. And who's really wants to argue with me about whether or not I got a band tee at the actual concert or not? Putting all my insanity aside for a moment I enjoyed the Regina Spektor concert this past Friday.

My roommate asked me a few weeks back if I was interested in seeing Regina Spektor at Sokal Auditorium on Friday October 5th. I said sure and immediately forgot about it. She reminded me about a week before the concert which was nice because then I didn't overlap any plans. My first course of action was to make fun of the tickets. Since she ordered them online you have to print off an e-mail ticket. It says on the ticket present this whole page to be scanned which I thought was amusing because how many people are actually cutting up their print off before they go to the concert? Seriously, guys? But they had to print it on there so I assume there is more than one moron in this world.

Next we got there only a tiny bit early and we had a chance to check out the merchandise which induced the rant about about the $30 concert tee. There weren't any specifics on the tee to warrant the high price. It's not like it said 'bad-ass concert at sokal auditorium 10/5/2007'. Nothing even close. Just an imprint of the CD cover on the front of a black or white tee. No thanks.

So, we piled into the mass in front of the stage and the opening act came on a few moments later. He was okay. Nothing note worthy. There was no back-up band for either the opening act or Regina Spektor so the opening act used his iPod for the drums and other instruments that he didn't have. He then proceeded to have a conversation with his iPod which can apparently speak. It was cute the first couple of times, but it just got annoying towards the end and a few in the crowd agreed since they decided to heckle him about it. Then he was done and we all just milled about for a half an hour waiting for the reason we all gathered together in the apparently non-air conditioned building.

I thought I had a pretty good view of the stage since I had been able to see the opening act just fine and I had a pretty good view of the piano set slightly off center. But anyone who's been to a concert knows that you are bound to get at least one asshole standing somewhere near you to ruin the whole experience for you. My roommate and I were lucky enough to get three of these special people directly in front of us. The girl to our left had so major 80s perm fro going on only secondary to the fact that her head was already massive. She was about my height, but with the frizz she was quite nicely blocking the whole stage. The special ed in the center turned out to be the most obnoxious when a moment after Regina Spektor asked people to not be so loud she started talking as loud as possible to her two friends, asking them if she thought it was a joke, because she was positive that it was just a joke. Her friends quickly pretended not to be with her and scooted in opposite directions. The third one was probably the best of the three because she was a little too far away from me to block my view or annoy me with loud talking during quiet songs.

Regina Spektor was absolutely fantastic. She was friendly with the crowd, but she didn't waste too much time talking between songs. She wanted to sing as much as we wanted to hear her sing. She got through quite a bit of her two CDs, but had managed to miss two of my favorite songs; Fidelity and Samson. I wasn't too upset though since I did get to hear both On the Radio and Better. There were a few songs I could have done without, but I;m sure someone else enjoyed them so I won't bitch too much on that score. Then she was leaving already. I really wasn't going to hear my two songs and that really sucked. Of course there was the encore and as long as Regina wasn't as much of a bitch as Liz Phair was (who walked out after her sent and never came back out even though people were cheering for a good 5 to 7 minutes for her) I'd get another chance of hearing one of them. She sang three more songs, but no luck and I figures that was it.... who sings a whole other set for their encore? Well, that wasn't it because finally! I heard the familiar start to Fidelity. Sweet! At least my roommate got to hear her favorite song. Then she impressed me even more with two more songs the last being my all time favorite: Samson and that made the night for me.

I bitched about massive head girl in front of me for most of the way back to the car, but felt better after I was done. And that was it. A good concert overall with my few complaints about concerts in general. I guess my annoyance boils down to that whole problem with me hating people again. Since I hate people so much it's hard for me to be in a mass of them and not get annoyed by at least one of them. Working in service related jobs made me the way I am so you can all blame yourselves if you were ever the asshole or bitch at a restaurant or retail store for people like me.

Headache

I've had a headache for over a week now. It's like my brain doesn't want to accept the recent mental blow it took so it is rebelling against me. Imagine, if you can, the worst possible news you could hear.... no, that's not right, because there is one piece of news that I can imagine that would be worse and that would be her death.... this news was about a half a step up from death though. So imagine the second worse thing you could imagine hearing and you may understand why my brain is rebelling. On top of the boarder line migraine I also felt like my chest was going to cave in. Thankfully, that feeling dissipated after the initial shock.

My headache starts just behind my right eye and then pulsates diagonally to the back left hand side of my head. If the only thing I can think of is how much my head hurts I can't dwell on less pleasant things, right? Sigh.

So, what exactly was this terrible news? I can't tell you. That's why I told you to use your imagination. So, why am I writing a blog about it if I can't even talk about it? Anyone who's a real writer wouldn't ask that question, but for all of you who are just readers just know that the way to get something out of your head and off of your heart when you are a writer is to write it out. Remember when your high school councilor told you to keep a journal and to write in it when you are frustrated or angry? Yeah, they weren't suggesting that just to annoy you. It actually works for some of us. They also suggest writing a letter to the person you are angry with with no intentions of sending it. So, let me try that:

Dear Fuck-up,
I hope you rot in hell very soon.
Sincerely,
Someone who really hates you.

Hmmm, not quite as satisfying as I'd hoped, but oh well. Hopefully my online journal will help me a little more. So, here's the other thing that has been bothering me recently. When I found this awful news out I texted a friend. I was supposed to hang out with him the next day and I was hoping we could move that day up so I could try to distract myself from the crap news I had just received. I told him what was going on and unlike the couple other people I told he wasn't the most sympathetic about my issue. You see everyone else that knows what's going on were willing to drop everything to let me talk it out. This friend insisted that he couldn't change plans with his horribly skanky ex-girlfriend who had recently come back into his life. He had no reason why he couldn't change his plans, just that it was impossible. For some dumb reason I still went over to his house and the skank was there (of course), which made it impossible for me to talk about my issue and since I hate her so much, I was just angry most of the night. Sure it got my mind off of the bad news, but it didn't make me feel any better either.

