A Bleeding Heart

by Psychoflop

Can a heart transplant be given in time?

p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Chapter 1: Behold the Pale Scot/span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"emA JVC Everio generation 9 camcorder turns on, focusing on a brown-haired child with glasses dressed in an all black winter jacket, thick black pants, black touchscreen-sensitive gloves and white winter boots./em/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"Just because the original me chose to return to being a human being, doesn't mean that it was right for all of us./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Don't get me wrong, I /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"do /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"enjoy being a kid once more. /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"Well, I would enjoy being a kid, if I wasn't looking after my sick mother /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"for the last few years/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;". Yes everyone, the Aisling formerly known as the Skull Girl /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"is /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"here. And once again, I have to act beyond my years in order to save the day and be the hero. But this time /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"around/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;", I'm not a superhero to a bunch of film or fighting crime /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"in a major metropolis/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;", I'm just a glorified personal caregiver /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"these days/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;". My mommy, Heather, is not doing so well. Her respiratory problems can be managed via inhalers (the doctor back home THINKS that it's asthma, but specialists think that it's something else...they just don't know what /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"it is that's specifically wrong with her/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"). Her heart problems on the other hand, are much worse. The only debate with her heart is whether she needs a heart transplant, gene therapy, or both. The medical scene in Scotland, and all of the UK /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"for that matter/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;", is very strict compared to the rest of Europe, but we're allowed to cross country lines /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"in order/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" to get better coverage, which is what we're doing /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"right/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" now. I found a pair of doctors in Bratislava (1 surgeon, 1 geneticist, /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"to be precise/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;") /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"that were willing to see us, so we packed what we needed and left Scotland /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"(despite them being, shall we say, "outside our standard coverage")/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;". My mother was healthy enough to drive to London, but from there we hopped on the /spanemspan style="text-decoration: none;"New Orient Express/span/emspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" to cross the English Channel, through France and we got out in Vienna (so, about the halfway point of the train's journey). Vienna was an option, but none of the doctors took me seriously (I don't blame them. I'm /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"just/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" a kid and don't speak /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"any /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"German. /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Mom tried, but her current condition makes it hard to properly enunciate/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"). So I chose Bratislava /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"instead/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;", which had its' own challenges: /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"Namely, no roads for cars or any reliable trains /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"or buses/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;". I actually called the doctors to not only make an appointment, but to ask for advice. Dr. Hillerup actually suggested that we /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"r/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"ent a buckboard, wagon and 2 horses in Vienna and travel like the pioneers of the North American frontier times /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"did in the 19/span/spansupspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"th/span/span/supspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" century/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;". I'm not sure as to what was scarier: That Dr. Hillerup spoke /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"perfect/span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" English, or that there was somewhere in Vienna in the 21/span/spansupspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;"st/span/span/supspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="text-decoration: none;" century that actually rented buckboards, wagons and horses. Hold on for a moment:/span/span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"emspan style="text-decoration: none;"The camera then showed /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"Aisling gently yank/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"ing/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" on the brown leather straps, indicating to the 2 Black Stallions to stop /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"immediately/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;". They oblige/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"d/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;", and the camera catches Aisling thumbing through a pile of carrots inside /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"the black tarped wooden wagon. Aisling grabs 4 carrots, feeding 2 each to the horses./span/em/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;""Here you go Sef and Ben, 1 more snack before we reach our destination. We're only a few kilometres away, then you guys can rest for a couple of days. I better go check on mommy too, while we're stopped"/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"emThe camera lens tries to adjust its' lens to capture Aisling as she carefully walks along the makeshift wooden floor to her mother in the back of the wagon, but is not successful./em/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;""Everio, please switch to night vision" blurted out Aisling, indicating that she had forgotten to say it a few seconds earlier./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"emThe camera does as instructed, showing a Heather Stitt paler and more gaunt than any we've seen before./em/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;""How are you feeling, mommy?" asked Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;""About as banged up as I was after the Battle of Philadelphia. But I was expecting that when we left Scotland." she replied in between coughs./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;""Well, we're out of Austria now. We entered Slovakia a little while ago. We'll be there in...about half an hour or so." said Aisling as she hugged her mother./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;""span style="font-style: normal;"How tragic, that a town with a world-renowned surgeon and geneticist working together is so rural that there isn't even a train station. Bloody hell, I'd settle for a bus stop." said Heather with some strength in her voice, but with great strength, came great coughs./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;""span style="font-style: normal;"From what Dr. Hillerup implied, they're so far off the city's book, half the city doesn't know that they /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"exist, and most of the city doesn't want them to if they found out" replied Aisling with some dread in her voice./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"span style="font-style: normal;"They laughed, h/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"er mother nodded and watched as Aisling returned to the /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"front of the carriage. /span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"emAisling then moved the camera back to its' first position. She then uses the leather straps to very gently whip the horses into moving again./em/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"span style="font-style: normal;"It's a beautiful sunset right now, but there's a different air, a different vibe in Slovakia than there has been in the countries we've been too. Scotland (and later, England) felt like home, so I felt safe there. The English Channel felt warm, as half of what I felt along the sea was home, and the other half was the elegant vibe of France /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"(which increased once we entered /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"the European mainland via the town of /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"Calais)/spanspan style="font-style: normal;". Mommy actually speaks French very well for some reason, so we were very well taken care of on the Orient Express despite only being economy class. It was a shame that we couldn't stop long enough to scale up the Eiffel Tower /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"or see the Louvre/spanspan style="font-style: normal;", but I'm acutely aware that where mommy is concerned, we're on borrowed time. /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"That would be why we changed trains in less than 10 minutes despite my mother's condition actually (How she didn't have an asthma attack in that crowd, I'll never know). Our next stop was Strasbourg, a town on the French/German border (and as what my mommy's friend once told us, half of his worlds have the town in