Eartha -- Chapter 8

A new month, a new year, a new chapter, and a new attitude.... kind of. Thank you again to the real Garrick Strom who googled his name and found my story. That comment made me smile and randomly start humming "It's a Small World After All". I've had some other positive feedback from people who don't read the blog, but have read the new version of this story so that inspires me to continue. As for all my nay sayers, bring it on. You inspire me as well -- mostly in creating new evil characters that I can kill off, but hey, we all have our place in this world. And if some of you still feel the need to hide behind annoymous comments so be it. I can just delete you :) So, here I bring Chapter 8 another building block to a much bigger chapter. In my updated version of the story I hope to get the exciting stuff sooner, but until then enjoy.

Chapter 8

September first rolled up and no one in the Wicken family was very happy on the drive back to the subway station. Roger had not said a word to Mora or Eartha about his visions or about the conversation he had with Dr. Timmus. Eartha was still upset about her parents not believing that they were in danger and Mora didn’t have the heart to tell her daughter the truth. The subway station was packed with early morning commuters and unless one was really looking for it no one would notice the children spread out in the crowd carrying unusually large amounts of luggage. Eartha stood silently between her parents refusing to look at either of them. She couldn’t believe they were sending her back after what she had told them. Why didn’t adults ever listen to their children? She wondered.
“Okay, sweetie, it’s gonna be here any second now,” Mora said softly, “I know you’re still upset with us because you think we don’t believe you, but that’s not the reason that you have to go back to school.”
“If there is a danger out there we want you in the safest place we can put you,” Roger chimed in.
“What makes you think the school is the safest place for me?” Eartha asked.
“Well, they know for sure that there are plenty of psychics there and they haven’t attacked anyone there yet, so I’m assuming there is a reason for that,” Roger explained.
“They’ve already broken in once. What makes you think they wont do it again?” Eartha commented.
“They only took files that time,” Roger reminded her, “There is a lot of protection that Dr. Timmus has added to the school since then. I think they haven’t been able to get back in since then or they’re afraid to.”
“And you’re just going to leave yourself out in the open to be attacked?” Eartha asked.
“We’re not going to be attacked,” Mora insisted.
“We are protecting ourselves, Eartha. We will do our best to make sure nothing happens to either of us,” Roger tried to be reassuring.
“So, in other words, you don’t think you’re going to be attacked and you’re sending me back to school because you don’t believe there’s any reason to keep me at home,” Eartha shot back.
“First of all, there is no reason that you should be kept at home, regardless of whether we are in danger or not,” Roger said somewhat harshly, “Do you think I would keep you somewhere where I thought you would be in danger?” Eartha didn’t get a chance to respond because at that moment the subway pulled into the station. She only had time to give them hugs and kisses goodbye before the subway would take off again. She piled on with everyone else and quickly found a seat in the corner. She was one of the few people to actually obtain a seat and it was largely due to her small size. She looked around vainly for a familiar face, but all she saw was adult legs and torsos. She actually could have used the company of Garrick right about now. She really would have loved to get some of the anger and frustrations she had right now off her chest. She looked up and noticed that the people around her had slowly moved away from her and a few of them were actually glancing over in her direction. She realized quickly that her emotions were starting to lash out at others. She was out of practice with guarding herself. So for the rest of the ride to the school she focused on building her protective shield around herself again. She was so focused on building her shield back up that she almost missed her stop all together. She stood on the platform with a few other kids. Most of the students would be coming throughout the day. There had been schedules sent out to students a few weeks ago so it wouldn’t look so suspicious when an unusual amount of children got off on the same platform. Unfortunately, the fact that the platform was pretty much in the middle of nowhere made anyone getting off looking a little suspicious. The students kind of milled around the platform aimlessly until the subway was completely out of sight. Slowly the kids started disappearing out the door and back to school. Eartha was the last to go through the doorway. She purposely put some distance between her and the other students. She took her time getting to the main hall and then braced herself for all the kids that were bound to be hanging around the main entrance hall.
