Author's Note: I'm not even going to bother. I've had a particularly horrid day and this site acting up isn't helping one iota. Review Dude13's chapter or karmic retribution will come back and bite you. Or I will. Given my current mood, that might be possible.
Insert standard Foster's is not mine disclaimer.
Chapter Four
Once he finished his woeful tale of horror, Mr. Herriman silenced himself as he turned to Frankie, eager to see how she'd respond. For the next few seconds, however, the girl didn't even do so much as look up in his direction. Seated on the edge of her bed, she just stared down towards the floor and watched her long legs swing gently back and forth, almost as if she been distracted the entire time and hadn't had a word from his mouth.
A bitter feeling of crushing disappointment rising in his chest, Mr. Herriman, began to scoot himself a little bit away from her down the bed, as if he was a naughty toddler who had just wrongfully inconvenienced a busy parent.
"Well, that's all I have to say, I guess…" he murmured halfheartedly under his breath.
"I remember."
Immediately the rabbit's head shot into her direction. "W-what?" he stammered.
Frankie still didn't remove the direction of her gaze, but she still continued.
"I should've known….that night, when Grandma….oh geez, why didn't I remember it before her…" she mumbled incredulously to herself as she rubbed her temples.
"Frankie, what are…" Mr. Herriman tried to inquire, but the young woman simply went on as if he hadn't said a thing at all.
"That very night, me and Grandma…" she began.
"All students have to be at their dorms by four o'clock, huh dearie?" Madame Foster cackled with a smug grin. Frankie looked up briefly from where she had been hooking up her computer to scowl bitterly at her grandmother.
"Oh, be quiet, will ya?" she grumbled as she went back to fumbling with the wires. Madame Foster only grinned fiendishly as she continued to playfully tease her grandchild.
"It seems to be such a shame that you got yourself all worked up over nothing, seeing as we had a little bit more time on our hands than we thought-"
"Don't say it!" Frankie groaned without even looking up, but she knew it was of little use.
"-about twenty-four hours more than we planned, eh, honey?" the petite woman finished, grinning from ear to ear.
"Grandma, c'mon…" the teenager moaned in exasperation. "Please, I feel dumb enough as it is…"
"Oh please, Frankie, don't! I'm not saying you did anything wrong, dear…" Madame Foster reassured her in a cliché grandmotherly fashion. However, after these comforting words, she then added with a playful grin, "But you have to admit, it is pretty funny that you-"
"Okay, okay, so I got the words "Saturday" and "Sunday" mixed up on the letter!" Frankie yelled irritably. "I know I freaked out, I know I was a big pest, and I know I got us up here a day too early! Grandma, c'mon, can't you just knock it off already?" She whimpered, acting more like a whiny toddler than the college freshman she really was.
"Oh come now, no need to make a fuss." Madame Foster only chuckled as she watched the aggravated girl struggle to put her computer together. "Look on the bright side of things! You have lots of space and quiet to set up, we were able to get a parking spot close by so you wouldn't have to walk a far distance….you can even start making friends with the other students that have gotten here too…all four of 'em…"
This time, Frankie didn't even respond with in comprehensible English, only pausing from her set-up to emit a noise sounding somewhere between a growl and a muttered curse as she gritted her teeth in an aggravated manner.
"Oh, cut it out with the dramatics, will you dear? You know I'm only teasing!" Madame Foster laughed, shaking in mirth at the comical sight her granddaughter cut.
After uselessly fumbling with a particular chaotic tangle of wiring for a few minutes with absolutely no luck, am extremely peeved Frankie finally threw down the tangled disaster with a howl of frustration.
"That's it! I give up!" she cried, waving her arms wildly in mock hysterics.
"Frankie, dear, won't you just…" Madame Foster tried to unsuccessfully calm down, but was unable to say a single word more as she became overcome with giggles, tittering like a little schoolgirl.
"Stupid computer, won't even let me…" Frankie then presumed to grumble, which quickly dwindled into an unintelligible muddle of dark mumbling that could scarcely be heard from under her breath. After giving a nearby box a swift bad tempered kick, the girl gave a heavy exasperated sigh as she reached into a nearby bag and began to sort through its contents.