France, /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"whereas /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"the other half /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"have the town in /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"Germany). The vibe there was Class meets Industry (if a car maker had a plant here, it would take over the world /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"within a decade/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"). Once we entered Germany, I could feel that almost everyone in the country worked hard, and /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"with/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" my /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"mom's /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"German /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"being/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" better than m/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"ine,/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" s/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"he/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" was able to negotiate one of the crew /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"to /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"look after /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"her/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" for an hour while an engineer took me on a tour of the train. Ever since I read /spanemSuspects/emspan style="font-style: normal;", I've had a fascination with trains (which I'm sure Mr. Pirate /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"also/spanspan style="font-style: normal;" has to some degree) and the switching from a steam train to a coal train to now an electric one over the course of about 130 years /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"fascinated me as well /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"(The engineer's English was quite good)/spanspan style="font-style: normal;". The Orient Express could actually serve as an allegory for the history of the industrial age. Then again, if someone were to write a book about the Orient Express, it would probably be about someone rich getting killed or something. /spanspan style="font-style: normal;"Anyways, after Germany was Austria and I love the vibe of sophistication that I received from that country, too bad it was the country we spent the least time in. We had less than an hour to rent the wagon for the rest of our journey or we would be stranded in Vienna for the night. Normally, we wouldn't mind this as between the coffee shops, bookstores and the boys choir, we would have a decent night ahead of us. But between our budget and mom's health, we're glad we got to the stables in time. We didn't get the fastest or nicest looking horses either, but we got them for the price of a meal at a cheap curry house back home. The terrain from Vienna to Bratislava has...not exactly been the smoothest. My rear end has some bruises on it despite some rudimentary leather upholstery for me to sit on (I think they took it off of a car from a/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"n impound lot or a garage posing as a chop shop) so I can only imagine how my mom feels right now./span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;"emAisling then turns the camera turns to the right, showing a sign that reads "Vitajte v Bratislave" (Welcome to Bratislava), then the camera turns back to Aisling./em/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"We'll be checking into somewhere for lodging shortly. Admittedly, the internet was quite vague about places to stay in Slovakia or all of Eastern Europe for that matter, it's as if they don't want Westerners here...at all. I better go, the battery is about to die./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Is that the last time we have to walk down to the end of the street to accept phone calls?" asked Aaron Chapman who came into an old barn dressed in a straw hat, a brown, moose-skin coat, blue jean overalls, and other assorted warm clothing./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Nah, it's my turn for the first call tomorrow morning. Let's start closing up for the day" replied Mark Gouthro wearing similar attire despite not having been outside recently./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"While the nearest phone was about a quarter of a kilometre down the road, Chapman and Gouthro Farming Industries could've had it a lot worse (some businesses in town had no access to phones at all and had to rely on word of mouth and walk-ins in order to survive). Each of them would walk to the phone every 20 minutes to take a call pre-arranged for them while the other would handle the walk-ins. There were over a dozen businesses that used this phone, so a lot of bartering was needed in order to ensure all of them prospered./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Mark Gouthro got here first, settling in Slovakia not long after he graduated from High School (Late 2002). After spending a little time in juvenile hall for assault as a teenager, he wanted to make a clean break from his life in Canada so that he didn't fall back into any of his old habits with any of his old crowd. He had originally intended to settle in the United States or somewhere else that was English speaking, but the programs to help immigrants get started in Slovakia benefited Mark greatly. This world's Slovakia had a government in place where they would only keep half the money raised by taxes. The other half went to 1 unified charity that only agreed to help people on a case by case basis. Mark knew going into the application process that already having something of a criminal record was going to be one strike against him, but his willingness to actually learn Slovak and his appreciation for agriculture (vouched for by a childhood friend with a few connections) lead Mark to winning 2 small grants: 1 to take language classes and the other for apprenticing in animal feeding. He enjoyed the relative peace and quiet here, being almost completely removed from his past (he even turned down additional grants a few years later so that he could avoid being in stories written by the same childhood friend who set him up, in order to avoid his past finding him). Technically his past did find him, just one of the more pleasant people of it. An Aaron that Mark knew almost as long as Aaron Collins, actually./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aaron Chapman had a penchant for making metal repairs since he was a child, which culminated in him getting the same Slovak language grant that Mark received (just several years later) to go with a blacksmithing apprenticeship that he had already attained in Canada (which was not achieved by grant, but by working 60 hours a week as a waiter at a steakhouse called The Keg). Upon finding Mark here, they decided to go in as partners as it was disturbingly common for people to need both of their services at the same time anyway (mostly in the form of Mark feeding a horse and providing some hay for it while Aaron repaired or rebuilt a horse shoe). They only just recently were able to afford the barn that covered their heads (which also served as their living quarters with 2 makeshift bedrooms, a makeshift kitchen and an outhouse that was mostly built by Aaron in the back). The reason why you haven't heard of this guy in the Aaronverse yet: He thought that it would be too confusing for him to be in stories written by another Aaron with the last initial being the letter "C", so he graciously opted out of the main Aaron's work. Mark was actually slightly better at Math than Aaron was, so he let Mark do the number crunching while Aaron did the cleaning duties./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I was afraid of this" said Mark, before adding "We're either at the highest point of the 8% tax bracket, or the lowest of the 9%"./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aaron reluctantly nodded, having seen this coming for the better part of the last 2 months. This world's one and only tax is a sliding scale dependent on quarterly income. If you made less than 3500 Euro a quarter, you were not taxed at all (and were most eligible for charity or government grants in order to improve your life), 3500-5000 Euro a quarter was the minimum tax of 5%, 5000-7500 Euro a quarter was 6%, 7500-10000 Euro a quarter was 7%, 10000-12500 Euro a quarter was 8%, everything more than 12500 a quarter was taxed the maximum of 9%./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Want to go over the quarter tonight?" asked Aaron./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Mark thought about it for a moment, but ultimately shook his head "There's no point. The period to mail off everything for the quarter starts at 11:59pm tomorrow night, we'll go over it tomorrow, but keep the door locked."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aaron nodded, saying "I know you're not required to 'show me the books', even though we're partners. But I do appreciate it."