Then a week goes by and I don't here from this so called friend. At this point I've revealed my problem to three other people. My boyfriend, my real best friend, and my boss. Three people that won't talk about it to anyone else and that will sympathize and help distract me. My boss I also told because I needed a few days off because of the issue. When I got back from my time off I realized I hadn't heard from my other friend since I had told him. This kind of pissed me off, but I didn't realize how much until the next day when this friend texted me. TO BORROW A BOOK. Not to ask my how things were going or if I'd heard anything new, nope. He wanted to borrow a book. Nice. So I let him have it. I told him that I regretted telling him about my problems because he obviously cared more about his skanky girlfriend who treated him like shit all the time than a friend who was there for him when his world fell apart.

I haven't spoken to him since the last text yesterday afternoon. I told him that luckily for him my phone was dying and I couldn't talk to him anymore. He hasn't tried to get a hold of me since then which really doesn't help his case. Let me be a little more fair and give you his excuse for not calling. He said it made him angry to think about it and he was waiting for me to bring it up again.

Gee, that's a good excuse.... I guess. My boss said that I could call her anytime, day or night. My best friend cried with me and offered all the assistance she could (which I had to decline because she wasn't supposed to actually know) and my boyfriend tried to distract me from thinking about it, but was very sympathetic about it at the same time. These are the reactions that people should give when something really crappy happens.... but I guess his feeling about the situation far outweighed mine. How selfish of me to not think about how this would affect him.

Sigh. Well, that helped with my issue with my friend. I got it off my chest if nothing else. Angry texts don't really get across the emotions of a good blog :D I didn't really expect to feel better about the real issue at hand after writing this blog (since I can't say anything definitive). That relief should come, in part, in a couple of days when it will be somewhat resolved.... and hopefully someone will be going to prison. It won't remedy what was done, but it will help knowing it won't happen again.

Okay, I'm done with my cryptic bullshit. You can go back to living your lives now.

Time to Clean Out the Ears.... Again

Yet another commercial I misheard.....

It was for Ford and it was talking about how they are always here for us and they have good safety ratings.... blah, blah, blah.....

At the end of the commercial there is a father/son moment. The kid looks like he's about 20, but they are attempting to play him off as 16. The father holds out the key to the kid and says, "You drive." and the kid looks all shocked and says, "Are you kidding me?"

Of course that's not what I heard. What I heard was, "Are you shitting me?" which would probably be more accurate with today's teenagers, but not likely to be on a commercial. So I jerked my head up and stared for a moment at the TV and again wondered, why don't they just put more reality in commercials? I can guarantee more people would remember that stupid commercial if the kid actually had said, "Are you shitting me?"

A Child's Logic

Everyday I use the symbol "@" when I'm filling out appointment cards for patients as they leave. Not because it really saves me much time but because I like the way it looks. I mean, how long does it really take to cross a "t" as opposed to putting a little circle around your "a"? Plus it reminds me of when i was a little kid. Odd, right?

Well, everyone has seen the symbol since they were able to read the keys on a keyboard, whether your first keyboard was a computer or a typewriter you could always see the little "@" above the number two. As a child I always assumed I knew what this symbol meant because only one thing really meant sense. It had to mean AROUND (a-round... as in "a" with a little round circle around it). What the hell else would possible make sense? Plus I always saw it on appointment cards, much like the ones I write out for patients. "Dentist appt. 7/24 @ 12:00" That makes sense, right? No one shows up right at 12:00. You either show up a few minutes early or a few minutes late, but it's AROUND 12:00. That was my child's logic.

I don't know when I found out that it actually meant AT, but I know I was disappointed. AT makes no sense. It's not like AT is a long word that you really need to shorten up is it? It's two letters, for Christ's sake! Even though I know what it really means I still like to think of it as meaning around instead of at. Besides how many of our patients actually show up AT their scheduled time? Oh, around two a month.... and it's usually a fluke. They were running late and just barely managed to show up on time. It's never on purpose, I promise.

That's all. I don't know why I felt the need to post this in a blog, but at least it's not just another boring old chapter in my now obsolete story :P

Eartha -- Chapter 5

Yep, I've been pretty lazy in blog world lately. It probably looks like I gave up entirely on my blog, but that's just not true. So instead of taking the initiative to write a real blog I'm barely maintaining by putting up the next chapter of my story. I've come to the realization that this is pretty pointless since I'm re-writing the whole thing and the chapters I have posted are already obsolete. Oh well. For anyone who's actually reading you will get to see the rough draft and maybe if this story ever gets sent in to a publisher you will see its far better revised version. Until then enjoy the rough patches.

Chapter 5

She woke from a restless sleep in the morning and knew she was going to have a difficult time trying to concentrate on anything today. She was cranky and not in the mood to speak to anyone. She left her room early in hopes she could avoid contact with any of the other students. She managed to slip out of the dorm room without a sound and without attracting any attention. The few students that had already been in the common room did not even realize anyone had left. She pulled the door closed silently and sighed.
“Guess what,” a voice said behind her. She jumped and whirled around to face who had spoken. Garrick was standing right behind her.
“What?” she asked irritably.
“Dr. Timmus put up a notice,” he said ignoring her tone, “They found out what really happened last night.”
“What do you mean ‘what really happened’?” she asked.
“Acheron was lured outside. Someone snuck in while Acheron was out,” he said with a certain excitement in his voice, “They broke into the files.”
“What files?”
“The student files,” Garrick explained, “Dr. Timmus keeps thorough records of all the students. Past and present.”
“Why would someone go to such extremes to break into student files?” she asked.
“I’m not sure, but it could be dangerous for whoever’s file was taken,” he shrugged.
“They don’t know what’s missing?” her eyes widened with surprise.
“Well not yet. They stole the actual paper file. So they wont know what’s gone until they run what they have still through the computer,” he explained, “It could be one file, it could be a dozen. They’re pretty clueless right now.”
“So what exactly does all this mean?”
“No one knows,” he replied, “And no one will know unless something happens to one of the people whose file was taken.”
“Oh, gee, that’s real reassuring.” Eartha said sarcastically.


