Chapter 20 – Kayo
Directly after Chapters 18 and 19
To say I had a migraine was an understatement, to the point that if I ever thought this migraine was painful before I take back all of those comments. And I wonder how I fell asleep with that much of a migraine. But, oddly enough, my side isn't hurting as much. How odd. But my hand is bloody agony. Why is my hand hurting? Better question, how did I cut my hand? Well, I assume I cut it – it's quite painful, the only other thing it could be is a break or fracture, but I can already tell there's no cast over my hand, so it must be a cut. But how did those cuts get there? Cuts don't appear by themselves, do they? No, of course not. But I can for some reason remember picking up some sharp piece of metal and holding it. As in, holding it so hard I may as well be squeezing it for stress relief or some shit. Why can I remember that?
And why the Hell do I have my eyes closed and – OKAY, WHAT THE HELL?! I'm pretty sure I just heard somebody next to me – talk about jump scares. Oh, I bet it's one of those bloody bitch-faced nurses. Well, screw this. And, please, can you not make those machines bleep any louder? No? Then go get a life. Okay, that's harsh – go help somebody else. I'm fine. I'm quite happy here. And I'm flipping boiling. Oh, very clever, bitch-face, make me melt why not? Very clever. Very funny.
I just opened my eyes, half-expecting so see a Bitch-Face (they are now their very own species) and half-anticipating that I would have to punch them. But I don't quite see a nurse-Bitch-Face. Better yet, I don't see, well, much. All I see is bright light. And I mean bright. Like on those adverts for guide dogs, when you hear the story about how people wake up and all they can see is that bright light. Yeah, imagine that. But brighter. A lot brighter. And then I can hear the person walking again. And I am in the annoyed mood in which, if Bitch-Face pushes anything in the slightest, I will take one of the wires that is currently plugged into me and strangle them. Here's my rating scale for the Bitch-Face species - having them be normal, accepted. Being a jackass, you're pushing it. Being a slut and a, well, Bitch-Face, I will beat you up until you can't breathe any more. But then the light goes – thank God – and I can see I'm still in the hospital room, surprise, surprise, and there isn't a bitch-face in the room with me. It's Virgil. Oh. Wasn't expecting that. Why the Hell was it so bright? I began to skid myself up, and I could see why I was boiling. Tin foil and a thermal blanket and a blanket that was as thick as Brains when it came to sarcasm. And the heating on the room was on full. But when I had almost sat up, I suddenly got very dizzy, too dizzy for my liking, and I felt somebody pulling me back. Lemme guess who it is.
"Hey, come on, sitting up isn't a smart idea when you've had a Repercussion, is it?" Virgil said, pulling me back down by my shoulder. Repercussion? Surely not. I just closed my eyes for a few minutes to try and get rid of my migraine. But it would explain why my side didn't hurt anymore, and how I fell asleep.
"Here, this better?" He said, virtually pulling me back down. He had pushed the top half of the hospital bed up a bit higher, so I was almost sitting up. I just nodded, because now I finally felt like I could, y'know, breathe. As Virgil poured out a cup of water with a stupid ice:water ratio (let's say, ice to water, 49:1), I just slid the sheet of tin foil out of the blanket sandwich quite quietly, considering this material cracks at the slightest force of kinetic energy. I had slid the sheet half out before Virgil slapped my hand – and the bad hand, too. And whilst I know he barely touched me and he didn't know, it really bloody hurt. Thankfully, it was my right hand, the one I didn't primarily use. Biting my lip, I shook it slightly. Nope, still agony.
"Sorry," Virgil looked slightly guilty, threading a black straw into the iceberg of a drink and handing it to me.
"It's not your fault, you barely touched me. It's just sensitive as fuck," I said, picking up the glass with my left hand. I downed it all in one go, and it felt lovely to have a cold drink when I was this boiling. I finally felt like I was cooling down. I take back the ice:water ratio comment. This. Is. Lovely.