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I believe in being transparent with you, like our adopted home's government. In fact, I honestly don't even see why more business owners aren't like that to their partners and staff." said Mark./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I hope for the day when we get to hire a staff" stated Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Me too" replied Mark with a smile./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Are we too late?" asked a small child, holding the hand of her mother. Mark and Aaron smiled, as it was rare to have a customer that spoke their native English (Scottish accent or no Scottish accent)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Technically yes, but the fire is still going. Need a wagon repair?" asked Aaron after he got a nod from Mark, indicating that they'll stay up for one more job./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Nothing like that. We're looking for some cheap lodging in town and directions to get there, please." replied the mother, who looked like she was leaning on her child for support in order just to stand up./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""The Droog is just down the street. I'm not gonna lie to you, it's only a backpackers hostel, but it's cheap and the staff are English-speaking." said Mark with a smile./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you gentlemen" said the Scottish kid with a smile on her face. She then held up 5 fingers near her mom, who nodded. Mark knew this to be a question of tipping for advice rendered, a common occurrence (and courtesy) on this world./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Mark then noticed the severity of the older lady's cough, and waived off the offer./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""First piece of advice is free, kid. Actually, ma'am we have a little of that candy that's genetically engineered to improve cardio and pulmonary function. It came from a job we did last week. You're welcome to it if you'd like"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh yes please" said the elder woman. Mark then got a small box out from under a nearby oak table and gave it and its' contents to the ladies./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you, kind sir" said the younger woman. Aaron and Mark nodded as the ladies left./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Would you mind telling me why we did that?" asked Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Remember that 'other' Aaron we knew when we were kids?" asked Mark./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aaron nodded./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I think that was Heather and her kid." said Mark. Aaron's eyes widened. They both ran outside and shouted "We're down with the pirate, too"/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aisling gave a thumbs up and smiled./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The Droog was well known throughout all of Eastern Europe as one of the few hostels that actually treated it's customers well and wasn't rampant with robbery (or worse crimes). Most of the rooms were designed to be shared by groups of 2 or 4 people, in a manner that resembled college dorms. Each room had enough beds for people to sleep alone, and a shared bathroom. But there was one kitchen meant to be shared by everyone (the hostel could hold about 200 people but the kitchen and adjacent shared dining area would be cramped past 50) as well as one social area that was effectively one very large living room. One unique feature to The Droog was a surprisingly extensive library separate to the shared living room. It actually resembled the study of a country mansion, minus the fact that the chairs and bookcases looked liked they were found a piece at a time in used furniture stores (or more accurately, along the curbs of people houses and then reupholstered as best as possible). All of the furniture (including in the owner's office) actually looked like this across the entire hostel. One of many things used in order to keep costs down./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Doug Droog bought the place at a private auction after coming into money as a result of an "out of court" settlement with his former employer back in his native Canada (which, for legal reasons cannot be mentioned in this story, except that it rhymes with 'shmegacy') for pennies on the dollar of what the land was worth by itself. Unfortunately, his timing could not have been any worse. He looked in a knockoff of an antique mirror, put his long red hair back in a simple ponytail and looked at you, constant reader, old chum./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I guess it's my turn to break the 4supth/sup wall in this Aaronverse. So yeah, basically a month after I bought this place, that stupid 'Hostel' movie came out. It was an OK movie, if you're into the Torture Porn sub-genre of horror films. But what it did was lead people all over the world to believe that EVERY hostel in the world was that seedy and depraved, especially those in Eastern Europe, double especially in this country. So I knew I was going to spend at least the first 2 years, if not 3 in the red as it came to my books, and in order to minimize the financial bleeding, I didn't hire anyone, at all. I did all of my own books (still do, actually), brought in all of the furniture, fixed it up, did all of the bookings (still do that too), did all of the maintenance (still do that too, as I witnessed in my last job how even infrequently hiring a maintenance guy wasn't cheap), all of the concierge work (still do that too) and finally, all of the cooking and cleaning...I don't do those anymore, not since I had my first profitable year and rewarded myself by hiring someone to do the stuff that I either wasn't good at or just didn't want to do anymore. Enter Rob Barrett!"/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"As if on cue, a gentleman with long black hair (also in a ponytail, like Doug), a white dress shirt and black pants walked into the scene's field of view./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Library's clean." said Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Take a break, make yourself something for supper." replied Doug. Rob nodded, but the focus shifted to him instead of remaining on Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""It wasn't just Doug having his first profitable year that lead to my being hired. Most of the business in this town was still going to the Holiday Inn on the opposite end of town. Generally speaking, people would rather spend more money to lower the risk of a crime being committed against them. Don't get me wrong, I'm more sympathetic to the customers being paranoid of our line of lodging than Doug is (especially since this seems to be one of the many Aaronworlds that seems to have a Europe dominated by mugging and other kinds of petty crime). I know about the Holiday Inn because I actually got my start there in their cleaning department after I left Newfoundland when their fishing industry collapsed. I was about to start a night shift on a Friday that I wasn't supposed to work (I had been asked on the previous shift to work overtime, as I don't have a phone, no one in this town does) and when I got there, half of the hotel was on fire. I knew where the nearest phone box was (and unlike most Aaronworlds, these boxes are free like the ones that are on most highways and not...what were they called in Aaron's stories?...Oh right, pay phones) so I ran to it immediately and called our private fire department. They did get to us immediately (an advantage to being their biggest customer), but the damage was done. We were basically told by the head office in New York (by telegram as computers are an even bigger rarity than phones in this country) that it would take over 2 years to renovate the hotel and that we were basically shit out of luck. Most of my now former co-workers actually moved to the Czech Republic or Germany (as they missed modern technology). A few moved to Hungary (as they hated technology completely). Come to think of it, I might have been the only one that stayed in this country and that's only because I got a job offer from Doug almost immediately after it happened. The fire was determined to have started in the kitchen (which exonerated me from any wrongdoing as I hadn't been in there in over a week, something my now former boss vouched for, thankfully), and by the time construction had even started, I was on Doug's payroll. I'm working a lot harder, but the money is a lot better and Doug was nice enough to just give me the caretaker's suite (a large 1 bedroom apartment that I gradually converted from being a small 2 bedroom with a private kitchen, small living room and bathroom) which cut down on my weekly expenses tremendously (rent here is typically paid on a weekly basis, not a monthly one)./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Barrett, sorry to cut your break short, but we got 2 for 1 room." shouted Doug from the front desk. We follow Rob back to the front of the Droog and encounter Heather and Aisling. Rob seems to have found his boss in mid-conversation./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes, we can park your wagon in the back. But you're responsible for feeding the horses and we're not responsible if the horses go missing for any reason." said Doug, giving an answer to a question that Rob missed./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""That's fair enough. We'd like as private a room as you have for 1 week, please." said Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Well, we do have one private room in the hostel. It's vacant, but 2 conditions:" started Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Go on" replied Aisling, after she gulped nervously./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""There are no windows as it's technically in the middle of the building" continued Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Fair enough, that will be better for my mom" said Aisling while nodding./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""And the second one is?" asked Heather in between coughs./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Can we have your autograph?" asked Doug as he pulled out a sealed issue #1 of a comic book labelled "Skull girl". Heather smiled and nodded in Aisling's direction, who obliged (she was also smiling). Rob then snapped into action, grabbing the ladies' bags and heading for the room./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Contrary to most of the city, Dr. Sherry Ripa and Dr. Lianna Hillerup were not technologically impaired./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"To some extent, some of the town knew about this and at least tolerated it (if not welcomed) as Dr. Ripa was a world-renowned surgeon. The most advanced machines or tools often made the difference between saving a life and not. Dr. Hillerup worked here under the guise as her assistant, but in reality was an up and coming geneticist. She had developed something of a reputation as a witch doctor, due to her talent at either a) fixing things that weren't going to be a problem until later (which she explained to each patient in very simple terms, which kept her from being driven out of the city by the natives), b) fixing things without the need for Dr. Ripa at all (which she refrained from explaining as much as possible, given that it was over 100 years ahead of the lifestyle that almost everyone in Bratislava was accustomed to) or c) adding a layer of repair to Dr. Ripa's work that could not done with a traditional scalpel and stitches. They operated out of a basement of a red house so large that it was labelled "Červený hrad" (The Red Castle) by the natives. Inside looked as close to a sterile Doctor's Office and Operating Room as one could make in a place like this. Stainless steel operating table, White Cabinets, White Neon