Mr. Sayers’ class seemed even more dull than normal since she was still anxious about the news that Garrick had shared with her. Whispers of what had happened were buzzing all around the school and a lot of the students knew that Acheron, Eartha, and Garrick were all somehow involved. People were staring at her throughout all her classes. There was a lot of whispering and pointing that went along with the staring. It was a bit annoying, but she ignored it much in the same way she had ignored the extra attention she had received on her first day. My Sayers was droning on as usual and as usual most of the students were ignoring him so Eartha took it upon herself to raise her hand to stop the senseless babble.
“Yes, Miss. Wicken, do you have a question?” Mr. Sayers asked somewhat annoyed by the interruption.
“Yes,” she replied, “But not about the subject. I was just wondering what exactly happened last night?” The entire room went silent and all the focus was on Mr. Sayers. This was very unusual for Mr. Sayers and it seemed to unnerve him a little bit, but everyone seemed very interested in what exactly had taken place the night before.
Mr. Sayers frowned, “I’m sure Miss. Wicken, that you read the notice that Dr. Timmus posted.”
“Yes, and it didn’t really tell me much,” she returned, “What exactly was taken? I mean, are we in danger because of this incident?”
“None of the current student’s files were taken,” he answered still annoyed, “So, no, you are in no direct danger.”
“Well, just because it wasn’t my file that was taken doesn’t exactly make me safe,” she shot back before he had a chance to return to his lesson.
“I don’t know what you mean Miss. Wicken,” he said glaring at her.
“Well, Dr. Timmus updates his files when he has something to update them with, correct?” she asked.
“Yes, that is why we keep them,” he said, “to keep us up to date on the others outside of the school.”
“Well, then, if my father’s file was taken then not only is my father in danger, but my mother and myself,” she explained. Suddenly the room was in an uproar of worried students. Most of the students had at least one parent that had gone to this school before them. Students were asking to leave so they could warn their parents or near hysterics with worry.
“Calm down!” Mr. Sayers yelled, “Quiet!” Eventually the room was quiet enough for Mr. Sayers to speak, “Miss. Wicken, I think you need to discuss your issues with Dr. Timmus,” he ordered her out of the room, “And the rest of you… your parents have already been informed of the break in and are taking precautions. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. Miss. Wicken is upsetting you unnecessarily.”
Eartha rolled her eyes gathered up her things and left the room muttering as she left, “At least Dr. Timmus will be able to give me valid information.” Another surge of whispers and giggles erupted in the classroom. Mr. Sayers had to take another few minutes to calm his class again before he could continue his lesson.
Eartha had no worries about going to Dr. Timmus’ office. Most students would fear being sent to his office, but Eartha had spent so much one on one time with him that she wasn’t even the tiniest bit worried. The other students tended to be afraid of him because they understood that he had a power that even the officials couldn’t control. Eartha on the other hand saw him as her only protector in this school. Without him here she probably wouldn’t have ever been admitted to the school. She opened the door to Dr. Timmus outer office and the secretary glanced around nervously. “Mr. Sayers sent me,” she announced, “for disrupting class.”
The secretary nodded nervously and pointed to one of the waiting chairs. Apparently she knew that Eartha had something to do with what had happened last night, but she didn’t know what. The ignorant people tend to choose fear over asking for the truth. The door opened and another student was leaving the office with Dr. Timmus right behind him. “Garrick?” she asked surprised.
“You too?” he asked sheepishly.
“Yes, you’re both very disruptive students,” Dr. Timmus smiled, “Mr. Strom you can return to class. Miss. Wicken, please come in.” He motioned her into the office and Garrick smiled as he left the office.
“I’m surprised really that I saw from Mr. Strom before I saw from you Miss. Wicken,” Dr. Timmus said.
“Well, if Mr. Sayers hadn’t nearly put me in a coma with his droning I probably would have been disruptive a little sooner,” she replied. Dr. Timmus smiled and motioned for her to take a seat across the desk as he took his place behind it. “Have you discovered what files are missing?” she asked seriously.
“No,” he replied honestly, “A lot of the boxes were torn through and it looks like there may be several missing. Papers from some of the files have been scattered across the floor. So it may not even be an entire file missing, but just pages from certain ones.”
“Do you have any clue what they were after?” she asked. Dr. Timmus looked at her and then he did the strangest thing, he treated Eartha like an adult, no even more than that, he treated her like an equal and started to explain what he knew, “Well, here’s the thing, Eartha, we know the person who broke in was psychic because they managed to lure Acheron out of his dorm and out the front door. They couldn’t break the lock so they needed someone from the inside to open the door for them. When Acheron opened the door he blacked out probably because the other person made him. He left him out there until he got what he wanted. During the scuffle between you and Acheron~ I assume Acheron was put under some kind of trance to attack anyone who came along~ the other person must have slipped out. So, basically all this boils down to is the person couldn’t have been a non-psychic. Unfortunately, it gives me no clue as to what they wanted from my files,” Dr. Timmus sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. “It went very smooth for this person even with having the unexpected problem of you showing up at an inopportune time. He slipped in and slipped out with no one seeing and left nothing behind for us to trace. Not even a hint at an electrical signature that all psychics have which tells me that whoever did this has very good shields and a completely contained mind.”
“So, how am I to know that my parents aren’t in danger?” she asked not knowing what else to ask.
“I have warned them, Eartha. Right now that’s all I can offer you. They will be careful, but this is a danger we’ve all see before. Someone is always out to hurt us out of fear or wanting control. It’s the same old story this time too. We will find out who did this eventually, they will do something to draw attention to themselves and we will lock him or her up so they can’t hurt anyone. You can’t keep secrets in our community for long.”
Somehow Eartha wasn’t reassured by this and left Dr. Timmus office with the same doubts she had gone in there with. She looked at her watch thankful that Mr. Sayers’ class was over. That was one less annoyance she would have to deal with. She went through the rest of her day like a machine. She didn’t speak to anyone or answer any questions about what had happened. She skipped her meals to avoid Garrick. She didn’t want to see anyone including him or maybe especially him. Even though he knew everything he didn’t understand everything. Right now all she wanted was to be home with her parents. They knew. They understood. They were the only ones that would make her feel better. That night she passed out early from the sleep deprivation of the night before and the lack of food she had in her system.
The dream struck her immediately. She didn’t really realize what was going on she had never slipped into a dream so quickly. It was bothering her because she knew this was not reality. She knew that she was lying in her bed in the dorm room, but that was not what she was seeing.
She seemed to be a part of a meeting. There were about two-dozen people in the room. She only saw the backs of their heads. All their heads were turned towards one man speaking near the front. She could not see the speaker either. There were too many people between her and him. She tried to move forward, but she seemed to be frozen in her position at the back. She strained to hear what the speaker was saying.
“We should not be the ones hiding from them! They should be hiding from us!” she heard him announce, “We are the powerful! We have the control!” She heard many of the people agreeing with the speaker, but she still didn’t know what he was talking about. “I have gathered you here for our first meeting to send you out to recruit more of our kind. We need an army for those who would try to stop this natural process. Remember survival of the fittest! We are the powerful and we will survive and those who are weak will perish!” Did that mean this man planned to kill those who he deemed as weak? She wondered. “I invited many others to our meeting today that did not show up! They apparently do not believe that we are the stronger species and therefore we must show them the path or push them out of our ways!” there was another loud eruption of cheers and yells of agreement. This was not good, Eartha decided. Whoever this person was, they were planning on killing people who did not follow him. Dr. Timmus needed to know about this immediately. How do I get out of this dream? She wondered. She tried to pinch herself, but she realized there was nothing there to pinch. She seemed to be at this meeting only in spirit and not in the flesh. She wanted out of this nightmare, but she didn’t know how to get out. “I have files and lists of those who chose not to join us tonight…” Suddenly the dream began to fade. No! Eartha thought. Not now! I need to know if those are the same files and whose files they were so I can warn them! She frantically tried to hold on to the dream, but then everything went black.