She stepped into another world the moment she stepped through the front door. The main hall was very bright and loud with student greeting the friends after a long summer. Eartha glanced around the room and felt a sinking sensation flow through her body. She wondered what it would be like to rush up to a group of friends and give them all a huge group hug. How would it be to get close to people? She sighed and moved her things towards the dorms. “Miss me?” Garrick’s lazy nonchalant voice asked from behind. She pretended not to hear him and continued to walk towards the dorms.
“Oh, my God!” he yelled out suddenly, “She’s gone deaf over summer vacation! What am I going to do now? How can I annoy her when she can’t hear me?” She spun around with an evil smile on her face. “I can hear you just fine,” she announced, “I just figured if I didn’t respond you would go away.”
“You look brown,” he commented suddenly ignoring her comment.
“And you look as pasty as ever,” she retorted.
“Gee, I missed your attitude,” he grinned pulling one of her bags out of her hands to help her out.
“It’s good to see you too,” she admitted in return. He jerked to a stop and threw one hand to his chest in false dramatics. He pretended to faint and said, “A nice comment from Eartha. The shock will kill me!”
“Are you done now?” she asked in a bored voice.
“Yeah, I think that’s good,” he said righting himself and continued to walk down the hall with her bag. She laughed and followed him. They dropped her bags on the floor and left them there.
“So, how was your summer?” he asked once they were back out in the hallway.
“It could have been worse. It could have been better,” she replied.
“You have the most unique way of saying a lot without saying a damn thing,” he laughed, “Could you be any more vague?”
“I’m sure I could if I tried a little harder,” she answered.
“So what did you do this summer? Or am I not allowed to know?” he asked.
“My parents rented out a beach house for the summer,” she said, “I was swimming most of the summer.”
“That would explain the brownness,” he chuckled.
“And I’m assuming you followed through with your skiing plans which would explain your pastiness?” she asked.
“You assumed correctly,” he nodded, “So why wasn’t your vacation fun?”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t fun,” she answered.
“But you did say it could have been better,” he shot back.
“And I still think that it could,” she said.
“What could have made it better?” he asked.
She shook her head at his relentlessness, “A pony,” she replied sarcastically making him throw his head back and laugh. “Well, it wasn’t so much the vacation that gave me a negative opinion so much as the vacation being over. I still think my parents are a target, but they don’t seem to be taking the threat too seriously. They sent me back here and it’s like I’m pretty much just waiting for the news that they were murdered.” She finally answered truthfully.
“That’s pretty morbid,” Garrick answered quietly.
“I know, but I can feel something horrible coming,” she replied.
“Maybe it’s not what you think,” he offered.
“And maybe it is,” she replied, “but no one will know for sure until it happens and I would rather be around my parents right now.”
“Well then I can see why your parents would send you here,” he said.
“What! Why?” she asked surprised and angry. He was supposed to be on her side.
“If they think they are a target they wouldn’t want to put you in danger too, right?” he explained.
“They don’t believe me!” she cried out, “And if they do they have a very funny way of showing it.”
“I’m sure they took what you said very seriously and they put you in the safest place they could think of. What if these people got a hold of you and started to use your power for their little mission?” Garrick explained. That shut her up immediately. She had been very selfish about wanting to stay with her parents. If what Garrick said was true then her parents had sent her back selflessly and here she was making them feel bad about sending her away. She shook her head and grunted in frustration. “I don’t want to talk about this right now,” she announced.
He scoffed and then asked, “Okay, so what would you like to talk about?”
She looked around and noticed that they had unintentionally come to the indoor garden. The door was unlocked and the lights were on inside. She was surprised even though she couldn’t remember a time when the garden was not open. She went inside and felt instantly at home and much calmer than she had been just moments before. “Well?” Garrick prompted her.
“Well, what?” she replied in a much lighter tone.
“What would you like to talk about?” he repeated. She had leaned over to smell one of the flowers and he knew that she was in another world right now so he didn’t press her to answer him. She drifted off further into the garden and he reluctantly followed her. She was already disappearing behind another corner and he quickened his pace to keep track of where she was going. He rounded the corner after her, but once again she was gone. He took off at a jog to find her and he could hear her laughing pretty far off. She was playing games now. He didn’t know whether to be annoyed or happy that she was no longer in a foul mood. He broke into a run determined to find her now. He saw a flash of her skirt as it disappeared around another tree. He followed it, but then he could hear her laughing from the other side. He stopped out of breath and confused. “Come on, now, you can’t give up so easily,” she called to him. He followed the sound of her voice and took off in that direction. “I will find you if it takes me all night!” he called out.