"Language, Kayo," Virgil said, looking at one of the screens, then grabbing the glass and dumping the ice in the bin. He then filled the cup with water, threaded the straw back in, then gave it back to me, before pulling the duvet back over me. Does he not understand how bloody boiling it is in here?! As soon as he took his hand off the duvet and stopped arranging it, I shoved it over to the end of the bed in one clean sweep.
"Oi, come on, keep it on. You're virtually freezing."
"That's bull," I retorted. How could I be freezing when I'm sweating my tits off?
"Seriously," Virgil pulled the blanket back up to my chest, and when I tried to push it away again, he just held my wrist and pushed it back down, "Kayo, your temperature keeps going down past, like, zero degrees. We literally had to put machines in to make sure your blood doesn't solidify because you're that cold. How are you not cold?"
"You're joking, right? I'm sweating my tits off here." I said, putting the water on the bedside table and laying down on my side, the side I usually laid on before I got shot, but now since it didn't hurt – well, it hurt a tiny bit, actually, but like I said, tiny amount – I could lay on it again. And I honestly doubted my ability to sit up any longer – I was going so dizzy I could see little stars in my eyes. I hated that, especially when you wake up like that.
"Huh. Because your current temperature is – wait, lemme look – fifteen degrees. Twenty two degrees lower than average. Now come on, lay down and behave so we won't have to take an ice cube back to Tracy Island, there's not enough room in the freezer, thanks," he said, pulling the stupid sandwich of blankets up to my neck. This made no sense – how can I be that cold when I'm so hot I may as well be sold as a pre-heated barbeque? If this is a prank he's dead. I rolled my eyes, staring at the winding wires attached to my arm.
"And now you've worn yourself out, idiot." Virgil smirked. No, I have not worn myself out, these stupid drugs are being arses. I was about to say that thought out loud – whilst I had the excuse of the drugs from the Repercussion making me not give two shits I can get away with it – but then I heard the door open. No, I fucking refuse to see any Bitch-Faces. But it turns out it was just a stressed and bothered John, closely followed by EOS, who looked as stress-free as ever, the total opposite to John.
"Virg- oh, she's awake. Hi, Kayo." John said all in one go. "Guys, check this out," John pulled out a portable holo-projector from one of his pockets on his trousers, sitting down on the end of the bed, scrolling through a bunch of windows he already had opened up. EOS, however, didn't seemed stressed in the slightest. She walked over like nothing had happened, and as I sat up, she came and sat next to me. I ignored the dirty look I got from Virgil for sitting up. I refuse to believe he could stop me.
"Hey," EOS whispered, "How you feelin'?"
"Fine," I lied. I felt like shit.
"You bullshitting liar," EOS whispered back.
"I'm not lying!" I lied again.
"Bull," EOS said, leaning back on the pillow slightly. "If you hate nurses and doctors, you're going to hate this place. So you're not going to be 'fine'. Also, you've got loads of crap going through your systems, that'll generally makes you feel anything but fine."
"You're too clever for your own good." I hissed, glaring at John as he sorted through his overly-organised windows on the projector. Yeah, John was clever, so you'd expect him to make a clever AI. But you wouldn't expect the AI to be like this.
"Ha-ha," EOS smirked, "The advantages of being an AI,"
"Here, I got it," John said, opening up the local news. A report on the weather was just finishing off when we turned on. Then it went into a reporting station, with 'BREAKING NEWS' taking up the bottom right corner. The reporter, a round man with a stupid fake tan and nearest dammit white hair, began a report:
'Good morning, I'm Stephen Georges and the time is now 11.46 am. Now onto some breaking news. There have been reports of a murder in Bahía de Caráquez, located in the province of Manabí, in Ecuador. A passer-by had found a dead body located in a city river and reported it to the GDF. Details are scarce, but it sounds the victim was killed by asphyxiation. We also understand the murdered person had a series of cuts on their back and was missing for almost a month. CCTV cameras were cut out by an earthquake so we cannot see any video on how the killing took place. The person still needs to be identified, but we have reason to believe the person killed was Karley Kyles. She was aged seventeen, and went missing three and a half weeks ago after walking home from her part-time job at her local store. We will have more details soon.'