The meeting and all the people were gone and she was back in her room in the dorm. She looked quickly at her clock and realized she had only been asleep for about five minutes. She leapt out of bed. She had not undressed earlier because she had been so tired and now she was thankful. She ran out of her room and through the common room. She ignored all the stares she got from the other students still up and studying. Students were not supposed to be in the halls after ten especially after the incident from the night before, but this was an emergency. She knew it was not a dream, but a vision she had just had. She had to tell Dr. Timmus immediately and she didn’t really care if she got in trouble for being out of her dorm room after ten. She ran through the outer office door. His secretary was already gone for the night and the waiting room was dark. She crossed the room and pounded on the inner office door afraid Dr. Timmus had already gone to bed for the night. The door opened slowly and Dr. Timmus peaked his head out and was only mildly surprised to see Eartha standing before him out of breath. “Something wrong, Eartha?” he asked opening the door so she could come into his office.
“I think …I mean, I know I just had a vision,” she gasped.
“Have a seat and catch your breath,” he suggested. He went behind his desk to his computer. He clicked a few button and then turned the monitor off. He looked across at her and rose an eyebrow, “Caught it?” he asked.
Eartha nodded her head quickly, “At first I thought it was a dream, but I’m almost positive it wasn’t. It had to have been a vision. I’m sorry for being out so late again and bothering you, but I think it might be important.”
“It’s okay, Eartha. Tell me your vision,” Dr. Timmus replied calmly.
“Well, there was a large gathering of people and I was at the back of the crowd,” she started, “I couldn’t move closer to see who any of the people were, but I could hear the speaker. He said he had files and a list of other people who he was going to try to get to join his group. If they refused he said he would get rid of them. He was talking about being powerful and how he was going to get rid of the weak and anyone who would not join them. I’m positive that the list and files came from your files. They’re going to kill anyone who doesn’t join their group!”
“Did you actually see the files or the list?” Dr. Timmus asked in his same calm voice.
“No, I couldn’t see anything! I only heard what they were planning! The vision started fading the moment he showed them the list. I tried to hold on to see what they looked like, but I couldn’t do anything.”
“He didn’t say any names or~”
“No!” she said impatiently, “but I know that it was the same person who stole your files and he’s going after all those people!”
“Okay, okay, calm down, Eartha,” Dr. Timmus said slowly.
“I can’t calm down!” she cried out, “That could be anyone! Everyone! He has a list of people… it’s not even the files he took. He could be after anyone on his list!”
“Eartha, I understand the seriousness of this,” he assured her, “Come with me. This has upset you, but what you need most right now is sleep.”
“I can’t sleep!” she protested.
“Yes, the nurse will help you sleep,” Dr. Timmus insisted, “She will give you something. Visions tend to take a lot out of a person. You need to gather your strength back up.”
“We need to warn people,” Eartha insisted.
“I need to warn people. You need to gather your strength,” Dr. Timmus said firmly and she knew better to argue with him anymore. She reluctantly followed him to the nurse who took charge of her immediately. She shooed Dr. Timmus back out of the hospital wing and rushed Eartha into a nightgown. She forced Eartha to take several gulps of a nasty smelling liquid that the nurse insisted would put her to sleep. Eartha didn’t have much time to argue about going to sleep with this nurse because before she could even protest she was out cold.
Eartha slept for three days. The liquid that the nurse had given her was only supposed to keep her sleeping for about a day, but Eartha’s body had decided that she needed more time to heal. The nurse was worried thinking she had done something wrong so she immediately showed Dr. Timmus. “She’s fine,” he assured her, “Her body has it’s own healing pattern. It probably has nothing to do with the vision or what you gave her. She had to fight off a vampire and then not get any sleep to recuperate. This is just her body’s way of telling her she needs a break.”
“But she hasn’t taken anything in for these three days. That can’t be healthy for her,” the nurse protested.
“Well, it’s not exactly going to kill her is it?” Dr. Timmus laughed, “The only thing that will kill Eartha is complete exhaustion, if she uses up all her energy to heal someone else. Her body can go without a lot of things for extended periods of time. In other words, it would take a little bit more than lack of food to harm her.”
When Eartha finally did wake up she did not even know that three days were passed and did not understand why the nurse was so happy to see her awake. The nurse explained to her that she had missed three days of school and although Eartha groaned about the homework she was going to have to make up she was not at all surprised that she had slept for three days. She had the hunger gnawing at her insides that was telling her she had gone far too long without food. She voiced her need of sustenance to the nurse and the nurse looked almost embarrassed that she had not already offered the girl a meal. Eartha assured the nurse that it wasn’t that big of a deal for her to go three days without food. After all she had once gone without food for an entire week after an incident with her extended family a couple years back.
The nurse somehow managed to keep Eartha under her care for another week to make sure she was all right. She brought Eartha her homework daily and helped her when she needed it. The nurse had never seen anything quite like Eartha and she took an interest in her unique healing ability. She would have loved to study Eartha’s habits more closely, but she was afraid she would offend or annoy Eartha if she was kept in the infirmary much longer. Eartha on the other hand respected the nurse a great deal. Most people did not really care what offended or annoyed her if it served their own interests. She was appreciative of the nurse’s attitude and willingly answered questions that she normally felt were no one else’s business. Which was probably why Eartha allowed the nurse to keep her in the hospital wing for so long. When she did return to class she was entirely caught up with all her classes. In fact, in some areas she was actually ahead because of the nurse’s extra insight.

