Scarborough Fair


Me: Sorry this took so long, I've had a million things to deal with lately and this has suffered as a result, so bear with me, I'll get there eventually lol.


Oliver


I was here again.

I knew what was coming now. This dream had become lucid now, I knew I was dreaming but I couldn't control what I did, making a horrible pool of fear gather in my stomach. No... No no no no no I didn't want to face this pain again, emotional nor physical! Why did this keep happening to me? I wasn't that messed up in the head! Oh God... Inwardly I was sweating, my breathing hard and never enough, all I knew was panic! How could I get out of this? There was no way to stop the dream unless I woke up. Oh Christ if only I could move! If I had control! I felt so ill I knew if I did I'd be sick, this cold living room where my blood was about to spill on the carpet... Shit... Tears were already at my eyes – I had no idea how strange it was to be thinking two different thought patterns at once – those of the person whose eyes I saw through, whose heart I felt through, and my own, but my own were so clouded over by his that trying to break out of his thoughts was like throwing yourself against the wall of a padded cell. My tears burned my face, my entire body was shaking. My hands fumbled with the key in the lock of the blade's case – I had given up. I raised it above my head slowly, my arms steady. Oh no no no no no...

" Invitation only, grand farewells..."

Huh?

"Crash the best one, of the best ones, clear liquor and cloudy eyed, too early to say goodnight..."

My phone...

"You have stolen my heart..."

I groaned in pain as my back collided hard with the wooden floorboards of my bedroom. My skin stinging, I quickly untangled the duvet from my legs and tried to find my phone.

"You have stolen my heart..."

Nothing like a bit of Dashboard Confessional to wake you up at... What time was it anyway? My eyes were red and blurry from the sleep, and I hissed, a reflex more than anything, as I had to crawl over the chink of sunlight breaking through my curtains to get to my phone, which was plugged into the charger at the mains near the door. Grabbing it, I turned it over and shut my eyes in preparation for the white glare from the screen. Rubbing my eyes, I looked more clearly at the caller ID. Chris? My second oldest younger brother. I pressed 'answer'.

"Hey Chris." I said, settling myself semi-comfortably on the floor.

"Oliver, you've gotta come to school quick!"

I flinched. "Has something happened?"

"Ellie fell over in the playground and hit her head on the climbing frame! They're taking her to A&E!"

I was awake now. "What? What happened? Is she okay?"

"The school's been trying to get through to you for the past half hour! Can you come?"

I sighed, half an hour? Was I that fast asleep? Of course the phone was in the kitchen but I hadn't ever slept through it before. "Course I can, Chris, I need you to tell them I'll meet them at A&E, can you do that for me?"

"Sure Oliver."

"Okay just hang on I'll be there as soon as I can!" I practically yelled at the phone as I danced around my room trying to drag some jeans on with one hand.

"Hurry!"

"I am! I'm coming!"

Oh Christ what had she done? I forgot about the dream completely, I needed to get to Ellie.

A&E was crowded as always, with people groaning and moaning and children crying with teatowels pressed to various parts of them. I couldn't see Ellie anywhere, and so headed for the main desk.

"Hi..." I said, "I'm looking for Eleanor Pendragon."

The girl at the desk looked at my Mark. "Are you family?"

"I'm her brother and her guardian." I said.

"If you'd like to go to the side door which is just to your right Gina will let you through."

A middle aged nurse behind the one sitting at the desk nodded and left. "Thank you." I said.

The door opened just as I got to it, and the middle-aged nurse greeted me. "Hi there!" she said cheerily, "It's Mr. Pendragon isn't it?"

"Uh- Yes." I said quickly, "I had a call from the school they said she hit her head."

"She's had three stitches in her forehead, it was quite a bash she gave herself, she was quite concussed when she arrived but the doctors have looked at her and she's fine."

We passed through a swinging door and into a paediatrics ward, everywhere was buzzing with the sound of children, crying, shouting, playing, and the voices of doctors on the telephones and anxious parents. Gina led me to a bed that had been curtained off from the rest of the ward, her hand pulling back at the green material. The moment I saw Ellie alive and moving I could finally breathe again. A young Asian nurse was chatting to her whilst gently cleaning the area of her forehead that she'd hit. Sure enough, three stitches, an ugly cut on the left side of her forehead, but she was okay.