"Arrgh! Grandma, do you know where I packed all my bath towels? I swear, it feels like I've checked every bag, and I've found absolutely nothing! I could've sworn I brought them, but I just don't know which bag…which bag that…that I…"
Within moments all of the badly frazzled girl's previous rage was forgotten, as was much of her ability to speak, as soon as she turned to her grandmother.
"Gr-Grandma? Y-y-you okay?" she whispered worriedly.
Between now and the last few minutes since she had laid eyes on her, Madame Foster seemed to have gone through a most nightmarish transformation. Instant of shaking with laughter at her granddaughter's antics, the old woman just stood petrified in place, as if she had turned into the bust made in her likeness back at home. Her already pale skin seemed to have lost what little color it possessed, making her so frighteningly ghostlike it was as if she was almost translucent. The old woman's jawbone hung limply in shock, swinging limply in the air like a tire on a rope, while her eyes looked as if they wanted to bugle right out of her sockets and burst through her thick glasses. The only sign of life that remained in the usually feisty old lady was her barely audible shallow breath, coming in so quietly it was as if she was on her last breath and about to keel over in death any moment.
"Grandma? G-G-Grandma? Y-you feeling alright?" Frankie inquired again after taking a hard gulp, edging ever so cautiously towards her. "Grandma? What are-"
"No!" Madame Foster suddenly gasped in unimaginable horror. "What are…what…no! No! What's happening? What's happening?" she cried.
"What?" Frankie cried, completely blown away by this mysterious behavior. "Grandma, what are you talking about? It's me, Frankie! We're here in my dorm, you just dropped me off and we're-"
"Hold on…please hold on…" her grandmother only murmured eerily. With that she shut her eyes tightly and went stock still once again, as if she was a mystic going into a trance. Again the room became deathly silent, with nothing emitting a noise but the two Foster's and their low shallow breaths.
Frankie just stood by a few feet away from her grandmother, frozen in place as she watched the utterly bizarre spectacle take place before her, absolutely powerless to do a thing. A hard lump rising in her throat and her heart beating wildly within her chest, never before in her life could the girl ever remember being so scared, or so frighteningly confused. What was happening? What on earth was going on? What had happened to her beloved grandmother? One minute she was laughing with the spirit of a girl an eighth of her age, yet a minute later…
"Grandma…" Frankie murmured feebly as she felt a few hot tears of fright well up within her eyes. She hadn't felt so terrified in all her life since she was a toddler. Her mind was a chaotic swirl of panic and thought, and a million things raced throughout her head all at once. What was she to do? Was her grandmother sick? Should she call for help? Dial 911? Was this serious? What would happen if…even if she…
Frankie could feel a brief feeling of warmth upon her cheeks as a couple tears trickled down her face. She hated to think about it, but whatever this was, what if it turned out to be fatal-
"Why?" Madame Foster suddenly whispered under her breath.
"What?" Frankie sniffled hopefully. "Grandma, what is-"
"Why are you trying to block me, Funny Bunny?" the little old woman just continued, eyes still shut as tightly as ever and completely oblivious to everything around her.
Frankie cocked her head, even more bewildered than ever. She thought she had just experienced total confusion seconds before, but now it felt as if her brain wanted to explode within her skull. What on earth was going on now? Why did her grandmother just mention…no it couldn't be…yes, yes it just had to, no one else went by such a ridiculous nickname. Why on earth was she…was she really…
The girl gasped as it finally dawned on her. Was this really it? She just to be told about this all the time when she was younger, but she never actually believed that it really could be real. No, it just had to be, there was absolutely no other explanation. Frankie remembered it all very clearly now, when an imaginary friend and its creator get very close….something about a special bond, almost like telepathy…wait, but if that really was true…oh no…
Frankie felt her heart sink into her chest.
"Mr. H…." she whispered in a quivering voice.
Once more, her grandmother had gone as quiet and immobile as a tree, making no movements but the inevitable rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in low, horrified gasps. It seemed like she was desperately trying to connect to Mr. Herriman somehow, trying to find out exactly what was going on. But why wasn't he responding?
It didn't matter though, Madame Foster seemed steadfastly determined to find out exactly what, where, when, why, and more. Looking for all the world like a Buddhist master deep in the most intense mediation, the old woman seemed to transform into a living statue as she tried to rekindle her link with her beloved imaginary friend.