"What do you guys think?" John finally said, muting the holo-projector and putting it on the white-painted bedside table.
"Probably usual. Somebody hated someone else, said person killed the hated person, said person will end up in prison," Virgil said simply, picking up his sketchpad and doodling again.
"No," I said simply, "If 'Said Person' wanted to kill somebody, he'd do it quickly. Like a gun or knife. Something with discrete evidence. Not asphyxiation, where you can get evidence just by looking at a dead person. Well, not unless 'Said Person' is the most psychopathic psychopath. And doing it by a river, well, that's just drawing attention. Chances were 'Said Person' killed the person - Karley, wasn't it? - and then took the person and dumped them in the river."
"I'm not asking how you know that stuff." Virgil gave me a dirty look, then went back to his graphite lines on his sketchpad.
"What? It's common sense!" I said, fumbling with a bit of EOS' hair, playing with it between my fingers. How could fibre optics be so soft?
"O-K," John said, staring at the floor. He seemed to want to diverge from the subject, "Anyway, Virgil isn't drawing a bit girly?"
"Oh, yes, it is girly," Virgil was staring at him icily. "Because the practice of ordering your brain to pick up a small piece of wood with a lead of graphite in it and ordering your hand to put the graphite lead of a pencil on paper and to move it in a uniformed line is strictly reserved for those with XY chromosomes, that or only for people who wish to live with a female's reproduction system or believe that they are a female but in a male's body." Here's the thing about Virgil – he's the most sensitive of his brothers, to the stage he will cry at adverts (particularly John Lewis ones, followed by any one that has one sad feature) but Virgil was as hench as fuck. And whenever he gave you an icy look, well… Let's put it as, if you didn't know him, you'd be sure you'd get murdered. A little ironic with the current situation. But, annoying thing – all of the Tracy's were naturally tall – I mean, Alan and Gordon was expected to grow to what John's height was now, and Virgil was still growing a few centimetres a year – and they were all naturally muscular, as in, they grow a tiny bit stronger and it's obviously defined, maybe over defined. Then there's me. I was naturally a midget, and my lucky growth spurt over Alan wasn't going to last much longer. And whilst I was quite strong – not as strong as Virgil, but strong enough to knock somebody out cold first-punch or first-kick – I just looked like some stick insect. And out of all of us, Virgil was the most muscular, and most menacing-looking if you didn't know him. Even if you did know him, he could look menacing. This was one of the times, and it was usually more self-defence (if that made sense) than him getting angry.
John seemed content on bombing his statement, "Actually, it is-"
"John, let's just drop it, hey?" I said. I was not in the mood for these two fighting today. Not with this migraine. I would just end up punching both of them.
"No, but-"
"John. Just. Drop it." I hissed.
"Fine." He said, staring at the door. I looked over at Virgil, half expecting him to be upset, but instead he just looked at me, slightly confused. I began to wonder what the Hell I'd done to him to be so confused, but then he nodded at EOS and it made sense. To him, she came down and suddenly we were getting on easily. And it's not usual for me to get on with children, or children-AIs. Normally I hate kids – the Tracy's have made jokes that if I have a kid they're going to have to take it away from me for the first 18 years of its life because I'd probably hate it (which, if things somehow came to me having a kid, of course I'd take care of him/her, but it was still fun to joke about for a bit of banter) – but with my reputation for hating kids, it must seem weird I was willingly giving EOS a cuddle. He probably thought John bribed me into it. I just gave him a half-smile, then sank down into the bed a bit further. I was going slightly dizzy again, but not as bad as first time.