“I don’t think so,” he heard her voice behind him. He spun around and looked around to see where she had gone. Then he felt her gloved hands covering his eyes from behind. He gasped and spun around. She was standing before him with a huge grin on her face. “How did you do that?” he asked.
“It’s a secret,” she whispered. She stepped back and studied him for a moment and said. “I just noticed how much taller you got over the summer,” she commented suddenly once again quickly changing the subject.
“Yes, and you’ve remained your same old stunted self,” he replied.
“I think I’ll always be pretty small,” she said, “but since I have all these layers I’m not too concerned about it.”
Another person had entered the room she realized. Garrick still seemed to be unaware, but he noticed Eartha tense up and realized something was up. They both looked towards the door and saw Dr. Timmus standing just inside the door. “Ah, I knew I could find you both here,” he announced quietly, “Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but I need to ask you to go to the cafeteria with the rest of the students. There are some important notices that you should probably hear and you’ll probably want to eat before you go back to the dorms for the night.” Garrick quickly nodded and led the way back out of the room. Eartha paused for a moment and then followed him. Dr. Timmus slowed her down by tugging gently on her sleeve. “How have things been at home?” he asked.
“It could be better,” she replied.
Dr. Timmus nodded thoughtfully for a moment and then motioned her forward. Eartha knew that Dr. Timmus knew about everything that had been going on at her home, but he was choosing to remain silent. “No pearls of wisdom today?” she commented dryly.
“I think this is one family issue that I cannot help with,” he replied, “The only thing I have to say is that you all need to trust what the other is doing or trying to do.”
“I really don’t like your cryptic advice,” Eartha said pulling away from him and chasing after Garrick to catch up. She didn’t really want to know what Dr. Timmus had to say about her family problems.
“Hey, what was that all about?” Garrick asked as she finally caught up to him at the door of the dinning hall.
“Nothing,” she replied giving him a look that said don’t press me and he didn’t. She slumped down into a chair. This year wasn’t shaping up to be a very good one yet. The feeling that her parents were in danger was increasing and she knew that it was not just paranoia. Even Garrick had suggested that her parents knew what danger they were in and that really didn’t make her feel better. If they did believe her and they had sent her back to school for safety purposes then they felt they were in danger too. The tone in Dr. Timmus’ voice made her believe that the school year was just going to get worse from here on out. She was grinding her teeth and Garrick was giving her a strange look when she finally realized that she had completely spaced out for the past five minutes. She looked down at her food and pushed it away. She definitely was not in the mood for food. Garrick pushed her plate back in front of her. “You need to eat whether you’re in a bad mood or not,” he insisted. She sighed heavily and reluctantly took up her fork again. She knew Garrick was only looking out for her best interests, but if he had any idea what was going through her mind right now he would leave her the hell alone.

Classes started the next morning like clockwork and Eartha was actually glad to have something to focus her mind on other than her parents. She focused entirely on what her teachers were telling her. Even in her boring history class she was listening to everything that Mr. Sayers was saying. He was her least favorite teacher and it wasn’t exactly easy to willingly pay attention to him. So, when everything began to fade away she didn’t really notice at first. Her ears began to ring and when sound finally came back she wasn’t hearing what Mr. Sayers was saying. She could only hear someone sobbing. She couldn’t see anything yet, but then a light was slowly brightening the scene. She saw a woman kneeling on the ground with her back to Eartha. The woman was dressed in all black and was leaning over something. Eartha tried to get a better look, but she was frozen where she was. The woman was still sobbing, but she leaned back slightly to reveal another body on the floor. Eartha screamed and the vision faded immediately.