Sighing heavily and hugging her arms around her, Frankie sat herself down on her bed and helplessly watched. There was little else she could do in this situation.
Fortunately, it didn't look like her grandmother was planning on giving up anytime soon.
A light, affectionate kiss planted gently against her forehead suddenly roused Frankie out of an uneasy slumber. Almost immediately the girl snapped upright in bed like a spring, furiously rubbing the remnants of sleep from her bleary eyeballs.
"Huh? What the-?"
"Shhhhh…" Madame Foster shushed her gently, as if she was dealing with a cranky three-year-old. However, rather than protest, Frankie instantly went quiet, sitting up Indian-style upon her mattress and staring blankly at her grandmother. The only movement she made was her hands, which she wrung wildly in fevered anticipation upon the news the old woman was about to tell her.
Upon seeing the perfect model of respectful patience her grandchild was showing, Madame Foster stared at her for a few moments before finally revealing the truth.
"He's alright." She whispered quite bluntly, as the ends of her mouth curled slightly to hint at a weak smile.
At this Frankie let out a long, heavy sigh of pure relief and joy, relaxing her rigid sitting stance a little bit.
"Wait, so what happened?" she immediately tried to blurt out in her excitement. However, as soon as the hinted smile was wiped clear from her grandmother's features, Frankie immediately clasped her hands back over her mouth, hanging her head guiltily as if she had mistakenly uttered the darkest of curses. As a sharp and bitter chill raced up her spine, the girl finally lowered her hands a little as she raised her eyes to shoot a brief glance back towards Madame Foster.
"Wait….no, I didn't mean…I'm sorry…"
Rather than scold her mercilessly for her impudence as she was unhappily expecting, Madame Foster only hobbled over slowly to her grandchild with a weary sigh. Taking the girl's hands into hers, she glanced into Frankie's eyes, upon which Frankie had to quickly suppress the surging urge to yelp in surprise; the natural lively spark that Madame Foster carried with her seemed to have disappeared. All that was left in those sagging, heavily lined eyes was a look of such weariness that the girl had never seen in her grandmother in all her life.
"Frankie dear…" the old woman whispered as she gently stroked her grandchild's slightly quivering hands. "Do you really think I wouldn't tell you if I knew any more?"
"G-Grandma…" Frankie tried to stammer out, but the old woman only cut her off with a reassuring pat on her palms and a weak grin.
"It's all right dear, I don't mind. I would be doing the same had I been in your position." She said comfortingly, getting a wan smile from her granddaughter.
For the next few minutes, neither of the two Fosters uttered another word, and the small dorm room was plunged into deafening silence. Finally however, at the barely audible sounds of a few odd birds chirping their song, Frankie finally regained enough confidence to ask in a soft whisper,
"What time is it, Grandma?"
"A little before seven o'clock, dear." She replied simply.
Again, deafening silence.
"You gotta go now, don't you?" Frankie said rather bluntly. Madame Foster flinched upon hearing these words; the way it had been put, it was as if she was abandoning her granddaughter to pursue her own needs.
"Frankie….he is all right…and you're still so worried about…well, I don't want to-"
Frankie suddenly clambered down from her bed to get down on her knees before the petite old woman. Before Madame Foster could finish, she was cut off as the girl wrapped her arms around her in a warm embrace, hugging her close and burying her face into her shoulder.
The old woman was stunned. For the next minute or so she just stood there rigidly as her grandchild held her close, holding her tightly in slightly quivering arms. But before she could inquire what was happening, Frankie suddenly withdrew from the hug just as swiftly and unexpectedly as she had initiated it.
"Tell him…t-tell him..." the girl struggled to stammer as she wiped a few tears from her eyes. "Tell Mr. H…that hug is from me…seeing well…the first one probably didn't do too well…" she ended with a bit of a blush.
Madame Foster broke out into a craggy smile as she hobbled close to wrap the frazzled girl in another hug.
"If that's case, then this one's from me to you."
"Y-you'll call me when you get home, won't you Grandma?" Frankie sniffled hopefully. "After you find out…y'know, to tell me…"
The little old lady patted her back affectionately as she continued to hold the shaking young woman close.
"Of course I will, dear."
Frankie narrowed her eyes almost accusingly as she glanced towards Mr. Herriman.
"I never did get that phone call, you know."