"Anyway, you gunna go to sleep so we can get you out of this 'hospital'?" Virgil said, half sighing.
"Why'd you say 'hospital' weirdly?" I asked.
"In a nutshell? This has been a rip-off of a hospital and has been cocking up your data since you came here and they cocked up your Repercussion so now you're temperature regularly sits at, like, 10 degrees Celsius. So we're taking you back to Tracy Island and sorting you out there and clearing up their mess." EOS said blankly, ripping of a tiny piece of the corner of the tin foil and twisting it into a little tube.
"EOS," John hissed.
"I TOLD YOU THEY WERE BITCH-FACES JOHN, I TOLD YOU!" I was practically celebrating at the fact I was right about something over John. Now that was a rare occasion. "And why do I have to be asleep?"
"Because we have to keep you warm." Virgil said, threading the pencil through an elastic grip on the back of the sketchpad.
"But I'm boiling!"
"Kayo, you're really not,"
"Am so,"
"Kayo," EOS interrupted, looking up at me, "You're as cold as Satan's soul, right? Please just accept it, or at least go along with it, so we don't have to keep hearing their voices yelling. Good plan?"
"Yeah, good point," I shrugged. "But seriously, can I just be awake? Please?"
"Fine," Virgil said, grabbing something out of a Bag for Life. "But you're going to wanna change into something instead of your hospital robe thing," I just stared down.
"Ugh," I moaned, "Why the heck am I in a dress?"
"Ha-ha, you're in a dress," EOS smirked.
"Oh, you hypocrite," I nodded at her pink pleated dress.
"Ooh, good save,"
"Okay," Virgil interrupted, throwing a long-sleeved plain white shirt and some navy jeans at me, "Go get changed. Do it quickly, okay?"
"Yup," I gestured for EOS to sit up, then slipped out of the beds, ripping off the wires (yeah, they were loud, but hey-ho) and went into the little bathroom to get changed. Considering I've been laying down for God knows how long, I got changed fairly quickly. And then I made the fatal mistake of looking in the mirror. I looked like a mess. I was a lot paler than usual, had bags under my eyes… I almost looked dead. But, of course, I wasn't dead. I'm still thinking. I'm still breathing. Still keeping blood circulating around my body. Still looking at myself in the mirror and thinking about how dead I look. The only thing that looked slightly like me was my hair; still black and long. No knots – my hair rarely got knots when I was asleep or doing the square root of fuck all (like now when I was in hospital) so it was still straight and knot-free. But it was loose, not in its normal ponytail. My hair was just lying flat against my shoulders and back in a side fringe. And when it was down, it annoyed me. I decided to tie it up before it began to annoy me, whilst I had the chance. After tying it up and washing my face, I began to look a bit more like myself. And I felt a bit better after standing up. Then, deciding to go back outside, I tossed the hospital thingy in the bin, then unlocked the door and went back outside. But I don't think I was expecting what I saw.
EOS was laying on the floor, practically half curled up in a little ball, with John and Virgil pinning her down or something.
Dodgy.
I decided to lean against the doorframe, arms crossed, waiting to see how long it took for them to notice. It didn't take long for EOS to notice, but I reckon if she didn't, Virgil and John wouldn't ever notice.
"Kayo, help me! Our brothers ate being twats!" EOS screeched.
"You two, get off her before you both get black eyes." I said, walking over. "And what the Hell are you doing?"
"Tickling her," Virgil said, "Brains made her ticklish virtually everywhere."
"Then leave her alone," I said, "Because it looks as dodgy as."
"Does it?" John said.
"Yes!"
"Oh," John stood up, and as soon as he did EOS leapt up and hid behind me, "And why did you put my hair up?"
"'Cause it's bloody annoying."
"But you look pretty with your hair down,"
"I don't give two shits, it's annoying," I said, rolling my eyes, "Can we go now?"
"Somebody's eager," Virgil nodded at me.