Holy Crap! You've got to be kidding me!

My manager just informed me that there was a full moon last Sunday. That apparently translates into the dumbest people in Omaha crawl out of their hidey-hole and find a telephone to call our office and irritate the hell out of me. Yesterday I had one extra special patient call up and ask to get a follow up appointment to see the doctor (not that odd). Her exact words were, "Dr. T-- did surgery on me a few years ago and I need to get in to see him because I think there is something wrong again." Logically I asked, "What did surgery did you have?" This of course is when the phone gets all scratchy and cuts out for a second, but I do manage to pick out the word "stomach". Ehm, wrong answer. For those of you who don't know me or where I work let me run through a quick explanation. The doctor I work for only takes care of varicose and spider veins in the legs. Very specific. He is a retired doctor and he used to be a general and vascular surgeon. He's not anymore and he hasn't been for over two years now. We pretty much informed every patient he's ever seen that he no longer does any surgery that doesn't have to do with veins in your legs. Every once in a while we get one patient that hasn't heard and we get calls like this. It's really not that big of a deal until they turn into this lady. So, once I hear the key word "stomach" I know we will not be seeing her in our office. I proceed to tell her that the doctor has retired from general surgery and she needs to return to her family physician with any problems and if she needs a surgeon her family doctor will be able to refer her to a new surgeon. This woman's reply? "But the doctor is still there, right?" Oh, boy. Yep, it's one of those patients that just doesn't want to give up her dream of coming to see a retired doctor who can't help her. "Yes, he is still working, but he doesn't do general surgery anymore."
"Well, I don't think I need surgery. I just need him to check me out."
You just don't get it, do you? "He is retired. He doesn't see patients unless they have varicose veins anymore."
"So, what am I supposed to do?"
What did I just tell you to do not even a minute ago, you deaf old bat? "You need to return to you family physician so they can check you out and if you need a new surgeon they will refer you to one." Oh! Now it sinks in.

BUT!

That is nothing in comparison to the winner I just hung up with. It's another follow up patient and this time it is someone who actually has vein problems. Good start. I pulled her chart to see what she needs to come back in for because I realized long ago that our patients don't really pay attention when we tell them when they need to come back and what it will be for... so I stopped asking. Their answers just annoy me. In her chart the doctor says that they patient needs to obtain compression stocking (those really tight, thick stockings that squeeze your leg. yep, exactly what they sound like). So, I get back on the phone with her and ask her if she has gotten the panty hose and worn them for the past six weeks or so. Nope. She never got them. Okay, simple enough. GO GET THEM, STUPID! So, I explain to her that she needs to get the compression stockings from the pharmacy and wear them for six weeks before I schedule her for a re-evaluation. I even offer to fax the prescription in so she doesn't need to come and pick it up at the office. The conversation should have been over right there, but oh no. She pauses for a second and then asks, "Do I have to fill the prescription?" Huh? No, she couldn't have actually meant what she just asked so I requested that she repeat her question and she replied. "You know, do I actually have to fill the prescription?"
WHAT THE HELL????!!!! "Yes, you have to fill the prescription and actually wear the compression hose." Why the hell else would we write the damn thing and fax it in for you?
"Oh, but I don't have to wear them while it's hot, right?"
As long as it's for six consecutive weeks I don't give a shit when you wear them, you dumb bitch. I reiterated to her that she needed to wear them for six weeks so we could have documentation to send in to her insurance company so she could get the procedure done. If you don't want your insurance to pay for the $5000 to $7000 surgery feel free to not wear the support hose. I hope you get a blood clot and your leg explodes, because you're obviously too dumb to get the point.
How are there so many dumb people in the world?

Punctuality

WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR SOME PEOPLE?

That should probably be my whole blog right there because that is what it all boils down to. Why is it so hard for some people to be on time or to maintain the plans that they made? No, I haven't actually had a recent exposure to one of these rude people, but I have had plenty of exposure over the years. It's a habit that has always irked me, but especially in the workplace. There is no reason for a person to be late to work on a regular basis and most of the time there is no reason for a person to ever be late (without at least a quick call to inform someone else). Remember that old saying that I know at least one of your bosses said to you? "Fifteen minutes early is on time, on-time is fifteen minutes late and late is inexcusable." Although it's annoying I completely agree. If you are scheduled to work at eight you should be working, on the clock at eight. You shouldn't just be ambling through the door, hanging your coat up, putting your purse away, making a cup of Joe, et cetera. You are supposed to be doing whatever it is you do. Now, you're probably arguing in your head that sometimes there's traffic and sometimes there's rain and snow and all sorts of obstacles to get in your way an make you late...... blah, blah, blah.... if there is four feet of snow and you can't move your vehicle I can understand you, but traffic? rain? flurries? Give me a break. You should allow for stuff like that. I do. I live in the same place and I manage to show up on time..... what's your excuse now? Thankfully, everyone in my current office has the same mentality as I do. Everyone is a few minutes early and everything runs a little smoother because of that. Sure, we have our mess ups every now and again, but I'd give everyone a dollar if one of my co-workers didn't call or text someone to say, 'hey, I'm stuck-- I'll be a few minutes late. Let everyone know'. I would still have all my dollars in tact by the end of the year.
Next on my punctuality attack will be those people that are consistently late for non-work activities. You know, the uncle you tell to show up to Thanksgiving dinner at four even though no one else will be there until five. Yep, that person. Are you brain dead? Seriously? Dinner's over and you still have a few people showing up.... Oh, did we forget that the whole daylight savings thing that happened four months ago? Damn! We should have told you about that. Or what about the friend that tells you they will be by after work so you can go shopping and you read a whole book between the time she told you that and the time she calls to tell you she fell asleep...... what? You said you were coming over right after work. How the hell did you fall asleep?
The one that gets to me the most these days is the patients (I hope you have all remembered that i work for a doctor). Patients who are scheduled for surgery and just don't show up. It's not like you really forget when you you're about to be sliced into. This morning I had to call a patient to see where she was. "Oh, I'm just pulling into the parking lot." Oh, I see. Isn't that something you should have been doing 10 minutes ago when you were scheduled? Surgery! Don't keep someone who will be putting holes in your body waiting. They get cranky and you really don't want extra holes. I send people reminders constantly. You need to be here by: ____. It's not like I leave them in the dark. My favorites are always the people who show up on the wrong day too. "My little card says July 30." "Yes, sir. Today would be the 31st." "No, that's not right." I assure you it is. I had a patient show up two weeks late yesterday. Apparently she wanted to come in with her friend as opposed to when she was actually scheduled. Oh, no, you don't need to call and let us know stuff like that. We will just accommodate your stupidity.
Clocks are everywhere people. By your bedside, on the computer, on the T.V., on your phone, and shockingly enough you can even get one to latch onto your wrist so you can carry time around with you everywhere you go. So, once again, why is it so difficult for some people?