"Ellie!" I said, leaning down to hug her. Her little arms curled around my neck, and somehow I knew everything was going to be alright.

"Oliver!" she said, the grin on her face making me want to burst out into laughter, "You're so late!"

And then I did laugh. "I'm here now..." I told her, "It's okay."


Spiridion


Did you really think, that after what had happened today, I was going to sit around and let Yianna crucify me in front of the city of Hull?

I don't.

Our accommodation was paid for by the council, and so, in a traditional Hull welcome, they had put us in a Travelodge, and, thank every god and goddess out there, had put Yianna in a different one to me. There wasn't a chance in Hell that I wanted a grilling from her now.

The guilt ate into me like an acid. That kid could well have been dragged under by the current and drowned. And Yianna just jumped in without a second thought, because it was the right thing to do. I have to admit, I had never thought she'd do that, and in not doing so camouflage my own reluctance. It just wasn't the kind of thing that she'd do, she was the type of person to follow the rules and throw in the safety-ring and dial 999, not jump in! And here she had managed to shame me without even speaking to me. Going to the cupboard, I pulled out a large bottle of blood-laced wine that I had brought with me, I had predicted that I might need it and if ever there was a time I did, it was now. I was still freezing, so I dragged my feet to the heating box and turned it up high. I didn't bother with a wine glass, swigging it from the bottle was enough, and unlike normal it did bloody nothing to relax me. Damn it!

I was just about to throw myself at an armchair when my doorbell rang. I would far rather have ignored that damn thing, and after about three minutes of the buzzer ringing around in my ears I decided to shut them up.

I opened the door with a face of steel. "What is it?" I rudely demanded.

I don't know how she had managed to get up here, maybe she had distracted the desk attendant with a fear or maybe bullied them into letting her up here and telling her my room number, but Yianna was here. She was still sopping wet from the river, the smell was bloody disgusting and hung around her like a miasma. Her hair lay in tousled clumps around her shoulders and her clothes, a thin woollen top and black trousers were mucky beneath a blue towel that looked like it had been given to her on her being pulled out of the river. Her slight frame was shivering uncontrollably but her face was just as rigid as mine.

She said nothing as she pushed past me into the room, and waited silently for me to shut the door.

"I don't know what in heaven's name is wrong with you..." she said, her voice icier than ever, "And to be honest, I don't much care. It seems it was a bloody good thing you left the House of Night."

"So, what? I'm a bad teacher?"

"That kid could have died!" she shrieked, "You are a warrior vampyre you were the one most able to help him and you just stood and watched!" her hand flew to her forehead in her rage, "You can be an arse all you like disown your kind all you like but not when innocent people's lives are at stake!" she took on a happier, sicklier tone, "So you're going to put all your problems on the table, and you're going to put them on the table now otherwise I will wish you had never been born!"

I turned my back on her. "Save your threats, they bore me." I walked into the ensuite, grabbed the towel off the rail and came back, offering it to her with an extended arm.

"Vampyres can't get ill." She scoffed.

"No, but they can get cold."

She clenched her jaw tight to stop herself from shivering. "Is this just to get at me?" she asked, "Is that what it is?"

I exhaled as I leant my back against the wall. "No." I answered, "But there's nothing like killing two birds with one stone eh?"

"Is there something wrong with the way I run the school, speak, act, sit in the courtroom?"

"Nothing that has anything to do with me."

"Then what is it up your arsehole that is so interesting that makes you climb so far up it that you can see through the other end?"

"Would you have drawn a psionosphere?" I asked suddenly, I think it took her by surprise, knocked her off balance a little, she thought I was going to launch into an attack, "If you hadn't leapt headfirst into an icy river, that is."

"Sometimes they draw me into them, if the fear is strong enough." She said. Her voice was steady even though she was shaking beneath the towel that was wrapped around her shoulders.

"But then you know what my greatest fear is." I told her, lowering myself into the armchair and relaxed, smirking as my fingers grasped my chin.

She looked to be in thought for a moment. "Water?" she said, "So, you can't swim?"

I shook my head. "No, no I can swim." I said, "Sometimes I wish I couldn't."

"Why, because that might be a proper excuse?"

"Most likely."

She scoffed. "Oh, I suppose you have some medical impediment that prevents you from swimming do you? Or are you allergic to water like the Wicked Witch of the West?"

I swallowed. "Think Yianna." I said slowly, "This is something you've seen before."

