Jan. 9 2016 - update, guest reviewer pointed out a small mistake. Thanks
Chapter 8:
Interlude
Jazz was not freaking out.
Sure her brother and his two friends were found in the middle of the road covered in bruises and completely unconscious with no signs of waking up, and the ghosts were definitely taking advantage of this to run amok in the town. And Vlad was using this as a chance to kiss up to her mom while Danny isn't there to make him look like a fool, and her parents were running around trying to dissect all the ghosts for the sake of science while Valerie tried to destroy them, and Jazz was left alone to deal with them correctly by capturing them in the thermos and planning to return them to the Ghost Zone later, so Jazz was running herself ragged and nothing was going RIGHT!
….
….
….
Ok, so she might be freaking out. But only a little!
Fine. She was majorly freaking out.
As she sucked yet another ghost in the almost full thermos. She took a moment to breathe. "Danny," she said to herself, "I really hope you're going to be ok."
Then an ectoblast shot past her and she took off towards the violent ghost before the other hunters could get to them.
"Excuse me miss?"
The stewardess tried to wake the young girl curled up in the airplane seat. How this girl could be dead asleep after drinking about four cups of coffee would forever be a mystery. But now she had to wake up because they had arrived at their destination and all the other passengers had exited the plane.
"Miss?"
The stewardess lightly shook the girl's shoulders. Nothing. No mumbling or shifting. Just steady, slow breathing.
"E-excuse me miss?" She shook her a little harder.
The stewardess started to panic. She pressed her fingers on the girl's wrist.
It was slow, much slower than it should be.
She pulled the girl out of her seat and laid her on the ground, checking her temperature and breathing.
"Someone call an ambulance! This girl won't wake up!"
Heidi frowned as she walked into her living room. Randy's mother (of course she knew his name) was in the living room crying. Mort was flitting around worriedly, trying to comfort her.
"Dad? Mrs. Cunningham?" The two adults looked up at the girl as she walked in. "What's going on?"
Mrs. Cunningham just let out a soft sob as she held her face in her hands. Mort alternated between wringing his hands and patting the crying mother on the shoulder. "W-well sweetie. Oh, um, you see-"
"It's R-Randy." Mrs. Cunningham mumbled. "He-the police found him. The-the park. And-and he won't wake up!" The poor woman cried into her hands.
Heidi gasped in shock, tears gathering in her eyes. Yes she may pretend she doesn't know his name, and yes he was incredibly annoying, but she grew up with him. He was just another little brother to her.
"Is he OK? What happened?" Heidi questioned as she wrapped Mrs. Cunningham in a hug.
"There-there's nothing wrong that the doctors could find. Only bruises. He just, he just won't wake up."
"Has anyone told Howard?"
Mort shook his head, "Not yet sweetie. I was just about to go down."
Heidi waved him off, "I'll tell him."
Heidi walked down the stairs to Howard's basement room, trying to fend off the tears trying to break through. She knocked on the door.
"Howard? You in there?"
No answer. She leaned her head on the door, not hearing video games or sleep farts coming from inside his room. She opened the door.
"Howard?"
She saw the TV paused on some sort of game, his cell phone laying on the ground next to his squishy chair, and him laying flat on the ground like he was asleep.
"Howard wake up. It's Randy. Something happened to him and he won't wake up."
She leaned down to shake him awake and he didn't stir.
"Howard seriously. This isn't funny."
She shook him harder. He inner reporter drew her attention to his phone lying open on the ground. She grabbed it and saw his last call had been to Randy hours ago….and it was still on.
"DAD! DAD COME QUICK!" She yelled, panic setting in. She tried to wake up her sleeping brother, "Howard wake up! Please! Howard!"
Haley was had just gotten home when her mother pulled her back out. "Mom what-?"
Mrs. Long just walked quickly, keys hanging from her mouth and her coat halfway on. She pulled her daughter's arm and they rushed down the steps. "It's your brother. I just got a call from the hospital."
Haley paled, "What?" Her voice going up a few octaves out of fear, "Mom what happened? Is he ok? What's wrong?"
Mrs. Long hailed a cab and directed the driver to get to the hospital as fast as he could. "He was at the library with Trixie, Spud, and Rose. When the librarian got there this morning she found the three of them passed out. None of them will wake up."
Haley let out a sigh of relief. That wasn't nearly as bad as what she had been imaging. "So he isn't dying or injured or anything else incredibly awful?"
Mrs. Long ruffled her daughter's hair, "No sweetie. But it still isn't a good thing. Gramps and Fu Dog are looking in their books to see if it's magic related. Your dad will meet us there."
Haley chewed her lip, "What if he doesn't wake up?" she asked in a small voice.
"He will Haley."
The quiet 'I hope' that wasn't said rang heavy in the speeding cab.
"I don't understand."
Chiron rubbed his forehead. "Percy, Annabeth, and Grover have been put into a deep sleep by a legend that doesn't exist in Greek Mythology and will remain like that for an undetermined time."
The teenaged demigods surrounding the ping pong table gaped at him.
Silena shook her head, "And, you just let that happen?" She demanded.
"It was unexpected. Had I of known of the problems the three had been having for the past few weeks I may have been able to stop this before the went to sleep. However they had kept it to themselves even if it had been unintentional."
"So what are we going to do?" Katie asked, her eyes flitting to where Annabeth and Percy would normally sit.
"We can only wait for them to wake up. In the meantime, we continue going about our day. Those three have been through so much together. They aren't about to be defeated by a dream."
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN'S BEARD DO YOU MEAN!?"
Fred and George flinched away from the angry adults. Ginny lowered her head, embarrassment and shame flooding through her though she knew none of this was her fault.
"Exactly what we said." Ginny answered, "Fred and George were commenting on how the three of them looked tired when they all passed out. We couldn't wake them for anything. Not even the twin's fireworks jolted them awake."
Lupin frowned as he continued casting spells on the three slumbering teens in the upstairs bedroom, trying both to wake them up and discover if something magical was the cause of this.
"All three have been looking pretty tired lately." He commented, "Would you happen to know why?"
Fred and George shook their heads. Ginny shrugged, "Hermione had been waking up in the middle of the night, freaking out. When I asked her about it once she said it was just a nightmare. But….nightmares can't just make them pass out. Can they?"
Lupin finished his last spell and sighed, "I don't know. But whatever is causing this, it isn't of the magical origin."
Sirius paced the floor. "So we have three teenagers, one who has You-know-who constantly trying to kill him, stuck in a coma-like sleep with no idea how they got like that and can't be woken up." He dropped into a nearby chair with a groan, "Great."
So this is just a quick interlude into what happened while they were passed out. Some are in hospitals while others are just chilling in bed. Some people are totally freaking out while some are just confused.
largomolo: I did have this interlude planned as being the eighth chapter, I just wanted to get everyone else settled first.
I had way way way too much fun making people freak out. Yet I regret nothing.
UNTIL NEXT CHAPTER MY VIEWERS OF THE CORN!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THOSE WHO CELEBRATE IT! HAPPY HANUKKAH TO ALL THOSE WHO CELEBRATE THAT! AND IF YOU DON'T CELEBRATE EITHER….HAPPY SNOW DAYS THAT GET YOU OUT OF SCHOOL!
AND IF STILL NONE OF THAT APPLIES TO YOU, JUST HAVE A SUPER BRUCE DAY AND ENJOY LIFE!