lighting, a stainless steel sink and a waiting room consisting of 4 old felt chairs (1 green, 1 black, 1 white that was heavily stained and 1 dark blue, with all 4 of them likely picked up at dumpsters in another country and then cleaned as much as possible) and 4 bookcases filled with books of all genres./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Let's go over our latest patient" declared Sherry as she and Lianna left the operating room via a false back in a wooden cabinet (where they put their lab coats). Trap doors and secret passageways were commonplace in the richer parts of Eastern Europe. This was one the simpler ones, being a tunnel to a large green room with 2 antique desks, 2 black plastic office chairs and another bookshelf (only this one was smaller and only held medical and science journals). Lianna then took out a black binder with the word "patients" written on a white card posted along the spine./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Male, Aged 54, Caucasian, came from our part of the world in Toronto, Canada. Diagnosed with terminal Glioblastoma (Brain Cancer) located 5 centimetres above the right ear. Traditional surgery removed the tumour via a triangular incision in the form of an upside down "Y shape" was successful. Genetic analysis revealed a defect in the sub-chromosome most directly responsible for the formation of glial tissue and was reversed via gene therapy. In exchange for his silence as to how he was fixed until he leaves Easter Europe, we gave him a great referral for follow-up appointments in Ottawa. We also provided some advice as to how to get out of Bratislava quickly and quietly, along with a pamphlet detailing how to make the most of his gene therapy" stated Lianna quietly./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I admit that before gene therapy, removing the tumour was a band-aid solution for most people even in conjunction with chemotherapy and/or radiation. Still, you need to take out the initial problem before you can go in to stop recurrences at the genetic level." stated Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""For now, you're right. This time next decade, we'll be able to stop all of the major cancers before they start almost as soon as someone is born. And that's just cancer, imagine every other disease and other genetic defect. Life will undoubtedly find some way to adapt to the breakthrough, but on the conservative end we could have someone live to 150 years old comfortably." replied Lianna./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""See, this is why I am weary of geneticism: I don't really want to live that long, even if I still feel pretty good when I get there. And I'm sure that I'm not alone in that field of view. And that's not taking the sociological concerns with that into consideration. We're likely to hit a population of 9 billion people before you're my age, much less when you're 100 or 150 years old." countered Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""We should probably lower our voices, as there may be a local who is anti-technology with a torch walking around the neighbourhood" said Lianna./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sherry nodded in unconditional agreement with Lianna. Lianna scratched her backside./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Is something wrong?" the elder doctor asked the younger one./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh uh, no. I, uh, bruised my tailbone" replied Lianna. Sherry gave her an odd look, but said nothing./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Chapter 2: Typical Balmoral Sunday/span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;"Slovakia was traditionally /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"a /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"Catholic /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"nation/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;", and so Sunday was the day of rest for nearly every business in the country. While Mark and Aaron did not completely cease operations that day (/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"as /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"they were Anglican), they did not take any new customers on the Sabbath. Instead they used the shop to calculate the /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"previous/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" week's profits. It was also close to the time where quarterly taxes were due from every business owner, so Mark and Aaron /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"(especially Mark)/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" took extra care to get all of the math right./span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"How's it looking?" asked Aaron as he returned from the other side of the barn with 2 plates of breakfast (both bacon and eggs)./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh, I was way off in what I said to you last night. We're actually only going to be in the 7% bracket as I had forgotten that buying firewood is no longer a legal tax deductible." replied Mark./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I was wondering why my wallet didn't feel heavier." said Aaron (barely fighting off laughter), who put each plate on a nearby unused oak table with 2 chairs./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""You've been putting away the max 9% into the safe every week, right?" asked Mark. Aaron nodded and walked over to a safe located in the back of the barn on the left hand side. It was black, and almost entirely sold steel minus the dial and handle, /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"those of /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"which w/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"ere/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" made of brass. After dialling once to the right, once to the left, then back to the right (reaching the numbers 4, 19 and 83 in that order) before a soft "click" noise was made (indicating that the safe was now unlocked). Aaron then grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled, opening the safe door. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, he just grabbed all of the money and put it in front of Mark. Mark then looked up to the barn's ceiling, as if he was deep in thought. After a moment of that, he set aside /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"160 Euro Dollars from the main pile of 720, then set it into 2 piles of 80 Euro Dollars, before giving 1 of the piles to Aaron./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So that's my refund?" asked Aaron. Mark nodded./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'll probably take myself out to dinner somewhere downtown and put the rest in my home safe. So that's 560 Euros that's going to the government?" asked Aaron./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Mark shook his head before replying "No, 280 Euros is going to the government. The other 280 is going to the Unified Alliance of Charities. They'll use it to decide which homeless person gets a meal in the sandwich lottery three times a day or which poor kid goes to college or something along those lines."/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aaron had flashbacks to when he needed to use the sandwich lottery, early on in his arrival to Slovakia. He lucked out a few times and gotten a sandwich now and again before he was on Mark's payroll. He even wondered if Mark ever needed them (or anything from charity after his first grants, for that matter)./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""How's it looking over there?" asked Rob as he peaked his head around to the front desk, seeing Doug with a notepad and a pencil./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""2nd Quarter in a row where I hit the maximum 9%. I think the hostel will be OK from now on." replied Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Done making the beds and cleaning the bathrooms. I think that's it for me for the day." said Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh of course, the rest of the day is yours." replied Doug, dismissing him via a nonverbal hand gesture./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Actually, I was wondering if I could use the front desk to go over my own numbers." offered Rob. Doug then tore off 2 pieces of paper and put his pencil on the desk (black and white marble), before saying "Be my guest, I have to get my taxes from the safe in my private office."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Fair enough, I won't be long" said Rob./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Rob was a man of his word as he was done all of his taxes in less than 10 minutes. He actually beat Doug's return from his safe by about 30 seconds./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""How did you make out?" asked Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I missed the 6% bracket by about 10 bucks, so 5% minimum for me again. I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. Between the tips that I get from handling bags and me NOT wanting to be asking the Unified Charities for anything, I have it great working for you at The Droog." said Rob with a smile./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Doug had anticipated Rob saying something like this for some time now, and politely nodded as he bent over, grabbing what would pass for Rob's employee personnel file. He flipped to the page that stated the financial side of Rob's career and erased the "4" on the thousands digit and put a "5" there instead./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""5500 Euro a quarter? Wow, thank you so much" said Rob, on the verge of crying as he was so happy./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""You deserve it. That should put you in the 6% bracket, and you can still keep your tips." replied Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Do we still have any envelopes to mail our taxes?" asked Rob. Doug nodded and put each of his and Rob's taxes into separate envelopes. Rob nodded and non-verbally agreed to take both envelopes to the mailbox./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Doug then grabbed a bag with green leaves in it that he had bought off of a gypsy./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Boy am I glad that he didn't use that second piece of paper" he mumbled as he grabbed a nearby pepper grinder that he took from the kitchen and put in his