Chapter 8: Down the Rabbit Hole

[ Matt and Dick in hospital. Going to see if they're okay ]

Sarah responded fairly quickly,

[ Oh man what happened? ]

[ Not sure yet. Fight maybe? I'll keep you updated ]

I hadn't made it to the library yet. I headed straight for the bus stop. I hoped it wasn't too serious. What could have happened? As I rushed toward to bus, I texted Matt and Richard.

[ U ok? OMW ]

Neither got back to me. I sat on the bus hoping they were just busy and that it wasn't something more serious.

The triage nurse wasn't helpful at all. As far as she was concerned, the emergency room was far too busy and not meant for visitors. I understood her point of view, but it didn't seem like a particularly busy evening and I can't have been the only non-injured person to arrive at the ER. Mothers must be allowed to go with their children mustn't they? One downside of never being sick or injured throughout my childhood was that I lacked even a rudimentary understanding of how hospitals really worked.

Eventually I got the attention of one of the ER doctors. She was properly helpful. Apparently Matt was being observed for a possible concussion and Richard was having a cast applied to his lower leg because of a hairline fracture in his fibula. It was just as she finished giving me directions to Matt's cot, when I noticed that something wasn't right.

First, one of the nurses gave the doctor a strange look and then hurried off to talk to another nurse. It struck me as weird because the nurse had seemed so busy and harassed when I tried to talk to her, but she clearly wasn't expecting to see this doctor. Secondly, I noticed that this doctor wasn't wearing a name tag. Every other nurse or doctor I had seen or talked to was wearing a name tag.

It may have been paranoid, but I suddenly suspected this doctor may not be a doctor at all.

"One second," I said, pulling out my phone, "I have to take this."

She turned around and raised her eyebrows. Something about the intensity with which she looked at me reminded me of Garrick.

"Hey," I used the first name that came to mind, "Sarah," she wasn't on the phone, of course, but I needed a moment to think, "Yeah, I'm at the hospital, reception is horrible here. Give me a moment."

"Wait!" said the Doctor as I started to walk away.

"Yeah, can't really hear you, I'll get closer to the windows," I said into the phone and picked up the pace.

I didn't need to turn around to know that the doctor was starting to follow me. I had just stepped outside and was on the verge of deciding what to do next when an alarm sounded in the hospital. I heard the click as the hospital doors automatically locked themselves.

Pandemonium broke loose.

Within seconds every nurse was running around with purpose. The patients waiting in the emergency room were looking startled as the alarm continued to blare. Another doctor ran full tilt toward to nurse's station and the two leaned close as they urgently discussed something. The ambulance that had just pulled up quickly turned the flashing lights back on and drove away.

As suddenly as the alarm started, it stopped. A voice come over the intercom. It sounded pre-recorded.

"This building is under quarantine lockdown. Please do not leave the room you are currently in. If you are near a chair, please sit down. Await further instruction from the staff. Please remain calm and patient as we deal with the situation."

I stood outside the emergency room looking in through the glass panes on the doors. The nurses were keeping a level head. Nobody else was. One woman was shaking her child and screaming. Amid the chaos stood a doctor without a name tag. I'll not soon forget the stern look on her face as our eyes met.

I ran.

If anybody had seen me leave, they would try to include me in the quarantine. Three helicopters were already circling the building by the time I got off of the hospital grounds. I was more angry than I could ever remember being. I had no proof, but it felt as though this had been orchestrated to get at me. This was starting to get out of hand, I was going to have to deal with this. How though?

I knew of one way. I could start with Ms. Darraday and Mr. Malone. I didn't know where Mrs. Darray lived, but I'm sure the school records would show me. I would get them both and tear them limb from limb until I figured out the next person I would need to find to put an end to this.

Perhaps I would rip off their fingers. The first would be for Matt's concussion. The second and third would be for Richard's leg. I could cover myself in flames, adorn my head with horns, and put the fear of God into them. I could enlarge myself to twice my size. No, three times my size. I could pick up Garrick's oversized house and throw it at his head as he looked on in surprise. I would relish his final moments as he spent them learning that he had chosen to mess with the wrong guy.

"You want to play your idiotic game with me? Fine, but fuck with my friends in order to get at me and I will rip your fucking heart right out of your rib cage!"

I looked down at where my fist had connected with a tree. My arm was buried halfway up my forearm into the tree.

I took a deep breath.

I closed my eyes. From the arm buried in the tree, I let little tendrils grow. I made millions of them and each was smaller in diameter than a cell. Slowly and methodically, I started to undo the damage I had done to the tree. This part of the tree would still be dead, but it would be whole. With any luck, the tree might be able to breathe some life into this dead region once again.

Fixing the tree was both distracting and soothing, but the anger still simmered underneath. Why couldn't they just leave me alone? All I really wanted was to be left alone.

Okay. Killing people isn't going to solve this. They wanted my blood. If I could convince them there was nothing abnormal about my blood, then that may get them to leave me alone.

I shook my head.

That won't work. I accidentally created too big a mystery. They didn't and couldn't know that nobody was swapping out my blood samples. They couldn't know why I never got sick. Without answers to those questions, they would never be happy explaining away my math aptitude as a fluke of nature. I couldn't just convince them my blood was nothing special. I would need to create a puzzle that was tempting enough to distract them, but was also unsolvable.

DNA is very complicated. I, at least, had just about no understanding of it. Creating my DNA had been the equivalent of a creating a drawing by tracing a masterpiece onto a blank piece of paper. It hadn't required any know-how.