"I don't think I've ever seen such a lack of care as you always seem to be demonstrating." She said, "You're pathetic." She shook under the towel again. I didn't even feel sorry for her. What a heartless bastard I was.

"Go and take a hot shower." I told her bluntly, looking up from my armchair, "You are cold and quite frankly I can't stand the smell."

I grinned sickly. She rolled her eyes with what was I'm sure as much effort as she could possibly put into it. "I give up." She said, pulling the towel from around her shoulder and letting it hit her leg as it fell, "I give up."

"Bathroom's through there." I pointed to the ensuite, she glared at my profusely, bloody woman trying to burn holes in me again... "Contrary to popular opinion Yianna, the 'vampyres can't get ill' thing, is a myth." I was doing an Angelina Jolie, "Why do you think we train our own doctors and nurses now? We aren't immune from every disease, we can even catch things that humans can't as a matter of fact, and believe it or not, we aren't untouchable and we aren't invincible. Don't make yourself ill because you're too proud to admit that your textbook might be wrong."

It was too late anyway. The woman had already made herself ill and it was clear by the redness appearing on her face and the way she was shaking. "Come here." I said, getting up and grabbing her by the arm.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" she shrieked as I pulled her towards the shower.

"You some bloody good for once." I growled, pushing her fully clad into the shower and turning it on.

"My fucking suit!" she shouted.

"Is wrecked anyway." I said, my arm twitching again in case she tried to hit me, but from the limpness with which she had responded to my dragging her here it was safe to say I was safe. She wiped the water out of her eyes, smearing her mascara in the process, and continued shaking.

"Sort yourself out." I said, "There's a dressing gown on the door and a towel on the radiator..." I can't believe I'm doing this, "I'll find you something to wear."

I closed the door behind me and left her be. As I crossed the carpet and reached for the phone, I discovered a new fear of mine. This one did not so much anger me as make me feel insanely guilty. In my earlier display of cowardice, she had been absolutely right.


Lucy


Has anyone ever had that feeling where you just wanna dunk someone's head in a vat of coffee?

This is a vague representation of what I feel like today.

I mean I'm happy that I'm getting to the point where I can point out mistakes, and that these mistakes aren't always my own, which makes me so happy I could do a little twirl right here if there was nobody looking, but seriously, some people weren't just behind the door when brains were given out, they were out the door, down the road and on a ferry to another frickin' continent! How to point this out to them without being rude? It does your head in after a while.

Ellen was due to go home today for the first time since she was trampled by the cow... bull... whatever. And the funny thing is, she doesn't smell of cow shit! I suppose there's a first time for everything, but given that this particular phenomenon is about as likely as the Virgin Mary working a day job in Amsterdam, we were all pretty impressed that we didn't have to wear pegs on our noses for two whole weeks!

I was on main desk again. Flipping through my copy of OK! Magazine, I could hear the faint sound of the TV in the background. The waiting area had a large widescreen which played back adverts on sexually transmitted diseases and the pros and cons – mostly the cons – of anorexia, its purpose: to stop the patients from harassing the reception staff. And you'd be surprised how well it worked, but it did get boring after you heard it go through its first few cycles of spots. It didn't matter what cheesy celebrity story I read in this trash, I couldn't get the replaying slow-mo-ing image of Dr Sex being dipped in a vat of coffee. Actually, forget coffee, it's a vat of molten lava! Oh crap he's coming this way...

"Lucy?"

I sat on my magazine discreetly. "Yes?"

"A nurse from the Scarborough General Hospital is coming in in a few minutes to collect a metronidazole drip. Have it ready for them to collect please." He said, before walking off again. What the Hell?

I pulled on the string in the drugs room and the fuzzy light came on, blinking in my eyes as I headed to the drips cupboard. Did we even have metronidazole? It was an antibiotic, but I'd never seen any here. I looked at the numerous hundreds of shelves in front of me. Crap.