pocket./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Well, I've been expecting this envelope for some time." said Sherry dryly./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Slovakia has a publisher's clearing house?" asked Lianna sarcastically./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No silly, we're being audited by the government." replied Sherry, unamused at Lianna's attempt to lighten the mood in this serious situation./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What for? Because the Slovakian government is that afraid of having a geneticist in their country?" asked Lianna, who was sounding completely dumbfounded. Sherry had already opened the envelope and was currently deep into reading the contents of the audit./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Well, in legal terms, they're basically saying that they don't believe we're the only people working in the sciences who aren't in the maximum 9% bracket." stated Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""It's actually a pretty simple solution: Present the books to the government. Slovakian law: If you can prove the auditor wrong you get immunity from paying taxes for an entire year." said Lianna with a smile, enjoying the possibility of 12 months of having a few extra Euro dollars in her pocket each week./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh the books are already over there." said Sherry as she pointed to them. Lianna walked over to them, mumbling "God, you really were prepared." After a few moments of flipping through each books pages, she was startled to discover that something was wrong./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""These notes, are only for what we made off of your surgery. None of my Gene Therapy transactions are here." stated Lianna, worried at the ramifications./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes, I kept them off the books because that's how scared people are of what you do. So I put the surgeries under both of our names" stated Sherry with a smile./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""That means I'm technically guilty of Tax Evasion, we could go to jail. And this isn't an Aaronworld where prisons are in the government budget every year. So we'll probably be subjected to 18supth/sup century living conditions...at best."/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The bell then rang as Sherry was trying to silence Lianna./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""On a positive note, we have new customers." said Sherry as she walked towards the staircase. "Oh good, the Scots have finally arrived."/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Lianna momentarily put her hands to her mouth, indicating pain in her gums and teeth./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"I have to take my mom's hand to lead her down the stairs, but I'm used to that (staircases in the United Kingdom are alarmingly narrow so I actually enjoy the width of this one. It'll be nice to finally get an official diagnosis as to what's wrong with mom. The problems with her lungs are probably just asthma and repeated damage from bronchitis, but no doctor back home can figure out what's wrong with her heart. Is it damage caused by the lung stuff? Is it something entirely separate?/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Also, I find it weird that the locals call this place "The Red Castle". It's literally nothing more than a decent-sized house that just happens to be painted red. In any event, I'm happy that we finally made it (and that Mom survived the trip, we were warned by the "Doctors" back home that it was an even 50/50 that she would get to Bratislava alive. I guess they didn't factor in Mom's stubborn determination). There's only 2 doctors here: A black-haired woman that I'm guessing is about 15 years older than Mom and a younger girl that's about 5-7 years younger than Mom (still, that's over 20 years older than me and not all that far from Mr. Pirate's age, actually. Yes Mr. Pirate, I can still feel you writing me, even as my human self again). There is technically a waiting area (with some very nice books to choose from, in fact I'm a bit nervous to touch them as some of these books look like they're from before 1900), but with no customers in front of us, we're both waved right in. This Dr. Ripa lady is very friendly, but she seems to be hiding something from us...that is not directly related to my mom's current predicament, so I won't push the matter publicly. Doctor...Hillerup seems to be a lot more reserved, to a point of even being a bit fidgety at times. But I can tell that something is weighing very heavily on her mind...actually a couple of different things. Part of me longs to be the Skull Girl again, as I could pinpoint what was going on with these 2 doctors almost immediately. Actually, I'd probably keep quiet for the time being anyway and investigate later, as I don't even think my Mom's aforementioned stubborn determination will be enough for her to get back to Scotland alive./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Take a seat, Miss Stitt's" I hear Dr. Ripa. Both mom and I nod and comply (I even giggle at us both being addressed at once). This examination is definitely more in-depth than the ones we get back home. Oh jeez, I didn't hand these 2 my mom's file when we walked in. I hand it over to Dr. Hillerup immediately, then squeeze my mom's hand. Dr. Hillerup gives me what I think is a nod of re-assurance (as in, my forgetting to hand her my Mom's medical history will not adversely my mom's chances of survival)./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I think we're both going to be needed on this one." announced Dr. Hillerup./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What makes you say that?" I ask./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""We're frequent readers and occasional characters in Aaron's writings too. Based on the clues that he's left behind, your mother is usually born within the last week of the year, correct?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"My mom nods, then her eyes widen in horror "I was born November 12supth/sup here. I was born almost 7 weeks premature in a country whose healthcare system was at an all-time low in the 1970's. So all of this is caused by the fact that my time in an incubator didn't develop me properly?"/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Both Dr. Ripa and Dr. Hillerup nod, then Dr. Ripa adds "While asthma is alarmingly common in premature babies born before about 1990 or so, your heart didn't develop properly either. It seems to be only one valve that suffered, or else you probably would've died giving birth to Aisling, and certainly wouldn't be alive by now."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I did flatline post-labour about a minute after Aisling was born, but I was only 'gone' for about 20 seconds." said my mom. The pieces of the puzzle are finally falling into place, but it's not a puzzle we like doing./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So, what's the prognosis?" I ask. Dr. Ripa and Dr. Hillerup (Oh my god, Sherry and Lianna working together? How clever of you, Mr. Pirate!) seem shocked that I know a word that big. Ladies, we've spent too much time in hospitals for me not to know that word (and a few others that most kids don't)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Well, your mom is about a decade or so overdue for a heart transplant. Might I suggest a malpractice lawsuit against the City of Glasgow?" asked Sherry. I shake head no before adding "If we won, we'd basically be blacklisted against the National Health Service. So we'd have to move to Ireland or France for medical coverage."/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Lianna nodded at Sherry, backing up my answer before she said "Then we're going to go through your mom's entire genome (that's a new word for me, I must admit) and fix what the incubator couldn't. Plus it'll make sure that your mom's body won't reject her new heart."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""As I understand it, if the heart came from within her own family, her odds would improve, right?" I blurt out without thinking./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Aisling, NO!" shouted my mom. Sherry raises her hand, like she's telling mom "I've got this". After clearing her throat, she explained "A very noble gesture on your part, don't get us wrong. But you're too young to legally donate blood in this country, much less an organ that would kill you if you didn't have it anymore. Furthermore, you're actually a different blood type than your mother as well."/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"I nod in understanding, then I turn to Lianna "Type AB recessive from my dad 'turned on' inside of me, right?" She gives a thumbs up in approval./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""We're going to take a trip to the main hospital to see if they have any hearts available. You're free to wait here. Read a book or 2 to pass the time"/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Mom nods in approval, I follow suit./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Chapter 3: Returns, and not Tax returns at that/span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"It turns out that Rob Barrett spent most of his "day off" at the hostel where he worked, reading. Doug (his boss) didn't mind all that much, as most of their guests were out and about, enjoying the small town charm that was Bratislava./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"At least, the small town charm that the tourists saw. Doug and Rob, living here, didn't really notice it (except when they acted as concierges to the aforementioned guests). They decided to have lunch together, and in a twist, Doug actually cooked for Rob./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""Thank you, this looks amazing." said Rob to Doug as his eyes went over a very large platter of Nachos. There were a mixture of thin white and thick blue corn chips, 3 different cheeses (Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack and Cheddar), Salsa (a mild one with black beans and garlic/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"), Sour Cream and thinly chopped green onions. On the side were a small, clear jar of pickled jalapenos and a medium sized white plate of cooked ground beef./span/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""You're not into spice, are you?" asked Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""No. Aaron