Mr. Sayers’ classroom reappeared instantly. She leapt out of her chair realizing everyone was staring at her. She grabbed her bag and ran from the room completely embarrassed. She took off down the hall in the direction of her dorm room. She couldn’t believe it was happening to her in the middle of the afternoon now. Wasn’t there a way for her to control this at all? And why was she getting all these horrible images of people dying? She slowed her pace slightly. She was getting a headache. Her eyes seemed to be burning so she clamped them shut, but this turned out to be a bad idea. She could hear the woman sobbing again. The vision was trying to come to her again. NO! She told herself not realizing that she said it aloud. She forced her eyes open again and a white-hot pain sliced through her brain. She felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore and she dropped to her knees. She placed her hands on the sides of her temples and moaned. “Eartha! What are you doing?” a voice asked from above and for one delirious moment she thought it was God. Someone was picking her up off the floor and carrying her away. She was still clutching the side of her head. Her breathing returned to normal and the pain began to subside, but she kept her hands where they were. She didn’t want to chance the vision trying to come back again. She looked up at who was carrying her and immediately recognized Dr. Timmus.
“You can’t will visions away,” he said to her.
“Why can’t I control them?” she moaned.
He smiled sadly, “If I could answer that the whole world would run quite a bit smoother.”
They were entering a room she did not at first recognize. Then she recognized the surroundings immediately. She was in the hospital wing. “I’m fine,” Eartha insisted, “I don’t need to be here.”
“She will be able to give you something that will relax you and reduce the chance of you having the vision. If you keep fighting the visions you will likely have a seizure,” Dr. Timmus explained, “After she gives you something, you can go back to your dorm to get some sleep.” He set Eartha down on one of the many empty beds and left. Eartha looked around, but saw no one. Normally she felt safer when she was alone, but the silence was actually making her uncomfortable. She shifted to look around the room. If no one was going to come she was going back to her room. She swung her legs off the bed and was about to stand up when the door finally creaked open at the far end of the room. The nurse entered the room. “Might as well swing those legs back up on the bed,” she said brusquely, “It will take a moment to fix up what Dr. Timmus wants me to give you. And if the vision starts to come back before I’m done just let it come. I don’t need you having a seizure on me.” She walked to the cabinets in the corner and unlocked the doors. Inside Eartha could see a number of jars full of mysterious liquids. Eartha watched her mix a few of the liquids together and then surprised herself by saying, “I understand that people can’t will visions to come to them, but I don’t understand why I can’t stop them from coming at any hour of the day.”
“I guess it’s much like any psychic ability,” the nurse replied in a much nicer tone than she had earlier, reminding Eartha that she liked the nurse from the last time she helped her, “If we could control our powers we could rule the world.” She laughed and looked over her shoulder at Eartha who wasn’t smiling. “I’m surprised that you, of all people, would think there was a way of controlling something like this.”
“I can heal just about anything,” Eartha commented, “But I couldn’t heal the pain that comes with the visions.”
“I haven’t met a person yet who can,” the nurse replied, “But I must emphasize the more you fight them, the more painful they will become.” She had finished with her concoction at this point and brought it over to Eartha. It was maybe a tablespoon of a dark green liquid in a small vial. Eartha wasn’t so sure about the liquid, but was more afraid that the nurse would force it down her throat if she refused. She gulped the liquid quickly hoping it didn’t have much of an aftertaste. It burned her throat as it flowed down to her stomach, but it didn’t seem to have a taste at all. “Okay, that should take a couple of minutes to take effect. It should be enough time for you to hurry back to your dorm room. You’ll know when it hits you,” the woman smiled which made Eartha even more uncomfortable, but she just nodded and rushed out of the room. Apparently no one really cared about the last few classes she was going to be missing.
She locked herself in her room and before she had a chance to turn her light on or take her boots off the whole room seemed to tilt forward. She gasped at the sudden attack at her equilibrium. As she walked forward to her bed the floor seemed to tilt with each step, but she managed to make it without falling. The world spun and twisted around her and then a heavy dreamless sleep fell over her. The mixture the nurse had given her was strong and lasted through the night and up to the next morning. Eartha woke from the noise of the other students getting ready for their classes. This was rare since Eartha was normally up and out of the dorm by the time the others were waking up. She rushed to get ready for breakfast. She had missed dinner the night before and was unusually hungry. She left the dorm without saying a word to anyone and no one seemed to notice. She really didn’t like the rushed feeling. The hallway was pretty empty, thankfully. There was only one student at the far end and he seemed to be coming back towards the dorms. “Hey!” the kid called out to her. She narrowed her eyes to see who was hailing her. Who else? It was Garrick.