Oliver


Ellie had to go back for one last MRI scan (those things were much quicker nowadays and definitely cheaper) before she could leave the hospital. It was getting on for five in the afternoon, and so I took full advantage of the wait by going to get a cup of coffee. It didn't take long to find the café, and soon enough I had sat myself down, with a polystyrene cup, and just watched the world go by for a few minutes. It was funny, it was something that I so seldom had time to do that now sitting here just watching people felt strange. My brain buzzed without cease 'you should be doing something' 'you should be doing something', and there was nothing under the Sun I could do to make it go away. I thought about that dream again, that one that I've had five nights in the past two weeks. It was extremely strange, but it certainly wasn't something I was going to let get in my way. I had work to do, and I was tired yes, but I was just going to have to be tired and suck it up like the rest of the world. I thought about Anastasie again too – was I mad to be welcoming her into my home like this? I felt a sense of calm come over me, I could trust her, I thought, and if I could be the one to put her back on the right track... I'd like to be able to do that for someone. The girl had no stability in her life whatsoever, nothing and no one to fall back on when the others got at her. She needed some hope back in her life, and I was sure that all was not lost. I smiled and sipped at my coffee. I didn't mind that I was tired, as long as I was doing what's right.

"Excuse me..."

I looked up from my coffee. Above me stood a gentleman doctor in his fifties, grey streaks starting to grow through his otherwise dark hair, his face was tired yet bright, and worn from all the emotion that the job carried along with it. He held his own coffee in his hand, along with a thick notes chart under the arm of his white labcoat.

"Aren't you Greg Pendragon's lad?"

Not something I hear every day. "You knew my dad?"

"I worked with your father for many years." He said, taking a seat opposite me, "It's, it's Oliver, isn't it?"

"Yeah." I said, taking a sip of my coffee. I wasn't sure if I liked this guy yet, the fact that he saw my Mark and still smiled was a good thing.

"Back from uni for a bit are you?"

"I'm finished there now." I said, feeling a little happiness at his surprise.

"Really? How time does fly! Your father would never stop telling us how his boy was off to Cambridge."

I laughed. "Bet he drove you all nuts."

"Oh he did." Said the doctor, "But we miss him just the same. You do look like him you know."

I nodded sadly. "I miss him too." I said, "And somehow, I feel like I've had a wake-up call into his life, with work and the kids."

He looked taken aback. "Good Lord Oliver you're not looking after those eight all by yourself are you?"

I nodded again. "Yep."

"That's too much for a young man like you."

"I'll be young for centuries; it's not much to ask for them to have a proper upbringing for a decade or so." I told him, drinking my coffee again. I wish that caffeine had the desired effect on vampyres, and the vague rush I had from the heat of each sip was as pathetic as what the caffeine was doing. "He always wanted me to be a doctor." I continued, "But no, I went my own way. Now I'm kinda wishing I had become a doctor. I could do with the six figure salary."

The doctor's face was so sympathetic it almost made me upset. "Your father was extremely proud of you." He said, "Not least for doing what you wanted to do."


Lucy


I actually found that crap!

I don't know how I did, but I did it!

Mwahahaha!

The little bag was sitting at my right hand side next to my mouse, as I scrolled through tomorrow's appointments with little enthusiasm. So when was this nurse getting here?

"Morning."

"Morning." I said, looking at the person standing in front of me. Wow, that was quick. Wait a minute... That's a guy. Wait a minute that's a frickin' human!

"I'm here to pick up the metronidazole drip?" he asked. Yes, I kid ye not, a male nurse. A murse! Hahahaha, a murse! A human! A murse! "Is there a problem?" he asked politely, and I profusely shook my head. He was dressed in the black vampyre nurse uniform, only the male version of, a watch pinned to his non-existent breast and a badge dangling from his tunic. Kenneth, it read. A male human vampyre nurse? Called Kenneth? What da fuck?

"Oh no, sure it's right here." I said, putting the bad onto the counter, "Can I get you to sign here please?" All drugs leaving the premises had to be signed for. He took the pen in his hand and signed.

"Lemme guess." He said, a smile on his face, "Never seen a murse before right?"

I blinked. "No!" I said, scoffing, "Absolutely not I think it's awful these days how people feel nursing isn't for men, it definitely is..."

"You mouthed it."

"Er-what now?"

He grinned. "When I asked if I could have the drip you mouthed 'a murse'." He repeated the action, you know, saying it but no sound coming out.

My jaw dropped. "No I did not!"

"Yes you did."

"I never did!"

"And why are you sitting on an OK! Magazine?"

"I get back trouble?"

He tensed his eyebrows and nodded as if to say 'yeah, okay, you freak'. "Anyway cheers for the drip." He said, handing me my pen back, "See you."

"Bye..."

I did not mouth that! How could he say that I mouthed that?

Jerk.


R&R!