once described that part of me as a multiversal constant" /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"replied Doug, with a touch of sadness in his voice./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Our Aaron is no longer on the planet, is he? I haven't seen him in over 15 years" stated Rob, who sounded even sadder./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No, one year too many people kept asking to see him over Christmas so he panicked, fled to Toronto, snuck into the CN tower, got to the roof and jumped off. I don't even know where he's buried, to be completely honest with you." said Doug, sounding like he's told the story more than once./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""He wasn't. He's had it in his will that he was to be cremated since he was a kid." stated Rob quite clearly./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""I'm amazed he was able to make a legal will at such a young age. But I /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"now suspect/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;" that in accordance with his will /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"(as he was cremated)/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;", his ashes were /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"probably /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"taken to Finland the following January and scattered over various parts of the country. He's always loved that place since those guys that play Metallica on Cellos became known to him. Could be worse I guess, this could be one of the worlds where he's in a mental institution" said Doug, trying and failing to be optim/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"i/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"stic./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""/spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"How many people in the hostel are actually IN the hostel right now?" asked Rob, wanting to change the subject./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Not many, and they're either sleeping or intensely guarding their belongings because of the stigma that comes with staying in a hostel anywhere in the world. Even the 2 Scottish people left, although I think that was for medical reasons, not tourist ones." said Doug pragmatically./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""The mother's coughing kept me up half the night. I have no idea how that little girl copes." said Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'm guessing that the Skull Girl's moral centre...was Aisling all along." said Doug, still overwhelmed that he technically has one of his heroes in his hostel as a guest. He then took out a copy of a newspaper called "The Slovakian" (one of the only newspapers in Eastern Europe that printed in English)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""What's the front page today?" asked /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"Rob./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What's been the headline for the last few days? Slovakia expects a shortfall in the coming budget next year." answered Doug pragmatically./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""How is this even possible? Half the countries in the world are having surpluses, another third of the countries in the world are breaking even. That leaves 34 countries with a shortfall, how can we be one of them when we're so small?" asked Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Tax evasion's easier here. Which means either taxes are raised or the Unified Charities get shortchanged in an effort to get Slovakia back to even." said Doug, dreading both of those options./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'm actually in favour of raising taxes, actually." announced Rob after a minute's thought./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What are you, a socialist?" asked Doug, who only knew of socialism through history books (as did most of this world)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No, I'm a Bleeding Heart Libertarian, as is most of the human race. But pool the taxes to the police to better investigate who's evading the taxes is better than shortchanging those who literally can't function without them." stated Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: none;""Tightening who gets the charity grants eliminates /spanspan style="text-decoration: none;"the shortfall, gets some of those who think they need charity to find opportunities elsewhere, and eventually, lowers the taxes of those who legitimately pay." countered Doug./span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Maybe the government is lying, and we should overthrow them. Velvet Divorce 2.0 if you will" offered Rob as a third option, referencing the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993 (which on this world was done over a matter of tax brackets, and not from the fall of communism)./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Doug and Rob then shared a laugh, knowing that the conversation reached an impasse./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""How long does it take for a hospital as small as this one to go through an inventory of transplantable organs?" asked Lianna./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Normally I would argue to the contrary, saying that it's worth the more detailed search in order to ensure that we get the best possible heart for our patient. But based on how Heather looked when we left her, anything that will buy her a few more years will do. If it weren't for Aisling being who she used to be, I wouldn't have left them in our office all alone." stated Sherry while staring intently at a doctor going through a rack of index cards. To the best of Sherry's and Lianna's knowledge, this hospital was at least a generation (if not 2) behind modern technology (which actually explained why they were getting more new clients every quarter). The hospital itself was nice (using the same stainless steel and cream green colour motif that seemed to permeate nearly every hospital in the multiverse), but when a doctor returned to Sherry and Lianna looking completely dejected, that didn't matter./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'm sorry ladies, but we don't have a heart matching Miss Stitt's blood type, let alone body frame. We have already begun asking other hospitals throughout the European mainland but even our phone lines are very much out of date so it could take time that we know that she doesn't have. As one of many fans of her daughter's adventures that live in Eastern Europe, I will regret not being able to do more for her the rest of my life."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you, Doctor" said Lianna as the Doctor (a young, blonde haired woman wearing rainbow suspenders and short-fitting grey pants) took her leave. Sherry began doing some calculations in her head, which Lianna made sure not to interrupt./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Short of a miracle in Vienna or me failing to calculate a hospital that I don't know exists, Heather's doomed" stated Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'll try the gene therapy anyway. It won't be a permanent fix by any means, given how damaged her heart already is, but it should buy her a couple of years for us to find her a better heart transplant. If nothing else, she'll be able to get back home alive"/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sherry merely nodded blankly, she hated losing battles with patients./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Checkmate. Mom, are you letting me win?" asked Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I've never had to let you win in Chess, sweetheart. You've been beating me naturally since you were 6 years old" replied Heather in-between coughs. Aisling examined her mother for a moment before deciding in her mind that her mom was telling the truth. Also, it was to see exactly how unhealthy she was. Aisling was by no means a doctor (medical or time), but she knew that if Dr. Ripa and Dr. Hillerup didn't find the right heart (and she knew it was unlikely), that her mom would be dead before they reached France. In order to distract herself from reality, Aisling took a moment to admire the quality of the chess board that she and her mom had found. It was a light grey marble with alternating squares being bleached white or painted black. The pieces looked to be made of iron on one side and brass on the other. By touching one of the pawns, she had determined that that wonderful town blacksmith they had met on the night that they arrived in town had forged the pieces himself./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Do you...still feel Mr. Pirate? Not our Mr. Pirate, but the original one that we met in that godawful version of Philadelphia?" asked Heather. Aisling could tell that it was a question that she had been putting off since they made it home from that war, which was several months ago./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I do, very faintly. He's very happy in that pocket universe he's made for himself. He's perfectly content to watch us from a distance for now. That's more than I can say for the others that I feel around here." said Aisling grimly./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Elaborate" said Heather, growing worried./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""You know how some places have more reports of ghost sightings than others?" asked Aisling, Heather nodded before her daughter continued "Slovakia has many ghosts. Some human, some...non-human. Eastern Europe seems to be much more of a friendly place for spirits than Western Europe."