"I'm trying to avoid bitch-faces," I walked over to the door, putting my hand on the handle and looking over my shoulder, "Can we go now?"
"We need to go to the flat first, but yeah," John said, walking over after picking up the holo-projector.
"And where's 'The Flat'?"
"A twenty-minute walk from here. And put this on," John grabbed my wrist and put a weird wristband on it. "And now we can finally use the elevators."
"Umm… Virgil, what is John on today?" I opened the door, virtually shoved John out the door.
"The wristband means you can come with us, walk around and stuff without getting yelled at by the 'Bitch-Faces'. John's been dying to use the elevator, saves him stacking it up the stairs," Virgil said, walking out the door, shortly followed by EOS and then me.
"Awh, there goes my entertainment," EOS sulked as John wrote down something on a piece of paper and stuck it on the door.
"Yeah, she's been thoroughly enjoying me falling down the stairs" John moaned, walking down the corridor.
"But he didn't just fall down stairs, he also fell up the stairs then slid down the stairs," EOS trotted in front of us, then walked backwards to look John in the eye when she was saying it.
"You weren't much better, EOS," John retorted.
"Well, yeah, but I just learnt how to walk, better yet, I'm learning how to walk. You've had at least a decade of learning how to walk."
"Yeah, yeah, let's just get to the flat and pack the last bits up."
/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/~~/
Turns out the only reason we went to the flat was for John and Virgil to smuggle the hospital's shampoos, conditioners, blankets, sweets and drinks. They had brought 3 Nike hiking backpacks with them, one of which included shampoos and conditioners (4 sets of the men shampoo and conditioner and 1 set of the women shampoo and conditioner), one bag with two neatly folded-up duvets, folded so thin that nothing would be suspected – folded in a way only Virgil and Grandma ever mastered – and a bag stuffed with bottles of Coco Cola, Dr Pepper and Tango and several packets of various sweets, which the boys all seem to know but I only knew two – pear drops and fruit chews. And whilst the boys ran around stuffing crap in bags, EOS and I just watched the meerkat programmes that were recorded. We managed to watch three episodes, which after fast-forwarding through breaks equalled to about fifty minutes. Well, an hour, if you classed me and EOS making bets on what would happen to each of the meerkats. Admittedly, I had almost fell asleep two times because of the drugs still in my systems, only to be jolted back up by EOS crying when two groups (is that what a bunch of meerkats are called?) of meerkats started fighting, and when a mother died after giving birth and fighting to save her pups.
We were just finishing up the last episode of the meerkats, and Virgil and John were almost done stuffing the last blanket into a Nike bag – they had been debating about taking it, with John claiming EOS would like it for when she came back down, and Virgil saying that it's pointless and they'd never get it out discreetly; John somehow won – when we heard the door click as if somebody was trying to open it. It was only when a burst of knocking came from the door that we realised it was locked. John, after shoving the Nike bags under the dining table, went and opened the door, only to be greeted by a relatively chubby (I would say round, but that doesn't describe it, as mean as it sounds) man with a bunch of paperwork in his hands.
"Hello, do you have Tanusha Kyrano with you?" He said.
"Yeah, she's in here," John replied, opening the door to let him in. Ugh, great, I have to entertain some strange man that smells like a dustbin.
"Ah," he said, looking at me, "Nice to finally see you awake," Was that a dig? I will punch him if it is. "So, who else is here?"
"That's my brother Virgil," He nodded at Virgil, then looked at EOS cautiously, trying to think up a lie.
"Ah, and who's this?" Chubby-man said, making EOS roll her eyes behind his back and sink down into the sofa.
We all just exchanged panicked looks. We didn't think anybody would ask that! I just began to think of names for her, then fell on one. "Elouise," I said, before I realised the name I said. It didn't suit her too much. Hopefully we could think up a nickname for her out of Elouise. I could feel EOS shove her elbow into my side. She didn't like it. Shit.