Eartha -- Chapter 4

So, here we go again. Obviously I haven't posted in a while and that would be because my birthday has once again come and gone. I managed to not die for another twelve months congratulations to me. So, now I'm back and taking the lazy way out of actually posting stuff. Yep, it's another chapter of the book have already finished the first draft of. I realized a few moments ago that this is not even mos current version of this story. Since I am at work when I post these blogs I don't have access to my laptop which is where all my first edits are stored. I already had one person read through the whole story with a red pen and most of the minor errors have already disappeared... unfortunately that means you are getting the REALLY rough draft. Sorry about that. I actually had forgotten that my little red drive didn't have the edited version on it. That's okay though. I promise the story hasn't changed that much yet. All right then, here is the un-edited chapter four.

Chapter 4


Although Eartha’s first day was a little rough her days quickly fell into a routine. She had no problems adapting to the classroom setting as opposed to one on one teaching. She was a quick learner and immediately put herself at the top of almost all her classes. She refused to make any new friends, however, making her somewhat unwelcome. She didn’t mind that a lot of the other students whispered about her behind her back. She wasn’t really up to making friends with these people. They were far more dangerous to her than the kids she had been used to at her old school. In her old community the issues she had to deal with had been small and insignificant; children’s parents getting divorced, grandparents dying, failing a test, having a cold, or just temporarily hating your best friend. They were all things that she could deal with. Sure, they had exhausted her on a daily basis and she had hated it, but it was minimal compared to what problems the kids in this community had. She had never had to deal with someone having a seizure because of a vision or windows shattering when someone got upset because of a test grade. The pain and emotions were so much more extreme at Mead Institute and it was essential that her shield be always firmly in place. Becoming close to others broke down her shield and made it easier for those extreme emotions to seep into her.
Eartha and Garrick had come to an understanding; if he didn’t touch her or ask her any questions about her ability they had no problems. Of course this wasn’t a spoken agreement. Garrick just learned that if he asked too many questions she would turn silent or just leave. If he forgot himself and actually tried to touch her she would get up and leave as quickly as she could. He learned pretty quickly what he could and could not get away with. Eartha had a hard time keeping all her secrets to herself. She overheard so many of the students chatting about what they could do that she would have loved to chime into the conversation about what she could do. She always managed to stop herself knowing the consequences could be very bad. Plus, Garrick held nothing back from her. He loved to talk and she didn’t mind listening to what he had to say. He was extremely smart and he usually could find interesting topics that didn’t have anything to do with her ability. Neither of them took meals in the cafeteria anymore. They took their food to the garden and sat under one of the trees or near one of the fountains. Being surrounded by people for an hour tended to drain Eartha and Garrick had noticed early on that she was much happier and more talkative when they were in the garden.
“You know being in here all the time I almost forgot that outside it’s snowing,” she commented one evening.
“I think I like this better,” he replied.
“But reality’s always gonna be waiting just outside the door,” she said solemnly, “Can’t hide in here forever. One day we all have to go out into the real world… And then everything’s gonna be a bigger shock when we realize the rest of the world isn’t like this.”
“Are we still talking about the weather?” he asked ironically.
“Well, you know what I mean. So many of these kids are so happy being here with others like themselves, but they can’t stay in here forever,” she explained, “I mean what happens when they go out in the real world and see that it’s the same judgmental place they left when the first came here?”
“But at least they know they’re not alone in the world,” he countered, “As few and far between as we all may be at least we know there are others out there that we can talk to.”
“Boy, are you an optimist,” she commented.
“Well why are you always so negative about everything?” he asked, “The world can’t be as crappy as you make it seem.”
“I guess I’m just feeling sorry for myself is all,” she answered looking down at her gloved hands.
“Well, I can’t sympathize with ya ‘til ya tell me why the hell you’re the way you are,” he spat out.
“People tend to try to abuse me when I tell them what I can do,” she whispered, “and it’s not that I think you will, but what if you accidentally let slip what I could do to someone else and then they told someone else. Eventually everyone would know and then everyone would be after me.”
“Why don’t you try me~”
“No,” she stood quickly, “I have homework to finish.” And at that she left. He sat there open mouthed for a moment. He shook his head and began to pack up his things to go back to his dorm room. It was always like that. He would get so close to finding out something more about Eartha and then it was like she shut down and he couldn’t ask her anything else. He had discovered long ago that she wasn’t mad at him when she abandoned him. She would be just fine tomorrow and she would pretend as though nothing had been said the day before. He looked as his watch as he was leaving the garden and sighed. It was late and they should have been back in the dorms a long time ago anyways.

