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.