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Can you filter it down to specific people? Or non-people for that matter" asked Heather. Aisling shook her head before answering "No. The spirit population here is too large for me to focus on one spirit in particular. Even if I were still the Skull Girl it would take me a while for a population this large. I do however, get the general impression that everything here are spirits that are having difficulty making the transition to the other side. I do wish I could help them" said Aisling, fighting back empathic tears./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Anyone we know?" asked Heather, unsure if she meant people indigenous to this world or the Aaronverse in general. Aisling emphatically shook her head from side to side as Heather stood up and started walking around./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Fibromyalgia acting up again?" asked Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yeah. Maybe we can get Dr. Hillerup to work her gene therapy magic on that too" Heather replied as she browsed the nearby bookshelf./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Anything interesting?" asked Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""A lot of old Gothic literature. Dracula, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights and the like. Oh nice, they keep a copy of the #EndG8 series here." said Heather as she tried to pull the book out of the shelf./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'd offer help, but my instinct is telling me that it was meant to not be..." started Aisling, but it was too late. With some force, Heather finally got the book out, but the entire rest of the shelf caved in with it, revealing a secret...lab. Heather immediately began throwing up at the horror that she saw, and frankly, her daughter's stomach was turning too./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What the hell happened? Some of these...corpses have deformed limbs, some are missing noses. If my instinct is right, some never had key organs. Were these people made just for spare parts?" asked Aisling./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Heather recuperated just enough to not vomit anymore, and focused more on the books that were beside the mountain of corpses./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Do you know what those entail or do I have to start reading them?" asked Heather./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes. Tax records and patient charts. Some from this century, many not. It's been a long time since I've done this...sure hope I still can" said Aisling as she closed her eyes./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Heather knew what that meant: Her daughter was calling for help./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aaron Chapman's nose began to bleed, Mark's nose was about 3 seconds behind him./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So...not all of the Skull Girl left this particular Aisling." said Mark softly, Aaron nodded. They both began trying to slow down the images that were being projected into their minds (and then fighting the urge to vomit)/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So, people were being used for genetic experiments...long before those witch doctors came to town?" asked Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Bite your tongue, they're transplants from Canada, just like us" shouted Mark./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What happened in 'The Red Castle' was a travesty to all mankind...both in regards to those poor people and the economics" declared Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Agreed. I'm actually relieved that that little girl from Scotland figured out part of the reason as to why Slovakia has had budget shortfalls on and off for the last 2 centuries" said Mark, trying to find the silver lining in everything./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So what are we gonna do?" asked Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Start making torches and pitchforks. The entire town is gonna need them." stated Mark as he stared briefly at the doorway./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Chapter 4: Circling the roundup/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"By the time that Sherry and Lianna were close to being back to their office, it was already dark outside. To them that was a slight relief, as some of the more anti-technology people in the country hated their bicycles./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Aisling is carrying her mom out of the office" declared Lianna./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""How in the hell can you see that far? We're still more than 3 blocks away." declared Sherry in between breaths./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I gave myself a form of lasik eye surgery." said Lianna in a tone that suggested that she wanted to keep that a secret./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""A self-modifying geneticist has a fool for a patient" answered Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yeah, In light of you committing tax fraud, not only am I never taking you seriously ever again but once Miss Stitt is fixed, you can consider me resigned. And if you even try to implicate me in the slightest..." yelled Lianna, who had stopped at seeing something that should've been beyond the human spectrum./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What? What is it?" asked Sherry completely void of emotion, just accepting that she had time to catch her breath./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""We seem to have had a ghost problem in our office." stated Lianna in awe./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Had?" asked Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh, they seem to be leaving now. I'm guessing that there was some snooping around done by our Scottish guests." offered Lianna as they resumed riding./p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Why are they leaving?" asked Heather. She couldn't see the ghosts themselves, but had accepted them without question thanks to her daughter./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""They...knew that today was supposed to be a turning point in their town's history. Once they complete their common task, they're all gone. Sorry Mom, I have no clue what their common task is. Technically, I shouldn't even be able to see them. I should be too human to have any of my past tricks" said Aisling, mildly frustrated./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Maybe they trust you based on your resume" offered Heather./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Maybe Mr. Pirate needed to give me back some of my tricks in order to advance the plot. As he is still writing us, it seems" countered Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh Aisling, don't be silly. He called it the #EndG8 series because it was meant to be his final stories meant for public viewing." countered Heather./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Aisling briefly glanced over at you, constant reader old chum, then mouthed the words "See what I have to deal with now that I'm just a kid again?" as Heather pointed at a giant mob, heading towards the hospital. Aisling nodded and carried her mom to hide behind a nearby hedge./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Where the hell are that hostel owner and his assistant?" asked Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Mr. Chapman, I keep telling you: He probably closed up his shop properly on account of it being a sunday, or he had a lot of guests that didn't wish to take part" replied Mark./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Well, we're here. How do you wish to go about this?" asked Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Simple, I'm just going to knock politely. Hopefully they'll surrender of their own accord without us having to burn down a perfectly good house converted into an office." said Mark quietly. Aaron nodded and let Mark walk up the front stairs alone./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Don't bother, the house is empty." came a loud voice from a nearby hedge./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Is that you Aisling?" asked Mark. The hedge nodded./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'll take that as a yes" replied Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Everyone hold back, the house is empty and there's a kid in the situation" shouted Mark. The entire mob behind them actually took back 3 steps. One of the mob shouted "Skull Girl for Prime Minister" as Doug and Rob made it through./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Are you guys ready?" asked Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No, we gotta hold back. No one's here yet." replied Aaron./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Yes we are, and we need to begin operating on our patient immediately" pleaded Lianna as she arrived first, with Sherry still at least half a block away./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""The hell you will, the little one showed us everything." shouted Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Fine, you caught me. I'm guilty of tax evasion against the nation of Slovakia. I assure you however, that my assistant is innocent of any wrongdoing" announced Sherry as calmly as she could in an effort to appease the mob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Bullshit, you've been butchering people and experimenting on the corpses" shouted Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Actually, the methods are so primitive that I think they pre-date the current tenants by a few decades, at the very least" replied Aisling as she stepped forward./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"At that moment, one did not have to be a former superhero to see the ghosts in the night sky. There was no definitive count as to the number of ghosts that left the red house, but everyone knew that the living were outnumbered at the moment./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Makes me wish the man in the bucket were here." whispered Aisling, then she saw one of the spirits enter her mother. Before she could scream, the possessed Heather grabbed Aisling's hand and Aisling was subjected to dozens of different images from a time predating everyone in town, as well as the impression that her mother was not in any danger. Heather's physical form did not change (like it does in the movies), but her voice was a combination of her own and that of a younger man in his early 20's with an accent that sounded like modern Slovak mixed with old Romanian./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Please tell me today's date child"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""February 14supth/sup, 2018" replied Aisling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Then I've been trapped for well over 3 centuries. I'll make this right as quickly as I can child, you have my word that your...mother will be returned to you shortly."