Was I under a time-limit to get this done? If the lockdown was done in order to trap me at the hospital, then they had orchestrated the event in this way in order to cover their tracks. The plan would have been flawless and relatively un-intrusive if it hadn't been for my prior knowledge that the Charms wanted my blood. It was entirely possible that I could have ended up stuck in that hospital and been none the wiser.

They were, however, getting bolder. Hurting Matt and Richard had not been part of their modus operandi thus far. This incident had a distinctly different feel to it. Moving forward, if they escalated, they would be coming directly for me. If I couldn't solve the issue regarding my blood before then, it would be very difficult to get away without revealing some part of myself.

These next few days might be crucial.

My thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing. I looked down where the fist-sized hole used to be in the tree and smiled. It looked almost as good as new. My phone showed caller unidentified. I pressed the talk button.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hello! Is this Mr. Blackburn?" Asked the voice on the other end.

"It is," I answered.

"I'm returning your call regarding the apartment 3 at 536 BeaverCreek Lane. Are you still interested in a viewing?"

"Oh! Yes, of course. I'm free all week after 4 pm," I answered.

"How about tomorrow afternoon at 5. Does that work for you?"

"Yes, I'll meet you there," I said.

"Thank you for your time. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," I replied as he hung up.

It was a basement apartment in a fairly low end neighbourhood. Even so, it was very inexpensive. It was close to a major bus line as well as a Laundromat. This apartment was likely my best chance at moving out. The hardest part would be convincing the landlord to rent out the apartment to a 16 year old. They weren't legally allowed to discriminate, but my experiences thus far had shown me that they did so anyway.

I called Sarah.

"Simon! How's Matt and Dick?" asked Sarah when she picked up.

"Hey, I think they're fine. The entire hospital is on lockdown, so I couldn't get inside"

"Oh my God. What happened?" she asked.

"Not really sure," I answered, "Want to hang out then?"

"Yeah, one sec, lemme check something," I waited while Sarah covered the mic with her hand, "hey, we're about to eat supper, if you can get here in 20 or so, you're welcome to join us again!"

I didn't have to think about that one, "More of your dad's cooking? Count me in!"

Sarah laughed.

"Okay, gotta run to get there in time! See you soon," I said.

"See ya!" said Sarah.

My plan for now was to continue acting as normal as possible. If you're playing a game of poker and you know the other guy has royal flush, you don't have to throw in your hand. There's another option. You can convince the other guy that you're not playing poker.

I made it to Sarah's house without incident. By the time I arrived, I had calmed down a lot. If they came after me directly, I decided, I would just disappear and start somewhere else. As much as I loved this life, it wasn't worth holding on to at the expense of those around me.

It was Rachel who answered the door and meekly let me in. Sarah's head popped out from around the corner in the kitchen. She grinned ear to ear.

"Just in time! We're just about done. Rach, can you set the table?" asked Sarah.

"I'll help," I offered.

"Simon. No. You're the guest!" said Sarah.

For some reason, she was in a really good mood. It was infectious and before I got the shoes off of my feet, I was already feeling a bit better. I walked into the kitchen.

"Hello Simon, I'm Aeslin. Nice to meet you," said the man who suddenly appeared as I rounded the corner.

I shook his hand. He looked like he was in his early-twenties, "Sarah's older brother I assume?"

"Why yes, indeed!" he smiled. His smile and bright blond hair both reminded me forcibly of Sarah.

"Aeslin, that's a cool name. Where's it from?" I asked.

"It's Celtic!" enthused Aeslin, "Our mom's Scottish."

"Sarah and Rachel aren't Celtic names are they?" I asked.

Aeslin smiled, "Very astute. Dad got to pick the girls' names and mom got to pick the boys'," he said, then added in a stage whisper, "She's still upset that she got the worse end of the deal. Only one boy."

Sarah came over and patted Aeslin on the back, "What mom wouldn't have given to turn me and Rachel into boys, eh?"

"Nope!" came Carl's voice from the stove, "You girls are mine! I'll let the wife keep 'what's his name' over there."

We laughed at that.

"Scuse me," said Rachel quietly at my shoulder. I shuffled out of the way with an apology so she could set the table.

"There're two extra settings," I noticed aloud, "Are we expecting some more people?"

"Why yes," said Aeslin, "The entire gang is going to be here."

"Speaking of which," said Sarah, "We should get sleeping beauty up."

Aeslin shook his head, "No way," then he turned to me to explain, "Karen worked the nightshift for a biology experiment and didn't get to sleep until, like, 1 PM today. I'm not waking her up until I absolutely have to."

"Maybe," said Sarah, "She'd be happy to have some time to wake up before mom gets here."

"Ah," I said, "Your mom's going to be here."

"Yeah!" said Sarah, "You're going to meet everybody."

I wondered who Karen was. As far as I knew, Sarah only had one brother and one sister.

With the table set, Carl came over and placed a covered pot on the table. That's when I noticed his watch. It was a nice watch. Circling the face of the watch was an intricate pattern that intertwined upon itself until it simplified at the bottom of the watch. There, embedded into the casing of the watch, was a gem. A very familiar gem.

You have got to be kidding me.

The gem appeared to be entirely see-through at first glance, but really careful inspection revealed a slightly yellow tint. It was significantly less noticeably yellow then Kerry's mother's gem. If that gem's colour meant what I thought it meant, then Sarah's mother must be a pros. I steadied myself mentally. Why would he be wearing that watch today? Was it a message?

I turned to Sarah, "What does your mom look like?" I asked, picturing the nameless doctor from the hospital.

Aeslin jumped in, "Just imagine Rachel all grown up. If they were the same age, you'd swear they were twins."

Rachel blushed under my gaze as I studied her. Like Sarah, she was blond. Her face was angular. She looked almost nothing like the redhead doctor at the hospital. I smiled.