“Hi,” she said unenthusiastically. She felt completely out of whack. All she wanted to do was fall back into the shadows and feel normal again.
“You weren’t around last night and I’ve heard some rather odd versions of what happened to you,” he inquired. He was trying to play casual, but obviously one of the outlandish rumors had gotten him concerned. She tried to muster a smile and she waved off his concerns, “It was another vision,” she said casually, “It came in Mr. Sayers class and I tried to stop it. Apparently that’s not a good idea.”
“What happened?” he asked. Her casualness wasn’t easing his mind.
“Nothing. I went to the nurse and she gave me something to sleep without dreams,” she explained cutting out the part where she felt like she was going to die when she couldn’t breathe and the part where Dr. Timmus had to carry her to the nurse.
“That’s all?” he asked unbelieving.
“Yep, except I overslept because of whatever it was that she gave me,” Eartha tried to reassure him, “I feel kind of out of it right now.”
“You look kind of out of it,” he agreed. The walked together towards the dinning hall. She mused over his concern. It wasn’t that it was all that unusual for him to be concerned about her. She knew he cared a great deal for her. It was that he had believed whatever rumors he had heard about what had happened. It was quite uncharacteristic for him. He usually didn’t believe anything that he didn’t see with his own two eyes. She laughed suddenly and caught him off guard. “What on earth did you hear about me that got you so concerned?” Garrick suddenly turned bright red and looked away.
“Oh, well, I wouldn’t necessarily put it that way,” he said quickly.
“What way?” she asked.
“It wasn’t that I was worried or anything. I was just wondering where you were, that’s all,” he replied.
“I didn’t say you were worried. I asked why you were so concerned,” she corrected him.
“Yeah, I was concerned,” he said defensively, “You’re my friend and I thought something bad might have happened to you… or your parents.” He added that last part under his breath.
“What about my parents?” she asked.
“Well, one of the rumors that was flying around was that you had a vision about your parents being killed and that you jumped up out of you seat and ran out of Mr. Sayers class,” he explained, “You know I’m not one for believing rumors, but with as worried as you’ve been about your parents I thought there might actually be some truth to it this time.”
“It wasn’t about my parents,” she assured him, “I don’t know who they were. I tried to stop the vision and it gave me a really horrible headache. So, I couldn’t really see what the people looked like. The woman seemed really familiar, but it wasn’t my mother.”
“What happened in your vision?” he asked timidly afraid she would snap at him.
“It was a woman crying over the body of a man. I couldn’t see either of their faces and I tried to stop the vision,” she said simply, “I don’t want to know about any more deaths.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” he agreed, “Were you able to stop it?”
“Kind of,” she said, “temporarily, but it tried to come back again and I tried to stop it again, but it hurt. Dr. Timmus told me that if I kept trying to stop them I would probably have a seizure.”
“When did Dr. Timmus come into the picture?” he asked. Oh, damn! She should have stopped talking a long time ago. She realized.
“He saw me in the hallway after I left Mr. Sayers classroom,” she explained really wishing she hadn’t gotten into this conversation with him.
“Hmm,” Garrick replied scrunching up his face.
“What?” she asked not really wanting to know what he was thinking but knowing that he was going to tell her anyway.
“Well, I was just wondering what Dr. Timmus was doing walking through the halls. I mean, he’s a pretty busy man and he’s not the type of person to take a leisure walk through the hallways. Do you think he knew something was going to happen?” he asked.
“I don’t know, maybe. Or maybe he was reading my thoughts and felt the need to see exactly what was up,” she replied trying to dismiss this subject. Garrick wasn’t so willing to let it die. “Does he normally come to your aid when you have visions?”
“No, but I usually don’t try to stop them either. Can we please drop this subject? I’m really sick of talking about this,” she snapped.
“Yes, because anything about you is restricted information, right?” he snapped back. Before anything else could be said by either of them the bell rang for class to start. They both turned away from each other and went their separate ways to their classes.