"Ah, pretty name for a pretty little girl. I'm guessing the surname is Tracy, hey? Elouise Tracy?" He said, trying to be nice, but all he was getting was death looks from the corner of the sofa.
"Thank you, so what did you need Oliver?" John asked. Oliver, eh? Hmm. I don't like Oliver.
"Just needed some forms to be signed for you to be able to take Tanusha back," he said. God, if he didn't stop calling me that he'd get a black eye.
"Okay," John said, getting a pen before he was handed a bunch of papers. Then he just scribbled in several places in the paper as Oliver sat down in the old armchair.
"So how do you feel?" He stared at me with his ditchwater eyes. God, I never got such an urge to punch someone.
"Like somebody would presumably feel after a Repercussion?" I said blankly, making him laugh. "Was that funny?" I hissed at him.
"It's not an answer I've heard before from any of my clients," He said.
"Well, did any of your 'clients' have a Repercussion? It would explain why you haven't heard it." I replied bluntly. I could not be bothered to deal with anybody's crap today. As Oliver was about to reply, John dumped a bunch of papers on Oliver's lap.
"Done," John interrupted, "So can we leave this afternoon?"
"I guess so," Oliver said, straightening up and heading for the door. Before he left, he turned back around to look at us, "Come and see me if you need anything, won't you?" Then he left.
"Elouise?" EOS looked at me, "Seriously?!"
"I panicked," I said, looking over at Virgil and John, who were doubling over in stitches from laughing. "It was the first and probably only name with E, O and S in it,"
"I'm sure there's others!" EOS cried, hugging both her white bunny toy and a pillow.
"Like?"
"Umm…" EOS stammered, "Maybe… I dunno…"
"There we go," I said, "Besides, it's not like they're gunna remember it and use it against you!"
"Actually," John interrupted us, "I kinda had to put her name down as well as Virgil's, and I may have put her name down? And it might be down on the records?"
"Awh, John!" EOS hissed, pulling the pillow up to her face.
"Well, then, you can use a nickname. Like Ella or Ellie?" I shrugged, standing up.
"Hmm, I like Ellie better," EOS said, hopping up as well, one hand holding her bunny and the other putting the pillow back down.
"There we go. In public, you're just gunna have to be called Ellie. Is that cool?"
"I don't get a choice, do I?" EOS smirked, "So can we go now?"
"Yeah can we?" I turned to John, who was sorting through a bag.
"Um-" He started, but then EOS just hopped on his back in one clean go, hugging to him by his neck.
"I'm not letting go until we can go!"
"EOS, get off! Okay, okay, we can go!"
"Yay!" EOS hooped down, then trotted back over to me.
"Come on then," Virgil said, swinging one of the hiking bags on to his shoulders, and kicking another bag to John. I grabbed the last one and put it on my back, careful to avoid my bad hand and cast.
"Oi, Kayo, drop that," John snapped as he swung the bag with the duvets on to his back.
"It's not heavy," I said, opening the door and walking out into the hallway, closely followed by EOS. After a few minutes the boys came out, and after locking the door, we all headed down to the main reception to finally leave, with John and EOS – or Ellie – signing the paperwork for transference to Tracy Island's medical facilities and me and Virgil just standing around. But when I was waiting I noticed something odd. There was a guy, leaning against a doorframe, glaring at all of us. Virgil must have caught me looking at him, because he came up behind me, whispering in my ear,
"We've seen that guy a lot recently. He seems to be always following us."
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Hello! Sorry for the long time between the chapters, there have been some things happening recently that has kept me busy so I will try and catch up a little bit later. And I also want to apologise for the relatively boring chapter, this was just a quick one to catch up on everything so that I can get straight into the plot next chapter. I will try to post that next chapter either tonight, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. As for the plot, the interesting bit is about to come up and will do so in the next few chapters. Thank you so much for reading, and please comment telling me if you want to see any small details in the upcoming chapters!