Eartha was heading back towards her dorm room thankful she had managed to resist Garrick’s inquiries once again. She was crossing the darkened main hall when she noticed something strange. She felt an unusual burst of cold air against her face and even though she could not see she knew the front door had been left open. She set her bag down and moved towards the door to see if anyone was coming in. She couldn’t see anything. All the lights had been turned off for the evening. Feeling absolutely no fear towards whatever she could possibly face because of her ability she stepped onto the front porch. The air seemed to get colder as she moved further onto the porch towards the steps. She was, for the first time in her life; happy about all the layers she wore. She could sense that something was off. No one ever just left the door wide open, especially in the middle of the night. The porch light was off and Eartha regretted not flipping it on before she stepped out onto the porch. Now, she couldn’t bare the thought of turning her back to the dark road. She stood on the porch wishing she had better night vision and suddenly an intense fear course through her entire body and she knew she needed to get back inside and lock the door. She started to back her way towards the door and she was reaching for the handle of the door when she noticed something moving towards her. She could not see clearly, but the form looked human and it was moving towards her. Eartha froze in her spot. The figure did not look that big, a child or perhaps a small woman and it was walking right for the open door. Right for her. She had to do something before this person was on top of her. She needed to move. She needed to be back inside with the door closed and locked. So she stepped back again and blocked the doorway to the school. The other person stopped for a moment, but didn’t say anything. “Who are you?” Eartha called out trying her hardest not to let her voice to shake. She wanted to sound bored, but she failed miserably. The other person did not say anything so Eartha spoke again, “Are you a student?” she asked her voice sounding a little steadier. The head of the other person moved slightly and suddenly she a reflection of red eyes glowing back at her. “Vampire,” she whispered. The creature flew at her arms extended as though its intentions were to strangle her. Eartha stood her ground she knew the vampire would not be able to drain her blood, but as the creature came closer she recognized him. He was a student in her own dorm. Probably the one Garrick had mentioned on the day they had met. She suddenly flung out her arms to protect herself and him from what would happen if he managed to bite her. He struck her and as she began to tip backwards down to the hard stone floor of the entryway she threw her hands up towards his face pushing him back so he would not be able to sink his teeth into any part of her. They both hit the floor and she used the momentum of the fall to flip him off of her. It didn’t quite work the way she intended and they ended up rolling around on the floor struggling to gain control of the other person. “Stop, Acheron,” she hissed remembering his name now, “You will regret it!”
The look in his eyes told Eartha that it was no use trying to reason with him. He obviously had fed tonight and the temptation to feed on human blood made it so that he did not care about the consequences. He finally managed to gain control over her. He was on top of her pinning her arms above her head. She thought of the spell she had used on Garrick so long ago and realized he would have sucked a pint out of her before she could even gain control of his mind. She fought him, but his strength surpassed her own by tenfold. He was a vampire and a superhuman strength went with the territory. “Acheron, you do not want my blood!” she shouted.
Garrick had been about to slip into his dorm room when he heard her shout. He knew her voice very well and immediately took off running in the direction of the main hall. “I don’t care what they do to me!” Acheron was screaming, “It doesn’t matter anymore!” He was pulling at the fabric wrapped around her neck to get to her flesh. She was struggling to keep the fabric in place. “It’s not what Dr. Timmus will do to you,” she was yelling at him, “It’s what I could do to you!”
“You!?” he laughed throwing his head back. She seized her opportunity slamming her fist into his chest. He was caught off guard and lost his grip. She managed to fling him off and back away from him by scuttling backwards crab style. “What do you think you could possibly do to me?” he asked lunging at her again. She rolled onto her stomach and tried to dodge him by crawling away, but he caught her by the back of her skirt and pulled her back against him. “I’m a healer!” she shouted suddenly. At that moment Garrick appeared through one doorway and Acheron froze in his spot. He didn’t release her though. “If you drink my blood it will heal you and I’m sure you know what that means,” she hissed.
“I don’t believe you,” he whispered back.
“Well, why don’t you test it then and see what happens,” she answered trying to sound smug, but it came out sounding frantic, “I don’t care if you turn back human. I did my obligation by warning you if you don’t take my warning you deserve what you get” Acheron was still frozen. He couldn’t call her bluff because if she was telling the truth he would be human again and he certainly didn’t want that. Plus, the other student was right there and was bound to tell Dr. Timmus exactly what happened. Acheron didn’t get much more time to decide what he was going to do because at that moment Garrick began to yell at the top of his lungs. “Dr. Timmus!” he screamed, “There’s a vampire attacking a student!” Eartha began screaming similar things and Acheron finally released her. Dr. Timmus and about three other teachers flew into the room from all different directions. Acheron threw his hands up in the air to stop any of the teachers from attacking him with whatever powers they possessed. Eartha stepped to the side and Garrick rushed to her side to see if Acheron had hurt her in any way. “My God!” Dr. Timmus breathed, “The one student that would do more damage to the vampire than what the vampire could do to her.”
“It’s true?” Acheron moaned dropping to his knees.
“Yes,” Dr. Timmus snapped, “Teachers please return to your rooms. You three,” he said pointing to Garrick, Eartha, and Acheron, “will follow me to my office.”
“Dr. Timmus,” Eartha said quickly before he could turn away, “The door still needs to be closed.” She pointed at the open door that had been forgotten by everyone else. Dr. Timmus did no more than blink and the door slammed shut. He turned back down the hallway that he had come from and led the way back toward his office. The three students followed in silence.
Dr. Timmus quickly ushered the three students into the office and shut the door behind him. The students stood nervously to one side of the office, but Dr. Timmus turned around and motioned for them all to sit down. “First of all,” he started quietly, “I want to know why each of you was up and about at ten-thirty at night in the first place.”
“Eartha and I had been in the garden since dinner time,” Garrick started, “Talking and doing some homework. Neither of us really realized how late it had gotten until we got up to leave.”
“But we didn’t leave together,” Eartha added, “I left first because he was getting nosy again.”
Then all six eyes looked over at Acheron waiting for his excuse for being out so late. “I was restless and hungry,” he said defensively, “I was going to the kitchen to have a drink when I was passing by the main hall and I could smell blood… human blood coming from outside. Apart from the scent making me more hungry I also thought someone might be hurt so I went out to see what was going on. Once I stepped onto the porch my mind kind of went blank and I don’t remember anything until I saw Eartha standing in the doorway. I don’t know what made me attack her except I was so hungry for human blood that I didn’t care about the consequences.”