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The pseudo-Heather stepped forward./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I was born on August 20supth/sup, 1614. I am Istvan Bathory, illegitimate (and until now, secret) son of Countess Elizabeth"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh sweet Jesus" replied Lianna in dread./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Probably still the most notorious female serial killer in the history of mankind." added Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I sincerely apologize for my mother's continued notoriety" added Istvan-Heather./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I applaud your use of modern English. That should be completely alien to you" stated Rob, quite sincerely./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Benefits of an aristocratic education. The English that is native to my time was, I think, what you would call late modern. I've had to re-learn English from my...host. Anyways, I was conceived from a city guard raping my mother when I was in exile. I was quietly taken out of her on the date that I have said, and to the best of my knowledge, she was not long for this world after that."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""That's correct. From what little we know of the time period, your mom died only 2 or 3 days after that at the most." said Doug, remembering a European history class from when he was about this ghost's age./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you, kind sir. I've always wanted that minor closure, even in my own death. The town met a few days later (as I was later told) and narrowly voted not to persecute me for my mother's crimes. So they expunged all records of my existence, changed my name to Michael Moniz and hid me here"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Doug then put his hand to his forehead./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What's wrong? A migraine that you seem to have in many stories?" asked Lianna (half jokingly, half out of legitimate concern)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No, That means he became the mayor of Bratislava when he was about 17 years old." replied Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""They changed my age once they found out who I was. A mob gathered just like now and burned my home to the ground. I was burned at the stake for committing no murder whatsoever. But by then, I had already had a child, a girl named Helena. My biggest crime when I was alive was a penchant for prostitutes. All of my descendants have lived in town limits, with second to last one dying around 1950 as a casualty of the rise of what you would call the 'Iron Curtain' and the last dying of some sort of acquired immunity disease a little over 31 years later. Sorry, there's a lot of gaps in my brain. But those bodies that this child uncovered, belonged to my descendants, not me. That said, as a long-dead spirit, I was forced to watch all of it"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The mob then turned to Doug, having shown that he knew the most information of the situation./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""There's really no conclusive way to prove or disprove his claims, given how many records have been lost to time. But his accounting for everything does make sense."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"By then, the police had arrived (with not a single person in the mob paying any attention to them at all). Some officers were still inside when one came out and announced "Dr. Ripa, Dr. Hillerup, you are both under arrest for tax evasion and murder."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Remove the murder charge" shouted another cop (to the cheers of the mob)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What?" asked the first one./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I don't need to do my job to know that time is their alibi for any murder charge. Half these bodies died before Dr. Hillerup was born, the other half predate Dr. Ripa. Some of the bite marks look recent, but this country does have a rat problem"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""And we were unaware of these bodies until 20 minutes ago, plus I am only guilty of tax evasion. All of the books are in my handwriting, not my colleagues."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Istvan-Heather then turned to Aisling, nodded, and left Heather's body immediately, floating upward./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""We uncovered the bodies by accident while waiting for these 2 to get me a heart transplant" added Heather, it was now Aisling's turn to nod./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Get these 2 to the station. Transport the Scots to Vienna, everyone else has 5 minutes to leave before we arrest any others for trespassing" announced the cop in charge./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"The mob dissipated with mixed feelings. They were disappointed in not having the satisfaction of burning a house down, but were happy to have accomplished getting a spirit free and saving someone's life.../p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"...probably./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal;" align="LEFT"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Epilogues In Ghettos/span/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emAisling was proud to turn her video camera on once again./em/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Vienna was a success for my mom, as she feels more alive now than she had since she was a child. She even threw away her inhalers"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"emThe camera then turned to Heather:/em/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""New bleeding heart, reworked DNA, I feel amazing" she said as they both stood at the Vienna train station, hugging and kiss Aisling as she smiled./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I have to admit I was scared about you getting gene therapy. I was afraid of losing part of you, from a cellular point of view." said Aisling, who returned the smile (and maybe smiled even wider)./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I'm not going away, I promise" said Heather as a TV screen to her left changed to the news channel:/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""In den European Union News ist gestern Nacht das 11. bestätigte Verschwinden auf dem englischen Kanal aufgetreten. Es war der 6. auf der französischen Seite und der 5. auf der englischen Seite. Die meisten der Verschwundenen waren kleine Kinder mit mehr als einem Skelett, das an Land gespült wurde." (In European Union News, the 11th confirmed disappearance along the English channel occurred last night. It was the 6th that was on the French side, and 5 on the English. Most of the disappearances have been small children, with more than one skeleton washing ashore.)/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Oh crap!" exclaimed Heather as she saw an image of what could've done such horrible things on the screen, a simple pencil sketch./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So...there's an evil squid for me to combat...and not just on this world, me thinks" said Aisling as she stared directly into the camera./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thanks for letting us stay here while we renovate the barn" stated Aaron Chapman./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you for supplying us with the metal bed frames I needed to scale up the class of 'The Droog' over the years for free. It was the least I can do" replied Doug./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""So you guys knew Aaron before he went crazy?" asked Rob./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""No, his mind was broken the moment he was put in the public school system. And yes, this is one of the worlds in his multiverse where he drank copper sulfate in an unsuccessful suicide attempt" answered Mark./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"There was a moment of sadness, shared by the group, interrupted by an old grandfather clock. Then they began laughing, not in amusement, or even in awkward silence, but in acceptance that their maker was well beyond the human condition, and had been for decades./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"*/p
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p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you for visiting me" announced Sherry./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Thank you for making sure I was never convicted of a crime you committed" replied Lianna./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"There was no indoors to speak of for this prison. A piece of Slovakia was just branched off for convicts and the prisoners were forced to work hard labour. The current job was expanding and maintaining the forest near the border to the Czech Republic./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Are they feeding and clothing you?" asked Lianna./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""Just the orange coveralls you're seeing me in and 3 of the most basic, bland, high-protein, low-carb meals you could ever imagine. We're basically prone to the taxes given by the people, and by extension, the unified charities. How ironic, considering what I did. How did you even get to visit me? Visitation for non-family is next to impossible for prisoners anywhere in the world."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Lianna was hoping that Sherry wouldn't ask that question./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""I um, bartered" she replied, clearing her throat. Sherry deciding not to press the matter. Instead, she decided to push another one./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""When you showed pain in your tailbone, it wasn't consistent with a bruise. Secondly, I saw you put your hands up to your mouth, indicating pain in your teeth. But your pain was in the front of your mouth, not where the wisdom teeth would be (and I know you don't have hypercomposite odontoma). Lastly, you knew about the bodies being in that secret room behind the bookcase...those were your bite marks on the corpses, weren't they?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Lianna then removed a mouth prosthetic, revealing much larger teeth in the front, then pulled her tail out of her pants. Then came multiple voices from the forest, voices of wolves./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT""What can I say, a girl's gotta eat."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT"Sherry gulped in fear./p