What right did he have to nose into her business? She didn’t put him through the third degree all the time. She thought vehemently. If I want to keep my private life a secret what business is it of his? She went through her morning classes and when lunch rolled around she purposely went an entirely different direction than what she normally went to avoid him. If he didn’t care for her secretes he didn’t have to be around her. She didn’t know if he tried to find her at lunch, but she made sure that she didn’t go to an obvious place that he may find her. She did the same thing for dinner as well. She knew it was childish and that he was only concerned about what happened to her, but she was stubborn. She had gone long enough without friends and if he didn’t like the way she was she could quite easily go back to being a loner. She shouldn’t get too close to anyone anyway. She didn’t linger very long after dinner. She went back to the dorms and quickly locked herself in her room. The next morning she managed to sneak out of the dorms and slip into her new hiding place. She wasn’t really sure why she was doing this, but she didn’t want to be the one to apologize. Why should she? She hadn’t done anything wrong. So, why was she the one hiding? She wasn’t really sure, but she continued to avoid Garrick for the next week. By the time the weekend came she felt a little sad. He had obviously given up on their friendship and he wasn’t even trying to find her anymore. So, on Saturday morning she finally braved going back to the garden. On Saturdays the school gardens tended to get a little busier with students. Bored with studying or hanging out in the common areas they would often go to the gyms or the gardens. She managed to find a place in a dark corner where no one would see or bother her. Giving up her friendship was harder than it was supposed to be. She thought. Why? She had gone through her old school without getting attached to anyone. And even those friends she had made hadn’t made her feel so lonely when she had left them to come to Mead Institute. What had made this friendship different? God! Why had they fought over something so stupid! This was dumb. Why did she have to keep secrets? He already knew her biggest secret and he had never abused that. Why did she feel that she had to be so guarded all the time? He had been nothing but a good friend to her. He didn’t keep secrets from her and she had gotten mad at him for being a concerned friend. How foolish. He had other friends and no problems with talking to other people. He had only befriended her out of pity and she had pushed him away. Now, he was fed up with all the secrets and had probably decided that his other friends were easier to be around. Lost in her own little world she hadn’t really noticed that someone was casting a shadow over her from behind. “Still avoiding me then?” Garrick’s low voice asked in an attempt to sound casual. She could hear the strain and felt the tiniest bit of relief that he hadn’t given up on her just yet. She didn’t turn around for fear that he would see her relief and laugh. “Would I be here?” she asked quietly.
“I suppose not,” he sighed heavily, “I’m sorry I get so nosy, Eartha. I just want you to be able to trust me… I mean, I haven’t told anyone any of your other secrets and it just kinda feels like a slap in the face every time you close yourself off to me.”
She finally looked at him, “You shouldn’t apologize for being a concerned friend,” she replied and then quickly dropped her eyes down to the ground, “And I do trust you… more than I’ve ever trusted anyone, well, except maybe my parents. Every time I start to talk to you about myself I hear a little voice in my head that says I’m talking too much. And I automatically get defensive. It’s not because of you, Garrick. It’s because any other time when I started to talk too much something bad would happen.”
“So, you run away,” he said simply, “You climb back in you shell and make sure no one has even the slightest chance to hurt you.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” she replied.
“I’m not going to tell anyone anything you say. I won’t hurt you, I promise,” he insisted.
“No one has ever purposely gone out of their way to hurt me… It just happens,” she explained.
“Well, not with me,” he argued and she just shrugged her shoulders. He finally felt that it was okay to sit down next to her so he did. Then she surprised him by leaning her head on his shoulder and saying, “I’m sorry for being so childish.”
“Well, that is what we are,” he reminded her lightly.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “It’s too bad we’re not allowed to be.” He put an arm around her to comfort. Their friendship had been mended and a huge weight was lifted off Eartha. Thay sat in silence for a while and then to break the silence Garrick asked, “Have you had any more of the visions this past week?”
“No,” she frowned because she hadn’t really realized how quiet her mind had been for the past week until he mentioned it, “I’m not sure if that’s a good sign or a bad sign. My dad always said that when the visions take a long time to come to him that it’s always because something bad is building up.”
“Maybe yours won’t be like that,” he offered. She nodded even though she didn’t really believe that. She had a feeling that her visions were just like her dad’s. So, what was next? This year had already begun badly and she had a feeling that it was only getting worse. She sighed heavily. She really needed to talk to her parents right now. Seeing them would make her feel a lot better. “Are you okay?” Garrick asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered back.