Dr. Timmus looked back at Eartha, “Why were you outside?” he asked.
“When I was going back to the dorms I noticed an unusual draft. I figures someone must have not shut the door properly and I was afraid that if it was left open all night someone who didn’t belong here would get into the school.”
“And where do you come into this picture,” Dr. Timmus turned his gaze on Garrick.
“I was about to go into my dorm when I heard Eartha yelling so I ran back to see what happened,” he answered.
“Your story bothers me the most,” Dr. Timmus said to Acheron, “Something lured you outside. You say you smelled human blood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But did you see any humans at all before you blacked out?”
“No the platform was empty when I stepped onto it and then like I said I don’t remember what happened next,” Acheron answered.
“So, no blood and then you blacked out, but why? What could possibly make you black out? And why?” Dr. Timmus was babbling more to himself that Acheron, “And then you were attacking Eartha, why?”
“I don’t know,” Acheron replied, “I just felt driven for human blood at that moment. I didn’t even know who it was. I didn’t recognize her or anything… I just had to have her blood.”
“I fought him off as long as I could, but a moment more and he would have lost his vampire status,” Eartha chimed in.
“That’s what I don’t understand,” Garrick suddenly blurted out. Dr. Timmus looked at Eartha and then back at Garrick. He sighed and then began his explanation, “Garrick, if I tell you this you must promise never to tell another person in this school. That goes for you too,” he said looking over at Acheron, “If I find out either of you has said anything to anyone else about this you will be kicked out and never welcome back in this school again.” Both boys nodded vigorously. “Eartha,” he continued, “Is a healer. Which means that when she touches someone who is hurt or ill she absorbs the illness and heals injuries. She also has the added gift of feeling others emotions as well. If she touches someone who is depressed she will absorb that emotion and the person will feel better temporarily. In Mr. Acheron’s case, were he to drink her blood it would begin to heal him. He is viewed as dead biologically so her blood would bring him back to life. It would reverse the vampiric process. Vampires age very slowly normally, which makes them appear immortal to all of us who age at a normal rate. Bringing him back to life would accelerate his ageing making him look the way he would have had he never become a vampire. For example if he had been a vampire for ten years her blood would bring him back to life and age him ten years. If he had been a vampire for a hundred years her blood would bring him back to life, but then it would probably kill him since he would be aged a hundred years. Even vampires who have not been killed by this process and only aged have been driven mad.”
“Does this happen often?” Garrick interrupted.
“Not often, but there have been cases of vampires drinking the wrong blood from time to time,” Dr. Timmus explained, “So you see why Eartha’s gift was kept a secret?”
“Not really,” Garrick replied, “I mean who cares about one less vampire and if you just told the rest of the students what she was and then warned them not to touch her~”
“Warning students and making sure that warning is followed are two different things,” Dr. Timmus explained, “And Acheron may be a vampire, but he is a student in my school and therefore protected by me and I would not be very pleased by him being damaged or killed.”
“Plus, people would try to persuade me to help them when they are in a bad mood all the time,” she added ignoring the part about Acheron since right now she couldn’t care less what happened to him after what had just happened, “and I don’t know if you realized or not, but absorbing these emotions and pains exhausts me. It’s not like I absorb pain and then it just goes away. When I absorb something my body has to heal it before it goes away and that takes a lot of my energy. If I could heal the world I would, but I’m not going to risk my own well being for everyone else’s.”
There was a silence in the office while the two boys processed what they had just learned about their fellow schoolmate. Dr. Timmus was still trying to understand what had lured Acheron out of the school and why. Eartha felt extremely exposed at the moment. She didn’t like so many people knowing what she could do. She had been reluctant around the teachers for a while after they found out what she was, but she had gotten used to them and she knew she could trust Dr. Timmus. Now, two more people knew what she could do and although they seemed trustworthy she knew that sooner or latter one of them would try to touch her to heal themselves or they would accidentally let it slip to someone else what she could do.
“Well,” Dr. Timmus finally broke the silence, “I believe that I have all the answers I’m going to get tonight. Do any of you have any questions?”
All three of the kids shook their heads. They were too tired to think of any other questions. “Then you should all get back to the dorms and get some sleep. You still have class in the morning.” They stood and left the office. No one spoke on the way back to the dorms and as they split up to go to their different dorms Garrick looked over his shoulder at Acheron and glared at him. Acheron saw this look and waited for Eartha to enter the dorm first before grinning at Garrick, “Don’t worry boyfriend I’ll take care of her.” And before Garrick could retort Acheron had slipped in after Eartha. Eartha was standing a few steps inside the common room glaring at Acheron. He looked a little sheepish for taunting Garrick, but he turned to go down the boy’s hall. “I swear if you tell anyone what I am you will regret it,” she warned him.
“Oh, really?” he sneered, “and what do you think you could possibly do to me?”
“I’ll make sure a few drops of my blood slip into your lunch,” she retorted, “On the other hand that may not be a bad idea anyway… after all, Garrick had a point what’s one less vampire?” She smiled and then added, “Don’t piss me off.” She turned and went down the girl’s hall. It’s not that she liked threatening Acheron, but she trusted him a lot less than she trusted Garrick not to tell anyone else. She knew that Acheron wasn’t likely to jeopardize losing his vampire status. He seemed like a very proud creature and enjoyed having the power of fear on his side.
She sat in bed unable to sleep and thinking about the events of the night. She knew there was something wrong about Acheron’s story. His black out bothered her as much as it had Dr. Timmus. She thought about what she knew of Acheron and realized it was very little. The students that had been placed in Osen Hall were all pretty secretive. Acheron didn’t seem to have many friends since most people were afraid of befriending a vampire. What Dr. Timmus had said about vampires had surprised her. She had assumed vampires were immortal just like most people did. She didn’t know that they aged at all and it made Eartha wonder how old Acheron was. He looked as though he was about thirteen or fourteen, but for all she knew he could be Dr. Timmus’ age. She wondered how he had become a vampire in the first place. He must have been made one at a very young age. She sighed and tried to force thoughts of Acheron from her mind. She needed sleep otherwise she would be more vulnerable to others emotions tomorrow.